A few things:
1) We idolize the wrong people, or at least over-extend our idols. Steve McNair, for instance, was roping women along on the side of his marriage. One of them, disillusioned by the collapse of her dream world, shot him (and herself). McNair’s poor wife apparently knew none if this, which is sad. That said, this is the devil’s bargain that one signs when she marries a professional athlete. Meanwhile, the rest of the sports world is pointing to this one indiscretion as a momentary mistake for a great man. He was charitable, which is wonderful, but if I were a betting man, I’d be betting that this wasn’t the only woman. To expect these people, who are adored by millions and who have hundreds of times more money than the rest of us to be constrained by our social norms is unrealistic. Pick your sports idols from sports, but pick your moral idols from the laity. We have less of an opportunity to fail, publicly at least.
2) The same goes for Michael Jackson, also dead. As society hyperventilates his praises, try to remember how weird we all thought the man was. I know that he was acquitted on all charges, so I won’t bring up any of that, but once more, he was not worthy of adulation as a person. As a musician, sure, as a social reformer, yeah in his way, as a moral compass, probably not. Look to your firemen, your servicemen, your pastors, your social workers for that. They have failings too, but at least you won’t see those failings and adopt them for yourself.
3) Yes, global temperatures are cooling. Yes, temperatures have plummeted this year. Yes, global temperatures are driven by solar activity (duh). And no, that doesn’t mean we should ignore human climate drivers. I still want to burn less fossil fuels. I still want to conserve more resources, both land and natural. I still want the human population to decline. It would be cool if scientists could be a little more transparent when it comes to the data, but for the time being, hysteria is accomplishing things that I support…so I don’t really mind.
You don’t seem to have the same problem of cheating with professional women atheletes. Just an observation. Maybe something to do with testosterone.
Maybe so. I’d think that it’s because our culture does not find powerful/rich women sexually attractive, generally speaking. It does find powerful/rich men sexually attractive. Furthermore, men and women traditionally cheat for different reasons. They also traditionally initiate differently.
Yes, children: look to your pastors instead of Michael Jackson. The Catholic church has almost as much money as him to line your parents’ pockets with, should they decide to dangle you in front of sex-starved closeted priests.
Would you have felt better if I had added foreign sale book distributor agents?
Now that you mention it, yes.