# Argent Towers, a moment of your time. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 16, 2010, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227 "2010-02-16T18:23:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/341 "2010-02-17T16:14:34Z")
> [@Junior\_Spaceman](#): > > Regarding Curtis’ ‘true’ identity - a while back he posted a newspaper article which he said was about him, which included a photo and quite a bit of detail. The thread was disappeared quick-smart for obvious reasons, but nothing he’s ever posted has contradicted the details in that article. The mods would still have access to that thread (and the article) and might want to comment on whether they think he’s for real or not. > [@dropzone](#): > > If you are privy to those details, would you post them? _DO NOT POST THIS._ The edits were made because we thought it was a bad idea for a purported 13-year-old to post information that could be used to identify him. I remember a thread where **Curtis LeMay** posted some other personal details and that information was quickly deleted. It may or may not be the same one **Junior Spaceman** mentioned, but the point stands. Whether or not he’s really 13, he says he is. It’s believable as far as I’m concerned and it’s not something I’m going to spend a lot of time on. We don’t really have the time to investigate whether everyone on the board is who they say they are. From my perspective, **Diogenes the Cynic** nailed it in post #328: **Curtis LeMay** talks like a young person who is trying to sound older. I’ve met people about his age who talk and think the same way. [/Modding] > [@Zoe](#): > > **Marley** , I think you missed this one big time. Listen to your fellow board members. Did you read all the way through? Did you? **Argent Towers** was warned on page 4 of this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/342 "2010-02-17T16:16:03Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > If fake 13 year old troll Curtis Lemay gets Argent Towers banned or even causes him to stop posting here I will be very annoyed. OK, I was a little drunk and annoyed when I wrote that. I actually think Curtis is probably 13. Or at least he might be. If he is I surely can’t be the only person here who finds it ridiculous to be lectured about philosophy religion politics and life from someone who can’t even drive and probably doesn’t shave. Also, I’d remind everyone that whatever your parenting philosophy is, it’s apparently the philosophy of Mr. And Mrs. Lemay to let their 13 year old son roam unsupervised on the internet, posting on several message boards which are inhabited by all kinds of freaks and weirdos. Until recently this board had a member who was (or pretended to be) a proud and unrepentant pedophile. Curtis was bound to run into some heavy adult stuff soon. Perhaps the board should consider rasing it’s minimum age to 16 or 17, if this sort of thing is a concern. Fianlly, about Hogg. Am I the only person who finds it so over the top that it stops being disgusting and starts being cartoonish and silly? It’s in your teenage and young-adult life that things like Hogg seem daring and transgressive. It reads like it was written by a teenager who wanted to shock his English teacher. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/343 "2010-02-17T16:20:27Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > This is just bullshit. Being a parent is nothing unique, and doesn’t confer any special skills or magical experience. Seriously? I was all set to let this thread go and then this. Parenting doesn’t confer \*\*magical \*\*experience, but until you have the experience of being responsible for someone’s survival—whether you carry out that responsibility well or not—and keeping them safe and all the other things that go along with parenting, you just don’t get what it’s like. That’s not to say that parents are special or exalted; just that their experience is different. You can think you know how you would do things if/when you have kids, but until you have them, you just don’t know. And not just any, generic kids. Until you have the specific kids that you have been given, you do not know what you will do and whether it will work. I cringe when I think of the times I was working with families before I had kids, and was giving well-meaning, professional advice to parents. I’m truly surprised no one slapped the shit out of me. I’ve worked directly for a CEO, but that doesn’t mean I know what it’s like to be a CEO. I have a brother, but don’t know what it’s like to be a male. And so on. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/344 "2010-02-17T16:31:07Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > If he is I surely can’t be the only person here who finds it ridiculous to be lectured about philosophy religion politics and life from someone who can’t even drive and probably doesn’t shave. Of course it’s ridiculous, but I find it more amusing than obnoxious. It’s kind of fun to play along with him a little bit. He wants to debate these things with adults, so we humor him to an extent, let him spout, tweak him with a few challenging questions, maybe try to get him on the road to examining his own convictions, but I think most people haven’t been taking him too seriously or too personally, and we’ve taken it fairly easy on him for the most part. He hasn’t been taken apart nearly as thoroughly as he would be if he was an adult. He’s like somebody’s smart kid at a company picnic. The adults are more bemused and entertained by his precocity than bothered by it. