Dirtballs Will Be Dirtballs
I simply cannot let certain news events of the past few days go without comment. Maybe I'm a cynic, but I am always just a little suspect of certain people who attract hordes of followers. I feel like there's a Jim Jones lurking in there somewhere. I'm talking about charismatic individuals who, because of their gifts, are elevated above the rest of us plebians and begin to believe themselves to be truly better than everyone else, deserving of special treatment, no longer bound by the rules of common decency that serve to keep society civil.
I refer to John Edwards, sometime presidential candidate, and Victoria Osteen, wife of mega-televangelist Joel Osteen.
Let's take Miss Vicky first. Before I ever heard of her, I had heard of her husband, Joel Osteen, who runs a mega-Christian church in Houston that is said to attract 42,000 worshipers every week in a stadium cum cathedral. He's also penned some best sellers. These two are living the life. They've got the big bucks, thanks to their gagillions of followers. But televangelist? Can you say Jim and Tammi Faye Bakker? How are these people any different? They pray on people's hopes, fears and misery all the while raking in the dough and living by their own rules.
But that's not the point here. Miss Vicky made news because she allegedly assaulted a flight attendant. It seems she threw a hissy fit back in 2005 because there was a stain on the armrest of her seat. According to news reports at the time, "She violently ran towards the cockpit, scaring everyone around her," said passenger Knicky Van Slyke. "Everyone was terrified about what was going on. And a bunch of flight attendants ran up and had to restrain her. She was banging on the door." (Evidently the pressures of running the megachurch were so great, the family was taking a much-needed break, heading for the slopes of Colorado. Poor babies.)
The thrust of the lawsuit is that she assaulted a flight attendant, who is now suing her on the basis of pain and suffering, etc.
The thrust of my take on the situation is that this little incident merely reveals that this is who Victoria Osteen is. Take a good look. Then follow her and Joel if you want. But it looks to me like this couple's moral philosophy is Do as I Say, Not as I Do. And there's a reason why they call religious congregations the "flock". Baa Baa Baa.
Now the juicy stuff. John Edwards. Where shall we begin? The guy casts himself on the moral high ground throughout his campaign. The son of a mill worker. The lawyer for the downtrodden. The enemy of big mean corporations. Oh yeah, the same guy who lives in a 29,000 square foot house who calls for caps on carbon emissions. And when was the last time a blue collar worker paid $400 for a haircut. Not that I begrudge him that. He has good hair for a guy his age.
And when his wife's cancer recurred, he was nearly elevated to sainthood...both of them were...selfless people that they are. They forgot to mention that John Edwards was cheating on his wife back in 2006, with a total bimbo no less, who then had a child. She was paid hush money by Edwards' good friends and relocated to a cushy pad in California, but the National Enquirer would just not let sleeping dogs lie. They started reporting this back in October, and the mainstream press finally picked up on it last week, even though it was common knowledge in certain quarters of his campaign that he was a lying cheating scumbag.
Now he apologizes ("In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic." I like that. I respect that. This is a shockingly truthful statement considering it comes from a lying cheating scumbag.) But he also says he's not the father of the kid and offers to take a paternity test. Of course knowing that she won't take one, won't allow her daughter to be tested, because then the gravy train comes to a screaching halt.
Meanwhile, his erstwhile devoted cancer-stricken wife is by his side. I think she is. It would be sweet if she dumped him. Publicly. But she won't. Women married to men like him are power-hungry too, and they're not going to let a little thing like public humiliation of themselves and their children get in the way of their ambitions.
Really, John Edwards is revealing himself to be just like Bill Clinton, only shorter. And like Miss Vicky, his behavior simply shows who he really is. Selfish. Narcissistic. A liar. Untrustworthy. A dirtball. Oh yeah, and mean.
I refer to John Edwards, sometime presidential candidate, and Victoria Osteen, wife of mega-televangelist Joel Osteen.
Let's take Miss Vicky first. Before I ever heard of her, I had heard of her husband, Joel Osteen, who runs a mega-Christian church in Houston that is said to attract 42,000 worshipers every week in a stadium cum cathedral. He's also penned some best sellers. These two are living the life. They've got the big bucks, thanks to their gagillions of followers. But televangelist? Can you say Jim and Tammi Faye Bakker? How are these people any different? They pray on people's hopes, fears and misery all the while raking in the dough and living by their own rules.
But that's not the point here. Miss Vicky made news because she allegedly assaulted a flight attendant. It seems she threw a hissy fit back in 2005 because there was a stain on the armrest of her seat. According to news reports at the time, "She violently ran towards the cockpit, scaring everyone around her," said passenger Knicky Van Slyke. "Everyone was terrified about what was going on. And a bunch of flight attendants ran up and had to restrain her. She was banging on the door." (Evidently the pressures of running the megachurch were so great, the family was taking a much-needed break, heading for the slopes of Colorado. Poor babies.)
The thrust of the lawsuit is that she assaulted a flight attendant, who is now suing her on the basis of pain and suffering, etc.
The thrust of my take on the situation is that this little incident merely reveals that this is who Victoria Osteen is. Take a good look. Then follow her and Joel if you want. But it looks to me like this couple's moral philosophy is Do as I Say, Not as I Do. And there's a reason why they call religious congregations the "flock". Baa Baa Baa.
Now the juicy stuff. John Edwards. Where shall we begin? The guy casts himself on the moral high ground throughout his campaign. The son of a mill worker. The lawyer for the downtrodden. The enemy of big mean corporations. Oh yeah, the same guy who lives in a 29,000 square foot house who calls for caps on carbon emissions. And when was the last time a blue collar worker paid $400 for a haircut. Not that I begrudge him that. He has good hair for a guy his age.
And when his wife's cancer recurred, he was nearly elevated to sainthood...both of them were...selfless people that they are. They forgot to mention that John Edwards was cheating on his wife back in 2006, with a total bimbo no less, who then had a child. She was paid hush money by Edwards' good friends and relocated to a cushy pad in California, but the National Enquirer would just not let sleeping dogs lie. They started reporting this back in October, and the mainstream press finally picked up on it last week, even though it was common knowledge in certain quarters of his campaign that he was a lying cheating scumbag.
Now he apologizes ("In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic." I like that. I respect that. This is a shockingly truthful statement considering it comes from a lying cheating scumbag.) But he also says he's not the father of the kid and offers to take a paternity test. Of course knowing that she won't take one, won't allow her daughter to be tested, because then the gravy train comes to a screaching halt.
Meanwhile, his erstwhile devoted cancer-stricken wife is by his side. I think she is. It would be sweet if she dumped him. Publicly. But she won't. Women married to men like him are power-hungry too, and they're not going to let a little thing like public humiliation of themselves and their children get in the way of their ambitions.
Really, John Edwards is revealing himself to be just like Bill Clinton, only shorter. And like Miss Vicky, his behavior simply shows who he really is. Selfish. Narcissistic. A liar. Untrustworthy. A dirtball. Oh yeah, and mean.
posted by calabresewoman | 7:19 AM
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