Total Filth, by Mike Gold – Brainiac On Banjo #249
November 14, 2011 Mike Gold 17 Comments
There are a great many things in this world that are beyond my understanding, and the blind, fundamentalist passion a great many Americans have for college football ranks high on my list. Every Saturday for some four months, billions of dollars are wasted gamboling on these sucker bets.
Many of these same Americans went totally bugfuck when a cowardly Penn State college football coach refused to call in the police when he was informed one of his underlings was caught in the shower room buggering a 10 year-old boy. Instead, he confiscated the guy’s key to the room. Yep, that’s sure a fitting punishment for child molestation. “Let the punishment fit the crime,” or so sang Groucho Marx.
This disgusting piece of filth – I’m referring to the lackey, not the coach-in-chief – has accusations of such conduct that date back at least to 1999. How many other children he might have molested because the other piece of filth declined to drop a dime on him nine years ago is a matter being investigated, at long last, by the appropriate authorities.
So the coach-in-chief, preferring to leave his precious reputation and that of the Penn State football team temporarily intact, finally got a small part of what’s owed him: he got his pathetic ass fired and, instead of being remembered for winning 409 games his legacy is now that he provided aid, comfort and protection to a man who raped boys. He’s subject to all sorts of criminal and civil changes, and one can only hope that he gets his full due. Put this soulless creep in prison; maybe he’ll finally get his priorities straight when it comes to molestation.
By “bugfuck,” I mean getting hysterically out of control, screaming at sports talk radio, writing letters about how this coward is a great American hero, rioting in the streets, and making death threats to the one coach who had the courage to do the right thing. The coach-in-chief brought great glory to his team and to his employer. These particular football fools think he should get a pass when it comes to raping children. In point of fact, he coddled a child molester for almost a decade. He’s a piece of shit who should never, ever be allowed to show his hallowed face in public.
How many victories does it take to balance out a child molester’s assaults? As I said, I don’t get the college football zealot’s blind, souless passion. Wearing a blue shirt on a Saturday afternoon is a lame, useless and obnoxious response to the issue; these people who think any of these guys got a raw deal should not get off that easy.
Anybody who thinks this creep Joe Paterno got a raw deal is just as bad as he is. He covered for Jerry Sandusky and he enabled him to continue his monstrous assaults. We give lip service to the concept of “saving the children,” but some Americans rank their college football team higher on their emotional Top 10 list.
Filth. Total filth. The whole lot of them.
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Anarcho-syndicalist and bitter motherfucker Mike Gold further annoys the public with the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking bizarro music and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com, every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, replayed three times during the week (check the website above for times), and to make things even more obnoxious, it’s available on demand as well.
Rick Oliver
November 14, 2011 - 12:25 pm
Paterno claims that he kicked it upstairs, where no doubt they did a cost analysis. I might say I hope the civil suits will bankrupt the school, but Penn State is a pretty good school from a strictly academic perspective.
Paterno’s actions are inexcusable — but the actions of the assistant who witnessed the crime and did nothing other than tell Paterno are arguably much worse. And both of them were obviously more concerned with their jobs and the reputation of the football program than with any sense of social or moral obligation to protect the innocent.
Let’s make one change in the scenario. Let’s say Sandusky was stabbing someone to death in the shower…
Assistant: Hey coach, I just saw Sandusky stabbing someone in the shower. Think we should do something?
Paterno: Don’t worry. I’ll tell the athletic director.
Assistant: Oh, okay.
R. Maheras
November 14, 2011 - 12:38 pm
I’m not sure why Paterno didn’t push the issue a decade or so ago, but I certainly agree that he should have.
My guess, based what I observed as a Boy Scout in the 1970s, is that it was a strong case of denial. In one instance, for example, one of my troop’s assistant leaders was unmarried, had no children of his own, and once, while at our summer camp in Michigan, took an unusual number of pictures of the young troop members — including a few where their shirts were off. I think most of us had some deep-seated alarm bells going off, but he remained an assistant nonetheless. It wasn’t until I read in the paper that the cops busted him some years later and confiscated thousands of photos of nude or semi-nude young boys that I all realized our instincts were right after all.
Why was nothing done at summer camp? Denial, most likely — probably just like what happened at Penn State.
R. Maheras
November 14, 2011 - 12:50 pm
By the way, there are far more extensive, and, in hindsight, creepier aspects to the story I related above, which I really prefer not to elaborate upon. Suffice to say, I consider myself lucky that I was older and more savvy than most of the other scouts when he came on board, and as such probably dodged a bullet or two.
