Alice,

My moniker can be transliterated as Kobzar.

My post was not intended as a personal attack. I just take issue with the erroneous belief that only men commit sexual offences. This usually goes hand-in-hand with the belief that only husbands abuse wives, and never the other way around.

Are the numbers of guilty men greater? Yes, I won't deny it. But that is no reason to ignore the guilty women. In this age of greater equality and understanding between the sexes it seems certain misconceptions are still permitted.

Castration won't really do much other than change the way the criminal men commit their crimes. Their male organs are not compelling them to commit their insidious acts, but rather their screwed up heads. These men need serious, and I mean SERIOUS, psychiatric help. A lifetime of jail, yes. Castration, no.

Dear Our Lady's Slave?

Actually, I have heard of sex molestors that wanted to be castrated...men of course. Hmmm! I've never really heard of women sex molestors. Oh that's right, the teachers. But as someone said, that was every teenage boys dream.

Hmmm! I also recall fathers taking their teenage boys to prostitutes. Now I've never heard of mothers taking their teenage girls to men prostitutes. Oh, that's right, there are no men protitutes for girls, only young boys that prostitute themselves for other men.

Actually, that's what made me a contributor to Covenant House. Driving along the West side of N.Y.C., and seeing boys and girls as young as 12, prostituting themselves. Their clients were certainly not women.

Isn't it time we started putting things in perspective?

God Bless,

Zenovia

"s funny - I thought I did .

They do definitely exist. While not the normative situation there are female sexual predators. Just look to Karla Homolka and Crystal Henricks as examples. These are women who drugged, raped, tortured and killed innocent victims.

According to one Canadian study since as many as 86% victims of female sexual predators are not believed the statistics for female sexual predation are grossly inaccurate.

So is it the norm? No. Does it happen? Absolutely. And it isn't always some pubescent boy's fantasy (and even if it is, that doesn't and shouldn't make it right or acceptable).

Dear Kobzar,

Fair enough.

Alice

Getting back to the underage drinking....

The legal limit is 21 because 18-21 year olds proved that they were the among the worst DUI and DWI offenders when it was legal for 18-21 year olds to buy beer.

At one time, each state could set its own drinking laws. In the 1980s, through pressure from MADD and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Congress threatened to cut off highway funding for any state that did not enact a minimum age of 21 for drinking alcohol.

When I was 18 and a senior in high school in the fall of 1981, I could buy 3.2 beer in Ohio. In August 1982, it was raised to 19. In mid 1984, it was raised to 21.

I would venture to guess that now the worst DUI and DWI offenders are 21-24. We should raise the limit to 25!

Did you know that MADD counts it as a alcohol related casualty if the passenger was intoxicated, but not the driver. I know no one here was defending MADD, but I just found that fact interesting.

I remember my college days before I was 21. The cops showing up to a house where I had been drinking and me hiding in the closet under a pile of clothes. Sure, they could give me a gun and force me to go to Iraq or Vietnam, as long as I didn't consume alcohol on American soil!

The question of the morality of following unjust laws is an interesting one. I just don't know. Take the extreme of slavery. Was it immoral to help free slaves? Is it immoral to march without a permit for a cause you believe in? Is it immoral to go 60mph on a 55mph road? Maybe we could start a thread discussing this topic. I'm interested in hearing what everyone thinks.

Sorry if I got a tad off topic!

Has anyone been following the drycleaner lost my pants and I have to sue for $$$millions case in DC??? Granted, that's a civil case, but it is still a hoot. This is one for News of the Weird.

Dear Nathan,

My college days goes way, way back, to a college in the South. I remember the young southern girls, that were never allowed to touch an alcoholic beverage, spending the night in the dorm drunk. Luckily they were never caught.

I also recall the teenagers driving across the border from New Jersey to New York in order to drink, The drinking age in N.Y. was eighteen rather than twenty-one as in N.J., and needless to say, all the nightspots were on the N.Y. side of the lake resort.

God bless,

Zenovia

Dear Annie,

I do hope that this lawsuit will put pressure on our Congress to take a good look at tort reform. In Britain, if a person loses a case, they must pay both lawyers. It makes people think twice before going to court. Just look at the damage these frivolous lawsuits have done to our country.

We pay a fortune in medical insurance because of all these lawsuits. New York City is not the world's financial capital anymore, because business' have left in order to get away from lawsuits. Companies are tired of having to contend with the costs and aggravations. The financial capitals now, or so I've heard, are Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Dubaii.

This one Washington lawsuit might have a racial element to it. I can't help but feel that the Koreans business' are resented in a black area. I say this because I recall how the Korean stores were destroyed during the riots in L.A. years ago. Obviously the judge bringing up the lawsuit is crazy, and it's not costing him anything!

Maybe it's a scare tactic to the other Koreans. Just imagine what it would do to everyone's business if he should win...even a minor amount?

Our nation has become so self destructive, but then again what can we expect when there are too many lawyers looking for work. The lawyers lobby is much too powerful...as is the teachers lobby. As a Japanese once said when asked why they don't litigate: "Can money ever compensate for the loss of a loved one?" How greedy we are!

Hillary Clinton and John Edwards are certainly in favor of these lawsuits. I recall reading that one of the reasons doctors give caesarians so readily, is because they have become frightened... thanks to one of Senator Edwards lawsuits. Well, he became rich.

God Bless,

Zenovia

Well, I admit that I am a lawyer. Many of us use our powers for good.

In my personal opinion, entirely formed from reading the news, I think the plaintiff in this pants case (who is an administrative law judge, apparently) is one of those folks who just hit his last straw and reacted in grand and somewhat bizarre style. He was reported to have become very emotional in court, eyes tearing, and he's apparently been through a couple stressful events lately. From what I've read, I don't think his case is racially motivated. I think a frustrated guy is just really hanging on that phrase "satisfaction guaranteed" in an outrageous manner that most of us would not. Me, I'd be asking that they replace my suit (so it matches) and pay me a couple bucks for tailoring and the gas to go get it and such. That's it. Not millions. Maybe a few hundred.

That takes care of the alleged injustice. No use crying over lost pants.

In general, though, there have been several interesting ideas about how to put forward tort reform. Several interesting ones related to medical malpractice. But, yeah, they come around every few years and never seem to go anywhere.

Under the New Deal in the 1930's a few people actually served jail sentences of several months for violating government set price control regulations. They weren't overcharging, they were undercharging. One guy on the East Coast served 8 months if I remember correctly, for charging 38 cents to dryclean some item of clothing instead of 39 cents. At the same time, a travelling salesman could be prosecuted for carrying more than one suitcase. Then again when the goverment decrees that anyone in possession of gold is subject to a $10.000 fine or 10 years in jail, you can't expect much in the way of Constitutional liberties.

Dear Annie,

OOPS! Sorry! Is my face red!

God Bless,

Zenovia

American justice! Time for a return of Justinian!