[JeffAtlanta]

So pagan Rome is our ideal?

Wow, you're really confused. You are the one that denied that child sex was something new to the world. I then pointed out that it wasn't new and quoted a well know example from 2000 years ago that you could look up.

Instead of verifying my information, you falsly said that my example was from "Rome in decline". You were wrong as the time of Augustus and Tiberius was Rome's highest point. That point is only relevant as it shows that you are truly ignorant of history yet still try to pass yourself off as some sort of authority of the history of sex.

Note that I also pointed out that prior to 1957, 15 year old girls were being married to older men. The theocons here see pre-1957 as a glorious time yet what we consider statutory rape today was no problem then.

[Antoninus]

You were wrong as the time of Augustus and Tiberius was Rome's highest point.

If you're an imperialist, you may view it that way. I'm sure the historians of the British Empire did. If you're a true small "r" republican, you see it as the sad and final destruction of Rome's ancient republican institutions and freedoms.

Actually, your statement is the height of irony and here's why:

Let me ask you. If in 2008, Howard Dean (just to pick a name) was elected president for life, assumed to himself all the powers of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches and turned Congress into a rubber stamp, had his political enemies proscribed and killed and their property seized, and started promulgating moral laws (like the Lex Julia for instance which demanded that all bachelors get married and have children) would you call it the highest point in American history?