What Robinson made me think of was the TV series “Deadwood” and the unlikely alliance between whoremaster and unrepentant murderer Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) and boy-scout sheriff Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant). It’s arguably Swearengen who saves the town. And his lecture to the demoralized newspaper editor is a classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF8aIa3QOkU

I basically agree with your position on public figures but am more forgiving of–or simply less concerned about–sexual misbehavior than some of the commenters here as long as it involves consenting adults. A (mostly) clean private life is no guarantee of good stewardship–or even good character. Exhibit A: Obama, a nasty piece of work who seems to have been a pretty good husband and father, rumors of life on the down low notwithstanding.

Armchair punditry: hardly. Good to see you posting again, but I do hope you follow through on your post-mission resolution to take some time away from the screen.

What is goody two shoes cooper doing after mark appalachian sanford im not impressed same for josh steins former boss john edwards

I was ruminating along those lines this morning, although about politics rather than religion (state rather than church?), considering how “the internet is forever” and there are people who save decades-old videotapes just in case they can use them against somebody someday; how pundits willfully misinterpret anodyne phrases (“binders of women”), and bring up high-school peccadillos as evidence of deep moral turpitude; the list goes on — and noted that, based on a thoroughly un-matched but not too small sample, there seem to me to be a lot more Republicans in politics who have turned their lives around morally and/or ideologically than there are Democrats. (Although I much appreciate the latter!)

And that doesn’t even count the alleged indiscretions that turn out to be deliberate falsehoods. (If the standard of proof is “anonymous sources in the NYT,” I consider that a prima facie indication of fiction.)

But, going with the “sad but true” sample, this is my view: unless said youthful or even adult indiscretions involve irredeemable vice (child abuse, murder, and major white-collar crimes), if the person in question appears to have genuinely changed for the better, I will file the information for reference and look at “What are they doing today?” for whether or not to support them.
I put Trump, and now Robinson (on probation pending further information), in that corner.

If the bad behavior and damaging policy choices appear to be unrefuted and ongoing, then the misdeeds file remains “active” and the person stays on my do-not-support list.
That includes a frighteningly large number of prominent Democrats, along with an uncomfortably large smattering of Republicans, mostly in Congress and the Administrative Empire (it got past the size of a “state” long ago), but clearly including some Governors and other State officials.

Armchair punditry is worth what you paid for it, of course.

https://instapundit.com/675902/

Reportedly, porn-site-frequenting Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is stepping in to get things moving.

All this could be the usual finger-pointing and glory-hogging. But the moral of the story may be that sometimes it’s the sinners–the cads, if you will–who come through.

Thanks for linking Mark Steyn’s post. That man knows literally everything about the history and musical structure of every song in the Great American Songbag (as he calls it).

I heartily recommend his book for reading off-line, and the whole of his on-line oeuvre. (The French is in honour of the song’s lineage.)

The post is adapted from Mark’s book A Song For The Season.
https://www.steynstore.com/product57.html

AI software is great at translation but usually has copyright limitations for the amount of text it will translate at a time.

There is something to be said for the simplicity of “The Three Bells” vs “Les trois cloches.”

Given the lack of diaries etc., her work is definitely one of imagination. Not a biography, but an imagined one.

Yes, the Tres Cloches lyrics are more involved than the Three Bells lyrics. Because the lyrics are in English, Three Bells affects me emotionally more than Tres Cloches.

My guess is there are a lot of people like your pastor but we’re not hearing much of it due to the difficulty of getting news from the area. It’s just a guess on my part, but we saw this with 9/11, the Joplin tornado even Katrina. As much of a cluster that the local government response was, individual people were flowing in from all over. I remember after 9/11 the news was encouraging people not to come because the volunteers were overwhelming the area and impacting efforts.