In America, Free Speech is a central to having an open society. Protected by the 1st Amendment, it allows me to write this. It allows a conservative Talk Radio host to scare listeners about nonexistent inflation while also acting as a spokesperson for a company selling inflation-hedging gold. Free Speech lets corporations shape elections by unleashing billions of dollars into races. It’s essential, especially when it comes to corporations.
But corporate Free Speech is facing its greatest threat at a strip club in upstate New York. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Nite Moves is challenging the state’s sales-tax policy on 1st Amendment grounds (note: Nite Moves should not be confused with The Fire Down Below, a club on the other side of town). The club is arguing that lap dances should not be subject to an 8% sales tax because, like theater performances, they involve “dramatic or musical art performances”, which are tax-exempt.
A Seattle law firm with a highly-regarded First Amendment practice has taken on the club’s case. And don’t be fooled. The Hassle Of The Tassel isn’t just some corporate scam to lower its tax bill. No, the tax-free lap dance is an important brick in the wall of freedom, holding back the inevitable march toward totalitarianism.
The club could probably avoid going to court if it agreed to have dancers dress up as Lady Macbeth and sing rap songs in Latin. But the middle-aged customers still trying to lose those awkward teenage blues probably wouldn’t go for it.
If you still think this is a scam, it means you don’t know Dick. Stephen Dick, the club’s financial officer, told the paper “We believe our case has as much merit and is as important to free speech nationally as any.”
He’s got that right. This thing is huge in the ongoing struggle to preserve freedom. Thomas Jefferson once wrote: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots” – he just didn’t say where that blood was flowing.
Yup, this is the kind of erosion of freedom that keeps me up at night.
I cannot believe the name of the Financial officer and I think my new favorite phrase is The “Hassle of the Tassel”
Stephen Dick should be a rock star by virtue of his name alone.