But I'm on board with sophiasgrace core message, which as I read it was for the USA to turn away from this baptismal need for absolutes, for damnation of sinners. To look for rehabilitation of offenders rather than longer punishments, to find compromises and negotiations rather than this "My way or you're a unredeemable pedophile rapist!"

Men and boys don't really feel pain or suffer emotionally - they're different from women that way

Fascinating with some thought provoking responses - special thanks to AKA Smith and leftychris. Its ranged around the posting topic but has still been relevant - rare for BS threads.

And as much as I feel sympathy and empathy - having been there, using ones victim status to act out and hammer different opinions helps no one.

But in Australia and NZ primary school teachers are ergualrly alone with the class - there's no other option, insufficient teachers.

I have to go out, so I'll be quick. I do appreciate your input, both the dispassionate and the experiential, there's always a place for the personal experience in any discussion.

The earlier comment I made - "using ones victim status to act out and hammer different opinions helps no one", I was not referring to you! and my apologies for conflating the two statements in one message. I was thinking of those who use their terrible experiences to squash debate, whereas you always seem to encourage it.

It's not pedophilia only if the girl or boy said she/he was over 18

The above is an opinion, not a fact. In many western countries and I believe states in the USA, 16 is a perfectly legit age of consent and depending on prevailing social mores, ethical.

And of course children keep insisting on having sex with each other and older, inappropriate people at much younger ages than that. Legislating unrealistically higher ages (such as 18) and demonizing anyone who has sex younger than that only creates a horrendous social mess and encourages shame and concealment in children, which is an environment predators thrive in.

Its similar to the current mess of cannabis criminalisation which has no real effect on it, destroys the lives of innocent people and encourages much worse crime. Absolute proclamations of morality and attendent shock and horror make for good moral theatre, but a healthly dose of pragmatism minimises harm rather than causing it.

Yes, absolutely, I did not mean that at all.

What I was getting at is that kids will have sex, at ages much younger than we'd like. If we set the consent age too high, and society adds shame to the mix then we increase the risk of them hiding the fact, whch makes them vulnerable to predators.

This encourages secrecy

I can - the moral capital the USA had after 2001, Sept 11. You could have changed the world for the better, it could have been your finest hour. Instead you pissed it away.

Why don't you post some relevant and insightful facts rather than just slag off everyone you disagree with? content of your posts on this subject? zero.

Salons full of them - every culture has to share the same values and viewpoints as salon.

Is this what parses for writing now on Salon? lies confirming the Authors prejudices passed as truth? as said earlier Ahmadinejad confirmed his belief the holocaust did happen and denies Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons.

An examination of Iran's treatment of homosexuals would b interesting but this article provides no evidence or links to such for any of its claims other than the authors word, which as demonstrated above, is untrustworthy.

Until proven otherwise this just smacks of more ignorant neocon demonisation.

The wiccan is a deluded new age fool if she thinks the women is a feline vampire and so are you for believing her. A much simpler explanation is that as with most cat hoarders, with that many felines crammed into a one house, disease and parasites will spread like wildfire, plus the women herself would be unable to care effectively for that many cats.

As to why you're nasty? for trying to turn a simple act of caring by Heather into animal abuse. It takes a special sort of small mind and shrivelled spirit to do that.

Bacon/Sausages, eggs and fried tomatoes. Try it, you be amazed how much more energy you have for the day. And you'll end up eating less for lunch/dinner.

The dems have a much better chance of getting elected without the dead weight of GLB's dragging them down at the polls. Don't worry, they'll get back to you in 10 years or so.

Only in America ....

If he hadn't opened with such hateful trannie baiting comments such as "men who want to cut their penis's off"

His obsessive focus on MTF transsexual's and the surgery thereof smacks of a variety of misogyny peculiar to privileged gay men.

One thing that struck me about Aravosis's piece and his subsequent replies was just how familiar it was - assertion of bravery in the face of the PC police, the silent majority supporting him, rewriting of history, hate speech dressed as straight talk ("men who want their penis's cut off"), assertion of victim hood from a position of privilege, dividing the world into "us" and those icky "others", "they" are riding our coattails would drag us down, unsupported claims that the bill would pass without T's etc.

I guess you can take the gay out of the neocons, but you can't take the neocon out of the gay.

The question is "does the ENDA pass with transgender people excluded, or does it not pass at all"?

and the answer was "ENDA won't pass even with T's excluded, so why make compromise in the first place?"