I Love A Good Wiener

Toppings of choice; ketchup, easy on the mustard, a bit of mayonnaise and a heavy dose of sweet relish.

Recently though, I've been interested in a different type of wiener. I've been following the Weiner scandal with avid interest. For those of you not familiar with it, here's a summary.

A US congressman ironically named Anthony Weiner, tweeted a picture of his underwear clad, erect weiner to a young lady. Unfortunately, it appears ex congressman Weiner was not Twitter savvy as the picture made its way to his Twitter page instead of the young woman's private inbox.

As expected there was the immediate denial. While not out rightly denying it was his picture, he claimed he had been hacked. This of course was then followed by the admission that yes, that was his indeed his weiner and further more there were more photographs of a similar nature sent to various women via text messages, Facebook and Twitter.

Next came the heartfelt apology, appropriately filled with sentiments of regret, tearful downcast eyes and of course the insistence that he hadn't actually had relations with the porn stars and strippers in question.

After a gentle nudge from Mr. President himself, there was the inevitable resignation. All that's missing from this scandal is the trip to rehabilitation and I'm sure that's in the books somewhere.

What stuck with me though, was how adamant Mr. Weiner was that his interaction with these women was never by personal contact. The relationships were all virtual and I agree there must be some vindication for him in that. To actually go out cavorting with porn stars and strippers certainly must be worse than carrying on sexual conversations and exchanging a few indecent pictures with them.

But it does highlight one of the dangers of social networking sites and innovations like web cameras, Blackberry and picture messaging. These modern means of communication allows us to operate under a certain cloak of anonymity. So things that we wouldn't do in our everyday lives, we now feel free and safe to do so.

With out the hassle of face to communication, we become uninhibited and we let our guard down. So we meet a stranger on the internet and within a relatively short space of time we have had tons of conversation and before we know it, there's a relationship of sorts going on.

Sure, we've never actually met, never seen a movie together, never been introduced to the friends or parents. Maybe they live in Finland and you are from Timbuktu. Yet, we know each other's birthdays, share intimate details of our days with the other, spend hours messaging on Blackberry and Facebook and before long this stranger is now our most intimate friend.

So when the conversations turn sexual we almost don't notice that this is still a stranger and we are crossing a line. We tend to feel like the safety net is still there. As long as it stays on the internet or telephone, it's still innocent.

But the problem comes when, like poor Mr. Weiner, we hit the wrong button. Or worse yet, when the significant other gets wind of our illicit internet affair. And while it's a wonderfully comforting thought to say it was all just for fun and I've never met the person and nothing really happened. We know we've crossed a line and broken the fragile bonds of trust in our real relationships.

So we have to learn how to keep our guard up, how not to cross those invisible cyber boundaries.

Has any one else noticed that a juicy sex scandal seems to be like kryptonite to a political career? Seems to me like a politician is allowed to commit every offence but father a love child, cheat on his wife or share his sausage with his supporters.

Nobody asked me but I think it's rather ridiculous. If I'm caught in a steamy love affair with the pool boy I highly doubt I'd loose my license and be forced to resign in shame. Sure, persons would judge my actions and it would certainly be top news at the gossip mill for the allotted nine days but my competency at my job would not be questioned.

I've toyed with the idea that maybe it's because politicians are placed on a pedestal and held to higher standards, yet they are allowed to break promises, misappropriate government funds, blatantly lie and we hardly bat an eyelash.

I say if the guy was doing a good job before the scandal broke then let him continue to do so.

After all it's only a matter of time before another public figure makes a weiner out of him or her self.;

Photo Credit to Appatomy

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Penny Small is a freelance contributor to MNI Alive. 'She is a Pharmacist by profession, currently residing in the Caribbean.