http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...859827168.html

Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada called Tuesday for the state's brothel industry to be outlawed, saying Nevada's connection with prostitution harmed its image and could damage its ability to bring in investment.

"If we want to attract businesses to Nevada that puts people back to work, the time has come for us to outlaw prostitution," Mr. Reid told the Nevada state Legislature in Carson City.

Mr. Reid also said he had talked to "parents who don't want their children to look out of a school bus and see a brothel or to live in a state with the wrong kind of red lights."Mr. Reid maintains conservative Mormon values personally but has long tolerated Nevada's legal sin industries and is a powerful advocate for casino firms. In gatherings, he often tells audiences how his mother washed laundry for the brothel in Searchlight, the small town Mr. Reid grew up in outside Las Vegas.

Political observers said they believed his remarks were the first time he had spoken out on the topic. "This is a complete shock," said Barbara Brents, a professor at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who has studied the state's prostitution industry and said she had discussed it with Mr. Reid.

As word of Mr. Reid's stance got out, brothel owners and prostitutes descended on Carson City to represent their cause. In Nevada, brothels are taxed legally in many rural counties, with taxes levied at the county level going toward local services, such as ambulances. But prostitution isn't allowed in Las Vegas or Reno, the state's two biggest cities, and isn't taxed or regulated by the state.

Mr. Reid said in his remarks Tuesday he had talked to a business owner who had decided not to locate in Nevada's Storey County, because it had legal brothels. However, Ms. Brents said research hadn't shown a link between corporate investment and brothels.

Dave Damore, a political-science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said Mr. Reid was likely speaking out now to try to stave off any revival of efforts to tax brothels in response to the state's multibillion-dollar budget deficit. Some fear that could lead to legal expansion of prostitution to urban counties.

Two years ago, the brothel industry urged a $5 tax on acts of prostitution as the legislature tried to close a budget gap. Advocates said it would raise around $2 million annually.

The initiative received little support in the legislature. George Flint, a lobbyist for Nevada's brothel industry, couldn't be reached for comment.

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Nanny state strikes again! Driving a car without a seat belt, paying folks for sex (or offering yourself for money), playing a state lottery or a roulette table, consuming drugs or driving a motorcycle without a helmet should all be legal. If you do not directly harm others with your consensual acts then big brother needs to back off.

Now personally I find drug use pathetic. I have moral objections to getting drunk and adultery. And I think driving without a seat belt to be the height of stupidity. However there is a little thing called freedom that people *claim* to value. That includes the freedom for other people to do things you find distasteful.