Central Gossip Agency [Johnnie Walker's father is homosexual]

SF Examiner ^ | 12/19/01 | PJ Corkery

[RightThinkinDood]

NOT THAT IT MATTERS a whit to us here in the cool, gray city of love what Frank Lindh, daddy of the Taliban warrior from Marin, does, did or dreams of doing with other consenting adults, but shouldn't he come clean with us about all the facts in the odd odyssey of his son?

Frank Lindh has been quoted time and again as saying it was his son John's reading of the "Autobiography of Malcolm X" when John was 16 in 1997 that turned his son's head and heart towards Islam. But something else then going on in the family's life may be have been just as pertinent.

When Frank Lindh left his family in 1997, it was to move in with a male companion. Yep. ... The man with whom Lindh lived has since been described as "a family friend," but other family friends say the men lived as a gay couple.

It would take a specialist in family issues to map the constellations of feelings and problems that would describe John Walker's path toward Islam in 1997, but sources close to the family say the father's turn of life from married man to modern gay man startled and flustered the 16-year-old.

Given the pummeling that the Walkers and marvy Marin County have taken from the national press over their wayward son, you can't blame the old man for wanting to suppress reporting on his sexuality. ...

[Slapper]

You don't think that having your DAD leave your mom and run off with another man would screw you up if you were an adolescent boy?

I agree that it would, however I don`t know if it would be that much worse (if at all) than Daddy leaving Mommy for another woman (or the other way around).

[tubebender]

Nice find RTD. And now we know his defense strategy.GAG!

[longleaf]

"Gay" people who have children have obviously had "moments of weakness" when they gave in to their "dark heterosexual desires." < /sarcasm>

To put it another way, there are no "gays" with children; only bisexuals.

Taliban John has no excuses in my book. My late father was a raging alcoholic when I was an adolescent and it messed with my mind pretty bad, but I didn't turn into a radical Islamist over it.

[Gimlet]

Whatever they may or may not have hoped for in the afterlife the Taliban - and Islamists in general - are miltantly anti-homosexual. They advocate and execute the most rigid and extreme forms of punishments. Death is the penaly. No tolerance for them. Sounds like Walker, perhaps, was attracted to that level of homophobia. It will be interesting to see his relationship with his father develop over the next weks and months. I predict he will change his mind.

[TX Bluebonnet]

If Johnny was 16 when he went off to YEMEN to study, and he was also 16 when Dad left Mom for another MAN, then at the very least you can conclude that the parents were so involved in their own &^%(*# problems, they were doing little to no parenting.

[Gimlet]

I predict a renewal of the father-son bond in the next few weeks as walker recovers from his childish rage and extreme homophobic tantrum.

[The KG9 Kid]

"... I agree that it would, however I don`t know if it would be that much worse (if at all) than Daddy leaving Mommy for another woman (or the other way around)."

Well, you're half-right.

Yes, Slapper. Yes it is.

It's worse.

[THEUPMAN]

And Powell and Cheney have Lesbian daughters. So what.

think they would wrestle in jello ?

[Revolting cat!]

Walker , perhaps, sought certainty and absolute truth. He would have found that with the Taliban. He could also have found it closer to home, but chose not to.

An excellent insight. To take it a step further, why would he not find it closer to home? Because certainty and absolute truth closer to home, i.e, where most of us sit right now, are completely and totally out of favour with the prevailing culture. He didn't know it and he couldn't articulate it the way we are articulating it here (he'd articulate using the acceptable prejudices which he had absorbed,) but he certainly felt it, if your analysis is correct. Off he goes seeking certainty and absolute truth, away from the mandatory cultural relativism of his native land.

This as a defense would work for me. And you can be sure it would never be used! Too scary!

[FITZ]

Maybe the Taliban reminded him a lot of his father. Both have real problems with women obviously.

[LarryLied]

Sounds like Walker, perhaps, was attracted to that (the Taliban's) level of homophobia

Oh geezzz....

When did FR move from Fresno to Berkeley?

[VOA]

He could also have found it closer to home, but chose not to.

Maybe not in Marin County...or anywhere in The Gay, er, The Bay Area.

I'm sure there are people in The Bay Area with a functional moral compass,
but a LOT of things have been screwed up there for a LONG TIME.

My Dad had to spend some time at Ft. Ord near Monterey in the mid 1950's while in the
Army. My mom got to live nearby...and they met some very nice people at a local
church they are still friends with.
But...my folks once told me that being in California did open their eyes a bit.
When they met the stylishly attired transvestite son of one of the church members.
But of course, being it was the 1950's, he didn't attend church...yet!!!

[Ditto]

And Powell and Cheney have Lesbian daughters. So what.

So what was the Talaban punishment for butt pirates homosexuality? (Not that there's anything wrong with that).

Something about stones or dropping walls on people or something like that. Maybe little precious John boy was pissed… just maybe. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

[PLMerite]

This is the man the media described as a strict Catholic?

Well, I guess that's one way of avoiding the "rhythm method" of birth control...

[JSteff]

you can't blame the old man for wanting to suppress reporting on his sexuality. ...

Why would he need to? Isn't he proud of his gayity? Isn't it a normal accepted "life choice"?

[Shermy]

Maybe he just didn't like Paul Lind.

?

You mean...

[PJ-Comix]

Yeah, Paul Linde. The middle square on the Hollywood Squares.

[Shermy]

LOL! Took me some moments to "get" your dry wit reference.

[PJ-Comix]

Did Paul Linde also have a son who joined the Taliban?