Pedophile Blogger Raises First Amendment Issues, Unbidden Big Lebowski Associations

Saturday's NYT had the tale of charmer Jack McClellan, self-declared pedophile and enthusiastic blogger...about the whereabouts of young children. He has no record, so no one can do much, except for cast him out like a pariah and plot how to change the law so he can no longer blog about how awesome his day at Disneyland was. Here's what his First Amendment rights get him:

He had been posting nonsexual pictures of children on a Web site intended to promote the acceptance of pedophiles, and to direct other pedophiles to events and places where children tended to gather.

An activist, yet. This guy sounds charming. Interesting issues raised here, as Eugene Volokh says, though it's sort of hard to feel bad for him, mostly because he's blogging unabashedly about being a pedophile. I mean, what does the dude expect? Either way, I can't help but be reminded of John Turturro as Jesus Quintana in The Big Lebowski, going door-to-door to advertise. Which leads to another knotty ethical question: Is it appropriate to take a serious article and use it as an excuse to run a funny clip, even if it's sort of tangentially linked? And what would Robin Givhan have to say about John Turturro's trousers? They're very tight.

Parents' Ire Grows At Pedophile's Unabashed Blog [NYT]