How America loves a good sex scandal, and we allow it to consume all of our energies. Really, people, there are better things to talk about.
Still, it’s everywhere, and I can’t help but shake my head at the sheer hypocrisy of the Republicans (Foley sending explicit instant messages to pages was the Democrats’ fault how?). When the party that thinks that the only people who should be having sex at all are heterosexual married persons has something like this explode onto the scene, it’s really hard not to take a certain satisfaction in it. Anything that helps the Republicans lose control of Congress isn’t a terrible thing, in my book.
Still, lest we get swept away there some issues to consider. However lewd and inappropriate Foley’s pursuit of the pages was (and it was), Foley is not a child molester. Katha Pollitt in her latest Nation column makes this point beautifully. Thing is, sixteen is the age of consent in Washington, D.C. (and in several other states), thereby making such activities legal (barely). Foley is far too old for these young men, certainly, but it’s not like he went after twelve-year-old boys. The way I see it, the case here is one of harassment, not of pedophilia.
One of the things that bothered me the most about the whole Lewinsky kerfuffle was that those pushing for impeachment kept talking about Lewinsky like she was a child. She wasn’t. She was twenty-two, and a college graduate. Getting involved with Clinton might not have been the best decision she ever made, but she was old enough to make it. Now these pages are considerably younger, but let’s not forget that they had some agency here too.
So what Foley did might be legal, but I don’t think there are too many people who would call it healthy. Here I think we can look at the way society (and, unfortunately, particularly the religious right society Foley was serving) treats homosexuals as a contributing factor to his behavior. No one can escape themselves, something Foley tragically spent his whole life trying to do because he believes that what he is is an abomination. Who he is was bound to come out, and because he could not build healthy, loving relationships out in the open, he tried to build unhealthy, damaging ones in secret. That’s sad, and unfortunately, this issue won’t make the evening news.
So good American that I am, I’ve been watching the show and shaking my head at the Family Values Republicans, yet I am also reminded of one of the reasons why I’m a liberal in the first place. People need to be free to be who they are. It’s really as simple as that.
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3 comments:
It really is amazing how big of a story this has become on the tube. Every evening I sit down and want to hear something about how the Amish community is working through their tragedy or how we're planning or not planning on retracting from the war zone, and Foley's mess is everywhere.
I've resorted to watching MASH during the news hour instead. Lazy, I suppose, but it makes me happy.
Oh yeah, ridiculous. I wound up watching a documentary on Hell on the History Channel in order to avoid Foley.
Hello Sassy and all,
Here's some more red hot ink for your pen. Now help me vanquish the sword!
This Foley fiasco has given people the chance to change the make-up of this government, which will ultimately lead to the end of the Bush-Cheney reign. It may not be pretty, but it is a gift, nonetheless. Don't waste this advantage. Use it wisely to end the more pressing problems that face us all.
Want to better understand some of the desperation among top Christian politicos? Want to know what else they are pretending not to know about? Follow the links and read about who I am and what I have to say. Notice that my last name is Page? Think this "page" scandal is a mere coincidence? The timing and ramifications are much worse than most realize yet.
If Christian political leaders are going to go around attacking others for not living up to their professed values, it's a damn good idea to be truthful and actually walk the walk. Logs and motes in the eye, camels through the eye of a needle, glass houses, kettles and pots, and what goes around comes around, et al. Karma's a bitch when She finally decides enough is enough! This wouldn't have been so bad on Republicans if they hadn't been such arrogant hypocrites in order to corner the so-called values voters! Now the "Two Candlesticks" and "Two Witnesses" (Truth and Justice) are "breathing fire" and "raining hailstones!"
Christian Political Leadership, Hypocrisy, Duplicity, and Purposeful Evil
The current scandal involving Congressman Foley is merely the latest in an amazingly long list of blatant deception and duplicity by Republicans and the Christian Right in recent years. While bedeviling us all with their holier-than-thou pretenses, they consistently support and/or perform blatant greed and abominable evil. Never forget the extent of their arrogance over the last two decades and especially the last 6 years. It is beyond amazing that Christians continue to blindly support such obviously blatant scoundrels, even as they are repeatedly exposed going against the most basic of human values. The level of hypocrisy and duplicity boggles the mind. There is no longer any doubt, whatsoever, that Christianity is little more than a purposeful deception used by political and religious leaders to dupe, manipulate, and coerce entire populations into giving them wealth and power, which they always use for greed, injustice, and abominable evils.
The actions of Foley and those who covered up for him directly parallel the actions of scores of priests that have raped innocent children, preyed upon others for centuries, and had their actions hidden and abetted by the Vatican. Now, in eerie repetition of Vatican history, we have a power hungry Christian Emperor (GW) working closely with the Vatican and Judeo-Christian aristocrats to lead crusades in the so-called Holy Land. Furthermore, to leave little doubt about the reality of this assessment, the USA, as the new Holy Roman Empire, is about to legalize the torture it has perpetrated in recent years while steadily reversing many of the democratic and civil freedoms that people gained when the Vatican and royalty lost control of their European empire at the turn of the nineteenth century. Now we see them following the same old path of evil as they strive to cement the status of the USA as the latest proxy Vatican empire. Make no mistake about it, the new dark ages are looming on the horizon unless we do something proactive to prevent it.
Remember that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it!
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Here is Wisdom !!
Peace...
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