The Media Loves to Sensationalize & Scandalize

p h o t o s h o p ~ s a n s ~ d o u t e

Even the Normalest Flings and Flirtations

Public figures are always handy targets for the public imagination and the media spotlight. But how much is hype and how much is legitimate gossip. Part of the blame is obviously the celebrities, who are human, all too human. But part of the blame must be shared by the public, who truth be told, live VICARIOUSLY through the larger-than-life figures of these glamour types who prance and dance across the popular imagination. Sarah Palin has glamour, she has looks, she is in some sense a real hottie. Additionally, the public seems to be titillated by the salience of interracial liaisons and love affairs almost everywhere. There seems to be something "scandalous" in the fact that the most feminine women seem to be doubly attracted to the most masculine men, and vice versa. Or perhaps part of it is simply opposites attract. If what we find on the internet is at all believable, a USA poll said that 78% of white women ages 15-30 are attracted to black men. Whatever the magic here, it sure seems to be working. Add to this the simple fact that Sarah Palin, then a sportscaster in her sexual prime, was forced by her job into close promiximty with the most masculine, most athletic, and no doubt most muscular specimens of manhood to be found -- in sports. Instead of being shocked, why cannot we simply accept the natural -- as natural. Sarah is a woman, why is she labelled a slut? I really have to blame to gossips and whisperers. Be careful pointing fingers, for three of your fingers point back at yourself. As the prophet Jeremiah cried out, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" The sanctimonious superiority of the scandal mongers is actually more offensive than the relatively innocuous red-blooded (or hot blooded) sexuality of the objects of the scandalizing. And the interracial aspect is far more normal and out-in-the-open in today's world than even a decade or two ago. TOPIX: has a report that 87% of white women have slept with black men (This was dated November 2009). I guess the real question here is, why are we shocked. Give the gal a break. Sarah is perfectly fine

Linda Rochester writes I was a social worker working across the deep south and in my own home town amid the secrets of my childhood so I came to know a lot about people. There was so much that I had to go through a little psychological adjustment to hold it all. The situation is complicated and detailed and practically every family was involved in some kind of bizarre situation sooner or later. And all that keeps coming. Those who live in cities are able to cut off the past much easier than those who are in one place. I know so many people that don't know the half of who their folks were. I was an investigator and that has helped me as I have been interviewing people as a writer. I learned to ask the next question-to just go the extra step. The truth of people is that they are as jumpy as horses. They have emotional problems and do things one day that they would never do another. Even those who lie, and that is both men and women, are often conflicted and don't even get the extent of the lie. In other words, people are a mess. As to our leaders, John Kennedy, Bill Clinton, even Roosevelt, have all had lovers and shocked the public. Lincoln was depressed. Thomas Jefferson had a relationship with his wife's black sister. There were gay and lesbian experiences that got buried. Leaders that didn't do much, like George Bush or Gerald Ford, didn't have many skeletons, but look at what history would have been if we were stuck with the dullards. If a person is an adult, engaged with adults, it's that person's business unless force is involved. And it is true that women lie about it on occasion. We must be able to say that without everyone freaking out because it was the truth and is still the truth. There is some confusion over the age of consent. My neighbor was married at 13 and that was socially acceptable at the time--only a short 40 years ago. Boys were involved sexually at early ages, especially in the gay community and thought of it as a coming of age experience. All these "rules" and laws have been put in place within the past 50 years. Many kids were and are sexually active as teens. The line of when it is abuse is murky. The law gives us a line, but in practice, that line is always moving and mores have problems catching up to changing lines. The truth is that for one reason or another, we wouldn't have had many of our best presidents if we had gotten into their business. We wasted Clinton's enormous talents as a nation. After all, it is our wellbeing that we have to be concerned with. When they start a witch hunt, they don't think of what that person is doing for us. They just keep digging. Believe me. The only way possible to know anything about a case is to investigate fully, and even then, if one person isn't talking, you don't get the straight of the situation. In the case of Bill Clinton. That situation was none of our business, no matter how much we personally object morally. No law was broken. In the case of Clarence Thomas, a law was allegedly broken. In spite of the fact that the case wasn't legally provable, there was enough evidence that should have ended his career with the people. It didn't because he was in favor the Reagan Republicans. Or maybe it was that they just didn't like Anita Hill. This is a difficult discussion to have. I hope I have added something that you haven't discussed. This goes to the very heart of what I write about.

It's Not Just Republicans THIS ISN'T PARTISAN. (It's all of us.). We are all the children of sex. We are the pinnacle of evolution, ten million years of it. And reproduction for the most recent end of it has been sexual. Two gamete cells, one from a male parent, and one from a female parent, are joined by means of sexual reproduction. A zygote is then synthesized from the union of the two, and a new generation begins (from this single cell). This has gone on for millions of years. So each of us is the creature, the creation, of sexuality. It is in the DNA of the nucleus of every cell and fiber of our being (except red blood cells, or the haploid sex cells (gametes). But the urges and sins that flesh is heir too, they are found universally. As Emma Goldman said, "Man is much more a sexual creature than a moral creature.Sex is inherent; Morality is grafted on." Ironically, the slapped hand is quick to learn. Statistics show that sex recidivism is among the lowest types of re-offense. Is that surprising? Information provided by the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation [CDCR 2010 Annual Report] tells us that the recidivism rate for all felon offenders was 54.2% for 2005/06 Fiscal Year. The Department of Justice reports that the recidivism rate for "sex offenders" committing new sex offenses is less than 4%. Of course ... ANY new offense is unacceptable. Foregoing data from Restoration Ministries -- An Amends U Focused Ministry. WHY, one might ask, is the re-offense rate so low. A variety of answers could be suggested. A slapped hand quickly learns. Alternative outlets are deemed preferable to the unacceptable ones. Negative reinforcement (criminal justice system) is a very effective learning tool. Simple cost-benefit analysis. The cost is not worth it, and "continence" looks better. Hidden strengths are discovered to withstand temptation. Older sometimes really does mean WISER, as well. Time to confront the real enemy (look in the mirror)

From robt.shepherd (Bob Shepherd) I am basically what Rush Limbaugh labels a RINO, Republican in name only. I remember a time when Republicans praised such "liberal" values as compassion, mercy, closing the gap of hope, being uniters not dividers, and using government to help create a kinder, gentler America. But the hard right labels men like Colin Powell (and Daddy Bush) as LINCOLN Republicans, meaning liberals. No wonder we feel so out of place in the current Republican climate. (Spring 2012). I feel almost repulsed by the climate of rage in the party of my liberal Republican ancestors (Quakers and abolitionists). Yes Lincoln was a liberal. I might call myself a moderate, but the Rush Limbaugh types say that is just "secret liberal." Frankly, I feel more at home among Democrats (except for their atheism, and a few of the more extreme left Occupy types). Generally, liberals make more sense to me these days. Just let me stipulate I am more comfortable with the urban evangelical church (Donnie McClurkin, T.D. Jakes, Jeremiah Wright) than with the "Act Up" wing of the extreme gay movement. Everyone deserves basic equality before the law. There's a kind of hypocrisy when Republicans get caught doing the very thing they ostentatiously denounce "the wicked gays" for doing. Arent we all sexual beings?

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From the Heart : Laura Bush

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