Hypocrisy

Newt Gingrich Admits To Having Affair While Leading Clinton Probe

From the article,

In an interview with Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, Gingrich (R-Ga.) acknowledged his own personal infidelities during his time in Congress, but insisted he was not being hypocritical in pursuing Clinton for his indiscretions with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Let's check the dictionary, shall we? From Dictionary.com, under "hypocrisy," it says the following:

a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess.

It also says, a little farther down,

The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.

Going back to the original article, Gingrich tries to weasle out of this by claiming his primary concern was that Clinton committed perjury before a federal judge. What is not said is that Gingrich didn't have to commit perjury before a federal judge, because nobody put him in that position. In other words, Clinton got asked and Gingrich didn't.

It needs to be said here that a fundamental difference in the way liberals and conservatives interpret those events rests in the question of how a person is expected to respond to intrusive questions. Those of us on the left have long felt that a person is entitled to lie in response to a question that nobody has any fucking business asking in the first place. Those on the right, Gingrich included, obviously disagree. It doesn't seem likely that this disagreement will ever be resolved.

To his credit, Gingrich does admit to feeling "not proud" of what he did, and, as I recall, his resignation in 1998 was a bit of a surprise, and the explanation he gave at the time was a bit inexplicable (at least to me). Perhaps his own personal misgivings over his behavior were a primary reason for his getting out when he did. Even earlier than that, when the Georgia state legislature moved the boundaries of Gingrich's congressional district after the 1990 Census, rendering him ineligible to run for reelection, he actually relocated in order to stay within his own Congressional district. That's not the action of a man who's likely to resign for trivial reasons.

I always thought Gingrich was kind of an interesting guy, sharp and quick, willing to think outside of the box, someone the left really could have used on our side. Of course, the reality was that he was on the opposite side, which made him quite a formidable political enemy.

I just hope he stays the hell out of the presidential race. Except, on the other hand, it would probably be a more interesting race for having him in the fray.

Here's a very interesting piece on intellectual property. It addresses what is the primary problem with today's intellectual property laws, namely that they inhibit artistic innovation, rather than enabling it the way they are supposed to.

link

France Moves to Abandon Free Speech

That's what this article could have been titled:

France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence
Under the new law, it is now a crime in France to film or broadcast acts of violence. For instance, if someone were to film police officers beating a suspect, such as what happened to Rodney King in Los Angeles almost exactly 16 years ago, that act of filming is a crime. Broadcasting that footage is also a crime. Only "professional journalists" are exempt from this law.

Also under consideration is a system for providing government certification of "[w]eb sites, blog hosters, mobile-phone operators and Internet service providers, identifying them as government-approved sources of information if they adhere to certain rules." That, at least, has not been approved yet. But the ban on filming or broadcasting violent acts has already been approved.

I'm hardly a France-basher. I've never once ordered "freedom fries" or any of that bullshit--in fact, I applaud France's courage in being one of the few countries willing to tell the United States where exactly we can shove it. I have to ask, though, where the hell is that courage today?

This new law is a big mistake. Huge.