Larry Craig served as a senator for 16 years. During that time he voted against any law that proposed equal rights for homosexuals. According to Wikipedia, he was an outspoken critic of Bill Clinton and his affair with Monica Lewinsky. A real “family values” kind of guy, as long as your idea of family values conformed to his.

Then he was arrested for soliciting gay sex in a public toilet. Then he pled guilty. Then he claimed that he wasn’t gay and that he thought that by pleading guilty the whole thing would go away. Yesterday he resigned.

Aside from the hypocrisy of the above – that this gay basher might actually be gay, that he has been lying every time his lips move, that a married man who condemned other married men for having affairs has himself been caught soliciting sex, an elected representative in the public eye for 20 years who thought that a guilty plea wouldn’t be noticed by the press or his peers – let’s step back and look at the act itself. What did he plead guilty to?

He went into a toilet. He made some motions with his hands. He tapped his foot. He tapped the side of another guy’s foot with his. That really seems to be the sum total of what he did.

He did not use lewd language. He did not expose his private parts. He did not touch someone else (aside from the shoe tap). He did not solicit a minor.

Now, go to the same state, go to some bar on a Saturday night, and I’ll bet there are thousands of guys who get drunk, go up to some girl, touch her somewhere with their hands, and say something along the lines of “hey baby let’s fuck.” Had Larry Craig gone up to some woman in a bar and said, “hey baby, I’m a Senator with a 12 inch cock, let’s get it on,” he might have been seen as sleazy but would not have been hauled before a judge.

So some are probably rejoicing that this bad guy has been brought down and publicly shamed. But there’s another issue here – the primitive and illogical demonization of homosexuality that needs to be addressed.

Not that Hong Kong is any shining light in terms of equal rights ….

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The internet, especially the blogosphere, seems to foster a mob mentality. There are examples of this everywhere.

A recent case in point is the 17 year old girl competing in a beauty pageant who completely flubbed an answer to a question. The Youtube video of this has been linked everywhere. I assume anyone who is interested has seen it by now.

In her defense, she claims she couldn’t hear the question. This may be true. And, she’s 17 years old and on national television, of course she’s going to be nervous.

Now she’s in demand, appearing on talk shows. Bikini photos all over the internet. Capitalizing on her 15 minutes of fame.

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Take a look at the above photo. A homeless person? A serial killer?

No, it’s Rick Rubin, producer extraordinaire and president of Columbia Records.

“Columbia is stuck in the dark ages. I have great confidence that we will have the best record company in the industry, but the reality is, in today’s world, we might have the best dinosaur. Until a new model is agreed upon and rolling, we can be the best at the existing paradigm, but until the paradigm shifts, it’s going to be a declining business. This model is done.”

Read an extremely long but also quite interesting story about him here.