Blah blah blah... OUTRAGE!

So it seems a bunch of Secret Service agents as well as members of the US Military hired some hos down in Cartagggggena Columbia.  (Love saying Cartagena - remember Romancing the Stone?)

I for one am shocked, shocked, SHOCKED that men who have chosen a career that involves intensive training with firearms, international travel and intrigue, not to mention prestige and frequent high pressure situations at great personal risk at the highest possible stakes - would ever entertain the idea of meaningless sex with attractive (or at least not super ugly) women.

Let's get real and get a grip.

Anyone who doesn't know or who can't comprehend that this sort of thing has been going on in the Secret Service, FBI, CIA, NSA, military, etc. etc. etc. for decades on end is beyond naive.

Beyond that - this sort of behavior, from those in positions that involve soldiering and or body guarding or both - stretches back to time immemorial.   They don't call it the world's oldest profession for nothing, and the feigned outrage by our government and the media is fairly ridiculous.

But that has been the theme so far in these last six months of politics across the country.

Blah blah blah... War on women... blah blah blah... Obama eats dogs... blah blah blah... Romney hates cookies... blah blah blah...  OUTRAGE!

It is truly the time to be OUTRAGED, apparently.  Because it's not enough to try and focus on the stuff that actually matters, like our floundering economy and lack of jobs and a president who is so far over his head that it's not even funny.

That stuff is boring.

Secret Service members like to fuck strangers when they're overseas!  OMG!  OUTRAGE!


*****


Quick personal story that helped me recognize the way of the world.

I was 27 years old and on my first major solo shoot for my company in Venezuela.

It was me and one other camera operator, we were covering a treasure hunt, 22 miles off the coast on a large ship.

The deep sea crew, about 10 of them, who maintained and operated an ROV (remote operating vehicle) that traveled deep into the ocean to search for wreckage, were a fun bunch of boisterous guys who enjoyed regaling the rest of us at meal time with extremely graphic tales of their sexual conquests with the working girls of Caracas the previous week.

In tandem with the crew, were the investors.  A half a dozen guys who were basically shmucks, but were rich.  They paid for the prostitutes in Caracas, as well as the entire expedition itself.  Both the crew and their benefactors enjoyed reminiscing about various activities, which often they were in the same room with each other to witness in the first place.

"Yeah, it was great getting our dicks sucked.  We should do it again when we get back."  one of the investors chimed in, clearly enjoying my wide eyed disbelief.

I have to admit, that I was pretty appalled at first.  Many of these were married men.  But I came to recognize pretty early on, in the way they talked about it, that this was absolutely not a big deal and fairly common for all of them in their travels across the world.

The master diver that commanded the ROV team was an enormous barrel chested man and ex-Navy seal.

He didn't talk much.  But others on the team told me stories about him.  These stories were not about sex, but just as graphic.  The master diver had excelled at killing men, often with his bare hands, for our country.  I had no doubt these stories were based on truth, but the men seemed to relish relaying them to me so much that I suspect that many of the details were added and/or embellished.

Regardless, upon meeting him, I had no doubt in my mind that the dive master was a genuine walking bad-ass.  Other men on the team, most of who, were also ex-military, admired him and obviously were trying their best to live up to him.

By the way, the master diver, I was told, did not join the men in their whore sharing exploits,

In any event - the point of all this, is not that I approve of boning prostitutes in mass quantities with other guys in the room, but that it was pretty evident that it is exceedingly common among men who fancy themselves as alphas.

The real alphas (the ones who are at the top of their game in military and or mercenary matters) I suspect, don't waste their time too much with booze, women and other vices.  But the ones who are driven to a life in pursuit of adrenaline without the talent and or drive to reach the apex of their chosen fields, are absolutely prone to excess, carnal and otherwise.

They want that high, that rush, be it from hurling their bodies in front of the president to take a bullet or hurling themselves on some crab infested hoochie south of the border.

It's not necessarily moral, right or even pleasant, but it's the way it is.  "Wheels up, rings off" is the expression that the Secret Service uses when they're abroad, and I suspect that all military and military-esque groups from the US as well as around the world, have similar sayings.

Hell, even in video and film production, there's a very old line...  "What goes on location, stays on location."  Referring mostly to the propensity for crew members to hook up when out of town or abroad (not so much the prostitution thing as far as I know).

So the point to all of this, and it applies not just to this recent prostitution "scandal" but across the political spectrum as well.

RELAX.  Save your phony outrage for something that matters, like the economy.   Or jobs.   I know it may be a slow news day, but after awhile all this righteous indignation begins to fade away as I tune it out.

A boy can cry wolf, or OUTRAGE, only so many times before it becomes meaningless.