http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/W...ow/2318249.cms

Last I checked, homosexuality was not a crime, nor were discreet sexual advances in public places (if they were, nightclubs would be out of business).So what's the deal?

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There is a growing tendancy to think of Man as a rational, thinking being, which is absurd.- Marvin the Martian.

It's gotten to the point where careful investigation is needed just to tell parody from reality. I think that means reality is broken.- Noclevername.

Soliciting lewd conduct.

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Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

Extremely bad taste. Hypocrisy. Acting like an aggressive weenie when cornered. Admitting guilt, then denying guilt. Making up excuses that, if used by a teeager standing in front of a judge, would be laughed out of court.

I could probably think of others.

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If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

The deal is that they aren't making advances for later. The basic premise is that they "get it on" in the public restroom (including payment for "services")

From the article:
I find this curious. What does swiping your hand under the divider mean?

Maybe when the officer started playing footsie with him, the senetor swiped at the pesky nuisance

This is an either/or... and chances are we will never really know the senetors true intentions.
But sting operations are a bit notorious for "seeing evidence" for an arrest whether it was really there or not.

And let the courts or lawyers speak of the details. I've heard enough to say that I really don't want to know the details.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

Well, there's a difference between flirting with the girl (or guy) at the bar, and peeking at them through the stall door and offereing money for...erm..services.

That's what he's guilty of.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."

Republican in the First Degree...

(Its a joke, relax.)

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The last time I felt a warm fuzzy feeling, I was informed by my doctor that it was just gas.

<Looks at Fazor>

<taps his right foot>

It's all symbolic, you see...

They weren't flirting in a bar...

I am confused and perplexed by your post neverfly. I know *he* wasn't flirting in a bar, but the OP asked what the difference was. I fear, however, I'm just missing the sarcasm/irony/point in your post, so I'll just slowly back out of the room.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."

There doesn't appear to have been any money involved. If there had been, then yes, I can see how that could be called illegal (Prostitution, het or gay, usually is), but here it just seemed like a sexual advance. I can see how you could be arrested for "getting it on" in a public restroom but I don't see how you could be arrested for engaging in behaviour that suggested you might at some point get it on in a public restroom.

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There is a growing tendancy to think of Man as a rational, thinking being, which is absurd.- Marvin the Martian.

It's gotten to the point where careful investigation is needed just to tell parody from reality. I think that means reality is broken.- Noclevername.

I hadn't heard of this before, but it's being described as a "signal" which homosexual men have used for restroom hookups. Because heterosexual men didn't know until now what it meant, they could send the signal to anyone, and if the recipient happened to be heterosexual and/or hostile to homosexuals, the result would be nothing more dire than confusion. Now that this story has exposed the signal to everyone, they can't really use it anymore.

Poor guys..

Maybe he was just out of toilet paper and was signalling the guy next door.

"Darn, out of paper.(knocks on stall wall) "Hey, bud!"

"Yeah?"

"Any extra TP over there?"

"Sorry, hardly enough for me."

"Any newspaper, candy wrappers..."

"Sorry, no."

(Reaches for wallet) "You got singles for a five?"

"You're under arrest."

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If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

I don't know either. <shrug> really.
I have no idea whatsoever why I kept thinking about Pinochio.

Guess there's a provision in the Patriot Act about wiping with Washingtons...

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The last time I felt a warm fuzzy feeling, I was informed by my doctor that it was just gas.

I was about to say being an idoit but you bet me there.

The reason this is such a story is trying to make homosexuality illeagal.

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If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.
Contact Carl Sagan

http://davidsuniverse.wordpress.com/

The information in the brief I heard in the radio said the officer alleged that he was offered $20 for the particular act, on three seperate occasions. Although it mentioned nothing about the foot-touching hand swiping whatever either, so it just seems the actual events aren't quite clear.

But gross sexual imposition does not have to include money, which may be what they're charging him for (or whatever that state's equivilant crime is).

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."

Rofl!

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The dose makes the poison--Paracelsus (1493-1541) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus

I don't know. That's why I'm asking--Noclevername

Intelligence may not be clearly defined, but you know stupid when you see it--Noclevername

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge--Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

That would fall under "hypocracy" in Mike's list. Seems that archconservatives of various stripes are finding their habits exploding out of the closet and onto the national scene with interesting regularity.

In a more general sense, I see a large scale movement towards moral witch hunting. Consider recent (and baseless) accusations about drunk astronauts. Accusation = controversy = media sensationalism. Whether the allegations end up true or not, the controversy the hypermoralists want to teach has been thrust forward into the spotlight once more, and the public responds like Pavlovian wardogs. The public's emotions are whipped up into a higher level of alertness for deviance from "The Norm".

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The last time I felt a warm fuzzy feeling, I was informed by my doctor that it was just gas.

Oh, and I've been meaning to ask this, but isn't it Larry Craig, and not Paul as the title states?

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."

I think I see where the mix up occurred.

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The last time I felt a warm fuzzy feeling, I was informed by my doctor that it was just gas.

As Jon Stewart said after Cheney little hunting trip a few yew years ago "sometimes they make it too easy.."

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If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.
Contact Carl Sagan

http://davidsuniverse.wordpress.com/

Wow. I have no idea where that "paul" came from. Strange that it produced the right google hits. Could someone edit that title, just so I can continue bluffing my way through academia without anyone finding me out?

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There is a growing tendancy to think of Man as a rational, thinking being, which is absurd.- Marvin the Martian.

It's gotten to the point where careful investigation is needed just to tell parody from reality. I think that means reality is broken.- Noclevername.

Done.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

Google, you will notice, will look for "paul" and "craig" as if they are separate items, thus hitting on "Senator Craig" and “St. Paul.

Craig's problem is that he didn't know that the time to plead innocent is before you plead guilty.

Thing is you can't "take back" a guilty plea. (Well, ya could, but not for the reasons Craig has stated.)

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"The facts gentlemen, and nothing but the facts, for careful eyes are narrowly watching." Isaac Asimov

There's an old joke in the States that the best politicians are failed lawyers. Perhaps there's a bit of reality to the old gag?

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The last time I felt a warm fuzzy feeling, I was informed by my doctor that it was just gas.

Of course they were the first to lock and load and go hunting for bear. What goes around comes around.

Advice for anyone contemplating witch-hunting: Be very careful, or you may find yourself seated on a scale opposite a duck!

And just to mix my cultural references a bit, you won't be able to get out of it by shining a flashlight in your face and blubbering for the cameras either!

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Microsoft is over if you want it.

The bar has been lowered for the promotion of ATM ideas; the bar for the acceptance of ATM ideas must remain high.

And they're the ones writing the laws!

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Microsoft is over if you want it.

The bar has been lowered for the promotion of ATM ideas; the bar for the acceptance of ATM ideas must remain high.

"Your honor, I would like to admit that I am indeed guilty, and will continue to insist that I am innocent. I think, upon further inspection of the evidence, it will only become more clear that I either did or did not do the crime I am accused of."

This kinda stuff leads me to believe the gavel was origonally intended for use on people in the court room, rather than upon the podium.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."