Weird, I was thinking that tracked rather worryingly with Hillary’s foreign relations record.
Ask them. Or better yet, ask their constituents.
I’d put money on; “Not on your life,” or something equally emphatic.
It’s more important to control bathrooms and abortions than penises and guns.
3 Likes
Besides, doing “stupid crap” is the fabric of life. At least my life.
1 Like
No, they won’t say that, even though it true. Because at 17, they think they know everything, and are invincible. Why? See previous statement about brain immaturity.
11 Likes
I stated a fact. I didn’t advocate anything. But to quote from that link:
According to recent findings, the human brain does not reach full maturity until at least the mid-20s. The specific changes that follow young adulthood are not yet well studied, but it is known that they involve increased myelination and continued adding and pruning of neurons. As a number of researchers have put it, “the rental car companies have it right.” The brain isn’t fully mature at 16, when we are allowed to drive, or at 18, when we are allowed to vote, or at 21, when we are allowed to drink, but closer to 25, when we are allowed to rent a car.
So yeah, we probably should reconsider at what ages young people are permitted to do various things.
2 Likes
My 4 year old insists she’s a big girl.
16 Likes
What kind of person comes along and puts up any kind of defense for pedophiles (or child rapists, whatever)? I mean that in the context of Groggy above, as well as the SIXTY people who wrote letters in Hastert’s defense - what the fuck, seriously?!
And how is it that he has raped (17 year old) children, but is facing six months of jail time for illegal financial dealing?
13 Likes
See Capone, Tax Evasion.
1 Like
No testimonials from Mark Foley, despite all that Hastert did for Foley? I am disappointed.
3 Likes
Because no harm was ever prevented or discovered by following the money?
6 Likes
Pointing out that you have accidentally conflated rape with consensual sex contextually. The age of a rape victim has no bearing on consent.
Do you suppose they thought of themselves that way while being raped by an authority figure in a school locker room? I wonder how that anger played in their lives from that point.
If they sought help one of the things they would have learned to help themselves was that they were children at the time they were harmed.
But let’s all keep in mind that these rapes are merely alleged, even though the person accused has acknowledged “transgressions”. 4 victims alleging is many not few when you consider how often rape victims report.
Since it is merely alleged, has been acknowledged and is outside remedy by criminal law there is no harm in supposing these were not likely his only victims. I wonder if he was the sort that got braver with age and authority, and who he assaulted before he felt confident enough to rape 17 year old wrestlers.
8 Likes
Talking Points Memo had an interesting article about the whole weird, hypocritical lead up to Hastert becoming Speaker of the House. Basically, Gingrich (who was having an affair himself at the time) pushed the Lewinsky scandal thinking it would gain the GOP seats, when it didn’t he resigned. The GOP hit on Bob Livingston as a successor, but Livingston resigned before even taking the position because he was also having an affair (he left office and was replaced by David Vitter, who spent his time in DC frequenting prostitutes.) So they settled on Dennis Hastert as the figurehead for conservative values, someone with even darker skeletons in his closet than those he replaced.
So, to recap, a guy having an affair tries to use the President’s affair as a political weapon, he fails, they try to replace him with a guy who is also having an affair, he resigns (and his seat is filled by a guy who also cheats on his wife), and they end up with a Speaker who is a pedophile.
This is the kind of stuff Hollywood screenwriters toss out as “not believable” in a screenplay.
13 Likes
You missed out the part where Hastert, as speaker, ignored the accusations against Foley for as long as he could. Being otherwise occupied by the more pressing task of using his position to accumulate the fortune that he would need for buying his victims’ silence.
8 Likes
Some of those letters are well worth perusing, if you have time. Opening the file at random, I was impressed by the Shakespearean rhetoric of Therese DesConteaux, Exhibit 12:
The deeply intense, personal nightmare of a mistake, its aftermath, and its portent for the future, delivers ever-present retribution that drips upon the heart and forever pains the spirit of a transgressor with a conscience - who now has arrived at clear vision of the wrong that was done, and breathes unyielding remorse for any variance taken outside what is right, what is just. Denny Hastert shall live each day of those remaining with the anguish brought by action that should not have been taken.
…progress towards healing, spending remaining days in reverence of God’s Grace and the power of redemption.
It must have been Hastert’s evil twin whose “unyielding remorse” consisted of lying to the FBI and blaming his victims for everything, accusing them of lies and extortion.
Connoisseurs may also appreciate Exhibit 14, from John Doolittle, from which we learn that Hastert was called “Coach”, implying perhaps that he molested his colleagues as well. But “he looked out for the interests of the institution of the House and for the prerogatives of Members”, and ensured that his colleagues remained comfortably remunerated. Surely that makes up for a lot of rapeyness.
6 Likes
whatever sentence he gets, it won’t be with the general population in Pound Me In The Ass Correctional Facility; it will be Club Fed.
Sometimes vigilante justice has its virtues.
1 Like
The name of Sen. Henry Hyde, also of Illinois - he of the notorious Hyde Amendment that bans all federal funds for abortion, not that it did a goddamn thing to mollify the forced birth jihadists - was also floated for Speaker at that time.
That’s when it came to light that he had also had an affair in his past.
It’s douchebag hypocritical pieces of shit all the way down when it comes to the GOP.
5 Likes
We call it ‘Korpsgeist’, which I think translates to ‘Esprit de Corps’.
My former boarding school principal was a jesuit and a serial pedophile along with many of his collegues (luckily, I wasn’t affected for the simple reason of being too old when I first arrived there). When the scandal unfolded in the press, several influent alumni purchased a whole page in a renowned national newspaper to write in large letters what a cool guy he was and how they were never molested, allthewhile denouncing the accusations as a slander compaign by less successful ex-students.
The school’s renowned for being a forge for the german conservative elite, btw.
2 Likes
Statue of limitations. Never quite worked out why there was a need for such a thing…
All these years later. And after heinous allegation. He still has enough on these pols to get them to write letters for him. What skeletons are in their closets?
5 Likes
Enough for an entire feckin Ray Harryhausen movie.
6 Likes
