World News Korner

Courtesy of Reality Check:

President Obama recently announced an initiative to curb rape on campuses across the United States. It is a well-known problem that rapes and sexual assaults that happen on campus are often handled in-house, without police interference. Often, there is little to no punishment for the rapists, and their victims are made to feel shame and guilt for reporting at all.

Fundamentalist and evangelical Christians often hold up these kinds of stories as examples of how “the world” is corrupt. Christian colleges bank on the idea that they are safer because they are a faith-based environment—the sexual sins of rape supposedly don’t happen on their campuses.

A number of recent revelations have proven this assertion wrong. From Bob Jones University to Pensacola to Cedarville to Patrick Henry to Hyles-Anderson College, Christian colleges are plagued by accusations at once familiar and strange: College counselors asking rape victims leading questions about their potential guilt, a lack of reporting to authorities, and failure to punish the rapist are all problems known to those who study incidences of rape at colleges and universities.

But in the Christian environment, the fundamentalist theology surrounding sexual activity and purity creates another layer of shame and guilt. A theology that positions the colleges as better and safer than their secular counterparts also creates an environment in which a person coming forward about rape risks being seen as “impure” and “broken.”

For example, (Samantha) Field recently reported that in 2003 another Pensacola Christian College student was attacked by her then-boyfriend, bound and gagged, and left in a construction site on campus after being raped. The student sought the help of a school counselor, but instead of receiving needed help and victim services, she was expelled for being a “fornicator.” She left campus while her injuries from the rape—a bruised face and a broken arm—were still healing. (The school’s president said in a recent statement that the school “has upheld the law, will continue to uphold the law, reports criminal acts when we are made knowledgeable of them, and fully cooperates with any investigation.” In response, Field wrote that she had heard directly from “a PCC staffer who was expressly forbidden—by three people in the administration—from reporting a child sexual assault to the police and [was] informed [by those three individuals] … that they would not make a report.” She says this “was confirmed by other staffers.” She acknowledges that it was not illegal, in 2011, for the school not to report the assault.)

The student’s expulsion and treatment by the college is directly tied to the perceived sin of having sex outside of marriage. It was apparently considered worse that she was now “impure” than that she had been raped. To her knowledge, her rapist was never confronted or punished, and went on to graduate.

Rape is nothing new on college campuses and in fact that was what first inspired me to teach a women's self defense class while attending college in Hawaii back in the early 80's.

However in this day and age one would think that rape would be handled with much more delicacy, and that women (or men) who had been victimized could expect their school to seek to bring their assailant to justice and take great pains to make sure there would be no more sexual assaults.

Of course for that to happen they would first have to understand the nature of rape, and recognize that it was not a sexual act, but rather a criminal act based on power, not desire.

And of course for Christian schools, they need to stop thinking of their female students as the sinful descendants of Eve, and think of them instead as actual human beings deserving of at least as much respect and protection as their male counterparts.

Or perhaps more.

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Yesterday on Facebook Palin endorsed Pete Ricketts and had her ghostwriter write up a post just chock full of cookie cutter conservative jargon and anti-liberal vitriol.

Here is a taste:

While Pete’s opponents in this race have made a career for themselves as politicians, bureaucrats, or lobbyists, Pete spent his career in the private sector helping grow his family’s successful business from the bottom up. I believe in teaching kids to never fear success and in fact to look to those who’ve ethically earned their success and emulate their work ethic!

Yeah I have no idea what all of that blabber meant, but it is interesting to note that Ricketts actually TRIED to be one of those career politicians that Palin vilified up above back in 2006, when he ran against Democrat Ben Nelson for his Senate seat.

He failed in that endeavor, after spending over eleven million dollars of his own money, and so he is back and newly reborn as a Tea Party conservative.

While giving Ricketts his political reach around Palin also decided to go on the attack against the evil liberals.

The alternative is woeful dependency on an inevitable sinking ship I call “Liberal Lunacy.”

Yes of course, WE are the lunatics.

The rest of the post is overflowing with the usual hackneyed Palin-aprops. Such as "common sense conservative," "fearless patriot," and of course, "servant's heart."

Palin also warns about the "recycled old discredited attacks" which I believe refers to this one about his position on amnesty leveled at him by Charlie Janssen, who is running for the same nomination.

Palin goes onto say this:

Pete has the business acumen, the moral integrity, and the conservative common sense to lead Nebraska into a prosperous future.

