"...their ends, none of our own"
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 12:34 PM

Of 1,577 posts, this, the poor last, we make from your pixels.



The plan was to continue to blog a sort of summary of surprise bestseller Regulating Vice, and then to fade away. Alas, "Our wills and fates do so contrary run..." that events have taken a different turn, and we exited the blogostage in silence and without conscious intent. Apologies for this neglect.

But while Vice Squad lasted, it was exhilarating for me. Thanks to all of you who made it so. Yesterday I launched a successor blog of sorts, though one much more limited in scope: Self-Exclusion, a Vice Squad obsession. "Now bless thyself: thou mettest with things dying, I with things newborn."

[Update: OK, this proved to be not quite the last post....]

Labels: Shakespeare

 
Obscenity in Staunton, Virginia
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 8:38 PM

Staunton, Virginia, was fortunate enough not to record a single homicide in 2007. But it isn't exactly crime-free: there was nearly an assault per day, and more than one-and-a-half larcenies on a daily basis. So you would think local prosecutors would be keeping busy. Nonetheless, a video store clerk was charged last week with various obscenity counts, accused of selling legally-obscene material. Oh the humanity. The new charges come in the wake of an earlier indictment of the man who owns the store from which the videos allegedly were sold. Oddly, six of the counts filed against the poor clerk are felonies. What is the explanation? A lawyer for the owner speculates (on avn.com, not safe for work) that the prosecutors are trying to use the law that makes repeat offenses a felony. So if they get a misdemeanor conviction for selling one obscene DVD, they will claim that sales of others are repeat offenses, and hence felonies, even though the sales occurred before the prior conviction. Actually, maybe the local prosecutors in Staunton are busy. The idea to indict the clerk seems to have come from the federal Department of Justice, which is helping out with the Staunton prosecution. I had sort of been hoping that our new Attorney General wouldn't want to make obscenity a huge priority, if for no other reason than to distinguish himself from his two immediate predecessors. Staunton is the home of the world's only re-creation of the Blackfriar's Theatre, the indoor space north of the Thames that Shakespeare's acting company took over in 1608. Uh oh, aren't some of those Shakespeare plays obscene?

Labels: obscenity, Shakespeare

 
Troilus and Cressida
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 1:14 AM

By way of excuse for not posting, let me mention that I saw Troilus and Cressida at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre on Thursday night. (Here's a review.) Fortunately, my blog-indolence was rewarded, not only because the play was good but because an important plot element turned on the topic of the most recent Vice Squad post: a rigged lottery. (Yes, I should have remembered, but by golly, my command of Troilus and Cressida is not what it should be.) Hector (you no doubt will recall) issues a general challenge to the Greeks, though it is clear that the intent of the challenge is to draw Achilles into battle. Crafty Ulysses decides that it would best serve the Greeks' turn if they instead announced that a lottery would be undertaken to choose their combatant, and then fixed things up to make sure that Ajax, not Ulysses, won the lottery:

No, make a lottery;
And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw
The sort to fight with Hector

So the Greeks rig the lottery, and Troy falls: I summarize. Lotteries, it seems, have a long history of being less than trustworthy.

Labels: gambling, lottery, Shakespeare, solipsism

 
Malaysian Madness
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 4:45 PM

Concerned about an upsurge in prostitution? Have you considered whipping the customers of prostitutes? No? Well, neither has the government of Malaysia. But whipping the prostitutes, now there's a policy worth considering: "Malaysian lawmakers have called for foreign prostitutes to be whipped as a deterrent to others considering coming here to work in the sex industry, a report said on Tuesday." Even Lear, in his madness, could see through that one:

Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand!
Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back;
Thou [Thy blood] hotly lust'st to use her in that kind
For which thou whipp'st her.

The Malaysian parliamentarian -- this learned Theban, this noble philosopher -- asks, logically enough, 'If we can impose whipping for drug addicts, why can't we do the same for prostitutes'?

Though flaying isn't bad enough and hanging would be fair, at least for those druggies, it seems. Four students, it is alleged, were found in possession of less than $2000 worth of marijuana. "The students face death by hanging under Malaysia's harsh anti-drug laws if found guilty."

