First: What is it about certain women? For years, people have asked why Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian deserved so much rapt attention. Granted, Kardashian's fame is a bit more comprehensible to me: I'm human. And male and hetero and I like curves.
But these women...
Paula Broadwell has an obvious appeal: She's Wonder Woman. She can kick your ass while quoting Cicero in the original. Although this is not necessarily the kind of female who drives me insane, I can see why someone like General Petraeus might consider her a fellow superhuman and thus a worthy paramour.
But when it comes to twin sisters Jill Kelley and Natalie Khawam, my only reaction is: What the hell?
They aren't spectacularly prepossessing. A much more striking beauty stands behind the counter at the McDonald's where I'm sitting right now. (If you find any typos in this post, blame her.)
Kelley ran a fake cancer charity that did nothing with the money except blow it on parties. She has been sued a lot. At one time, she owed millions.
Natalie lost custody of her kid because she testified falsely in court. By all accounts, she seems to be one of those "difficult" women for whom menopause starts at puberty and lasts until death.
(On the other hand, one report holds that Natalie is a lawyer who represents "whistleblowers." Intriguing...!)
We're talking about a couple of arrogant and wealthy sisters who, like all other arrogant and wealthy people, should be forced to learn humility by working as sales associates at Wal-Mart.
Nevertheless, very important men keep treating these ladies as though they were very important. Shirtless FBI Guy launched an investigation into Paula's emails to Kelley, even though Paula had sent no messages justifying the effort. The fact that Kelley possesses both money and influential friends doesn't mean that she has a right to go through life without receiving annoying emails. Neither you nor I have that right; why should she?
So now we have a serving General who reportedly exchanged 20,000 (!!!) emails with Kelley, a CIA director who lost his gig because Kelley received a few irritating messages from a perceived romantic rival, and an FBI guy who went way beyond the boundaries of his job because jolie Jill made him feel all dazed and dizzy.
How can one socialite have that kind of allure?
Similar things could be said of her sister. Something like half of the males in the American power structure felt compelled to compose letters testifying to Natalie's good character in order to help her regain custody of her kid. Sorry to be blunt, but if she really did offer false testimony in court, she never deserved custody. I mean, she's a freakin' lawyer. She should have known better.
By the way: I think Glenn Greenwald has it right. When all is said and done, the real scandal here involves our right to privacy.
Pundits have chided Petraeus and Broadwell for the insecurity of their communications system, because they would both log onto the same Gmail account and trade messages in "draft" mode. From a purely technical point of view, this is sloppy tradecraft. Yet Petraeus felt protected -- and what's more, he had a right to feel protected. He had a right to expect that the FBI would not snoop on his private fucking email.
That's the part of this story that everyone is missing. By what legal justification did the Bureau gain access to that material?
Yeah, he was the CIA Director. So what?
The explanations I've heard amount to little more than pathetic attempts to excuse the inexcusable. The truth is simple: There are a lot of nosy people in this country, and many of those noses are blue. The Sex Police spent your tax dollars on yet another crusade to tell you things you have no business knowing.
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