I say the guy takes his celebrity; hes always struck as smarmy and heartless.

i totally get the smartass comment but dude....

I'd be even more heartless if some bastard killed my kid, or even anyone I know's kid.

I'm with you on this one. You won't get many on your side, but my roommate and I bring this up just about every time his godawful mug slithers into my TV screen.

Further proof that you are more in sync with me and bloor than anyone on this board.

This pol actually stems from a debate Bloor and I have had for MANY years. It came up tonight and I told him to throw it up on the board and see what kind of response we get.

I hold that the guy would trade it all to get Adam back, but I am also a guy, that against all evidence to the contrary still believes his parents love him.

its not a smartass comment; i truly believe that its the truth; i know its not the most pleasant thing to talk about, but in George Bush's America, what is?

Walsh may have some distance from his past now, but keep in mind he and his wife founded the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and America's Most Wanted has captured a couple of thousand criminals. He may be a self-righteous crusader and may see everyone in terms of guilty-not guilty, without much gray areas, but it stemmed from real grief. He may be full of himself, but he's put countless hours of behind the scenes work into children's rights issues.

Would he trade in all of this "good" along with his celebrity to have his kid back? That's the question, not has he done any good or not since.

I'm not saying he doesn't love him, he just loves the spoils more.

I was addressing the smarmy/heartless postulation, which I don't believe motivates Walsh. I think he really is the crusading SOB he presents himself as. It means he rarely has the patience for the "why" behind criminal actions, but I don't think he's smarmy because he's a slithery weasel. I think he's that way because his son's death has made him hate all criminals. It's extreme, but I don't think it's insincere.

And, yes, he'd give it all up the fuck up to have his kid back.

I don't doubt that most celebrity charity crusaders (John Walsh/Bono/Jerry Lewis/take your pick...) enjoy the ego stroking they get for whatever causes they support. I'd even say that most everybody who does charity work, celeb or not, does it partially to gain a little personal glory.

And I have come to the conclusion that even if they are 100% motivated by ego stroking, it doesn't make what they do even 1% less valuable.

Nevertheless, Sally Struthers is fat.

Did his son's murder cause him to become an activist or was he already fighting crime?

I think maybe he wouldn't trade because of the countless lives he's saved in the process. It's a very popular mentality of activists like him.

No, when his son was abducted, he was a partner in a hotel management company.

Any parent knows the answer to this question.
He would give it all back.
The fame.
The good works.
The money.
Everything.

Trust me.
I never thought I was capable of killing another human being before my kids were born. But if anybody harmed a hair on either of their heads, I wouldn't hesitate. There wouldn't be enough death for the motherfucker.

He would give it all.

Is this one of the most moral questions, eg, would you sacrifice the life of one in order to save thousands? I doubt that most parents would sacrifice the life of their child in order to save others. But, the question also arises...if his child hadn't been abducted and murdered, would the sequence of events (ie, beginning the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, catching numerous criminals, etc) have occurred?

Just throwing fuel to the fire.


PS -- I think he'd give it all up to have his son back.

He would definitely take his son back. All his energy and effort he puts forth is so no parent has to go through the grief he has. It just so happens some good comes out of it and it probably eases his mind into coming to terms about what happened to his child. I don't believe any parent could get over such a loss, which is why he may come off as heartless.

Once you're a parent going to extremes takes on a whole new meaning.





How is a non-actor supposed to come across the TV as a spokes person advocating the capture of criminals? Warm and fuzzy?

to those of you that are bringing up the degree of vengence that you would extract upon a murderer, why would you react that way?

-Imagine the thing you love in life most...
-Now imagine that feeling being unconditional and multiplied by infinity...
-Now imagine that that thing you love so incredibly much that it is completely indesribable would actually be able to have a positive influence on the world all by itself -- independent of you -- an enormous bundle of unfulfilled potential and unconditional love FOR YOU, as well.

-Now imagine some asshole has the balls to take that away from you and from the rest of the world. To squash the potential before it has been able to come to full flower and, even if it has come to full-flower, to take away that thing you love so much. And to do so brutally, with malice, and causing great pain to that thing you love.

-Now that thing is a person.

And you know what? You still can't understand.
You just have to be a parent.

i don't think that i was questioning how much parents love their kids. i just don't understand who profits from revenge in this case. would it ease a parent's pain, or someone elses? a lot of people bluster up and tell you all these horrible things that they would do in this instance, but you rarely hear of anyone following through with it. if they did i'm sure that many more presidents would have been taken out, probably justifiably. i just wonder why, as i don't have much of an imagination and am pretty selfish.

I don't think it would do any good.
It wouldn't make anything any better.
But I would do it nonetheless.

If he DID give it up, all of the kids that would be saved because of America's Most Wanted would die. Who's smarmy and heartless now, you bastard?!

I'm not sure who this is aimed at.

The world, but mostly Yail Bloor.

And the dual punctuation mark indicates that I'm kidding.

Many parents, families, have sought the death penalty for the murder of a child, sibling, relative. I have no idea if they feel better for it or not. I think they are out for justice and making sure it does not happen again. Many see revenge not as a gain[profit], but an equalizer.

I think you are confusing revenge as through the justice of law compared with an all out personal capture and killing of such criminal.

yeah, you may have a point with this.