Thank God We Have Football to Take Our Mind Off Politics

What I want to know is where are all the other victims? You know they’re out there somewhere. One doesn’t suddenly become a pedophile at the age of 50.

There’s a special place in hell for people like JoePa, Mike McQueary, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: I’m not willing to let the grad assistant who saw the rape in progress off the hook either. You don’t call your dad and get the hell out. At the very least you call 911. Personally, I can’t imagine seeing such a thing, especially involving an unarmed assailant, and not trying to stop it right that second. Yes, either action would no doubt have screwed up the asst’s life/career, but that is no excuse for moral cowardice.

Pedo State?

I hope it’s not Nabisco’s Alma Mater….

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: Sports talker Dan Patrick was asking the same question you are or about the first quarter of the third hours of his show. (Download third hour.) http://www.danpatrick.com/

@Mistress Cynica: That’s who Mike McQueary is.

Does this not prove my point? Sport is evil. You don’t find this kind of thing going on in musical theatre.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: If the boys are 15ish (that’s what I read) he’s not technically a pedophile. Now let’s not get huffish. I represent my own life. At 15 I was sleeping with another boy at school who turned out straight. But OK, sex is not the issue, the abuse of power and exploitation of young persons is.

Was this man married?

@Mistress Cynica: Do we know it was a rape? Can we be consensual at 15? Speaking personally, it would have been a dream come true. Perhaps that’s why he was so successful. Sex is power?

Why do I find nuance here when I find none re Herman I Am Herman Cain? Am I a bigot?

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: Thanks. Hadn’t seen him named anywhere.

@Benedick: According to McQueary’s statement to the Grand Jury, the boy being butt-fucked by Coach appeared to be about 10 years old. In my book, that’s below the age of consent.

@Benedick: What Mistress Cynica said. Also, yes I think I read somewhere that the asshole is married. Such as.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: Number of known victims in Penn State case is up to 20.

@ManchuCandidate: Nope. We were actually raised anti-PSU owing to the rivalry with my dad’s alma mater. But I did go to a game this year, and I’ve always respected JoePa. After all, that LinebackerU helped the Stillers over the years.

@Benedick: Some of them were ten. That’s pretty far from being able to give consent.

I wish JoePa weren’t involved, but he did the minimum asked of him by the law. Disappointing for a coach who is at least as well known for making sure his students graduate as he is for the most wins title.

Roger able.

10 is Catholic priest territory. 10 is dreadful. And yes, at 10 that would be rape. I had only heard about older boys. At 15 it’s not something that should be happening but it takes on a different dimension. I suppose if I think of him abusing girls my thoughts would be clearer. I seem to have had a failure of understanding. Thanks for pointing out to me that I’m being an asshole. I’m shocked at myself.

@Nabisco: I suppose it’s not politically possible to prosecute Jo Pa anywhere in PA.

@Benedick: In a case like that of Sam Adams, the (openly gay) mayor of Portland who had a relationship with a campaign volunteer that began when the young man was 17 (and Adams was in his early 30s), I would take your point of view. I found it interesting, however, that even very liberal friends who are parents were absolutely outraged and wanted the mayor to resign (he didn’t, but isn’t running for re-election). 10, however, is unconscionable. I seriously would have bashed the guy’s head in.

@Mistress Cynica: What if the Mayor was straight and his girlfriend was 17? Looks like the current age of consent in Oregon is 18.

@Dodgerblue: Let’s just say he’d start out on second and goal. But actually, there’s a healthy dose of Golden Domers in the state, plus all the Pitt alums.

@Benedick: Don’t worry, I assumed you didn’t know about the younger ones. I actually found myself in courtship with a young and attractive Latina once, when I was single of course. I tried to believe she was twenty when I suspected she was 18 (i was 25). Found out she was 15 and fled. Odd thing is that her uncle told me “no problem, I married her aunt when she was 14”.

@Nabisco: From “Mexicali Blues”:

And it’s three days ride from bakersfield and I don’t know why I came.
I guess I came to keep from payin dues.
So instead Ive got a bottle and a girl who’s just fourteen,
And a damn good case of the Mexicali blues

@Dodgerblue: “She was just seventeen, and you know what I mean . . . We danced through the night, we held each other tight and before too long, I fell in love with her.” The lyrics imply that the singer is somewhat older than the girl was.

