Matters of the day....

I had been working on an exceptionally long post about the State of the Union address, the coverage of that speech, and the stupid things Rep. Michelle Bachmann/Sarah Palin said about it.

But instead I started reading a couple of different articles about rape.

I highly recommend reading both, if you don't feel a sense of revulsion and/or anger, you are dead inside.

First we have a piece about "prisoner rape". The sheer brutality of the prison state that has been erected in the US should be frightening to all citizens. While those who brake the laws of the land, on human being should be subjected to this:

The biggest risk factor found in the study was prior abuse. Some 65 percent of kids who had been sexually assaulted at another corrections facility were also assaulted at their current one. In prison culture, even in juvenile detention, after an inmate is raped for the first time he is considered “turned out,” and fair game for further abuse.²² Eighty-one percent of juveniles sexually abused by other inmates were victimized more than once, and 32 percent more than ten times. Forty-two percent were assaulted by more than one person. Of those victimized by staff, 88 percent had been abused repeatedly, 27 percent more than ten times, and 33 percent by more than one facility employee. Those who responded to the survey had been in their facilities for an average of 6.3 months.

Restitution is one thing, being raped repeatedly is something entirely different. That this continues to happen in the US should be a national shame. But because it involves prisoners it is something that is joked about or otherwise ignored. A variation on the "they deserve it" mentality. This thinking is wrong on so many levels. 95% of the incarcerated population will eventually be released. The physical and emotional scares of rape only make these individuals more likely to engage in disruptive behavior, not less.

The other article I read, would be another shot across the bow of long standing abortion debate in this country.

There should be a vigorous debate on the topic of abortion, that is not something I disagree on. It is a complicated and contentious issue. But when you have to stoop to changing the definition
of rape in order to accomplish your task, you may want to pause for just a second:

With this legislation, which was introduced last week by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Republicans propose that the rape exemption be limited to "forcible rape." This would rule out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including instances of statutory rape, many of which are non-forcible. For example: If a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by a 24-year-old adult, she would no longer qualify to have Medicaid pay for an abortion.

Ahh....so only physical violence counts. This is wrong on so many levels and shows an corruption of thought that I find appalling. Rep Smith should be ashamed for bringing this bill to the floor. But I guess for the party that preaches about "excessive governmental intervention", the on goings of its citizens' uterus is worthy of exacting controls. Even after severe physical and emotional abuse telling someone what they should do with their body is not off limits.

All in all these sorts of things just fill me with a sense of dread. The ever coarsening of rhetoric and the constant diminishment of your opposition just leads to an ever more callous society.

-Cheers