Some enchanted evening, you will meet a stranger

[Guest StuCotts]

This is for those who wonder what advocates of family values do when they're not advocating for family values.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08...of-lewd-conduct

[TotallyOz]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/28/cra...rest/index.html

CNN also had a good story. I just wonder who made these signals? No one told me. Now that I know, I'll have to spend more time tapping my foot.

[lookin]

I just wonder who made these signals? No one told me. Now that I know, I'll have to spend more time tapping my foot.

Once you get the hang of it, I bet you'll be a regular Gene Kelly!

[AdamSmith]

Once you get the hang of it, I bet you'll be a regular Gene Kelly!

You are giving me an image of Gene's twinkletoes keeping it up even while their owner was on the porcelain throne.

[lookin]

You are giving me an image of Gene's twinkletoes keeping it up even while their owner was on the porcelain throne.

I was looking for an image of him working the stalls on both sides but, alas, no.

Too bad the Senator from Idaho didn't consider switching sides.

[Guest StuCotts]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/28/cra...rest/index.html

CNN also had a good story. I just wonder who made these signals? No one told me. Now that I know, I'll have to spend more time tapping my foot.

I confess to being puzzled by the elaborate choreography that the article seems to say is nowadays required of tearoom queens in the heartland. Is it related to the times or to geography? In NY, back in the glory days when the subways provided more than transportation and the men's room on the second floor of Bloomingdale's was the center of the universe, the people I knew who told me of their exploits in those places got what they wanted by much more direct means than an Ann Miller tap routine.

[TampaYankee]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/28/cra...rest/index.html

I just wonder who made these signals? No one told me. Now that I know, I'll have to spend more time tapping my foot.

Subtlety has never been your way, at least in my experience. Graciousness yes, subtlety no.

Somewhere along the line I heard of those signals... from an escort way back. He was a cruiser when on his own time.

[AdamSmith]

I was looking for an image of him working the stalls on both sides but, alas, no.

For no good reason I recall reading that organists are disciplined to keep their knees together no matter how far apart the feet must travel in playing the pedals.

And we know about organists...the prodigiously procreative J.S. Bach being the notable exception.

[AdamSmith]

Just read the funniest thing about this so far. In an article "Conservative Blogs Not Defending Craig," one reader responded:

"just do a group outing---get it over with---no more drip-drip-drip"

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/200.../28/335909.aspx

[lookin]

I confess to being puzzled by the elaborate choreography that the article seems to say is nowadays required of tearoom queens in the heartland. Is it related to the times or to geography?

I loved today’s CBS radio commentary from Dave Ross, in which he explains toe tapping. He says it’s a highly evolved men’s room code meaning, roughly, “I love you.†He ends by asking all us men to try to control our “happy feetâ€.

http://sea.bonnint.net/2007/0828rosstue.mp3

After Dave Ross’ commentary, the San Francisco Bay Area traffic report came on. In his usual friendly voice, the helicopter guy said, “People are tapping their feet trying to get through the Caldecott Tunnel tonight . . .â€

I’m finding the whole thing pretty funny, but I am reminded of the downside of spending your life judging the behavior of others. It can probably make you feel superior for a while but, when the tables get turned, they can get turned with a vengeance.

The Senior Senator from Idaho is twistin’ in the wind.

[Guest StuCotts]

I loved today’s CBS radio commentary from Dave Ross, in which he explains toe tapping. He says it’s a highly evolved men’s room code meaning, roughly, “I love you.†He ends by asking all us men to try to control our “happy feetâ€.

http://sea.bonnint.net/2007/0828rosstue.mp3

After Dave Ross’ commentary, the San Francisco Bay Area traffic report came on. In his usual friendly voice, the helicopter guy said, “People are tapping their feet trying to get through the Caldecott Tunnel tonight . . .â€

I’m finding the whole thing pretty funny, but I am reminded of the downside of spending your life judging the behavior of others. It can probably make you feel superior for a while but, when the tables get turned, they can get turned with a vengeance.

The Senior Senator from Idaho is twistin’ in the wind.

Let's make a distinction. The media are working up a lot of false outrage while snickering behind their hands at the toe-tapping aspect of getting caught propositioning a cop in a public toilet. Admittedly, it's funny, not to say cringe-making. I, for one, am not judging him merely for what happened in that place, but for the pietistical attitudes he based his whole public life on before this ludicrous incident. His bloviations in support of "family values" were uncompromising. He spoke against and voted against anything that might benefit gays in even the smallest measure. It's his two-facedness that has earned him his 15 minutes of twistin' in the wind while the world looks on.

If I sympathize with anybody in this situation and others like it, it's the wife who is obliged to stand by her man on worldwide TV while he either denies everything or admits it. She invariably looks like she's been sandbagged.

