[Louis] Magazzu, a 53-year-old lawyer who had been an elected county official for more than a decade, apologized to his friends, family and constituents in a statement, but indicated he had been set up.Hey, you already resigned. What are you going to do with that lawyer? Bring on the copyright and tort lawsuits!
"I did not know that she was working with an avowed political enemy to distribute these pictures," Magazzu said of the Chicago woman he corresponded with online with for several years but claims he never met. "I have retained counsel to determine what laws may have been broken by the unauthorized distribution of those pictures."
I'll quote Dan Savage again:
He didn't do anything with his dick, phone, and internet access that millions of his fellow Americans aren't also doing.... This is part of the new normal, people, just another one of the ways technology is impacting and shaping our lives....It's obviously not the new normal yet. We're in this halfway position, where millions of Americans are doing something, but America as a culture maintains the staunch opinion that it's completely disgusting and anyone who does it should driven from his job and ostracized unless he goes through a public abasement ritual.
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75 comments:
"we're in this halfway position"
Us kids nowadays call it a semi.
As someone once observed, "Stupid is as stupid does".
A few more times and I think this will cease to be the new normal.
WV "shmel" Again, make up your own.
I was going to say a schlemiel without self-esteem, but I think it's more than that.
I am not sure why someone would think this is a good idea? It is not sexy, it is embarassing, and these people are often not that attractive.
This may be part of the new normal, people, just another one of the ways technology is impacting and shaping our lives....
BUT providing constituents with naked pictues of your aging politician body is TMI
I think Dan Savage is right. We should relax monogamy so that Congressmen can send naked pictures to all their constituents freely and without fear of recrimination.
Then we'll ALL be FREE...
It's some nobody in New Jersey.
Most of us are nobodies, Althouse.
The people who aren't nobodies... that is our mandarin, technocrat class... created the massive financial disaster that is crippling the country.
This Savage fellow is a massive asshole.
Texting naked pictures is a huge error in judgment, I think, and not a moral issue. In this case, the guy who ratted out the dick texter was looking for revenge.
The texter was an elected office holder in Cumberland County, New Jersey, far from the liberal confines of Manhattan. Small towns, the shore not far away and small business.
What can you say? If you are an elected official and you give your opponents a pretext for exacting revenge... well, what do you think is going to happen?
Give me the good old days, when a gentleman had to sit nude days on end for a sculpture to send to the lasses he was trying to woo.
(not original, I know)
"I did not know that she was working with an avowed political enemy to distribute these pictures,"
This is a big hint as to why this should become the "new normal"
(wv: dityrove. Which at first I thought said 'dirty rove'. Ha ha ha. Is that in the Urban Dictionary?)
It's really unfair that we hold politician to a higher standard,
when it's clear to everyone that they are below the mean in every measure of virtue when we hire them, yet we want them gone when someone proves it.
Jeez. I just don't understand. (I really do, to a degree, but the stupidity is overwhelming.)
I abide by Chick McGee's (of Bob and Tom Radio) philosophy: No pictures, no video, don't write anything down. Deny, deny,deny..
Mr. Savage,
It's called good judgement. We supposedly want that in our elected officials.
I'm fascinated by the international peep show and whorehouse
that is the new normal.
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
One Filipino girl seems to be working 24 hour days. Check out Precious Dee. She's working hard for her money!
You know better than to cross the Weiner.
It's obviously not the new normal yet. We're in this halfway position, where millions of Americans are doing something, but America as a culture maintains the staunch opinion that it's completely disgusting and any POLITICIAN who does it should driven from his job and ostracized unless he goes through a public abasement ritual.
FIFY - and that "public abasement ritual" is bullshit:
Just go.
1) Doesn't it depend on the individual situation? If they are caught lying to everyone about it I think it raises issues. Althouse is right, we're in transition.
2) Reasonable folks should come to some agreement about the people who are out there trying to entrap others in these kinds of behaviors. Again it depends on the individual situation, but this isn't a good trend for us.
3) We should hold everyone to the same standard standards that they would regardless of the party the person belongs to who is caught with their pants down.
Just to head this off in my own career, I would like to admit to sexting right now. I did it. I got some back. We liked it. Now bite me, cause I'm not a role model, and I don't want your vote.
