I have been trying to wrap my head around these concepts laid out for all to read over at the Huffington Post:

I’ve had it with the Swiss.

I used to admire them — their clean, orderly, decorous way of life. Their stubborn independence and self-reliance. I forgave them for the years they never joined the United Nations, and even now, not joining the European Union.

When I learned, years ago, that they had blithely allowed German military trains to transit their country during the Second World War, while claiming Swiss “neutrality,” I was shocked, but tried to excuse them on grounds that they were protecting their country from invasion and armed warfare.

I was glad when they finally gave women the vote not so long ago. And I was glad when their banks initially balked at American demands to release the names of their American clients. Swiss banking secrecy, after all, has not been a ploy to launder dirty money; it has been a time-honored tradition to respect the privacy of their customers.

(May I add that Europeans have always been, and still are to a large degree, much more discreet about their money than Americans are.)

But now, not only are the Swiss bankers caving in to America’s bullying, so are the Swiss police and Swiss jurisprudence.

Arresting Roman Polanski the other day in Zurich, where he was to receive an honorary award at a film festival, was disgraceful and unjustifiable. Polanski, now 76, has been living in France for over thirty years, and has been traveling and working in Europe unhindered, but the Swiss acted on an old extradition treaty with the U.S. and seized him! The Swiss Justice Ministry will decide whether to extradite him to the United States.

The judge in the 1977 statutory rape case is dead. Polanski had agreed at the time to a plea bargain, but then the judge reneged on it. Polanski has tried to appeal.

But there is more to this story. The 13-year old model “seduced” by Polanski had been thrust onto him by her mother, who wanted her in the movies. The girl was just a few weeks short of her 14th birthday, which was the age of consent in California. (It’s probably 13 by now!) Polanski was demonized by the press, convicted, and managed to flee, fearing a heavy sentence.
I met Polanski shortly after he fled America and was filming Tess in Normandy. I was working in the CBS News bureau in Paris, and I accompanied Mike Wallace for a Sixty Minutes interview with Polanski on the set. Mike thought he would be meeting the devil incarnate, but was utterly charmed by Roman’s sobriety and intelligence.

Now, three decades later, the long arm of Uncle Sam is grabbing this man and hauling him back to California, thanks to the complicity of the Swiss. There are surely more important issues in the world, and more villainous rogues at large that we should be attending to. Why does America always get sidetracked by sex and scandal?

I suggest, in the finest American tradition, we protest this absurd and deplorable act by smashing our cuckoo clocks, pawning our Swiss watches, and banning Swiss cheese and chocolate.

And let them yodel all they like.

This wasn’t written by a random blogger, but by Ms. Joan Z. Shore, the co-founder of Women Overseas for Equality.

So let me get this straight… Ms. Shore (not known if she is of any relation to Pauly) is a co-founder of a women’s equality group. That usually involves fighting for the… rights of women. It seems that when it comes to a 13 year old girl being drugged and forcefully sodomized while begging for her attacker to cease, it is not worth fighting for if the perpetrator happens to be a “charming” and talented filmmaker? All of a sudden Polanski becomes the victim? It’s the mother’s fault that he drugged and raped her 13 year old daughter?

Michael Deacon, of the UK based Telegraph, dug up this quote made by Polanski well after he fled the United States:

“If I had killed somebody, it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But…(expletive that means sexual intercourse), you see, and the young girls. Judges want to (f word) young girls. Juries want to (f word) young girls. Everyone wants to (F word)  young girls!”

Now, I am not one of these cold-hearted cynics who would casually dismiss the fact that Polanski led a tragic life.  His parents were killed in the Concentration Camps of World War II and his wife was murdered by Charles Manson.  These facts undoubtedly led to serious mental and psychiatric anguish.

BUT… it does not excuse him for the crime of raping a 13 year old girl.  Ms. Shore is not alone.  Some on the Hollywood Left have also  jumped to the defense Mr. Polanski, most notably Whoopi Goldberg:

“I know it wasn’t ‘rape’ rape. I think it was something else, but I don’t believe it was ‘rape’ rape,” said Goldberg, dismissing the possibility that Polanski had forced himself on anyone.

I would like to ask these esteemed thinkers of the left what they define as the difference between “rape-rape” and boring old-fashioned rape when it involves a drugged 13 year old girl?  I thought they were supposed to be the experts on women’s equality, but maybe I’ll have to rethink that theory of mine.  

Would they still be rushing to the defense of Polanski were he not an esteemed filmmaker?  Would Roman Polanski, 8th grade gym teacher, be worthy of their support?  What about Roman Polanski, GOP congressman?   What about Reverend Polanski?  Were that the case would they be calling for rallies to his defense?  Would they be petitioning the French government, the Polish Government, the Swiss Government and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the release and a full pardon of Roman Polanski- creepy guy who drives the ice cream truck through their neighborhood that always pats the young females on their behinds?  Of course not, they are not an icon of the film industry, ala one of their own.

So much for equality and women’s rights these days…  Heck, let’s celebrate our children’s next birthday party at Uncle Roman’s house after he’s been relieved of this unjust mockery of justice that has followed him for the last 30 years.  I wonder how many of those who are jumping to his defense would be willing to bring the children to visit their old friend, the unjustly persecuted Mr. Polanski?