Re: the Butt-Swat Two, a reader writes:

If the facts were as you described, I’d agree that this is a ridiculous overreach; but then there’s this from a newstory on McMinnville:“The boys, apparently inspired by the movie “Jackass,” were accused in police reports of swatting girls on the bottom in a school corridor, grabbing girls’ breasts on at least two occasions, teaming up to “dry hump” girls, poking girls’ breasts and engaging in what’s known as “party boy” dancing mimicking sexual intercourse.”So, not just two innocent purveyors of the random posterior pat, but something quite a bit darker. I still wouldn’t want these kids saddled with felony convictions for the rest of their lives, but you know what – $1,000 restitution and a scare of several weeks duration is entirely appropriate for these little jerks. And, as for the parent’s legal expenses – I’ll shed not a tear.

Well, that’s the characterization of “police reports” which have been disavowed by several of the witnesses.

But let’s assume they’re correct in every particular. Isn’t there a conflict here? We raise our children in a hyper-sexualized culture to the point where it’s all but impossible to find an 8pm sitcom joke that isn’t some witless butt crack, and then demand they behave like Seventh Grade Alan Aldas in the school vestibule. As I said in my column:

Whether from Presidential candidates or bestselling authors or the protagonists of the movie Jackass, one hears a lot more about bottoms than one used to. Perhaps this is a poignantly freighted and highly literal image of western civilization contemplating its own end.