February 2

Events

• Current events

• 1711 - A leader of men ... and boys .... - Prince Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz of Austria was born in Vienna on this date. His parents had destined him for the Church, and the age of thirteen years he already held a canonry at Münster. Soon, however, he gave up the idea of becoming an ecclesiastic, and studied law instead. He rose to become an important political figure not just in Austria, but in many parts of Europe. He Single-handedly engineered an alliance between traditional enemies France and England. personally, he had a strong and well-deserved reputation for being extremely vain, arrogant, and eccentric. he also constantly surrounded himself with teen boys and young men to please his sexual desires.

• 1978 - Hiding in plain sight - Widely respected Polish director Roman Polanski had sex with a 13 year old girl (following champagne and Quaaludes) in Jack Nicholson's hot tub. Polanski, then 44 and known for directing Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown (and for being the widower of Manson murder victim Sharon Tate), pleaded guilty to unlawful intercourse with a minor but fled to France on this date before his sentencing. Polanski carved out a life for himself in exile, directing such films as Tess, Frantic and The Pianist, for which he was awarded several awards in the US that he could not come to receive. Polanski hasn't been able to return to the United States, despite the fact victim Samantha Gailey (now Geimer) has said repeatedly it would be fine with her. In 1997 she said "it was the media that ruined my life." The warrant for his arrest remains open.

• 1998 - Just because they call themselves "ethical" does not make it so - The activities of a group calling itself "Ethical Hackers Against Pedophilia" (EHAP) were widely reported on on this date. "The pedophiles that are distributing child pornography online are skirting the law by remaining anonymous. We decided to use the skills that we possess as hackers, engineers, and teachers to educate the public that hackers aren't all bad guys, and to help law enforcement in apprehending the child pornographers," said EHAP's secretary, who just goes by the name "Oracle." It was further reported that EHAP digs up the Social Security numbers of people it suspects are producing and distributing child porn on the Net and as a confidential informant passes on these details to various law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI. The reports noted the serious privacy concerns of these invasions of people who have been accused or convicted of nothing and the possible use of illegally obtained information by the cops. They also noted that it is entirely unknown if any of their hacking had lead to any serious investigations or arrests.

• 2001 - "Suffer little children to cum onto me" - The religious organization called "Discerning the Times" expressed their outrage on this date about television shows that they just didn't get. Their prime target? South Park. They wrote, "South Park goes out of its way to portray Jesus and his name in the context of a NAMBLA-style homosexual child rapist." They added, "Homosexuality and pedophilia are also recurring themes in South Park. The characters have a teacher, Mr. Garrison, who is openly gay and attempts to lure the students to have sex in a chat room on the Internet." It is not known if Trey Parker and Matt Stone were aware of the complaint, but if they were I bet they would have said, "Cool! Free advertising!"

• 2002 - Doctor, doctor, give me the news.... - Dr. Philip Barker was a prominent child psychiatrist in Calgary, Canada. He was described as having "most impressive credentials in child and adolescent psychiatry" by one Alberta judge after he served as an expert witness in a child custody matter. On this date he was arrested at a seedy downtown Calgary hotel. He was charged with trafficking in a controlled substance and possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking--and soon after, with procuring a youth for sex, and causing a child to need protection. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. He has not been called upon to testify as an expert since then, except in his own defense.