http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=891226&type=story
Prepare for the Weirdness
by Hunter S. Thompson
“Something is happening here,
But you don’t know what it is,
Do you, Mr. Jones?”
- Bob Dylan
No sir, not a chance. Mr. Jones does not even pretend to know what’s happening in America right now, and neither does anyone else.
We have seen Weird Times in this country before, but the year 2000 is beginning to look superweird. This time, there really is nobody flying the plane. … We are living in dangerously weird times now. Smart people just shrug and admit they’re dazed and confused.
The only ones left with any confidence at all are the New Dumb. It is the beginning of the end of our world as we knew it. Doom is the operative ethic.
The Autumn months are never a calm time in America. Back to Work, Back to School, Back to Football Practice, etc. … Autumn is a very Traditional period, a time of strong Rituals and the celebrating of strange annual holidays like Halloween and Satanism and the fateful Harvest Moon, which can have ominous implications for some people.
Autumn is always a time of Fear and Greed and Hoarding for the winter coming on. Debt collectors are active on old people and fleece the weak and helpless. They want to lay in enough cash to weather the known horrors of January and February. There is always a rash of kidnapping and abductions of school children in the football months. Pre-teens of both sexes are traditionally seized and grabbed off the streets by gangs of organized Perverts.
Most of these things are obviously Wrong and Evil and Ugly — but at least they are Traditional. They will happen. Your driveway will ice up, your furnace will blow up and you willbe rammed in traffic by an uninsured driver in a stolen car.
But what the hell. That’s why we have Insurance, eh? And the Inevitability of these nightmares is what makes them so reassuring. Life will go on, for good or ill. The structure might be a little Crooked, but the foundations are still Strong and Unshakable.
Ho, ho. Think again, buster. Look around you. There is an eerie sense of Panic in the air, a silent Fear and Uncertainty that comes with once-reliable faiths and truths and solid Institutions that are no longer safe to believe in. … There is a Presidential Election, right on schedule, but somehow there is no President. A new Congress is elected, like always, but somehow there is no real Congress at all — not as we knew it, anyway, and whatever passes for Congress will be as helpless and weak as Whoever has to pass for the “New President.”
If this were the world of sports, it would be like playing a Super Bowl that goes into 19 scoreless Overtimes and never actually Ends. … or four L.A. Lakers stars being murdered in different places on the same day. Guaranteed Fear and Loathing. Abandon all hope. Prepare for the Weirdness. Get familiar with Cannibalism.
Good luck, Doc.
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http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/07/justice/pennsylvania-coach-abuse-charges/index.html
The victim met Sandusky through the former coach’s Second Mile charity, Kelly said. Sandusky allegedly used expensive gifts such as trips to professional and college games, golf clubs, a computer and money, Kelly said.
The relationship, which began in 2005 and lasted into 2008, included overnight stays at Sandusky’s home, where touching led to sexual acts, according to Kelly and grand jury testimony.
“One of the most compelling and disturbing pieces of testimony in this investigation came from an eyewitness to a late-night sexual assault that allegedly occurred in March of 2002, in the locker room of the Lasch Football Building on the University Park Campus,” Kelly said. “Hearing what sounded like sexual activity in the showers of a building that was supposed to be empty, a graduate assistant reportedly observed Sandusky sexually assaulting a naked boy who appeared to be about 10 years old.”
The assistant reported the incident to Paterno, who in turn alerted athletic director Curley, Kelly said.
“It was obvious that the witness was distraught over what he saw, but he at no time related to me the very specific actions contained in the grand jury report. Regardless, it was clear that the witness saw something inappropriate involving Mr. Sandusky. As Coach Sandusky was retired from our coaching staff at that time, I referred the matter to university administrators,” Paterno said.
But instead of reporting the incident to authorities, Curley and Schultz banned Sandusky from having children from Second Mile visit the football building, Kelly said.
Specifically, the grand jury found that Curley committed perjury in repeatedly denying that he had ever been told that Sandusky had engaged in sexual misconduct with a child, Kelly said.
“Assertions by Schultz that the allegations concerning Sandusky were ‘not that serious’ and that he and Curley ‘had no indication that a crime had occurred’ were in direct contradiction to other testimony and constituted perjury,” Kelly wrote.
In all, the grand jury identified eight boys, ranging in age from about 8 to 14, who were the targets of similar sexual advances or assaults by Sandusky from 1994-2009. All of the victims first encountered Sandusky through Second Mile activities, Kelly said.
Authorities said they are continuing to search for additional victims and that the case remains active.
As disturbing details continue to emerge about the alleged sexual abuse scandal at Penn State University, Philadelphia’s Fox 29 is reporting that the number of victims of accused abuser Jerry Sandusky could be “closer to twenty”.
There were eight victims named in the grand jury charges, but Fox 29 cites sources claiming that number has “more than doubled” since state officials offered call-in numbers for past victims.
http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/come-to-me-my-child/
