I cant say i disagree on any one particular point. Would that we could find a solution and prevent unlawful actions previous to their inaction? awesome. Somewhere, in some time, we are going to find the appropriate mix of punishment and treatment. As far as warning Mr. Biscardi, i believe a warning is in order. Yes, he knows the risks about hunting ‘foot. But this is a new risk (he says, jokingly). never before have we come to understand that bigfoot is a sexual predator. Perhaps Mr. B should be forewarned that there is a likelihood that bigfoot may be on the prowl for something more than privacy and seclusion. Have a care Mr. Biscardi! Bigfoot is out there, waiting, watching. And he may be looking for a date!

i agree with your comments, largely. and i agree with you that i’m also long-winded.

i’m not out to make you an enemy nor a convert to my viewpoints, merely express them openly and without judgement. if i seem to be ridiculing you, it’s only because i chose my words poorly, not with deliberative intent to mock or belittle you. i frankly don’t believe one can learn by listening to one’s own voice only; rather, through open communication, admitting when one’s arguments and rationalizations have failed, etc.

put another way: if we all knew the answers? none of us would be presumably looking for anything online, would be content to sit and eat and vegetate in front of the tube, etc. i think the fact we’re all participating in this forum and interested in “the unknown” is proof enough we all seek some measure of a common truth; enough said on that.

again, in agreeing with you, i think one point i’d like merely to reiterate:

the confusion that exists between the largely failed idea of socialist intervention vs. personal responsibility has been illustrated pretty convincingly in the United States (though i would note that we have had accelerating problems as we decrease the OVERALL PERCENTATE of spending on state-funded mental health treatment; this correalation can be found repeatedly in homeless studies, which cite “outpatient” treatment as the number one reason why schizophrenic types wind up living in our streets and too often turn violent).

the question is: if we can use the current studies and newest technologies to pinpoint genetic deficiencies and disorders, and in theory help cure and/or treat them, wouldn’t that augment personal responsiblity and freedom rather than promote hive mentality?

i argue this: not a BRAVE NEW WORLD scenario wherein we’re all doped up, but rather, one in which our inner worlds when disturbed (such as the sexual predators amongst us) are treated so that problems are not merely ‘punished’ but prevented.

one can see where this goes if done without informed, public debate: a Frankenstein scenario wherein populations of unwilling folks are forced into therapies, etc.

that is NOT what i’m addressing, however. but can we truly say an individual is at his best possiblity for personal responsibility if a genetic defect is influencing his behavior to the degree he predates on children?

though you may say ‘yes’ and back it up, i say ‘no’ and believe that tossing in progress for punishment is a HUGE step backwards.

i argue this: that if we make a false choice between incarceration and progress, we doom ourselves in both directions. it’s too polarized.

existing criminals should be punished. without this stricture, we can agree as we have herein that anti-social behaviors are condoned. tolerated. even promoted. that is wrong; i have stated this again and again.

but i also state herein this salient fact: punishment alone doesn’t work. see further: the drug wars. the failed drug wars. we now imprison more people in the “great free nation” than on any other country on Earth including China! and what has it done for us?

elminated drugs? curtailed their useage? not really. certain drugs, yes, for awhile. but only temporarily. the source problem — people self-abusing and self-medicating with illicit drugs — has only worsened. we’ve tossed billions into it, overcrowded our jails, and now, when we want to jail sex offenders?

they get off sooner so we can toss in dope users. i mean, whatever your viewpoint on the drug war, cannot we agree that if we’re to choose to fund incarceration (THE MOST EXPENSIVE ‘SOLUTION’ btw; an average prisoner costs $30,000-50,000 per YEAR to keep in prison; the death penalty is over $1 million to enact in most states) that we’re better off to house violent sexual predators instead of casual drug users?

this is where i see our true liberties far more stripped than in any ‘let’s feel sorry for criminals’ mentality as you erroneously suggest i support.

again, i don’t see wherein we’ve improved our world by allowing criminals to freely prey on us as civilized, free beings. just the opposite.

but i see connections between simply advocating personal responsibilty and then ‘throwing away the key.’ three strikes hasn’t worked; it’s created situations wherein we basically spend millions of dollars over the lifetime of a convict’s housing — per convict, mind you — when that money could be better spent figuring out solutions.

