The hell is the deal with male politicians these days? Have they lost their minds? Guys, they're giving all us men a bad name. And with Charlie Sheen still on the loose, we need the negative publicity the way a platypus needs another spiny knob at the end of its tail. Maybe the reptilian core at the base of our brains senses mortality causing caution to be thrown to the wind spiraling into Bacchanalian chaos while there's still time. Or maybe we're just stupider and getting caught more.
Specifically speaking about Dominique Strauss-Kahn: the French former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, accused of assaulting a maid in his Manhattan hotel room. Then petitioned for bail claiming not to be a flight risk, even though he was apprehended trying to fly back to Paris on a plane. Which, if you ask me, is the definition of a flight risk. Dude, you were on a flight. And are a hell of a risk.
This isn't DSK's first trip down Abuse of Power Alley. So many women (not afraid anymore) are coming forward, French officials might start requiring parade permits. Easy to see why his friends are upset about him being photographed in handcuffs on a perp walk; the guy looks guiltier than a priest roaming the halls of a boys school with a pocket full of condoms at 3am. Of course, most successful 60 plus year old men share that guilty gleam. Nobody with that kind of power is ever truly innocent.
Strauss-Kahn comes out of the Berlusconi mold with force and intimidation supplanting money and influence but the transgressions remain the same. Something creepy about these sneaky silky smooth suave European pols who can't stop loving the ladies. You know them. The guys who force you to avoid your eyes at the pool while they strut around in those tight bikini-bottom bathing suits like plum smuggling peacocks.
I get it that power is an aphrodisiac but how and where do all these men acquire this "your- silly-laws-don't-apply-to-me" attitude? Is there a secret society that escorts the newly elected to a cave, bends them over, and administers a series of ceremonial entitlement shots? Then again, most politicians don't need the shots. More like a prerequisite. All those rallies and sycophants and phony smiles and eventually just like mom warned, your face does freeze that way.
There's too many miscreants for it to be a coincidence. In the last couple years and I'm only listing big profile guys: Clinton. Edwards. Livingston. Gingrich. Vitter. Villaraigosa. Gibbons. Foley. Hutchinson. Sherwood. Allen. McGreevy. Ensign. Craig. Sanford. Spitzer. And now former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has admitted infidelity. Shocker, hunh. Who knew? What's next: clam chowder at Denny's in Boston on a Friday?
Arnold fathered a son with his housekeeper who continued to work for the family for the next 10-14 years. Talk about work ethic. And think of the nerve it took not telling your wife while your illegitimate kid is wandering around the house for more than a decade. That's chutzpah. The Governator may have taken that whole "acting like a member of the Kennedy clan" thing just a little too far. Of course he may end up hailed as a family hero anyhow. By making JFK look good in comparison.
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If it is one adult woman and an underage man (boy), or if it is an abuse of power by a man. Some rape is done by women. The young boys don't tell, although some might brag. The young boys don't get pregnant, so they have less need to tell unless they need to get treatment for some transmitted gift that keeps giving. The teachers make the news more than other occupations.
Fellows with wayward peckers are probably not as choosey as women, but heterosexual wandering requires TWO partners.
As a teenager I saw more agressive girls than I saw agressive boys. The boys talked, and swaggered but didn't do it. The girls mostly didn't talk, but more than a few took their chances.
I am pleased to see so many men speaking up, against him and the misogyny among not only fellow males in media, but also being carried along by the women.
There are honorable men out there; men who share deep relationships with one woman and who understand the incomparable value of trust and belief in one another, not to mention what kind of pain ultimately comes to those least responsible and most vulnerable.
I, for one, could not stand the thought of inflicting that kind of pain and destruction- and for what? To ultimately destroy myself as well? My spouse and I are each other's strength. What one lacks the other has; together we can get through anything. I know I never have to worry about my back... we share the same vision of the world; two hearts - one mind (most of the time) and each their own dreams, but overlapping.
No. I cannot understand it. I pity the man (men) who would give that up. Or perhaps they never had it.