…sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love. – Butch Hancock
The concept that sex, even non-procreative sex, is somehow different from every other human activity and therefore requires special rules is deeply ingrained in the minds of mystics and the middle class alike, and nowhere is this more true than in the United States. It is an article of faith among Americans that sex is magically “special” even when divorced from reproduction or feelings; that accepting money for sex is somehow “degrading” even in a capitalist society which allows the commercialization of anything and everything else from cradle to grave; that the sexual activities of consenting adults are a matter for deep governmental concern; and that looking at “dirty pictures” in private somehow causes such grievous social ills that it constitutes a “crime” which in some cases is more serious than murder. I’ve written about this weird belief on many occasions, but I think it’s important to call attention to it whenever it rears its ugly head. Most of you are probably familiar with this recent news story:
The lure of a job and a place to live cost one man his life after answering a Craigslist ad. Two southern men traveled to [rural Ohio] to interview for a job running a cattle farm. The Florida man was shot dead and buried in a shallow grave and the South Carolina man was shot but escaped through the woods…[the ad] offered employment on a rural 688-acre cattle ranch and instructed the men chosen for the jobs to bring their belongings with them to Ohio [to] begin living and working on the ranch…The two men did not know each other and reported for work on different days.
The South Carolina man…hid in the woods for approximately seven hours…[then went] to a home almost two miles away for help…[he] had initially met his supposed employers for breakfast and started the trek to the ranch in a vehicle [but] was told a landslide had closed the country road and they would have to go the rest of the way to the ranch on foot through the woods…[where he heard the sound of a gun being cocked and was able to knock it away from his head…he was hit by multiple shots in the arm instead]…Five days [later] the Noble County Sheriff’s Office received a call from the Florida man’s sister…[who] had not spoken to [him]… since…October 22…The Sheriff and his deputies returned to the wooded area from which the South Carolina man had fled…[and] discovered a vacant shallow grave they assumed was meant for [him]…Cadaver dogs [then] located human remains in another nearby shallow grave…
On November 16th 52-year-old Richard Beasley and 16-year-old Brogan Rafferty were arrested for the crimes; they were located via email communications with Scott Davis (the South Carolina man). On November 25th the bodies of two other men who answered similar ads were discovered, then on November 29th an AP story revealed that Beasley has a long criminal history and had in fact recently been arrested on unrelated charges:
An Ohio teenager charged with aggravated murder…is not a monster, but a “scared little boy,” his mother says…[police allege] that he participated in the Oct. 23 slaying of David Pauley and the Nov. 6 attempted murder of Scott Davis…Beasley’s mother says her son would take the teen to church almost weekly, go fishing, play video games and involve him in volunteer work. But the teenager’s mother paints another picture of Beasley — that of a man who threatened her son and who once said that he knew where the teen lived and that “I know where your mother lives”…Beasley has a criminal record dating to the 1980s. He was convicted in Texas of burglary and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle in 1985, sentenced to a 40-year prison term and placed on parole for 34 years in 1989. Previous charges in Ohio include aggravated menacing, tampering with evidence, possession of criminal tools and illegal cultivation of marijuana, court records show. Following Beasley’s return to Akron in 2003, he ran a halfway house, helped deliver food to the poor and vouched for fellow offenders, telling judges they had changed their ways…Police say the halfway house was a front for prostitution…and Beasley was awaiting trial on prostitution and drug charges when authorities took him into custody this month. The teen appears to be placing blame on Beasley…[whose] mother has said that her son had taken the boy to [church] since he was 7 or 8 years old…and that they did volunteer work together, such as delivering food to the needy…
The ABC News story named the exact charge on which Beasley was first arrested as “compelling prostitution”, i.e. pimping. But that’s not why I’ve called attention to this story; what interests me is what it doesn’t say. Where are all the protests, the online petitions and the expensive full-page newspaper ads demanding that Craigslist close its “help wanted” section? After all, it’s being used by pimps to lure men to their deaths! Sure, murder and robbery aren’t as bad as prostitution, but he recruited a “child” (whom his mommy says is a “scared little boy”) to help him, so surely that counts for something? And what about that church? It’s being used to seduce innocents into murder, prostitution and even {gasp} DRUGS!!!!! So why isn’t anyone demanding it be closed as well?
I think we all know the answers; in the minds of anti-sex fanatics the mere possibility that a few score teenage girls might over time post online hooker ads is of far greater concern than the murders of a few divorced, unemployed, middle-aged men. And though some religious leaders claim that it’s a “basic fact of the moral universe” that businesses should be held responsible for criminals wrongfully using their services, they certainly don’t support holding churches or church programs responsible for exactly the same thing.
One Year Ago Today
“The Slave-Whore Fantasy (Part Two)” reports on a news story (also from Ohio) which “points out the difference between a free prostitute and a sex slave in a rather dramatic fashion.”
