get a clue, people... !

The right-wing nuts, when not overly concerned with being called gay-bashers -- yah! right! -- will quickly blame the whole vile business having to do with Mark Foley on his being gay.

Schwing! Jeez, that was fast!

You want the truth? Can you handle it?

That Mark Foley was wild & crazy as a predator of youthful types doesn't have a thing to do with his being gay. It has to do with his being male.

Gay men are no more predatory then are straight men. Gay men are no more indescriminiate than are straight men, they simply have more opportunities.

Straight men have to deal with the reluctant female. Gay men do not. Gay men have other men to chase after, men who may already be chasing them (How hard is that, eh? And what kind of world would this be if women were as loose as men? I mean, besides wonderful!), and we all know -- don't we? -- the male of the species would chase after the crack of dawn if he thought he could get away with it.

And this just in: teenage boys, gay or straight, are serious horn-dogs. Everybody who went to high school knows this, so I don't buy into the dudgeon. And as a rule, Congessional pages are privileged and well-educated snots (I know, I've interned on The Hill), and word is these critters in question were said to have been warned well in advance.

Whether these teenagers prove to be savvy prey, of course, is not a relevant defense by law. And middle-aged men, of whatever stripe, who are otherwise sad and lonely, should nonetheless be held responsible for crossing that particular line. So Mark Foley and his Repo leadership buddies will have earned every nasty opprobrium that's apparently coming to 'em, although I'd suggest more so for rubber-stamping the war-criminal-in-chief over the last five years than for this overwrought nonsense.

But I ain't worried about the pages. Not these pages anyway. I read Lord Of The Flies.

End of debate!

Update: Age of consent in D.C., as in many states, is 16. Of course that doesn't mean the president cannot deem Foley an enemy combatant... or anybody else for that matter.

But, uhm, I digress.

Update #2: Oh ho! These are *Republican* pages. All bets are off! Think of what a charming lad George W. Bush *at 16* had to be. I say send over TWO Mark Foleys to babysit!!