Ashley Dupre is a whore

Which makes her different than other bloggers . . . somehow:

I read the front page of the NY Post this week . . . .

(News flash: The whore can read!)

. . .and was happy to see that Mr. Spitzer is moving on with his life and considering getting back into politics . . .

(Ashley Dupree: A Constituency of One!)

Everyone makes mistakes.

(Hiring call girls is a "mistake"? Maybe you should have thought of that before you became a vagina merchant, Ashley.)

Everyone deserves a second chance. Me too, right? Well, apparently not. Why? Because many people are liars and hypocrites. Let me give you just a few examples of what I keep encountering, despite my best efforts to move on.

(Move on to the next $4,000 client?)

First, I’m often referred to as the "woman who brought down the Governor" -- excuse me people, I didn;t call the tabloids, I didn't blow the whistle . . .

(OK, so what did you blow, Ashley?)

I did nothing to shine a light on my indiscretions . . .

("Indiscretions"? They're called "transactions," Ashley. You are a whore. You rented your vagina by the hour. Denial is not a river in Egypt.)

. . .or to "out" anyone else. Second, I keep being accused of "cashing in" on the scandal – wrong again.

(Actually, you "cashed in" on your vagina. Whatever you do from here on out, I think you shouldn't be so sensitive about accusations of "cashing in.")

People think I made money off music that was exploited when the scandal first broke, that I am doing reality television, and that I made millions posing nude for magazines. The truth is none of those things happened. This situation closed far more doors than it ever opened. I didn’t see a dime for my songs, but other people certainly did. I didn’t pose nude for a magazine, but other people made money off of photos of me that they sold to tabloids. Even photos I posed for ages ago were sold to the highest bidder. I never sold any photos of myself - but people who I trusted did.

(Once a girl starts hiring out her vagina by the hour, she's likely to meet a lot of untrustworthy people.)

And the "millions" for the nude pics? I was offered that, repeatedly – and turned them down because I didn’t want to perpetuate the problem or feed into the stereotype.

("Feed into the stereotype" about women who rent out their vaginas? Like they might be . . . I don't know, vacuous and amoral?)

Third, speaking of perpetuating the problem and feeding into the stereotype, let me tell you about most book publishers – they are worse than the tabloids.

(OK, Ashley, NOW you're doing some serious truth-telling!)

I won’t give them the "tell all" they are demanding and won't glorify and sensationalize "how exciting the life of a high-priced NYC escort must be," as one major publisher put it. Sorry folks, my life wasn't like a “Sex And The City” episode. . . . Oh, and I also love how some publishers who were interested in my story and had offers on the table suddenly pulled them because executives in the company had "personal and political reasons” about publishing the book. What does that mean? Did this hit too close to home for you because your husband cheated on you with an escort? Or would your wife feel insecure if she heard you were working with me?

("Working with me." Heh. Heh heh heh.)

I will write the book regardless and do it for the right reasons.

(Because I'm a whore like that!)

Fourth - ladies, ladies, ladies - so many of you have been cool, supportive and loving. But there are those of you out there who just love to judge.

(As opposed to those "who just love" renting out their vaginas by the hour.)

Let me say this - most girls, to varying degrees of course, want to be pampered and have nice shoes, designer handbags and gorgeous clothes. I know many women who target guys with money and use them to get these things. They toy with them, flirt, go on dates, have sex and then drop hints about that new dress at the store down the street or being short on rent money – and the guys deliver it. This is a dishonest relationship. I see this all over New York City.

(Care to name names, Ashley? Because "Call Girl Puts Down Gold-Diggers" might be an interesting story.)

Some women aren’t as vindictive, but still dive into relationships with wealthy guys who they don’t love or even find attractive, but they stay in it because they have a nice home, a car and spending money – they would rather stay in an unfulfilling or loveless relationship than lose that security.

(Or hire out their vaginas by the hour.)