Rick Oliver
November 14, 2011 - 2:12 pm
The Penn State incident was much more than a case of “suspicious” activity. IIRC, the assistant told Paterno he saw Sandusky having sex with what appeared to be a 10-year old boy in the shower. In other words, he saw a felony sexual assault in progress and chose to nothing more than tell his boss.
R. Maheras
November 14, 2011 - 2:23 pm
One more P.S. about the story above: When the assistant was busted by the cops, the newspapers reported that while he had some sort of administrative desk job with Boy Scouts of America (which I either didn’t know or had long since forgotten), BSA officials allegedly said he never had a position where he was near any boys. If that was accurate reporting, than someone at BSA either lied, or was unaware that the culprit had leveraged his BSA position and was moonlighting as an assistant scoutmaster for our troop.
R. Maheras
November 14, 2011 - 2:48 pm
Rick — From what I’ve seen over the years, denial, coupled with fear of a scandal or “making waves,” is sometimes a huge deterrence when it comes to doing the right thing.
You or I may have pushed the issue, but someone from Paterno’s generation might (a.) Be uncomfortable even addressing the issue, and (b.) Be unable to believe a long-time friend and charible contributor to the school could be doing something so heinous.
Curiously, Jerry Sandusky’s autobography from 2001 was titled “Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story.” A Freudian slip, perhaps?
Reg
November 14, 2011 - 3:00 pm
Mike, I’ve already made my feelings known about this (self censored to the nth degree). But suffice to say, your words on the matter and ALL involved…”Filth. Total filth. The whole lot of them.” are completely accurate.
The reprehensible fact is that the inquiry will in all likelihood be aborted and squashed well before the other highly placed (but abyss headed) players come to light.
Reg
November 14, 2011 - 3:13 pm
@ Rick, the sad fact of the matter is that the scum at Penn are not alone by any stretch of the imagination. This devilment is happening at most institutions. I just hope that Penn does crumble under the weight of lawsuits and imploding blame game…and that a scorched earth policy be implemented.
Perhaps the resultant chaos and costs (cos ultimately in this society it’s all about the money), will serve to bring other roaches into the light.
Rick Oliver
November 14, 2011 - 3:18 pm
Reg: Yeah, on second thought, you’re right.
Russ: It’s my understanding that the assistant who actually witnessed the assault was a fairly young guy. I can’t fathom why he did what he did other than because he didn’t want to lose his job.
Steve Atkins
November 14, 2011 - 3:43 pm
I am not surprised by this.
No, I am not being my usual jaded smart-ass/Devil’s advocate to make the a discussion more full or entertaining.
Sports fans beat the shit out of each other over teams they don’t even play for. They riot and set fire to city blocks…WHEN THEY WIN. The fact that they would go so far as to support the acts of horrible people like this just doesn’t surprise me anymore.
Humans make me very sad sometimes.
Reg
November 14, 2011 - 4:15 pm
Rick & Russ…that assistant coach punk has NO EXCUSE. NONE. He is as fully culpable as the other demonspawn. The merest spark of humanity within a person should be sufficient to bring forth outrage and action when the most innocent expression of who were are as a species is being mistreated.
Steve said: “Humans make me very sad sometimes.”
That’s for damned sure.
Vinnie Bartilucci
November 14, 2011 - 4:27 pm
We live in the lehigh Valley, and even thought it was Game Day last Saturday, I noticed a lot fewer people in Penn State colors than usual. Might have just been the change of weather.
R. Maheras
November 14, 2011 - 4:35 pm
Reg — I agree. While Paterno is taking most of the heat, I’m curious as to why Mike McQueary, the guy who said he saw the alleged shower event unfold nine years ago, apparently said or did nothing after initially reporting it to Paterno. Was he afraid? Was he not sure he saw what he thought he saw?
Something here just does not jibe.
MOTU
November 14, 2011 - 6:50 pm
I can’t comment on those sick fucks anymore without feeling I’d be risking another heart attack.
I’m not kidding.
