Journalist Joel Stein has a message for the ladies: Before you prep your whore nurse, whore pirate, whore angel and whorey whore costumes for this weekend's Halloween parties, consider the children! You be the judge of whether his Los Angeles Times Op-Ed smartly satirizes protect-the-kids arguments against the "sluttification" of Halloween:

It's transforming formerly child-friendly costume shops from fun-creepy into Chris Hansen-creepy ... That's why, after much research and consultation, I have founded our nation's newest holiday: Slut Day. It will take place the first Saturday of every August, a time both barren of holidays and plenty hot enough for really degrading costumes. Slut Day festivities include costume parties with themed drinks such as the Lindsay Lohan (just whatever in a giant glass) and, if possible, flat-screen TVs showing the latest celebrity sex tapes and select parts of "Meerkat Manor" ... In addition to fixing the Halloween problem, Slut Day also can replace the "Pimps N Hos" parties scattered across the calendar, which are racist and sexist, with an event that is only sexist. That's a 50 percent reduction in offensiveness.

Thanks for the reader tip!