Polanski and Letterman

You may expect me, gentle reader, to agree with apparently every other right-wing columnist in God's creation, in condemning David Letterman and Roman Polanski, both currently prominent in the yellow news.

I do not.

I do not want to hear about David Letterman's sex life. It is none of my business, it is between him, the women, and God. It does not become my business just because he is famous, and I feel the main issue here is that his privacy has been violated. I deliberately did not read anything about the affair until obliged to to respond to a friend's emai, just to make sure there wasn't anything genuinely scandalous involved.

As for Polanski:

1.The statute of limitations should have run out on that one. Sure, legally, it hasn't, but the reasons for having a statute of limitations largely apply here. Over thirty years later, you are barely prosecuting the same man; and our view of the seriousness of the crime has changed dramatically in the interim.

2.The main purpose of punishment should be rehabilitation. Polanski is already rehabilitated. He has not reoffended in thirty years.

3.He has already been sufficiently punished in any case, by exile, by a civil settlement, by damage to his career and public reputation, and by 42 days in jail.

4.The greater good of society as a whole is best served by allowing him to go on making movies.