Watch those naughty Text Messages -- ask the Finns, they invented them!

In an ironic case of being hoist by ones' own petard, MSNBC (by way of the AP) reports that  Ilkka Kanerva, better known as Finland's Foreign Minister, was forced to resign after a scandal broke which involved Mr. Kanerva, a member of a conservative Finnish political party, sending racy text messages to an erotic dancer.

The scandal, which had been making headline news for weeks, had eroded trust in and respect for Ilkka Kanerva, said Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen, chairman of the National Coalition Party, which holds the Foreign Ministry post in the coalition government.

"The minister does not enjoy trust," Katainen told reporters. "It's a heavy decision. He's a friend and he's done his work well."

I'll note that the AP article says that Kanerva broke not a single law in Finland. However, this isn't the first time he's been involved in a SMS-based scandal. In 2005, when Kanerva was a deputy speaker of Parliament, he was also caught sending naughty texts, and promised not to do it again.

We may find it silly for the Mayor of Detroit to be indicted over some nasty SMS banter with his Chief of Staff (minor detail, despite both being married they were having an affair). On the other hand, Finland is the home of Nokia, the international handset giant, developer of the GSM standard and inventor of the SMS.

Of course, this doesn't rise to the level of Marion Barry smoking crack on videotape, but does anyone know how to translate "g*ddamn b*tch set me up" into Finnish?

On a more serious note, how do these SMS records keep getting to newspapers? Should I be worried about my BlackBerry  storing extra copies of my messages somewhere?

If there are any readers out there who know more about how SMS works and would like to enlighten your felllow man on how secure (or not) SMS is, please let us know.