Thursday, October 05, 2006

The Sex Scandal That Didn't Exist

This isn't exactly mind-expanding or illuminating in any way. Actually, it's pretty trite and annoying. But, reading in so many places about is filling my head with cobwebs. So, I want to clear a few of them out. These scandals take up precious mental space- I think that's what they're supposed to do. But, there's no reason to buy into them. So, let's run down this 'pedophile sex scandal'.

1) Mark Foley is not a pedophile. A pedophile is an adult who is sexually attracted to prepubescents. Foley seems to be sexually attracted to young men who are 'barely legal'. This might be described as 'creepy', but it's not pedophilia, and there's something equally creepy about American's desire to redefine every age as 'young and helpless' up to the age of 40. A 17 year old is not prepubescent.

2) Mark Foley likely did not have had sex with any young men. And, if he did, he might well have had sex with young men who were above the legal age. But, nobody has claimed that he had sex with anyone. If he did not have sex, this is not a 'sex scandal'.

3) The federal crime making it illegal to make lewd comments over the internet to anyone under the age of 18 is unnecessary, reactionary, and infantilizing- see #1. A 17 year old can fuck a 40 year old in the real world, but not talk about it on the net? Does this make any sense?

4) It makes the most sense to define Foley as a sexual harasser. He seems like the kind of letch who makes people around him miserable. Like Clinton, and Gary Condit, and every other letch in power. If the voters want him out of his job for that, then so be it.

5) However, I have no idea why other congressmen were obligated to monitor his behavior, realize that he was a sexual harasser, and call the cops. Is this the case in any job? If you work at the grocery store on the register, and you hear rumors that the stockboy is harassing the delivery boy, are you required to call the cops?

6) So, when I read: "The House ethics committee approved nearly four dozen subpoenas Thursday as its investigation of a page sex scandal sprang to life with a promise by its leaders to go "wherever the evidence leads us" all I can think is that this is run amok hysteria, bordering on sexual McCarthyism- not to mention the fact that there's a particuarly homophobic element to it that makes me cringe. Call the FBI! Call out the troops! There's a homo on the loose! "Are you now, or have you ever been a masturbator?" Eeek.

7) We are still in Afghanistan. We are still in Iraq. We are still arguing over whether we can live without due process, habeas corpus, privacy, and the Constitution. Remind me again why I'm supposed to give a shit that some Congressman is pervy? Is it just because he's a Republican? Or because he's gay? Or because I'm supposed to be stupid?

Can't we just pretend this crap doesn't exist? Please, please, please- shut-up!

3 comments:

REB 84 said...

Good point, especially #7.

"Priorities ... Priorities ... We don't need no stink'n priorities!"

Its amazing how the American media works. We have lost at least eighteen more American service people during the first few days of October and Shiite Iraqi death squads are conducting small scale ethnic cleansing.

So, what are all the talking heads and politicians focused on? Surprise! Its another sex scandal. And it wasn't even real sex.

Florida Republican Rep. Mark Foley's instant message records indicate he is a dude who gets off on fantasy cyber sex with teenaged boys. I believe this is the first virtual sex scandal in Washington DC political history.

Back here in the real world, American men and women are killed, maimed and scarred, both physically and emotionally every day. War is hell. Finally, the mainstream media is beginning to support our troops by speaking the truth about their sacrifices. more

REB 84 said...

Still In Iraq

Rufus said...

Right, and that gets at it exactly.

A 17 year old male can go get blown to pieces in Iraq and nobody gives a shit. But, a 17 year old male gets a pervy IM and the country is supposed to come to a halt. It's incredible.