George W. Bush and his administration are being plagued – not only by their foreign policy disasters in Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea and other hot spots, but also by the sexual indiscretions of prominent Republicans that have come to light recently. This one guy was accused of sending sexually explicit e-mails to teenage interns in the hallowed halls of American government in Washington DC. Then just last week, this gung-ho preacher, a big noise of the American religious right, who came across as a homophobe that vociferously denounced same-sex marriages, was found to be buying methamphetamine from the male masseur he had been having sex with over the past two years. He has since admitted his involvement – on both counts – and has resigned from the various positions he held.
 
I first saw the preacher on CNN soon after the news broke. He was vigorously denying the “allegations” of sexual relations with the masseur, but did admit to buying the meth from him. However, he told the reporter that although he was “tempted”, he decided not to use the drug! I found it difficult to believe the guy – it was just that his whole demeanour and expression and the way he fielded the questions was, to me at any rate, a poor attempt at a believable denial.

Ah bin seein dis cat too, maaan, an yo be dead on da button wit yo assessment. Dat cat look guilty as hell. Hey, an yo know what maan? Mos of dese cats wit dere gung-ho ‘anti-dis’ an ‘anti-dat’ attitudes, dese homophobes and dose paedophile- hounders, I tink dey be so ‘anti’ cos dey be repressed an be fearin dat dey give in to dere real feelins, so dey take dis big-ass extreme public stance an shout bout it. Jus yo look at som of dose ’red’ bozos here dat are against anyting progressive – even be against da English language. An da loudest one of all of dem, he be makin hay while dat sun be shinin wit his spensive greasy hair-dos, manicures an sheet! Yo be wit me on dis, maan?  

I can see where Java is coming from. It’s happened before. Extreme attitudes usually have underlying causes that result accordingly. A well known case in point is that of Roy Cohn, a lawyer for the insidious Joseph McCarthy during his infamous witch-hunt for communists that was brought to the screen by George Clooney in “Good Night and Good Luck”. Cohn was another of those secret homosexuals who attempted to cover up his sexual preference by portraying a vociferous homophobe. Disbarred from practicing law in New York State on grounds of unethical and unprofessional conduct, he contacted AIDs and died in 1986. Then there was the infamous J. Edgar Hoover, who ruled the FBI as its director from 1924 until his death in 1972,  and had all the ‘dirt’ on virtually everyone that mattered, including movie stars, industrialists, politicians – even on JFK and Martin Luther King, who he tried to blackmail (politically) by threatening to inform his wife of King’s sexual forays. Hoover, who was also a friend of Cohn, turned out to be secret cross-dresser and reportedly would parade in front of his assistant and boy-friend Clyde Tolson, in frilly lace lingerie among other outfits! 

Dats xactly what I bin sayin maaan – gotta watch out for dem folk dat be gung-ho, loud mout extremists! 

Well, I guess the mid-term election results in the US said it all pretty clearly to Bush and his boys (Condi included). But the real message here is, as Java so intuitively pointed out, watch out for those gung-ho extremists, they have a reason for their extremism and it’s sure to be something that they do not want to reveal about themselves. Think about it!