Leftover54, you say “money can be recouped. Happiness can’t” Oh really? Then please explain to me HOW a retired 85-year-old couple can get 2 million dollars back that was stolen from them. I’m sure they’d like to know too. Obviously you went thru some horrible sexual abuse as a child, so much so that you’d feel better off being broke and on the street rather than having went thru what you did. For that, I am truly sorry, it must have been awful for you, BUT neither can you overestimate the damage sexual molestation has on a child because putting a “ruined for life” stigmatization on a person based on assumptions can also do a great deal of damage. The fact is, there are varying degrees of sexual assault and you cannot project YOUR experience onto everybody else who also experienced some form of sexual abuse as a child. Every case is different in severity and on the impact it will have on the victim.

A sexual molestation can range anywhere from an adult placing their hand on the minor’s genital over their clothing which, BTW, is still a crime, to long term forcible anal and/or oral sodomy of the child. Now, I am certainly NOT saying that the former is OK, it obviously is not and American Sabra, you need to read my posts closer because I NEVER insinuated “that even small amounts” of pedophilia was OK. BUT it does not compare to the later as to the degree of psychological AND physical damage it will cause. That should be obvious just as is the comparison between the impact of stealing a piece of candy from Wal*Mart to grand theft auto from a car dealership.

As a 16-year-old, I was also sexually molested (by legal definition) which involved an adult fondling me. Even though it was a very awkward and uncomfortable feeling at the time, it’s preposterous to say that the experience scarred and ruined me for life. It did NOT! Therefore, I would never, NEVER trade places with those poor elderly people who had their entire life’s savings stolen from some greedy asshole! But yet EVERYBODY is accusing MJ of ruining kids FOR LIFE and doing much worse.

The accusation against MJ in the early 90s involved open mouth kissing of a 13-year-old boy along with some genital fondling. Extremely disgusting and deviant behavior I will admit BUT as bad as that was, it is not comparable to the crimes of the more sadistic pedophiles who actually PHYSICALLY harm children, but yet people are putting MJ into the same class as them!

This is why I say there are people who did much worse than MJ did but yet were vilified far less so and unless you really know MJ’s victim and the circumstances of the crime, you cannot assume that the kid, or person, is now “ruined for life”. My GUT feeling is that the kid, who is now a man, is doing just fine today and is probably leading a normal heterosexual life, 25 million dollars or not. And with that said, I do give MJ some credit for learning from his mistakes and distancing himself from young boys these last few years of his life.

Just my humble opinion.