[lookin]

Hypocrisy is a very interesting subject for me. I can’t recall the last time I heard anyone admit to being a hypocrite. But it’s very common to hear people say of others, “Oh, they’re all a bunch of hypocrites!†Makes me wonder how there can be so many hypocrites, and yet so few owning up to being one.

The only two explanations I can think of so far are (1) a person is pretty much incapable of seeing his own hypocrisy, and/or (2) he’s being a hypocrite about his hypocrisy.

Like you, I don’t judge the Senator’s toe tapping, although I am very tempted to judge his hypocrisy. Then I recall that the downside of judging others is that the tables may get turned one day, and I will be the one getting judged.

With all the scandals in the news these days, I’ve been thinking a lot about hypocrisy, and especially with regard to any hypocritical viewpoints or actions of my own. I try to make sure that I’m not a hypocrite, since I dislike hypocrisy in others. But how do I know if I’ve rooted out all of my own hypocrisy? And, until I can be sure, should I really be judging hypocrisy in others?

It’s making me nuts. I just sit on the throne some days, tapping my foot.

[Guest StuCotts]

Hypocrisy is a very interesting subject for me. I can’t recall the last time I heard anyone admit to being a hypocrite. But it’s very common to hear people say of others, “Oh, they’re all a bunch of hypocrites!†Makes me wonder how there can be so many hypocrites, and yet so few owning up to being one.

The only two explanations I can think of so far are (1) a person is pretty much incapable of seeing his own hypocrisy, and/or (2) he’s being a hypocrite about his hypocrisy.

Like you, I don’t judge the Senator’s toe tapping, although I am very tempted to judge his hypocrisy. Then I recall that the downside of judging others is that the tables may get turned one day, and I will be the one getting judged.

With all the scandals in the news these days, I’ve been thinking a lot about hypocrisy, and especially with regard to any hypocritical viewpoints or actions of my own. I try to make sure that I’m not a hypocrite, since I dislike hypocrisy in others. But how do I know if I’ve rooted out all of my own hypocrisy? And, until I can be sure, should I really be judging hypocrisy in others?

It’s making me nuts. I just sit on the throne some days, tapping my foot.

I agree with everything you say. In my observation, hypocrisy is as pervasive as breathing.

Again, let's make a distinction. There is the minor hypocrisy that helps us get through our day, eg, thinking of ourselves as a compendium of all our best qualities and suppressing all thought of our less wonderful traits. That kind probably brings no harm to anybody. The kind whose effects are far-reaching and potentially harmful to others is on another plane.

Craig's preaching second-class citizenship for gays is far-reaching and potentially harmful. Doing it to preserve the lie he was living makes it, to my mind, less deserving to be forgiven and forgotten than it might otherwise be.

I could go on with examples of draft-dodging warmongers, but I try most of the time to live by the restriction against too-blatant political rhetoric in these forums.

Lastly, I have banished all foot-tapping from my assortment of tics, even to catchy music.

[lookin]

Good distinction. Thanks for the insight.

[Guest StuCotts]

Good distinction. Thanks for the insight.

One last word on the subject of hypocrisy:

The air in DC rings with denunciations of Craig and calls from his righteous colleagues for his head. Vitter, caught in heterosexual adultery, is getting a pass from the same crowd. For people who profess to care about that sort of thing, shouldn't it matter that the commandment condemns every kind of adultery?

[AdamSmith]

The air in DC rings with denunciations of Craig and calls from his righteous colleagues for his head. Vitter, caught in heterosexual adultery, is getting a pass from the same crowd. For people who profess to care about that sort of thing, shouldn't it matter that the commandment condemns every kind of adultery?

Maybe the following is a distinction without a difference. But in addition to orientation, there was also the difference that, once the evidence came out, Vitter at least owned up to it.

To be sure, Vitter committed the lie of omission, at least to the voting public if not to his wife (assuming one believes his claim that he had earlier confessed to her).

Huckabee's observation on Craig seemed apt -- "voters will forgive us for being sinners, but not for being hypocrites."

[Guest StuCotts]

Maybe the following is a distinction without a difference. But in addition to orientation, there was also the difference that, once the evidence came out, Vitter at least owned up to it.

To be sure, Vitter committed the lie of omission, at least to the voting public if not to his wife (assuming one believes his claim that he had earlier confessed to her).

Huckabee's observation on Craig seemed apt -- "voters will forgive us for being sinners, but not for being hypocrites."

Your generous attitude is so attractive that I wish I could emulate it in this case, but I can't. Nothing in the history of those in question has a shred of anything but intolerance and hate-mongering to offer gays, all of it couched in pseudo-religious rhetoric. Whether the attitude comes from within themselves or from the need to pander to their consituencies, the effect is the same. Hence I can't believe that orentation was anything less than the prime, most likely the sole, motivation behind the outcry.

If the voters were really unforgiving of hypocrites, there wouldn't be enough people left in the halls of Congress to fill a toilet stall. Pardon the too obviously timely reference. I couldn't resist.