Yeah,…but the fact Al Franken may or may not have treated female members of the SNL cast with more respect than he showed Leeann Tweeden has as much to do with the issue at hand as whether Charlie Rose, Harvey Weinstein, Bill O’Reilly, Roger Ailes, Anthony Wiener, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton liked dogs and children.
Though, as evidenced by our Quote of the Day at the top of the page (and reproduced below), there’s NO QUESTION why Clinton was given a pass…
“We’re trying to think of the bigger picture, think about what’s best for women.” – Eleanor Smeal
“If President Clinton were as vital to preserving freedom of speech as he is to preserving reproductive freedom, would journalists be condemned as “inconsistent” for refusing to suggest he resign?” – Gloria Steinem
In related item courtesy of NRO, Douglas Murray offers a note of caution to those who would use Franken’s plight for any purpose beyond personal pleasure:
“…Because Franken is a high-handed moralizer of the Left, some Republicans and conservatives are happy to run with this, condemning Franken for it and another incident in which he attempted to kiss his co-star.There are even calls for an Ethics Committee investigation into the Minnesota senator.
Yet conservatives, like everyone else, should pause before playing this game. As with other cases in which enemies of the Right have been floored by this flood — a journalist from Vice and much of Hollywood spring to mind — we should be careful about embedding the new etiquette that such campaigns push us toward.
Of course the Left have been at it for years.We all know of people who think that rape is not rape if it is committed by a leftist, whereas even mild flirting is rape when it is committed by a conservative. We all know people who didn’t want to condemn Bill Clinton’s relationship with an intern who are now willing to talk eagerly about a “serial abuser” in the Oval Office. All of us can list plenty of examples of this. And we all know why they do it, too: because they want to win, and they are willing to seize any opportunity to get closer to that goal.
But conservatives should be careful about joining this. Every time the definition of rape, abuse, or molestation is brought down another notch and this new low-water mark is agreed on across the political spectrum, the prospect for a different type of harm increases.If we agree for short-term political pleasure that Franken is guilty of serious sexual molestation for an unfunny photograph taken years ago and for a sloppy and unwanted pass at a woman, then two things are certain to happen.
The first is that the difference between bad manners and rape will become blurred yet further. We live in an era when already a knee-touch can cause resignations. Are we sure that unwanted advances must now always be deemed a resigning matter? It was the late British Conservative MP Alan Clark who once, when taken to task for making allegedly unwanted approaches toward women, replied, “How do I know they’re unwanted until I make them?” Of course Senator Franken is a married man, and plenty of us may agree to look down on a married man who does such a thing. But are we absolutely certain that we want to make it into something that requires an ethics investigation and total career destruction?
Second, this opportunistic process risks embedding the now-prevailing narrative of third-wave feminism, which is that men are all rapists or proto-rapists and that women in our society tread a constant and violent minefield their entire lives when dealing with the male sex.This narrative — which for many young men and women is making relationships too complex to be worth having — needs to be pushed back against, not enforced. And certainly this is how new rules become enforced: by people of every imaginable background agreeing, out of different motivations, that something that few of them actually believe is in fact abhorrent is a matter for the law…”
As The Mayor in Dirty Harry so eloquently observed…
Next up, in his latest commentary at the WSJ, Bill McGurn relates why…
“In his courtroom apologia in the film “A Few Good Men,” Jack Nicholson’s Col. Nathan Jessup made the words famous. Now, in her bid to keep her testimony in a recently settled tea-party lawsuit against the IRS secret, Lois Lerner has picked up the Jessup argument: “You can’t handle the truth!”
They used different words but the meaning is the same. Here’s how lawyers for Ms. Lerner and her former IRS deputy, Holly Paz, put it in a filing aimed at persuading a judge to keep their testimony from becoming public: “Public dissemination of their deposition testimony would expose them and their families to harassment and a credible risk of violence and physical harm.”They’re not just thinking of themselves, they add.Young children, family members, might be hurt too.
That’s quite an argument.So enraged would the American public become upon learning what Ms. Lerner and Ms. Paz said that they and those around them would be in physical peril. Which probably makes most people wonder what the heck must the two have said that would get everyone so agitated…”
Which also begs the question why…
…Lerner remains free to enjoy her ill-gotten gains. And as our brother-in-law Harry wondered, when was the last time anyone in government LOST their pension for malfeasance, no matter HOW egregious?!?
We can only ponder whether Jeff Sessions is puckered up in preparation for kissing Lerner’s ass, confirming he’s the worst cabinet pick Trump has made to date.
Turning now to The Lighter Side…
Then there’s these take-offs on Naval Aviation’s first foray into the fine art of skywriting, brought to us today by our eldest son Jon:
Finally, our youngest son Travis provided this brilliant bit of satire which is infinitely superior in its mocking message…
…to the original…
…truly one of the most idiotic thoughts ever expressed on a bumper sticker; or anywhere else, since the party of the first part is dedicated to the utter destruction of the six which follow.
Here’s wishing you and yours a blessed and happy Thanksgiving!
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