Climate change forces women into prostitution - US politicians

A group of American politicians has introduced a resolution into Congress saying that climate change (among many other bad things it does) forces women into prostitution, and that as a result the USA should use "gender sensitive frameworks" in battling the scourge of global warming. House Concurrent Resolution 36 of the 113th …

[Turtle]

Half a dozen of one, but only six of the other.

Now just a very few days ago we had this article here: "Surprise! Republican bill adds politics to science funding" (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/29/republicans_national_science_foundation/) and of course the usual commenters were ridiculing the Republicans who supported it. It will be interesting to see if those same people recognize this "concurrent resolution" as being thought up and supported by Democrats just as ignorant as those Republicans.

[LarsG]

The USA was responsible

For forcing women into prostitution, courtesy of all the secret wars, support of dictators, overt wars and other back door shenanigans that they were involved in over the years.

Their administration has a lot to answer for.

[Aldous]

Re: The USA was responsible

Yep, Pre Iraq war their was no such thing as prostitues. Now they are every where! To make matters worse they are all immigrants and they try to take your guns as well!

Damn gubbermint

[Anonymous Coward]

@Aldous Re: The USA was responsible

Err yes there are only vague rumours the trade predates human history and yet the last major investigation along these lines wasn’t so much about trafficking from Iraq but Rochdale.

Could this indeed have been an evil plot by the Lancashire branch of the CIA? That said this just maybe some other group of people forcing (or at least coercing) girls into prostitution.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: The USA was responsible

On the other hand prostitution has been there (for us) from the beginning of times. Never invented, just a fact of reality.

[Eguro]

Re: Half a dozen of one, but only six of the other.

Well I for one called the republican proposal rubbish.

When reading through the bill text I have to say that although its language seems to be well intentioned (whereasses not included - sheesh), and it does point to some factors like the UN and actual real events, the fact that they try to somehow link this to Global Warming seems idiotic.

The subtext of the bill seems to me to scream that "although women do a lot of stuff really well out in the world, they are at heart quite fragile and we should totally protect them because we - men - are good at that stuff".

It might be well intentioned, but instead of trying to link global warming to the hardship of women, why don't they just get on with promoting equal rights everywhere, and - separately! - attempt to fight global warming.

And then they can cut out the whole "women aren't as good as men at surviving global warming"

Here's a quote from the bill, which I think shows quite well that the issue of "women can't cope with global warming" is idiotic, and that the real issues are global warming & women's rights:

"Whereas the ability of women to adapt to climate change is constrained by a lack of economic freedoms, property and inheritance rights, as well as access to financial resources, education, family planning and reproductive health, and new tools, equipment, and technology;"

Women are constrained by inequality - lets just accept that and work from there?

Of course I could just be projecting my own self-righteous semi-feminist views onto it - in turn making me the anti-feminist asshole, and the bill an awesome piece of work (although I would suggest that at least the latter of those two cannot be true)

[Anonymous Coward]

@Lars The USA was responsible

The USA was responsible ... secret wars etc

As at theory I would think this is as about as credible as the ‘Climate change forces women into prostitution’ theory. If this was the case wouldn’t we expect to see trafficked prostitutes from places that have been on the receiving end of US policy?

This would suggest that human trafficking would be for people from say Iraq, and Afghanistan. The evidence in the UK suggests otherwise with reports of people trafficking from Lithuania, Russia, Albania, Ukraine, Malaysia, Thailand, the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.), Nigeria, and Ghana.

[Lars]

Re: @Lars The USA was responsible

@Titus Technophobe. @LarsG

[Ken 16]

End of the last Ice Age == Population explosion

Warmer weather == less clothes, more rain==wet t-shirts and while I'm not suggesting that monetary prostitution was involved in cave man days, the trade of sex for food (in the absence of gender frameworks, or condoms) may have been a contributing factor.

Yaba daba doo!

[danbi]

Re: End of the last Ice Age == Population explosion

Ken, that was "free sex". Now, with a new Ice Age coming, women will begin refusing sex, except in exchange for better social position, more money, clothes and security (from polar bears). Welcome prostitution.

Gender frameworks will always be ignored, as will any policy -- when it comes to surviving the mankind or plain old pleasure.

[Leslie Graham]

Re: End of the last Ice Age == Population explosion

Global warming doesn't mean "warmer weather". It means more energy in the system therefore more extremes.

Simple physics. Some dry areas will get much drier, some cool areas will get colder and some wet areas will have more floods.

Every recent study suggests that the climate change resulting from global warming (which contrary to the ridiculous nonsense being parrotted by the ill-informed and gullible has accelerated over the last 15 years) will lead to reductions in harvests and a rise in food prices.

Pretty much what is already happening.

