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Oh really? So if you have kids, you're perfectly happy not knowing that you're living next to a pedophile? Maybe I am and maybe I'm not. I'm strongly inclined

Oh really? So if you have kids, you're perfectly happy not knowing that you're living next to a pedophile? Maybe I am and maybe I'm not. I'm strongly inclined to agree with foldr that it would be mostly pointless to know that and cause me unnecessary angst. What I am sure of - and this was closer to the general thrust of my post - is that I don't need to know if my neighbour once had sex with his girlfriend in high school when, I don't know, say he was 18 and she was 16 (in states where age of consent is 18). In fact, there is absolutely no reason I should be mentally prejudiced against him as a "dangerous sex offender" and tell my kids to avoid like the plague on that basis. Yet that is exactly the kind of thing we do to people in this country.

anamax 17y ago
> Maybe I am and maybe I'm not. Good for you. However, it's unclear why your choice, either way, should bind someone who'd rather choose the other. > What I am sure of - and this was closer to the general thrust of my post - is that I don't need to know if my neighbour once had sex with his girlfriend in high school Not so fast. You're using inaccurate/irrelevant knowledge to argue against having accurate knowledge. (That's why I used the word "pedophile" and not "sex offender".) In this world, there's going to be knowledge. We can only affect how accurate it is. The public sex offender lists were in part a reaction to semi-public lists. Which would you rather have?