Take the bible. Zachariah and Elizabeth for instance. Zachariah was extremely old to marry Elizabeth and they became the parents of John the Baptist. Also take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became the parents of Jesus. There is just nothing immoral, or illegal here. Maybe just a little bit unusual.
Alabama State Auditor Jim Ziegler, speaking in defense of Roy Moore's search for female companionship 40, or so years ago.
Yes, things have taken a decidedly hallucinogenic turn down in Alabama. It would appear a hefty tab of LSD is no longer required in order to make divine connections between Judge Roy Moore, Saint Joseph and several underage retail clerks and waitresses in the greater Gadsden metroplex.
It's not like we hadn't been headed that way for a while. Evangelical Christians everywhere went out of their way to vote for Donald Trump after they clearly heard him bragging about how fame and fortune allowed him grab women's genitals whenever and wherever he wanted.
In fact some consider El Donald so free of sin they're willing to bet their mortal souls on him. Take Mark Lee, who participated in a CNN group interview of Trump supporters. He said--with a perfectly straight face--"Let me tell you. If Jesus Christ gets down off the cross and told me Trump is with Russia I will tell him, hold on a second, I need to check with the president to see if it's true."
Words like lunacy come to mind in situations such as these. So does, hypocrisy, but that one has already been used by Reverend Franklin Graham. When asked about the accusations leveled at the Alabama senate candidate, he said, "The hypocrisy of Washington has no bounds. So many are denouncing Roy Moore when they are guilty of doing much worse than what he has been accused of supposedly doing."
Mr. Graham didn't specify what crimes the unnamed, "they," have committed which are worse, but since pedophilia is pretty fucking bad one can only imagine.
Other men of the cloth, like Pastor Earl Wise, simply attack the victims. He told an interviewer, "I don't know how much these women are getting paid, but I can only believe they're getting a healthy sum. How these gals came up with this, I don't know. They must have had some sweet dreams somewhere down the line." Then, almost as an afterthought--or just in case things get even worse for ol' Roy--he added, "Plus there are some 14 year olds who, the way they look, could pass for 20."
Ah, there we have the answer. Leigh Corfman is either on the take, which she adamantly denies, or, at age 14, she was a preternatural vamp who duped an innocent Roy Moore into thinking she was much older than she really was. Unfortunately for Wise and Moore alike photos of Corfman when she was 14 make her look a lot closer to 12 than 20. However, if history has taught us anything, pointing out the obvious to ardent religious types rarely yields positive results. Just ask the ghost of Galileo Galilei.
In their increasing desperation, Moore's supporters have also been attacking the veracity of Beverly Young Nelson's accusation the judge assaulted her when she was 16 as he drove her home from her job at a Gadsden restaurant. The details of the proof offered by the Moore campaign that Nelson's story is untrue have to do with the placement of a dumpster on the restaurant grounds, whether there was a back door to the joint's parking lot, and the hiring practices of the establishment's management.
Finally, to combat the nasty rumor Moore was barred from the Gadsden Mall for hustling teenaged girls the campaign dug up a guy named Johnny V. Sanders. According to Sanders, a former mall employee, the whole thing is--you guessed it--a merry mix up. Sanders' claims it wasn't the GOP's senate nominee who was barred from the mall years ago, but rather another prominent Etowah County official, who everyone now has confused with Roy Moore. When asked to identify the person in question, Sanders refused, "out of respect for his family."
Yes, it has become so weird in Alabama, as Hunter S. Thompson once wrote of another place, "Acid is redundant."
Let's face it, not even ancient Rome at its most depraved would tolerate a monster like Roy Moore in their Senate. But, right here and now, we are on the verge of seating him in ours.
So much for the American republic and any claim it might have had to some higher moral ground .
Ladies and gentlemen, as you can guess, the bar is open.
11-21-17
The hard right has not thought, and probably will not in the future, think straight per anything associated with the president. In retrospect, that is not surprising but it is perhaps the most bizarre thing to come out of the political landscape in the last several years. At least, the rest of us should see this for what it is and act accordingly in 2018 and beyond. In other words, VOTE!
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