Posted on 06/08/2011 1:04:00 PM PDT by doug from upland
Andrew Breitbart showed picture to radio hosts who took their own picture
Radio show hosts' picture was leaked on Twitter Twitter group 'bornfreecrew' was monitoring Weiner's account
Group warned women about Congressman months before scandal broke
Wife said to be in Libya on diplomatic trip with Hillary Clinton
Censored: Anthony Weiner faced fresh humiliation today after an uncensored photo of his genitals was leaked on to the internet Anthony Weiner faced the ultimate humiliation today after an uncensored photo of his genitals was leaked on to the internet. Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, who previously said he had the photo in his possession but would not release it, showed the picture on his cell phone to hosts on a Sirius radio show this morning.
Sirus XM's Opie and Anthony quickly took a snap of Breitbart's screen and tweeted the image. Breitbart revealed he had an inappropriate picture of Weiner during an appearance on the Today show yesterday. It was also revealed today that women were warned about Weiner by a conservative Twitter group months before the sexting scandal broke.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
You know, I’m sick of the high road meme that Republicans are supposed to follow. The Dems play down and dirty and the GOP is sugar and spice and everything nice. Like Sarah said: Fight like a girl. This nicey nice needs to stop.
Kick the hell out of them!
The nice thing is a few years ago she could have pushed that lie and the Washington Post would have picked up on right after the New York Times bought it. Today, they know we’re out here - and they can’t lie as easily. That’s a good change...
bump
ITA! So AB shows this to radio hosts and didn’t even think about the possibility that one of them would take their photo. What an Idiot AB was! Who didn’t see this coming a mile away.
“Depending on the true ages of the women he may need long jail time!”
Damn, perhaps Weiner and John Edwards can work it out to become cell mates.
It was only a matter of time before either Breitbart or the woman who got the original let it get out.
Just wow! I had not seen that. He made the journalist look like a little kid getting a dressing down. What a total arrogant ass. That needs to be posted on a separate thread so no one misses it.
“This creep deserves to be treated with intense vindictiveness. Nothing is out. Nothing makes me happier than watching this weasel squirm.
Conservatives have fought under the Marquis of Queensbury rules while the RATS tag team them with lead pipes. No more.”
Very well said.
It’s regrettable that our side has to stoop to their level to win.
The alternative to doing so, is to LOSE.
Those are the two choices.
I want our side to win.
Weiner was a vindictive and snarly type of guy, insofar as his political ideology went. This is “just comeuppance”...
Just sayin’...
http://www.house.gov/representatives/
Look up your rep and call. Weiner either resigns or faces an expulsion vote. The sooner the better.
If your rep does not agree, then tell him or her that they must approve of Weiners actions. And that is not acceptable to you.
The Opie show already released a statement that they took the photo without Andrew Brietbart’s knowlege
I agree 100%.
Weiner was smart? Palin is stupid? Down is up. Up is down. Sideways is straight on. Straight on is sideways. Gotcha.
Hint: When you’ve got the world by the tail; you don’t sabotage your life a la John Edwards if you’re all that smart.
Someone said the other day that Weiner single-handedly got the Obamacare mandate passed. Yep. Stunningly brilliant.
Who has even been vindictive expect Weiner himself in lying about Breitbart? We haven’t put protest marches in front of his home or tried to humiliate his wife or anything except point out his lies.
We have not had to stoop at all just stand tall.
This is a JUVENILE thing. It is, further, a badge of honor for Democrats. It’s grounds for immediate resignation for a conservative. Not for Democrats. - Shoot; Bill Clinton’s a big shot “elder statesman”, sooner or later John Edwards will be held out as such by some Democrats.
We have witnessed in recent days the personal meltdown of a national politician. His private sins have come to public light, and his personal life is probably in ruins.
Disclaimer 1 I want to say I had never heard of Congressman Anthony D. Weiner before last week. I still know nothing of his voting record, only that he is a Democrat from New York, serving in the House of Representatives here in DC. Whatever his political leanings, they are not significant for this post, because I want to talk about us, about this nation and how we behave when very personal things like this come to light. Some commentators may wish to tell me about his political views, or indicate that Democrats do this to Republicans, (they do), and that there is a double standard in the media (there probably is). But none of these is the point of my blog. The point I wish to explore is the soul of this nation, and what we do to the wounded among us.
Disclaimer 2 Anthony Weiner has sinned. Indeed, from an objective point of view, he has sinned gravely. He has strayed from marriage vows, engaged in lewd conduct, indulged lust, likely made unwanted sexual advances, and drawn others into lust. He also lied, as do most who get caught in shameful situations. Like any sinner, like any of us sinners, he ought to repent and seek the forgiveness of God, his wife, family, and all others he hurt or offended. As to whether he should resign, I have no strong opinion. As a citizen I see no real need to demand it, unless significant civil laws were broken. But in the end, I want to be clear that I do not make light of the sins he has committed, and I preach and teach against such things regularly.
But, I want to ask about us, about our national soul in matters like this. I have grave doubts about our rush to utterly bring to ruin those who struggle with personal sins of this sort, and also matters like substance abuse.
