Not Charles Rangel (D-NY) chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. One of the most powerful members of Congress, responsible for writing the tax laws, he has recently been found to be obeying very few of them.
Oops. He forgot to declare $75,000 in rental income he earned on his villa in the Dominican Republic. (And yes, I too am thinking that a congressman who earns 75 large by renting out his Caribbean villa is out of touch with the average citizen, not to mention the IRS.)
Meanwhile, he’s living in several rent-subsidized apartments in Manhattan, while claiming that his actual residence is in Washington, DC. This kind of domicile shell game not only puts him afoul of the tax laws – the DC house is another tax dodge – but congressional representatives are supposed to live in the district they represent.
The GOP tried to knock Mr. Rangel out of his chairmanship this week, but the Democrats fought them off. It’s sad to see that Democrats only seem to muster any courage versus the minority party when they’re in the wrong. They’ll go to the mat for Charlie’s illegal perks, but not for 45 million uninsured Americans. Should anyone be surprised if voters hand the House back to Republicans a year from now?
Roman Polanski is not above the law and the people in Hollywood who suggest he is are making me sick.
He’s made some good movies, no doubt about it. But so what? Yes, he was caught up the Holocaust as a child. His mother was murdered at Auschwitz. His wife, Sharon Tate, eight and a half months pregnant, was murdered by the Manson family in one of the most grisly crimes of the 20th century. All the above is reason to have great sympathy for Mr. Polanski, but none of it is license to rape.
As a victim of horrible crimes, I would hope Mr. Polanski would know how it feels to be victimized and want to avoid inflicting it on others. A man gifted with an artist’s sensitivity should employ that sensitivity off the set..
In 1977, Mr. Polanski thought he had a deal with the prosecutor and that he would be sentenced to 42 days of time served in jail for his offense. He got wind that the judge, looking for publicity, was going to throw the book at him and possibly sentence him to 50 years in prison. Thus, he felt his flight from the law was justified. It wasn’t. Getting your lawyer to ask for a different judge would have been justified or appealing a sentence you think is too harsh is justified. Taking it on the lam and making no further effort to account for your crime or your flight from justice is not justified. Thinking that a paltry 42 days in jail suffices for a lifetime burden he placed on another human is not justified.
The Polanski case reminds me of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. The protagonist (certainly not the “hero”), Rodion Raskolnikov, rationalizes the murder of a cruel pawnbroker, because the money he steals from her will allow him – he thinks – to live a more enlightened life than she would have. Unlike Mr. Polanski, his conscience torments him and he eventually turns himself in and accepts punishment.
The difference, I suppose is that Raskolnikov was a superior individual in his mind only. Mr. Polanski had 100 people in the film industry sing a petition calling for his release. Hollywood is as out of touch with American values as DC is.
Which returns us to the characters of our drama today, one brooding in a Swiss jail, the other in one of his many houses along the east coast of the North American continent. Like Raskolnikov, it is never too late for them to turn away from the lives they’ve led and begin to seek atonement.
Above the Law
No one is above the law.
Not Charles Rangel (D-NY) chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. One of the most powerful members of Congress, responsible for writing the tax laws, he has recently been found to be obeying very few of them.
Oops. He forgot to declare $75,000 in rental income he earned on his villa in the Dominican Republic. (And yes, I too am thinking that a congressman who earns 75 large by renting out his Caribbean villa is out of touch with the average citizen, not to mention the IRS.)
Meanwhile, he’s living in several rent-subsidized apartments in Manhattan, while claiming that his actual residence is in Washington, DC. This kind of domicile shell game not only puts him afoul of the tax laws – the DC house is another tax dodge – but congressional representatives are supposed to live in the district they represent.
The GOP tried to knock Mr. Rangel out of his chairmanship this week, but the Democrats fought them off. It’s sad to see that Democrats only seem to muster any courage versus the minority party when they’re in the wrong. They’ll go to the mat for Charlie’s illegal perks, but not for 45 million uninsured Americans. Should anyone be surprised if voters hand the House back to Republicans a year from now?
Roman Polanski is not above the law and the people in Hollywood who suggest he is are making me sick.
He’s made some good movies, no doubt about it. But so what? Yes, he was caught up the Holocaust as a child. His mother was murdered at Auschwitz. His wife, Sharon Tate, eight and a half months pregnant, was murdered by the Manson family in one of the most grisly crimes of the 20th century. All the above is reason to have great sympathy for Mr. Polanski, but none of it is license to rape.
As a victim of horrible crimes, I would hope Mr. Polanski would know how it feels to be victimized and want to avoid inflicting it on others. A man gifted with an artist’s sensitivity should employ that sensitivity off the set..
In 1977, Mr. Polanski thought he had a deal with the prosecutor and that he would be sentenced to 42 days of time served in jail for his offense. He got wind that the judge, looking for publicity, was going to throw the book at him and possibly sentence him to 50 years in prison. Thus, he felt his flight from the law was justified. It wasn’t. Getting your lawyer to ask for a different judge would have been justified or appealing a sentence you think is too harsh is justified. Taking it on the lam and making no further effort to account for your crime or your flight from justice is not justified. Thinking that a paltry 42 days in jail suffices for a lifetime burden he placed on another human is not justified.
The Polanski case reminds me of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. The protagonist (certainly not the “hero”), Rodion Raskolnikov, rationalizes the murder of a cruel pawnbroker, because the money he steals from her will allow him – he thinks – to live a more enlightened life than she would have. Unlike Mr. Polanski, his conscience torments him and he eventually turns himself in and accepts punishment.
The difference, I suppose is that Raskolnikov was a superior individual in his mind only. Mr. Polanski had 100 people in the film industry sing a petition calling for his release. Hollywood is as out of touch with American values as DC is.
Which returns us to the characters of our drama today, one brooding in a Swiss jail, the other in one of his many houses along the east coast of the North American continent. Like Raskolnikov, it is never too late for them to turn away from the lives they’ve led and begin to seek atonement.
© Mark Floegel, 2009