View 435 October 9 - 15, 2006 (original) (raw)
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
10 / 10
Happy Birthday Republic of China
I am weary of the Foley mess, perhaps too much so since I seem to be extraordinarily ineffective in communications on this issue. I am not sure why I am unclear, but I must be. This is the only mail I got on this today but it is so extraordinarily wrong that it's pretty clearly my fault for miscommunications.
And explain how Foley was forced out of office. His behavior was so embarrassing and disgusting TO HIMSELF that he left of his own free will as soon as the truth came out. I don't give a dam how other politicians justify similar activities, its obvious that Foley HIMSELF considered his behavior to be beneath contempt. I feel somewhat sorry (but not too much) that he did not resign and get help sooner for something he himself considered aberrant behavior, but he made his bed and he should lie in it. What ever happened to the vaunted republican notion of accountability for your own actions? I'm afraid your strategy of demonizing the victims and the whistle blowers has lost you much respect in my eyes. You may not care, but as and avid fan of both your fiction and non fiction for many years it hurts me.
Which is puzzling. I have never thought Foley ought to remain in office, and the one commendable thing he has done is to resign. As to feeling sorry for him, I don't, much, because he took such great pains to hide his proclivities from his constituents, who presumably would have chosen another candidate in a primary election. There are Republican constituencies in which it wouldn't matter that the candidate was gay, Foley's was not one of them.
As to accountability, agreed: but accountability to whom? Are you arguing that no gay person should be a member of Congress? There are several; this is part of the new American consensus on toleration vs. approval (toleration having won out over criminalization and job discrimination). In Berkeley the Sea Scouts are being denied the public berth for their training boat because the Scouts don't accept gay Scoutmasters. There is no bar to being a gay Congressman. To whom, then, is Foley to have been accountable? I have said to his constituents. To whom else should he be accountable?
As to demonization of victims, where are the victims? It is NOT ILLEGAL in DC for a male Member of Congress to have actual sex with a 16 year old boy. There is no "victim" here. Now if you are arguing that it should be; that the age of consent ought to be higher than 16; then say so. I would agree entirely. But it isn't likely to happen because the Congress has abdicated its Constitutional power to govern the District of Columbia. My opinion on what ought to be isn't terribly relevant here. As to whether 16 and 17 year old boys are harmed by instant messages from a Congressman about masturbation and such like, it might be worth discussion, but it's not likely that the boys were particularly harmed; it isn't as if Foley were trying to seduce them, or using his position to make them submit to his attentions. There is not one shred of evidence that any of the lads involved objected to this attention from a gay Congressman. How were they victims?
Now sure: to some of us the whole notion is distasteful. I would have thought that anyone in his right mind, certainly including Foley, would know better than to send those messages to a teen age boy; but that is my proclivity and clearly is not one shared by the City Council of the District of Columbia. I have several times pointed out that this is the very forward edge of the battle area in the cultural wars: is that sort of behavior to be forbidden; tolerated; or approved? And those who approve of legalizing homosexual relations between a 16 year old boy and an older man can hardly complain when the older men talk about it.
Finally, as to using the Internet: I am very much against making it a criminal offense to talk about activities that are legal. To say that it is legal to seduce young men is, it seems to me, to say that it is legal to talk to them about the subject; and criminalizing discussion of actions which are themselves legal seems to be a remedy far worse than the disease.
And I am extremely weary of this subject. Of course Foley ought to have resigned, but not because he did instant messaging with the pages; but because he was elected under false pretenses. If it turns out that Barney Frank has sent Instant Messages of a suggestive nature to pages (note the IF; I don't say it has happened; this is known as a hypothetical) should he be forced to resign? If so, to whom does he owe an obligation not to do that? Foley is hardly the first male Congressman to find the pages sexually interested.
So I don't understand this letter. I have never defended Foley, but I don't condemn him for his sexual orientation; I do say that's relevant to his constituents. I do not see any victims here, so I don't understand why I am accused of 'blaming' them. I know enough about teen age high IQ boys to have some idea of what they might do in these circumstances -- and the effect on them. And I certainly do not like the idea that it is perfectly legal for a male Congressman to seduce 16 year old boys, pages or not; but it IS legal.
As to forbidding certain speech on the Internet, be damned careful what you do. It would be illegal to consummate the relationship in Florida where some of the IM's originated -- but the consummation would take place in DC where it is legal. This is a very sensitive matter; forbidding conversation between consenting adults very much is. Be damned careful what you wish for here.
And that really ought to be enough on this matter.
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North Korea may not have nukes after all. Interesting. They seem to have managed a sub-kiloton detonation. Such things take extreme sophistication and are thermo-nuclear and very wasteful of fissionables - or they can be achieved with a very badly designed or constructed fission bomb.
It is likely that this was a fizzle, not a demonstration of sophistication. There are two basic fission weapon designs, one for Pu and the other for U235. In both cases the sub-kiloton detonation will result in a fairly dirty bomb.
Korea is claiming that there was no nuclear fallout escape from their test. That is unlikely. We have to wait for the sniffers to find out precisely what they have done, but it does look as if they didn't get a "natural" fission reaction. Trinity, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki were the expected yield detonations of a fission reaction -- 15 - 20 kilotons.