Lets be clear, we live in a profoundly hypersexualized culture. Sex is everywhere, sexual misbehavior and promiscuity in our culture is beyond epidemic, it is beyond pandemic, it has become endemic. We casually display and treat adultery, fornication and now homosexual activity in our movies and TV sitcoms. We have normalized sex outside of marriage, and living together before marriage. We even sexualize children in our culture, as we have discussed on this blog before. Add to all this misbehavior the toll of AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, abortion, teen pregnancy, divorces, broken families, and hurt and confused children being raised in non-ideal settings in ever larger numbers.
And Internet pornography is a huge, utterly huge problem in our culture. Ever larger numbers of Americans not only look at it regularly, but many are also powerfully addicted to it. And the addiction is addiction in the worse sense, for they not only compulsively view it, but need more and more of the stuff, to satisfy the longing. And what is viewed must become edgier and edgier to turn them on. Its big business. The pornography industry has larger revenues than Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Apple and Netflix combined. According to compiled numbers from respected news and research organizations, every second, $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography. More on the truly staggering Internet porn numbers here: Internet Pornography Statistics.
As a culture we have become very ill, sexually speaking.
All of this makes the piling on when a public figure falls from grace quite astonishing. It is very true that Congressman Weiner has a problem and has done something that is very wrong. But the fact is also true that WE have a problem as a culture. Our leaders are drawn from our ranks and reflect us. In a culture sexually confused, debased and out of control, we will see our leaders reflect our collective ills. Every now and then, it would seem that we dont like what we see in the mirror, and we go into attack and destroy mode.
It is a common trait that individuals will often be most annoyed by people who subconsciously remind them of themselves. If this is true at the individual level, it may well also be true at the collective level. And this may explain our strange need to pile on when someone has done something sexually shameful. Deep down inside, most people know, despite all the rationalizations and defenses our culture presents for its sexual liberation, that what we are doing, overlooking , or celebrating, is wrong. Yes, we know, deep down, underneath all the stinking thinking that fornication, adultery, pornography, immodesty, lewd conduct, and homosexual activity is wrong; we know. But we try to suppress the voice of our conscience. We smother it with hired experts, presumption, talk of liberation, and other versions of the previously mentioned stinking thinking.
Another way we try to assuage our guilt is to try and find some poor slob who is worse off than we are and say, Look at that terrible person. And for a moment we feel better.
Yet another way is to find a scape goat. In the Old Testament, on the Feast of Yom Kippur, two goats were designated to carry the guilt of Israel. One was slaughtered and offered in sacrifice. The other, the scape goat, was driven into the desert in order to carry away the guilt of the people. The scape goat bore the sin of the people. And this bespeaks not only a religious ceremony, but also a recognition by God that we often need something to focus our sin on, and ceremoniously drive it away. Other forms of this are writing ones sins on a paper then burning it, or an addict smashing a liquor bottle in renunciation of sin.
But people are not meant to be scape goats. No where are we directed to destroy others for our sins, or drive them into the desert.
So, Congressman Weiner has done a bad thing. But, collectively we are also behaving very badly. Matters such as these are very private and ought to handled in a private manner. He has done something very shameful that has briefly come to light. As Christians we should use moment like this to reflect.
But I pray God, we who bear the name Christian are not part of the piling on, the ridicule, scorn and derision, that the wider culture is currently engaged in, and the media has rushed to cover like sharks in bloody water. There is probably not one of us, who does not have things we have done, we would prefer not come to light. We ought to be very careful before we engage in finger-pointing, and the glee that bespeaks a kind of Schadenfreude. Even if one were to conclude the Congressman does not have our kind of politics (and a lot of this is about politics), he is a human being who has ship-wrecked his life, and needs our prayers. So does his family, and the victims of his antics.
On a personal note, I am a priest, and I often deal with people who have done some pretty sinful and painful things, people who have made a ship-wreck of their life. And while the Church must clearly and prophetically speak against sin and injustice, she must also remain a hospital where sinners find relief, treatment and mercy. It is not unlike doctors, who night and day cry out against smoking, but must still treat patients who come to them with pulmonary problems and cancers related to smoking, now or in the past. Sinners (all of us) need the truth, but they also need compassion, love, and mercy, along with treatment. This is the Christian way, and as a priest I have grown to understand it more and more deeply.
In terms of sexuality, it may be that too many pulpits have often been silent about the serious nature of these sorts of sins. But Ill say, not mine. Yet when some one comes to my door (or confessional) after a shameful fall, I am called to show them mercy and give encouragement, so they can start again, and rebuild their lives, often shattered.
Jesus said to the adulterous woman: I do not condemn you, Go now and leave your life of sin (John 8:11). But to this sinful and adulterous generation (cf Mk 8:38) the Lord is more pointed: If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her (Jn 8:7).
I pray that none of us who bear the name Christian have stones in our hands just now. A brother among us has sinned. Will we pile on, or pray on? Someone needs our prayers. I think I know what the Lord wants. I surely know what he did and said.
Photo Credit: Scapegoat by William Holman Hunt in the Liverpool Museum
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