This, too, is a dishonest relationship. I see this type all over the suburbs of New Jersey with the housewives who are strung out on mood stabilizers or the couples who put all their attention on their children so they don’t have to deal with their own issues. What about going to those sugar daddy websites? Is that legal? Should it be? Is what I did any more dishonest? Get real and get over yourself.You’d be shocked at some of the messes I’ve gotten myself into....and, more importantly, how I got out of them. I have so much more to say, and I will – but it’s time for Yoga class! Om Shanti!

(Coming soon: Ashley Dupre joins George F. Will in calling for a tactical U.S. withdrawal from Texas!)

OK, I'll drop the italic snark riff now to make some serious points:

• Notice how our celebrity culture blurs the line between fame and infamy. Ashley Dupre is a whore -- if she hadn't been the sexual equivalent of a vending machine, nobody ever would have heard of her. And yet, as she says, major book publishers were willing to pay her to "write" a book.
• Not everybody is a professional writer. Thanks to the Internet, being a published writer has never been easier. Getting paid as a writer? Not so much. Getting paid as a writer -- being a professional writer -- usually involves either (a) getting hired for a staff job or (b) hustling freelance assignments. And it helps to be a good writer if you want to get paid for it. Exactly why Michael "Herewith, A Brief Primer" Gerson gets paid, I don't know, but Ashley Dupre is not Michael Gerson.
• Cheap grace isn't really cheap. There is a price to be paid for failing to make moral distinctions. When Jesus saved the woman caught in adultery from being stoned to death, he then told her, "Go, and sin no more." He didn't say, "It's OK, go be a whore." By misinterpreting "judge not, lest ye be judged" as a commandment not to make moral distinctions, the advocates of this bogus "Cheap Grace Gospel" invite us into a world without any standards or guidelines. It is in such an unlandmarked terrain of moral relativism that the Ashley Dupres of the world go so blindly astray.
• Sinners don't respond to the Cheap Grace Gospel. For all the vicious snark I've rained down on Ashley Dupre, I guarantee she's more like to be led into righteousness by someone speaking blunt words than by wishy-washy, touchy-feely stuff. Being myself a most wretched sinner, deserving nothing but destruction by a righteous God, I don't claim any personal standing of moral superiority vis-a-vis Ashley Dupre. Nobody ever offered me thousands of dollars for a night's companionship, so that's one temptation I've been spared.
• Book publishers really are swine. The fact that a "major publisher" would offer a book deal to Ashley Dupre is bad enough. That the publisher would then ask her to write "how exciting the life of a high-priced NYC escort must be" -- and turn her down when she wanted to tell her own story her own way -- tells you that they don't believe that truth has value.

That's what I despise about the publishing industry. If Friedrich Hayek submitted The Road to Serfdom to a major publisher today, nobody would be interested -- even though it was a bestseller and now, more than 60 years after its publication, it's still selling.

Truth has value, but you wouldn't know this by talking to a book publisher. There have been times when I've informally proposed a book idea to a publisher who then responds to the effect, "Hey, that's a great idea. But instead, why don't you write this . . ." and then they proceed to tell me their idea for the book they want me to write.

And I actually used to let crap like that get to me. At some point, however, I just said screw it. If you're such a genius you know better than me what kind of book I should write, write it yourself and stop wasting my time.

If you cooperate with swine -- bending over backward, offering to write anything at all, just to get that book deal -- you are helping neither yourself nor your publisher. You are also doing a disservice to other writers, because you're enabling publishers who have developed an abusive habit of pushing writers around.

If a publisher really wants to publish you, if they really believe in you as a writer, they'll treat you right and show some respect for your judgment. The fact that you're not being treated right is therefore your own fault, because in your desperation to make a buck, you are willing to tolerate insulting behavior from publishers.

Don't be a book-whore, Ashley Dupre. Whatever the truth of your story is, the truth has more real value than whatever lies a publisher wants to buy.