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/345 "2010-02-17T16:32:38Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Skills, no, experience, yes. It is a particular experience that can’t be understood without doing it. Given > [@](#): > > Few things are more annoying than being lectured by non-parents on how to parent. But this is not the same. You’re talking about skills here, not experience. “how to” is definitely skills. Look, I’m a parent, I agree that it is a unique perspective. But it does not mean that non-parents are not entitled to have an opinion on whether a particular approach is good or bad. You don’t have to have been a parent to know that some stuff is just bad parenting. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/346 "2010-02-17T16:32:57Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > Fianlly, about Hogg. Am I the only person who finds it so over the top that it stops being disgusting and starts being cartoonish and silly? Yup. A lot of Delany’s kink is so far out there, and in Hogg is so in your face all the time, that I do not have any reaction to it, any more than I would react to seeing a locomotive and a freight car couple. Earlier this year, I tossed a lot of books that I don’t have room for. I kept a few of Delany’s, but pitched Hogg, for as porn it just does not do a thing for me, and as literature it is mostly just porn. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/347 "2010-02-17T16:33:10Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > What you, and several others, seem to be missing out on is that it’s not the opinion of the people on this board that matters, it’s opinion of others, who none of us might even know are reading, whose job it is to catch those (and yes, they do exist regardless of any one person’s opinion) who contact children via the internet with the intent to have sex with them. Those people have no reason to “learn about a poster” to “decide if s/he is really that sort of person” or “figure out whether or not something’s hinky.” As a matter of fact, they have a very strong reason NEVER to give ANYONE the benefit of the doubt and they do not and they will not. > > It doesn’t matter if \*\*Curtis \*\*is “really” a 13 year old–the only thing that matters is that he SAYS he’s a 13 year old. Or do you think that the cops who run internet sting operations use \*actual \*underage persons to write the chats? Because they don’t–all that matters is that a person is TOLD they’re communicating with an underage person and nevertheless acts inappropriately. No actual children have to be involved in ANY WAY AT ALL for some poor bastard to get hung out to dry on a short eyes rap, and that is a plain fucking fact. And you don’t have to actually be convicted to have your life ruined–the very suspicion will be more than enough. So basically, you’re telling me you’re afraid FOR Argent, because FBI guys might be watching? While I did skim through the thread, I didn’t really get too much of the “we’re afraid FOR you, not AT you” vibe towards Argent. And this goes back to me thinking people are making too big of a deal. Let’s say the FBI is watching. What can they do, arrest him because he RECOMMENDED a book? Even cops pretending to be teens chatting with pedophiles have to adhere by certain rules, and one of them being that they never initiate the sex talk. I don’t think recommending a book over the internet to a kid can ever be a crime. It’s very clearly covered by the First Amendment. Remember, he only recommended the book. Over the internet. At no point did he sit Curtis down give him a book. Curtis is free to ignore or read it at his leisure I think everyone mentioned in Nzinga, Seated’s post #261 needs to sit back and take a deep breath. It may be abnormal, but there’s nothing wrong or creepy about what Argent did. Some people seem to jump the gun too much. They see a person who they know little about do something bad and immediately that person becomes that “thing” they did. Well, I’m coming from the position that Argent is not a pedophile. He’s never shown any inclination towards it, nothing in his posts says that. So for this one act he did to Curtis, I look at him through that lens. A perfectly normal guy recommending a graphic book to a kid who has the opposite political viewpoint as him. Meh, it’s not a big deal really. If Curtis reads it and gets traumatized, it’s his own damn fault. He’s a horse that’s been lead to water but nobody’s forcing him to drink > [@Carmady](#): > > A few more lyrics: > > “Yeah, I’m Stagger Lee and you better get down on your knees > And suck my dick, because If you don’t you’re gonna be dead” > Said Stagger Lee > > Billy dropped down and slobbered on his head > And Stag filled him full of lead > Oh yeah." > > Same popular album, had songs on MTV, got recommended by all the major music magazines. Maybe it has a really good melody! 😃 > [@elbows](#): > > Suggesting this book for a 13yr old, is odious. Doing so by pm, is very poor judgment. Defending it -just foolish. Implying the boy should override any objections his parents may have, in the pm, is crossing a line. All my opinion, and I stand by it. No, you think the BOOK is odious, thus it clouds your perspective. Doing it by PM is a good way to try and keep it off the boards, which unfortunately didn’t work. Defending it was fine, he didn’t do anything THAT bad. And who cares about his parents? Lots of people are parents, doesn’t make them good. If his parents said it was ok, would they be good parents, or would they be bad parents? It’s not a big deal, sheesh 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/348 "2010-02-17T16:43:46Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > GivenBut this is not the same. You’re talking about skills here, not experience. “how to” is definitely skills. > > Look, I’m a parent, I agree that it is a unique perspective. But it does not mean that non-parents are not entitled to have an opinion on whether a particular approach is good or bad. You don’t have to have been a parent to know that some stuff is just bad parenting. I disagree. What can I say? Aside from obvious, patently bad or incompetent parenting issues like abuse or neglect, I think the opinions of non-parents are uninformed and unwelcome. This thread involved a non–parent attempting to lecture a parent on how he should feel about a stranger recommending porn to his kid in a private message on the internet (and pressing him to ignore his own parents’ wishes). That’s the kind of thing that people who have never had the responsibility of parenthood/guardianship over a child need to shut the fuck up about. ---