JosephW
November 15, 2011 - 2:28 am
@R. Maheras: Okay, aside from anything of real relevance to this story, what exactly does your “denial” anecdote have to do with anything? I mean, that Boy Scout case sure does sound a shitload like Sandusky. After all, Sandusky is single. No, wait, he’s married. Oh, Sandusky has no children of his own. Well, okay–he’s only got 6 adopted children (1 of whom is a girl) but none of them have claimed that Sandusky did anything to any of them and most of the data on pedophiles shows the pedophiles don’t tend to discriminate when it comes to their victims (family members are victimized as often as strangers but this could be the rare exception to that tendency).
While you may have had good intentions with your little anecdote, it certainly seemed to be tinged with antigay undertones.
Jeremiah Avery
November 15, 2011 - 7:11 am
I’ll probably just be repeating what others have said but this whole debacle is infuriating! The assistant who saw what was happening and fled instead of stopping it is acting all hurt that he’s been receiving threats. He’s lucky that’s all he’s getting!
Plus some of the students and alumni of Penn State make me sick when they harrass protestors. So apparently all that matters to them is that their team wins games and if that means children get hurt, so be it?
Rick Oliver
November 15, 2011 - 8:25 am
Money talks. Penn State football brings in $50 million a year. As I said earlier, the administration probably did a cost analysis and decided to roll the dice. Now they have to pay for making a very bad bet.
R. Maheras
November 15, 2011 - 11:24 am
JosephW — Antigay undertones? Although we didn’t know it at the time, he WAS gay — but that wasn’t the issue. The issue is he exuded warning signs that he was a sexual predator which all of us blithely ignored — including the scout leaders who were supposed to be looking out for us.
There’s far more to the story than you could possibly realize — like the fact that he hung around with another child predator, John Wayne Gacy. Fortunately, however, he was a non-murderous child predator, and he cooperated with police when the Gacy story broke.
As far as how I treated him before I knew he was taking nude photos of underage children, I treated him like any other adult scout leader. Since he was a professional photographer, I actually hired him one Sunday to take photos for me at one of the Chicago minicons, later at the homes of various comic book buddies of mine, and finally at the Rainbo Arena on Clark Street, where some of my non-comics buddies were playing hockey. I didn’t have a driver’s license at the time, so he did the driving, and I thus spent all day in his car, tooling around Chicago. A few days later, when I picked up the photos (which he developed himself in his personal darkroom), I actually spent a few minutes in his one-day-to-be-notorious apartment. Which means, if he HAD been more predatory in the Gacy fashion, I might not be here today.
When the story broke, like everyone else, I was actually shocked — not that he was gay, but that he was a child predator.
By the way, exactly how the cops found out what he was doing with young children would probably not happen today simply because we, as a society, are so bent on being politically correct we ignore even the obvious. But that’s another story…
Rick Oliver
November 15, 2011 - 12:01 pm
Russ: I fail to see how it is somehow easier for sexual predators to operate today as a result of “political correctness”.
R. Maheras
November 15, 2011 - 12:31 pm
Rick — I don’t think the chain of events that led to the discovery and arrest of the child predator discussed above would be possible today because, when it comes to individual behavior, society is being bombarded with “accept everything and question nothing.”
But being the cautious cynic life experiences have made me, I accept nothing and question everything.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Reg
November 15, 2011 - 2:33 pm
And it appears that the predator has hired an attorney with seemingly similar proclivities.
Color me not surprised. As I stated above, there are many of these perverted skin suits hiding behind veneers of ivy.
Rick Oliver
November 15, 2011 - 3:25 pm
Russ: I definitely missed the part where we “accept everything and question nothing.” Teachers aren’t even allowed to give students a pat of the back because touching them might be deemed inappropriate behavior. Where I work, everyone has to take a course about all forms of harrassment and has to sign a form absolving the company of any responsibility if you are accused of any form of inappropriate behavior on the job. The Catholic Church is losing millions in sexual misconduct lawsuits, and soon so will Penn State.
Mike Gold
November 15, 2011 - 4:21 pm
Interesting point, Rick. How much money will Penn State lose? Some disgusted alumni — what’s the singular of alumni… aluminum? — who keep their purses closed for… how long? We’ll see.
The Catholic Church has a heavier cross to bear. They’re in a different business. They sell salvation, and the coin of that realm is adherence to a set of imposed values. Those priests who took advantage of that and those who covered for those priests caused a lot of harm on so many levels. But the flip-side to this is that the Church scandal brought the issue out in the open. It also eventually brought our common outrage into the open.
