The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

What Is Joe Trying to Tell Us?

Posted on | March 17, 2022 | Comments Off on What Is Joe Trying to Tell Us?

Everybody on Twitter yesterday was mocking Joe Biden for his bizarre comment at one of his rare public appearances, the official transcript of which reads as follows:

So we established a new civil rights — a new civil rights cause of action for those whose intimate images were shared on the public screen. How many times have you heard — I’ll bet everybody knows somebody somewhere along the line that in an intimate relationship, what happened was the guy takes a revealing picture of his naked friend, or whatever, in a compromising position, and then literally, in a sense, blackmails or mortifies that person — sends it out, put it online. We’re giving survivors real resources against abuse now. Ex-partners and stalkers who seek to humiliate and hurt them.

The occasion was reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, and these comments were about new federal measures against so-called “revenge porn,” but is it true that “everybody knows somebody” who has had their “compromising” images published online?

So far as I’m aware, this hasn’t happened to anyone I know — at least not directly. However, I do know somebody who is acquainted with Kim Kardashian, although some have claimed that it was Kim herself who leaked her infamous “sex tape” with Ray J, but I digress . . .

Everybody immediately connected this to the Laptop From Hell, and the various scandals of Hunter Biden, who among other thing sired a bastard child with a stripper from Arkansas and had to be forced by a court to acknowledge paternity. What’s unclear to me is whether Biden’s “everybody knows somebody” comment was in the prepared text of his remarks, or was something he spontaneously ad-libbed.

Just how common is the kind of “send nudes” behavior which leads to the “revenge porn” blackmail scenario the president described? My stance on the matter has always been clear:

Advice to women: No naked pictures, period. You think your boyfriend can be trusted to keep your naked selfies strictly private? You’re stupid.

No matter how desperately a guy begs, no nudes, ever. Yet it seems that my advice has not been heeded, which is why we now have federal legislation making it a “civil rights” violation to share somebody’s nudes without authorization, a provision which I’m sure will end up being abused by selective enforcement. One of the problems with turning everything into a federal crime is that the enforcement of such laws is often so inconsistent that those prosecuted feel like they’re being singled out unfairly for doing something lots of other people get away with.

BTW, yesterday Ace of Spades shared this image:

I spent a little time trying to verify the authenticity of this tweet, which went viral last summer, but the account from which it originated has since been deleted. Whether the story is authentic or not, let me pass along this helpful advice: No, never, don’t do it.

People who knew me during my wild youth might be surprised that I have become a tireless proponent of bourgeois respectability. But you see, back in the day, I was single, footloose and carefree, whereas for the past three decades I have been a married father, and the responsibilities of this role put me squarely at odds with the values of my disreputable youth.

Also — and this is the really important point — there is no digital record of my scandalous adolescence. Perhaps someone might say I did this or that awful thing back in the day, but they can’t prove it and, on the advice of Bert the Samoan Lawyer, I invoke my right to remain silent.

By contrast, if any of my kids tried to get away with that crazy stuff (which, however, I do not confirm ever doing), there would almost certainly be incriminating video, text messages, etc.

Sorry, kids — fun time is over. Bourgeois respectability is now the only way to live. The Internet has ruined everything.




 

Category: Joe Biden, Scandal

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