**Author:** ![Myrnalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Myrnalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrnalene)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/349 "2010-02-17T16:45:34Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > While I did skim through the thread, I didn’t really get too much of the “we’re afraid FOR you, not AT you” vibe towards Argent. You can take the time and energy to write this lengthy post, but can’t spend 20 minutes reading the thread? What is it with people so anxious to have their Special Argument heard that they can’t even check to see if they will look like fools before they do? Several people including myself expressed to Argent that it was very dangerous for _him_ to be so indiscriminate. [QUOTE=YogSosoth] It may be abnormal, but there’s nothing wrong or creepy about what Argent did. [/quote] Argent Towers admitted it was wrong hours ago and apologized, yet his supporters are still wanking themselves to a froth over it. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/350 "2010-02-17T16:47:15Z")
RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLe!!! ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/351 "2010-02-17T16:49:42Z")
Who invited the Hamburglar to this thread? Now I want fries. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/352 "2010-02-17T16:49:46Z")
Nobody thinks that **AT** is a pedophile, **Yog**. We think he made an ill-advised and irresponsible decision that had the potential to really blow up in his face. My attitude was not that he was a creep or a predator, but that he needed to watch his ass. From all my experience working with kids, I know that you have to be very careful and aware of every interaction, and how it could appear to others (not to mention how it could be characterized by the kid). ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/353 "2010-02-17T16:50:52Z")
We should all watch our asses, what with all this talk of rapists, sodomites, and necrophiliacs. ---
**Author:** ![tacoloco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tacoloco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tacoloco)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/354 "2010-02-17T16:51:39Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Look, I’m a parent, I agree that it is a unique perspective. But it does not mean that non-parents are not entitled to have an opinion on whether a particular approach is good or bad. You don’t have to have been a parent to know that some stuff is just bad parenting. Anyone can have an opinion. But my experience as a parent trumps a non-parent any day of the week. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/355 "2010-02-17T16:52:25Z")
> [@MOIDALIZE](#): > > We should all watch our asses, what with all this talk of rapists, sodomites, and necrophiliacs. If you haven’t raped a dead ass, you haven’t raped yet. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/356 "2010-02-17T16:53:26Z")
That’s some Grade A dead ass. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/357 "2010-02-17T17:01:15Z")
> [@tacoloco](#): > > Anyone can have an opinion. > > But my experience as a parent trumps a non-parent any day of the week. I feel the same. By that same token, I’m willing to listen to just about anybody who IS a parent. I’m wide open to advice and shared experience from anybody who’s actually done this thing. I turn right off from people who haven’t, though. I have no use for some simplistic crap that some twentysomething single read in a magazine. Somene upthread mentioned the specificity of each kid, and that’s true too. Even within the same family, the same kinds of approaches and strategies have to be individualized, and all generalized philosophy goes out the window. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/358 "2010-02-17T17:03:56Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Somene upthread mentioned the specificity of each kid, and that’s true too. Even within the same family, the same kinds of approaches and strategies have to be individualized, and all generalized philosophy goes out the window. That’s probably the single most significant thing you learn as a parent that you can’t really understand before you are one. That, and managing to pull it off without the kids realizing that you’re treating them differently. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/359 "2010-02-17T17:15:02Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Sorry to see you go Agent foxtrot. Even if you are grooming children as sex slaves (cos they implied so :rolleyes:) \*\*For the last time, I am not Argent Towers. This thread is about Argent Towers, not Agent Foxtrot. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227/360 "2010-02-17T17:17:34Z")
Likely story, Agent Foxtrot. You SICKO [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argent-towers-a-moment-of-your-time/529227.md?page=19)