A member of Congress promotes a bill criminalizing any sexual solicitation of under 18s online … and most of you know the rest of the sordid story. Another politician proposes a bill to specify that the location of “unnatural and lascivious” acts increases the penalty, in particular, that it be a second degree felony to commit such acts within 1,000 feet of a public park. Where was that politician arrested (and, of course, presumed to be innocent) for allegedly offering $20 for the right to perform fellatio on an undercover police officer? A public park, of course.
I’ve long believed that the “religious right” and other moralists (including the sanctimonious left) are motivated too much by introspection (the former into their overactive libidos, the latter into their personal stinginess) and too little by empirical observation of how most people go about their lives. To the examples above (and there are plenty of others), we can add a peek at the tax returns of prominent advocates of redistributing the wealth of others (the Gores, the Clintons, etc.).