L'Affaire Spitzer

[Religious Dick]

Considering prostitution is legal in any number of Western nations - Germany, Costa Rica, The Netherlands and even Nevada in the US come to mind, and I'm sure there's others, it ought to be easy enough to observe the consequences of legalization. So where are all the dire consequences that would supposedly materialize from legalization in those countries?

*sound of crickets chirping*

That's what I thought....

[Rich]

Rest away.

I'm sure enacting your big plan to elect libertarians has got you all tuckered out..

 

[kimba1]

well
the girls in nevada would not make the grade in the emporer`s club

[Christians4LessGvt]

"Non-Judgmental" Nonsense
By Thomas Sowell
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

What was he thinking of? That was the first question that came to mind when the story of New York governor Eliot Spitzer's involvement with a prostitution ring was reported in the media.

It was also the first question that came to mind when star quarterback Michael Vick ruined his career and lost his freedom over his involvement in illegal dog fighting. It is a question that arises when other very fortunate people risk everything for some trivial satisfaction.
 
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer addresses the media at his office in New York, March 10, 2008. Spitzer apologized to his family for a "private matter" on Monday but made no reference to a New York Times report that he may have been linked to a prostitution ring. "I am disappointed that I failed to live up to the standard that I expect of myself. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family," Spitzer told a packed room of reporters in New York City. He said nothing about possibly resigning.

Many in the media refer to Eliot Spitzer as some moral hero who fell from grace. Spitzer was never a moral hero. He was an unscrupulous prosecutor who threw his power around to ruin people, even when he didn't have any case with which to convict them of anything.

Because he was using his overbearing power against businesses, the anti-business left idolized him, just as they idolized Ralph Nader before him as some sort of secular saint because he attacked General Motors.

What Eliot Spitzer did was not out of character. It was completely in character for someone with the hubris that comes with the ability to misuse his power to make or break innocent people.

After John Whitehead, former head of Goldman Sachs, wrote an op-ed column in the Wall Street Journal, criticizing Attorney General Spitzer's handling of a case involving Maurice Greenberg, Spitzer was quoted by Whitehead as saying: "I will be coming after you. You will pay the price. This is only the beginning and you will pay dearly for what you have done."

When you start thinking of yourself as a little tin god, able to throw your weight around to bully people into silence, it is a sign of a sense of being exempt from the laws and social rules that apply to other people.

For someone with this kind of hubris to risk his whole political career for a fling with a prostitute is no more surprising than for Michael Vick to throw away millions to indulge his taste for dog fighting or for Leona Helmsley to avoid paying taxes -- not because she couldn't easily afford to pay taxes and still have more money left than she could ever spend -- but because she felt above the rules that apply to "the little people."

What is almost as scary as having someone like Eliot Spitzer holding power is having so many pundits talking as if this is just a "personal" flaw in Governor Spitzer that should not disqualify him for public office. Spitzer himself spoke of his "personal" failing as if it had nothing to do with his being Governor of New York.

In this age, when it is considered the height of sophistication to be "non-judgmental," one of the corollaries is that "personal" failings have no relevance to the performance of official duties.

What that amounts to, ultimately, is that character doesn't matter. In reality, character matters enormously, more so than most things that can be seen, measured or documented.

Character is what we have to depend on when we entrust power over ourselves, our children and our society to government officials.

We cannot risk all that for the sake of the fashionable affectation of being more non-judgmental than thou.

Currently, various facts are belatedly beginning to leak out that give us clues to the character of Barack Obama. But to report these facts is being characterized as a "personal" attack.

Barack Obama's personal and financial association with a man under criminal indictment in Illinois is not just a "personal" matter. Nor is his 20 years of going to a church whose pastor has praised Louis Farrakhan and condemned the United States in both sweeping terms and with obscene language.

The Obama camp likens mentioning such things to criticizing him because of what members of his family might have said or done. But it was said, long ago, that you can pick your friends but not your relatives.

Obama chose to be part of that church for 20 years. He was not born into it. His "personal" character matters, just as Eliot Spitzer's "personal" character matters -- and just as Hillary Clinton's character would matter if she had any.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2008/03/12/non-judgmental_nonsense?page=1

[Xavier_Onassis]

, just as they idolized Ralph Nader before him as some sort of secular saint because he attacked General Motors.

==============================================================================
But Nader was entirely right about what he said about GM.

The original Corvair was pretty much a deathtrap.
The second generation Corvair was a pretty decent car
Following the Corvair, there were horrible cars like the Chevette, the Olds/ Cadillac Diesels, the Cadillac Allante and the two lines of look alike cars, both smaller and larger, but all of which sucked.

My 82 Buick Regal had the same size disks on the front as the Chevette. I was never sure when it would actually stop. It should have been equipped with an anchor to throw out the window.

Not the back windows: those would not open at all.

GM tried to martyr Nader, but was unsuccessful. Too bad they did not run him for president thirty years ago.

[kimba1]

my dad remember`s nader in the late 70`s people in the U.S.
everbody was slamming him calling him a commie for going against GM.
which was weird for my dad since he is one and can`t figure out what ralph did is communist.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Nader opposed GM because they built cars that were death traps, and he informed the public about them.

Opposing GM is like opposing capitalism. Everytime William Buckley would slam people who criticized capitalism, he'd bring up GM in some way.

In the 1980's a guy named Roger Smith was president of GM. Every year he was president, GM made cars that were crappy by any standard and every year they moved more jobs out of the country and sold fewer and fewer cars.

And every year, Roger Smith got a raise.

That is NOT the way capitalism is supposed to work. According to the classic descrioption of capitalism, the Board of Directors would have thrown Roger out the door on his wide, freckled butt in March, 1982. By 1984 they would have been making something as reliable as a Toyota, Honda or Lexus.

They would not have continued making midsize Buicks with Chevette brakes and 85 hp 3.7 litre engines.

Nader told them how to not to make cars, and they ignored him. Toyota, Nissan and Honda actually built the sort of cars GM should have built, but they decided everyone somehow needed a truck with leather seatcovers, or an SUV that would rollover without warning, like the Ford Explorers if the tires had 5 lbs. too little pressure in them.

[kimba1]

I remember the anti-japanese times here in the 90`s
it got so bad a chinese guy got killed(richard chan)
the funny part was nobody ever said that american cars are better made.

[Xavier_Onassis]

the funny part was nobody ever said that american cars are better made.
=======================================================
They weren't, not any of them. They all sucked, in varying degrees. If a GM Exec had said this, I fear someone would have coated a Chevette with Vasoline and aimed it at him the first time he bent over.

GM had poor and outmoded designs, Fords liked to combine rapidly with the atmosphere, and Chrysler products tended to shed parts and rattle. The K-Cars did have a pretty reliable engine, made by VW.


It looks as though that this is finally changing. All cars last longer and get better mileage than previous models. Now a Chevrolet Malibu beats out several foreign models. Pretty much everything beats out the Land Rover and Range Rover on frequency of repair charts. But still, the Japanese cars tend to be at the top of the charts, and BMW's and Mercedes are supposed to be the most fun to drive.