Guilt

Generally speaking, I don't do guilt. I have regrets, of course. There are probably millions of little decisions spread across my life that I wouldn't do again, given the same or similar circumstance. There are very few things that I would alter though, at this point looking back. My life has turned out pretty well, and I wouldn't want to change the way things have turned out for me.

To quote William Adama from Battlestar Galactica, "you live with it." I sincerely believe that the golden path is to carry them with you enough to learn without letting them overpower you, and without letting them pull you backwards or get you stuck.

Star Trek V was a pretty bad movie. It did, however, have some great bits. I particularly enjoyed Captain Kirk's response when Sybok offers to remove his pain. Our pain molds us as humans. The key is to use the pain as a lever, not to avoid it, disavow it or wallow in it.

Having said that, I've had it pretty easy. My life hasn't been 'charmed,' but I haven't really suffered either.

There are a few points of gnawing guilt that I will admit: there's always more I could be doing to conserve the environment, and the division of resources in our world is inherently unfair. In other words, I have more than I deserve, and I cause more harm than I need to. There are plenty of justifications I could offer, but none would really alter those two fundamental points.

A Few Words about Prostitution

There is nothing morally wrong with a man hiring an expensive prostitute.

There are a number of ethical problems worth noting. The first depends on the relationship this person has with his wife. Some marriages have allowances for this sort of thing. While I don’t know the data, I believe most marriages in the U.S. do not include allowances for additional intimate relations of any kind.

From a political standpoint, the largest quandary is that the governor of a State should be expected to uphold the laws of said state. Such a governor is also expected to obey federal laws. There are many laws on the books that are patently ridiculous, and it’s not reasonable for anyone to stay in compliance all the time. I tend to believe that our nation’s laws regarding prostitution, for the most part, fall into this category.

I feel a need to point out that not every prostitution law is created equal. For example, no good comes from street prostitution. Everyone involved is at risk of violent crime, disease and general exploitation. On the other hand, controlled environments such as those found openly in Nevada and Amsterdam and often discretely advertised as ‘incall escorts’ in the U.S. should be permitted.

Not only should it be permitted, we would do well as a society to move beyond that taboo altogether.

Yes, Mr. Spitzer was stupid for engaging in illegal (though hardly ‘criminal’) activity as the governor of New York. If he lied to his wife about this activity, he has shown a remarkable lack of character.

However, we as a society are doubly stupid for adhering to a value system that assumes that visiting a prostitute is ‘wrong.’