# People who should be forgiven allowing for all that they achieved. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 28, 2006, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977 "2006-01-28T13:05:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/1 "2006-01-28T13:05:31Z")
I saw in a recent thread that **MJ** was hanging around in Bahrain and as usual people got on his case due to the accusations of paedophilia. Well I think the guy probably has problems due to the bad plastic surgery. When he was playing for the Bulls Michael Jordan was a strapping individual but look at him now, he looks like that black chick singer. And people are always giving **Jerry Lewis** a hard time about his self serving telethon but if you watch _Walk The Line_ you will discover that when he was shorter he was quite a rocker, although there were suspicions of paedophilia there too in the end. Poor old **George Bush** is always getting it in the neck for being a pathetic president but gee he’s been in the job since 1989 and maybe he’s just past it now. And leave **Eminem** alone, sure he was better when he was Vanilla Ice but let it go. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/2 "2006-01-28T13:16:59Z")
Are you confusing the comedian Jerry Lewis with the singer Jerry Lee Lewis? How is Jerry Lewis’ Muscular Dystrophy Telethon ‘self-servving?’ ---
**Author:** ![Fugazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fugazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fugazi)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/3 "2006-01-28T13:26:33Z")
My goodness. That wooosh was the sound of an entire squadron of F-16’s flying 200 feet over my house. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/4 "2006-01-28T13:35:49Z")
> [@Fugazi](#): > > … You just reminded me. Some guy at work has had my copy of **Red Medicine** for months now. ---
**Author:** ![DrMemory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DrMemory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrMemory)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/5 "2006-01-28T14:02:26Z")
“Dubya” has been president for 16 years? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/6 "2006-01-28T14:25:51Z")
Nice topic! I’d like to propose two people with the same problem: **Adlai Stevenson**. Sure he ran twice against Ike in 1952 and 1956 and lost both times, and wore out his shoes in the process. But people forget that he was [Vice President](http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0846707.html) back in the 1890s. C’mon, the man must have been tired! And then, of course, there was **John Marshall Harlan** , who famously [dissented in _Plessy v. Ferguson_](http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0846707.html) and then [served on the Warren court](http://www.michaelariens.com/ConLaw/justices/harlan2.htm) that reversed it. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/7 "2006-01-28T14:39:15Z")
I’ve always been impressed by [Sir Richard Burton](http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-974), who had an amazing career as an explorer/adventurer/translator/author, then rebounded to become a respected actor/serial husband. And, while we’re in the B’s, there’s Francis Bacon – who, after a strong start to his career in Elizabethan times, managed to become a [major figure](http://www.francis-bacon.cx/) in 20th-century art. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/8 "2006-01-28T14:59:20Z")
[James Bond](http://www.cboc.org.au/jamesbond.html) was a famous ornithologist before becoming a womanizing, killing spy. ---
**Author:** ![Tevildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Tevildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tevildo)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/9 "2006-01-28T15:10:28Z")
I’ve always been prepared to forgive [Michael Jackson](http://www.beerhunter.com/)’s proclivities because he writes so well about beer. And [Kylie’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Minogue) talks on the radio about politics and economics belie her public image as an empty-headed singer. ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/10 "2006-01-28T15:49:07Z")
Kojack was pretty good good in the new Star Trek, but I doubt he would have been up to much without the ramps and automatic doors. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/11 "2006-01-28T16:39:18Z")
Richard Hatch was riding high as the star of Battlestar Galactica, but by the '90s he’d been typecast to the point that the only work he could get was appearing in reality TV shows. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/12 "2006-01-28T16:54:08Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > Are you confusing the comedian Jerry Lewis with the singer Jerry Lee Lewis? How is Jerry Lewis’ Muscular Dystrophy Telethon ‘self-servving?’ You may have missed **lno’s** classic [My rage burns with the fire of a million suns.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=62082&) > [@](#): > > **And finally, to Jerry Lewis, and Jerry Lee Lewis.** > You two both deserve to rot in the umpteeth circle of hell. Not because you directly affected my life in any way, but because for the love of God I lived twenty-four years without knowing you were two separate people. I went through life thinking that “Goodness gracious great balls of HEY LAAAAAAADY!” came from the same person. I thought that the performer whom the French strangely love was the same performer who married his underage cousin in Kentucky. You have no RIGHT to do this to me. You have no IDEA how aghast I was when this was explained to me. No, this was not explained to me in the privacy of my own home. No, this was not explained to me in the company of a few close friends, who would snicker momentarily and then forget about this. No, this was not even explained to me while giving a presentation to a board of directors. YOU TWO KEPT UP THIS CHARADE UNTIL MY GIRLFRIEND WONDERED WHAT THE HELL I WAS TALKING ABOUT. She’ll never let me forget about this. She now has the nuclear weapon of relationships. She can merely whisper “Jerry Lewis!” into my ear and I’ll curl into a mortified fetal position. She can win any argument, no matter how many cites I provide, or how many links to authoritative sources. > > Jerry Lewis, you go to hell. Jerry Lee Lewis, you lead the way. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/13 "2006-01-28T16:58:44Z")
I’ve always been impressed by **Ed Norton.** He was so great on _The Honeymooners_, and is still capable of playing much younger roles in movies today, like _Fight Club._ ---
**Author:** ![Baine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Baine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baine)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/14 "2006-01-28T17:26:52Z")
**John Edwards** may not have become vice president, but he is able to talk to dead people, and that ought to be worth something. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/15 "2006-01-28T17:34:21Z")
Thomas Harris started out writing [pop psychology](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578660750/qid=1138469592/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-7012184-8166564?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) books, then went over to the dark side and Hannibal Lechter. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/16 "2006-01-28T17:41:58Z")
And author **Tom Wolfe**! What a long and productive career he’s had, from _Look Homeward Angel_ to _A Man in Full!_ ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/17 "2006-01-28T17:48:38Z")
> [@Baine](#): > > **John Edwards** may not have become vice president, but he is able to talk to dead people, and that ought to be worth something. The hellfire and brimstones sermons are a bit much, don’t you think? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/18 "2006-01-28T18:04:08Z")
Loudon Wainwright was a photographer for Life and a musician! Heather McCartney went from being Paul’s stepdaughter to being his wife (and it only cost her a leg). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/19 "2006-01-28T18:06:56Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I’ve always been impressed by [Sir Richard Burton](http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-974), who had an amazing career as an explorer/adventurer/translator/author, then rebounded to become a respected actor/serial husband. Another explorer turned actor with an even longer career was **Sebastian Cabot** , who searched for the Northwest Passage in the early 1500s, and then became a successful character actor over 400 years later (although he had gained a bit of weight by then). Here’s to you, “Mr. French,” (even if you were Italian)! ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977/20 "2006-01-28T20:23:04Z")
**Paul Revere** was a silversmith, a Revolutionary War hero, and the keyboardist for a 60s rock group. How cool is that? Well the coolest thing is that Paul Revre’s real name is Revere Dick, but that doesn’t fit the leit motif of this thread. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-should-be-forgiven-allowing-for-all-that-they-achieved/341977.md?page=2)