I just saw this story on CNN HLN.

AJC: GOP lawmaker weighing strip club fee

A Republican state lawmaker is considering legislation that would impose a fee on Georgia strip club patrons.

State Sen. Jack Murphy of Cumming says he’d like to see the state charge between $3 and $5 for every club goer. Murphy said Monday he would like to funnel the money to child abuse programs and other services for young people who are caught up in child prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation.

You might run an honest strip club, but you're being asked to pay for people who kidnap and coerce children into pornography or prostitution.  You may be a patron to whom only adults have any appeal, but you'd have to fund the clean up for people who abuse and sexually exploit kids.

It doesn't surprise me in the least that the Republicans of Georgia are working to associate what they call vice with crime, but we shouldn't be so naive as to believe moral equivalency and legislative busy-bodies are only found to the right of the aisle.  Remember: Democrats have been known to support pornography taxes.

The whole idea of a "vice tax," taxes on alcohol, cigarettes, porn, strip clubs, offends me.  You may think whatever you want about what I do privately, but the idea that I have to stand by while my state points a figure at me and calls me a sinner is so presumptuous, impertinent, and, frankly, criminal.  Criminal because they're stealing my money while also telling me that I'm morally corrupt for not agreeing with whatever they think is right or wrong.

I hope the citizens of Georgia tell their legislators to mind their own business and leave strip clubs alone.  Human sex trafficking is a crime.  Fight it with stronger police efforts.  Don't fight it by insulting and robbing innocent people who had nothing to do with that mess.

Posted by: Flibbertigibbet at 05:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Category: In the News
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