Triumph of the Immoral Minority
In case you've missed it -- "Yes, I have been in a cave on Mars with my eyes closed and my fingers in my ears." -- His Brawniness, Ah-nold Schwarzenegger is finding himself in a bit of hot water for an interview he gave pin-up mag Oui back in 1977. Ooh la la!
It seems that Ah-nold has exemplified such upstanding moral behavior that he could put Jerry Falwell to shame. Of course, that's not surprising since Falwell did admit in a 1983 issue of Hustler that "his first time" came while drunk and with his own mother. All Ah-nold did was participate in a "gang bang."
Unfortunately, that damn liberal media doesn't seem keen to jump on this like they should. Check that. Today's edition of Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman's excellent radio program, probed the more haunting complications of Schwarzenegger's misogynist, chauvinistic past.
There are some perfectly fair and legitimate comparisons to be made between Arnold's sexual indiscretions and those of ex-Prez Bill Clinton. I'm not on a crusade to defend Clinton or any other Democrat. Personally, I think Clinton did a lot to lower the quality of life for the country, whether his draconian "Welfare to Work" program that helped put lots of poor folks on the street, the passage of NAFTA to enable thousands of jobs to migrate south of the border, or the signing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that immediately removed effective caps on radio station ownership and paved the way for ClearChannel to dominate the airwaves and help prompt the decay of modern music. But I judge Clinton on his record, and the terrible things he did, like pushing the Democratic Party to act more Republican. Never will I count myself in the camp of so many other Democrats like my own mother, who seem captivated by his charisma and will exalt him to the end.
That said, I frequently find myself in this awkward position of defending folks like Clinton (or California Gov. Gray Davis) because the attacks they face lack all merit whatsoever. I certainly don't approve of Clinton having or not having sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky, but I've never heard any evidence it wasn't consensual, if not inappropriate. So I don't find it criminal behavior, and it easily flunked the "high crimes and misdemeanors" test that's supposed to be used for impeachment, but got conveniently ignored by Clinton's political opponents.
But what about Ah-nold? Marriage and family life don't appear to have halted his pattern of promiscuity, but more importantly, his is a long, ongoing history of sexual misconduct. There's the "gang bang" he described in 1977, along with several episodes of groping women. Most appalling though, occurred on a film set where a woman rebuffed Schwarzenegger, who then threw her against a bathroom wall. As Karen Pomer, the rape survivor interviewed on Democracy Now! this morning, recounted, this is a rather grave episode.
"We're not talking about somebody who is an adulterer. We're not just talking about someone with infidelities. We're talking about sexual harassment. That's sexual battery when you throw someone against a wall."
Of course, this story hasn't cropped up anywhere, undoubtedly buried by that wretched liberal media.
It seems that Ah-nold has exemplified such upstanding moral behavior that he could put Jerry Falwell to shame. Of course, that's not surprising since Falwell did admit in a 1983 issue of Hustler that "his first time" came while drunk and with his own mother. All Ah-nold did was participate in a "gang bang."
Unfortunately, that damn liberal media doesn't seem keen to jump on this like they should. Check that. Today's edition of Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman's excellent radio program, probed the more haunting complications of Schwarzenegger's misogynist, chauvinistic past.
There are some perfectly fair and legitimate comparisons to be made between Arnold's sexual indiscretions and those of ex-Prez Bill Clinton. I'm not on a crusade to defend Clinton or any other Democrat. Personally, I think Clinton did a lot to lower the quality of life for the country, whether his draconian "Welfare to Work" program that helped put lots of poor folks on the street, the passage of NAFTA to enable thousands of jobs to migrate south of the border, or the signing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that immediately removed effective caps on radio station ownership and paved the way for ClearChannel to dominate the airwaves and help prompt the decay of modern music. But I judge Clinton on his record, and the terrible things he did, like pushing the Democratic Party to act more Republican. Never will I count myself in the camp of so many other Democrats like my own mother, who seem captivated by his charisma and will exalt him to the end.
That said, I frequently find myself in this awkward position of defending folks like Clinton (or California Gov. Gray Davis) because the attacks they face lack all merit whatsoever. I certainly don't approve of Clinton having or not having sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky, but I've never heard any evidence it wasn't consensual, if not inappropriate. So I don't find it criminal behavior, and it easily flunked the "high crimes and misdemeanors" test that's supposed to be used for impeachment, but got conveniently ignored by Clinton's political opponents.
But what about Ah-nold? Marriage and family life don't appear to have halted his pattern of promiscuity, but more importantly, his is a long, ongoing history of sexual misconduct. There's the "gang bang" he described in 1977, along with several episodes of groping women. Most appalling though, occurred on a film set where a woman rebuffed Schwarzenegger, who then threw her against a bathroom wall. As Karen Pomer, the rape survivor interviewed on Democracy Now! this morning, recounted, this is a rather grave episode.
"We're not talking about somebody who is an adulterer. We're not just talking about someone with infidelities. We're talking about sexual harassment. That's sexual battery when you throw someone against a wall."
Of course, this story hasn't cropped up anywhere, undoubtedly buried by that wretched liberal media.
posted by Alexander Dubcek | 19:44
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