Wonderful Matters

Want to help young people be physically fit? Consider giving to the Capital Athletic Foundation. Want to contribute to a foundation for good ideas about better relations around the globe? Consider giving to the American International Center. Want to give a generous helping hand to all kinds of disadvantaged people all over the place? Consider giving to the Good Things for All People Foundation. When the federal government found out that a good way to be its brother's keeper was to institutionalize good-deed-doing through non-profit incorporation, it had to have known that a lot of people would really really try to be good-deed-doing by signing on, but fail miserably. And that they would not just fail but criminally fail, as in, "What a great scam! I can just pretend that I'm doing good things for everyone, and I get a nice cut! In fact, why even do the good things? Why not pretend to be real good! More money for me! And with our society so codependent, so addicted to '...

On Friday night, NBC broadcast its third installment of "To Catch a Predator," the network's august program of exposing sexual deviants. The entire approach is to lure these men into middle-class suburban houses where they presume they're going to have a sexual encounter with a minor. Waiting for them is a news reporter, who, with transcripts of their chat room conversations, confronts the individual about his intentions. The result is almost always the same-- tepid dissembling and evasiveness, and, when the hidden camera is revealed, abject shock and embarrassment. I imagine most would find this modern-day Scarlet Letter shaming perfectly acceptable, the just punishment for such heinously criminal behavior. As I watched the first half-hour or so of this show (which is about all I could take) I myself could only think of cockroaches-- not as much for the thoroughly reprehensible aspect of their behavior, but for the fact that NBC is nabbing only a pittance. There are ...