The "story of a non-story" issue
POSTED BY: Niki2
UPDATED: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 01:31
VIEWED: 6454
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Okay, this guy wrote what I was trying to say when I put up that other post about Weiner---which then became a long diatribe about Weiner himself, thereby proving my and his point. He does it more eloquently than I did or could have:Quote:
In the last two days we learned again what we learned two weeks ago - and before that two months ago - and before that a little over two years ago. We'll learn it again in another two months. People are sexual deviants. Damn near all people.
Congressman Anthony Weiner has already admitted sending "check-me-out" pics through Twitter. Several women have claimed that he engaged in phone sex, "sexting" little "Haiku's" like, "ridiculous bulge in my shorts now. wanna see?" With all of this, he joins a long list of politicians caught in sex scandals. A list that includes:
• Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who fathered a love child with the maid while married
• Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards who fathered a love child with a videographer while married
• Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who hired prostitutes
• Louisiana Sen. David Vitter, who hired prostitutes
• South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford ,who had an extramarital affair with an Argentinean girlfriend
• Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, who had an extramarital affair with an Israeli boyfriend
• Former Nevada Sen. John Ensign, who had an extramarital affair with a staffer's wife
• Former New York Rep. Chris Lee, who trolled for girls on Craigslist and sent shirtless muscle pics while married
• Former Florida Rep. Mark Foley, who sent instant messages to teenage boys working as congressional pages
You could add to that list names like Thomas Jefferson, Grover Cleveland, Warren Harding, FDR, Dwight Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, Bill Clinton and your neighbor Frank. I can't help but laugh at the collective indignation we indulge with each new story.
Because here's the difference between these guys and your average cross-section of "normal" American men:]u] When these guys get caught, you hear about it. Let me be clear, this isn't to excuse Weiner or any of these men, I'm just saying don't be so surprised, don't be so naive, and tread a little carefully with your moralizing.
You cannot imagine what the guy in the cubicle next to you is imagining.
The point is that if you rip back the covers on many people's thoughts and actions, you're going to find some shocking things. Is what Weiner did creepy? Yes. Is it unique? Deviant? I'm not so sure. A new book entitled "A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the World's Largest Experiment Reveals about Human Desire" chronicles the work of two scientists who studied a massive trove of online sex-related search data to find out what people really want. The book reveals:
• Straight men enjoy a wider variety of erotica than imagined, including sites devoted to elderly women and transsexuals
• Straight men prefer heavy women to thin ones
• Straight men have a fascination with other men's penises
• Men fantasize about group sex far more than women and picture more men than women in the action
Combine these kinky revelations with findings that anywhere from 20% to 50% of people cheat and 15% of men have online sex, it gets hard to define what is "deviant." (If it's not obvious, I'm just laying the groundwork of rationalizations for the day my laundry is aired.)
All that said, I have the hardest time understanding Weiner. I mean, I think most guys -- even those committed to a faithful relationship with their wives -- can understand, without excusing, the fidelity issues of some of the men listed. But sending out pictures of your excited pants to women you've never met? I know Weiner's not the only one to do this; I just don't get it.
The best explanation came from some of my favorite radio guys on KTCK The Ticket in D
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I'm not particularly shocked or outraged that Rep. Weiner was having phone hanky-panky with women who were not his wife. I'm shocked and outraged at how positively INEPT he was - both about the texting and the cover-up. I'm not sure I want someone this clueless involved in running the country.
The best comment I've heard about the whole thing was on WAMU's 'Tell Me More' in a discussion on whether Rep. Weiner should resign. One of the panelists said that she was going to use the incident to help teach her teenage son that anything you put out on the Web can end up everywhere.
"Keep the Shiny side up"
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I concur with Geezer.
Also, no, this is not normal. The left likes to scream "sexual harassment" at much less than sending pictures of your cock to someone. Really, what would you do if your professor sent his cute female students pictures of his cock? Would you think that was normal and appropriate behavior? Sure, he's human, but he's also in a position of authority. He's holding an office that should expect a level of behavior.
Three other things struck me about this story:
1) Wiener gave us his iron clad guarantee that his word was good, which is a different level of lie than when the president made misstatements on the campaign, and when someone pointed out that they weren't true he was like "you're right, I apologize." That's the level of exaggeration that normal humans are prone to, but most people when called do not stand firm and then wait to see if the good people will string up someone else, a solution that sociopaths seem very at ease with.
2) Wiener came across as smarmy, ridiculing and dismissing his detractors, as if he believed himself to be of a special class to whom the rules did not apply.
3) Twitter is a public forum. How absolutely stone stupid do you have to be to harass people by posting lewd messages and pictures to a public forum? I mean Bill Clinton was a creep by asking a woman to come to his room, and then whipping out his cock. He was a creep for pretending to hear about Vince Foster's death on national TV, when he'd actually heard about it an hour and a half early. He pretended to be struck by grief, collapse, and we were supposed to worry he was having a heart attack. Here's what he didn't do: He didn't invite a college student on to the show to join him so he could whip out his cock at her on national television. Why? Because he's dumb, he's but he's not Wiener dumb. Not sure anyone is.
Is this the point you really want to make here? If not, maybe you should let sleeping dogs lie.
ETA: Geez, particularly I liked how Wiener could not shut up about it when he confessed. He confessed to far more than he had been accused of. Got a little of that from old Strauss Kahn too. "No, I bang chambermaids all the time. I usually they shut up when I give them the hush money. You should have seen this hot little number down in Guatemala..."
That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.
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Quote:
Good point, Geezer, but when I look at how inept NUMEROUS politicians are right on the House floor, I don’t see a lot of difference to be honest.
