What kind of idiot cheats
on Shania Twain?
Posted on 09/14/2009 8:44:05 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Reality-show star Jon Gosselin did it. Country singer Shania Twain, whose “One” has become a wedding standard, wound up a victim of it. An endless parade of politicians have been caught doing it. And those are just the ones we know about.
Adultery does happen. It always has and it always will. But I think we may have crossed a threshold.
While watching the president of the United States declare that we can legislate away hardship during his health-care address to a joint session of Congress, I was lured away from my hyper-blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking analysis by a commercial for AshleyMadison.com.
To the soundtrack of a snoring woman in bed with a man, the announcer says: “Most of us can recover from a one-night stand with the wrong woman.”
The narrator continues: “But not when it’s every night. For the rest of our lives.”
The husband gets out of bed and heads, presumably, to the computer. We see a cartoonish wedding picture. We are made aware of what this restless spouse must be craving: an online-dating site for those who are married but itching for something carnally more, with someone else.
“Life is short. Have an affair” goes the motto for this no-frills facilitator. There’s no need for confession or guilt. It’s all straightforward and out in the open, at least to those in the know. (Maybe not to the parties who didn’t realize “in sickness and in health” does not cover sleep disorders.)
And that’s it: enticement, information, and get your credit card ready.
The ad’s commercial presence during the presidential-address post-game commentary on MSNBC was jarring. Have round-the-clock Viagra, Cialis, and KY ads made audiences of the talking-heads shows immune to noticing? Maybe they’re a crowd that watches politics as sport (Hardball!) and sex is a bit of sport too — a biologically gratifying release without a greater context or purpose?
And in this commercial cheating world, it’s not just the man who’s pining away. It’s equality, baby. Another ad on the same night featured an exaggerated boorish bore of a man and his wife in a restaurant on their anniversary. He takes a phone call. She is pleased to make eye contact with a leering rake at the bar. “When divorce isn’t an option” is how Ashley Madison seeks to make this sale.
In both scenarios, missing was any sense of shame.
I asked similar questions while reading the weddings section of the New York Times over Labor Day weekend. This week’s spotlight on a couple’s road to wedded bliss was not an obvious one to celebrate: “There was a moment of connection, but it was so intense that we couldn’t be friends,” the featured bride explained. She and the man she just married met on Broadway, playing the lovers Mimì and Rodolfo in La Bohème. She was married to another man, but this did not prove to be a connection breaker. They would date. They would spend two weeks together in France. Upon her return from the Continent, she left her husband for her newfound love. The “little church girl” recalls: “From the moment our eyes met through those two weeks of being in Paris and the pain of going through a divorce, I knew that I loved him.”
I know nothing about this couple other than what the Times told us. I wish them and all involved well. But what about us? What does it say about us when the preeminent Sunday weddings announcer in the United States chooses to feature such a story?
And it’s not just the New York Times that’s moved by adulterous connections. Just days after the wedding feature, a story on ABCnews.com began with: “Don't let your spouse see this story.” It was titled: “Shh! The Top 5 Hotels for Having an Affair,” and explained: “These are hotels with thick walls, a discreet staff, a bit of romance and maybe even a heart-shaped Jacuzzi.”
In her book The Abolition of Marriage, Maggie Gallagher, one of the most committed marriage-protection activists in the country, wrote: “Marriage, like a corporation or private property, is an institution that must be supported by law and culture if it is to exist at all. . . . To have the choice as individuals to marry we must first choose as a society to create marriage.”
I attended a wedding at St. Patrick’s Cathedral that same Labor Day weekend, the run-up to which was a more traditional kind of single boy meets single girl that didn’t make any features sections. During the sermon, the rector implored those in attendance to be a support for the couple, because they will have hardship ahead, as all couples do. (You actually can’t legislate it away.) Marriage requires work and sacrifice. Family and friends are vital supports; in fact, they can often help make or break a marriage.
But what about the culture? Will the culture make a positive contribution to the institution of marriage? Or will we forever hold our peace in the face of blatant offenses to all that we should hold dear?
There will be rude cell habits and snoring — or something equally or even more annoying. There will be temptations, and sometimes a relationship won’t be sustainable. But many times it will be — and if those vows mean something, you try — but couples need help. And it’s in our interest to encourage the good and shun the bad. Marriage, born and nurtured by true love and responsibility, can be the source of joy, life, and a future generation that understands and honors marriage. Human life can be a messy thing. Which is all the more reason to commit to marriage in our words and in our deeds. We need to live that commitment, which includes, at the very least, not encouraging blatant violations of it — for all our sakes, ’til death do us part.
— Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor of National Review Online.
Now the “fight” is against these billboards with quotes from some of the Founding Fathers about the establishment of a religion in the United States. They're usually quotes about our country being founded on Christian ideology, etc. Apparently some atheist idiots are lobbying to get them taken down, but I'm seeing more and more of them.