The problem is that she is describing the wrong Ricketts family member. In fact it is his father who seems to have the business acumen, as evidenced by the fact that it he who owns TDAmeritrade, the company for whom his son Pete serves as the CEO.

In fact it appears that the father, Joe Ricketts, is the REAL political heavyweight.

It was the senior Ricketts who started the super PAC "Taxpayers Against Earmarks," now known as "Ending Spending," and who spent 10 million dollars of his own money attempting to prove that President Obama was a leftist radical who was heavily influenced by the Reverend Wright.

This from May 2012, in the New York Times:

“The world is about to see Jeremiah Wright and understand his influence on Barack Obama for the first time in a big, attention-arresting way,” says the proposal, which was overseen by Fred Davis and commissioned by Joe Ricketts, the founder of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade. Mr. Ricketts is increasingly putting his fortune to work in conservative politics.

Oh yeah, this explains why Palin is so enthusiastic about the son.

Palin at Friday morning Ricketts fundraiser.

These are her kind of people. Completely out of their fucking minds!

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Courtesy of All Voices:

She’s a first-term senator from Massachusetts who would have to beat a woman who served as first lady, US senator and secretary of state if she were to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. Nonetheless, among those who know enough about her to form an opinion, Elizabeth Warren is currently the hottest name in US politics.

The Quinnipiac University National Thermometer, updated Thursday, measures voter attitudes toward national political leaders. Warren, who rated a score of 48.6, replaced embattled New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2016, as the hottest US politician.

In ratings released Jan. 9, before the infamous “Bridgegate” scandal damaged Christie’s reputation, he topped the hot ratings with a score of 55.5.

But Christie’s possible role in punishing a political opponent by causing traffic jams at the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, N.J., along with probes into allegations that Christie misappropriated federal Hurricane Sandy relief funds, have put the brakes on Christie’s once-rising star.

“One of the worst winters in memory leaves New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie shivering as he drops from hot to chilly in the minds of America's voters," Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a news release accompanying the poll results.

Hillary Clinton, considered the Democratic front-runner at this early stage of the 2016 presidential sweepstakes, came in second with a score of 47.8.

"Secretary Hillary Clinton holds her own as some of the Republicans who topped the National Thermometer in January also cool in the frozen winds of winter,” Malloy said.

I know many are salivating at the idea of Elizabeth Warren running against Hillary and taking the nomination. But since she has already ruled that out people will just have to settle for the second most popular politician holding onto the White House for the Democrats.

Of course then there is the tantalizing question of what would happen if the top of the ticket and the running mate were both women?

Oooh, now wouldn't THAT turn the status quo on its head?

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At risk of losing my designation as "Palin reality show watcher-in-chief" let me admit that I did NOT watch Palin last night on the debut of her latest soon to be cancelled return to television.

As it turns out, though my cable package is fairly comprehensive, it does NOT feature the Sportsman Channel. I know, bummer right?

Since I have no intention of purchasing new channels just so I can watch something that I should only have to watch at gun point, I will continue to get all of my information about this series second hand.

You know, until it crashes and burns or Palin remembers that she does not want to have an actual job and quits.

Anyhow I looked around on the internets and found two reviews thus far.

One from a reporter at the Guardian, who kind of admits that he did not find it eye gougingly bad.

I found this part interesting:

But as interventions in the culture wars go, Amazing America with Sarah Palin is more a water pistol than one of the high-powered rifles being sold to its watchers. The amazing Americans profiled during this hour of TV don't address the merits of Obamacare or the government shutdown. Instead, they discuss their recipes, show off their homes and drink beer straight out of pitchers at the local tavern.

And Palin isn't even a big presence in the first episode of the very show that bears her name. She introduces segments. She adds sporadic commentary while wearing a GIRLS WITH GUNS t-shirt in front of an American flag backdrop.

Essentially the heavy lifting is done by Palin's various co-stars who go out on location and conduct the actual interviews, while she stays warm and dry inside the studio standing in front of the green screen.


The next review came from the Alaska Dispatch, from a reporter who is an old hand at watching Palin family reality train wrecks shows.

Here is how she summed it up:

Here’s what I learned watching the first two episodes of “Amazing America with Sarah Palin”:

• We get The Sportsman Channel at my house. I literally had no idea.
• Sarah Palin talks baby talk when she talks to dogs. (Amazing.)
• If the credits and titles are any indication, The Sportsman Channel thinks Sarah Palin is still the governor of something.
• Being a “modern-day cowboy” has nothing to do with wrangling cattle and much to do with liking guns.
• Technically, under the “Amazing America” definition, I qualify as a modern-day cowboy.
• Horses do not have airbags.

