Hi Ho, Hi Ho It's Off To Work She Goes...

'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits'

I thought this was so precious when I heard it on TV while napping on the couch over the weekend that I just had to share. The news reader was droning on about this and that (excellent white noise for napping on the couch). When she started on a story of a young German woman who was being threatened with losing her unemployment benefits for refusing to take a job as a sex worker at a German brothel I was roused from my slumber. It seems that our enlightened friends across the big pond have legalized prostitution and endowed sex trade workers with all the rights and priviledges accorded to any legal profession. With an unemployment rate of nearly 11% it seems all the jobs that require one to maintain an upright position had been taken.

I did an Internet search and found that the source of the story was an article in the London Telegraph published on Jan 30th. There were no shortage of followup stories and forums where commentators sounded off on the moral and ethical decline of Germany's socialist society (and this was news to whom?).

This story had all the earmarks of urban legend and there is one source I rely on for the definitive take on such things - snopes.com. Yes, indeed, it was there alright, and yes, it was thoroughly debunked. Still, even snopes pointed out that a scenario existed for such a case based on the letter of the law.

One of my heros, the legendary Thomas Sowell used the story as an opportunity to illustrate the absurdity of socialist solutions to problems created by socialist solutions. The whole thing would be terribly funny if it weren't so sickening. God help this great country if it ever falls back in the hands of the European Party we fondly call Democrats.