Bagho20 you told me you weren't going to tell anyone. I'm disappointed.
In the not so distant future, when the holodeck becomes reality, the international peep show and whorehouse will make virtual whoring a reality.
You'll be able to screw a beautiful whore in Bangkok just by walking into the holodeck appliance in your closet. You'll be right there with your babe, able to touch, smell, talk, etc.
What will be the boundaries then?
BUT providing constituents with naked pictues of your aging politician body is TMI
To paraphrase Alicia Silverstone...and we're expected to swoon?
You'll be able to screw a beautiful whore in Bangkok just by walking into the holodeck appliance in your closet. You'll be right there with your babe, able to touch, smell, talk, etc.
But will you be able to talk about it with your spouse?
Althouse is right, we're in transition.
What's that quote, mistakenly attributed to de Tocqueville I believe, America is the only country to go from barbarianism to decadence without the usual interlude of civilization.
Sorry. If you send nude pix of yourself, you're not getting my vote.
"...what laws may have been broken by the unauthorized distribution of those pictures."
Ah, his pics must be copyrighted!
Haul her to jail, and pass laws to id whoever distribute pictures of politicians' "you-know-what" as terrorists.
I hope he sues, and makes a bigger laughing stock of himself. We need real laughs, not chuckles, but bellyaching laughs.
Shouting Thomas said...
In the not so distant future, when the holodeck becomes reality, the international peep show and whorehouse will make virtual whoring a reality.
You'll be able to screw a beautiful whore in Bangkok just by walking into the holodeck appliance in your closet. You'll be right there with your babe, able to touch, smell, talk, etc.
Yes, but ironrails will want to know, will she be full-flavored?
But will you be able to talk about it with your spouse?
You'll be able to participate in it with your spouse.
Check out the Group Sex subcategory in the international peep show and whore house.
And, best of all, you can commit adultery without actually committing adultery... if you get what I mean.
And this just occured to me:
WHY are you quoting Dan Savage again?
If you ask me, those trying to pressure the rest of us into accepting deviancy as "the new normal" first have to prove they have an appreciation for what normal is first.
And Savage don't cut it.
I hate to break it to you but most Americans would place very little stock in anything Dan Savage thinks. That, of course, is if they even know who he is.
Yes, but ironrails will want to know, will she be full-flavored?
Jesus, you guys got to get out more!
Another subcategory in the international peep show and whorehouse: Hairy Pussy!
All variaties of taste and perversion serviced!
I'm hoping to make some money out of this shit.
It's only normal when democrats do it. When Republicans do it, its still hypocrisy.
I don't think we are meant to understand or appreciate the sexual mores or music of a younger generation. Part of their appeal is their ability to shock and dismay the older generation. Turn and counterturn to the music of time. I don't think younger people who sext each other or listen to rap music are destined for hell. However, I do think a member of the older generation has an obligation to keep up his end of the bargain and disapprove of such activities. Don't trust anyone over the age of fifty who has belly button bling, a tattoo, or sends sext messages. This is a kind of generational wiggerism.
The Weiner Line: built following the French experience in WW1, it was supposed to allow the French forces to organize before penetration of Germans could succeed.
The Weiner Line failed because the penetration came through the low countries, flanking the Wiener defenses.
As such, the Weiner Line has come to mean a strategy or object that people put hope into but fails miserably. (with apologies to Wickipedia for the last sentence).
phx,
We had our fun, now please delete at least the 486 photos I sent in June. That was a strange time I was going through, and it's not representative of how I am now. I've grown.
I don't see Dan Savage, homosexual activist, as a very worthy person to judge what "normal is".
This is a guy that comes in his gay lovers ass, gobbles up the "Santorum" that comes dribbling out, and feeds it from his mouth to his lovers.
Cedarford,
I don't see Dan Savage, homosexual activist, as a very worthy person to judge what "normal is".
This is a guy that comes in his gay lovers ass, gobbles up the "Santorum" that comes dribbling out, and feeds it from his mouth to his lovers.
Dude, what are you talking about? I did that last night - and I was alone
ScottM, call me.
I haven't even done something like this, nor would I.
What's that say about these elected officials?
Although, I prefer to be very anonymous in general. No facebook, tweet, name on web anywhere etc.