[ravenviz]

Re: Half a dozen of one, but only six of the other.

No it's because increases in temperature heats up their fair little brains and makes them go cuckoo.

C'mon!

[Eddy Ito]

Re: Half a dozen of one, but only six of the other. @Eguro

"why don't they just get on with promoting equal rights everywhere"

While I agree with the sentiment we have to consider who we are talking about that will do the 'promoting'. It is the government and the only way they know how to promote anything is to send in a bunch of well armed people who are really good at disrupting society and breaking things. While I'm all for a good societal disruption every now and again, there are other ways of doing it that government just doesn't understand and that is why those other ways tend to be more effective. To illustrate my point consider two historical references: 1st December 1955, Rosa Parks and 4th May 1970, Kent State University.

[Eguro]

Re: Half a dozen of one, but only six of the other. @Eguro @Eddy Ito

That is quite right.

While I think there are certainly ways for government to affect equality through other means that weapons - various restrictions or demands to be met for aid (this of course has two sides), support for international efforts through the UN, support simply for schools in countries to allow girls to attend - there are of course other players who are active and should be. NGOs are a good thing in this regard.

My original point - which you seem to have gotten :) - was of course more general. Targeting only the way two separate issues seem to be attempted to be bunched together.

All in all I agree with you, and just thought I would say so in a very winded way.

[Wzrd1]

Re: Half a dozen of one, but only six of the other. @Eguro @Eddy Ito

@Eguro, NGO's are great, when they're permitted to work.

UN efforts, a mixed bag. UN peacekeepers are as useful as breasts on a bull, they usually observe and document any atrocities that occur in front of them, for intervention frequently has ruined commanders careers.

Your original point, albeit a bit long winded and not supremely targeted is, it's a complex issue with multiple issues to address individually. Our bad habit in the US is the quick fix mentality, rather than a measured plan to increment programs and improvements.

As for long winded, you've never experienced one of my tomes, written on US medial sites. I'm known to bring in common law, the history behind it, codified law, Constitutional law, current customs, issues with current laws as they stand, sociology and more to prove a point.

I've changed a few minds from that.

Just not the idiots who complain, TLDR.

[Sandra Greer]

Re: Half a dozen of one, but only six of the other. @Eguro @Eddy Ito

Actually I am rather glad you took the trouble to quote from the document presented by the Democrats:

'"Whereas the ability of women to adapt to climate change is constrained by a lack of economic freedoms, property and inheritance rights, as well as access to financial resources, education, family planning and reproductive health, and new tools, equipment, and technology;"'

Translated into English, this reads "Since women are in general poorer and even more oppressed than men in their cohort, and less likely than men to be able to bash their neighbours on the head when resources are short ... they (and children) will need additional support in the face of climate change."

The "Forces Women Into Prostitution" headline is just to draw attention.

[Wzrd1]

Re: Half a dozen of one, but only six of the other. @Eguro

"It is the government and the only way they know how to promote anything is to send in a bunch of well armed people who are really good at disrupting society and breaking things. "

Indeed! So, Operation Ajax, the overthrow of the democratic government of Iran was performed by a "sending in a bunch of well armed people who are really good at disrupting society and breaking things"?

Or did a certain UK based oil company ask Eisenhower for a favor and being war buddies, he helped them out via a small CIA operation?

As for Kent State, that wasn't the first time that a state's National Guard ran amok with the populace when mobilized by the state's Governor. But, it was the first one televised.

After that, the National Guard received a hell of a lot of crowd control and incident response training.

Why, they actually became competent in the very beginning of this century.

And that last part is serious, I watched them get dragged, state by state, into the modern era. The only thing they previously were half good at, post 1970, was crowd control with long sticks and no firearms.

Of course, we've also had the US Army in the streets to secure the peace, such as the religious riots in the late 1800's, when a bunch of folks came from a place called Ireland and the local protestants didn't like their Catholicness. Or when the US Army fired artillery into the Bowery, due to the draft riots that gave infantry with fixed bayonets trouble. Or in the state of Mississippi, when a few black students wanted to go to school and the US Army "supported" the federalized National Guard, after the Governor mobilized them to stop desegregation and the POTUS wisely federalized the mobilized forces and send "support" in the form of Airborne Rangers.

We inherited a lot of history and common law from the UK. We're trying our level best at catching up in atrocities, please bear with us. :/

[Tom 13]

Re: republican proposal rubbish.

just one small problem with that exceedingly narrow minded comment.

...

If you had bothered to follow the link and check on the congress critters, then wiki'd each of them, you'd find that it is a purely partisan Democrat proposal. Not a single Republican co-sponsor on the list.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Half a dozen of one, but only six of the other.

