I've been following the threads here, and more amusingly at FreeRepublic, concerning the issues surrounding both Joe Paterno at Penn State, and Herman Cain. I've noticed a trend.
Herman Cain was accused of sexually harassing numerous women, at least one of which received a settlement from the National Restaurant Association as a result of the allegations. Cain has been dancing all around the edges of the issue, seemingly forgetting that there are documents about these events. And oh yeah, the charges were against him personally.
Joe Paterno is the head coach of a college football team. One of his assistant coaches was observed molesting a child in the locker room showers, and Paterno was made aware of it. He went through his chain of command and reported the incident.
What's a freeper to do?
Now admittedly the freeper reviews are a little mixed on this. But from what I could distill, on the whole:
Herman Cain is the victim of some unbalanced woman, and there is no truth to it. In fact one freeper said he even knows who the accuser is and is going to contact her for comment. Cain is the victim of a vast left-wing conspiracy, in fact it was some democrat probably who dug through some vast archive to unearth this relatively unsubstantiated and minor misunderstanding.
Joe Paterno should be taken out and hung by his thumbs for his crime of not doing more to have his assistant coach arrested. In fact he should have personally confronted the guy and taken unilateral action, regardless of whether there was an investigation or not. In very Kafkaesque fashion: Paterno is guilty because the charges against his assistant coach are very serious, and because the charges are so serious he therefore must be guilty.
Feel free to argue the merits of either case, but I'm trying to find some perspective. How is it that a freeper (or anyone) can be on such a moral crusade against one person - who remember isn't actually charged with molesting young boys - while at the same time fervently defend a man who was in fact accused of sexually harassing multiple women?
Again, don't think I'm equating child molestation with sexual harassment. While both despicable, I'm not suggesting one is equal to, or greater or lesser than the other. I'm just put off by the lop-sided and in my mind false-equivalency of one man, who reported another man's alleged bad behavior, with another man who was in fact accused of personally doing something very bad.