I'm shocked and outraged at how positively INEPT he was - both about the texting and the cover-up. I'm not sure I want someone this clueless involved in running the country.Quote:
MOST excellent point; everyone should! That actually would make a GOOD story, in my opinion, and IS popping up here and there.
she was going to use the incident to help teach her teenage son that anything you put out on the Web can end up everywhere.
Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off 
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Quote:I disagree. I think both ides are equally prone to moral indignation, whether couched in terms of “sexual harrassment” or “bad family values” or whatever is useful at the time.
The left likes to scream "sexual harassment" at much less than sending pictures of your cock to someone.
Quote:Also true of miscreants on both sides; Vitter not only stayed on, he got a rousing APPLAUSE when he returned to the House! As to:
He's holding an office that should expect a level of behavior.
1. Right on. I agree 100% and that, to me, was the very worst thing about this whole deal.
2. Also agreed. But I don’t think he holds the title of most smarmy OR that he’s the only one to believe the laws don’t apply to him. There’s an awful lot of that in politics; politicians seem to have some weird idea that they can get away with things regular people can’t, they also seem to frequently seem to believe they ARE of a different class and the rules don’t apply to them.
3.
Quote:I know, that is the one that blows my mind the MOST...and not just about Twitter. Politicians do the most assinine things and seem to think nobody will notice; I mean, how stupid do you have to be to think you can run for President with a mistress, child out of wedlock, and wife dying of cancer??? That is just totally insane to me. I think it’s more a matter of these people not being familiar with social networking; until recently, it wasn’t even part of a politician’s life, so it’s new to them and they’re showing their ignorance. I don’t think it’s much beyond someone saying they’re going to hike the Appalachian trail, or being caught coming home with a boy toy and claiming he’s there to carry your baggage, or so many of the absurd things our legislators are caught doing, it’s just that this is a new way to do it and they haven’t caught on yet. Hopefully they have by now, but I wouldn’t put money on it!
How absolutely stone stupid do you have to be to harass people by posting lewd messages and pictures to a public forum?
Your cartoon totally fails, for me. The REASON right-wingers are called hypocrites is their CLAIM TO BETTER VALUES. Thus THEY set higher standards for themselves, nobody else does. If they didn’t go on and on about their moral superiority, it wouldn’t BE hypocrisy, they’d be sleaze bags just like Democrats who do such things are and that would be that. But when you put yourself out as such a high-and-might, moral entity, and sneer at others, then are caught doing things of a similar ilk, who could REFRAIN from pointing out the hypocrisy? How many of these sleaze bags have come down LOUDLY on scandals of those in the other party, then been caught themselves? It’s not just Republicans; when “men of God” turn out to be sleaze bags, the whole WORLD laughs at them. If you put yourself above others, you’re bound to be labeled a hypocrite when you behave the same way.
Weiner going on and on disgusted me, too...partly because it was taking up air time better used and the media ate it up; NONE of them seemed to have rejected the opportunity to “interview” him. If he’d shut up, I’d have been most grateful, whether he was guilty or NOT.
As to whether “normal” or not, it’s pretty obvious that, in the world of the internet, it’s DEFINITELY relatively normal. The article I posted shows that. So does that show, what was it called...”Predator”something...where they catch people who try to meet women they conversed with lewdly on the internet. That show could have run forever, there are so many out there, it just got repetitive and boring. This kind of activity is very common, it’s just that, as the author pointed out, when it’s someone FAMOUS, it becomes “news”.
Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c9
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gorram non-working edit button...
Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off
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Niki,
You have a good point that this sort of degenerate ineptitude is common in the halls of congress, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't start booting them out one at a time, esp. when they hand us their own heads on a platter.
Of course, the replacements have to be better, which is why it is incumbent on both sides to attack their own side, rather than the opposition, so they can both rid themselves of their albatrosses and weed their new crop for actual good candidates.
(I actually think Herman Cain is a good candidate, but at this very moment I could not conceivably support a former nat'l gas exec unless he was very clear on the environment. This one appears to be "drill baby drill")
But if we keep working on it, better candidates will come.
Here's an example of success: Rhode Island had a democrat for senate who was thoroughly corporate and corrupt, so the democrats voted for Chafee. Locally, they took their own party to task, and as it stayed out of power, it got weaker, and eventually caved to its progressive wing, and they got a decent candidate, Whitehouse, who then went on to win the election, and be a progressive in the Senate.
This is what we need to learn to do in NY, and they *really* need in PA (where the dems and gop are no different and are almost as corrupt as AZ.)
ETA: Here's the thing: Arguing against the right will never get you where you want to be. The right will never cave to your dislike of them, and it will not get you what you really need: Better democrats.
Let folks like Hardware fight to get better republicans. Fight to get better democrats. You and I may disagree, and we may disagree with a number of people here on the board, but how much nicer it would be to sit down with a govt. filler with these guys, normal people, with some good ideas, with whom you just happen to have some disagreements, then to sit down in a room full of oil execs and arms merchants and drug dealers and then try to get some decent policy.
It will never be an all red or all blue world. But it can be a better than Harry Reid vs. Mitch McConnell.
That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
I'm not particularly shocked or outraged that Rep. Weiner was having phone hanky-panky with women who were not his wife. I'm shocked and outraged at how positively INEPT he was - both about the texting and the cover-up. I'm not sure I want someone this clueless involved in running the country.
-Frem
I do not serve the Blind God.
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I know Frem's posted that picture before, but the thing I like best about it is the suggestion that the viewer has been tied up damsel in distress style on some train tracks, and then the villain ASKED you to take the picture. Possibly while a train is coming from the other direction, because it adds some extra irony.
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Well if you want it done right...
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PragmaticVillainy
-F
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