Shame Is Punishment Enough, For Those Who Feel It
Above: It’s hard to be humble when you’re Cal Thomas
Noted moral scold Cal Thomas hangs his head in sorrow over the latest revelation of another moral scold being caught, almost literally, with his pants down:
Is there anything sadder than a child who no longer sees his father as having good character, or a wife whose trust has been shattered?
Okay, since you asked, pretty much every single story I’ve read or watched about Iraq for about four years is sadder than this one. For example, I saw one the other night on NBC Nightly News about a young woman from Queens, I think, whose husband was killed in Iraq. They met in second grade and had been sweethearts their entire lives — they’d probably built up a storehouse of inside jokes that would make you simultaneously cringe with embarrassment and swell with envy — and now he’s dead. She’s managing her grief, incidentally, by enlisting in the Army over the objections of her heartbroken parents. Shipped off to boot camp last week. Somehow, to me, the destruction of that sweet little marriage is sadder than a neglected wife and children having their suspicions about dad confirmed.
While sexual escapades have always been with us, we now seem to have a bipolar approach to such behavior.
“Now seem to”? My gosh, Cal. You refer to sex as “a lower nature” and “base behavior” throughout this column. You shouldn’t feel ashamed of enjoying sex. Sex is pretty awesome.
Some in Congress stand up for family values, while they lie down with prostitutes. Their rhetoric may add to the cultural debate, but their behavior nullifies any credibility they might expect to enjoy. Anyone who can’t impose morality on himself is unlikely to be successful in legislating it for others.
A half-season of Wife Swap adds more to our debate about family values than some twisted assholes working through their guilt by yelling at people. No, really. Imperfect as they are, most of the families on that show seem to really love each other.
Today in America, adultery is no longer regarded as a big deal, except for those hurt by a cheating partner.
And by Cal Thomas, circa 1998.
Laws have been so watered down in many states that while an adulterous partner in a marriage might sue for divorce on grounds of sexual infidelity, increasing numbers of family courts do not penalize the cheating partner when it comes to alimony and other financial considerations, or even child custody. Cheating wives can still win custody or joint custody of their children.
It’s telling that Thomas laments that cheating husbands escape punishment for their transgressions by — Oh. Right. Instead, Thomas frames his column by expressing ‘sadness’ for Senator Vitter (R), a married father who paid big bucks to squire a hooker around the town where he works and possibly risk passing on sexually diseases to his wife, assuming they still have sex with each other.
I guess that might be the telling part of the column.
That there Taliban has some pretty sharp ideas. Yup.
“adultery is no longer regarded as a big deal, except for those hurt by a cheating partner.”
and even then, sometimes the partner prefers the arrangement.
The children! Won’t someone think of the children!
Cheating wives can still win custody or joint custody of their children.
And hypocritical cheating hubbies get to remain in public office while having their wives embarrass themselves on television!! The horror!!
Besides, I’d bet that at least half of philandering husbands are sick of dealing with those damn kids anyway. Methinks the whole “father’s rights” movement is more about sticking it to the ladies than it is about loving one’s kids.
“Anyone who can’t impose morality on himself is unlikely to be successful in legislating it for others.”
“…alas,” he means.
Shorter Cal: “Do as I say. Don’t do as Bruce Vitter says, or does. Just fucking do as I say.”
So just to check in with the Fundiot worldview- Vitter who goes whoring around in diapers (allegedly) behind his wife’s back: bedrock of our nation’s morals. My buddies who have been faithful to each other for more than 20 years: deserving of a Constitutional amendment stripping them of communal property rights and enshrining them as second-class citizens. O.K. Got it. BTW, in light of this latest round of freakery, I’m copywriting the term Republumpkin Party. If only I knew the HTML for that little “c” symbol, you’d see it right there at the end of that previous sentence.
“Bruce”? Huh?
David. (It’s 7:30 am and I haven’t had coffee yet, Your Honor.)
Not to mention the diaper wearing.
If only I knew the HTML for that little “c” symbol, you’d see it right there at the end of that previous sentence.
It’s: ©
Remember to include the trailing semicolon. Also, I’m expecting a cut of the royalties for my tech services. 🙂
I prefer to hold the left alt key down, and hit 0 1 6 9 on the number pad, meself.