This was authored by a left-leaning feminist Democrat, not a republican. No matter, the left vs right debate is just a distraction to keep small, petty minds busy

[elderlybloke]

Re: Half a dozen of one, but only six of the other.

Hello Anon,

I still don't know who are the more stupid,ignorant, mindless,revolting,shitbrained heap of Morons.

Are they the Democrats or the Republicans?

As I live far away I don't understand the Politics of USA.

[Eddy Ito]

Re: Half a dozen of one, but only six of the other. @elderlybloke

"Are they the Democrats or the Republicans?"

Technically it's "and" not "or", but yes, that's correct.

[Rampant Spaniel]

@turtle

I am all to happy to say this is just as crazy. It is rather brazenly stupid, not the typical democrat daftness, more from the other lots playbook. Personally I feel the vast majority of them are either bought or mad, or both, and we could do far worse than applying aquarium sealant to all the doors and windows of the capitol building and leave the taps on.

[btrower]

Re: @turtle

@Rampant Spaniel

I am with you on the 'aquarium sealant' issue, but I *do* feel that we should perhaps divert some of the 'Climate Change' research money to doing some experimental research on the sealant issue first.

I am, a priori, pro sealant, but feel a bit sheepish about recommending it without at least a little testing. I don't think it would be too far out of line to sacrifice maybe 10 or 20 percent of the Congress and Senate to this research. It is not like anybody would miss them.

[Wzrd1]

Re: @turtle

@The lot of you...

I'm with aquarium sealant and pump in soman gas.

It ages in in about 5 minutes and can't be undone by Pralidoxime.

For those who don't get this really nasty joke, soman is a rather nasty nerve agent (gas), Pralidoxime is the curative agent and Atropine is a palliative, along with Diazepam (to prevent seizures).

And no, I'd not really every considering using any form of WMD on my nation's political leaders, regardless of how misguided and bought off via campaign contributions.

We have firearms for that, to "fight tyranny" and repel the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. (Yes, I'm picking fun of the gun nut brigade, who really believe that they could and never noticed that Iraq and Afghanistan thing.)

On the serious side, I've been largely voting for whoever I never heard of, who didn't have ten thousand commercials, mailings, people knocking on my door, etc. Save for Obama, who I did vote for.

Because, I don't want a damned idiot anywhere near controlling the nuclear football. Reagan was bad enough.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Half a dozen of one, but only six of the other.

"It will be interesting to see if those same people recognize this "concurrent resolution" as being thought up and supported by Democrats just as ignorant as those Republicans."

Yes that is a good point. Are they all as ignorant and stupid. Still looking at this from overseas one gets the feeling that good old party has more nuts, as a whole. What about a party who is able to elect Sarah Palin to a possible President of the USA. The most ignorant, uneducated and stupid person ever with a chance to be a President, anywhere. What about Bush jr and his wonderful credit adventures in the world. What about all the religious nuts, mormons, creationists, militarists. What about Michele Bachmann, Limbaugh, Donald Trump, Bill OReilly and similar. Stupidity taints the part and you too, even if you don't like it. Credit to the US population who voted Democrat. Among two bad thing (I hope) people will vote for the less bad. And perhaps you should have a look in the mirror, are you actually supporting people who support what you believe in and hope for.

[Wzrd1]

Re: Half a dozen of one, but only six of the other.

I have to admit, it seems that the Democrats from California are in a contest with their Republican peers in presenting the most idiotic bills before their respective houses of Congress.

Honestly, I truly believe that if we were to present Congresscritters an IQ test, we'd have a hell of a time finding even one with an IQ above that of a bowl of Jello.

[Anonymous Coward]

Might be logical

But it would be more logical to say that mis-management of the economy by US politicians forces women into prostitution. Perhaps they should get to work on themselves?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Might be logical

I'm sorry, are you trying to imply logic plays any part in this?

My question is, should they be adding more internal insulation to combat the extreme winter cold spells caused by global warming which would also prepare them for the lean times when food is scarce, or should they shed the internal insulation to better cope with the temperature increase?

AC, because joke icons are ignored.

[DrXym]

Re: Might be logical

"I'm sorry, are you trying to imply logic plays any part in this?"

The premise seems reasonable if you read the text. Climate change predictions suggest millions could be forced into starvation and poverty and women's health in particular could be adversely affected.

That said, the bill doesn't really propose any remedial action other than make various affirmations and ask the president to do something to address it.

[Wzrd1]

Re: Might be logical

"I'm sorry, are you trying to imply logic plays any part in this?"

That you even ask such a question about something in US politics shows your abysmal ignorance of my nation's political system.

Where logic is only applied in Orwellian ways (such as the House Un-American Activities Committee, which lived up to its name) or when inverted otherwise to provide zero sense of true logic.

