Strbellysneetch’s Weblog

Rape: the unlawful compelling of a women through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse: any act of sexual intercourse that is forced upon a person.

rape. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved June 24, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rape

In Kansas a victim was ordered during trial to avoid the use of terms such as “rape”, “victim”, “assailant”, and even “sexual assault”. Apparently this is a possible  new trend in these types of trials:

“It’s a topic that’s coming up more and more,” said Joshua Marquis, an Oregon prosecutor and a vice president of the National District Attorneys Association. “You’re moving away from what a criminal trial is really about.”

Precisely, and as per the actual victim in the trial…

“It shouldn’t be up to a judge to tell me whether or not I was raped,” Bowen said. “I should be able to tell the jury in my own words what happened to me.”

Exactly. It’s one thing to be concerned with “innocent until proven guilty”, but where do we draw the line with “given exception until proven guilty?”

Maybe Kansas is more backward than I previously judged.

If we all had to experience this, we might be less inclined to judge those that decide against having a child.

As a forewarning, it’s somewhat graphic, and it’s upsetting…at least, it was upsetting to me to have read.

Yes, there is birth control, and there are ways to avoid a pregnancy. Clearly. Some of those that are pro-life, it seems, would like to imagine life as an ideal. For instance, in an ideal world no woman would become pregnant without the desire to; birth control wouldn’t fail, women wouldn’t get raped, and all women and men would have had the same fully-disclosing and comprehensive education about sex that others had in order to prevent pregnancy. Unfortunately we don’t live in an ideal world. The article above is clearly demonstrative of that.

Make sure you’re ready to take the phrase “I don’t want to” out of your vernacular according to Phyllis Schlafly.

According to the “home-making”-psuedo-politician, women having happily participated in nuptial vows can not, by the very nature of the contract, be sexually assaulted by their husbands.

By getting married, the woman has consented to sex, and I don’t think you can call it rape.

Really? I suppose we should go one step further and theorize that when you get married it’s not up to you anymore whether you have kids or not as well.

The logic behind this astounds me. Not to mention the inner hackles that get upset when reminded that there really are people out there fighting for ideas like this.

I especially enjoy her ‘educated opinion’ on women with both children and a career…”While Schlafly said she has no problem with women raising a family and pursuing a professional career, she said they can’t be done at the same time.”

I wonder what her family thinks about all the idealist traveling she does for her ’career’? 
 

Thirteen wonderful quotes

1. If you and I are having a single thought of violence or hatred against anyone in the world at this moment, we are contributing to the wounding of the world. Deepak Chopra
2. It’s very different because the Indians live as if they are their souls and Americans live as if they are their egos. Ram Dass
3. Were it not a fact of experience that supreme values reside in the soul, psychology would not interest me in the least, for the soul would then be nothing but a miserable vapor. Carl Jung
4. Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit. Khalil Gibran
5. There is often a big disparity between the way in which we perceive things and the way things really are. 14th Dalai Lama
6. One of the most difficult things is not to change society - but to change yourself. Nelson Mandela
7. The strong man is not the good wrestler; the strong man is only the one who controls himself when he is angry. Muhammad
8. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.
   Maya Angelou
9. And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more. Erica Jong
10. Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, “She doesn’t have what it takes.” They will say, “Women don’t have what it takes.” Clare Boothe Luce
11. I think it’s about time we voted for senators with breasts. After all, we’ve been voting for boobs long enough. Clarie Sargent
12. I wish someone would have told me that, just because I’m a girl, I don’t have to get married. Marlo Thomas
13. I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naïve or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman. Anais Nin

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Kelly, Penelope Anne

But I will do so here. Prior to today I had never attended a caucus. I label it as embarrasing because I feel that anyone that actually cares should be at them. I like to think of myself as someone who cares…and have for a while, so it’s silly that I had yet to attend one. I had planned to be at this one for sure.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Obama was overwhelmingly favored in my immediate district (well, and apparently he’s generally favored in the entire state). And no, I’m not just voting for her because she’s a woman. Obama is a powerful speaker…he gets to people, and people respond to that. But between the two of them, she has more experience, she already knows from inside out how D.C. works.

What I actually enjoyed the most about it, is that I sat there with my neighbors that were all within a few blocks of me, talking about all this. I’m part of a community, and today I got to interact with the community members that actually care. Not to mention, I met the neighbors that live in the house right in front of me. One of them was chosen by us for a delegate to go on. And I’m pretty sure that I’m going to go along for the ride with them just to see what happens. (I offered to be a delegate but we could only choose one-we were the minority in our district-and she was way more experienced so I deferred to her).

I had a really good time today.