If what I am about to post is true, then the extent to which those in charge protect themselves is unlimited.

I can confirm the "what" in this story.

If a report I've read as to the possible "why" comes out true, this gets scary in an awful hurry.

Hidden in all the Olympic stuff, we find out that, in the last couple of weeks (and under some very bizarre circumstances), the mother of Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. was kidnapped, taken for a ride, and then left safely.

I spent tonight looking into more information regarding the Penn State investigation as to whether there was a wider pedophile ring, and that the football program was, in effect, as much a front for a pedophile ring as was Second Mile.

Among other things I've found, I found this article.  Doesn't appear to be from the most reputable of sources, but, yet, there are a couple things in here which give serious cause for thought.

• There was a police officer in the Philadelphia schools who was already being molested by someone else (the pedophile died before trial fifteen years later) who was brought to Second Mile in 1979 by said pedophile, who knew Sandusky and who knew of the ring.
• There are members of Second Mile's board who don't even know they are on the board in the first place.  The article referenced lists them as "honorary members".
• Even if they had, they had little to no real decision-making power, even in the transference of remaining assets after Sandusky was exposed.
• Cal Ripken Jr. was one of these "honorary members", and distanced himself from the organization upon the revelations in November of last year.

So here's the question:

Was the football culture and pedophilia ring so intertwined that parties within both decided to threaten to "disappear" Cal Ripken Jr.'s mother as a message to her son?

The kidnapping occurred in the last week of July of this year.

One has to wonder if a number of parties (some of whom, it is believed, have tried to win Sandusky's freedom, hook or crook) have decided to force silence on everyone around Second Mile, with any and all threats on the table.

If this is true -- and there is little to no evidence of that at this time -- then one has to wonder what lengths people will go to preserve their status quo...