April, 2006
The Rape Cycle
It starts early. Here’s what middle-school kids think about rape, according to a survey of 11-14 year-olds: 51% of boys and 41% of girls believe that a man has a right to force a woman to kiss him if he has “spent a lot of money on her.” 32% of boys and 32% of girls [...]
Now that’s one kickass hat
My first love was the history of the British monarchy. As children my brother and I would regale each other joyously with the outrageous names of long-dead kings: Aethelred. Cnut. By age six I knew the names of all of Henry VIII’s wives and how they’d met their ends. For my first term paper (in [...]
Myths and Facts About Rape
Over in the Duke thread RedDragon posted the following comment: …I have been told by close friends and family members of their being raped. None of them reported, none of them told their parents. Did all my separate friends who were raped lie to me? Why did they lie? What did they gain by lying [...]
Happy Sex Post
Gender equality leads to better sex. Well, of course. A culture that regards women as less than human is obviously not a culture that’s going to place much value on female satisfaction. And male satisfaction is obviously connected to the degree of female enjoyment (inflatable doll enthusiasts notwithstanding). Alas, the study also reveals that even [...]
At what point does it become child abuse?
It’s a serious question. The father and daughter in this photograph are attending the Batshit Crazy Fundamentalist Christian Purity Ball, where little girls as young as 4 promise their daddies they will remain virgins until marriage. Here’s what the little girl recites to her father: “I pledge to remain sexually pure…until the day I give [...]
Two Duke Players Charged with Rape
Two Duke lacrosse players have been arrested and charged with rape. One of them, Reade Seligmann, is a graduate of the same prep school that produced Ryan McFadyen — he of the infamous batshit psycho email. The other one, Collin Finnerty, was arrested for assaulting a man in D.C. last year. Here’s what the Washington [...]
Fine, I’ll just pull my hair right out
Where do they get these reporters? The traditional Easter article from yesterday’s Washington Post revisits the historicity of Jesus’s resurrection in view of contemporary scholarship — except that the reporter gets everything wrong. In the past two decades, there has been a heightened scrutiny of Scripture, with basic Christian tenets such as the Resurrection challenged [...]
Easter with Dr. Socks
Easter Bunny: Easter Dogs: The bunny cake this year was a devil’s food (!) chocolate cake with cream cheese coconut frosting. All that’s left of Mr. Bunny now is the face. The chocolate eggs in the picture were really little cakes baked in my special egg pan from Germany. The grass was green-tinted coconut and [...]
Pope washes feet on Holy Thursday, will be crucified on Friday
ROME (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI humbly washed the feet of 12 men in a Holy Thursday ceremony, re-enacting Jesus’s washing of his apostles’ feet during the last supper. Dressed in hand-embroidered white silk vestments, Benedict poured water from a solid gold vase over each of the men’s feet in what he explained was an [...]
Repeat after me: Iran is not a nuclear threat
Please read this post from Juan Cole: Iran Can Now Make Glowing Mickey Mouse Watches. Please memorize these points and share them with your friends — even print them up on T-shirts (the points, not your friends): 1. Iran is ten years away from being able to make a bomb. 2. Their nuclear program is [...]