An example of the latter would be another California Democrat, Feinstein, who sought to ban weapons by manufacturer and model, as well as ban by the presence of one feature. Which would have banned any Olympic rifle that wasn't from two manufacturers, by model. Rather than placing all semiautomatic firearms that are derived from military service rifles under the National Firearms Act.

No need to reinvent the wheel, make something manufacturers trivially get around, quite effective.

The latter part originated with me, no congresscritter wanted a part of it, preferring to reinvent the wheel and get air time in the process.

And this guy owns a dozen firearms, half inherited from his father and owns said proposed restricted firearms and has no heartburn with it.

My Congress needs one of two things. An industrial sized Raid can vented during session or have me testify before them and have some sap pull my finger. ;)

Gotta joke about it, as some patients I knew did about their lethal disease.

We call it whistling in the graveyard.

[I think so I am?]

Re: Might be logical

Only in America could climate change be linked to prostitution, very were else on earth this is a job down the pub.

[TheWeddingPhotographer]

Well that is obvious

Of course it is a common fact (not) that all women in "warmer" countries are prostitutes

What a stupid debate

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Well that is obvious

But oddly, it is a "common fact" that all men in warmer countries think ALL female visitors from western/northern countries have only one thing on their minds ....

[Kevin 6]

... insecure women with limited socioeconomic resources may be vulnerable to situations such as sex work, transactional sex, and early marriage that put them at risk for HIV, STIs, unplanned pregnancy, and poor reproductive health ...

I'm more then sure it has nothing to do with H1B's, and other crap the companies do to make sure people barely make enough to survive(if that) in the US.

[Anonymous Coward]

Gender sensitive framework

That'd be the pink tassel on top of the pole then ...

[deshepherd]

Re: Gender sensitive framework

Think you'll find we already have somthing similar in the UK where councils have to consider the affects of various policies on different groups. A few months ago Bristol council launched proposals to roll out 20mph limits on residential streets citywide over the next 2 or 3 years ... I downloaded the paper that described the proposal to get more details and was "amused" to find that at the end there were a series of appendices which judged the impact of this proposal on women, gay and lesbian people, transgenedered people, black people and ethnic minorities - with the same conclusion in every case of no impact more than on the general population and effects were probably considered to be beneficial.

[BenR]

@deshepherd Re: Gender sensitive framework

Actually, in that case I can see why the effect on women particularly might be considered separately - for example, women are probably more likely to be walking on the streets with children to and from school, and thus will be disproportionately benefited by such a change.

The rest of them are totally crackers though.

[Kubla Cant]

Re: @deshepherd Gender sensitive framework

I suppose you can see why the effect of a 20mph limit on prostitutes might be important, too.

[Darryl]

Re: @deshepherd Gender sensitive framework

It would benefit prostitutes, I'd think... If the johns are slowed down to 20 km/h, the prostitutes have more time to advertise

[Anonymous Coward]

@Darryl

I don't get street prostitution in todays age... with the internet it is so much easier to order one online, and you get to preview the wares in advance!

[Darryl]

Re: @Darryl

But if Climate Change has forced them into a life of prostitution, then maybe they can't afford a computer? I don't know

[Anonymous Coward]

Fun in the sun

With hookers. I for one, can't wait.

[Spoddyhalfwit]

Now when I pick up when kerb crawling in my hummer I'll know to leave the engine running.

[Fihart]

My, but it's warm in here...

...I'll just have to slip into something more comfortable !

[ratfox]

Wow

There is contrived legislation, à la "we need complete government control of the Internet to fight child porn. If you fight this, you are siding with pedophiles".

And then, there is really contrived legislation. Is there a contest somewhere? Perhaps this could qualify for the Ig Nobel awards.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Wow

It is a secret plot to increase global warming, men read this, see global warming = more women willing to have sex for less = global warming is a good thing...

[LaeMing]

So after global warming...

...the women are still more respectable than US lawmakers.

[Crisp]

Accounting for the specific impacts of climate change on women

Do women drink a different kind of water from men? Do they breathe a different kind of oxygen?

Do glaciers, hurricanes, or storms affect women differently from men? Will climate change lead to women dying off?

Way to piss all over the achievements of feminists over the years Barbara Lee.

[Vladimir Plouzhnikov]

Re: Accounting for the specific impacts of climate change on women

It's simple - the climate will be warmer, more women will be walking around in bikinis, which will make more US senators more horny so they'll solicit more "transactional" sex - see?

[Ken Hagan]

Re: Accounting for the specific impacts of climate change on women

Is "transactional sex" the kind that you can roll back, undoing all the side-effects, if you later decide it wasn't a good idea?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Accounting for the specific impacts of climate change on women

>Is "transactional sex" the kind that you can roll back, undoing all the side-effects, if you later decide it wasn't a good idea?

