"PURE AS THE DRIVEN SNOW"

"Pure As The Driven Snow" is a phrase that has been around since the 1500s, but not used much anymore.   It means very pure, i.e., sinless It probably will be coming back, however.  Nancy Pellosi says there should be zero tolerance for sexual improprieties.  In other words people, principally men, should be pure as the driven snow.  To apply this retroactively will be Armageddon for men.  I doubt you will find many men as pure as the driven snow.

For what it's worth, I don't recall my mother ever having conversations with me about the ways to treat women.  She definitely worried that some woman would get her clutches on me and marry me ending my educational career prematurely.  That I heard many times.  I also took a course in manners at the age of 12 where quite a bit of time was spent on the proper way to shake hands with a woman.

I thought that the big subject right now is Judge Roy Moore who is running for interim Senator from Alabama for two years who is accused of improper advances to teenage girls when he was in his early 30s.  I had thought that if he had shown contrition rather than saying all the stories were false, and said something like, "I saw the evil in my ways and reformed many years ago," that he would have disposed of the problem. Now I am not so sure.

I'm sure we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg, but for the current record on notables accused of sexual harassment , NBC has published a list.**  Note that not all those on the list involve men and women, but a couple are men and men.

Al Franken repeatedly has shown  contrition for seemingly putting his hand on women's bottom in taken a picture  together.  But it is turning out that he can't show contrition enough as he repeatedly apologizes for past actions and says he will be more careful.  Also I wonder how many women told him to get his hand off my butt (or equivalent) or just walked away?  It seems some women equate a man putting his hand on her butt is the equivalent to rape.  Apparently former President H.W. bush is also accused of putting his hands on women's bottoms.

I don't know that I ever put my hand on a woman's posterior, but I may have, perhaps as a joke to get a rise out of her.  I do recall slapping the behind of a girl I knew well  when I was in high school.  I did it for no particular reason except that she was bending over to look at something.  I remember doing this particular thing, because is was so not like me.

It seemed to me that things really started to heat up with the accusations against men in Venture Capital firms inducing women to "visit the casting couch" in order to get aid for their company 's start**  Of course things really exploded with Harvey Weinstein use of the "casting couch" tor women to get acting jobs.  Though Weinstein was a prominent Democrat, Republicans got into the act as well  e.g. Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly of Fox News.  Trials of Bill Cosby have been going on for years over shockingly drugging women to have sex.

I have to admit that I dearly miss both Charley Rose and Mark Halpeirn.  Charley Rose seems to be known among women for exposing his, um, equipment upon getting out of the shower.  I guess he was very proud of it, but it is a seerious charge (I once was on a jury of a man accused of "indecent exposure with lascivious intent.").  I watched his midnight show on TV almost every weekday.  It is not replaced although I believe NBR is trying to. (Oprah was apparently invited, for example).  Halperin, my favorite political reporter, is accused of making unwanted sexual advances to women when he was with ABC News.  Both these men have apologized for their very serious actions, but no matter.

Note: As this item was going to press, I heard that a principal at  NBC News Matt Lauer  (Co-host of the TV Today show)has been dismissed on charges of sexual harassment.  Quite a few people have said they are heart broken over this announcement, including a number of women like NBC Savannah Guthrie, who says she is very surprised and heartbroken.  Hoda Kolb also of NBC Today show also expressed her surprise and said she has known Lauer for 15 yrs.  As of this moment Lauer has not made a comment.  Before the day is over, Garrison Keillor is also added to the list of predators.

So maybe Roy Moore and Donald Trump are right that it is better to deny accusations than to be contrite.  Up to now, there is little to support that sexual improprieties effect political  campaigns.  We will see if things are changing in two weeks and see if Moore survives his widely accepted inappropriate harassment accusations with teenagers.

* https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/harvey-weinstein-scandal/weinstein-here-s-growing-list-men-accused-sexual-misconduct-n816546
** http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2017/07/women-entrepeneur-harrassment.html
http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2017/07/women-entrepeneur-harassment-ii.html

OUR COLLECTIVE NERVOUS BREAKDOWN - II

Well, the latest from Donald Trump is that he issued a campaign statement calling on U.S. authorities to bar all Muslims from entering the country until the nation’s leaders can “figure out what is going on.”*

Many in the news media are beyond belief that Trump would propose this and in fact bar even American Muslims who are out of the country from reentering America (which is probably unconstitutional)  He no doubt includes this to eliminate those who have joined ISIS. Some in the news media feel this is the last straw.  But did they hear the applause after he said this?  I suspect that his poll numbers may increase as a result.

But I don't know, Cruse seems to be surging in Iowa and is now ahead of Trump in the polls. This is supposed to make me happy?  May the Saints preserve us! I hope he is just the flavor of the month?

Gloria Steinem said on Charley Rose the other night that "If Republicans had cancer and Obama was the only one who had a cure, the Republicans would probably refuse it." (Reconstructed as nearly as I can remember her comment.)**

* http://news.yahoo.com/trump-call-bar-muslims-u-111500000.html;_ylt=A0LEVivVTGdWNrcAQlUnnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--
** See Gloria Steinem on Charley Rose, December 4, 2015 "My Life On The Road" at http://www.charlierose.com/watch/60658259 but I couldn't bring it up.

BENGHAZI (SIGH)

As we all know, on September 11, 2012, there was an attack (actually three attacks) on the American Consulate and CIA compound in Benghazi, Libya's second largest city.  Except for political purposes, there is no more tired news than Benghazi.  After all the four deaths in the Benghazi attacks were small compared to other attacks on our diplomatic missions,* only unusual in that an ambassador was killed; however, Charley Rose had the Deputy Director of the CIA, Michael Morell, on his program on April 3, 2014, that I found to be interesting and worth a listen.**  It should be noted that there has been a 9/11 since Benghazi with no published activity.

Morell's thought is that the original attack was by a group of extremists, maybe including some al Qaeda members, who wanted to go into the Consulate and cause some mischief  like their Egyptian compatriots did earlier.***  There were two other attacks and each picked up steam compared to the previous one.  The second attack was actually against the CIA compound, and they picked up some heavier armaments along the way.  The third attack was the most vicious and had the heaviest armaments.  Two of the deaths were actually at the CIA compound.

* http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2013/09/it-was-movie-trailer-after-all.html
**  (http://video.tvguide.com/Charlie+Rose/Michael+Morell/21826147/tvo-194941-season-22-episode-156 primary=Shows&show=Charlie%20Rose&display_mode=details&length=fullepisode)
*** In Egypt, 2000 Salafist activists protested against the film Innocence of Muslims at 5pm EET (11am EDT) at the US embassy in Cairo. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Benghazi_attack)