Are there Monsters?

Are there such things as Monsters? Depends on your definition of "monster", of course. Mythological beast of horn and fire? Probably not. Folks with malice in their hearts and evil in their deeds? Knowing evil? Probably - hard to argue against. Not that many of course - a very small percentage of the overall population. But their terror is so vile that their influence far outweighs their numbers - we all live in fear of less than 10% of any given population.

These are all Level 3 sex offenders, by the way. I can think of few things more evil than sexual predation on children. Which of course leads me to the disturbing events at Penn State revealed over the last week - which ruined sports radio for me over the weekend, thanks! Anyways, the similarity between the events at Penn State and the various Catholic Churches struck me as interesting - large, respected organizations actively covering up the heinous crimes of monsters lurking in their midst, all the while portraying an image of sanctity and moral respect. What's interesting to me is not the monsters - they're monsters after all. You can count on their predations. But rather, the complicity of otherwise "good" people who are aware of these horrors but actively choose to cover them up for the good of the Institution. Showing the power of the Institution. And it's all about Power, always (one way or another).