[Political Junkie Too]

If I were to put myself into the mind of an early 30something professional in rural Alabama in 1977, I'd be thinking the following:

• I'd like to find a wife who will keep the home while I'm working an unpredictable work schedule in law.
• I'd like to quickly find a wife who will be young enough to take care of me when I'm 70 (health care being what it was in 1977).

If I were to put myself into the mind of a parent of a 17-year-old girl in rural Alabama in 1977, I'd be thinking the following:

• I'd like my daughter to find a nice man with a good job to take care of her for the rest of her life.
• I'd like my daughter to find a nice man to take care of her so I don't have to pay for it anymore.

As it turned out, Roy Moore's wife is 14 years younger than he is. They married in 1985 when she was 24 and he was 38. He knew what he was looking for, and he found it.

I'm laying out a reason why there might be a pattern, but that the pattern is not a predation. Today, his opponents are trying to ex post facto criminalize his courting.

-PJ

[Gideon7]

This is a good analysis. The 14 year old is not credible IMHO, nor is the ‘locked me in the car’ (how in 1977?) with the probably forged Christmas yearbook.

[chuckles]

A few years ago, I was speaking of my father and his war record and mentioned He was 31 and my mother was 14 when they married. FR blew up! He joined the Army Air Corps in 1941 and flew bottom turret gunner in a B-24. He received several medals with the top being a DFC with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters. I still have the medals and the piece of flak he dug out of his parachute that is as big as a salt water sinker.

He came home and found my mother and asked my Grand Mother for her hand. She said yes due to my mothers siblings pretty much doing wrong things at the time. They married and my sister was born 3 years later and I was 3 years after that. They lived happily married for 57 years and dad passed away. I couldn't have had a more wonderful life with mom and dad. My father was a hero and literally the stuff this country is made of. My mother was smarter than many kids today in college with her 8th grade education. They were self employed their whole life and mom always ran the business.

Having said all this, It's just hard for me to say every man looking for a young woman is a pervert. I was 19 and my wife was 16 when we met. People tell me today I robbed the cradle. That was 46 years ago.