Whenever there is a Republican sex scandal, every media mention of it will be sure to specify "Republican Senator Blah Blah". However, the majority of the coverage of the Spitzer scandal neglects to label him as a Democrat. It might be tempting to point to the hypocrisy bias of sex scandal impact, but with his pride in his prostitution prosecutions as Attorney General of New York, his hypocrisy level in this is as high as any Republican that has been involved in a sex scandal. Republicans have been implicated in more sex scandals lately, so one could hardly argue that Democrats were the default. So, why obscure his party membership?

Poll #1148168 Sin and Virtue
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

What is your favorite deadly sin?

What is your favorite holy virtue?

I had a swell time at the x_bluerose_x's party last night. I very much liked the banana chocolate goodness of Sex in the TARDIS as well as the strange Liqor 43 brontosproximo brought. I got a little more sloshed than I intended, and while I was not falling down drunk (which I haven't been in many years), I still managed to achieve stupid drunk (which I haven't been in quite a while either).

The crowd was jolly, and the floor show at the end was... well... interesting.

In the United States, the Republicans often complain that sex scandals involving Democrats don't tend to have the same level of fallout as ones involving Republicans. In fact, sex scandals involving Democrats sometimes end up burning Republicans who make political hay out of it. Liberals, on the other hand, dislike the joy right wingers find in accusing the left of being intolerant of Christianity, even though many members of the right have no problem being intolerant of religions outside their own.

Pro-abstinence Republicans are more vulnerable to sexual misconduct scandals because it directly contradicts their message of morality, liberals are far more vulnerable to accusations of intolerance because it contradicts their message. For the most part, the hardline right makes little claim of tolerance and the hardline left makes little claim of sexual chastity. The double standard in both of those cases is due to a general dislike of hypocrisy throughout the political spectrum.

The message is: keep true to your message or adapt your message to what you really mean.

Poll #989414
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Due to it's graphic content, should sales of the Bible to those under 18 be banned or restricted?

More than 2,300 Hong Kong residents have lodged complaints about indecent and sexually explicit material in the Bible in a bizarre campaign to restrict sales of the Christian holy book. Hong Kong's publications watchdog has received an avalanche of complaints about tales of incest, rape, cannibalism and violence in the Bible since the website truthbible.net began urging people to file complaints. ... Now the website says it may raise the issue with Hong Kong's public ombudsman on the grounds that the "abnormal sex and violence" described in the Bible is at odds with the moral standards of people in the former British colony. If the campaign succeeds, the Bible could technically have its sales restricted in Hong Kong in the same way that pornographic magazines must be sold in sealed packages and to only those over age 18. The motive for the campaign is unclear. full article

I obviously don't believe the Bible should be censored, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out. At the very least it might be a lesson to the pro-censorship faction of Christians that their own words and logic can be used against them.

Answers to yesterday questions:

~~~
It improved until last year. However in the last year, even with a lot of great additions, it seems to have quality and growth seems to have stagnated.

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We are many and one. I estimate that there are between 10 and 20 quasidistinct individuals. You might check out these entries, keeping in mind that most of my entries from 2001 to 2004 have not yet been tag, and that was my most prolific period writing on the subject.

2.71828
I can and most others I know can. However, it is not universal and there are a significant minority that can't.

687
I would simply say they are getting different.

893254
They are separate forces and each exist in their own right. What influence there is flows both way.

For each of the following, indicate which one you option you like more (or dislike less) by selecting a number on that side of the scale. The closer to -5 or 5 indicates the degree to which you prefer that option.

Poll #867616
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

beer (-5) vs. wine (5)

benevolent monarchy (-5) vs. corrupt democracy (5)

boston red sox (-5) vs. new york yankees (5)

cats (-5) vs. dogs (5)

chocolate (-5) vs. sex (5)

Dick Cheney (-5) vs. Karl Rove (5)

France (-5) vs. Italy (5)

Groucho Marx (-5) vs. Karl Marx (5)

Iran (-5) vs. Syria(5)

Jessica Simpson (-5) vs. Maria Cary (5)

mental pain (-5) vs. physical pain (5)