The protagonist in Sam Cooke’s “Only Sixteen” is himself 16 as well, btw.

@redmanlaw: Sweet Little Sixteen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxDPUEpLVsE

Ted Nugent, “Wang Dang Sweet Poontang” (1977):

“That Nadine, what a teenage queen
She come to town; she be foolin’ around
She lookin’ so clean, especi’lly down in between; what I like

“She’s so sweet when she yanks on my meat.”

Background: In 1978 after divorcing his first wife, Nugent began a relationship with seventeen-year-old Hawaii native Pele Massa. Due to the age difference they could not marry so Nugent joined Massa’s parents in signing documents to make himself her legal guardian, an arrangement that Spin magazine ranked in October 2000 as #63 on their list of the “100 Sleaziest Moments in Rock”. His relationship with Massa lasted about 10 years, after which Nugent married his current wife.

In 1980, Nugent released a song called “Jailbait.”

-wikipedia, other sources

@redmanlaw: Wasn’t Jerry Lee Lewis’ cousin 13 when they got married?

@Dodgerblue: Mr Cyn can’t understand why I hate that song–he’s certain there’s nothing sexual about it. And yes to Jerry Lee’s child bride’s age.

@redmanlaw: That would make no difference to me in this situation. I suspect the parents would be just as horrified.

@Mistress Cynica: Well, it makes 16-year old girls sound like idiots.

@Mistress Cynica: Then the question comes down whether it’s OK for an adult in a position of responsibility to have a sexual relationship with a minor.

@redmanlaw: I don’t think it’s appropriate. I don’t think it’s ever a good idea to have a relationship with a subordinate, either.

@Mistress Cynica: I think Sam Adams is a different matter. An age spread like that between men can be a strength. It was for the hubby and I. When we met it wasn’t unusual though as times change I think it’s less common. An older man can provide a way out for a young man trapped by parents. But as with anything else, it depends on the people involved.

I thought the boys were football players and therefor older as I can’t imagine why a 10 year old would want to play football when he could be in tap class.

The hubby’s grandma was 12 when she married in Alexandria. Her husband was in his 30s. On their wedding night they played gin rummy. And Juliet is 14.

@redmanlaw: Subordinate at work? No.

For some reason I find myself thinking there is a large difference between 10 and 14. Perhaps it’s called puberty. I must say, I’m shocked by how many people seemed to have known what was going on and did nothing to help the kids.

@Benedick: In case you’re not sufficiently creeped out, I read in one report that Sandusky and his wife had 6 foster kids–no doubt all boys. The whole thing is horrifying.

@Mistress Cynica: I have to go and shower. I wish I could say I don’t understand. You know T H White? Once and Future Malarky? I think he got turned on beating boys and exiled himself to a wilderness. I have been in a situation years ago with a cousin that so appalled me I can never see her again. I doubt she would remember. Is this TMI or NIEYFP? All I’m trying to do is understand this horrible case.

I think of his wife. She must have known. And the boys in their charge. Let me just say one thing: this is not so far removed from the classic boarding school experience of the English upper class.

And you wonder why I loathe the English?

Penn State president stepping down today, per ESPN.

Meanwhile, Penn State president Graham Spanier reportedly will be out of his job by the end of Wednesday. The Express Times of Lehigh Valley, citing a source close to the school’s board of trustees, reports that Spanier either will resign or be voted out. Tom Ridge, the nation’s first Homeland Security Secretary, has been mentioned as Spanier’s possible successor.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7211281/penn-state-nittany-lions-joe-paterno-retire-end-season

@redmanlaw: Last I heard he was leaving at the end of the season. I don’t know why he isn’t gone today. Is that now what’s happening?

Abuse of Indian students at government boarding schools in the US led to federal laws in the late 1980s and 1980s regarding protection of Indian children in schools, child abuse reporting and background checks for school personnel in contact with or having control over such students.

Breaking: Paterno’s out. Immediately.

@redmanlaw: Much the same has happened in Australia. And the horrific abuse of children at the hands of Catholic charities and schools in Ireland is more of the same.

No but really, why isn’t he gone?

@Benedick: He’s gone, now. So is the college president. Question: will they go to jail?