Who knew that in France quaaludes, champagne, and raping little girls is all the rage? Forget Thailand, pedophiles of the world, France is the place that you want to go. Well, at least as long as you’re an admired artist like Roman Polanski.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called the apprehension a “bit sinister. A man of such talent, recognized in the entire world … all this just isn’t nice.”

French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand told French news media, “In the same way that there is a generous America that we like, there is also a scary America that has just shown its face.”

And this wasn’t just some minor breach of etiquette or confusion on the part of the director and while her age is certainly a part of the story, had she been 18 this still would have been rape. Roman Polanski is a rapist.

The victim, Samantha Geimer, was a ninth-grader when Polanski told her mother he wanted to shoot pictures of her for a French magazine. He gave the girl alcohol and drugs and raped her as she pleaded with him to stop.

He’s a man who raped a little girl and then fled the country. He was warmly embraced by his adopted country, allowed to continue to make movies, and even awarded by his peers for those films. He did something utterly unconscionable and was never made to pay the cost for those actions--and, regardless of how good those movies may have been, I am baffled by the sympathy for the man.

It’s far, far past time that he paid for his crimes.

Read the rest.