Susan Jacoby, "Weiner’s Women": Welcome to Our Brave New Narcissistic World

In a guest New York Times op-ed entitled "Weiner’s Women" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/opinion/weiners-women.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1375261720-HN38mVWZdCEtqYLKF1H5Mw), Susan Jacoby, a renowned best selling author who tells us that she is a feminist, writes:

"The morality of virtual sex, as long as no one is cheating on a real partner, is not what bothers me. What’s truly troubling about the whole business is that it resembles the substitution of texting for extended, face-to-face time with friends. Virtual sex is to sex as virtual food is to food: you can’t taste, touch or smell it, and you don’t have to do any preparation or work. Sex with strangers online amounts to a diminution, close to an absolute negation, of the context that gives human interaction genuine content. Erotic play without context becomes just a form of one-on-one pornography."

"Diminution, close to an absolute negation, of the context that gives human interaction genuine content"? Query: Is it only about "sexting," or does this diminution of human contact also occur when we engage in compulsive texting? Or does it also involve manic fixations with Facebook, which has turned "friendship" into a numbers game?

I am reminded of the picture of Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin working at their dining room table, each talking on a cell phone, with his and her computers (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/magazine/anthony-weiner-and-huma-abedins-post-scandal-playbook.html?pagewanted=all). This is marriage in the 21st century?

Is their all-consuming quest for power, symbiotic at best, any different from that of Bill and Hillary Clinton, who have redefined marriage?

And was there any more "human" substance to Eliot Spitzer's liaisons with prostitutes?

Yes, as we become more involved with ourselves, it becomes increasingly cold out there.

Winter is indeed coming.

Gail Collins, "New York Sizzles": Time to Estivate

Definition of ESTIVATE
. . .
2. to pass the summer in a state of torpor — compare hibernate

- Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/estivate)

Yes indeed, another morning without a cloud in the sky. Darn! Having spent too much of my life in the desert, I hate the heat. If only I could sleep until mid-September.

Meanwhile, Gail Collins, in a New York Times op-ed entitled "New York Sizzles" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/11/opinion/collins-new-york-sizzles.html), is busy adding to my misery by reminding me that Anthony and Eliot are seeking to return to elected office:

"Disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner is, as you know, running for mayor in the Democratic primary this September. We had just sort of gotten used to that when Eliot Spitzer jumped into the city comptroller race this week.

Spitzer resigned as governor in 2008 after the world discovered our law-and-order chief executive was a patron of high-priced prostitution services. When he left, he vowed to try 'outside of politics, to serve the common good.'"

"To serve the common good"? Yeah, right. Almost akin to "I'm from the IRS, and I'm here to help you."

Collins provides a list of the "positive aspects of New York City’s Weiner-Spitzer summer." Collins, however, fails to mention that if either of these jokers can be elected, politics plainly beckons for America's 12 million unemployed persons.

Every cloud has its silver lining? Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, it's another cloudless July morning.

JG, Caesarea News Alert: Anthony Weiner Offered to Host News Discussion Program

Having acknowledged that he had inappropriate online relationships with women and indeed sent a lewd photo over Twitter, Anthony Weiner has stated that he will not resign from the U.S. House of Representatives.

This has prompted House Minority Leader Nancy "Assad is a model Arab leader" Pelosi (D-Calif.) to ask for a House ethics committee probe into whether official resources had been mishandled.

Meanwhile, I have it from a highly unreliable source that Weiner is considering an offer to follow in the footsteps of Eliot Spitzer and host a news discussion show to be entitled "The World in Briefs". Just imagine:

"You give us five minutes, and we'll give you the world . . . in briefs."

Gail Collins' "The Year of Living Adulterously": Frankly, My Dear, I Don't Give a Damn

Another Thursday, and another Gail Collins op-ed, this time entitled "The Year of Living Adulterously" (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/19/opinion/19collins.html?hp), which obsesses over the sexual misdeeds and marital indiscretions of Republicans and their spouses. Collins writes in her New York Times column:

"What is it with Republicans lately? Is there something about being a leader of the family-values party that makes you want to go out and commit adultery?

They certainly don’t have a lock on the infidelity market, and heaven knows we all remember John Edwards. But, lately, the G.O.P. has shown a genius for putting a peculiar, newsworthy spin on illicit sex."

Obviously concerned with a possible Mitch Daniels candidacy, Collins pointedly observes:

"Daniels is apparently worried that a presidential run might prove embarrassing to his wife, who ditched him and the kids and ran off to California to marry a doctor and then later recanted everything and came back. I think it is pretty safe to say that this topic might come up."

I suppose Collins thinks there is no need to rehash the Monica Lewinsky affair, or to examine the current living arrangements involving the Clintons. Yes, I'm certain they're the ideal couple.

No need to mention former New York Governor and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and his trysts with high-priced prostitutes.

No need to mention former New York Governor David Paterson, who acknowledged having extramarital affairs.

No need to mention former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey and his extramarital affair with a male employee.

No need to mention Congressman Barney Frank and his relationship with Stephen Gobie (see: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/03/who_is_barney_frank.html).

I could continue ad infinitum; however, perhaps it is wiser to refer those who are interested to a Newsweek article entitled "Sex Scandals Through the Years: Both Parties Even" (http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/the-gaggle/2009/06/25/sex-scandals-through-the-years-both-parties-even.html).

Of course, if the Democrats formally decide in Charlotte to run in 2012 as the "non-family-values party", I suppose that their pecadilloes will be exempt from criticism by the American electorate.

Are marital infidelity and sexual indiscretion peculiar to politicians, or are they part and parcel of the human condition?

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!"