Adultery

Hometown -- Baltimore Current members --Todd Smith, vocals; Jasan Stepp, guitar; Brian White, bass; Jeff Siegel, keyboard; John Ensminger, drums Founded in --2002 Style --progressive metal rock Influenced by --System of a Down, Tool, Clutch, Frank Zappa Notable --The band released its most recent album, Adultery, in the spring of 2006, and recently decided to call it quits. Some of the members will continue to write together, and the band will perform one final show at Sonar on Saturday.

Quoting Bible, knowing its meaning are different"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Lately, I have heard this statement used many times to justify the actions of the president of the United States.Not one time did I hear this quote in its proper context and completion. Yes, Jesus did say, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." He also said to the woman in question, "Go and sin no more."Apparently, the president and a substantial number of people feel that no matter how many times a person commits a sin or crime all is forgiven by mere admission or confession.

WASHINGTON -- A one-star Navy admiral accepted a finding of guilt yesterday on charges that he improperly steered military contracts to his partner in an adulterous affair. He agreed to early retirement at a substantially reduced pension and to penalties that included 30 days of house arrest, Navy officials said.The officer, Rear Adm. John Scudi, 54, effectively pleaded no contest to the charges at a closed administrative hearing in Norfolk, Va., which was a less severe alternative to a criminal investigation and precluded any court-martial or prison sentence.

After 23 years, after never telling another soul, Charlene Barto finally admitted the truth.She confided in her priest that her husband beat her. With the priest's help, she found the courage to leave him -- only to have to survive another ordeal: an emotionally and financially exhausting wait to get divorced.Her long path toward ending a lifetime of denial and starting anew is one Barto hopes will be shortened for other battered spouses under legislation that has gained broad support in the Maryland General Assembly.

MOSCOW -- Fascinated by Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, Russians are examining their own sexual morals in light of the big American scandal -- and not finding too much to worry about.Adultery? A status symbol for the new rich.Sexual harassment? So common that hardly anyone can see it as such.Even women's advocates agree that a sex scandal like the one consuming Washington could never happen here."Of course there should be limits," Iren Andreyeva, a former member of parliament, said in Izvestia last week, "but if it became known that Yeltsin paid extra attention to a woman in his office, I wouldn't consider it a minus.

WASHINGTON - An Army general who was relieved of command last year amid allegations of an adulterous affair has sued the Army, saying that most of the evidence against him came from an illegally intercepted telephone conversation.Brig. Gen. Stephen N. Xenakis, former commander of a medical center at Fort Gordon, Ga., is seeking to bar any further use of the tape-recorded call and unspecified damages from the Army in the lawsuit filed this month in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va.The call was between Xenakis and an unnamed woman with whom he was said to be involved.

Adultery by Republicans is part of universal human frailty. Adultery by Democrats is moral depravity of the worst order.This distinction will be observed until the end of time or the end of Republican majority in the House of Representatives, whichever comes first.But at last we have a president who can walk and chew gum at the same time.Maybe Baltimore doesn't really need a mayor.Pub Date: 12/21/98

A NOTE TO BILL Clinton's supporters: Please do an abrupt about face and return to reality. You're dancing perilously close to the line that separates fact from fantasy.This week, independent counsel Kenneth Starr sent his report to Congress accusing Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice. In spite of those clear and unconfusing accusations, Clinton's supporters continue to whine that he is being accused of adultery, which is a personal matter.There are, indeed, some countries left on earth where adultery is a crime.

WASHINGTON -- Timing is everything in life, especially for Gen. Joseph Ralston.Last June, the world was crashing in around Ralston. The Air Force general, in line to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was forced to withdraw his name because of an adulterous affair he had had with a civilian woman in the mid-1980s.Ralston's 32-year career seemed to have hit an end as senators from Republican Olympia J. Snowe of Maine to Democrat Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland raised questions about his conduct.

PRESIDENT CLINTON has announced a campaign to seek forgiveness from the nation. Too bad. This writer much preferred the Clinton of two weeks ago who told independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr to butt out of his private life. "This matter is between me, . . . my wife and our daughter -- and our God" he said back then. "It's nobody's business but ours."It appears the president now plans to drag the nation into his healing process. I, for one, do not want to go. If this sex scandal had any useful purpose, it was to make a last stand for privacy rights.

