16 Candles, Bathsheba Syndrome, and the Craig's List Congressman

Jake Ryan. Sigh.

Flashback to 1984. I worked at the movie theater in Colorado Springs and I must have seen 16 Candles a thousand time. Such a great move and seriously, Jake Ryan? Super hottie. Cute, good hair, and ends up ditching the vacuous prom queen for the dorky girl. A girl can dream, right?

Anyways, the movie company re-released 16 Candles last week for just two nights for Valentine's Day. Just Sunday and Monday night. We went Sunday night and just had a blast. Most of the people in the audience (which was mainly gay men and women) would just swoon when ever Jake was on the screen. And even though I haven't seen the movie since 1984 (and why isn't this on TV like every weekend?), I knew almost all of the lines. And there are some seriously goods lines in that movie! "I think my brother paid a buck to see your panties last night." "Look dear, she got her boobies, and they are so perky!" as the theme from Jaws kicks in as the grandmother begins to grope her. Such a good time.

So I've ditched work this week to go to training. I haven't done any professional development in awhile so I figured I would take a class. The Architect recommended a class at the Brookings Institute which is conveniently located 2.5 blocks from my house. So I'm there. "Ethics in Action." It was actually pretty interesting. We started with Plato & Aristotle and then looked at some eastern philosophy (Confucius) and then back to Kant and some more western thinkers. Our instructor was great and I definitely enjoyed it.

I especially like the information on the Bathsheba Syndrome. Or as I call it, "When Good Leaders Do Really Monumentally Stupid Things" (think Bill Clinton, Mark Sanford, etc). So this is all from the Bible. David (of David and Goliath fame) was a great king. Lots of stories about him in the bible. But he leaves the war (mistake #1), to come back to his palace where he sees Bathsheba, seduces her, and gets her pregnant (mistakes #2, 3, and 4). Then he tries to cover up the pregnancy (mistake #5) and then when that doesn't work, he has Bathsheba's husband killed (mistake #6). See, even back then it wasn't the crime, but the coverup that get you in trouble. Anyways, if David was such a good person, a good king, etc., then why did he do this? Even today we have lots of experience with leaders who did great things in the past and then they got put into a position of leadership and they succumb to the Bathsheba Syndrome. They lose their focus, they've been so successful in the past that they think they will always be successful, they think that they can control every outcome. And they end up losing their moral/ethical compass and do something absurdly idiotic.

This past week we had the perfect example: now former Congressman Chris Lee. What were you thinking? Love the ubiquitous shirtless photo in the bathroom. If you had a good gay in your life, he could have told you that those are totally 2010 and now are kind of creepy. In addition, a good gay would NEVER have allowed you to use your real name. Or your real email address. As a congressman you must know that the NSA/CIA/FBI are always spying on us, you don't have to make it too easy for them.