Mark Foley Madness III: Yelling "Faggot" in a Crowded Church

[elfs]

Mark Foley, the Congressman caught sending sexually suggestive emails to teenage boys, has announced that he's gay. He has also announced that he was abused by a Catholic clergyman when he was 13 years old.

I'm furious about this. Not only is all Republican pretense to "personal responsibility" now dismissed as "oh, something we said to get elected," but now Foley has ended his career in the House with a gift to the radical right. Here's the headline from James Dobson's people next week: The Lesson of Mark Foley: Homosexuals With Authority Over Children Leads To Abuse. The annoying adman turned pundit Ben Stein has already written an op-ed which ends, "Don't get me wrong. My very best friend is gay. ... [But] I hope it won't come as a surprise to anyone that a big part of male homosexual behavior is interest in young boys."

I think Ben is projecting. I hope he isn't.

I can't think of anything more disgusting to come out of this mess than this little turd we've been left with. Foley took one step forward and then single-handledly shoved the entire gay rights movement two steps back. They were small steps, but nobody should have had to take them.

Mark Foley needs to go quietly into his little Church of Scientology-run rehabilitation clinic ("for alcoholism and other behavioral problems"-- I love that last bit) and shut the fuck up. He's not doing any good with his trap open.

(I see that XMMS, the Linux version of WinAMP, is totally psychic this morning. I'm normally very protective of my hearing, but I totally cranked this one. It's the live version, too.)

Comments

[taerin.livejournal.com]

I know it's preaching to the choir to say this here, but none of the gay men I've ever been friends with have been interested in young boys.

It's also a little strange that this sort of thing is pointed out so vociferously when it's homosexual misbehavior, when the whole "barely legal!" thing is so prevalent in straight porn (which has a far larger audience.)

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

I've no doubt that the guy needs help to sort his life out, but I seriously doubt he's going to get useful help.

The reported sexual abuse didn't make him gay, but that's how it'll be explained.

And the porn business is full of shitty thinking, not just barely legal but the language that often gets used to label the women. You could almost explain some of it as black propaganda if you were inclined to conspiracy theories.

And, politically, it looks like the story is going to be spun into one about the evils inflicted on him, and how the Democrats are shamefully blaming the victim.

[edichka2.livejournal.com]

The "Mark Foley is a victim" ploy is hypocrisy on so many levels that I'd need to be that prize-rejecting Russian topologist to fully grasp it.

- Eddie

He is a victim.

[jenk]

He's a victim of his own inability to practice any sort of restraint. He's doing a marvelous job of demonstrating the relationship between "lacks self-discipline" and "self-destructive".

If he could have kept from flirting with teenagers he wouldn't be in this position. If he could now SHUT UP and stop flailing around like an idiot, he and his party might make it through the year without looking like complete jackasses. Foley might even be able to get on with his life in a year or so.

But then, if he was capable of exercising that sort of self-restraint he wouldn't be on the front page.

[mundens.livejournal.com]

Yeah I likes Pat. Did ever since I saw her live locally givin' I Love Rock & Roll her best shot! Still have Hell.. on vinyl.

I like her version of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights too, makes Kate sound like Jim Steinman, not neccessarily a good thing, but fun!

[bikerwalla.livejournal.com]

Nixon speechwriter turned actor turned pundit.

[(Anonymous)]

I utterly fail to see any difference between homosexual paedophilia and heterosexual paedophilia.

Both are utterly reprehensible, and both are sadly all too common. If there is any difference it is likely only due to the focus people put on warning young girls, but not boys... and then that's a fairly big if.