I had to pull out the Chris Hanson graphic for this story because I think we just caught ourselves a big old nest of perverts.

The boys at Boing Boing were discussing the case of Leroy Schad of Kansas, a 72 year old man who molested a 9 year old girl and an 11 year old boy. He caught a sweet heart of a deal that basically sent him home with a slap on the wrist and and some old fashioned public shaming in the form of signs planted on his property that notify his neighbors that they are living next to a child molester.

“That’s not fair” says the man who violated two children. He thinks that people knowing what he did is cruel and unusual, unlike sodomizing children.

The hipsters at Boing Boing agree. Mike8787 gets the ball rolling with this revolting piece of pedo-apologia:

I don’t understand the world’s cruel treatment of pedophiles. Of course they shouldn’t be having sex with children, but people act as if these people are malicious monsters — as if they choose to have these feelings.

We lessen the punishment for murder when the person is found to be mentally ill, but we crucify any sex offender. But if you look at many of them, they have spent miserable lifetimes doing all they can to curb their desires, only to make one mistake and be treated like the scum of the earth. And it isn’t like these people get any better regard if they seek treatment or help without doing anything.

Honestly, I am against all kinds of sexual offense, but I find the people who condemn and vilify pedophiles sick. They can’t help they’re feelings, and if people showed them some compassion and made it feasible for them to seek help, a lot of such abuse might disappear.

Right. They may not be able to “help their feelings” but I’m betting they can control their actions. Pedophiles aren’t mentally ill in the way a Paranoid Schizophrenic is, they’re sexual sadists who are aroused by the unnaturalness of the act and in many cases the pain and suffering the physical act of penetrating a child not yet physically developed enough for sex experiences. But I guess by judging them I become the sick one.

Jaycatt agrees with Mike, which makes his obsession with Second Life extra creepy (and telling):

@5: I agree Mike, I was kind of making a point with my post. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen pedophiles scorned in forum threads. I feel sorry for them, myself. If something turns you on, it just does. With luck, they have other avenues of gratification they can fall back on.

Jaycatt the nihilistic hedonist. Basically his point is if you feel like having sex with children that’s just the hand you were dealt so enjoy it because nothing matters (except Second Life.)

Noen has a slightly different take which is still supportive of the Pedophiles as victims meme:

Having been in and around the recovery community, those who are in recovery from childhood sexual/physical abuse, the one thing no one in the community likes is the grandstanding and puffery of wannabe alpha males. Directing your rage at a pedophile in some misguided belief that you are helping is a mistake. You’re not helping, you are only serving to perpetuate the very thing you say you’re against.

Those who have been molested or abused want the abuse to stop. They want the abusers treated or incarcerated so the abuse stops.

Stunts like this and those who seek to punish/re-abuse offenders are not helping.

One would be tempted to ask Noen who the target of rage should be, I suspect quick perusal of Noen’s profile will give you the answer. BOOOSH! Punishment is an essential part of justice kids, without it you’re signaling the victim that their suffering is less meaningful than “treatment” of the offender.

Restless provides the kind of compassion and tolerance lefty hipsters are known for:

@5: Now, now, we can’t have that. That’s the humane, non-reactionary way to look at the situation.

What I hate is that the number of crimes listed as sex offenses is growing, and almost all of them have some perpetual, mandatory punishment like registration in a public database as a sex offender. I fully expect that in time that all people convicted, or perhaps even suspected, of crimes will be registered publicly, because surely your debt to society can never be repaid, can it?

(To those who would say that “the victim has to live with what happened the rest of their lives,” well… wah. That’s life, deal with the hand you’re dealt rather than expecting everything in your life to go perfectly.

My puppy had to be put down, daddy didn’t love me and they didn’t have the color Acura I wanted. I got over all of those, including instances when I was a victim of crime. Roll with it, learn from it and stop living in victim mentality.)

Not wanting the person who raped your child to continue raping other children hardly seems like living a victim mentality, but who am I to argue with someone so wise and compassionate?

Hey anyone think sex offenders are being treated like Jews in Nazi Germany? Manicbassman seems to:

anyone else think of The Scarlet Letter?

or the Star of David being worn by Jews in Nazi Germany?

Yes, it’s exactly the same thing. Moron.

Nonchairperson seemed to have signed up expressly to comment on this story, since he went through all that trouble his opinion must be worthy of viewing:

Well said, Mike8787. Punishment and persecution of pedophiles and ephebophiles is much closer to this country’s paranoid reaction to the perceived threat of homosexuals than it is to any legitimate judicial policy we might have concocted to deal with the real problems of child exploitation. One of the problems is that we use terms like pedophile to describe too broad a spectrum of people, from those who are naturally sexually oriented towards minors (not a crime) to those rape and abduct to gain sadistic pleasure (criminal). Our policies reflect a fear that the people in the first category are morally weak and liable to do all sorts of terrible things, which is just what was said about homosexuals in the 50s.

So gays and people who rape children are the same? Outrageous. Homosexuals are adults seeking other adults of the same gender for consensual relationships, the “wide range” of Pedophiles are adults who seek out children for sexual exploitation. The two aren’t the same.

But we see that old Nonchair exposes himself a little more as he becomes comfortable in an environment displaying an unseemly amount of tolerance for child rape:

Also, sexual interaction with minors is not as bad as murder. Although there are many cases where it is very harmful, especially in societies where sexuality is invested with so much fear and guilt, there are also instances where the child would not consider it to be something that ruined his or her life or contributed to long lasting emotional distress. This probably includes the bulk of consensual activities between adults and teenagers.

See, if only Americans were less uptight these kids wouldn’t cry so much! I remember well thinking how uptight sexually America was when I visited a strip bar, watched Paris Hilton benefit from doing amateur porn and saw Tracy Lords become a mainstream actress.

By the Gods we’re just like Puritans!

You should really see the rest for yourself, there’s a lot of sympathy for the abusers and some very tepid reminders that molesting children is wrong. My wife pointed this story out to me as an example of what she calls a “liberal pissing contest” where a bunch of lefty hipsters try to out do each other in how tolerant and counter cultural they can be.

I say Boing Boing needs to take a seat and explain themselves. As evidence that I am, as always, correct I’ll leave you with another pearl of wisdom from Mike8787:

To all those holier-than-thou in this topic: think about if it was as taboo to prefer your gender of choice as it was to be a pedophile. Would you find it easy to “control your urges”? Would you think it fair that you couldn’t seek help – having not even come close to abusing anyone in any way, that is – because just have thoughts like you do is enough for people to condemn and ridicule you?

While sexual abuse of any kind is not right, treating pedophiles like they would choose to be an abuser is ignorant and just plain wrong. As I said before, these people often live miserable lives fighting their urges.

I just can’t understand a system that has no understanding for abusers. They’re not monsters, and without a doubt most if not all of them would change their desires if they could.

Something tells me Mike’s comments are more autobiographical than philosophical.