She looks Tahitian. Just how was that fact finding trip? I thought Mrs. Guardian went with you. For all I know that is Mrs. Guardian.

This was absolutely the quote of the week. Don’t know too many families that go to the Torch even ones that are only looking for finger steaks. I thought “simulated sex acts” was what we called dancing.

Tough duty for the cops. I sure wish they’d patrol my neighborhod at night instead of making the Spearmint Rhino safe for my children. Now some poor prosecutor has to muddle through a dozen files to see whether what the cop saw was a “simulated sex act”. Should make for an amusing trial. But I have other things on the priority list for my tax dollar.

EDITOR NOTE–Truth is the dancer is a samba dancer from the Brazil fact finding trip.

I’m surprised our Boise Police haven’t investigated supermarkets, for carrying items that could be used for sexual stimulation (cucumbers), or bananas since they can appeal to our prurient interests, especially when eaten seductively.

EDITOR NOTE–Lew, gotta be fair on this one. It was a STATE police operation.

And the State Police can’t find people to hire?

Here’s way to save the state some money: As long as ISP/BPD picked up the tab, I’d perform these missions for free.

Wow! These poor cops had to spend six months hanging out in bars and watching strippers?
Rough life, eh.

Ya gotta honor these fellers who put their life on the line for each one of us every time they go on duty. Still, it’s amazing it took them six months to decide whether they could come up with an excuse to bust a few folks at the very few stripper-type clubs in the area. And I’ll bet they watched reeeaaalll carefully, too!

(Somebody oughta tell ’em that if they’d just slip across the line into Oregon sometime, they could see some *real* strippers — some of whom get plumb nekkid instead of ending the show wearing more than a lot of young women wear at the beach.)

Lessee — cops tried to get Boise restaurants to make folks having a drink in sidewalk eateries move inside at dark; busted one strip joint previously for giving patrons pad and paper to turn the place into a art class, pushed to get drunks to walk a few blocks to the taxi stops so more of them could get run over on the way, and now they’re making strip joints safe for kids.
Amazing!

(We may have to import some criminals from Chicago or somewhere to commit some real crimes to give the boys (and girls) in blue something to do. Seems the few murders, bank robberies, convenience-store robberies, speeding, wreckless or drunk drivers, etc., just ain’t keeping them busy enough.)

Robert your comment got me thinking. We do have new leadership at the ISP. Jerry Russell was appointed by Otter to head the department in January. Our libertarian Governor had some problems with social conservatives last election with his DUI issue and his hurry up marriage before the election.

Strkes me that he may be trying to mend some fences. In so doing I think he’s forsaking all right to call himself a libertarian.

But further than that this seems to be another front in the battle between rural and urban interests in the state. The rural dominated legislature also seems to be flexing its muscle this session, and despite Republicans oft stated goal of allowing local control, they are not doing so in certain areas like allowing us to police our own community standards for obscenity as the Supreme Court allows and denying us the tools to help solve local pollution problems and gridlock like a local option tax for a mass transit system.

They didn’t even offer an alternative solution. These rural legislators can’t solve our problems, won’t give us the tools to solve our own problems, and invent new problems where none existed. I call it redneck tyranny.

I’m with everyone else why does anyone think that someone would bring their kids to a strip club. The Big Easy advertized about the male review,so why would anyone bring their chidren to it.

The state should have better things to do than worry about what adults are doing in a club. The state and the city are trying to regulate their will on everyone else. The last time i check a strip club is going to have sexy suggestive dancing. What are they going to do next tell someone that they can’t dirty dance too.

When will this stop? They have more freedom in some third world countries. And this is all because of Robert Clemants, he told a bar owner that i know that men who go out and drink whisky are more likely to go home and beat their wives and kids. His words to her so now i guess they think that if you go to a strip club or male reveiw and drink liqure there you are more likely to go out afterwards and rape someone. I fought and bled for this country to be free from this kinda stuff. We do have some rights at least i thought we did.

Do the leaders of Boise and ISP police really beleive anyone uses these establishments as “family” entertainment? Give me a break.

If you are offened by these clubs, then excercise your right not to support them, but don’t try to take my right to enjoy these fine establishments, f I so desire.
To the ISP, please do us all a favor and deal with real crime related issues this state has. What a rough life you have had for 6 months.I’m sure you hated every second of your investigation.

I thought the “family oriented” statement which appeared in the Statesman was one of the best statements attributed to a public official in some time.

