Stealing your bootstraps and blaming you for not pulling yourself up by them is a core GOP value.

i think you mean ZODIAC MOTHERFUCKER

Canadians always know, but we won’t blow your cover. We figure you’ve got your reasons.

I’ve only been commenting a couple years, but I’ve been a regular reader since the last century. The site has gone downhill since the Kinjafication, but at least we’re not as bad as Bleeding Cool.

Just to add onto what corndog said, that kind of talk sinks into kids and can have a chilling effect on their willingness to report to you. Many victims (adult and child) really fear the emotional reaction of their loved ones. They fear having someone fly off the handle or make a spectacle, even if it’s not a violent…

*sniff* Has it really been 25 years...















OF COCK!?

My mom tried to do the right things when I was raped (for the third time - it’s super complicated) at age eight or nine in the 1980's. I remember answering the very nice police detective’s questions. I remember all the horrified reactions from him (wincing) and Mama (shocked gasps and crying). I remember telling them…

I’m sure he’s still grieving his father, twice-over, really. The moment you find out that there’s more to someone than you thought (especially something like this), all the previous feelings you had for them don’t just vanish. They’re tainted and sullied, but all those feelings are still there. The nice and gentle…

My uncle victimized most of the boys in my family at one time or another..... some of us worse than others..... and the unforgivable truth is that all the adults knew, on some level. The most guilty was my grandmother, who he lived with. She 100% knew and did NOTHING to keep us from being left alone with him. Some of…

One of the remarkable things I noticed is that people who come from homes with horrific abuse, who have every excuse to be equally horrible people, or at least shell-shocked their entire lives, often grow up to be really amazing wonderful capable people. It really gives me hope for humanity.

We learned later it is not ideal to ask many detail questions, or to bring the subject back up ourselves. Also avoiding leading the child is of utmost importance.

I’m actually most worried about the kid in the future - “He was Jenny’s favorite person, period.” At some point she will learn that her “favorite person” took his own life as a result of something involving her, even though it’s clearly (to us) not her fault. That’s gonna be tough all around.

A friend of ours came from an abusive household. She is also, like me, an experienced attorney. Her son is the same age as our son (both in elementary school) and they are friends. They attend the same camps. The night she told us that a neighbor, an older boy, showed her son how to masturbate, I was appalled. Then…

I’m horrified, but thank you for publishing this. I don’t think too many people could’ve handled this better than the letter writer and his wife.

They don’t take action? They ignore it?

Some ignore it. They’ve think, “So and so would never do something like that” or chalk it up to an overactive imagination.  Some of these parents were victimized themselves.  It’s brutal. 

Mental health professional here. Thank you for your courage in sharing your story and being brave enough to make an impossibly difficult decision. May your family find healing from this difficult situation. 

From context I believe they recorded a conversation on an open (“hot”) line. Presumably to either get him to incriminate himself or to have him make a statement that might later contradict a different statement and catch him in a lie.

I’ve worked in law enforcement for 20 years. Sadly, many parents aren’t like you.  For what it is worth, great job. You took action immediately. This isn’t your fault, or hers.  I’m so sorry. 

I worked in London in 2003 (I was on a work exchange/internship going into my last year of undergrad)—just after the Second Iraq War fired up.

I occasionally had to deal with folks asking me, “Why’d you lot start that war?”

I routinely answered with, “Did you vote for Tony Blair? No? I voted for the dude running against…