Donna Hughes, the URI professor who has made it her personal mission to ban prostitution in the Ocean State, has used a lot of tactics over the years.  She has testified before the state house, she has written melodramatic newspaper editorials, she has put a lot of words in quotes for no reason, and she has created her own anti-trafficking coalition because she disagreed with the one that was already there.  But now, in response to the letter to state legislators signed by fifty academics explaining why indoor sex work should not be criminalized, she has taken to personal attacks.

Just days after the release of a Canadian study indicating that criminalization actually increases the chance of harm to female street-based sex workers, Hughes wrote a missive implying that the signers of the other letter are all sexual deviants with an agenda to take over the world.  (No, really.)

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Maybe it’s because I recently finished reading Scott Plagenhoef’s mildly interesting but ultimately really frustrating book about If You’re Feeling Sinister. Maybe it’s because I’m just six songs away from playing Belle and Sebastian for the 1000th time on my computer at work.

Probably, though, it’s just because it’s wicked nice outside today and everybody looks happy and I’m just three hours or so away from starting my weekend.

Whatever the reason, I was tempted to finally stop listening to the Kills and put on something a little sunnier this afternoon:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_at7lEGpjg]

(Click here for an alternate video if you’re one of those people that only understands things in terms of the characters on Lost.)