It's Baacckk! More Morality Grandstanders As Craig's List Gets Sued

Culture Warriors a Lot Like John Malkovich: I'm Bigger Than Ever, You fuckers, I'm Back!

Prostitution is colloquially referred to as "The world's oldest profession" for a reason, but that doesn't stop Leave it To Beaver idealists from occasionally concocting a misbegotten campaign to get rid of it. It's a lot like Tipper Gore's war on Heavy Metal, and the nanny state wags saying we need to take violent video games off the market. You hear some group of concerned citizens sobbing about "Won't Someone Please Think of the Children!" while they lap up the media spotlight. The latest incarnation of this intrusion into the private lives of citizens is from the Cook County Sheriff's Department. From E-Commerce:

Ads like "Emily's" prompted Sheriff Tom Dart of Cook County, Ill., to file a federal lawsuit Thursday alleging that Craigslist has become the top provider of prostitution in the U.S. "Missing children, runaways, abused women and women trafficked in from foreign countries are routinely forced to have sex with strangers because they're being pimped on Craigslist," he said during a press conference.

Dart wants Craigslist to shut down the erotic services category of its Web site and compensate his department for the costs of prosecuting Web site-related prostitution cases.

By this logic, why not just sue teh internetz for providing a rapid way for individuals to communicate with each other. Sounds like the Sheriff should spend more time worrying about the notorious corruption found in Cook County and the rising homicide rate in Chicago, but that would be fighting real crime.

th>en Google

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