This is tough, but as opposed to the entitled rapist you described, I honestly think Weiner has a demonstrable mental illness.  The prognosis for those adults who are attracted to children is not good, treatment, rather than prison should be the direction to take.  

After all of the times Weiner was caught, he had to realize, as an intelligent man, what he was risking.  I don't believe he is a sociopath; I do believe he has an illness.  His life is pretty much over unless he can somehow use his intelligence to figure out how to turn this around.  For sure his marriage is over; his political future is done, but he could yet do some good.

Mr Preppy will do just fine, and will probably marry a trophy wife.  He will (possibly) recall the rape event as a funny thing that happened on his way home from a drunk party.  "Boys will be boys...chuckle chuckle."  

Yes, it is a weird time.  Normally I like weird, but not now.  

I suspect you don't know the narcissist Anthony Weiner, what a nasty piece of work he can be. And I suspect that the judge, a very distinguished woman, Denise L. Cote, with a liberal background,  got a good sense of his underlying lack of remorse, and figured that this is last chance for him, he needs a shock or he is lost. Whether it's a disease or not. (If it's a disease, Trump should get the same mulligan?)

From the last link: “The prosecutors are skeptical that I have truly changed and I don’t blame them,” he said. “I repeatedly acted in an obviously destructive way when I was caught.”

Huma Abedin to Hillary Clinton: This man is going to be the death of me. I took that when I first read it as not entirely metaphorical.

And no it's not about interest in underage girls. It's about being a self-centered creep who will sell anyone out for ego strokes and or fans. Gets high off of that. Just so happened liberal politics was one of the tools he used. That was insincere, mho. I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw a stick. He's they type who would throw anyone under a bus, anyone.  I actually do think he could be the literal death of someone, I think him a very dangerous man. I'm glad to see him get a sentence.

I also suspect you don't know what Weiner did. I don't think you're deliberately trying to misled us. It was not just a dick pic or dirty emails. Weiner had three skype chats with the teen, each time he convinced her to strip naked and fondle herself. If we're going to have a conversation on it we should have a conversation about his actual crimes.

Weiner has under gone treatment just like the prior two times. He's expressed remorse and claims he's rehabilitated, just like the prior two times. It appears one of your arguments is that the third time's a charm. I don't accept that. He was basically given a pass twice before. How often should he get a pass especially considering this crime was so much more severe than the previous two.

All societies for at least the last several thousand years have tended to trivialize sex crimes against women. As they do crimes committed by police. That's not an argument that the rare times such crimes are punished harshly that we should have matched the leniency of prior cases. It's not like there was wide spread acceptance of Turner's sentence. There was wide spread disagreement and protests over the sentence. The argument made was that the sentence should have been tougher. The whole point of BLM is that police should be held accountable for their crimes. Not that everyone should get the same pass the Turners or the police do.

I'll be honest and say what most of us know. While sexual attraction to prepubescent girls is likely rare and can likely be classified as a mental illness most men can find teen girls sexually attractive. That's not a mental illness that's normal. I didn't just find 15 year old girls attractive I was having a lot of sex with a 15 year old girl, when I was a 15 year old boy. I eventually married her when we were 20. If I had seen a picture of my wife at 15 when I was 25 I'm sure I would still have found her sexually attractive. I would not have been turned off because she looked so young. But at 25 I wasn't still trying to have sex with 15 year old girls. By the time I was 25 I know it would be wrong for me to use the power and sophistication that comes with age to seduce and manipulate 15 year old girls into sexual encounters.

I have little doubt that Weiner knew what was right and what was wrong. Most of us can find a 15 year old girl sexually attractive but we choose not to do wrong. He made a choice to do something he knew was wrong. We can decide that people who choose to do what they know is wrong are mentally ill. But we still have to decide how to punish them. 21 months for a third offense of escalating criminal behavior seems fine to me.

PP - I think you have presented a strong case for Weiner and your sentiments do align pretty well with mine. Yes, she reached out to him and this comes close to being entrapment in my view but still Weiner apparently knew full well he was sexting with a 15 year old. So, I would feel much more comfortable if all but one of the 21 months were suspended and he was ordered to stay off the internet for the rest of the sentence.

I'm not sure I get the relevance of your reference to adolescent boys and our Playboys. Weiner, of course, was an adult when he texted his weiner. On the other hand, you are correct of course when you point out that many who have done far worse have skated. Finally, there certainly appears be a political dimension to the draconian punishment meted out. Both left and right loathe the man.

He knew that might be the sentence when he did the plea agreement, it was stated. The sentence was crafted for one person only, Anthony Weiner. He nonetheless was trying to see if he could get away with convincing the judge not to execute that. Why not, I guess, you never know what you can get away with. The judge agreed with the two (female) prosecutors and the plea agreement: And then there's the "do unto Anthony as he would do unto others" thing, from the Times Sept. 20 report, (my underlining):

In Mr. Weiner’s plea agreement, prosecutors had said a sentence within the range of 21 to 27 months would be “fair and appropriate.”

In its memo to Judge Cote, of Federal District Court in Manhattan, the government also noted that Mr. Weiner, while in Congress in 2007, co-sponsored the “Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act,” a bill to require sex offenders to register their email addresses and instant-messaging accounts. The prosecutors said Mr. Weiner had, in public remarks, said “the internet is the predator’s venue of choice today.”

“Notwithstanding that he obviously grasped the importance of protecting minors from predatory conduct on the internet,” the prosecutors wrote, Mr. Weiner “readily engaged in extensive, inappropriate communications” with the girl. Such conduct, the prosecutors said, “suggests a dangerous level of denial and lack of self-control,” warranting a prison sentence.

I think he was crying in recognition that he would recommend this sentence if he were on the other side. Weiner always struck me as more Inspector Javert than Jean Valjean, as someone who really needs to learn to feel other's pain. He has scared me way back with his zealotry and hypocrisy when he was on the city council, he is a ruthless person, who will stop at nothing to get what he wants or needs or believes: The woman Anthony Weiner smeared speaks out The victim of the race-baiting attack that launched his political career talks to Salon, June 10, 2011. If I were the judge, I would look at the facts here of repeat offending and agreement to a plea and see a player in every sense of the word and say no, I'm not buying your tears. It is about who gets favorable treatment and who doesn't, that is precisely what it is about.