Corcoran Brothers

A Salem, South Dakota man has become my newest libertarian hero:

The mix of nude dancers, orange juice and black-and-white independent films wasn’t in Bob Rieger’s original business plan.

But it has helped his Racehorses Gentlemen’s Club survive amid the cornfields of McCook County and fend off a two-year barrage of challenges from politicians and outraged members of Citizens Against Nude Juicebars and Pornography.

You know they’re out to get you when they name their little club “Citizens Against (Highly Specific and Ludicrous Description of Your Activity)”.

When the county denied Rieger a liquor license for a bar, he opened a strip club with a juice bar in 2003. When it served a stop order saying a commercial business could not operate in an area zoned for agriculture, Rieger went to court and won.

And when 74 percent of the county’s voters passed an anti-nudity ordinance in June, Rieger found a loophole that exempted movie theaters. After a two-week hiatus, the club re-emerged as Racehorses Gentlemen’s Club and Adult Movie Theatre and has been operating ever since…

The 15-member Citizens Against Nude Juicebars and Pornography has organized protests outside the club and filmed patrons in the parking lot to discourage them from entering.

I haven’t passed the bar or anything, but that seems like harrassment. Not the videotaping, but the specific attempt to pass laws aimed at one person. I say “Good on you” to Mr. Rieger.

Isn’t it unfortunate, though, that the most noticeable way we libertarians defend individual rights always seems to involve “vice”? Porno, nudity, drugs, liquor, swearing…

As usual, my erstwhile political party is on the wrong side of the issue and sounds silly about it:

Republican state Sen. Clarence Kooistra plans to take the fight to the next level and propose a state law that would require Rieger’s dancers to cover up.

“We do not want the Salem area and McCook County to be known as Sin City, South Dakota,” he says.

I want a federal law making it illegal to be my socialist high school teacher who thought that spanking children was immoral, and had a bratty child because of it. Is that too specific?

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 3rd, 2005 at 6:25 and is filed under Libertarian. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.