The hypocritical little buggers

Bill Tieleman’s 24 Hours Newspaper Column - News, Views & Attitude
Tuesday October 10, 2006

The hypocritical little buggers

By BILL TIELEMAN

Hypocrites kick with their hind feet while licking with their tongues.
- Russian proverb

At a time when we have learned that some U.S. social conservative politicians really are hypocritical little buggers, it seems appropriate to ask whether far too many elected officials are taking stupid pills.

Florida Republican Representative Mark Foley resigned Sept. 29 after it was disclosed that he had sent sexually explicit emails to male teenage legislative pages.

Congressman Foley is, of course, a classic hypocritical politician - this guy actually served as chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children and helped get a law passed that allows groups like the Boy Scouts to have access to FBI fingerprint background checks to help protect children.

Now it's likely that Foley's fingerprints will be in that database!

So you'd think that if senior Republican leaders had found out about Foley's follies he'd be bounced out of the party faster than Michael Jackson - but you'd be wrong. The New York Post reports that despite being aware of Foley's e-mails to a 16-year-old boy, Thomas Reynolds, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, talked him into running again because he held a safe seat for the party. Brilliant.

Back here in Canada, nothing quite so slimy but pretty darned dumb.

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper is making clear his government's priorities - cutting millions in funding for adult literacy and women's programs while considering introducing legislation that would protect the free speech of anti-gay religious leaders and businesses that refuse to serve gays and lesbians!

Let me get this straight - first of all the Conservatives will cut $18 million that helps adults learn how to read? I can't think of too many uses for my tax dollar that are not only more important but that will improve both lives and our economy.

And the Tories will axe funds that help women deal with issues like spousal abuse and poverty?
I must be confused - I thought we have Canadian soldiers risking their lives in combat so that people in Afghanistan can go to school to learn to read and to end the systemic discrimination that hurts women?

Silly me.

Secondly, did I miss it or are there thousands of gays and lesbians demanding to be married in Catholic or evangelical churches? Just guessing but I don't think so.

Are there DVD and video rental stores facing court action because they refuse to stock the last season of The L-Word? Not likely.

If anything, our federal government should be strengthening existing human-rights legislation that forbids a business to discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion or sexual orientation. But that's too much to ask of hypocrites.

Listen to Bill Tieleman every Monday at 10 a.m. on CKNW AM 980's Bill Good Show or www.cknw.com E-mail Tieleman at: weststar@telus.net