The polls show Anthony Weiner dropping to 4th place in the New York Mayor’s race, and rightly so. He’s too creepy even for New York, and while most New Yorkers couldn’t care too much about your personal sex life, they do care if you lie to them about it.
And that’s the main problem, isn’t it? He didn’t break any laws (unlike Eliot Spitzer) but he certainly cheated on his wife — oh, maybe not in the strictest sense, but I can’t imagine any spouse thinking this kind of activity is perfectly fine. And that, in and of itself, lets you know something about his character.
When Weiner first got into the race, my wife said “Eh, it’s behind him; he may have problems but he’ll be a good mayor and I like his political views.” But he’s gone too far for her too now.
It’s all a balancing act in some ways. We are willing to overlook some of our leaders’ problems. No one is perfect. JFK cheated on his wife, too. So did Eisenhower. Waiting to find a perfect person to represent you is difficult, and maybe that’s one of the reasons many qualified people decide never to run.
But, you know, when you apologize, say it’s all behind you, say you’ll never do it again, and then you do it again and creepier than before — well, you shouldn’t be surprised that you lost our support.
Yesterday, a friend of mine posted another one of those silly internet things meant to make Obama look like an evil Muslim Atheist Socialist bent on destroying America. This one accused him of removing “In God We Trust” off the coins.
To my friend’s credit, when I pointed out that (a) The coins were introduced in 2007 when George W. Bush was President and (b) The coins do have “In God We Trust” on them, he apologized grudgingly.
But the point of this post is not about the coins. We could discuss whether coins even should say “In God We Trust” on them at all. (For those playing at home, the correct answer is “no.”)
The point is that sometimes we are so anxious to believe something, we accept it without even checking to see if it’s true. (For the record, snopes is once again your friend.)
A few days earlier, a left wing blog posted an article which claims they have proof that the George Zimmerman rescue of some people stuck in a car after an accident was not true. The site claimed a police officer sympathetic to Zimmerman called him when the accident happened and told him to show up and pretend to be saving the people. Apparently, he arrived but had little to do with anything, and that’s why the victims of the accident haven’t come forth to thank him or anything.
Is this possible? Is it believable? Sure. It makes more sense to imagine that happening than to assume that he coincidentally just happened to be at the site of the accident only a few weeks after the verdict when he needed to redeem his image among many Americans.
But it’s reported on a site with an agenda; a site that is just as suspect as Fox News should be to everyone else.
When I see this reported on some mainstream, more respectable sites, then I’ll give it some credence, but for now, I am suspicious.
And that’s the lesson for today.
I thought I’d share this Facebook post from American Atheist President David Silverman, as it might start a nice conversation:
“This is why we are the good guys and they are the bad guys. There is no bill in any state trying to force atheism on anyone. All our moves are defensive, all the time.
Take the religion back out of science class. Give women back full rights over their own bodies. Get that religious icon back off public property. Take the religion back off the money, and back out of the Pledge. Everything, every lawsuit, every complaint, every fight we fight as a movement is all defensive, all pro-equality. We demand religion stay out of our lives, and we are hated for it by those who know we are right, but don’t want to (or can’t) admit it. We want only that which we would want done to us – equality.
The other side can’t say anything close to that. They are doing unto others as they would not want to have done to them – 2nd class citizenship or conversion. They complain about us, but we live by their ‘golden rule’ for real, while they pretend that what they do would not make Jesus puke.”
I would have used “Jesus wept” in there instead, but the point is clear: No matter how much Fox News complains about the “War Against Christians” every single lawsuit and protest has been a defensive one, and I challenge anyone to give an example where that was not the case.
Me and David (Tall, isn’t he?)
That’s what one the jurors said (the only non-white juror, too — an amazing coincidence, no?)
“I was the juror that was going to give them the hung jury. I fought to the end,” she said. “That’s where I felt confused, where if a person kills someone, then you get charged for it. But as the law was read to me, if you have no proof that he killed him intentionally, you can’t say he’s guilty.”
She apparently felt that after it was all said and done, she was constrained by the limitations of the “Stand Your Ground” law (which, I understand, was originally called the “You’re Allowed To Kill Anyone You Subjectively Feel Threatened By Even If You’re In No Real Danger Law”).
