For the record, I believe I'm just being more honest than most elders when I concede an appreciation of youthful beauty. I also confess to appreciating and treasuring family, country, New York Yankee baseball, and pistachios. That said, I still don't know if Amanda Knox, the self-described "Foxy Knoxy" and reputed American "she-devil" who was convicted in Italy of murdering her roomie, British student Meredith Karcher, got a fair shake in her trial and if she merited her sentence of 26 years.Far from looking like the sweet young thang of three years ago, Amanda is now a tad dazed and haggard and anything but serene but she still proclaims her innocence in that horrendous crime and contends, "This is all an enormous mistake."Of course, except for terrorists, most criminals say their convictions were all mistakes, or they were framed, or that the devil made them do it but, nevertheless, as in the case of pedophile teacher Debra Lafave who was sentenced to probation rather than to 30 years, also in 2007, when her American judge judged she was far too pretty to be confined to jail, it seems natural for people, especially males, to cut some slack for pretty females.Even allowing that Lafave was spared prison for a crime of the flesh and Knox was convicted of murder, sexual assault, and obstruction of justice, there are certain similarities in the 2 cases, similarities predicated on young, female attractiveness, which in Debra's instance bought her a free ride on probation, in Amanda's instance resulted in a refusal by many to believe her guilt. In her last court appearance, "Knox, 23, broke down several times as she addressed the court for almost twenty minutes in an emotional and quivering voice, as she stressed she had nothing to do with Meredith's brutal murder. The American [note that British newspaper emphasis] also dismissed the prosecution's view of her saying she was not the 'dangerous, diabolical, jealous and uncaring' person she had been described as at her original trial, telling the court: 'That girl is not me.' " "Knox also expressed her sympathy towards Meredith's heartbroken family and friends and said: "I am very sorry that Meredith is no longer here:" [http://tiny.cc/zpclu] Whatever that girl was she and regardless of the final disposition in the matter of Foxy Knoxy, who was a wild 20 year old at the time of Karcher's murder, her proven life of abandon and sexual promiscuity may have been contributing factors. In turn, her licentiousness, loosed when she became free of familial and national bonds in Perugia, may have had its roots in America's teen role models and highly sexualized teen culture. For those not familiar with the sordid events of November 1st, 2007 in Perugia, Italy, see "Foxy Knoxy Re-Visited," [http://tiny.cc/en3tr] As L. Brent Bozell III points out in his article, "Exploiting the Teen Temptress," "Taylor Momsen shouldn't just blame her parents for her horrid behavior. The supposedly 'feminist' entertainment industry that can't wait until adulthood to exploit females for money needs also to be condemned. There's a whole lot of pimping going on:" [http://tiny.cc/phvlz] Taylor Who? Far from exuding the almost angelic innocence of another Taylor, Taylor Swift, Ms. Momsen, beginning at the ripe young age of 16, willingly touted her assets for the exploiters and for a public insatiable for all she had to offer. As Bozell explains, "Momsen's music video for the song 'Miss Nothing' featured her in raccoonish eye makeup wearing a white silk bodysuit, fishnet stockings and garters... a child, crawling, standing and lying on her back on a banquet table offering herself figuratively as a morsel for men twice her age." That was followed by her video, "Make Me Wanna Die," in which Momsen "walked down the street, systematically stripping until she stood in a fiery cemetery in her underwear and stockings," an appearance "on the cover of the hard-rock magazine Revolver wearing a skimpy black camisole, black panties, and the requisite garters and stockings," and a performance with her band The Pretty Reckless in New York where Momsen "upped the ante for the crowd, opening her shirt and exposing her breasts ('covered' by pasties)... Taylor Momsen made sure concert-goers saw Taylor Momsen topless on stage." She was still 16. Granted, Taylor Momsen was all of 13-and one can only guess at what she was up to then-when Amanda Knox allegedly went on her sexually-fueled rampage which caused the death of Meredith Karcher. However, that doesn't discount the effects of our so-called entertainment culture on Knox. That culture has long been immersed in cashing in on young beauties and on youthful indiscretion. The results were Foxy Knoxy convicted not of indiscretion but of murder and perhaps led into that abyss by America's obsession with and acquiesence to unrestricted, unaccountable sex and Taylor Momsen, inspired by that same free-wheeling culture, surrendering her innocence and youth. Is it any wonder that terrorists have receptive audiences when they preach about the moral degradation of Western society?