Addiction in Society

Addiction--the thematic malady for our society--entails every type of psychological and societal problem.

Stanton Peele, Ph.D., J.D., has been researching and treating addiction since he wrote Love and Addiction (1975). He also wrote 7 Tools to Beat Addiction. See full bio

July 11, 2009, Sex

Comments on "Politics and Sex VI: Let's Add up the Cheaters in the Lewinsky Affair"

Politics and Sex VI: Let's Add up the Cheaters in the Lewinsky Affair

By Stanton Peele on July 11, 2009 in Addiction in Society

You remember, conservative Republicans were howling for Bill Clinton to resign for cheating on his wife with intern Monica Lewinsky, and they then impeached him? Okay, so he tried to cover it up, too. But we've now discovered that every single Republican involved in his impeachment hearings has cheated on his spouse and is covering up too! I know - let's make cheating illeagal and immoral - homosexuality and drug use too! (Don't forget to nominate me for the Nobel prizes for both peace and medicine!) Read More

Another Dopey Rant

Submitted by SteveM on July 11, 2009 - 7:07am.

What a simplistic, mindless screed.

Re: "eliminate illicit sex, homosexuality, drug use, and intoxication for all time!

Change "eliminate" to "sanction" and you get Amsterdam. Is that your idea of Utopia? Yawn...

Remember the age-old adage:

Submitted by Romeo Vitelli on July 11, 2009 - 8:34am.

Remember the age-old adage: "It's only cheating when you're caught".

I have to agree

Submitted by Waleed on July 11, 2009 - 10:02am.

with the first comment. People these days are always trying to find a way to attack religion and then they point to people like Mahmoud who OBVIOUSLY represents his religion perfectly. I wish Stantoon Peele could have brought up that in Somalia because they are such strict Muslims; sex before marriage is not rampant and thus Somalia has one of the lowest AIDS percentages in Africa. The point is, people will follow through with their morality when they want because they are people. Ideologies and religions should not be at blame. People should.

Interesting point

Submitted by Anonymous on July 22, 2009 - 10:41am.

Yes, the Clinton-Lewinsky affair was all about sex. Sexual indiscretion should not be a criterion for denying someone political office or removing him once he is there. That incident was the last in a series of scandals that had involved men such Bob Packwood and Clarence Thomas. The source of this nonsense is the non-crime of "sexual harassment" that was manufactured by judicial fiat in the Williams v. Saxbe case in 1976. In order to end such charades, let us purge the phrase "sexual harassment" from our legal vocabulary.

If we did that, those right-wing male chauvinist Baptist bigots wouldn't have a leg to stand on when attacking paragons of liberal virtue such as Bill Clinton, because, whatever the law might say he obviously did nothing seriously wrong. Indeed, the only people who put such emphasis on sexual morality are the aforementioned religious right knuckledraggers. Isn't that right? Catherine McKinnon?