AdamSmith

The very fact that we are not quite supposed to be talking politics here is one thing that helps me keep my voice down in these threads. I wonder if anyone else finds the semi-quasi-prohibition helpful for discipline? (I'm having no success Googling it, but I could have sworn that John Stuart Mill wrote, "Liberty is the privilege of discipline." Which on first hearing in high school, of course we went around for days chanting, "Liberty is the privilege of bondage and discipline.")

Crazy covers a lot of waterfront. Qualify?

Scott is a force of nature, to be sure. But (regardless of who these discussions were about) distorting market dynamics is not quite the same as overturning them. If clients are fool enough to pay exorbitant rates, good for the seller. That is his market value. But if demand languishes and the seller doesn't have the wits to adjust, too bad. I love being reamed out but I also like the palaver before and after. Anything that drives truly dense purveyors off the field is okay by me.

Just saw that the 787 design team dropped wireless transmission to seatback video, and went to wired. Hope that more shoes will not drop in the form of 787 program setbacks. Boeing's loss of sr exec Alan Mulally to Ford could translate into further and growing difficulties. He is one of those rare senior executives who makes a difference at the product/program level.

This is in reference to the recent discussions about established escorts advising newbies to set their rates in the stratosphere. The Adam Smith-ness of all this is too delicious. Either the market will pay a premium for new horseflesh or it will not. If it does not, then either the sellers will adjust or their business will wither. Individual clients' advice will very likely make a difference if it comes in sufficient quantity. But if it comes from just one client, then it may or may not make a difference, and if it does, the difference may well not last long. I am prone to the pathology of wanting to become involved in some real way with escorts I see. But I at least have the wits not to seek to influence their business practices, other than reaching a mutually satisfactory agreement about a specific engagement.

>It's not unheard of to see a former escort working in some >fashion for a past client. It can work out well, but it's not >something i'd recommend. I've seen this work. Requires a sane & stable client. Something which (speaking as a client of course) is not always a given.

You're too modest. I like to think of you, on occasion, as the Lord of Misrule! Not at all the derogatory term it may sound like... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_Misrule

>Thank you for that but as I've been pretty adamant about over >the years ... blind items are more detrimental than a factual >assertion. They lead to rumors and assumptions because >"Page Six" invented them that way ... for the >purpose of malice. Absolutely. Named vs. blind is like sharpshooting vs. shotgun. Big likelihood that innocent bystanders will get peppered.

Just my experience -- few things annoy escorts more than clients telling them how to run their business. I've tried not to make that mistake myself, but have gotten the occasional earful about it when someone else did.

>I would love to see a Clinton Obama ticket but how about a >Clinton/Gore again? Nostalgia says yes but one can't esape the fear that Gore, once a candidate again, would lose his current centeredness and sense of identity, and would go all defensive and fumble-fingered like last time. >I like Edwards and hope he is able to get into the race and >fight. I as an N.C. native fear that too many of my kinsmen just cannot stomach him. It comes down to electoral math -- can he snag a state or 2 that is crucial to swinging the whole thing? We'll see.

>Richardson. Now this is my early favorite. He has executive >experience, congressional experience, cabinet experience. The >energy experience would be very beneficial. He has >international experience and could be very helpful with >N.Korea. He is my pick....just wish he was getting more air >time and publicity. (plus I like to see him on a horse! >yippee) YES!! Why is Richardson not more lionized by the party cogniscenti and rank-and-file? He is substantive, he neutralizes the Northeast/South party bipolar disorder, he has the telegenic chops (I think) needed to carry a campaign... Guess we'll see. >Now, as surfaced earlier, I am an independent. You (and party-registered people who think and vote like you) will be the saviors of this country. Now get with it!

>>I was appalled by Conway's nasty innuendoes, about him >being a >>trial lawyer and this and that. > >Well that is a negative, his biggest negative and it doesn't >play well with alot of people. It is also true that he did not >run for re-election in NC because he had very negative poll >#'s there. Absolutely true. My close acquaintances in N.C., all rabidly Democrat, hold Edwards in surprisingly low regard. For the reasons that Conway said, and also for what they perceive as Edwards' two-facedness while in Congress -- he would talk one way while at home, then go to DC and do whatever he wished, they feel. For my part, I intensely disliked his pandering, condescending protectionism-mongering during the last presidential campaign. He is too smart to believe in the simplistic "solutions" to globalization that he preached then. And, to twinklover, Conway's views may not be universally popular here, but he expresses them with restraint, reason and respect. I enjoy hearing from him.