Labels: Asia, marijuana, Prohibition, prostitution, Shakespeare

 
What's In a Name?
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 8:52 PM

The Mustang Ranch brothel by any other name would....oh, whatever. Turns out that two brothel owners in Nevada think that there is quite a bit in the name Mustang. The original Mustang Ranch, Nevada's first legal brothel, was shut down by the feds a few years ago. Then one of its buildings was purchased (on e-bay) and moved next to another brothel owned by the purchaser. He intends to re-open the relocated (and soon to be renovated) building under the name "Mustang Ranch," of course. But in the meantime, another brothel owner re-named his brothel the Mustang Ranch. He sued, and now the fellow with the re-located Mustang has been told by a judge that he can't use the name Mustang. Whatever the merits of the decision, it is nice to ponder that thanks to the legality of the brothels, this dispute will be settled by courts, and not by guns. Can't say the same for street-corner drug market disputes.

On the subject of names and Shakespeare and prostitution, I saw Shakespeare's Measure For Measure at Chicago's Navy Pier on Thursday night. The Chicago Shakespeare Theater occasionally replaces some archaic Shakespeare language with what I suppose they think is a more understandable version. Right near the end of the play, when Lucio is forced by the duke to marry the prostitute with whom he had a child, he complains "Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death,/Whipping, and hanging." Punk means prostitute, but Chicago Shakespeare changed it to "slut". And what they did to another Vice Squad-favorite Lucio line, the one about how lechery "is well allied; but it is impossible to extirp it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be put down" -- well, they seemed to think that "extirp" doesn't measure up these days.

Incidentally, for vice policy buffs, Measure For Measure is pretty much the perfect play. Risking reductionism, let me just say that it presents the introduction of a zero tolerance policy, with all the usual trade-offs illuminated. That Shakespeare fellow, he's getting to be a pretty good playwright. (OK, I am reminded of another complaint I had about the Chicago Shakespeare Theater's version. In some "stage business" at the beginning, there's a mugging, accomplished with a knife and with the connivance of corrupt cops. The problem with such business is that (a) there's no mention of it in the play and (b) by presenting a crime with an actual victim (as opposed to the victimless vice crime of fornication), it pushes the viewer into supporting the ensuing crackdown. (Whether such a crackdown would likely lead to more or less violence is another matter.) There was also a gratuitous gunshot later in the Chicago version.)

Labels: Nevada, prostitution, Shakespeare, zero tolerance

 
Extreme Vice Enforcement Cruelty
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 4:50 PM

What could be more inhumane than imposing the death penalty for victimless vice crimes? But inhumanity never lacks for a strong constituency. In Iran, plans are in place to hang a 21-year old alleged prostitute, following last year's judicial murder of a 16-year old for having an "illegal sexual relationship." Amnesty International claims that this year's scheduled victim has the mental capacity of an 8-year old, but that has been denied by Iran. Why bother with the denial? They are planning to "execute" someone whose sexual behavior they don't condone, and they quibble over her mental age? Whose mental age is most questionable in this vile, unspeakable practice?

"Would the duke that is absent have done this?
Ere he would have hanged a man for the getting a
hundred bastards, he would have paid for the nursing
a thousand..." Maybe the mullahs should take Shakespeare's hint, and worry more about helping women engaged in prostitution than about trying to extirp them.

Labels: prostitution, sentencing, Shakespeare

 
And You Thought That Gays in the Military was a Divisive Issue
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 7:56 PM

Thousands of years of military tradition are at stake as the US considers rendering it verboten for troops stationed overseas to patronize prostitutes. The rationale is to avoid contributing to the trafficking of women for coerced prostitution: "Defense officials have drafted an amendment to the manual on courts-martial that would make it an offense for U.S. troops to use the services of prostitutes, said Charles Abell, a Pentagon undersecretary for personnel and readiness." A complementary policy underway in Korea is to make life on the base less dull: "That effort includes offering expanded evening and weekend education programs, band concerts, late-night sports leagues and expanded chaplains' activities."

Wow. I imagine that this proposed reform will garner quite a bit of discussion during the 60-day window for public comment.

Having recently watched Shakespeare's Measure For Measure at the reconstructed Globe, let me quote from it: Lechery "is well allied; but it is impossible to extirp it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be put down."

Labels: Korea, prostitution, Shakespeare

 
Aussie Opposition MPs Object to State-Subsidized Obscenity
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 6:38 PM

It seems that the Australian state of Queensland is in the habit of providing grants to recording companies. Apparently, some of the songs are not exactly "God Save the Queen."

Opposition MP Howard Hobbs says a publicly funded recording company has used a Government grant to produce a vulgar song.

Mr Hobbs has asked Development Minister Tony McGrady to explain.

"Minister, I refer to a $140,510 grant from your department to a Gold Coast recording company. Their first production is a song entitled 'My Dad is a F...... Porn Star'.

"Minister, is this an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars?"

