Some local flavor

This Larry Mendte/Alycia Lane deal is interesting to me on several levels. For the uninitiated, a local news anchor (Mendte) has been charged with reading his co-anchor's (Lane) e-mail several hundred times over the course of three months or so. Without going into details, which you can read here, the interesting line in the local paper that caught my eye was when the prosecutor said, "This is the tip of the Mendte iceberg." That's fascinating to me, because as we all know, deviant behavior isn't an isolated incident. There's a lot buried under the surface.

When you add in the fact that Larry makes $700,000 for reading and his wife (Dawn Stensland) makes about half that much, you'd have to stop and ask yourself how much money people need to be happy. Apparently, Larry was unhappy because Alycia made $50,000 more than he, and as a result he began hacking into her e-mail (or Mendte-mail as I want to call it) in an attempt to discredit her and make himself look better. Now that Larry is facing jail time and Alycia is exonerated, I'd say that the shoe is on the other foot, as it were.

Our local bridge tolls are going from $3 to $4 starting in September. Four dollars to cross a bridge. I know, people in New York are laughing, but it's ridiculous to charge that much to cross the Delaware River. In an Inquirer article, it was disclosed that a toll-taker earns (earns?) $43,000 a year for doing this (turning my hand upward). What is even more ridiculous is that the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) is holding public hearings to listen to citizens' reactions to the toll increase. They had an audience of 50 people. 50. That tells me that the greater majority realizes that these hearings are a fraud and regardless of opposition, they're going to increase the toll, so just bend over and take it.

They've given millions of dollars to local aquariums, stadiums and entertainment venues; and now they tell us that they're over budget and need another hundred or so million to repair the bridge - which is what we are supposed to be paying for.

Move here and you'll figure it out.

And now -- the big story...

Angela Honeycutt, 38 of Lower Makefield Township is accused of engaging in sex acts with two of the boys, ages 14 and 15. The crimes allegedly occurred during a teen sleepover in April at the home of a female friend of Honeycutt's, who lived in the neighborhood. The boys testified that Honeycutt had danced provocatively, discussed sex with them, and kissed two or three of them before disrobing and heading for the shower.
"She asked if anyone would want to join her in the shower...," the 15-year-old testified. "I wasn't planning on having sex when I entered the bathroom. After stuff happened, I changed my mind." The boy said he told police about the incident two days later, leading to charges that have drawn national media attention. His family reportedly has moved to another community to escape notoriety.

So, here's the thing. If you reverse the genders and it's a 38-year old man having sex with 15-year old girls, they're going to put a GPS device on his ass and expel him from society. When it's a woman and young boys the common reaction is, "Wow, where was she when I was 15?" I never went to houses where the kids' mom asked me to take a shower with her, so in some ways I blame myself.

If it had happened to a young girl you'd say she would be scarred for life, but when it's a boy you're figuring it helps make him a man. That's sexist, right?

A 15-year-old boy said Honeycutt was "making out" with another teen and dancing "like a stripper" in a bedroom. At one point, he said, Honeycutt's daughter wandered into the room, saw her mom dancing, and left. The two women took the young girl home, returning in about an hour. Both had been drinking wine, the boy said.
The conversation turned to sex, the boy said, and "Ms. Honeycutt was telling us her fantasies."
After all but three boys and the two women had gone to bed, Honeycutt openly disrobed and walked to the shower, the teens testified. One of the 15-year-olds said he followed and got into the shower with her. A few minutes later, the boy testified, he ducked his head out of the bathroom door, asked the other 15-year-old for a condom, and had sex with Honeycutt in the shower. Honeycutt emerged briefly afterward, smoked a cigarette and exposed herself again, the witnesses said. She then returned to the shower, this time followed by the 14-year-old.
In a voice that could barely be heard, the youth said he engaged in two sex acts in the shower with Honeycutt, but did not have intercourse.

Now, ask yourself what sort of "sex act" does not involve intercourse. Talk amongst yourselves.