Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
I really don’t know whether Gavin Newsom is going to survive this. The fitness of our high officials for public office, and how said fitness is damaged by personal indiscretions, is probably the one thing in our governmental process that is left more up to public whim than anything else. It all depends on the desire of the commoners to control each other.
The desire part, I think, is something that applies to all of us…but completely engulfs nobody. We all have a desire to uphold each other to some moral standard, and we all have a desire to be left alone. Most of us can noodle things through with sufficient cohesion, to understand some sort of compromise is necessary. Without it, we paint ourselves into the corner of insisting upon conduct and inspection we aren’t willing to accept in our own lives. And so, nearly all of us understand there’s a line somewhere.
The public whim part is a little trickier. It depends on some kind of personal “antenna” that allows certain individuals to understand what is going on with the prevailing viewpoint. I have less of this antenna than most people. I seem to be missing it entirely.
I am still shocked to this day that Bill Clinton “got away with it.” It’s fair to say in my lifetime, this is the one event in American politics that strayed furthest away from my predictions, at the moment it was oncoming and at any other moment. I never would have expected he or anyone else could waggle a finger at the camera and insist “I didn’t do it,” get tripped up with DNA evidence, and — finally — not only survive, but build up a sick cult following celebrating how cool it was that he dodged the bullet. I mean, what the FUCK.
I don’t get it. In the years since, many an exasperated soul has tried to explain it to me. Something to do with separating “performance in public office from his private life.” They think I’m failing to distinguish something important; I think they’re splitting hairs. Lying is lying, right?
And as if some omnipresent Kismet decided my point needed to be proven, along comes Mayor Gavin. The very people lecturing me about the distinction between public and private, are wondering how they can trust Newsom who was screwing his friend’s wife.
Nine years ago, conservatives were saying (before liberals shushed them up) “How can we trust Bill Clinton when we know he has been lying to Hillary?” Mmmmkay…no reasonable answer need be forthcoming to this, because the question is indecent. Alrighty. Now the same folks are scratching their heads over Gavin…who was routinely lying to some guy on his staff…some guy who was not Gavin’s wife.
Yes you can’t do this if you’re Gavin Newsom, unless you’re the kind of guy to whom lying comes fairly easily. Riiiiggghhhttt. That’s the point. Adulterers are liars, by definition. Try fornicating with the wife of someone you know. Try doing it when you’re married to another woman. Try doing this…without lying.
You will lie, and if you don’t like lying you’re going to stop. If you keep going because you get a thrill out of it, you get a thrill out of lying. End of story.
Judgmental? You’re goddamn right. Maybe even hypocritical. I don’t like my public officials lying to me.
But don’t blame me for anything. We already had a nationwide referendum on whether elected officials should keep hanging around after they’ve been busted for cheating and lying, and I said once they get caught they’re gone. All these Clinton-lovers who are so genuinely shell-shocked over Newsom’s shenanigans, I suppose they’re getting an education about why exactly this is.
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[…] So in late January San Francisco was rocked by a scandal: The Mayor, Gavin Newsom, dorked his best friend’s wife. Here’s what piqued my interest. Name the issue: In San Francisco, things play differently than they do anywhere else. Name an issue that has something to do with men screwing women, or vice versa, or men screwing men or women screwing women. Something to do with fornicatin’. San Francisco becomes an even more different place. […]
- House of Eratosthenes | 04/30/2007 @ 22:23