Rick and I had an extremely close friend who got the worst of it. I believe Russ knew him as well; he was in Chicago comics circles from the mid-60s until his death a decade ago. He was molested by a priest at his parochial high school in, if I’m not mistaken, his junior year. He complained and the entire system came down on him with its full weight. He was treated as if the devil himself entered his body and made up the charge. Ostracized by both the school, his school friends and his own mother (who later recanted; his father was always on his side), he led a profoundly dreadful school life at that horribly vulnerable age.
Later on in his high school career, he was arrested for marijuana possession. This was used by one and all as evidence he was making up the molestation charge. And he was further ostracized for accusing a “decent, honest and holy man.” Indeed.
This guy introduced Rick and me. He was my best, my closest, my dearest friend. A brilliant mind — literally BRILLIANT — with an amazingly affirmative worldview, he balanced these positive attributes with alcohol and, ultimately, heroin. Which killed him. My friendship with Rick was tempered by this — tempered like steel. We have always tried our best to be there for each other… with wonderful, remarkable success.
Was the molestation and betrayal of trust the root of his problem? I knew him before, and I knew him after. The molestation and betrayal of trust was the root of his problem. No question about it. I saw it happen.
Mr. Sandusky, Mr. Paterno… you bastards should shoot yourselves. In return, I shall happily piss on your graves.
Rene
November 15, 2011 - 4:59 pm
I don’t quite see it, Russ. Nowadays, in these PC times, people are more aware than ever of the danger presented by child molesters.
It’s in more traditional environments that child molestation thrives. Because authority figures are not be challenged in traditional environments. When I was a kid, there was this couple that were friends of my parents. They adopted a girl.
The wife suspected her husband of abusing the girl, set up a “trap”, and caught him in a very uncompromissing situation, trying to sneak into the bedroom (I think she had moved the girl).
They separated. But it was a more conservative time, when it was more common for husbands to call all the shots in the household. The creep’s crimes never came to light, he never paid for what he did, and she only told my mother after her ex-husband had died.
Rene
November 15, 2011 - 5:02 pm
I meant, a very COMPROMISSING situation.
R. Maheras
November 15, 2011 - 5:28 pm
Rene wrote: “I don’t quite see it, Russ. Nowadays, in these PC times, people are more aware than ever of the danger presented by child molesters.”
Yet here we are discussing an alleged contemporary sexual molestation scandal at Penn State that went on for perhaps 10 years or more.
R. Maheras
November 15, 2011 - 6:49 pm
The problem with child sexual predators is that they actively seek out positions of trust or innocence where they can take advantage of that trust or innocence: Teachers, scout leaders, clowns, priests, coaches, daycare workers, etc.
Any organization where such predators might try to infiltrate should have policies in place where any suspicious or reported acts by organization members are fully and rigorously investigated.
Reg
November 15, 2011 - 8:24 pm
The more things change…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/15/donald-fitzpatrick-red-sox-sex-scandal_n_1095118.html
Reg
November 15, 2011 - 8:32 pm
And if any good can come out of the suffering and loss that these young people will have to deal with for the rest of their lives, may it start with this woman’s step back into the light and toward executing justice against her abuser.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/15/msnbcs-goldie-taylor-sexual-abuse-last-word-penn-state-scandal_n_1095830.html?ir=Black+Voices
Rick Oliver
November 15, 2011 - 9:01 pm
Russ:
“Yet here we are discussing an alleged contemporary sexual molestation scandal at Penn State that went on for perhaps 10 years or more.”
The cover-up of this scandal has nothing to do with PC values. It has everything to do with money and power.
R. Maheras
November 15, 2011 - 10:13 pm
Rick — I think you’re wrong. There were far too many people involved with this scandal over the years — including the victims and their families — for this to be about money and power.
It had to be something else.
Rick Oliver
November 16, 2011 - 5:49 am
Russ: Yes, it’s also about fear and shame. None of which has anything to do with perceived political correctness.
R. Maheras
November 16, 2011 - 10:13 am
Rick — The force driving almost all PC actions is fear and shame.
Rene
November 16, 2011 - 10:49 am
Russ, you’re implying that it’s our “lax”, modern, sexual morality that opens the way for the acceptance of rape and pedophilia. It’s a common conservative argument against sexual freedom, and it’s also totally bogus.
Sexual freedom is based on the idea that individuals have mastery over their own bodies. Sex is the domain of the individual, no longer of God or the community. For that very reason, consent is more important than ever.