Clouds.
Everyone who disagrees with me, please tell me that you want everyone who commits adultery to be driven from his or her job.
This naked-pic texting is not as bad as adultery, and we routinely accept the continuance in office of numerous adulterers.
You don't have to say it's good to say it's not a reason to resign.
It is completely disgusting, he should not lose his job, he should not be ostracized, he should just stop doing it.
Titus,
You've really got to stop with this "clouds" business. You're starting to remind me of that silly bitch from The Orb.
Stick with "tits," dude.
I don't disagree with you.
I'm pretty neutral.
The guy didn't have to resign. He chose to resign. We don't know the reasons.
Was it public pressure? Was it a kick in the ass from family or the wife? Was he just unwilling to deal with it because he doesn't have a very tough skin?
If adultery disqualified one for public office, I don't know who'd be left.
There is such a huge divide between what people say they do and what they really do when it comes to sex. Coming, of course is the operative word.
Women are particularly untrustworthy in about what they say they do, as opposed to what they actually do.
I blame the gays for this.
They started this years ago.
Ann,
Everyone who disagrees with me, please tell me that you want everyone who GETS CAUGHT commitsing adultery to be driven from his or her job.
I don't know what gives you the impression that's a confidence or trust builder, either.
Get 'em out of here.
Fred4Pres: some poor emasculated men need to prove their manhood?
Moose: Sending naked pictures has nothing to do with monogamy. Yeah, all politicians should send naked pics to their constituents, then they would know whom they're voting for.
bagoh20: "It's really unfair that we hold politician to a higher standard," Higher standard? When have we made sending pictures of one's naked butt to strangers a standard? It's harassment. If you sent a pict of your naked butt to your co-workers, you'd be escorted out of the door before the end of the day. That is exactly what happens to the politicians. He is fired for harassment by his employer, his constituents.
This constant endorsement of deviancy will get you nowhere, Ann. This is the Boomer in you - it's "all good." Well, no it ain't. We are suffering as a nation because you have no standards. You can't defend this shit, so why try?
Really - why try to defend cheating?
This guy was confident enough to take pics of that body naked.
How sad. What an inflated ego.
His hog is totally small too.
My word verification this time is "cload". Coincidence? Don't think so.
Clouds.
I blame the gays for this.
They started this years ago.
You are certainly right there, Titus.
The standards of sexual behavior of gay men slowly seep out into the hetero population through the intermediary work of the fag hags.
We're jealous of all that sex that gay men get. If I could only get into sucking dick and taking it up the ass, I'd be glad to join you.
Somehow, it's just not me.
Only the most morally pure of us should be allowed employment. Do you people realize how fucking crazy you are?
If he hadn't taken the pics and sent them off in the first place, he wouldn't be in the position he is in.
He's not sorry he did it, he's sorry he got caught.
Althouse: Not everyone should lose their job for adultery, but politicians are in a different category. They are held to a higher standard because they are representing a constituency.
This guy is an elected official, not the manager of the local gas station / repair shop.
The sending off of photos of body parts that could result in arrest if exposed in public shows very bad judgment. That is not a good thing in an elected official.
wv: adjudi
If an employee of yours did this in his private life, would you fire him?
Because that's exactly what this is.
Hey Titus - don't gays do that thing where they cum in the asshole and then piss in it?
The Professor works in a liberal school on the liberal plantation of Madison.
In her mileau, monogamy is scandalous.
Alex,
Only the most morally pure of us should be allowed employment. Do you people realize how fucking crazy you are?
Who said anything about moral purity? How about intelligence? How about respect for social boundaries? How about human dignity?
It's the focus on subverting things like moral purity, without a thought for anything else, that's given the O.K. to this shit.
Sorry, but there's more to life than certain people's juvenile war with goodness.
Crack - you don't get to define what's moral goodness. Step down from your high-horse. There is no good or evil, just tastes.
Everyone who disagrees with me, please tell me that you want everyone who commits adultery to be driven from his or her job.
I'd put this in another light.
Most of us strive to avoid revealing much of our private life to our employers.
I'm pretty skeptical of people who reveal too much about their private lives in their place of employment.
That is super bad judgment. Not because of the behavior, but because the workplace is a pretty nasty environment. Anybody who can stab you in the back probably will.