Many Queensland taxpayers queried seemed to think that "Mum" would have been more appropriate than "Dad," especially with Father's Day just around the corner.

As an obscenity regulation bonus, Pakistan is cracking down on stage productions that purvey obscenity: some of them even use "words with dual meaning during shows." Now if they can only find this William Shakespeare fellow and put him in the pokey...

And finally, speaking of putting people in the pokey, don't go selling sex toys in Knox County, Kentucky. (At least the charges are only misdemeanors, so potential jail time probably caps out at one year.) In the linked story, those who want to see the business closed cite lowered property values and the possibility of bringing 'bad elements' into the community. (Possible amicus brief from Walmarts and McDonalds?) The defendants' lawyer seems to think that Lawrence v. Texas will aid his cause, but that seems like a stretch to me -- though I am not a lawyer, and he is.

Labels: obscenity, sex, Shakespeare

 
Victory #1, etc.
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 2:00 PM

At least five vice-relevant stories in the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday, September 17. I’ll
comment on the first three and just note two others.

(1) Victory #1: More than half a ton of cocaine, claimed to be worth more than $50 million, was
confiscated in a drug bust in suburban Aurora. Undoubtedly this large haul means victory in the
war on drugs, and ensures that none of our neighbors will ever purchase and consume coke again.
We are free of the drug menace. In the future, we can celebrate September 16 as Victory Over
Drugs (VD?) day.

A few drug policy commentators, including former San Jose police chief Joseph MacNamara and
the authors of The Corner, David Simon and Edward Burns, have noted the resemblance of drug
haul and arrest stats to the enemy body counts of the Vietnam war.


(2) The suspect in a death of a highway “flagger” on Monday was allegedly driving drunk, and
with a revoked license. His license was originally revoked in 1997, and he has not held a valid
license since then. The suspect has apparently been arrested six times for driving under the
influence (four convictions), and five times for driving with a suspended license (three
convictions). His BAC after the accident Monday was measured at .191 (surprising number of
significant digits if nothing else.) Another flagger in Illinois was killed by a drunk driver in July;
a total of 21 people have died in highway construction zones in Illinois in 2003, though only four
of them were construction workers.

There are two problems here. One is how to keep an extremely high risk driver from operating
an automobile. A second is how to induce all motorists to drive more slowly and safely in
construction zones. For the first problem, there are some technological devices that might make
it harder for drunk-driving recidivists to drive. But in Monday’s crash the suspect was driving
someone else’s car, so unless “personalization” or breath-analyzing" devices are widespread,
drinkers such as he will be hard to keep from driving if they are free to move around at all. So,
though I prefer not to fall back on the “stricter sentences for recidivists” mantra, it seems to
apply here – the suspect was released from jail in July after serving 67 days of a 138-day
sentence that had been imposed for his three most recent drunk driving convictions
(according to the September 18 Tribune.) As for the second problem, well, Illinois has recently
increased penalties for speeding in construction zones, and has tried to enforce the rules
more diligently, too. But perhaps there is a technological gimmick that might help here, too.
One possibility being explored is video cameras, but I am thinking about some sort of
“portable speed bumps” that would render the injunction to slow down more of an order
than a suggestion.


(3) A former guard has admitted smuggling drugs and a cell phone into the maximum security
prison in Joliet. His plea agreement calls for 4 years and 8 months in federal prison, where it
might be harder for prisoners to establish a reliable connection. Incidentally, this story reminds
me that providing alcohol to prisoners was at one time a perk in a jailer’s job. According to
Jessica Warner in her book Craze (concerning the gin epidemic in England in the 18th century),
the practice was so lucrative that when it “was finally banned in the 1780s, several jailers in
London were compensated in the range of [pounds] 200 to [pounds] 350 each.” Recall also
Barnardine in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. He was the prisoner facing execution whose
demise was delayed because he was always drunk.


(4) 50 students at a suburban high school were banned from extra-curricular activities for
attending a party in which alcohol was consumed.


(5) The Illinois Supreme Court reduced to $6.8 billion the bond that Philip Morris USA has to
post to appeal a March 2003 judgment. At that time a Madison County judge ordered Philip
Morris to pay $10.1 billion in compensatory and punitive damages (exclusive of lawyers’ fees)
for failing to inform consumers that light cigarettes were not less harmful than full-tar
cigarettes. The state Supreme Court also agreed to hear the appeal of the case directly, without
an intermediate stop at the state appeals court level.

Labels: alcohol, driving, Illinois, Shakespeare, teens, tobacco