Dealing with the Morally Challenged
The good news for this civilization is that there are many millions of people working tirelessly to keep it from imploding into itself, whether from environmental damage, nuclear war, world fascism, social injustice, or any number of other forms of decay.
The bad news is that these good people are up against some serious reptiles.
Here’s today’s news from the Alabama senate race:
29% of Alabama voters polled said that the sexual misconduct charges made them more likely to support Moore, and 33% said it made no difference. That’s 62% of Alabama voters who would rather have a pedophile in Congress than a Democrat.
What precisely does one do when confronted by this level of citizenship? How does one make the world a better place when it’s inhibited by a depraved population?
Wish I had an answer, but I honestly don’t.
Craig,
I think it’s a little sad that you are so willing to condemn without proof, and join any witch hunt against your enemies.
An accusation of this nature is impossible to defend in the morally sanctimonious era we seemed to have now engendered.
Let’s try to leave the pitchforks at home with the pursed lips a false sanctimony and consider two possibilities.
1) The accusations are false, or exaggerated.
2) Consider these episodes in the spirit of 40 years ago. 40 years ago the world was a very different place. Many 15 year old’s, let alone 16 to 18, considered themselves adults and highly liberated. At the time Roy Moore was a young man, barely out of college.
It was an era of liberation, “free love” etc Every movie, musician , all the cool , hip folk (especially the left) were advocating freedom of social mores.
The complainant claims she gave Roy Moore her phone number. This doesn’t ring true. Today, yes, but 40 years ago ? 40 years ago cell phones didn’t exist so the teenager must have supplied her parents phone number.
Even a it’s height to describe a tryst involving at it’s height. involving necking between a young man and a promiscuous teenager as , “pedophilia” is wildly inaccurate, and absurdly puritanical.
Now I have a personal confession to make. As a young man of 20 I dated a girl of 16 (with the full knowledge and approval of her parents). The week before I left for my first tour of duty in Vietnam we slept together on a number of occasions.
Obviously, the romance didn’t last my years absence, and like many I received a ‘Dear John letter” .
The point is, it was a different world, a different era, values were different.
A man in his 30’s in physical relations with a girl of 14 has never in the modern history of the United States been widely regarded as acceptable, let alone lawful.
The use of the phrase “promiscuous teenager” betrays an assertion against condemnation without proof.
From David French of The National Review:
“First, these women didn’t seek out the press. According to the Post report, its reporters reached out to them after hearing that “Moore allegedly had sought relationships with teenage girls.” So far as we know, they weren’t put forward by the opposing campaign, and the woman who made the most serious allegations against Moore says that she voted for Trump in 2016. None of the women have donated to Moore’s primary or general-election opponent.
“Second, if you read the report, it includes validation from a number of witnesses who say that they were aware of the relationships at the time.”
Cameron,
Depends on your definition of ‘acceptable and legal.
In 1958 Jerry Lee Lewis married his third wife Myrna, who was 13 at the time. They divorced in 1970. In 2003 in an interview Myra observed “It brought me and Jerry very close, and we had 14 incredible, wonderful years together after that.”
Try reading the biography of Tuesday Weld !
While the age of consent is generally held to be 16, many states allow marriages between an adult and girls as young as 14 with parental consent.
Hawaii the age of consent is complicated, but basically puberty plus sufficient maturity6 to form consent is the maxim.
I guess you weren’t part of the sixties and seventies sexual and cultural revolution. (or missed out). I can just see you mumbling away in the corner gloomily wondering why why people always gave you the wrong address to those ‘cool’ legendary parties everyone else talked about.
But even you must have seen the movies of that era, watch news reel footage of thousands of young girls hysterically pursuing rock stars to hotel rooms, back stage etc.
It’s also true some girls at 15 are children, while others are exceedingly worldly and mature.
I would suggest it’s not the action of a shy modest girl 40 years ago to hand out her phone number to enable dating older men ! It’s reasonable to suggest a certain degree of promiscuity and maturity.
Oh, and it doesn’t seem to have been much of a ‘relationship’ as no actual sexual intercourse took place.
It it really worth all this hoo haa 40 years later ?
I guess if your a self-righteous, sanctimonious, puritanical, hypocrite, it’s worth getting out the pitchforks, but the rest of us get on with enjoying life.
If this were just a case of consensual statutory rape 40 years ago, I don’t think we’d have a huge problem with it. But the idea of a child screaming and begging for this monster to stop ripping her clothes off her makes the idea of having Moore in the Senate totally out of the question–at least as far as any decent person is concerned. Anyone who thinks this is position is “self-righteous, sanctimonious, puritanical, or hypocritical” is almost as morally screwed up as Moore himself.
Craig,
Whoa there Craig! Wow, that’s some fertile imagination y’got there!
Your lurid and prurient description doesn’t tally with any description of the events alleged. ( alleged being the key word).
At it’s height, even the accusers version has a very well developed and socially ‘experienced ‘ young woman, who solicited a date at her own initiation, which may have got a little out of hand, but led to no more than ruffled feathers.
There is no mentioning of clothes being “ripped” or any violence.
Judging by the photo’s taken of the girl at the time, she was (and did0 pass for a much older person. “Children” don’t frequent bars, or solicit date and pass out Phone numbers to older men.
Moore at the time was a rather naive 31 year old.
He was certainly not a ‘monster’ and over the next 40 years seemed to have led a very sedate life and conservative life. Yet you persist in speaking of these events as if they took place yesterday.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/woman-says-roy-moore-tried-to-rape-her-at-16-i-was-begging-him-to-stop
Craig,
Really ?
Well, this time the woman was 16 and had a boyfriend “with a very violent temper”.
40 years later her only evidence apart from her crocodile tears, is a year book with an innocuous remarks she solicited from him and was most likely signed by a female assistant.
Roy Moore at that time was not the District Attorney of Etowah County, he was just a very junior employee.
It’s clear that Roy Moore was like many young men of that era a keen pursuer of women. In my experience, the women of that era, especially young women, were just as eager.
Not every tryst lead to romance and not all young people indulged (Readers Digest morality still prevailed in many cases), but the point is should youthful indiscretions be raised 40 years later and judged as if the occurred today, and in today’s context ?