This isn't about crypto but since cypherpunks is the most interesting libertarian forum I know, I thought I'd throw it out. I live in a sort of urban pioneer zone, a historical district in Nashville wedged between low income housing projects. We have an interesting mix of people here, black, white, asian, redneck, yuppies, country star wannabes, drug addicts etc. I was walking back from the convenience store the other day, when I began talking to a young lady. She offered to give me a blow job for $2. I don't patronize prostitutes, less from moral concerns, than from concerns for my health and safety. Nonetheless, $2 for a blow job says to me that the market for sex acts has hit rock bottom. Forthrightly, she told me she wanted the money for crack, which has also become very cheap here. It has been said many times in this forum that prostitution and drugs are victimless crimes. Is this really so? Although I am generally in concert with libertarian views, I would say that the young lady I talked to was definitely a victim. Also, if we are a society, rather than fortress-like individuals, we should be concerned with the inevitable spread of disease and insanity that is the result of "victimless" crimes. On a similar note, I read an interesting article that connected the recent drop in the crime rate to the rather startling increase in drug use among young people. The claim that was made is that drugs have become so cheap that people don't have to steal as much to buy them. Based on the evidence of the $2 blow job, I'm inclined to believe it. SAlanEd@concentric.net, SAlanEd@aol.com, http://users.aol.com/salaned/cyberplace.html "Life, he himself said once, (his biografiend, in fact, kills him verysoon, if yet not, after) is a wake, livit or krikit, and on the bunk of our breadwinning, lies the cropse of our seedfather..."