Yeah, but you'd have to lock her up to ensure atomicity.

Hmmm... bondage.

[Sandra Greer]

Re: transactional

Yeah, the kind that lacks "commitment".

[Dave 15]

Bad?

Supply/demand... more supply, lower cost, not all bad :)

Sorry, was that not politically correct?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Bad?

Not only not politically correct, also juvenile, and offensive.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Bad?

not politically correct, also juvenile, and offensive.

So funny in three different ways?

[Dave 15]

Re: Bad?

Really? I think the whole business of blathering on about this is pretty offensive in the first place. To be honest prostitution has been around pretty much as long as humans have had a barter system for anything, ifor most people its pretty much a non-event and immaterial. If we were rather more open and tolerant we might not be sweeping it under the carpet. At the stage where it is no longer a hidden taboo it is possible that the people who cause real problems - those trafficking women (and occasionally girls/men/boys) might get caught out and bought to justice.

If global warming really exists as more than just another excuse to tax the hell out of everyone then we should stop allowing the import of Chinese and Indian goods made with energy from unclean polluting world destroying coal power plants. If it isn't real (the situation I suspect) then frankly we should get back to normality and stop taxing Europe/America into total economic oblivion. Certainly to then suggest that global warming is going to lead to mass prostitution I can only guess that if all the dire predictions come true mass prostitution will actually be very much a trivial problem compared to the mass starvation, homelessness, loss of land space etc etc etc

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Bad?

I agree with you on both points. However I thought your original misogynistic quip was somewhat more appropriate for the comment pages of the Sun.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Bad?

"mysogynistic" may be a bit hard.

I thought a mysogynist was somebody who hated women, now whilst I agree that people who use prostitutes may not respect them, I would suggest they don't hate them either. In the same way I expect a woman who hates men wouldn't be out looking to pull one.

I take your original point but labelling somebody a mysogynist maybe going a bit too far - after all, even a male chauvenist doesn't have to hate women.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Bad? @AC 13:47

I'm glad you used "may" in "may not respect them".

It is perfectly possible to accept that a woman who has made a concious choice to temporarily provide access to their bodies in a safe environment can be as much a professional as a physiotherapist, or even a hairdresser. They are each using their assets to provide a personal service that someone wants. And this can be respected.

I agree that if they have been forced through some compulsion, then that is not right and needs to be addressed. But for some women, it may be a lifestyle choice to work three evenings in a brothel rather than a week in an office cleaning toilets (please note I know that men work as cleaners as well, it's just an example).

I would never consider taking advantage of a woman who has been coerced into prostitution. But use the services of someone who has chosen it as a lifestyle? Why not, and with respect as well.

[MJA]

No surprise there.

Afterall, Climate Change is the new Smoking.

Climate Change will eventually cause everything until a new unpredictable, vague and not fully proven phenomenon comes along that the government can use to tax people.

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, if it's hotter they will be wearing less clothing......it's almost the same

[Anonymous Coward]

nooo waayyyy

You mean they are forced into a job with better pay, prospects and respect than IT? :P

[Dave 15]

Re: nooo waayyyy

:)

Yup, went to a lap dancing club on a mates stag night some years ago. When I was in IT and earning around £200 a week the girl in the club was happily expecting to take £300 a NIGHT tax free - and she wasn't even allowing people more than a look at her almost undressed self dancing. Yup, if I wasn't an ugly beer gutted bloke with a hairy chest and bandy legs I might try it, certainly pays well.

[IGnatius T Foobar]

binders full of women?

These people ought to be rounded up and shot. This is the most ridiculous thing I've read all week.

[Irk]

Re: binders full of women?

That's funny, because it's obvious you haven't read the full resolution.

It's a page long, come on now.

[haloburn]

On the upside.

They can always attribute the rise in empoyment figures to green jobs created and the outlook for jobs as p!mps just got a boost.

[Cheapster]

So witty

Yes, all very hilarious. Mass immigration and millions of refugees, nasty wars over declining resources. It happens now, women, men, boys, girls raped and forced into prostitution as they flee fighting in central and north Africa, Burma, Sri Lanka...

As I said, hilarious.

[Bernard M. Orwell]

Re: So witty

No, no, it's only WOMEN who suffer these degradations, never men/boys, and then it's only because women are weak and frail....

As usual, this is biased policy-thinking and does not address the fundamental question of equality.

[Bernard M. Orwell]

Yeah, because....

