Wapsi Square Forum

DilyV wrote:You know... having been a second child with an older brother, I have to wonder how the little stink weed is taking all of this... Atsali is making all kinds of new friends which Castela might think infringes on her relationship with her big sister. I know that I was jealous as hell that my older brother began spending more and more time with others his own age (especially other girls) and stopped being there for me. I did everything I could to land mine those areas for him so he'd be forced to be my friend again. All I did was make a nuisance of myself. I have to imagine Castela might be starting to feel a little left out too...

But... you forget...

SHE'S IN THE POOL! SHE'S IN THE POOL! SHE"S IN THE POOL!

Elvis wrote:prrrrrrbbbbbrrrrttt

/me hops into his Bat-Boat and drives away.

Yes, I feel shame but I still regret nothing.

Just remember - she's a freshman in high school...

(Though at the glacial pace that we're going, she's technically a sophomore by now...)

Sgt. Howard wrote:

TazManiac wrote:Come on in, the waters fine...

Yikes! ... what year is that photo? That's not July of 1977, is it? Ft. Benning?

Hmmm... 1979 Apocalypse Now perhaps?

Looks more like Beowulf.

jwhouk wrote:Looks more like Beowulf.

Apocalypse Now. Found it, sorry for lack of linky skillz.



(edit- wow, it worked! Forward to about 1:09 in...)

You knuckleheads...

Well Of Course; thats Sarge, proto-selfie, pre-Interwebz...

duuuuuh.

Apocalypse Now?

Oh yeah, that movie about President Bartlett's army tour before he ran for office.

jwhouk wrote:Just remember - she's a freshman in high school...

(Though at the glacial pace that we're going, she's technically a sophomore by now...)

Well, 16 is over the legal age of consent in most places. . .including Minnesota, I believe.

Still probably a very bad idea to make any suggestions to her personally, though.

16 for driving, 17 for being charged as an adult in court, 18 for voter registration, 21 for alcohol purchase.

jwhouk wrote:16 for driving, 17 for being charged as an adult in court, 18 for voter registration, 21 for alcohol purchase.

And 18 for joining the military and being killed/killing.

But, as Mojo Nixon pointed out, you can't buy a beer...

At least these days you're old enough to vote to determine which bunch of politicians with no military experience of their own will misuse the military for the next four to eight years.

Catawampus wrote:Well, 16 is over the legal age of consent in most places. . .including Minnesota, I believe.

In the most states, yes, but that majority of states do not contain the majority of people. For instance, the AoC is 17 in NY, Illinois, Missouri, and Texas, and it is 18 in California and Florida. And of course all those various states have their own individual rules about close-in-age (aka, "Romeo & Juliet") relationships, as well in differences if the parties are married. There also used to be differences in whether the relationship was hetero or homo, but Loving v Texas wiped that out.

Wikipedia tells us that in Minnesota, it is comparatively simple. If the "actor" is in a position of authority, the age of consent is 18. If the younger party is under the age of 13, the older party must be no more than 36 months older. If the younger party is 13, 14 or 15, the other person must be no more than 48 months older.

This is very different than in many other states, where if either party is under XX years of age, the other party is considered a criminal (and tried as an adult!) even if both parties are the same age.

Try to wrap your head around that one. Two precocious 12yos get caught playing doctor. Both are charged with "rape of a child" or its equivalent, and are tried as adults--which means that the court is assuming that both parties have enough agency to commit a crime, but not to consent to sexual activity--making them adults and children at the same time, but only to better throw them in jail. Schrödinger's cat has nothing on this!

Thor wrote:In the most states, yes, but that majority of states do not contain the majority of people.

Well, I said most places, not most states or most American population centers. Despite what some Americans I've talked to seem to think, the rest of the world does manage to outnumber the US.

Not only is there stuff in the law that was stupid all along, there is stuff in the law that was reasonably sensible when enacted but is now stupid.

For example, it used to be the case that publishing pretty much anything was fairly resource-intensive, well beyond most people's means. So it was easy to write a sensible law about the publishing of kiddie porn. And for the punishments to start out very harsh, because it would be very rare for anyone inappropriate to be caught up in them.

Then there were some major advances in readily-available technology. Every 15-year-old kid with a smartphone (or even a semi-smart phone) is capable of producing and publishing kiddie porn, e.g. by taking a naked (or partially naked) selfie and sending it to the boyfriend/girlfriend of the week. Those old laws, and the punishments included, don't seem so sensible in such cases.

Catawampus wrote:

Thor wrote:In the most states, yes, but that majority of states do not contain the majority of people.

Well, I said most places, not most states or most American population centers. Despite what some Americans I've talked to seem to think, the rest of the world does manage to outnumber the US.

Well, if you really mean most places, then in most places there isn't any Age of Consent laws at all, since the universe (i.e. all the places) is largely filled with empty space that contains no people, and therefore, no government.

But since what you said was "in most places. . .including Minnesota", and since the strip does take place in the US, I don't think it was unreasonable to assume that a collection of places that included Minnesota would be Minnesota-like administrative districts, i.e., states.