So, it is a sign of intelligence and good judgment to keep most of the personal shit to yourself. Unfortunate, perhaps, but true.
baho20
If an employee of yours did this in his private life, would you fire him?
Except that with a politician, that's not the proper parallel. If an employee of mine did this to a customer, I sure as hell would fire him/her. A constituent picks the service provider (here, government/representational services) and pays for those services through taxation. That makes her a customer, and sexting a customer is NOT appropriate for any employee to do.
Yeah, people should be free to do what they want, but sexting should always be a firing offense because of the lack of judgment involved and the reputation cost of the unprofessionalism. And yes, committing adultery with a customer/client is just as bad.
Alex,
There is no good or evil, just tastes.
You're a relativist, and that's bullshit, period. Al Qaeda has just got a different "taste" than we do, right? Stop it.
We've got to learn to think again, man.
"Magazzu, who has five children, has been separated from his wife for about two years. He claims no government devices were used to receive or send the pictures."
Yeah, they were his own devices.
How disappointing. The only ones sending these naked pics are old men, whether politicians or washed-up former quarterbacks.
Unfortunately, all the hot chicks I'd be interested seeing sans cloth are conservative women, who all seem to have modesty and morals and all that old-fashioned stuff. And who wants to see the liberal women: Hilary, Michelle, Barbara M, Debbie W-S, Janet N, Ruth B, Elena K, Sonia S., etc, ad nauseum?
(shudder)
I don't know.
I'm from the days back when people had Brownie Cameras. And, they used film that needed to be developed at the store. Taking naked pictures became difficult. Except for those who treated developing film as a hobby.
What made Weiner weird in my book ... is that the pictures he took ... he took AFTER his wife told him she was pregnant. But she was still traveling with Hillary.
Now, Huma is not.
That the congress critters got upset at Weiner because he took a shot in the gym, there? (Where these jerks passed a law that said "cameras are forbidden.")
Hugh Hefner became a millionaire because he dared MAIL pictures of naked women through the US Post Office. Nu?
I doubt we will go back to the days when "certain things" arrived in your mail purposely put in plain brown paper wrappers.
Actually, I think the Boehner plan to "compromise" and raise our debt ceiling ... is a much uglier thing that the congress critters did. (If Weiner was there? He'd have voted for it.)
My complaint against weiner? He was an attack dog.
Does it matter how attack dogs get taken out?
At least, for Weiner and Wu, there are million dollar pensions.
That's another rapacious thing about Congress. It feeds itself.
Interesting thread--and as a Col Blimp type, I am assuming "sexting" is pornographic texting?
I agree fully with those that take the position (and I am paraphrasing) what consenting adults do is OK (the libertarian in me)
The issue is judgment--If these idiots dont realize that the internet is forever and some 4 billion people will have access to your junk, then you may want to reconsider your responsibilities to your constiuents--one of which is to not bring yourself in disrepute.
Bogus names and addys dont work--there is that pesky IP identifier
Someone somewhere will find out
Just my .02
I really do need to get out more.
This is not the new normal. I've been online for over fifteen years, and I've been hit on plenty. I could count on one hand (without using every finger) the number of people who have emailed inappropriate pictures of themselves to me.
I did hear a funny story about the analog version of this sort of thing. A few years ago, a guy we know worked in a state government. One day he and a group of the other young workers got together for lunch. One of the workers was a very pretty blonde. She showed up with a large envelope.
"Boy, do I have something to show you guys. Look what I got the in mail yesterday!"
It was an 8x10 of a state official riding a horse, flexing, and wearing no shirt.
Heh heh heh.
Freeman--Vladimir Putin put that one in the mail?
Wow--just wow
It was an 8x10 of a state official riding a horse, flexing, and wearing no shirt
Hey I got one of those! It was of Katherine Harris!
She caused a lot of hanging chads with that one!
This is no different if he used 1972 technology by polaroiding his dick, putting it in a self-addressed stamped envelope and sending it via USPS to his intended recipient. It's the same damn thing. This isn't a case of technology shaping us, outside of the near instantaneousness of realizing your a retard for doing it.
