This is really a serious problem, and not just because of the involvement of the ACLU.

The fact is that American males are becoming increasingly predatory on children, and we don't seem to be able to do anything about it. Because the Internet is protected, it is becoming a wild wild west for child predators. These animals are coming from all over--from the ACLU to the Homeland Security guy that was doing it, too, to the international pederasts pulled up in Interpol investigations to the boy scout leaders, school principals, youth ministers, and other child-intensive occupations that keep getting dredged up in dragnets.

What can we do about this?

Children are increasingly media savvy, yet no more smart about human relationships. Child predators know the right things to say on myspace, the tempting things to offer on the playground, the right amount of artificial love to offer kids whose parents are absent or non-existent, or flawed--or just the parents of a teenager! Only the tracking technology that the ACLU objects to is going to be able to make a dent in the growing numbers of NAMBLA types roaming the Internet.

I wonder how much of the technology used to catch him (and which will, no doubt, be used to track who his online buddies might be) was specifically protested by him and his ACLU office. In Virginia? Probably most of it.

Men haven't changed...the internet has just made it easier for them. The solution is educating your children to the dangers. Just like the first time you walk them across the street, or let them go out at night with friends.

There is no way you can change the internet that will prevent a sicko from talking to a small child in a chat room, without creating a massive goon squad that is infringing on every private conversation that occurs online. Nobody will allow this, and nobody will allow you to ban international websites, which is where the creeps will head when you start shutting down operations in the United States. And of course none of these measures will stop sickos from being sickos, they will find out ways. You'll simply impinge on the rights of people having legimitate chat conversations...platonic or otherwise with other consenting adults.

The fact is that American males are becoming increasingly predatory on children, and we don't seem to be able to do anything about it.

Ugh, some numbers please.

I know for a matter of fact that sexual assault in general and rape are both very much in decline since the seventies. If there's a spike in pederasty, I haven't heard of it yet. Please enlighten me.

Why wouldn't this be as much of a story as one about a religious pervert?

Hmm, let's contrast and compare. Rust-Tierney is under arrest for looking at child pornography (not molesting children, mind you). Meanwhile, Haggard smokes meth with a gay prostitute. I don't know about you, but I think the latter story is far more sensational.

"Rust-Tierney is under arrest for looking at child pornography (not molesting children, mind you)."

Are you making a moral distinction here, or a legal one?

By the way, are you also arguing that belonging to an illegal child porn ring ("hardcore," in fact) on the Internet is more defensible than using an illegal drug?

Also, you might notice that no one has defended Ted Haggard, inside the church or out of it.

Are you making a moral distinction here, or a legal one?

I'm talking about publicity and sensationalism..

By the way, are you also arguing that belonging to an illegal child porn ring ("hardcore," in fact) on the Internet is more defensible than using an illegal drug?

Uh...no? I use illegal drugs all the time, but I'd never use kiddie porn. I would argue, however, that consuming kiddie porn is better than molesting children.

Also, you might notice that no one has defended Ted Haggard, inside the church or out of it.

I might! I might also notice that nobody is defending R-T. So might you!

consuming "kiddie porn" is a very small baby step away from acting it out. The gay prostitute in the alleged Haggard scandal wasn't a child. So, no, this is worse. Didn't Foley just engage in inappropriate e-mails with young men? Oh, but that was shouted to the rooftops wasn't it. The ACLU is a group of communists whose mission and agenda is to destroy the U.S.A., and rebuild it in their image. No surprises here.