Politics: Mark Foley. Where to begin? By which I mean whether with Foley or with Republican pols: The troubled Mr. Foley will do the time honored entering rehab bit, after attributing his behavior to alcoholism, then to having been molested by a priest when he was 13, or 15. An alcoholic once told me that when you have a drunken asshole who goes to rehab what you end up with is a sober asshole.

His fellow pols are the time honored shocked and dismayed, though that he was hitting on pages has been an open secret for at least a year. Further, Foley is gay. The media has referred to him as a pedophile, but aren't these House pages young adults, teenagers? What is the cutoff age? If Foley had been hitting on teenage female pages would he be called a pedophile? I doubt it.

I'm not going to bash President Bush, the media are doing a fine job. I do think it's unfair to say that he's acting like a spoiled child. He isn't acting.


MURDER: Foley's dissembling has nothing on the man in Amish country who killed the schoolgirls, as distinguished from the man in Colorado who killed the schoolgirls. First his reason was unknown, then it was the culmination of a 20-year grudge. Ultimately, it was claimed that he had molested young female family members some 20 years ago and was now having the urge to molest again. Adding to his stress, his young daughter had died some time ago. Naturally, he went to the schoolhouse, sent the boys and adult females out of the bldg. and shot the girls he'd kept, most of whom, if not all, I believe, died. My question: Is it possible he held the girls responsible for tempting him? Was this an act of an anguished father, denied his own in-house molestee when his daughter died? Or was this just the action of a confused man unable to deal with his feelings, and God forbid he see a therapist. (Let's hope it isn't the latter, since there are so many men unable to deal with their feelings who are also therapy averse.)