More on Masturgate

By Heraclitus

I know that the all-the-Foley-all-the-time thang is getting old, but damn it if the Republican flaks aren't the ones who won't let it go. After all, why try to sweep the matter under the rug when you can smear the vics? Jane at Firedoglake sees it for what it is:

Rush Limbaugh re-victimized Mark Foley's teenage victim today by using his name publicly, as did Matt Drudge. (Both Roger Simon and InstaCracker made sure the identity was widely disseminated by linking to the no-name wingnut blogger to whom the original dirty work was tasked.) Because it's not enough that their leaders are beating off online during national security votes, or that the GOP spent years covering the whole thing up — no, no they must do their part to harass, bully and intimidate anyone who threatens their authoritarian cult, even the young victims of sexual predators. Especially if there might be other kids thinking of stepping forward with similar stories (as three more now have). It's the manly thing to do, after all.

On an unrelated note--latish, sleep-deprived album review: Sonic Youth's Dirty. Much of the album is unlistenable, and rather laughably so. But the last five songs alone are worth the price of the album, and "Theresa's Sound-world" and "Sugar Kane" are also first-rate. "Sugar Kane" and "Chapel Hill" are, indeed, superb songs that every listener of rock and roll should hear before dying. So, in short, it's an uneven album, but uneven because every song is either amazing and will stand up to an infinity of listenings, or abysmal crap.