And the beat goes on... Women accused of pimping girls on Craigslist Police: Chicago residents offered sex with underage females for ‘donations’ CHICAGO - Two women used the online classified site Craigslist to offer sex with girls in exchange for “donations” or “roses” — code words for money, police said. Tamara Cotton, 25, and Christina Holt, 19, were arrested separately and were not working together, Cook County Sheriff’s officials said Thursday. Cotton was arrested Dec. 31 when an undercover officer arrived at her apartment and a 16-year-old girl offered to perform a sex act for $200, according to the sheriff’s department. While out on bond, Cotton was arrested again on Jan. 5 when she allegedly drove another girl to meet an undercover officer who had arranged a sexual encounter. Cotton was charged with pimping and related offenses. Police arrested Holt on Monday and charged her with keeping a house of prostitution for allegedly arranging a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl. The three minors arrested were not taken into custody, sheriff’s spokeswoman Sally Daly said. “We’ve considered them to be more the victims in this case, given the fact that they were being pimped by adults,” Daly said. The Craigslist ads answered by the officers offered sex acts in exchange for “donations” or “roses,” police said. The ads featured photos of unidentified women. In an e-mail to the Chicago Tribune, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster said the site prohibits illegal activity and intends its erotic services page for “legal escort services and sensual massage providers.” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16599035/

Rock is usually not worth the trouble of replying to. But his "funeral" crack about Jesse Dane's retirement announcement went beyond bad taste.

Not a bad guess. But I'm starting to wonder if this isn't the true face of RockHard... http://www.madisonavenuejournal.com/images/trump2.jpg

I'll be good -- promise! http://www.thehammer.ca/content/2004/0921/klein_pickle.jpg http://www.thehammer.ca/content/view.php?n...21-klein-pickle

>Never put something in an email that you truly don't want >others to see. Ditto for IMs, remember too. (Unless you need an excuse to resign from Congress and check into rehab!)

I've used CampusEscorts/NYC several times. My HOPE would be that a service would be MORE careful than individual escorts NOT to retain any personal data -- unless one specifically asked/registered to be on their mail/email lists. But I have no idea whether that hope has any basis in reality. Anyone...?

>I agree that in the spirit of compromise the reviews >should be separated as applicable. I'm curious: For those who don't want to read reviews by women, would such segregation address your objections? Or would the very presence of such reviews here, even if clearly warning-labeled, devalue the whole site for you?

Thank God Almighty!... But really I am -- all right, my namesake is! -- not quite as impossible to read as all that. The secret is NOT to try and eat the whole thing at once.

>It strikes me that 9 out of 10, if not more, of these >situations arise out of public nuisance concerns whether >streetwalkers or suburban home settings. Agreed. A friend once noticed that the house next door, newly rented to a single man, seemd to have a lot of young women coming and going every Friday afternoon. After nine months of this, the house was raided and the man charged with running a phone/internet-based (female) escort agency. The end-of-week traffic was to settle up payments -- no client meetings were ever held at the house, as far as my friend could tell. Still, the location-based public visibility was the giveaway, as you say. Still, seems worth noting that clients ought not to assume their contact info is blanked when it often is not. Paranoia is useless, but the Mike Nifong phenomenon of public officials seizing on some often unjustified crusade springs eternal.

>When one sayys he regrets not meeting Jesse, I >think that it must be a regret that there was no sexual >encounter For my part, yes, that's what I meant -- regret at not meeting the public escort persona Jesse Dane, in addition to whatever aspects of the real person behind that persona he would choose to make available had we met in such circumstances. The first part a frankly selfish wish, to be sure, but still a comment that I hoped was in some way complimentary to Jesse. >I gotta admire someone who is openly HIV in the escort >business today. That courage should serve him well in >life...wherever it leads him. Concur completely. Again, best wishes to a rare soul.

>Over the years I've found escorts to keep e-mail and phone >#'s. This has been my experience too. Including, in some cases, my full real name linked to the other contact data. (And, in one case, admission by an escort that he had lost a PDA packed with client data. With no access-locks in place.) Clients who believe otherwise are indulging in wishful thinking. >Also note in the article where they got tipped off on the >group of female escorts... an Escort review site. For any newcomers, it's worth pointing back to the good discussion you started last year, where you asked, among other things: "Do you think that all the talk of male escorts in the news is going to make a few law enforcement agencies decide to start targeting our internet escort friends? Is your info on their computer... do you care... does it matter?" The very worthwhile thread that ensued: http://www.maleescortreview.com/dcscript/d...g_id=1848&page=

Scott, we have got to see each other one of these days! I admit your online demeanor used to put me off, but the more of you I read, the more I love it. Go figure! I think I fell for you completely when you wrote "Hail to thee, thane of Jawja!"

Furthermore they must decide whether this site is to be a PICKLE-FREE zone or not! :7 http://extremejokes.com/images/pickle.jpg (TY have mercy on me...) :+