Is it okay to have sex with little boys?

As long as you win football games? I mean, seriously, is it? But the question is not for Jerry Sandusky (an obvious yes) or Joe Paterno (a posthumous yes, as it turns out). It’s for Penn State University and the people who form it. Ever since this scandal worthy of an Roman emperor broke, a goodly portion of the students, alumni and other members of the college populace have made it clear that they, too, place triumph at the gladiatorial games above the unenviable fate of their hero’s underage sex toys. I’d like to hear a convincing answer from them, yes or no: if you’re a winner, can you screw kids in the shower if you want to?

For starters, let’s have someone shut the loathsome Paterno family the fuck up. They’ve obviously used the millions siphoned off from the university accounts into Paterno’s pocket (while the scandal was unfolding, for god’s sake) to hire expert PR firms and lawyers to salvage the reputation of their pathetic relative. Too late—the sooner everyone forgets you’re related to him, the better. It must be tough to learn that godlike Joe wasn’t above sacrificing the mental and physical health of minor children to his continued rule—Tiberius would have understood. But forget them: it’s the whole university’s job to grasp and absorb the depth of the moral bankruptcy that infected central Pennsylvania. The longer they wait, the harder it will be.

That’s one reason I agree that the entire Penn State football program should be suspended for at least one year. Institutional collapses of this sort merit institutional sanctions, which are not collective punishment. Maybe if the football circus suddenly ceases to exist, the hard-partying students will stop and think a little before pouring into the streets, as they did last year when the story broke, to denounce the idea that their mighty ones should be held to any standards of civilized conduct.