Imagine That *** ( 3 STARS) Eddie Murphy returned to top comic-dramatic form in this deft, charming comedy, playing a driven financial analyst whose daughter's imaginary friends seem to be handing her good stock tips. Critics applauded, but the audience stayed away in droves; it's worth seeking out before it disappears entirely, especially for families who've already seen Up twice. Opening next Friday Bruno : (Universal Pictures) Sacha Baron Cohen brings another of his flamboyant characters to the big-screen in this "gotcha" comedy, made in the Borat tradition.

There's a "new" old name suddenly in circulation that is both filled with ancient history and ripe with a revolutionary spirit for today's game-changing events. Zahra. Well-known to Muslims, Fatima az-Zahra was one of four daughters of the Prophet Muhammad. Today, Zahra is also the name of two important, outspoken women of Iran. One is Zahra Rahnavard, the courageous and charismatic wife of the allegedly defeated Iranian presidential candidate, Mir-Hossein Mousavi. The other is Zahra Khanum, the equally courageous and charismatic woman portrayed in a new movie, The Stoning of Soraya M., about the death of an Iranian woman on trumped-up charges of adultery.

Comedian George Carlin, who died Sunday, was best known for his "Seven Dirty Words" routine, but here are some of his one-liners that you can repeat without getting arrested: "Atheism is a non-prophet organization." "Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?" "Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things." "If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little."

Hometown -- Baltimore Current members --Todd Smith, vocals; Jasan Stepp, guitar; Brian White, bass; Jeff Siegel, keyboard; John Ensminger, drums Founded in --2002 Style --progressive metal rock Influenced by --System of a Down, Tool, Clutch, Frank Zappa Notable --The band released its most recent album, Adultery, in the spring of 2006, and recently decided to call it quits. Some of the members will continue to write together, and the band will perform one final show at Sonar on Saturday.

Florence of Arabia, by Christopher Buckley. Random House. 254 pages. $24.95 There can be no doubt that Christopher Buckley is the leading satirist of his generation, a Twain or Mencken for our times, a comic novelist who skewers his subjects so hilariously and completely that you almost feel sorry for the poor arrogant dunces when he's through with them. In Thank You for Smoking, he took on political correctness and the machinations of Big Tobacco. In Little Green Men, it was conspiracy theories, UFO crazies and the shrill, pink-faced blowhards who dominate Sunday morning TV talk shows that were eviscerated.

WASHINGTON - The moment I walked into the office this morning, Maria at the front desk pulled out the column I wrote when Kobe Bryant was arrested on allegations of sexual assault. The lead: "No way in hell." Maria likes to torture me. It has been a week since the charges were officially filed. A week since the astonishing press conference where Bryant declared his innocence of sexual assault, but confessed to committing adultery with his 19-year-old accuser. Holding hands with his wife, he said he was furious with himself, disgusted with himself.

EAGLE, Colo. - The Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant, one of the most talented and dynamic basketball players of his generation, was charged yesterday with the felony sexual assault of a 19-year-old hotel worker who came to his room at an exclusive resort and later accused him of forcing her to have sex. In a nationally televised news conference, Eagle County District Attorney Mark Hurlbert, announced the charges, saying Bryant had "caused sexual penetration...

TAYLORSVILLE, N.C. - A judge's decision to charge an Alexander County couple with adultery under a seldom-used 1805 law could cause havoc in the courts, some lawyers say. District Judge Jimmy Myers of Davie County issued the charges at the end of an otherwise routine custody hearing recently, shocking lawyers and others in the Alexander County courtroom and starting a buzz of discussion in the legal community. "This statute is rarely ever prosecuted by private citizens or by judges, mainly because a substantial part of our population violate it. If it's prosecuted, it opens the floodgates for people to engage in vengeance in custody cases," " said Chas Coltrane, chairman of the Family Law Section of the North Carolina Bar Association.

Quoting Bible, knowing its meaning are different"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Lately, I have heard this statement used many times to justify the actions of the president of the United States.Not one time did I hear this quote in its proper context and completion. Yes, Jesus did say, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." He also said to the woman in question, "Go and sin no more."Apparently, the president and a substantial number of people feel that no matter how many times a person commits a sin or crime all is forgiven by mere admission or confession.

Adultery by Republicans is part of universal human frailty. Adultery by Democrats is moral depravity of the worst order.This distinction will be observed until the end of time or the end of Republican majority in the House of Representatives, whichever comes first.But at last we have a president who can walk and chew gum at the same time.Maybe Baltimore doesn't really need a mayor.Pub Date: 12/21/98