Dateline, Australia. This is the kind of story that makes you smile and then try to figure out how to apply it here and how much it would cost. Helps explain a lot, as far as I'm concerned at all levels of our government, local, state and national.
You don't have to be from Norwich, CT, or anywhere in New London County or elsewhere in Connecticut, New England or the USA. We each have the same 'you will not believe this, but' stories and each one is better than the last one, but cannot hold a candle to the next one. It's true at the state level as well, of course.
Disclaimer: I don't pretend to have ever been anywhere as 'interesting' as Illinois. If they make corruption an Olympic event, you may well find past Governors at the medals podium. That said, my adopted (kinda) home state had a governor in the not too distant past, who shall remain nameless (John R), resign after being caught with his hand, arm and most of his torso in the cookie jar of unreported favors and unrequited devotion. The state in which I grew old, but not up, New Jersey, had a governor who resigned and outed himself (or was it vice versa, Jim Mc?) and the state of my birth, New York, had a Governor, Eliot S, hoist by his own petard (that's what the kids call it these days? 'That little petard' wasn't really what I was thinking of calling him but it'll do).
I don't really think if we had breathalyzers or drug testing for elected office, it'd make that much difference. For how many more years do you suppose MLB will continue to NOT find ballplayers juiced up (George Mitchell and Demosthenes are in search of a utility infielder who hasn't experimented with HGH) and why does the NFL want me to think normal human can get to be 380 pounds without chemistry? Point in fact, I never attribute to malice that which can be explained by ignorance and while the Misadventures in Oz make for great copy and a fun read, and I whack elected officials in this hemisphere like they were piñatas, in reality we DON'T get the government we deserve, we get far better.
For every Rowland, McGeevey and Spitzer and their counterparts in every democratically elected government around the world, there are a hundred, more likely a thousand, and even more likely a hundred times a thousand, officials who are just like we are, trying their best on behalf of all of us. I'd imagine we don't have quite as many dirty dancing in their underwear, at least in New England in the wintertime, outside, as they may have elsewhere. A free hot tub has its price, as does the choice of partners with whom you share it, and/or other fluids.
Sometimes the punishment fits and sometimes it doesn't. The farther out in space you travel the more alike we look and act. "I said, do you speak-a my language? He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich." I asked for the crusts to be cut off, but instead something else was. G'Day.
-bill kenny
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