I'm not sure how we got in to this conversation at lunch today, but it got pretty heated, and I thought I would post some here, as I'm still in disagreement with the other people about it. The conversation was about perverts who solicit sex online with children. I was saying how if some sicko solicits sex (not for money) from someone he thinks is a child, but it turns out it was an undercover FBI agent, that shouldn't be illegal, because the sicko never actually solicited sex from someone underage, and there no proof they could possibly bring in to show that the sicko did so. The others, of course, argued that the sicko should go to jail because he thought the person was a child even though they weren't. The backed this up with the example of an undercover cop posing as a prostitute, but this is obviously a fallicious comparison, because soliciting sex for money is illegal no matter the age of the person. On the other hand, if the Secret Service suspects you are going to try to kill the President, they could set up a dummy that you then shoot and get you for attempted murder. I'm pretty sure they can anyway, despite the fact that you never actually attempted to murder anyone. I'm curious enough to follow up, and will write my favorite legal blog, the Volokh Conspiracy to ask for clarification (www.volokh.com).