Observation

by Liberty and Power

Considering the state’s long bloody record, asking it to solve any problem is like asking the registered sex offender down the street to baby-sit.

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Sheldon Richman - 12/2/2004

I left myself open to that.

Mark Brady - 12/2/2004

The "shatteringly handsome" Bertrand was Colette's stepson. "Though the affair with Bertrand soon came to an end - on discovering his wife's relationship with his son, Henry de Jouvenel made sure that Bertrand was married off to a suitable nearby heiress - the Younger Man remained a staple of Colette's existence." See Terry Castle's review of Thurman's book here .

Mark Brady - 12/2/2004

You're point is taken but I have to say that's somewhat unfair to many registered sex offenders. They're not all pedophiles. My understanding is that if someone, who may be just over the age of consent, is convicted of sex with a person just below the age of consent, he/she has to register as a sex offender. And the age of consent in many U.S. states is higher than applies in most countries in Europe and much of the rest of the world. For example, if the magnificent forty-seven-year-old Colette (1873-1954) had seduced the sixteen-year-old Bertrand de Jouvenel (1903-1987), future classical liberal and distinguished member of the Mont Pelerin Society, in Virginia today and she were convicted, she would have had to register as a sex offender. For the full story, see Judith Thurman's Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette (Knopf, 1999).