Racing Meets Racy

I hope nothing here offends you. I thought it was funny. Click to enlarge so as to read the text.

BACON FLOW CHART

If it's a pianist, a violinist and a clarinetist, why isn't it a singist? Or a voicist?

How did they know? In today's mail, addressed to me personally, was a 5"x7" ad card for the newest extra-strong Charmin toilet paper. How did they know?? And why didn't they send me that card last week so I could stock up before getting the flu?!

I have trouble with people who take themselves too seriously. I have noticed that besides taking offense easily, as a rule they have little or no sense of humor. By contrast (correct grammar?) people who laugh easily at themselves and rarely take personal offense are fun to be around. They can be serious when the situation calls for it, but social intercourse is relaxed and unguarded.

I worked on a variety of things today and didn't take time to watch the first game of the NCAA Final Four matchups. But I did see the final score and I am officially out of contention in our pool. I had UCLA beating Memphis and going on to win it all. Oh well. No $ involved so I should be over it by next Wednesday at the latest.

In last night's post I suggested that you try to catch some of this weekend's F1 race coverage on the SPEED channel. They're in Bahrain this week, a country in the middle east where, oddly enough, it almost never rains.
One individual who will be watching it on TV instead of sitting in one of the executive suites as he normally would is a guy named Max Mosley. He's the head of FIA, the organization that oversees F1 racing and it's "minor league" circuits, and that, folks, is a HUGE enterprise. To give you an idea just how many dollars are involved, the McLaren team was fined $100 million in the off-season for infractions during last year's season. They paid up and are still at the top of the circuit this year.
OK, back to Mr. Mosley. He's not in Bahrain this weekend because the govt. there told him not to come. And they did that because of a video that surfaced this week showing Max - who is German - cavorting for over an hour with five prostitutes. Worse, said cavorting involved role playing as Nazi prison guards and prisoners. In other words, offensive in just about every conceivable way.
That this kind of thing goes on is, sadly, no great surprise. What has everyone aghast is Max Mosley's response to the revelations. He is indignant, outraged, and defiant. He insists that mature adults should accept whatever goes on in the private lives of others so long as it is not illegal. And since apparently what he did is not illegal, at least in Germany, he has rebuffed all suggestions that he resign. He says, basically, that it's his private life, has no bearing on his work as CEO of FIA, so is of no legitimate concern to anyone. In fact, he faults the newspaper that broke the story and says he's the target of a vast conspiracy. (sound familiar?) He's suing the paper.

Any take-aways from all of this? Methinks so.

1. Not everything that's legal is necessarily right. Conversely, not everything that's right is necessarily legal. Assuming that what Mad Max did wasn't illegal in Germany it was still wrong. Morality is not codified in government laws, something we innately grasp. (That's what underlies the practice of civil disobedience.) Southern states had laws prohibiting Blacks from enjoying the same freedoms as whites, but those laws were wrong. Abortion is example of the reverse; all forms, including partial birth abortions, are legal in this country. We steadfastly insist, however, that they are a great evil. That said, it's probably too much to expect Mr. Mosley to accept that his own behavior, though legal, was wrong. Self-justification precludes that.
2. Like it or not, those in positions of leadership are held to a higher standard. Can't deal with that? Get out of leadership. Simple, really. May not be fair, but it's the way things are.
3. Sometimes context is everything. If Mr. Mosley had acted out a fantasy involving Little Red Riding Hood he'd still be in big trouble. The very important people with really deep pockets now calling for his resignation would have done the same if we had video of him wearing a red cape and carrying a basket of breads and fruits. At least I hope so! But he didn't play Ms. Hood. He role-played in the setting of the most traumatic era in European history. (I don't think that overstates the significance of the holocaust.) Hitler's atrocities are still, as they should be, a very sensitive matter for many European governments and their citizens. That compounds the offensiveness of his behavior. Again, it may not be fair but it's reality. Which is why, for example, I need to be careful with my speech. A word is not just a word. It functions within a cultural context. And in our contemporary culture some words still touch wounds left raw from almost two centuries of racial oppression and injustice. Or hurt women old enough to have lived through unfair and sometimes abusive stereotypes. Sensitivity to context is a social virtue. Although Mr. Mosley clearly wasn't interested in virtue of any sort.
   
4. People at all strata will go to amazing lengths to justify and/or excuse their behavior. Think Marion Jones or President Clinton. Some go down in flames protesting their innocence or insisting that theirs is a special case in some way. Meanwhile, we're looking on and wondering why they don't get it. Until it's our turn, our arse in the trap. Human nature.

I'm ready for tomorrow. I think. I'll still be up early in the morning to go through everything one more time but I'm pretty sure my ducks are in a row. The really good news? God works even when, despite our best efforts, things go a bit awry. "'Not by power, nor by might, but by my Spirit', says the Lord."