David Petraeus, retired four-star general and married man of 37 years, stepped down as CIA Director on Friday, admitting to an unwise extramarital affair. President Obama accepted his resignation.
Upon learning that a government official committed adultery, the American people had two questions. The first: “So what?” Expect plenty of questions from Republican congressmen, though, particularly those who’ve been caught in bed with women not their wives.
Everyone has a second question ….
Was Charlie Chaplin a Commie? J. Edgar Hoover thought so. The FBI Director asked Britain’s MI5 intelligence agency to check out the silent film star’s background. The British spies looked into it throughout the 1950s and found no evidence of radical politics. They also found no birth certificate, so J. Edgar was probably as riled as 21st century conspiracy nuts are. Perhaps the lack of documents has something to do with the fact that Somerset House, the U.K.’s resposity of vital statistics, was hit by a German bomb in 1940.
So if Sir Charles Spencer Chaplain wasn’t a communist, he must have been a secret French (or Russian) Jew named Israel Thornton, right? No, though he may have been part Romanichal. Chaplin was merely a talented actor, acrobat, writer, composer, director, producer, and the biggest movie star in the world. No wonder J. Edgar Hoover hounded him out of the country.
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