Do you know that in older, more conservative days, sex with kids was less of a taboo than today? An old man could lawfully marry a 13-year old girl. And a husband could have sex with his wife whenever he wanted, there was no such thing as marital rape. So do the math.
Also, rape happens a lot in theocratic societies like Iran. Giving the lie to the notion that “strict” sexual morality has any power to stop rapes and such things. Actually the opposite is true.
Vinnie Bartilucci
November 16, 2011 - 11:33 am
“what’s the singular of alumni”
Alumnus if male, alumna if female.
And technically, if referring to a group who are all female, the plural is alumnae.
One of the comments made by the Pope recently followed Rene’s thoughts – the idea that pedophilia only became “a big thing” relatively recently in human history.
The Catholic Church has a habit (Or in his case, a cassock) of talking about what was traditionally okay, and how that means they don’t have to change.
Do you think he takes the pointy hat off when he sticks his head up his ass?
R. Maheras
November 16, 2011 - 11:58 am
Rene — What I guess I’m saying is that the “promise” of all of this sexual openness, freedom and “education” during the past 40 years hasn’t really changed a damn thing. In fact, I think it’s made things worse.
For example, I remember how we were promised in the 1970s how the progressive notions advocated above would make teen pregnancy a thing of the past. Well that sure as shit hasn’t happen.
The U.S. has the highest teen pregnancy and highest abortion rates in the world.
All this “freedom” did was weaken or destroy loyalty and commitment — the bedrock of marriage and/or lasting relationships — and create life-long emotional scars and/or a burgeoning population of poor, single parents who, for the most part, will face an uphill battle the rest of their lives.
That sure doesn’t seem like the road to happiness and enlightenment to me.
Rene
November 16, 2011 - 1:00 pm
Russ – Take a look at the top 10 U.S. states with highest teen pregnancy. You will see a lot of Southern, Conservative states in that list.
Also, the U.S. isn’t exactly the world champion of sexual freedom. The U.S. is puritanical when compared to Europe, Canada, Australia, and Japan. Let’s compare teen pregnancy in the U. S. with these other countries?
Another point, I think it’s ludicrous to believe that people were more loyal and committed in the past. It’s naive at best, and disingenious at worst. The social pressure against divorce only meant males had lots of adulterous sex. It was more common than today for males to have mistresses and patronize prostitutes. At least people are more honest today when they bail out of dysfunctional marriages.
It’s the same faulty logic as the Pope’s, mentioned by Vinnie. Only because a certain behaviour used to be kept a (open) secret, some people pretend it never happened in older times. Quite the opposite. The veil of secrecy imposed by conventional sexual morality is a fertile ground for all sorts of illicit sex, including pedophilia.
R. Maheras
November 16, 2011 - 6:08 pm
Rene — Which state ranks #1 in teenagers receiving abortions? New York — that bastion of sexual freedom. Which state ranks #1 in teenage pregnancies? California — that other bastion of sexual freedom.
And the fact that there are conservative states among the top 10 doesn’t mean anything other than the fact that progressive popular culture and progressives in general are doing a great job when it comes to influencing young people to embrace sexual “freedom.” How many issues of “Cosmopolitan” do you think it takes for that 15- or 16-year-old in rural Nebraska to see at the hair salon before she decides that she’s abnormal if she’s not practicing “100 hottest sex moves” with a new partner each and every month?
As far as your way too cynical declaration that people were not more loyal and committed in the past… I just think you are flat out wrong. Mistresses and prostitutes have always been around, of course, but I’ve never seen any study that indicates that there are now more, or less, than there were, say, during the 1940s.
I do agree that lessening the stigma of divorce was a good thing for those trapped in dysfunctional relationships, but as someone who spent his first nine years in a single-parent household, I think I can say with some authority that such arrangements are extremely difficult and emotionally painful for such single parents.
Finally, I find laughable your statement that the environment of old sexual morality was somehow a more fertile ground for illicit sex than today’s sexual morality. Ever hear of the Internet?
Rene
November 16, 2011 - 7:54 pm
Dude, where do you find the most cases of pedophilia? Among the jet-setting, liberated, sexual athletes or among repressed Catholic priests? And whenever you have an atmosphere where sex can’t ever be discussed openly, you have abused people even more ashamed to comfront their abusers.
I also would challenge the notion that the Internet is the terrain of the sexually liberated. It’s more of a vehicle for the dysfunctional, the pathetic, the painfully shy people that aren’t prepared for real sexual experience.
