the butler did it

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Tried and true evasions are tried and true ... why spoil a good thing?

Vatican officials confirmed today that the pope's butler, a layman, had been arrested for leaking sensitive documents to the press. Suddenly, the substance and systemic issues of those leaks is no longer the focus: Attention is redirected on the leak and patching the hole.

Beginning at an early age ("the dog ate my homework"), evasiveness seems to mature like good wine. "I didn't know" or "I was following orders" filled the courtrooms dedicated post-facto to the systematic slaughter of Jews and other 'undesirables' during World War II. Systematic torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq led to a blaming of several underlings but few executives or, more important, the culture that spawned the torture. Bradley Manning's crime -- passing classified documents to Wikileaks -- is the focus his accusers would prefer to keep on the front burner ... not the systemic issues that those leaks pointed to. Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange have been the target of a focus similar to Manning's -- patch the leak, reprove the leaker, but sidestep the substance. The Vatican has been masterful in skirting top-echelon responsibility for the pedophiles in its midst ... though it once did manage to blame the situation on Jews and homosexuality rather than confront the issue of celibacy among priests and acknowledge that the infallible pope ... well ... the dog ate my homework. And the Wall Street and banking depredations that brought down the world economy ... how many of its perpetrators "didn't know" or "didn't mean to" or do their unexamined best to help the White House out of the morass?

The list goes on and on and on and on ... the butler did it, the master was unwitting ... forgive and forget. It's hard not to think -- it's not what's wrong that counts; it's getting caught that's wrong ... don't let it happen again.

The dog ate my homework.

The butler did it.

Crime solved.

Why spoil a good thing?
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