Robert G. Yetman, Jr.

Citing Moral Imperfection as an Excuse for…More Moral Imperfection

We haven’t heard much from Chicago’s Jesse Jackson, Jr., of late.  You may remember that the U.S. representative and progeny of one of history’s greatest race hustlers was embroiled in the Rod Blagojevich corruption scandal, suspected of being the candidate who tried to buy the governor’s appointment to the senate seat vacated by Barack Obama.  More recently, he has been dealing with the fallout from his affair with a Peruvian cocktail waitress who worked at a D.C.-area nightclub where the younger Jackson reportedly held fundraisers.     

A few days ago, Jackson broke his media silence by doing an interview with the Associated Press, wherein he said, among other things, that, “every one of us has erred in their personal lives.”  Earlier in the day and before the interview, he spoke, with his dad, to Cook County Boot Camp detainees, and informed them that, “everybody’s falling short of the glory of God.”

Good to know.

I’m 100 percent fine with the idea that we are all imperfect, to say the least, and that we should be prudent about the manner in which we cite the lapses of others.  Goodness knows that over the course of my near-five decades on earth, I have done things of which I am ashamed, and even wish that I could have a couple of do-overs.  That said, there is a material difference between humbly citing the reality that we all have the capacity to exhibit imperfect behavior when it comes to matters of morality and ethics, and proclaiming it loudly in a way that suggests the proclaimer is not only bent on relying on poor excuses for what he has done, but seeking to establish a basis on which to be granted a pass for future transgressions, as well.  Honestly, it’s a bit difficult to get the sense that Jesse Jackson, Jr. is doing anything but the latter.

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Bob Yetman, Editor-at-Large at Christian Money.com (www.christianmoney.com), is an author of a variety of materials on personal finance and investing, as well as on topics of fitness and self defense, to include the book Investor's Passport to Hedge Fund Profits (John Wiley & Sons, Inc; www.investorspassport.com)  and the unarmed combat training DVD Thunderstrikes - How to Develop One Shot, One Kill Striking Power (Paladin Press; www.mikereevesonline.com).

Tags: jesse+jackson+jr

Ben Affleck: The Conscience of Corporate America

Ben Affleck is an example of an actor about whom I have historically had little in the way of feelings at all.  I’ve not been moved by much of what he has done onscreen (although I will say that I did very much enjoy The Town, which he also directed).  Unfortunately, Mr. Affleck, who seems perfectly likable, appears to be another who’s happy to live the stereotype of the limousine liberal Hollywood actor – the person who, despite having financially benefitted in his chosen profession to a degree that would instill pride in the most ardent capitalist, thinks nothing of denigrating the very American system that has proven so rewarding to him.

Affleck appeared recently on NPR to speak about his latest project, The Company Men, which tells the tale of three guys (Affleck is one) who each must deal with being “downsized” from the large multinational at which they worked.  From this platform, Affleck took the opportunity to opine more generally about the current state of corporate America, saying, in part:

“The banks shouldn't — people shouldn't make such a giant profit off just moving money back and forth. And CEOs' pay shouldn't be 200 times the average worker. It used to be nine times. OK, maybe it's legal and maybe it passes muster with shareholders. But there's something about us that fundamentally feels it isn't right."

Let me see if I understand this: Affleck doesn’t think it’s right that there’s a class of people out there who are making obscene sums of money for doing something other than real work, particularly when the little people who also work with them are being paid so much less.

Couldn’t that describe the life of a big-time Hollywood actor….like Mr. Ben Affleck?

I don’t know how many of you happened to see Michael Moore’s documentary called Capitalism: A Love Story.  I did see it, and while Michael Moore and I would hardly be considered kindred spirits, I have always found some aspects of his creations to be rather spot-on.  In Capitalism, once you’re able to get past the general, silly suggestions that rich always equals bad and poor always equals good, there is much to provoke thought regarding an America that continues to squeeze out its middle class at an alarming rate.  Accordingly, I don’t have a problem with the finger-pointing at some of the more bizarre examples of CEO compensation to which we’ve borne witness during the recent years, but I do have a problem when the person pointing the finger is also a really, really rich actor who himself happens to be making roughly 200 times the salaries of some of those “average workers” on his films.  

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Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/robertyetman.

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Bob Yetman, Editor-at-Large at Christian Money.com (www.christianmoney.com), is an author of a variety of materials on personal finance and investing, as well as on topics of fitness and self defense, to include the recently-released book Investor's Passport to Hedge Fund Profits (John Wiley & Sons, Inc; www.investorspassport.com)  and the new unarmed combat training DVD Thunderstrikes - How to Develop One Shot, One Kill Striking Power (Paladin Press; www.mikereevesonline.com).

Tags: ben+affleck

The Continued Government-Sanctioned Vomiting on Christianity

The Smithsonian may have already removed from an “artistic” exhibit (after protest) the video portion that depicted ants crawling on a crucified Christ, but I’m left scratching my head as to why it was regarded as appropriate by a taxpayer-funded entity to display it in the first place, and why it appears that Christianity remains the lone acceptable religious target of the art world’s enablers in the US government.

The offense here isn’t simply that Christianity is being insulted by art; at any given moment, I’m sure an expression of “art” somewhere is doing its part to insult one religion or another.  The offense here is an apparently woeful lack of equitability with respect to the government-sanctioned portrayal of world religions.

The Smithsonian, which is an agency of the US government, made the decision in this day and age of supposed heightened sensitivity to the world’s cultures, religions, etc., to exhibit this particular “work of art.”  This follows the Piss Christ controversy from several years back, when another “work of art,” this a staged photograph of a crucifix submerged in a glass of urine (the artist’s own, by the way), won a competition largely sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, another US government agency.

There may be a “Piss Koran” photo out there that won a competition sponsored by the taxpayers, and there may be a video exhibit displaying ants crawling over a dead Mohammed on display at the Smithsonian at taxpayer expense, but I haven’t heard about either…and assuming those kinds of offenses to Islam or any other religion haven’t been portrayed under the auspices of high-profile US government agencies in recent years, it’s not unreasonable for Christians to ask, “Why us?”    

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Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/robertyetman.

Follow me on Christian Chirp at www.christianchirp.com/robertyetman. 

Bob Yetman, Editor-at-Large at Christian Money.com (www.christianmoney.com), is an author of a variety of materials on personal finance and investing, as well as on topics of fitness and self defense, to include the recently-released book Investor's Passport to Hedge Fund Profits (John Wiley & Sons, Inc; www.investorspassport.com)  and the new unarmed combat training DVD Thunderstrikes - How to Develop One Shot, One Kill Striking Power (Paladin Press; www.mikereevesonline.com).

Tags: smithsonian+ants+on+christ