My last entry was Gov. Mark Sanford. Now we have Tiger. Can’t famous men keep it zipped?

This is absolutely unbelievable to me.What was he thinking?

There is no excuse for this — not for Clinton, not for Spitzer, not for John Edwards, not for Kwame Kilpatrick, Larry Craig, Mark Foley… the list goes on and on.

I suppose, in retrospect, I should not be surprised: this has been going on for as long as we have been human. I am no scholar of Ancient Greece by any means, but the Greek Tragedies had the concept of “Hamartia,” which is the tragic flaw that brings down the heroic figure. When a man has everything going for him (“he could be the next Republican (or Democratic) president!”), wham! that’s when the the arrow hits Achilles’s heel and all is lost.

The classics should be required reading for all. Every teen-aged boy in America would love The Illiad. It is bar-none the most gory book I have ever read (and in which the story of Achilles is told). The movie “300″ was box office gold. The real story is even more spectacular. The more I learn of history, the more I know that we as humans are still the same as we were when we first stood upright 200,000 years ago. One thing that impressed me greatly was when I read the definition of “cave canem” in the book “Amo, Amas, Amat.” It means “beware of dog” in Latin, and it was found on a sign in the rubble of Pompeii. I couldn’t help but fill in the picture of domestic life – Maximus working at the emporium, coming home to a nice meal with the family, dog laying gently at his feet. He’d have been smoking his pipe, except tobacco hadn’t made it to the old world yet.

Are we not the same, fundamentally, as we were two millenia ago? Ten millenia? We are not superior beings to those that came before us. We are not fundamentally smarter, morally superior, or even more informed than our ancestors. Sure, we have a lot more material knowledge. We have amazing technology. We can reach any point in the Earth in hours. We can leave the Earth if we want. But, we still are subject to the deadly sins — Avarice in the form of zero-down loans and refis that buy our toy-haulers. Sloth and Gluttony that creates the first generation of fat poor people ever to walk the planet. Wrath and Envy that results in skyrocketing murder rates and gang violence. Pride that makes people think they are immune to the laws of man and God. And, of course, Lust that grabs certain people by the gonads and produces the most salacious burn-outs.

One thing I will say, though, is that we have no excuse. Yes, we’re all human. But, we don’t have to act on it! We can live up to standards. There can be ideals, and we can achieve them. We do not have to cheat on our wives or husbands, or screw each other out of cash. Life is not so boring that we all need to spice it up with sin. I don’t know – maybe the next time you feel like crossing over to the wild side and partaking of some guilty endeavor or another, why not stop by the nearest food bank or old folks home and donate some time instead? If you must, you can “lust in your heart” like Jimmy Carter while you are doling out food to the homeless family in front of  you or swinging a hammer at a Habitat for Humanity house-raising. Imagine what would have happened if Sanford had done exactly the same thing — flew off to Argentina incognito, not telling a soul –  but instead of indulging in a tryst he was instead helping a village dig a well or build a school? Hosannas! Adulation! The presidency! But, no. He falls into the Abyss.

Okay, the Abyss of Tartarus. The Greeks knew human nature even if we don’t.