You can call my viewpoint cynical, okay. I prefer “realistic”. It’s the way human desire works. We’re animals. The idealization of sexuality defended by the religious and other social conservatives is painfully naive. Everything we see today has always been there, it’s just that modernity has thrown a light over it all. And some of the revealed things aren’t pleasant.
And the way traditional sexual morality used to work… man! You used to marry very early in life, you shouldn’t have sex with anyone before you married, and you couldn’t even live together with your spouse before you married. Marriage under those circustances is like shooting in the dark and hoping you will hit something. So many things can go wrong under this model, that the very idea that it sometimes works must be proof that God exists.
Obviously, the larger a state’s population, the more pregnancies (and abortions) you’ll get. We should be looking instead at pregnancy RATE among teens. The Top 5 are New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and Mississippi.
I didn’t grown up in a single-parent household, but I had an authoritarian father and a bitter mother trapped in a marriage that seemed to make everyone involved unhappy more often than not. I’m not sure it’s a good idea to compare war wounds.
Mike Gold
November 17, 2011 - 8:43 am
The state with the highest per capita of incest? Ohio.
It’s a swing state.
Rick Oliver
November 17, 2011 - 9:55 am
Russ: I find the insinuation that victims didn’t report the abuse because it wouldn’t be politically correct to do so laughable at best. Actually, I find it sad and a little pathetic. Ten year cover-up of a pedophile at the heart of a college football program? Blame the amoral liberals!
R. Maheras
November 17, 2011 - 10:40 am
Rick — Your indignation with my theory still doesn’t answer the question as to why, with so many people involved, and with so many different viewpoints and motivational drivers, this situation was allowed to fester for 10 years.
You blamed “money and power” abuse — the typical realm assigned by progressives (wrongly, in my opinion — since I know plenty of examples where Democrats abused money and power) to conservatives.
And since that knee-jerk finger-pointing obviously does not begin to address what’s really going on with this scandal, I merely threw back at you an alternative argument.
In reality, it’s probably a combination of both our theories — and then some.
R. Maheras
November 17, 2011 - 11:20 am
Rene wrote: “Dude, where do you find the most cases of pedophilia? Among the jet-setting, liberated, sexual athletes or among repressed Catholic priests?”
I’ll tell you which individuals will get more press every time. It sure isn’t Catholic priests who take vacations abroad to places where child sex trafficking is a business.
Rene wrote: “I also would challenge the notion that the Internet is the terrain of the sexually liberated. It’s more of a vehicle for the dysfunctional, the pathetic, the painfully shy people that aren’t prepared for real sexual experience.”
You’ve GOT to be kidding!!!
Rene wrote: “And the way traditional sexual morality used to work… man! You used to marry very early in life, you shouldn’t have sex with anyone before you married, and you couldn’t even live together with your spouse before you married.”
Oh, how terrible that people would have to commit to one partner! Even worse, doing so might greatly reduce of odds of contracting STDs that can permanently maim and sterilize, along with instances of unwanted pregnancies and single-parent households.
Rene wrote: “Obviously, the larger a state’s population, the more pregnancies (and abortions) you’ll get. We should be looking instead at pregnancy RATE among teens. The Top 5 are New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and Mississippi.”
You don’t get it. We were promised by progressives 40 years ago that this sexual education and enlightenment road we are on would make the teen pregnancy/single parent problem back then a thing of the past, and reduce the need for abortions. If all of those lofty predictions by progressives were true, the very progressive states of New York and California should have very low incident rates for teen pregnancy and teenage single parents, regardless of their population size.
That hasn’t happened because, for the most part, those lofty predictions were short-sighted and ignored human nature. The fact is, the foundation of civilization rests on societal rules putting some sort of restraint on our baser animalistic tendancies.
This progessive “promise” is kind of like the promise made every few years by the folks who try and predict when the end of the world is coming. They make a specific or ballpark prediction, and when it doesn’t happen, they say, “Be patient. We have to tweak our calculations, but trust us, it’ll be happening soon.”
Yeah, right. And I’m the King of France.
Rick Oliver
November 17, 2011 - 1:30 pm
Russ: At no point did I ever imply that conservative values were responsible for this shameful series of events. I’ll try to make my position as clear as possible:
Money ($50 million a year) in all likelihood motivated the cover-up.
Power (Paterno was probably the most powerful person at Penn State) made it possible.
