The Law of Unintended Consequences

One never truly knows how something one says or does will affect the world around him. Since the universe is, as Deepak Chopra so eloquently puts it, a Field of All Possibilities, there are an infinite number of possible outcomes for any single event.

This rather new-age explanation of the Law of Unintended Consequences points to something Bob Cesca wrote today on Huffington Post. He is commenting on Bush's fiddling while Rome burns, and McSame's very lame attempts at humor that actually point to his questionable competence as leader of the free world.

But it's this one paragraph that gave me pause, and not in a good way:

The president isn't you and me. You and I can tell whatever joke we want whenever we want because we don't have to represent 300 million people on the world stage. Your personal behavior doesn't necessarily get passed on to posterity as a reflection of an entire era in American history. So if you want to tell that gorilla rape joke to your spouse or parents, have at it. If Senator McCain wants to tell a joke like that, he embarrasses more than just himself.

So, wasn't this sort of what the Republicans were saying in the '90s when they were impeaching Clinton for lying to Congress about getting a blow job from Monica Lewinsky? I mean, if an everyday man wants to cheat on his wife with a woman willing to enable the cheating, he really only has to answer to his wife, his family, perhaps the other woman. In other words, he doesn't affect 300 million people. But if a POTUS gets a BJ in the Oval Office, repeatedly, and gets caught, isn't that going to be "passed on to posterity as a reflection of an entire era in American history"? And of course, in Clinton's case, it was, and it led in a way to Al Gore's loss and the ascension of Bush in 2000.

Well, let's put it all into perspective, though, OK? Clinton enjoyed a singularly pleasurable sexual experience in his office, violating his marriage vows, and then lied about it to Congress. Millions were spent uncovering the mess (excluding the mess on Monica's dress) and prosecuting the lying offense.

By contrast, Clinton's successor committed felonies (warrantless wiretapping on American citizens) in violation of the Fourth Amendment, lied to the world about why war with Iraq was necessary, violated the Geneva Conventions (torture) and lied about its legality, has held American civilians in military brigs for years without charges, in violation of the Sixth Amendment, and has continually lied to America about the need to stay in Iraq forever, has sanctioned the outing of a covert CIA agent (and practically pardoned the guy who actually did it). Hundreds of billions of dollars have been wasted enabling this pathological liar and criminal and those who surround him.

Now, along comes an old guy who wants to be Bush's true successor, continue with his warped worldview and impose American "values" on a world not so ready to accept them. A guy who's confused a lot of the time, rarely if ever funny, and it's questionable if the guy's all that personable. He also wants to waste billions of our dollars. Given the karma surrounding Bush, it's pretty easy predict the outcome of this guy's election.