dear wow and Marina Zenovich … good questions, good answers (particularly #10) … I am very curious to see this documentary (do love your clever title!) … thanks for the clips … Mr. Polanski’s life and case sure is a complex mix of tragedy, violence, crimes and sins … should be a great lesson in careful judgement and compassion … He did make some great movies … and that opens another difficult question: can one love the art without regarding the artist ? I have had an ongoing debate with people trying to tell me that Leni Riefenstahl is a great photographer, where I can only see a Nazi propagandist who made excuses to the very end of her long life - there was a documentary about her that caused those extremely passionate discussions … in the end it is just great that there are films like these to make us review, reflect, debate … that make us think …

Anyone really interested in this case may want to google the judge, Lawrence Rittenband. Many think he abused his powers in the Polanski case as well as in other cases. He was a bit of a cowboy judge. What he did was reject a time served plea bargain and enter a fifty year sentence. However bad Polanski’s conduct was, there was a miscarriage of justice here. Maybe the story be about the judge. Polanski’s was not his only case, just maybe his most famous.

I have left this e-community as a result of the accusation and misinformation perpetuated by Carol L. and Mugsy and the unwarranted cacophony of others that have taken my comments in this thread out of context, tied them in a neat bow, and put the noose around my neck while chanting that I “don’t mind rape.” This is highly offensive to me, made me physically ill for a couple days, and after re-reading my comments above I still do not think my comments are supportive of Polanksi’s behaviour in any way. I was raised to love the sinner and hate the sin. If I find it in my heart to have compassion for a man who saw his wife murdered, bloodied and hung in the livingroom and his baby gutted from her body by a cult, I have a right to do so. It doesn’t mean I am soft on his rape conviction. I do think anyone would run from an irrational sentence of 50 years. But I am supportive of the fact that he fled. I have an opinion. I think the judge was unfair to lay out a 50 year sentence. But that does not dismiss the deed done. I believe in Karma, and I believe in the karma of those who insist on perseverating this issue by calling me names, questioning my sanity, or trying to gather others in the web site as regulars against me on other threads because Carol has compartmentalized my comments and packaged them to look outrageous and immoral. I feel sorry for those of you who chose to trust Carol’s word that I must be a man or “soft on rape” and didn’t even take a moment to actually even read through the comments I made on this thread. How tragic! I don’t know any man who finds rape acceptable either. The fact that you could think I must be a man to “think” a certain way speaks to your catacomb brains. I feel very sorry for the men around you if that is how you think a man would think. Those of you who try to create rules like SANDBOX 101 chased away one of the only good guys who came to visit this site, and soon you will chase away other voices of reason like Renate or Suzanne who totally have a logical, intelligent, and informative contribution to make. And make every attempt to at least stay on-topic. Getting personal on such a site that was designed to bring women together to discuss ideas, and learn from all perspectives show basal intelligence and is not appropriate on a site that women of integrity have built in hopes of attracting women of integrity to congregate. It is in danger of dissolving into a toxic cesspool and it is wrong and I only point fingers here, reluctantly, to demonstrate to the few of you how sick it feels to be wrongly accused, marched into the town square and pointed at. Rape is the worst of crimes perpetrated against women all over the world. I sponsor a woman so she can to go to school in Africa, who has 7 children not by choice, but as the result of living in a war zone in the Congo and being repeated raped over her short lifetime. I do not take this topic lightly. My 14 year old niece was lured by a 27 yr old man on the internet to meet at the mall, and then convinced to “go over to his house” where she was raped. My eldest sister was walking home from school and grabbed by a man who beat her and raped her and nearly pulled all her hair out of her head while dragging her kicking and screaming to no avail down the alley. I cannot even speak of my own experiences with rape, nor do many of you care to hear it. Nor would I feel safe explaining in some of your company. However, these are all various forms of rape. But the rape Polanski was charged with could well be one of the worst “kinds” of rape. We can all get smarter about not walking down dark alleys, or locking our doors and windows at night. But its harder to identify this kind of criminal. He had to have convinced the mother the child would be safe, and then blatantly take advantage of that trust built up by both the mother and child by raping her while movie stars and who-knows-who else drank and got stoned in adjacent rooms. The damage done to that child would be life-long. Such a breach of trust by someone viewed as a “friend” or an authority figure teaches someone that ANYONE might be capable of such debauchery, not just a guy in a balaclava breaking in the bedroom window. I am too deeply offended at the quick-draw misjudgments of the “Mug”ging club - only clucking hens allowed. Showing your HRT prescription at the door is admission, and the Cackle cash currency is fool’s gold (thank u SDC). Founders, I think if you actually spent time on the threads, as yourselves or even paid a like-minded person to pose as you, it would elevate the dialogue or at least keep it more respectful. I think even if they THOUGHT someone like Whoopi or Mary Wells was responding to their comments directly it might keep some of the clucking hens from using this sight as a vicious sounding board. I came to this site to see how women of age really are as my own birthday is steadily on the incline. :) I thought I would learn wisdom from the sages. I was looking for role models and guidance from an Opinion-born-of-experience and good examples of aging well. I did find a few. But too many here make me embarrassed and sad to be a woman. They are the kind of women who make people reluctant to vote a woman into the WH. Irrational. Illogical. Quick to judge, and unconscionably mean-spirited. They should consider making their own website and calling it MEOWOMEOW.com where they can support each other in their mutual misery. Good luck and good night! I, for one, will NOT be back until I see they have gone and gotten bored with the ignominies or even less likely, an apology or two!

This was a 13 year old girl; he was 45 when he plead guilty of this crime and then he skipped out of the country. We talk a lot about protecting minors, about rape and sexual harassment, but we seem to make exceptions for men with power and influence. What message does that send to us as women, mothers, aunts and grandparents? It says that we are less important that the men who brutalize us. Is that really what we should be doing?