Here we go again!
Clubber
Florida
Well, some government officials have again decided our moral values. Check this site for the latest from Hillsborough County in Florida.
http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2006/…
http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2006/…
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15 comments
Well I am sure glad I didn't offend anyone. LOL Keep up the great input!
The comments about religion are interesting. I wonder what would happen if some group started a religion who's rituals included nudity and contact. But I guess they couldn't charge for it other than to pass a collection plate.
Silly me.
Not to come down to hard on you, but your statement, "My apologies if I offended anyone here. My statements were not directed at you literally and no harm was meant.", are a major problem in this country. We worry much to much about "offending" others. Like this post, if it offends you, that is your problem. I just state my opinion, and it is up to you to deal with it.
I think you all know, that I'm a dedicated strip-club-goer. I like 'em. But, I have to say, I just don't buy the argument that a dancer's "right" to perform (or perform nude; or perform on my lap; pr perform nude on my lap) is protected by the US constitution. The legal niceties always put it, that it's a type of self-expression and therefore protected by the First Amendment's right to free speech. But really ... I don't buy the connection at all. Sorry to say. :( Dancers aren't "expressing" something inalienable, the silencing of which might somehow detract from the democratic functioning of our democracy! If you talk to most of them, dancers can't even "express" themselves VERBALLY, much less physically. Their stage performances aren't anything akin to what's protected in the First Amendment, to me.
The argument that I think would really make a case in favor of strip clubbing (heck, of prostitution!) wouldn't be the free speech argument. I think it should be the free RELIGION argument. Religions tend to ban public displays of sexuality (or ANY sexuality, for that matter); most opponents of strip clubs oppose us largely because of their own (usually Protestant fundamentalist Christian) religious beliefs; therefore, the laws banning stripping are a type of imposition of one group's religion onto another. Seems more of a slam-dunk than the free-speech argument, to me at least. And, it would really put the opposition in a difficult position, of having to publicly disavow either their hate of strip clubs or their luvv of Jayzus H. Christ. I'd like to see 'em screw up their faces over THAT one. :)
I recognize the major figures in the battle on the linked-to news page -- Luke Lirot and Joe Redner, up against the powers-that-be all over again! I think Redner relishes this type of fight. For him, it's nothing but free publicity. I mentioned in another thread, that when Tampa previously cracked down on lapping in the jurisdiction that covers his club Mons Venus, he pro-actively fought it, deliberately posting on his big highway sign things like "Still lapping!" and offering to pay any customer's or dancer's court costs or legal fines. Eventually it "went away" like all these things do.
An important point that I note in the story, is that this new law applies to COUNTY but not CITY areas surrounding Tampa. It's the unincorporated rural areas near Tampa, on the East side of Tampa Bay, alone, that are affected. Popular places like Mons Venus and Ybor Strip aren't affected by the new rules. Unpopular ones like the clubs in Clearwater and St. Pete aren't, either.