Submitted by Sylvia Honig, Mar 14, 2008 08:24

Mercy is admirable in cases of sinning. If the sinning is also illegal, then justice must accompany mercy. What's most disturbing in the Spitzer/prostitution case is that outcries of indignation and lusts for vengence make it seem as if this is a shocking surprise and an isolated case. We often hear statistics that there are 40,000, 000...that's forty million.. porno movie rentals every year in the country. I suspect most of the renters are men. Television sitcoms and reality shows and talk shows are loaded with smutty sexual admissions, comments, and plots. Celebrity and Hollywood high-profile personalities brag about their sexual exploits, female movie stars brag about their without-marriage-pregnancies, the media gushes about their "baby bumps", while at the same time politicians and the general public agonize over out-of-wedlock pregancies plaguing the lower classes, the minority groups, and other unfortunate young women who don't have the star-struck media excusing them. These double-standards of hypocrisy violate all our moral lives. So what's the big deal about Govenor Spitzer and the high-priced call girl agencies? What do you expect in this double-standard, hypocritical culture? We shouldn't have to apologize for Spitzer's current exposed sins. We should first apologize for our own approval and lust for gossip about the public idols that we continue to support and applaud.

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