As an observer of the human scene for... say quite a few years... I have come to one amazing conclusion. Some people are born stupid, while others have to spend years at a college or university to reach the same level of imbecility. And if they do not quite arrive at an appropriate level of inanity, there is always postgraduate work.

With the price of education these days, foolishness is quite expensive but for some people money is no obstacle in their pursuit of folly.

Personally, I'm not so sure that a highly educated fool is any different from just one who was born a fool. There is a case to be made that a person always gets what he or she pays for. Personally, I would rather blame my parents for my foolishness.

As usual, the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage called the latest example of stupidity to my attention. I was engrossed in watching the news on TV while she was perusing an online newspaper.

"Would you look at this," she said interrupting my viewing of the news. "How stupid can anybody be?" she continued.

I did not know what she was talking about but I knew if I wanted to finish watching the news on television, I would have to stop and find out what was bugging her so.

"What do you mean?" I inquired. Sometimes inquiring minds want to know and at other times, they just want to get beyond a certain disturbance.

"Look at this headline." And she said it with such disdain I knew it must be something rather important for her. Then she read the headline for me. “‘Why are powerful men drawn to prostitution?’ Did you ever read anything so silly in all of your life?"

She had me there. Then she went into a tirade about this whole nonsense of glorifying prostitution and why they don't put a stop to all the degradation of women in our country. Then she made a rather important point, if I may say so myself.

"Don't these dim-witted people know that powerful men turn to prostitutes for the same reason any man turns to a prostitute? Why in the world do they justify sleaziness and immorality simply because someone holds a certain office?"

Continuing her tirade she observed, "The only difference I can see is how much they can pay."

She continued muttering and I turned back to the news program I was watching. But I could not get away from the logic of her observation.

There is one reason and one reason alone that a man, any man or woman for that matter, turns to prostitution. And unless you have been educated beyond your intelligence, you know what that one solitary reason is. Lust, that is all. Plain and simple, anybody and everybody engages in prostitution because of lust.

Celebrities do it. Politicians do it. Religious leaders do it. Even alley cats do it.

And every one has their own unique reason why they do it. Once you get through all of the blubbering nonsense it all boils down to simple L U S T. What I want to know is why these so called "powerful men," have no more control over the lust-factor in their life than anybody else? What is power for if you cannot control yourself? If they misuse power in this part of their life, it is a good indication that in other parts of the life power is being misused as well.

My dear sainted grandmother, God rest her soul, had the solution for this kind of activity. I cannot repeat it here but her large razor-sharp kitchen butcher knife played an important role in her solution.

The thing that amazes me is that these so-called "powerful men," boast about and build their reputation on what every alley cat does every night of the week in some dark alley. Putting yourself on the same level as an alley cat is not my idea of intelligence.

And while I was thinking along these another thought popped up. What talent is really associated with taking off your clothes? After all, I do it every night before my shower. When I was young my mother had to help me undress in order to take a bath, but now I have learned how to take my clothes off and get into the shower myself. What talent is associated with this?

I do not know what is worse. Posing nude? Someone who photographs nudes? Or some magazine that publishes nude pictures?

Recently one of those porn magazines approached someone prominent in the news to pose nude. They assured her that the pictures would be "tastefully done." What in the world does that mean? A dollop of whipped cream on each shoulder?

As a young person, my cousin and I worked on my grandfather’s farm. Our job was to clean out the cow stalls every day. No matter how tastefully we piled this material in the barnyard it was still cow manure and it still stank. I can only guess that one man's manure is another man's bed of roses.

This has always been a problem in society. Even the godly Job in the Old Testament understood this and wrote, "I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?" (Job 31:1 KJV).

If we had more "real men" in our country, we would have a whole lot less prostitution.