And The Pianist Was Overrated, Anyway

Back in the distant 1990s I used to read Salon every day, but recently (meaning maybe the last five years or so) the online magazine has become too shrill, too partisan, too takes-itself-seriously.

Then the magazine launched a "women's" blog called Broadsheet (get it?), which was like hanging out with the politically correct "womyn" at my college who declared every man was a potential rapist. Good times.

So I'm an ogre. That being said, I have to wholeheartedly agree with Kate Harding's essay regarding the arrest of Roman Polanski titled, appropriately, "Reminder: Roman Polanski raped a child." I'm glad they finally caught up with him now, rather than when he was 90 years old and people would claim that he's too feeble to serve time, and he's suffered enough, and on and on.

I watched a good deal of the documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, and the guy who should really go to jail was the media-whore judge running the show, who made Lance Ito look like Oliver Wendell Holmes.

As Harding concludes, touching on the debate between those who want justice served and the Polanski apologists, including some idiot Huffington Post blogger who is actually a co-founder of something called "Women Overseas for Equality" (IRONY!):

Roman Polanski may be a great director, an old man, a husband, a father, a friend to many powerful people, and even the target of some questionable legal shenanigans. He may very well be no threat to society at this point. He may even be a good person on balance, whatever that means. But none of that changes the basic, undisputed fact: Roman Polanski raped a child. And rushing past that point to focus on the reasons why we should forgive him, pity him, respect him, admire him, support him, whatever, is absolutely twisted.

All-in-all, a great essay. Of course, a number of commenters found a way to link Polanski's crimes to the alleged crimes of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, but after all, it's Salon. Read more...