Sexting & Nudity & Weiner

Outside my office sits a big flatscreen tv for members in the waiting area. It is always on CNN and when I am in my office, I can glance up and follow the news and commentary.

A couple of weeks ago, it was all about Arnold, his maid-girlfriend and his out-of-wedlock child. Now I get a steady stream of Weiner and his escapades.

We are all used to the stories of politician/public figure gone bad. Illicit affairs, hidden children, wives who stand by their man (and sentence their own punishment) and wives who stand strong for their children but send the strong message, "Get the *#@% out of here!"

I don't get Weiner. I don't get his need to send pictures of his privates to multiple women. I have great sympathy for his wife, a high powered official in her own right. She's not exactly living in his shadow. And, for extra fun, turns out she's pregnant with their first child.

I am not a prude but I don't get sexting. I had a friend tell me the other day that many men she knows have taken pictures of their privates the moment they get a camera or a phone with camera abilities. What? I told her to get new friends. She told me to stop being naive.

I am horrified when some young person I know puts a bikini photo on facebook. Or any photo that looks like a whore, or drunken whore. I guess my age is showing because I have worn a bikini in my day and I have certainly knocked back a few but I think these kids are committing some kind of educational/professional suicide before their adult lives even begin.

One of the benefits of age is I can honestly say that no one will photograph me in a bikini. Those days are long gone.

Weiner didn't do anything that jillions of others do all the time. But, he is a public figure and that brings its own level of press and scrutiny. The bigger question to me is -- WHY?