But there is, for the use of, gratuitous punctuation?
@penguinchris - can you hook us up with a semi-official penguinchris-brand pseudo 8-bit pedant pendant, please?
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What if they were playing dominos? If I really hate dominos myself, do I get some āsocial outrage pointsā for watching them anyway, entertaining vain hopes that they will stop? Or would it make more sense to realize that it doesnāt involve me, and instead direct my attention elsewhere?
This is what bothers me about complaints regarding public sex and/or nudity. People act as if they are incapable of ignoring such activities. Which is rather selective, since they donāt seem to have much difficulty ignoring other things they happen not to like. Look - that girlās wearing a parka! That one is putting a golf ball! That guy is wearing sandals with socks! Somebody over there is making sand sculptures that violate copyrights! People with a modicum of discipline do have choices as to what they pay attention to.
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Loud noises, flashing lights, and some smells tend to be rather hard to ignore. And perhaps soccer. Otherwise true.
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Can we say scaled to income?
$100 wouldāve broken my bank account 15 years ago, but now itās more like an unusually expensive weekend. I imagine someone who makes a couple more times what I do would just shrug at the price of admission to the public sex beaches and keep on humping.
Yeah, Iāll bet āCaballeroā is just his screen name.
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Iād be willing to accept a reasonable fine, but 2.5 years in jail and a lifetime on the Sex Offenders list is too much. And I donāt give a damn about his past offenses, as they donāt seem to be connected to this particular incident, and as long as she was of legal age couldnāt care less about his partnerās age.
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While I find this guys actions abhorrent no one is served by this guy getting 2 1/2 years in prison. Itās insane.
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Well, if the penal system hadnāt made this guy a perfectly unproductive member of society, it has now. A sex offender registry on top of a prison record basically lets him have an exciting career in either sub-minimum wage migrant farming or crime. But hey man, we got our justice rocks off, so there is that.
The punishment is overly harsh and stupid. The fact that he is basically banned for life from having pretty much all forms of legal work is just the icing to the stupid cake.
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Life on the outside ain't what it used to be The world's gone crazy and it ain't safe on the strees It's a drag, I know But there's only one place to go I'm coming home, oh yeah I'm coming homeāSuperjail
And as a parent you can certainly approach it that way, that is your right. You do not, however, get to make that choice for other parents.
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Yep. And the American justice system seems to have a problem grasping the finer points of the concept.
No, not a repeat offender in the sense of this offense.
And the age thing has no legal implications --social, yes, but not legal.
Daylight XXX PDA? Yeahā¦thatās a douche move.
But ruin their lives because they were classless, insensitive jerks? Fuck no.
I really, really --no, fucking REALLY --donāt want justice served with heaping load of moral outrage.
Soā¦
How about a month of community service cleaning out Chuck E. Cheeseās ball pits?
Seems about right to meā¦
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Seriously. āKids, get back to the car, but first fetch dads supersoaker full of lemon juice and oxyclean. Puts on sunglasses Dad is cleaning up this town.ā
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It goes beyond what any of us as individuals may choose to experience. In the US anyway, laws against public sex and nudity have a religious origin - despite the laws being officially secular. Like any other imposing religious edicts, they cannot be a problem for people generally in every day society. If people choose to subscribe to such notions, they are free to indulge them with like-minded people.
As for the who, where, and how of sex - itās nobodyās say but the participants. When people try to hide sex away, I think we should collectively ignore their existence completely and treat them as if they were never born. Maybe for a year at first, and see if this encourages them to give up moralistic meddling in favor of a more sociable lifestyle.
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Ironically, these folks probably do belong on the list. You canāt argue they were having sex, and you canāt argue theyāre offenders, ergo onto the list with them.
You can argue about the existence of the list, and you can argue about the composition of the list - should victimless offenders (like these folks, or people pinged for pissing in public) be on the list at all - but I donāt think you can reasonably argue that given itās current composition that these two do actually belong on The Listā¢.
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You act as if they should have to.
Your logic, in the face of illogical laws, is sound. Which is why it is so maddening.
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Waitā¦so, they were expressing disappointment with Boingboing? This is the kind of protest I can get behind.
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Yeah, sorry about that 
(seriously. Itās a stupid situation that should never have happened, and the consequences are grotesque.)
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Quite the contrary. My point is - why focus upon them to begin with? People have an astounding capacity for ignorance of so many things. So when people are so obsessed as to not be able to ignore something which they find unappealing, this seems to be very much their choice. Perhaps not a choice they have consciously come to terms with, but still a choice of sorts. Them coming to terms with this seems more likely to yield a more mature, respectful society.
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I always find your ideas compelling, but how the hell do you convince people to not be offended by something which carries so many hundreds of years of stigma?
You want to change the world, and I think your ideas are great! Can we focus on three and come up with a plan?
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