[lbo-talk] Susie Bright on Foley etc

[andie nachgeborenen]

Vis a vis 18 and maybe 20 year olds, 16 year olds
aren't _entirely_ kids. (They are largely kids -- you
will see, Doug!) Vis a  vis 50 year olds, I think they
are just plain kids.  Lines are hard to draw but
there's a difference between 16-18 year olds and 12-13
year olds and younger. It's futile to expect teens not
to boff each other, and absurd to make it a crime (I
had one girlfriend in HS with whom part of our
entertainment was counting up the statutes we were
violating, not being lawyers we probbaly got it wrong)
but it's not futile to expect grownups to not to
squeeze the Charmin -- if you are over 21, make passes
at people 18 or over, please. The older the grownup,
the worse the, uh, indiscretion. Morally speaking.As I
say, the severe criminal penalties we impose on sex
with minors seem excessive, but I also don't know what
to do about undeterrable and essentially incurable
sexual predators like Foley.

--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:


> 
> On Oct 3, 2006, at 5:52 PM, Charles A. Grimes wrote:
> 
> > Anyway, there is an ethical issue here. If you
> find nothing wrong with
> > Foley or his boyfriends, is it really a valid
> ethical position to
> > castigate him? See, I have this conflict. I hate
> jerks like Foley who
> > have made use of homophobia and some indistinct
> public
> > fear/fascination with sexuality. It would great
> fun to destory him and
> > the Repugnants with such faux scandals. But
> somehow that is just as
> > perverse a use of the political realm as the
> Right---which has
> > succeeded in destorying any political discourse,
> just as they did with
> > Clinton and Monica.
> 
> Yup, exactly. That's why I posted that Dem press
> release from the  
> other day with the subject heading "shameless
> pandering." It's crap.  
> I can understand, from a purely opportunistic point
> of view, why  
> they're doing it. But it's unprincipled crap.
> 
> It's so good to see someone pointing out that
> 16-year-olds aren't  
> kids, too.
> 
> Doug
> ___________________________________
>
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> 

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