not just, you know, coddling criminals, but seeking answers.

if there are no answers to be found? then our entire civilization is built on a false premise, as is our democracy. for we argue “all men are created equal,” but what we do and what we say is — as we all probably can at least tacitly agree — radically different.

i want to end this discussion herein for i feel i have unbalanced it with viewpoints that are not appropriate to the forum. it’s clearly not a crypto issue, but an issue deserving of discussion, nonetheless.

but this forum is about cryptozoology, and as much as i believe these two issues are related — because how we treat the unknown in theory and in animal/simian life is at least tangentially related, after all — i don’t want to derail it further.

i invite you to further email me and/or continue this discussion, but i’ve said FAR TOO MUCH by your own critique and by my own admission. so back to bigfoot for me, and rap, no hard feelings (i hope!), because i truly value your viewpoints, have read them and digested them, and learned.

So, i will gladly await your response. This isnt a contest, merely a forum where we can espouse our beliefs. I dont blame you for our society, i blame society as a whole. I dont call into question your capacity to react or perform as you have stated you would. I dont use you as an example to make a point more directed at perturbing the author, than making a valid argument. Basic psych, im sure your familiar. A good expert of the mind must maintain critical thinking at all times. Without that objectivity your arguments are tainted. Never believe, examine. Never assume, prove. Prove your methodology has worked. By your own admission the problems we face persist. There is a middle ground in all things, and no one side of this issue holds the golden key, but perhaps understanding one anothers viewpoints can be a solid foundation from which to work.
Rap

“Shut up, sausage!!!!” (Sausage’s Mum)

rapscallion writes:

If i were molested as a child, and i was not, but were i, i would expect at some point in my evolution to adulthood i would have determined for myself that what happened to me was criminal.

you would expect, in short, to spontaneously cure yourself? that’s akin to saying if you have a bad condition, you’ll grow out of it; or if you’re injured with Post Tramautic Stress in a war, you’ll simply forgive and forget and get all better by yourself.

while not impossible, it is a lonely, hurt-filled way to struggle through life.

and what happens if you fail? you know, last time i checked, 100% of the folks who posted herein are human. that means: failure. a lot of it, if you’re sporting the same genetic make-up as myself and every other human being i’ve ever met in my lifetime on this planet.

so say you admit you have an “issue” from abuse. and that you can’t “mature” and deal with. that it festers inside you, like it did those Catholic choir boys and girls all those decades?

now what? seriously. seek treatment? why bother? as you state, we have so many “experts,” and all they do is make excuses, as you state. wouldn’t this mean, then, that they’re just excusing the acts of “evil” committed against you by the molestor?

that’s what you write. you write that, in essence, seeking help is seeking an excuse, because the only professionals you turn to will be offering you nothing but a way out of taking responsibility.

or: are you advocating “going it alone” and “toughing it out” without regard to your own psychological state? if so, you are falling prey to what these professional “excuse-makers” say time and again is what leads to further victimization. in essence, those who are abused continue the cycle themselves.

visit a web site about molestation. you won’t find it fun, i assure you. but you will find that a MAJORITY of those who abuse were abused. and that a MAJORITY failed to seek help from the so-called “excuse makers,” which in turn… well, you see the pattern, yes?

you argue my points for me. you basically state “we” all have some innate sense of right and wrong, and that this a priori state has protected us all against our own worst instincts. or at least, it should if we’re good and normal, whatever that means.

if this is true, then why do we still find folks committing murders, rapes, cheating, lying, stealing, etc.? or, are you suggesting only the morally superior amongst us (one presumes from your posting you include yourself in this category; i categorically deny any such affiliation based on my Christian beliefs, personally) have this uncanny ability to never fall prey to evil?

