but any adult who would rather hang out with 13-year-olds than other adults is damaged.

Wow, I really don't believe that's inherently true. I love Emmett's godsisters, and I was just emailing the elder (16) yesterday. She's a cool and interesting person. Is everybody who coaches teenagers suspect?

eta: okay I skimmed over the "rather than other adults" part. But while I truly understand the caution, I think there's too much freakin' paranoia on the issue as well. There's nothing healthy about Maude Flanders' battle cry of "But what about the children?" either.

David, you clearly prefer adults to children for most of your social interaction. That does not mean you don't love kids and hanging out with them.

You love adults and kids, DavidS. You have a social life beyond hanging out with your godsisters.

The point is that an adult whose primary social outlet is kids -- not just a professional coach, but somebody who then spends his evenings with more kids -- is disturbing.

Rather is the operative word. I love hanging out with kids, but I don't ONLY hang out with them.

I was going to say what Jesse said. If I intentionally made my face look like that, I hope you all would not allow your children near me.

Am I the only person who wouldn't want my child to think of Michael Jackson as an appropriate adult role model, even assuming he's not a molester??

Not every valuable adult in a child's life is an "appropriate role model".

We had an elderly neighbor when I was a kid. He grew his own roses and made pickled quail eggs, both of which he brought to us. His own grandchildren lived far away and we were his little girls -- he gave us a gold add-a-bead every birthday and Christmas. He was also something of a redneck and made occasional bigoted (though he wouldn't have seen them that way) statements.

I loved him, and I knew he was wrong in that. Sometimes I called him on it. I discussed the dichotomy with my Mom a lot. I was eight.

Even just from pictures, I still think MJ is more fucked up than an otherwise lovely bigot.

I'm certainly very cautious with Emmett, but there are any number of adults I'd trust him to spend time with alone.

But you're talking about people you know well, right? Not Joe Schmo from down the street who happens to have an X-Box and unlimited candy in his basement? I think that's the difference.

The point is that an adult whose primary social outlet is kids -- not just a professional coach, but somebody who then spends his evenings with more kids -- is disturbing.

Yes, this. There are celebrities who are very involved with child-directed charities -- Paul Newman, for example -- who don't give off a vibe of wanting to be children again themselves.

If I intentionally made my face look like that, I hope you all would not allow your children near me.

After two or three nose jobs (not freakishly unusual in celebrity circles) his nose collapsed (happened to Jennifer Gray too but they could fix hers) and they've been tweaking ever since. And his tight skin looks like a burn victim -- which he is...

I'm not convinced it's all that intentional is all.

Yeah. As a single person that enjoys kids' company, I'd hate for it to look like I "enjoyed kids' company". But I also don't spend a lot of time stockpiling well, bait, to get them here, either.