Republumpkin Party©
“Anyone who can’t impose morality on himself is unlikely to be successful in legislating it for others.”
So true, so true.
Of course it’s also true that anyone who can impose morality on himself is, nonetheless, unlikely to be successful in legislating it for others.
Where do I go to vote on Vitter’s sex life?
Why does Cal Thomas remind me of Capt. Peacock from Are You Being Served? Is it just his looks?
If they ever remake the old ’68 “Witchfinder General”… I think Cal would be a shoo-in for the lead role…
old ‘68 “Witchfinder General”
Holy coinkydink, Batman! Just yesterday I dug out an old copy of Cathedral’s “Carnival Bizarre” (Lee Dorrian’s wannabe Ozzy freakout album), which has a song about that.
Hey, good job, guys! Love to see you dirty old hippies tearing down our elected representatives! Didn’t you know that any time you badmouth a Republican representative, it demoralizes our troops and sparks genocide in Iraq?
It doesn’t surprise me to learn that welfare cheats like you don’t understand that Vitter is out there risking his life to keep you safe, jumping in front of the STD bullet over in the Beltway so you don’t have to get the clap over here.
Well, I’m off to work now as a Fortune 500 CEO/secret agent, where I buy and sell dirty hippies like you day in and day out, in between rounds of “enhanced interrogation” of people who look like they might have met a Muslim one time.
Good luck with that dirty hippie thing, losers! Get a frickin’ job.
Man, that whole marriage thing is just SO awesome, no wonder they wanna keep the gay folks out of the club. Look at all the fun they’re having…
mikey
Tucker Carlson was on Hardball last night, saying that this was a private matter and none of anybody’s business. If you talk about it, then you’re the hypocrite, see? Because the dfhippies didn’t want Tucker to get all moist talking about the Clenis, and now they want to give poor Vitter a hard time just because, well, because he’s really a good guy and he’s being picked on!
So there.
“A private matter”? “No one else’s business”? uh-uh-uh-uh there, young Tucker, but I don’t THINK so. Taxpayers footing this clown’s bills, prostitution’s illegal, the jerk is a public figure (and a hypocritical moralising godbag/gasbag one at that), and so forth. I believe it is TOTALLY our business there, ya little whippersnapper.
And by the way—and I, a radical feminist, say these things so you guys don’t have to— what is UP with the wife’s hair?! What, SuperCutz wasn’t open? And that DRESS! Did she not have anything TACKIER in her closet for her stand-by-yore-man TV appearance? I mean, what was THAT about, Jane of the Jungle leopard-print, supposed to dissuade us from the notion that her man needs to look elsewhere for his outré sexcapades? Well, guess what, Gloria Swanson, it didn’t work. Good Lord in heaven, where do these people come from?
OH! And plus she’s all “boo-hoo, the media on my lawn, at our church! and my precious children! Why can’t all you mean people just go away and leave us alone so we can enjoy our summer!” Hey bitch, how about you and your ugly dress and your skankified skunk of a husband go away and leave us alone and get a real job, one that doesn’t involve telling other people how to live their lives while he’s paying sex workers to dress him in diapers at public expense, for example, and crissakes.
~~~~~~
Wow. That felt good, but now I’m hanging my head in shame.
Didn’t you know that any time you badmouth a Republican representative, it demoralizes our troops and sparks genocide in Iraq?
And an angel gets it’s wings.
he’s being picked on!
I’m in tears. Hand me one of those baby-wipes.
And plus she’s all “boo-hoo, the media on my lawn, at our church! and my precious children! Why can’t all you mean people just go away and leave us alone so we can enjoy our summer!”
This from the woman who was proud to beat on Hillary Clinton in public, talking about how her husband would never cheat because “I’m more like Lorena Bobbitt — I’d walk away with something, but it wouldn’t be alimony.”
Typical Republican chickenhawk! Brave talk and boasting when she’s surrounded by her fellow Repubs, but when it’s time to fish or cut… bait… she’s all “Howcum those dirty hippies are so meeeeean to us hypocrites, waaah!”
Holy Shit, it is Cap’n Peacock hisself!