I don't think what he did was particularly sinful. It would be wrong to travel on elevators in that state, but this was a missive between friends. It does seem inappropriate for a guy of his age and position to do this, but courtship rituals are dependent upon men acting like jerks. It's not a resume enhancer, but I wouldn't vote against him solely because of it.....It's like that football coach who liked to watch his wife jerk off men with her feet. WTF. I'm glad it's not my thing, but there's no real harm to anyone.
I'm enjoying it while it lasts. Honestly, I always thought it would be women that suffered from the sexting with their junior high shots coming back to haunt them when they were running for Congress - but it's the guys.
They are getting run out of town because we're grossed out. We're grossed out because they are ugly or in this guy's case, old, fat, and ugly and WAY beyond their sexually attractive years - not because the practice is, in itself, gross.
So actually, no hypocrisy there.
It's fair turnaround. Women have dealt with that standard for a long time - looks, old naked pics making people lose respect, etc.
(Think of Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction and Chris Rock's routine: 20 yr old titty = public titty. 40 yr old titty= Your Man's Titty.)
Cover that up.
Ann said:
Everyone who disagrees with me, please tell me that you want everyone who commits adultery to be driven from his or her job.
And now I just found this:
Call it "To Catch a Cheater" instead.
Chris Hansen, host of NBC's hit pervert-nabbing show "To Catch a Predator" has been caught cheating on his wife, again, reports the National Enquirer.
This time around, his mistress is stripper Kathleen Collins, whom Hansen met in a Las Vegas Club early this year.
The two lovebirds enjoyed a six-month tryst before news broke of Hansen's other extramarital indescretions.
In late June, Hansen was caught on tape having a date with 30-year-old TV news reporter Kristyn Cadell at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Palm Beach, Fla., before heading to the young reporter's apartment later that night.
For Collins, the news came as a shock, says the Enquirer. The stripper said she was "floored" when she heard about Hansen's other fling.
"I know this sounds crazy, but Kathleen really thought she was the only one," a close friend told the magazine.
Hansen has two sons with his wife, Mary, 53.
What do you say, Ann, should he keep his job?
"Millions of people" are doing this? And the rest of us just aren't quite "there" yet? Millions of people are addicted to drugs. Millions of people don't pay their child support, abuse their spouses or children. But the rest of us aren't quite there yet, either.
These "millions of people" who are allegedly sending nude pics of themselves over the internet to strangers would presumably not expose themselves to a live person, although perhpas
that will become anothere trend we'll just have to get used to as well. They're sending these pics because it's an easy, cheap thrill, like writing an email that contains language you would never use talking to the same person in person. It's self indulgent in a way most people recognize as immature and sleazy, at the very least. If they're sending them unsolicited, it's also immoral.
You think this should be the new normal? I say if we've drawn the line at the Weiner we've already gone too far.
This properly has to do with elected officials. If a private sector employee does this, we have an immediate choice as to whether to frequent the business (isn't the free market great?). These people are representatives of the public and that makes all the difference.
I would like for my elected representatives to refrain from engaging in "edgy" "new normal" behavior. That includes hip cool sexting to old fashioned adultery.
The Crack Emcee said...
Cedarford,
I don't see Dan Savage, homosexual activist, as a very worthy person to judge what "normal is".
This is a guy that comes in his gay lovers ass, gobbles up the "Santorum" that comes dribbling out, and feeds it from his mouth to his lovers.
Dude, what are you talking about? I did that last night - and I was alone.
===========
Gawd, Crack! If you managed to do that all by yourself you have a God given superhuman flexibility.
Of course, what you DO with such a gift as a human pretzel in the privacy of your own home is up to you.,
But I will be sure I knock loudly and wait by the door if I ever have the occasion to visit!
We should relax monogamy so that Congressmen can send naked pictures
Agree , once Alessandra Ambrosio, Gisele Bunchen, Cindy Crawford, Megan Fox became part of the House
those in a position to be publicly embarrassed should think twice before doing so, but sending naked self-pics is certainly nothing new.
when i first went online...jeeze, what is that? some twenty years ago?...i was receiving and being requested to send nude pics by strangers (and i did share a few with friends) and today, there are a number of websites dedicated to dudes standing in front of a mirror with their phone-cameras. i don't know why this comes as a shock to some people.
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