The perception of that power generated fear on the part of victims any maybe on the part of witnesses.
And despite all the changes in our sexual mores (which you apparently disapprove) over the past several decades, there is still a tremendous amount of shame and guilt associated with being the victim of a sex crime — and young children are particularly susceptible in that regard.
As an example of all of the above, I give you the ongoing saga of the Catholic Church. I challenge you to provide one plausible example in which “politically correct” behavior condones or encourages the commission and cover-up of pedophilia.
Finally, just to be really clear: I don’t think this crime has anything to do with liberal or conservative values. Has the divide gotten so wide that we now have to blame one party or the other for the existence of sex offenders?
Mike Gold
November 17, 2011 - 1:49 pm
Interesting, Rick, that you refer to “liberal” and “conservative” as parties. They should be — if only so that we could watch the feeding frenzy when liberals accuse other party members of not being “true” liberals, and conservatives accusing other party members of not being “true”conservatives.
Then again, maybe not. We’re just a heartbeat away from that with the never-ending Republican Debates anti-reality series… which, next summer, will be replaced by a new show “Are You Dumb Enough To Lose To Obama.”
Rene
November 18, 2011 - 8:03 am
Russ, you’re misunderstanding me. I think monogamy has the potential to be wonderful. It’s a lucky person that finds their soulmate, and I congratulate them. What I disagree with is the notion that you got to marry first, and only then you can have sex and live with your spouse. That is reckless at best, idiotic at worst.
Would you buy an expensive new house without ever set foot inside? Buy an expensive new car without test driving it? I think it’s reckless even to live together with someone that you’ve met recently. Actually marrying that someone is orders of magnitude more reckless. To make it worse, people who do this sort of thing are also young.
Religious conservatives are (and always have been) seriously out of step with reality and common sense. BUT I also support their right to live their lives in whatever way they want. We have here in Brazil a new Evangelical movement of girls that will not have sex until married. I don’t think I want to get involved with any of them, but I think it’s great that they’re living the life they want.
A pity that most of them probably want to forbid me to have sex with my girlfriend, for my “own good”.
As for your saying that progressives have promised this and that… well, I’ve never made such promises. I think a more progressive sexual morality will lead to good things, but I can’t be sure. No one can. I don’t really believe in social engineering, you know. Society is too big and unpredictable. Life is too big and unpredictable.
Moreover, I don’t believe in sacrificing personal freedoms for the good of society”. Let me paraphrase that great Liberal icon, Margareth Thatcher. “There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women.” I agree with the Iron Lady. The problem is, most Conservatives agree with her ONLY as it pertains to economics and gun control. When it comes to sex, you guys want to put lots of restrictions in place for the sake of society.
A sort of schizo-freedom. I agree that Liberals can be every bit as inconsistent (Hey, you believe in free love and free expression, but you don’t believe someone can use certain words?)
R. Maheras
November 18, 2011 - 1:19 pm
Rene — Well, my “reckless” marriage has lasted, during good times and bad, sickness and health, etc., etc, for more than 32 years. And you know why? Because of love AND commitment.
The commitment portion is crucial, and I think that people who are conditioned to put a low priority on, or otherwise undermine and/or marginalize commitment, will, not surprisingly, have a very tough time with long-term relationships. Without commitment, there are a million ways to rationalize oneself out of a relationship with ANYONE.
And if, as you seem to be saying, commitment is primarily a conservative trait, than that’s a sad commentary on progressives.
Rick — I’d answer your response as well, but I’m heading back to Chicago soon and just don’t have the time. Suffice to say that the reason I think it’s tougher to catch such predators today is because of a more prevalent PC alarmist outcry about stuff like “profiling,” coupled with fear of lawsuits (from possibly both the perp AND the victims).
On a totally unrelated note, happy Thanksgiving to you all!
Rene
November 18, 2011 - 1:45 pm
I respect real commitment, that comes from the soul, from the heart. If that is what you got in your marriage, congratulations.
I have little respect for people who only stay married out of social pressure, or just because they have a metaphysical gun pointed to their heads that is the Christian notion of Hell, or just because they gave their word.
I mean, young girls used to marry just because that was the only way they could honorably leave their parents’ house and have sex. Forgive me if I don’t long for those good old days. In my book, people are individuals first, not sheep or ants. I resent the notion that people should all live the same way for the sake of order, or the children, or Christian decency, or whatever.