Gotta love Florida. At least we have the southern spirit, even if we're surrounded by Northern libs.
Thou shalt not commit A.....
Infidelity is bad. It's always been bad, and it always will be bad. People need to hold fast to the realization that it is bad. It doesn't matter if you've fallen short, or your neighbor, or your pastor, or your congressman. Falling short doesn't change the fact that infidelity is bad.
We need to work toward being as morally upright as possible, and know that none of us will be perfect. But, to give in and say "Life is short: have an affair" is to completely throw aside any pretense that morality matters.
Without a moral society, the only hope for social order is a powerful dictatorship that keeps people in line through force. This what the left wants, and this is why the Left pretends that morality is not needed. They slobber for control, and our occasional inability to control our personal activities is a valuable tool in their quest to control all of our activities.
Yes, yes it does.
If you read FR, you’d learn that adultery is okay if your wife has put on weight.
Okay, how many people’s first reaction to the story was to go to the AshleyMadison.com website just to see?
Perhaps a few lefties can be brought around to common sense by reminding them that the adultery can lead to a child or a disease, neither of which will be well accepted by their spouse.
Funny how people play the lottery thinking the unlikely will happen to them, and commit adultery thinking it won’t.
As the saying goes, “hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue.” But now some have decided that virtue deserves no tribute whatsoever, that vice is to be honored instead.
I prefer a society of hypocrites who at least admit that good is preferable even as they reject it. Such a society can at least survive.
But when evil is done openly and shamelessly, and accepted and even celebrated at large, that spells the downfall of a society.
Actually, they do have moral values and can be hypocrites. Just not with regard to anything having to do with sexuality.
Their moral values are for things like environmentalism, protecting the poor, etc. Many have been and are regularly shown to be hypocrites with regard to these values. Al Gore being a notable example.
Yeah, so, what, you were born yesterday?
Florida. Titty-bar and death-metal capital of the world. Gotta love it. Ever been to cassadaga? Know what goes on in those cowfields in Pasco? Gotta love it. Ever had a to hire a lawyer? Good luck finding one who isn't a frat boy from FSU or Florida State, which wanted to fly the UN flag a few years ago. Ditto for your encounters with judges and sheriff's deputies.
And what you did with Terri Schiavo was positively inspiring.
Your problem isn't "northern libs." In fact, the semblence of sanity in that state is what rubs off from displaced new yorkers.
Now that's really saying something, there.
Have you noticed that they have now moved to earlier slots? At first I just saw them late-night, now they are in prime time.
What kind of idiot cheats
on Shania Twain?
Bill Clinton made it OK to fudge the definition of the word "is;" he inspired an entire generation of frat boys to become even more useless and exloitative than they were even then.
Never underestimated the influence of a leader.
My favorite blog had this to say about "is".
Wow... somebody didn’t take their mood meds this morning. Not all of us are uncivilised rednecks, sir.
Titty bars... so what? I don’t patronize them, but so what if others do?
Death metal... so what? Actually, a lot of good rock music comes out of the Tampa Bay area (ever heard of multi-platinum Shinedown?).
Don’t know what cassadaga is, nor do I know or care what goes on in Pasco county.
Never had to hire a lawyer, because I’m an upstanding citizen who keeps his nose clean. And what’s the problem with FSU and UF grads? I happen to be FSU alum, C/O 2002, and I take extreme exception to your comment about deputies; I know several of them, shoot with them, enjoy time with their families, and they’re generally good people.
Schiavo was a travesty, but if you actually lived here you would know that Floridians have been listening to stuff about Schiavo for over 10 years! Most of us were numb to it. The national media picks it up, and all of a sudden it’s this travesty.
And yes, the problem IS northern libs. The “transplants” bring their politics down here and drive us crazy with their garbage driving habits. Sanity? We differ greatly on the definition of sanity, my friend. With a 7% sales tax and NO OTHERS, I think I’ll stay in Florida, thanks.
I didn’t attack you, but you saw fit to fire the opening salvo. Your commentary was completely unwarranted, and I think you should consider some civility before deciding to post.
It's a small community between Orlando and DeLand. Made up of "mediums" who can contact your dead relatives supposedly.
Knock. Knock.
Who's there?
Emerson.
Emerson who?
Emerson nice . . .
Well, I made no assertion that Florida was a righteous state, just that we’re consistent in the application of political values.
And by the way, invisible hand, if you read the content of my actual post, I said that I saw billboards touting the same message that this article described, I said nothing about supporting it. As a matter of fact, I LAUD them for taking them down, as I found it reprehensible.
I am unmarried, but I plan to wed. I do not plan to EVER divorce or stray, as I waited until I was in my 30’s to find a mate. So many marry for stupid, materialistic reasons in their early 20’s, and I think it’s quite obvious that most 20-somethings have NO CLUE about how to function in a real relationship with a mortgage, bills, jobs, love, affection, and real-world issue affecting both partners.
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