Month: November 2011

A reader writes:

I've just finished reading the report and it really is horrifying, reading more like a Marquis de Sade novel than a grand jury filing. But something bothered me even more than just the depictions of rape of and sexual misconduct with minors (which is horrifying enough in its own right). Beyond the cover-ups by the administration, the coaching staff, the fucking janitorial crews, there is this: "Victim 7… was contacted by Sandusky and separately by Sandusky's wife… in the weeks prior to Victim 7's appearance before the Grand Jury."

Look, I understand not wanting to believe that someone you love could be this kind of monster. The urge to fight such a characterization makes total sense. But for Sandusky's wife to call one of the (admittedly, alleged) victims of her husband's physical and emotional abuse in order to… what, manipulate him into not talking? Threaten him? Beg him not to tell the truth to the Grand Jury? What was the point of such a phone call? It disgusts me.

The rot goes beyond Sandusky, beyond the Nittany Lions, beyond Penn State itself. The rot is in the entirety of Centre County, PA. From the hero-worshiping fake journalists at last night's presser, who made the lily-livered clowns at Fox News look like esteemed Pulitzer Prizewinners, to the students who, absent any real knowledge of the scandal, decided to rally/riot in support of a guy who covered up for a serial child rapist, the whole place is just one enormous sink-hole of bad.

I've been a sports fan – and, more accurately, a football fan – my entire life. This is far and away the worst of the worst, and it has made me come to hate the culture of college football.

Another adds:

This 1982 SI article will cause chills to run up your spine. Sandusky was turning down NFL and college head coaching jobs at age 38 because he was so committed to the youth program he ran in State College, PA. And his family ran a youth recreation center since Sandusky was 9-years-old. Given that background, imagine how many people knew what he was doing.

Question? askandrew@thedailybeast.com Video archive here.

If you can bear it, read it (pdf). What shocked me was the number of times Sandusky was seen by associates obviously being inappropriate (how I hate that weasel Clinton word) with boys. The pattern was everywhere. It was not just one incident – the brutal rape in the shower -  at all. And what makes this pattern of rape and abuse so disturbing, of course, is that Sandusky simultaneously set up a charity as a safe place for boys from troubled families or single parents – the most emotionally vulnerable kids of all. In order to rape them. A reader writes:

I was at dinner last night. Joe Paterno came on the television and I said Penn State should fire him. I got bombarded by another couple. He's not legally responsible and it's no one's business. If the school fired him he could sue. The couple who doubted my intelligence both coach, one is a teacher, and both are evangelical Christians. Your Honor, I rest my case.

A reader makes an excellent point:

It occurred to me last tonight that there is a silver lining in the Cain scandals and the appalling reaction on the right. Yes, we have an entire party – in fact, the effective majority governing party of the last 40 years – dismissing sexual harassment as a concept, much less a problem. But. We also have a black man who stands credibly accused of serial sexual predation against unwilling white women, and the older, whiter, Southern portion of our body politic doesn't have a problem with that. In a way, that reflects breathtaking progress on the racial front for America.

I wish that were true. I fear it's just a sign of pathological partisanship and pseudoconservative paranoia about the media – or an opportunity for Limbaugh, Coulter et al. to refresh their media brands. But, hideously, it has gone further than that. The very public attempt by the Cain camp to slime and smear these women, to drag them through a grueling process of public examination and to tell potential other victims that they should "think twice" before coming forward is so neanderthal and vile it belongs to another era.

But this is a fascinating moment. Because it is where denial meets reality, a very dangerous spot for the current GOP. I once believed that the cult of Palin could bring this conflict to a head – her cult vs the reality of her bizarre, disturbed life. But it turns out that Cain could be that catalyst. What if Kraushaar's documentation of her case proves to any sane person that sexual harassment took place? Why isn't evidence of Cain's public meeting six weeks ago with a woman he has publicly said he has never met and couldn't remember immediately reveal a delusional mindset that instantly disqualifies a person from running for president?

The current GOP is a circus tent. A party that has a presidential front-runner with zero experience in public office and a risible grasp of basic facts about politics and the world is in deep enough trouble. But when that front-runner is credibly accused of serious abuse of power and has crawled out on a limb of total denial about it, then that party is more than just a circus. It's a threat. Palin showed that. Cain reinforces it. Palin withdrew before a final reckoning. Will Cain?