It is the personal “risk” of right and wrong that keeps most of us on the straight and narrow.

and again i ask you: what happens when this ability which you cite is prevalent fails? what happens when, for example, a democratically-elected leader sends a free people into a war against another sovereign nation under false pretenses? despite international protests, condemnations, and finally proof the action was ill-advised?

i am, of course, referring to Hitler and the invasion of Poland. or did you inadvertantly and momentarily fall prey to believing despite your moral instincts to know better into thinking i was referring to more recent events?

if so, this instinct has just been shown in no uncertain terms to have failed even in cyberspace. just now. over a small debate.

now imagine yourself alone, frightened, replaying your victimization over and over in your mind, and wondering why the very priest who molested you, let’s say hypothetically, is rewarded with “the good life” and society condones it and you, you’re left to feel inadequate, nay deserving of your fate?

what happens to your innate instinct then? do you mature and say, ‘hey, it was only rape of a child, after all?’ or do you begin to find yourself wondering about darker thoughts… revenge… or worse?

who was it that wrote: “life, being what is is, makes us all long for revenge” more or less? a brilliant mind even if the name escapes me.

Commit a crime, pay your debt, end of story, regardless of circumstance.

were that reality only stories not reality, this might hold sway with me. and be, as you suggest, the “end of story.” but life is not a story. the happy endings are, as we mature adults realize, few and far between. that is the essence of maturity, actually; to go on despite the set-backs.

mind you, and as i’ve repeated now thrice, i did not and do not argue anything less than the punishment that man received. re-read my postings if you wish; this is factually true.

but my larger point is this: failing to do anything more than condemn and forget is tantamount to condoning these actions, albeit passively and unwittingly. to do nothing only insures more evil, as you call it (and i agree but wonder wherein the evil lies — only their hearts, or all of ours?).

it is a simple equation, you argue, to simply lock ‘em up and throw away the key. and yet, has such action produced anything resembling a solution to this growing crisis in our land? does it do anything to detect and prevent? does it allow those who might be tempted down this path to seek help without immediate jail sentencing?

statistically, not. in short: throwing folks away may make you feel better for reasons i suggest you self-examine in greater privacy, but it leaves the rest of the society vulnerable to the next set of predators. it’s like citing a hurricane after it destroys a city rather than blaming the engineers who failed to build the levy properly that might/could/should have helped prevent further loss of lives. not ALL lives, but helped many.

it’s not an “all or nothing” reality, in my experience. it’s a “try and fail and try again” reality. you accept that it won’t be perfect but that doesn’t stop you from seeking a better version of your world (unless you’re cynical).

you intone that we shouldn’t speculate as on “dangerous topics” in a free society with free speech. i say just the opposite: that without an informed, free-spirtied debate? we only cover our eyes and wait with heads in sand until the next massacre of the innocent.

does that mean examination and “experts” as you quote/endquote them will have immediate answers? no. anywmore than we have definitive answers on quantum mechanics, gun ownership, and the War in Iraq.

what we do have, however, is the ability and i would argue responsibility to faithfully, seriously ask ourselves the hard questions: if prison is the answer, why does this problem grow? are you rationally suggesting that disgust however obviously felt by all who’ve posted herein is the solution? if so, it is a solution posited on inaction and willful ignorance. i do not and cannot support any such conclusion, alas, despite my respect for you as a fellow American to state the opinion to the contrary of my own.

many of us in this forum have dealt with mental illness firsthand, if not with a family or friend. it is an amazingly difficult subject to speak out on; only in the last decades have formerly “closeted” mentally ill patients even had the possibility to advocate attempted solutions, discussions, and acceptance. it is a taboo only genetic research has finally allowed to be broken into open debate, in short.

IF there is a genetic component to these crimes — and i do not say there is, per se, but that there exists some scientifically valid evidence that these kinds of crimes do have this as a component — wouldn’t we be better off as a society to not “coddle” the criminals but seek solutions?

you know, the largest percentage of homeless people in our major cities are mentally ill. our solution currently is: let them rot in the streets. the bums! they got it coming! get a job (not that, you know, i’d hire ‘em because they might go postal on me, right?). hey, so what if this means we don’t track them, know their whereabouts, or know how they’ll react next to what societal tragedy? better to let ‘em roam the streets like animals to commit who knows what crimes, right?

the kid at West Virginia? mentally ill. instead of help, most shunned him. for a reason: they didn’t want to be “associated” with such “societal lepers.” it’s easier to ignore than to address. after all, do YOU want someone to say you love and care about the sick perverts amongst you when you can just care for your own, healthy loved ones?