Here i thought we had two independent, sanctimonious assholes running around…
MzNicky, you’re spot-on (so to speak) about the dress. What. The. Hell. But if you watch her body language, you can tell that she is utterly and completely humiliated, and probably spent the last week in the bathtub with a razor blade and a bottle of Jack, wondering which one to use.
For him hide behind her like that, well, no wonder she wasn’t paying too much attention to her hair. But that dress…
Kevin-
I have bad news for you.
Go Pro or Go Home.
“You shouldn’t feel ashamed of enjoying sex. Sex is pretty awesome.”
Probably not when Cal Thomas is involved. Just sayin’.
Shame is punishment for those Republicans who feel fake it.
Fixed your typos.
Anyone who can’t impose morality on himself is unlikely to be successful in legislating it for others.
I can impose morality on myself… I just prefer to get someone else to do it. Preferably while she wears the Airport Security costume.
That had to be a “Parody Kevin” up above.
Dammit! My strikethroughs showed up on preview. What did I do wrong?
Should read:
Same is punishment enough for those Republicans who fake it.
Sometimes I wonder if all the anger at Clinton was because he was half-normal, “humidor” aside. I’m not saying it’s right for middle aged men to chase much younger women, but at least it’s comprehensible. Guy, girl, naughty bits.
Repubs are jealous that they can’t get off so easily. They’d love it if all it took was a hot young hooker, but their twisted, lingering remains of a conscience drives them to diapers and intern molestation and god knows what else.
Castration should be mandatory for entrance into public service.
Hemlock, shame on you for mentioning sex and Cal Thomas in the same sentence.
I haven’t stopped throwing up, and don’t think my little soldier will EVER salute again.
a different brad: I think you’re right. Which personality trait appears first: The repressed sexual pervert, or the Republican? Which leads to the other? One of life’s great mysteries, perhaps?
MzNicky, you’re assuming they’re different traits. I went to boarding school with these pigfuckers, and as far as I could tell they developed in tandem. It’s a life of self-indulgence, and pathological means of avoiding the guilt that lifestyle should create. I guarantee there have been serial killers in the US Congress, and might well be right now. These people are twisted in ways the human mind cannot fully comprehend.
Given how much warm methane this pious, bloviating, hypocritical fraud has pumped into our national discourse from either end of his gastrointestinal tract over the years, it’s a wonder he wasn’t wearing diapers in public. If his whore had shoved a butt-plug into him, he would have exploded in seconds. Would’ve made that scene in Monty Python’s “Meaning of Life” look pretty by comparison.
“Some in Congress stand up for family values, while they lie down with prostitutes.”
Anyone think that our now-doubting Thomas will see the large, direct, and obvious connection between his public fellating of these frauds, and their gut-busting levels of hypocritical hubris? Nope, me neither.
Paddy Mac, you paint a vivid picture with your “Meaning Of Life” suggestion. Now I must bleach my brain.
In the meantime, reflect on the fact that these nappy-wearing pollies are merely following centuries of tradition from the English ruling class.
Qetesh, there have always been people who preferred the English way, and had no problem with the monarchical system.
Back then, they were Tories. Today, they’re Republicans.
Uh, actually, billy, I was referring to the tragic decease of the 13th Earl of Gurney early in the film. A clear member of the ruling class, military bearing and fine buckle-that-swash mustache, he donned a cavalry jacket and pink tutu before selecting his rope (“I think the silk tonight”) and hanging himself. Alas for his evening, he inadvertently kicked the stepladder away, turning his rather dangerous tutu-clad autoeroticism into a tragic death.
Truly a great movie. Peter O’Toole was made for the role of 14th Earl of Gurney.
I want that bumper sticker, IS THAT SO WRONG?
Some in Congress stand up for family values, while they lie down with prostitutes. Dont you just love it ,,,,,,,,but that is typical when you in goverment ,,lol And lets not forget its a lie about the new orleans ladies of the night ,,,,,,,,,why the hell should this woman lie about that what the hell was it for her NOTHING, what the problem is is sorry ass got busted on that one i bet he didnt tell the wife about that ……im sure she feels real good ,but do men think about that hell no .
But the thing is everyone is makin a big deal of it what about the ones that is and was doing it but is lucky never got busted yet .