| 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. =========
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.
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