On Oct 24, 2006, at 1:20 AM, Jesse Lemisch wrote:
> I believe what Yoshie is doing is what's called "trolling." The
> essence of
> her latest argument seems to be that we shouldn't punish crime,
> including
> rape, because we don't have large enough prisons. This is a fairly
> sordid
> and desperate style of argument.
No, that's not what Yoshie's doing at all. She's trying to put child sexual abuse into some perspective. If its incidence is really declining, then all the anxiety around it is overblown - or, was never fully rational in the first place.
I don't get why it's so important that Herbert Apthetker may or may not have abused his daughter. If it is a real social problem to the degree some claim, then theirs is just one case among many. Is the real cause for concern an effort to dredge up some dirt about a dead Stalinist?
Doug