Men are never forced into things by circumstances ever, are they? Men are all the same, clearly: Power-Mongering, self-centered bastards who are all ready to gut each other in a heartbeat. Unlike women, who appear to be divided into subsections: Vulnerable, Insecure, Disadvantaged, for instance.

Men are never those things, only women are, obviously.

What utter, sexist, contrived bulls**t of the first order. Clearly we should, as a society, protect the weaker members but to suggest that its only women who are weaker and that men never suffer any disadvantages is a gross generalisation and is surely patronising to women at the same time as being ignorant of the challenges that both genders may face.

....and all that from climate change? I see popularist bandwagons and nothing of worth or substance.

[lost]

Re: Yeah, because....

"Unlike women, who appear to be divided into subsections: Vulnerable, Insecure, Disadvantaged, for instance."

You got this wrong. it is not just women - it every group but white men. White men are the cause of all evil

[Destroy All Monsters]

Holy damn!!!

I always knew we needed more global warming as in cold countries sex is demonstrably lousy.

I can't wait.

[Crisp]

Re: In cold countries sex is demonstrably lousy

Sweden.

Checkmate.

[Ted Treen]

Climate change...

...leads politicians into insanity - at least, those few who weren't already there.

[General Pance]

Wrong way to sell the story.

I'm pretty sure this is good news for the bloke race.

[Anonymous Coward]

People are not forced into prostitution, the sex slave trade excepted. If someone has the misfortune to be so poor that they contemplate this as a viable solution, then that is an additional option they have. They'd not be better off without it, and would have to survive, or not, some other way.

[Dave 15]

Some are

Sorry, as you allude some are forced into prostitution with the sex slave trade. Some are also in a position where there is no really viable alternative in order to gain the money required for their drug habit, huge brood of children or whatever.

However, if we stopped pretending in the UK that prostitution is an evil, it is something dirty best hidden, it is somehow 'stoppable' if only we could force the various participants to be 'moral' we would be able to tackle these criminal versions of the 'trade', be better placed to protect the people who are involved (willing or not), control the number of prostitutes strutting their stuff in front of schools or residential areas and maybe even collect some taxes. But we prefer to go on as if anyone has ever found a way to make inroads into stopping the trade. Even trying to scare everyone that aids was rife and every whore was going to give you a combination of aids and other 'souvenirs' failed to stop the trade.

The situation is easy to imagine... bloke goes into brothel, finds a bunch of 14 year old girls with black eyes and bruises, then daren't report it to the police because he has committed an illegal act by trying to procure the services of a prostitute.

[Irk]

This is obviously true because pimps don't exist.

Oh, wait...

[Spoonsinger]

Ummm,

and regardless of 'other' posts, this basically seems to be your basic women from poorer parts of the world, (i.e. generally equatorial), selling their services, (usually by males), to the more affluent temperament climate parts - with a veneer of eco-religion.

I'm fairly sure I saw row's of lasses, down the south coast road to Pisa, selling their services in the middle of nowhere during the eighties and at the time it was all about 'the coming ice age calamity' and therefore not so sure it's entirely it's climate based.

[doctariAFC2]

Ok, a couple of things on this nonsense.

First, this is NOT legislation, rather a resolution, or expression of intent and position. Big difference (hence all the whereas sentences).

2nd, considering the FACT that prostitution is considered the world's "oldest profession" (note that term profession), it begs the question - who is forcing anyone into any profession in the USA?

3rd - not a snowball's chance in Hades this has any relationship whatsoever with "climate change". The Democrat reps that put this together should lay off the weed and crack for a few days.... This is about economics, and the lousy job our gubmint interveners have truly done. Less jobs, less opportunity for a trade or creating a "societally contributable" job or business, yet survival is always something people will gravitate towards, inately, part of our instincts as living beings, to find a way to survive, or adapt (may be better put), the oldest profession is a winner....

But, my no means is this the "fault of global warming", in no way illusrates any inequalities at all (what a frickin joke) - after all, we are all impacted when teh climate changes, equally, as last I checked the climate doesn't discriminate, nor recognizes genders. If men are "better equipped" to adapt, that isn't an equality thing, that is a nature thing. But I find even that laughable, as women are the reproductive part of our species, and no way on God's Green Earth would the reproductive part of any species be somehow less able, due to gender, to adapt to environmental changes and survive.

But this is a classic illustration as to exactly how stupid some people are, and the fact that elected politicians exhibit the most breath-taking examples of utter stupidity, it would seem perhaps a better use of our energy to resolve to implement basic common sense standards any elected official should be able to rise to, which would be the common sense of a potato, or a 5th grader. Seems when you get into office, the brain evaporates completely.

How does this rep cross the street successfully, is what I would like to know.

[Anonymous Coward]

Or maybe

Women able exploit their dominant position (ooo-er) in sexual politics to gain an advantage over men in times of economic hardship.

