Tag: Rape

Forced Birth Improves The Economy? Armed “young, hot little girls on campus” Will Stop Rape?

Filed in National by on March 18, 2015 15 Comments
Forced Birth Improves The Economy? Armed “young, hot little girls on campus” Will Stop Rape?

There’s just so much of this nonsense. As a woman, who’s also raising a teen daughter, it’s overwhelming and frightening. It’s also disheartening when issues that directly impact over 50% of the country are dismissed as single-issue votes. Women do not view abortion or contraception as a “pet” issue. These issues directly affect our economy. Having a child is one of the biggest economic decisions for both men and women. If only we treated these issues with the same freak out we display when it came to a gas tax and tax cuts – and, make no mistake, abortion and contraception are a way bigger deal than things like the gas tax and tax cuts. Mainly because cutting/raising taxes won’t make a damn bit of difference to a woman’s (who’s forced to give birth) economy.

And yeah, I’m going to keep writing about women’s issues, mainly because it’s really all the GOP talks about. They link controlling women to every flippin’ bill they pen. It’s almost impossible to discuss anything the GOP puts forth without discussing women – and religion and gay people. All Republican roads lead to controlling sex.

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Why Is Consent So Difficult To Understand?

Filed in National by on March 26, 2013 128 Comments

con·sent

/kənˈsent/
Noun
Permission for something to happen or agreement to do something.
Verb
Give permission for something to happen: “he consented to a search by a detective”.

Sometimes you come across an article that won’t let you move onto other things.  Here’s mine:

MARCH 22–A New York City man flying cross country with his 12-year-old son allegedly put his hand underneath the skirt of a sleeping female passenger and massaged her thigh, an act he later defended by telling the victim, “It’s not like I molested you. It’s not like I stuck my my finger in your pussy or grabbed your tits.” […]

As detailed in a probable cause statement, a few hours into the flight the woman took medication to help her fall asleep. About 40 minutes before arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the woman “woke up… to Zorse massaging her thigh underneath her skirt.” […]

When questioned by investigators, Zorse claimed that he believed the female passenger was “flirting with him, telling him he was attractive and he was a good father,” adding that he felt he had “bonded” with her. While copping to placing his hand on the woman’s leg for “approximately 30 seconds,” Zorse denied placing his hand up her skirt. He did acknowledge, however, that he “could have said something like ‘It’s not like I stuck my finger up your pussy or grabbed your tits,’” according to the probable cause statement.

Here’s what really bothers me about this ugly, illegal incident.  Zorse confesses. Easily. He doesn’t see anything wrong in what he did to a sleeping (NON- CONSENTING) woman because he believed “the female passenger was “flirting with him, telling him he was attractive and he was a good father,” adding that he felt he had “bonded” with her.”  It’s all about his feelings.  Those are his only social clues.

Zorse determines what constitutes flirting.  He also determines what constitutes bonding.  He even decides that the conversation before the woman fell asleep progressed to the point where he could touch her. He had already granted himself permission.

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BREAKING: Steubenville Rape Trial Verdict – Guilty

Filed in National by on March 17, 2013 58 Comments

Via CBS:

The accuser in the rape trial of two Ohio high school football players testified Saturday as the trial neared an end that she recalled drinking at a party last summer but could not remember what had happened when she awoke the next day naked in a strange house.

Testimony in the four-day nonjury trial against Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond ended after the judge heard from the 16-old West Virginia girl and others in the juvenile court case. Judge Thomas Lipps said he would announce a decision Sunday.

If found delinquent — the juvenile court equivalent of guilty — the two defendants could be held in juvenile jail until they turn 21, when they would be released.

(If you click on the link above, be sure to read the comments. Steubenville isn’t our only problem.)

For those of you not familiar with this case, I wrote about it here.

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Violence Against Women Act VS Women Need Guns Because… Violence

Filed in National by on January 31, 2013 61 Comments

I’m having a hard time reconciling what Republicans are saying.  I know, shocking. Yesterday, during the Gun Violence Hearing, you would have thought that Republicans would have overwhelming supported the Violence Against Women Act, given that women were trotted out as one of the main defenses of AR-15s and 30 round magazines. Of course, they […]

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Seriously? New Mexico Bill: Rape Victims Who Get An Abortion Will Be Charged With Tampering With The Evidence

Filed in National by on January 24, 2013 46 Comments

Yeah, it won’t pass, but… OMG! Someone actually introduced this bill:

A Republican lawmaker in New Mexico introduced a bill on Wednesday that would legally require victims of rape to carry their pregnancies to term in order to use the fetus as evidence for a sexual assault trial.