How can we take these clowns seriously when they would spend six months on discovering whether or not an ill-defined and overly nuanced action (simulated, or stimulated) sex act is taking place. I am reminded of the old joke about why fundamentalist Christians don’t have sex while standing – they are afraid it might lead to dancing. How in the world can anyone take this crap seriously! he cried (into his beer).

Note: If this is truly a six-month investigation — although it seems to me that you could determine most of those things in one quick visit — then it predates our current governor, who has been in office just over two months.

Old Boise says he was born and raised here and Boise didn’t used to have all this sleaze. Wow, he must have never wandered out of his house!

I’ve only been here a little over 40 years, but ever since I’ve arrived, there have been strippers, prostitutes, gambling and all that other nasty stuff going on. And long before I arrived, there was a major red-light district right in the middle of Boise.
By the time I got here, it had been outlawed (along with statewide and city-option casinos), but the stripping, go-go dancing etc. continued.

And which bars to go into to pick up a prostitue were pretty much public knowledge.
Once in a while the cops would bust a bar or a massage parlor for prostitution. The “girls” would pay their fines and go back to work. (The operator of one such operation even phoned The Statesman to thank them for reporting the raid; said it was the best publicity she’d ever had since she couldn’t openly advertise, and she had to hire several more “girls” the next day.)

Several bars had well-known gambling havens in their back rooms or basements; cops more often checked them out to make sure no cheating, robberies etc. were going on than to bust them.

Every city bigger than a few hundred people (and many smaller) have all of these activities in varying degrees — and always have.

Read history books; read the Bible; read old newspapers, read old police reports — there is nothing new under the sun.

Speaking of the Bible: a writer to the Nampa paper pointed out that according to the Bible, people used to all speak one language. Then when they tried to built a high tower, God got angry and made them speak a bunch of different languages.

I’m not quite sure what the writer’s point was, but he seemed to be saying that since God decided we should speak various languages, it’s up to the Idaho Legislature to overrule that decision and make us all talk English.

Well, I say, old chap, I believe I can manage that quite nicely. Though English is somewhat of a foreign language to me as American, I’m sure that with practice I can learn to say such things as bloody good, and a spot of bother.

So ta, ta, old thing.

OBN – Really? Was Opie there too??

You want to go to the bank on that one?

Gordon is right on so many of his points. There is no way any town on the 84 corridor was without it’s little secrets.

From the pacific ocean all the way through, even the smallest towns had showings of skin and other depravity. I hear tell the ankle show in Baker City was especially intoxicating.

Seriously though, how can anyone believe this is somthing recent?

The Big Easy is a great venue. We have taken our kids there on many occaisions for bands that come through. Oddly enough, I am more of a prude when it comes to what is on TV than I have ever been at a show. The kids have never been offered alchohol, drugs or skin and we have been there a lot of times.

If the Big Easy loses out and can’t serve liquor due to some BS trumped up, jacked up, talibanesque ISPABC stormtrooper, then we should all be very afraid.

Are our own homes next?

FB – you are right that they had secrets but thats just my point, they were secrets. I was making more of an overall statement about they way our society in general is not ashamed anymore about what they do in the dark of night or in the back corners.

In fact the sleaze is being flaunted to tell the truth. Younger folks won’t have the memories that us older people have, but there really was a time when Barney Fife and Andy Taylor might have been in the closet, but they didn’t flaunt it in front of Opie because they still had some shame.

I have been to, and enjoyed many shows at the Big Easy and I think that charge should be tossed out.

But my point overall is I think we should allow people to have thier fun nightlife, to each his own, but why can’t we let our children grow up a little bit before we expose them to the sick side of this world. They need a childhood too. They will be adults soon enough.

And really gordon, I did wander out of the house more than you think. How many strip clubs were in Boise as recently as 15-20 years ago? I don’t recall any strip clubs in the city limits.

1 in Meridian – kit kat klub
1 in Garden City – Hunt Club
1 out by Lowell Scott – i forget the name (Norm’s I think) also out of Boise city limits.

There were a couple of adult book stores/porno shops and a couple of massage parlors.

I didn’t go to these at the time but I knew they were there if I chose to, and that was fine.

At that time, however, you didn’t have to pass them on every corner and explain to a child why they can’t go into the spiramint rhino because it’s not a candy shop (for kids). Have you noticed how many of those places are around now? Unless you never let your kids out of the house, watch TV, or listen to the radio, they are exposed to all this crap. Kids are not oblivious to all of this! We have lost the ability to have discretion.

So after all that what does it hurt to clean up our act a little better and keep the secrets in private once again. Let our kids be kids until they are forced to be bitten in the arse by reality.

We really are hurting our kids.

Thats all folks, end of rant.

Good day