
Remembrance of weirdnesses past ...
It's a common phenomenon - Reactionary right-wing politico or preacher builds their career bloviating on 'family values' and the evils of gays and the 'historical fact' that the USA is a Christian Nation, etc., then gets caught with his pants down with a hooker or male escort or teenage babysitter or Boy Scout ... or whatever. It's gone on forever - Them who scream the loudest seem to be the biggest hypocrites. (Fundamentalist Islam may be the most extreme example from our Western viewpoint, where necking with someone's sister can easily get you imprisoned or killed, but screwing donkeys and 10-year-old boys is considered to be absolutely normal, healthy, 100%-hetero fun.)
Anyway - It is amusing to remember that our current political situation is the
direct result of another example of this recurring theme.
When Barack Obama was first running for the Senate in Illinois, he was expected to lose to Jack Ryan, a well-financed, lantern-jawed GOP blowhard who trumpeted his devotion to 'family values' daily from the rooftops. But, Ryan ended up dropping out of that Illinois Senate race late, leaving the GOP scrambling for a candidate, after his divorce file was unsealed with his ex's testimony that he took her to sex clubs and asked her to go with strangers while he watched.
I fully understand - intellectually - that the sicko-ness of this behavior is not affected by the identity or attractiveness of Mr. Ryan's spouse. That is, Mr. Ryan's actions
should not in any way be judged by whether he was married to a beauty, or to a Bulgarian hausfrau who resembled a fullback but with a thicker moustache and only one eyebrow.
But, I admit it, and maybe it is just a(nother) indication of my own shallowness, but at a gut level it just
feels somehow like Mr. Ryan's behavior is even more egregious, when I learn that
this was his wife (aka 7 of 9 from ST:V) - I mean, call me provincial if you must, but I am confident that if this were my bride, "Let's go watch you have sex with strangers" would never even
occur to me.
Anyway, I'm glad Mr. Ryan was not so inhibited, as it is thanks to his indiscretion (not to add insanity, IMO) that we have Barack Obama now present on the national stage at all. Thanks a million, Mr. Ryan!