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What’s Going On In Steubenville?

Filed in National by on January 7, 2013 24 Comments

I have been following the Steubenville rape story for a while, but I haven’t written about it… until now.  This post won’t be about who should face criminal charges – I don’t know enough to make that call.  But what I do know is vile.

If you aren’t familiar with the story, the NYT has written an extensive piece.

Some in the crowd, which would grow to close to 50 people, arrived with beer. Those who did not were met by cases of it and a makeshift bar of vodka, rum and whiskey, all for the taking, no identification needed. In a matter of no time, many of the partygoers — many of them were high school athletes — were imbibing from red plastic cups inside the home of a volunteer football coach at Steubenville High at what would be the first of several parties that night.

“Huge party!!! Banger!!!!” Trent Mays, a sophomore quarterback on Steubenville’s team, posted on Twitter, referring to one of the bashes that evening.

By sunrise, though, some people in and around Steubenville had gotten word that the night of fun on Aug. 11 might have taken a grim turn, and that members of the Steubenville High football team might have been involved. Twitter posts, videos and photographs circulated by some who attended the nightlong set of parties suggested that an unconscious girl had been sexually assaulted over several hours while others watched. She even might have been urinated on.

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Republican Senate Candidate: Pregnancy From Rape Is God’s Will

Filed in National by on October 23, 2012 18 Comments

FYI:  Todd “legitimate rape” Akin is not an outlier.  Rep. Roger “some girls rape easy” Rivard is not an outlier.  Sharron “make lemonade out of rape” Angle is not an outlier.  Paul “I agree with Akin” Ryan is not an outlier.

As time goes on, I’m rapidly reaching the conclusion that Republicans view the act of rape as god’s will.  It’s almost as if, and I hesitate to type this, but… it’s almost as if they are casting god as the rapist.  It’s like these guys view god as a Zeus-like figure.  It’s like they are saying that despite the woman’s wishes god has decided she should be pregnant so he sent a rapist to fulfill his will.

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Some Girls Are Just So Rapey

Filed in National by on October 11, 2012 28 Comments
Some Girls Are Just So Rapey

Todd Akin isn’t a bug in the Republican Party, he’s a feature.

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How Not To Talk About Rape

Filed in National by on February 17, 2011 19 Comments

We haven’t really talked about the case of Lara Logan, the CBS foreign correspondent who was separated from her crew in Egypt and then sexually assaulted. It’s been depressing watching it play out, not only because of the depressing nature of the crime, but also because people are cruel. Echidne of the Snakes has monitored […]

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Why Are We Talking About Tiger Woods But Not Ben Roethlisberger?

Filed in National by on April 19, 2010 23 Comments

After looking at the release of the police report, I don’t understand why Ben Roethlisberger was not charged with rape. In one of two handwritten police statements, the woman recalled that she told Roethlisberger, “No, this is not OK, and he then had sex with me. He said it was OK. He then left without […]

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Evening Read

Filed in National by on March 14, 2010 7 Comments
Evening Read

Education historian Diane Ravitch on educational reform, The Big Idea — it’s bad educational policy. NY Times columnist Frank Rich on why revisionists like Liz Cheney and Karl Rove must be refuted, The New Rove-Cheney Assault on Reality. Jaclyn Friedman, writer and activist, writes To combat rape on campus, schools should stop keeping it quiet.

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“Religious” Leaflet Handed To Woman And Girls Just Asking For It

Filed in National by on March 1, 2010 17 Comments

This sort of stuff makes my blood boil. BRISTOL, Va. – Nineteen-year-old Keshia Canter handed three burgers, fries and milkshakes to a car-load of Tuesday afternoon customers at the Hi-Lo Burger’s drive-though window. A lady sitting in the backseat leaned forward, between the two men in front, and handed her a leaflet: “Women & Girls” […]

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Learning The Wrong Lesson

Filed in National by on November 16, 2009 2 Comments

Al Franken’s election was one of the pleasant surprises of the 2008 election. Franken is turning out to be an excellent senator. He’s already made an impact with his amendment that prohibits the Defense Department from contracts with companies that force rape and assault victims into arbitration – an instance when a lawmaker sees an […]

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