Honestly, take two losers, one male and one female, and see who has the advantage when it comes to their ability to exploit what they have for material improvement. Women have the option to spread their legs for favour or money if all else fails. It's possible, but much less likely, that a man can do the same.

I'm not trying to say anything against gender equality, but some things just ain't equal.

[Shane Kent]

Gee....

I would have thought poor job prospects for young people would be the cause. I am going to guess if a young woman could have a job making $600 per week they would sooner that then prostitution, but who the heck can live working part time making $200 per week. Of course the true $ / week would depend on where they live, because $600 a week in New York city wouldn't cut it.

When politicians talk out their @$$ I cannot help but think:

Ignore the man behind the curtain, I am the great and wonderful politician.

It seems most politicians live in the land of oz where the streets are paved with gold.

[Stevie]

Gah!

Just to prove that the GOP doesn't have a lock on Congressional Fucktards.

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF? really?

Is there any sense left in the USA?

I propose another argument, women are better equipped to survive, i.e. they have an inherent product to trade, where as men do not...

You may say they are forced into sex work, I say they have that as an option, men don't, or at least when they do, they have a much lower earnings potential, especially as they age!

It is time the USA (and other western nations) stopped causing the problems with sex workers, and start regulating it! If there were legal brothels around the place, then no one would have the need to visit an illegal one, and that would reduce sex trafficking.. if you loose your clients in a business...

Regulation would reduce risk, improve conditions, increase tax receipts, and stop global warming (I am not sure how, but I am positive it must)

[doctariAFC2]

Cannot disagree with a Anonymous Coward....

BTW, Nevada does a fine job with prostitution as a legal profession.

And you are correct, women do have that "commodity to trade", hence the oldest profession, and the "packaging" doesn't need to be all that "market-able", either. Just trot into the Mustang Ranch on any given night, and then tell me whether you were surprised by the, ummmm, "menu selection"....

Men can do it too, but for whatever reason theat career path just isn't as attractive when you examine what the customer base would actually be....

As for the politicians, I think it is time we round them up and lock them away in a deep dark hole. All that hot air, predominantly CO2, needs to be trapped and contained to slow the global warming, clearly caused by such wind bags of idiocy.

[Irk]

Or you could read the full text of the resolution instead of cherry-picking one bit of it to represent the entire thing.

Here's some other excerpts:

"women in the United States and around the world are the linchpin of families and communities and are often the first to feel the immediate and adverse effects of social, environmental, and economic stresses on their families and communities"

"climate change exacerbates issues of scarcity and lack of accessibility to primary natural resources, forest resources, and arable land for food production, thereby contributing to increased conflict and instability, as well as the workload and stresses on women farmers, who are estimated to produce 60 to 80 percent of the food in most developing countries"

"women will disproportionately face harmful impacts from climate change, particularly in poor and developing nations where women regularly assume increased responsibility for growing the family's food and collecting water, fuel, and other resources"

There's plenty else there, right up front, and it's a short document. You had to read past everything I just quoted there to reach the bit about sex workers. But you were looking for that, weren't you? Because taking climate change or women seriously just isn't something the Reg likes to do.

But hey, let's ignore all that and just have a laugh over prostitutes, because it's easier to ignore these problems by using slut-shaming to bypass every other argument. You're helping the world a lot! Really!

[doctariAFC2]

Its all 100% pure bovine excrement. If you buy one iota of this garbage, I guess I found a buyer for the new Peace Bridge we built here in Buffalo....

And what is this rot about developing countries and women assuming the responsibilities to work at feeding their families and collecting water? What, is that somehow unfair to have to work harder for your own survival? Really??? Someone needs to get out the illusions of man more often, and see what it takes to survive for a while. The term "fair" has no place in the conversation of survival.

This is not about "equality" or "women's rights", rather an offensive slander to somehow connect AGW and women's rights as one issue, which is pure balderdash - any living person with aeven the smallest shred of intellectual accumen can see this.

[Anonymous Coward]

Our politicians haven't heard the latest trend. Now we are starting to worry about global cooling. I assume that means less prostitution etc, with the exception being in the Congress. After all, there's money to be made coming or going on climate. Just look at the Rev Al Gore. Getting more strident as AGW cools, just like the southern huckster he is! I hear his ranch is a local hotspot, using more power than the rest of the state!

[Spoonsinger]

Re :-" Now we are starting to worry about global cooling."

That's so retro man. You weren't there in the seventies You don't know what it was like.

[Arachnoid]

WiFi enabled Pros

Just what would they use to protect their protocols from infection?

