# Republican worker arrested for molesting children. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 11, 2009, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-worker-arrested-for-molesting-children/509689 "2009-09-11T15:01:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-worker-arrested-for-molesting-children/509689/21 "2009-09-11T19:57:24Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > That benefits ACORN how? > > You’re reaching here. Either come up with some real evdience that ACORN had insitutional knowledge of or complicity in this behavior or just drop it. These are real people you’re helping to smear. I know them, you don’t. This right wing portait of ACORN workers as radical, partisan activists is a complete phantasm. Now trying to paint them as institutionally so sociopathic that they would sanction child prostitution is simply beyond the pale. > > For fuck’s sake, I’ve never even tried to trash the RCC for the pedophile priest scandal or infer that the vast majority of priests should be suspect. I’m sure as hell not going to fall for this kind of bullshit, especially not when it was elicited purely as a political stunt by right wing activists. > > Be careful how much you embrace this kind of tactic. Radical liberals can play at this game too. No institution would be be immune. ACORN benefits in a couple of ways: they take a small fee from the mortgage applications they successfully process, and (more indirectly) they increase the number of people they help, which assists their numbers for federal grants for the purpose of assisting lower-income mortgage seekers obtain mortgages. It should be obvious, though, hat it benefits ACORN in some way – that’s what they do. That’s the (or ONE of the) businesses they’re in. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-worker-arrested-for-molesting-children/509689/22 "2009-09-11T20:06:46Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > ACORN benefits in a couple of ways: they take a small fee from the mortgage applications they successfully process, and (more indirectly) they increase the number of people they help, which assists their numbers for federal grants for the purpose of assisting lower-income mortgage seekers obtain mortgages. > > It should be obvious, though, hat it benefits ACORN in some way – that’s what they do. That’s the (or ONE of the) businesses they’re in. ??? Don’t you need to weigh both sides of the equation? So, there is an upside to ACORN (you claim). The upside is what? A handful of applications relatively speaking? A smidge of goodwill from those people? For that you have a colossal downside. A downside that could single-handedly tank the whole organization not to mention quite possibly see the leadership, who you presume knew about this, in jail and ruined for life. Not seeing it. Even ignoring you have to assume colossal moral bankruptcy from a lot of people at one place the risk v. reward ratio is massively skewed to “Bad Idea[sup]tm[/sup]” territory. So much so that you must now also assume colossal stupidity from the people running the place. That’s a lot of mighty big assumptions and pills to swallow. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-worker-arrested-for-molesting-children/509689/23 "2009-09-11T20:19:15Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > They might and they might not. > > One criteria for reaching this conclusion would be: do the illegal actions of the employee further the company’s goals, or are the intended to make the employee’s job easier? If you want to pursue this argument why can’t it be turned around as your admittance Bush is a war criminal, in light of the torture his employees committed in the execution of his goals? How about the elevated terror alert during the 2004 election? That certainly helped Bush. How about The Bush Admin arranging torture an innocent Canadian cause he had an Arab name? Is this your admittance, that Republicans, including you, who actively supported Bush, are evil inhuman monsters? His admin was acting inline with your goals for other things, and empowered by your vote. How does this not reflect badly on you? > **[Maher Arar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maher_Arar#Arar.27s_imprisonment_in_Syria)** > > Council of Canadians Human Rights Award, 2005. > Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award, 2006. > Nation Builder, The Globe and Mail, 2006. > British Columbia Civil Liberties Association Reg Robson Award, 2007. > Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Nipissing University, 2007. > Maher Arar (Arabic: ماهر عرار) (born 1970) is a telecommunications engineer with dual Syrian and Canadian citizenship who has resided in Canada since 1987. > Arar was detained during a layover at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Se... > [@](#): > > Arar’s imprisonment in Syria > > Once in Amman, Arar claims he was blindfolded, shackled and put in a van. “They made me bend my head down in the back seat,” Mr. Arar recalled. “Then these men started beating me. Every time I tried to talk, they beat me." > > Arar was transferred to a prison, where he claims he was beaten for several hours and forced to falsely confess that he had attended an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. “I was willing to do anything to stop the torture,” he says. > > Arar described his cell as a three-foot by six-foot “grave” with no light and plenty of rats. During the more than 10 months he was imprisoned and held in solitary confinement, he was beaten regularly with shredded cables.[23] Through the walls of his cell, Mr. Arar could hear the screams of other prisoners who were also being tortured. The Syrian government shared the results of its investigation with the United States.[24] Do you want to push farther with this argument? ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-worker-arrested-for-molesting-children/509689/24 "2009-09-11T21:41:50Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > They might and they might not. > > One criteria for reaching this conclusion would be: do the illegal actions of the employee further the company’s goals, or are the intended to make the employee’s job easier? Well, in the case in the OP, the Republican campaign worker was arrest for molesting a child “left in his care so the boy’s mother could attend a rally for McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.” In addition the Republican campaign worker “faced similar allegations at least five times since 1982 without being convicted of a crime, according to the Pueblo Chieftain’s Nick Bonham.” Seems to me that those are just as much a link between the Republican campaign worker and the Republican party as the idiots at ACORN who helped the conservatives with their faux child prostitution. Yet, oddly enough, I haven’t seen Sam Stone discussing respondent superior, or you yourself speculating that maybe the Republican party has a “culture” of supporting and accepting the support of child molestators. Funny how that works out, isn’t it. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-worker-arrested-for-molesting-children/509689/25 "2009-09-11T21:54:55Z")
I think some of us are misunderstanding **Bricker** ’s point. If I’m reading him right, ACORN as an institution is, among other things, in the (NFP) business of aiding low-income potential homebuyers to obtain mortgages – as any homebuyer knows, a rather complex and paperwork-intensive process. This activity is moral and laudable even if you’re the form of conservative who believes “government shouldn’t be in the mortgage business”, helping people cope with red tape is a good thing. If I’m understanding him correctly, a few less-than-wholesome types have taken advantage of that good thing for abusive ends. That, not the worthwhile goal, is what he’s condemnatory of. Am I close to grasping your point, **B**? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-worker-arrested-for-molesting-children/509689/26 "2009-09-11T21:56:46Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > I think some of us are misunderstanding **Bricker** ’s point. If I’m reading him right, ACORN as an institution is, among other things, in the (NFP) business of aiding low-income potential homebuyers to obtain mortgages – as any homebuyer knows, a rather complex and paperwork-intensive process. This activity is moral and laudable even if you’re the form of conservative who believes “government shouldn’t be in the mortgage business”, helping people cope with red tape is a good thing. If I’m understanding him correctly, a few less-than-wholesome types have taken advantage of that good thing for abusive ends. That, not the worthwhile goal, is what he’s condemnatory of. Am I close to grasping your point, **B**? On the money. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-worker-arrested-for-molesting-children/509689/27 "2009-09-11T21:59:02Z")
> [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](#): > > Generally Republicans aren’t about pedophilia, nor have anything about them that would really link the two groups. Ruthless selfishness, a contempt for the rights of those weaker than themselves, the attitude that they have a literal divine right to do what they want to whom they want? I’ve never heard of any studies on the subject, but I’d expect for molesters to be attracted to the Republican party more than they’d be to the Democrats ( or most other political affilations ). I’d expect that pattern with anything unethical; their worldview is tailor made to encourage and excuse selfish, vile behavior. I expect they have more rapists, more embezzlers, more liars, more wife beaters, more of everything bad. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-worker-arrested-for-molesting-children/509689/28 "2009-09-11T22:19:33Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > White people are more likely to be republican ([cite](http://people-press.org/commentary/?analysisid=95)) and nearly 70% of child molesters are white ([cite](http://www.yellodyno.com/html/child_molester_stats.html)). > > We could play guessing games all day. Without stats your presumption is completely bogus as is mine. Ahah, but on the other hand it’s possible that most child molesters are discovered by sharing pictures on the internet or what-have-you. This would make a disproportionate number of them be affluent/white. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-worker-arrested-for-molesting-children/509689/29 "2009-09-11T22:27:32Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > On the money. So how is this reflective of ACORN on the whole? ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-worker-arrested-for-molesting-children/509689/30 "2009-09-11T22:34:30Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > I think some of us are misunderstanding **Bricker** ’s point. I think some of you are … more then generous interpreting **Brickers's** motives and actions in starting his other thread. It is blindingly obvious that aiding and abetting a child prostitution ring is a bad thing. That’s the kind of “point” that doesn’t need to be made, let alone debated. Which makes me seriously question his motive for starting that thread. What the real purpose of that thread he started is to make ACORN look bad, to toe the party line and try and disparage a group that the powers that be in the party has decided needs to be vilified. It’s a tried and true formula for the right and more and more, for Bricker. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-worker-arrested-for-molesting-children/509689.md?page=1)