(Photo: Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain meets with restaurant manager Bobby Wiggins and hostess Katie Toney at an Italian restaurant in Stockbridge, Georgia on May 29, 2011. By Erik S. Lesser/Washington Post)

If you want to understand the cult of Joe Paterno's role in allowing a ten-year-old to be raped and his rapist never brought to justice, look at the scenes last night, as students rioted in defense of their demi-God. Winning football games morally trumps allowing a brutal child rapist to avoid criminal charges and go on to rape many more. There is no "due diligence" with respect to protecting kids from rapists. There is simply stopping them, and bringing them to justice immediately.

That the structure of Penn State – and its creepy Paterno worship – allowed this to happen is bad enough. That the student body would rather side with a negligent football coach over a raped child is beyond belief. Here's another photo posted by Rod Dreher that sums it up:

Why is it that cults almost always lead to child abuse? And what does this say about the moral climate at Penn State and the caliber of its students:

Demonstrators tore down two lamp posts, one falling into a crowd. They also threw rocks and fireworks at the police, who responded with pepper spray. The crowd undulated like an accordion, with the students crowding the police and the officers pushing them back. “We got rowdy, and we got maced,” Jeff Heim, 19, said rubbing his red, teary eyes. “But make no mistake, the board started this riot by firing our coach. They tarnished a legend.”

No, they didn't. They held a powerful enabler of child rape to account. Far too late. After far too many victims. What on earth is your problem?

Frum calls out the total bullshit, via the AP.

Some readers are doing so:

You use Amy Jacobson's account to back up Sharon Bialek's claims about sexual harassment. Why, indeed, would Jacobson lie about the meeting she witnessed between Cain and Bialek at a Tea Party event earlier this fall? However, Jacobson's story also raises serious questions about Bialek's story, in which Cain did not merely sexually harass her, but sexually assaulted her in a car. When someone grabs my head forcefully enough to push it towards his crotch while we're sitting in a car, I'm not so inclined to go up to him backstage and put my arms around him or speak closely in his ear.

Granted, reactions vary, but if Bialek was very concerned about candidate Cain last month, why did she wait until now to come forward with her story, Gloria Allred at her side, when Cain is leading polls and drawing the most media attention?

Another writes:

Ms Bialek alleges that Cain reached under her clothes and attempted to touch her genitals and also moved her head towards his lap. Her reaction? "You know I have a boyfriend?"  What does that mean?  "If I never had a boyfriend, this attempt at sexual assault would be ok? " She says she told her boyfriend but did not give him the details, and he said it would be a case of "He said/She said." I commend her for being the calmest person who has ever been subjected to an attempt at rape.

Another:

I detest Gloria Allred and won't believe any of this until there is more evidence. Allred is an opportunist and I'm sure she is making big bucks from presenting this woman.  The woman accuser may be telling the truth, but she should have chosen a reliable attorney.

I find the person credible, whatever lawyer she has. And I regard Cain's bald-faced statement that he couldn't even recognize her, when he had seen her only a month ago, to be disqualifying on its face. Cain should be asked again: how can you forget someone you saw only six weeks ago? At this point, everything else is more elusive. But that fact – and what it implies about Cain's strategy and veracity – is now the crucial one.

"In all seriousness, it cannot be easy to be governor of Texas and run for president at the same time," – Kathryn Jean Lopez, on Perry's cratering last night. Seriously.

"Has any recent major presidential candidate shown as little mastery of the basics, when it comes to policy matters, as Cain? … Yet some defenders of Cain actually celebrate his lack of knowledge, portraying it as a virtue, a sign that he’s an outsider, a non-establishment figure, authentic, the appealing anti-politician. … In the 1980s, one of the Republican Party’s main sources of attraction to younger conservatives like myself was its growing reputation for intellectual seriousness. “Of a sudden,” wrote Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Democrat, in 1981, “the GOP has become a party of ideas.” The way such things happen is by rewarding intellectual excellence among those vying for the presidency rather than making excuses for their lack of knowledge," – Pete Wehner, Commentary.

Anti-vaccine moms should really stay away from Facebook: 

[The] group is called “Find a Pox Party in Your Area.” According to the group’s page, it is geared toward “parents who want their children to obtain natural immunity for the chicken pox.”

On the page, parents post where they live and ask if anyone with a child who has the chicken pox would be willing to send saliva, infected lollipops or clothing through the mail. Parents also use the page to set up play dates with children who currently have chicken pox. Medical experts say the most troubling part of this is parents are taking pathogens from complete strangers and deliberately infecting their children. One concern is that they are sending the virus through the mail. A Facebook post reads, “I got a Pox Package in mail just moments ago. I have two lollipops and a wet rag and spit.”  Another woman warns, “This is a federal offense to intentionally mail a contagion.”