[LTachner]

More Fantasy

It's over, forget about it. There's absolutely nothing the left-wing nuts can say anymore about global warming that will raise any real concerns among the American public. They've previously told us that our coastal cities will be under water, that our kids will never see snow again, that polar bears are disappearing, that farming will be impossible, that animals are getting smaller, that spring is coming earlier, that Himalayan glaciers are disappearing, blah blah blah, etc. etc. etc. They even once told us that our treatment of the atmosphere would anger ET's that would some day arrive here from outer space. These idiots have no shame. Today they're trying the prostitution schtick. Tomorrow it'll be sexual dysfunction. Next week it'll be dying puppies and kittens. I never believed this nonsense even when they made it sound like real science. Now that they make up these weekly comic strip arguments, it's more clear than ever that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpretrated.

[Sandra Greer]

Re: More Fantasy

Obviously a right-wing nut. My coastal city went underwater first time ever with the superstorm. There is hardly ever snow here in New York City. The polar bears are being driven out and their populations are shrinking. We have a combination of drought and flood which has been wiping out our farmers, who are selling off their meat animals earlier than usual. Spring is definitely coming earlier, based on when various plants are flowering.

There is global warming. Whether man-made or not.

[doctariAFC2]

Re: More Fantasy

Sandra, you may want to do a litttle bit of research on that polar bear thing.... What you have regurgitated is direct from Al Gore's Inconvenient lies. Truth is entirely different. I can point you towards some factual information if you would like. And yes, I would know.

Also, I would further suggest you do a little historical research into NYC flooding. This by no means was the "first time" NYC was undeerwater, in fact this has happened a few times in the past, starting with the first truly documented case of a hurricane whacking NYS in Sept 1821, when a tidal surge of 13 feet in an hour put most of Manhattan underwater. Few deaths reported because population was not where it is today. 1893 - Cat 1 hurricance deatroyed Hog Island. 1960 - 11 foot storm surge from hurricane Donna forced the evacuation of some 300 families from Long Island. 1999 and 2004 also saw some significant flooding events as well. Sandy was a big storm that tracked right, and is rare, but not something totally unprecedented.

Droughts and floods, that has never happened before either, right? Ever hear of an event called "The Dust Bowl"? I can cite many, many events that have happened in the past, and these events detonated your panicked rubbish.

Spring coming earlier..... This all depends on weather patterns, and each year we see variances, yet many of these things happening are driven by photo-period, unconnected with "warming", although blossoms (like we expereinced here last year, during a very warm March) will begin when warmer temps trigger sap runs, then the following month we had hard freezes, hammering fruit crops across NYS.

Sorry, but I just have to say, welcome to Earth third rock from the Sun. Seems like you are probably one of those folks that, when we all say Happy New Year, you are more like Frosty the Snowman in that children's cartoon when the hat hits his head.... And you say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, as if you have forgotten everything that has happened in the past, or that you simply discount everything due to short or mid-term memory loss? Tell me, are you one of those blokes that has to relearn how to winter drive every single first snowfall of the year?

[Rick Brasche]

this used to be a joke about Yellow Journalism

and now it's day-by-day headlines accepted as fact:

World Will End Tomorrow, Women and Minorities Hardest Hit.

[Steady Eddy]

Women will be forced into prostitution by climate change

Sure, but I'm sure there's a downside as well.

[Pilot]

Captain

Having lived in the U.S. all my life, I am not a bit surprised with the article about Climate Change causing women to become prostitutes. My government has prostituted itself for the past 20 or more years and has turned the populace into a crowd of money moochers, gimmes and freeloaders, so I would think that women should have the same opportunity, don't you?

[praos]

Unprotected men

Women could starve or prostitute themselves. Men could only starve. Then who is more vulnerable, and to be protected? Nobody will offer a man an early marriage, bed & board, just because he is a man.

[doctariAFC2]

Re: Unprotected men

Now that right there is funny!

Of course, if the man learns how to fish, and fillet said fish, or learns to hunt, and can dress and skin and chop up (process) the harvested game, then he would have a world of "prostitutes" beating down his door, right? And if knowledge of knife-work extends to knowing how to use said knife to hew down branches and vines and such, said man would also be able to build a pretty fine shelter to boot....

Can anyone (else) in here build a fire without matches or lighters? How about knowing how to find water, or knowing where in a stream to collect water which is least likely to contain harmful wee nasties (in the event you cannot start a fire without matches or lighers, let alone absence of a pot or cauldron to boil said water in)?

Its good to be a database administrator, but its better to be a sportsman.....

[scarshapedstar]

I always wondered why David Vitter was such a fan of Big Oil...

Actually, if you really want to freak out the Republicans over this, just convince them that more female prostitutes means fewer rentboys - Lindsey Graham will personally hug a tree.