so then, if you get cancer, we should let you rot because you don’t have health insurance or access? if you have lupus, too bad? a broken arm, let it remain so? a liver condition, so death? so why not a brain disorder being treated like the organ of the body it is? why not… because, what, one organ deserves better treatment and one none at all?

no cancer solutions have been found. do you advocate giving up the quest? no one has prevent MS. you think we should shrug and say, “well, a lotta wasted money. end of story.” i rather doubt it, in context; surely you know someone who has not experienced perfect health from birth to death? if not, was a doctor and medical team present at that birth to insure such a blessed state of existence?

i think there is rank discrimination, in short, against the mentally ill because of historical prejudice. it wasn’t so long ago we imprisoned them. or mocked them. or burned them as witches. now we just let them stew until it’s too late and we cluck our tongues afterwards and wonder aloud, “my oh my, evil is just evil, isn’t it?”

what does that say about us? about our society? you may be a rugged individualist, i assure you no more so than myself. but individual responsibility has limits, or we wouldn’t even have a united states, would we? just a loose association of folks who never interact save if they absolutely have to.

such a society is dangerously close to what we’ve built de facto. the mentally ill, the sexual deviancy, the murderous rampages… all warning signs, if you’re not asleep at the wheel. sleepwalking through them only harbingers more to come, more evil, if you like.

i want to emphasize that i have very strong opinions about this (or can you tell?) because of personal history in this matter. not sexual molestation, but mental illness. i am tired of being lumped in with the Verboten Problems, and seek only enlightenment and understanding from my fellow human beings. not moral condemnation nor judgement based on a lack of education.

those who find this quesiton too disturbing, too challenging, need only excuse themselves from the debate, not pretend that imprisoning and disenfranchising those amongst us who have a brain organ disability is somehow tantamount to moral evil.

it’s a very backwards mentality, if you’ll excuse the pun. akin to saying african americans are somehow incapable of being as superior as european americans, or, in context of this forum, that sasquatch cannot exist because of prejudice against the idea by so-called scientists.

the same scientist who once said great apes don’t exist… that the world was flat… that there was nothing beyond the earth but God’s infinite nothingness… that the stars revolve around the earth… that…

it’s no great stretch to see that mental health is the next great frontier in human endevours. Arthur Clarke (God rest him) said as much in his books speculating on human science endevours. i for one look forward to the next great mystery unfolding before our startled eyes; i have learned that the more we uncover about ourselves, the less we have to fear, not more.

the demons hide in broad daylight because we shelter them so readily with ignorance. it is tough to allow the light inside and vanish them, but it is a goal of science as well as religion to do so.

i thank those of you who actually read my diatribes and reactions with an open mind. for those who are merely reactive and believe i am condoning molestation, i can only offer my sincere, true apologies for your misunderstanding of my words. if i failed to make the distinctions between knowledge and opinion clear, so be it my failure; if you refused to read without prejudice, the fault lies not within me, but yourself.

“beware, sexually deviant large homonid may or may not exist and may or may not be residence. Assure all chastity belts are of correct tensile strength and in proper position before venturing further”
Lighten the mood the mood a bit, things got all dark and serious there.
Rap

It has stirred up many feelings, about the nature of “monsters among us.” As a person on many sides of the issue, professionally and personally, being a MSW, I have understanding and also call for responsibility for molestation.

Nevertheless, there is still another side of the situation.

Although it is difficult to find any humor in sexual molestation, it is part of human nature, perhaps as a bit of relief from the horror underlying these stories, to search for the light edge in news like this. Stand-up comedians make careers of doing thiis.

Today, Friday, I would like to just point to how this story is being carried by The Anomalist (http://anomalist.com) in their mentioning of it, to wit:

March 28
Man Claims He Was Molested by Bigfoot AP
A man who is about to go to prison on molestation charges is claiming that he was sexually assaulted by the legendary Bigfoot creature in New Hampshire. But that’s not stopping Tom Biscardi and his Bigfoot Hunters who are On the Bigfoot trail … again.

;-)