Goodbye, Norma Jean

Speaking of popular culture...I am pressed on all sides to give an opinion on the death of Anna Nicole Smith. Maybe her downfall had its roots in the lust of an old man, but more likely the roots were much older and deeper, perhaps as old as the history of man. I am reminded of the words of Monsieur le Curé in Georges Bernanos' Journal d'un curé de campagne:

[N]obody can see in advance what one bad thought may have as its consequence. Evil thoughts are like good ones: thousands may be scattered by the wind, or overgrown or dried up by the sun. Only one takes root. The seeds of good and evil are everywhere. Our great misfortune is that human justice always intervenes too late. We only repress or brand the act, without ever being able to go back further than the culprit. But hidden sins poison the air which others breathe, and without such corruption at the source, many a wretched man, tainted unconsciously, would never have become a criminal.