With 10 more episodes left to go, here’s the bottom line: If you are remotely interested in guns, horses, trucks and/or dogs (no, seriously, those things are specifically mentioned in the truly awful theme song); if you like sassy girl-power messages; if you can get on board with things like stock car racing and pro wrestling; and most importantly, if you can reach deep inside of you and forget Sarah Palin is anything but an engaging television presenter with a strange accent; you can love “Amazing America.”

Now this reporter watched two entire episodes which included Palin's sole interview with musher Dee Jonrowe, during which she learned that DeeDee named several of her dogs after members of Palin's family, and that Palin has no balance, which is made painfully clear when she tumbles from the moving dog sled. (Palin also makes DeeDee apparently the only meal she knows how to make, moose chili.)

Sarah and DeeDee before Palin lost her grip.

The consensus seems to be that the show has found the right mix of tiny, carefully scripted, servings of Palin with a lot of harmless hillbilly shenanigans to keep things light and non-political.

If they keep that up the show could be Palin's most successful.

However the question is how long can Palin last before she feels the need to attack the liberals, spout off something hateful about the President, or say something mind numbingly stupid?

My guess is not long.

But we shall see.

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Courtesy of the LA Times:

Marie Barnard was delighted when, after decades of silence on the topic, Mississippi passed a law requiring school districts to teach sex education. But the lesson involving the Peppermint Pattie wasn't what she had in mind for her sons.

The curricula adopted by the school district in Oxford called on students to unwrap a piece of chocolate, pass it around class and observe how dirty it became.

"They're using the Peppermint Pattie to show that a girl is no longer clean or valuable after she's had sex — that she's been used," said Barnard, who works in public health. "That shouldn't be the lesson we send kids about sex."

She and other parents lobbied the district to teach about contraception, not just abstinence. After all, as she and other parents noted, 76% of Mississippi teenagers report having sex before the end of high school.

Mississippi has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country, with 50 births per 1,000 females aged 15 to 19 in 2011 — compared with 31 per 1,000 nationally. A third of all babies born in Mississippi are to teenage mothers. Access to contraceptives is low, especially in some rural areas where drug stores have been known to refuse to sell condoms to minors.

Once again it is so helpful of religion to forever leave the burden of chastity with the woman, while giving men a free pass.

A girl who engages in consensual sex before marriage, is a dirty piece of coconut confection, that is now all disgusting and unfit for love. While a man who sticks his willie in every piece of tail that passes his way, is considered experienced and celebrated by his peers.

A boy who has sex becomes a man. A girl who does the same becomes a slut.

In this day and age the hypocrisy is almost impossible to believe, and yet in some communities it as unchanged as it was back in the days when young men bartered with fathers for the virginity of their daughters, as one would barter for a for any other piece of property or livestock.

However there are a valiant few who desperately try to bring the ignorant into the 21st Century with the rest of us.

Sanford Johnson, deputy outreach coordinator for Mississippi First, an education policy group, encountered these values while addressing the school board in Hollandale, a dusty, rural community with a dilapidated downtown of shuttered stores and peeling paint.

Johnson thought he had made a good case for contraception education when he shared disturbing statistics: The local birthrate was 73 out of 1,000 females between 15 and 19; the national rate is 29.4 per 1,000.

He encountered the usual gasps of shock when he revealed that the rate of chlamydia, at 1,346.8 per 100,000 people, was nearly double the rest of Mississippi, and approaching triple the U.S. rate.

But later Johnson got a call from someone who had attended the board meeting — telling him that people who have sex before marriage don't go to heaven. The board voted for abstinence-only.

"People who have sex before marriage don't go to heaven."

And that my friends is when you stand up and walk away.

Because despite the rash of teen pregnancies and the chlamydia epidemic there is no hope of convincing these idiots of anything.

For them all they need to know about love, marriage, and sex, is contained in a misogynistic text, written thousands of years ago, by a group of men who clearly feared and despised women.

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Courtesy of Esquire:

Deer Trail, Colorado residents shot down their infamous drone hunting ordinance on Tuesday, showing that at least 73% of the small town’s residents have common sense. The matter fell to the voters after the town’s board came to a 3-3 draw on enacting the legislation, which had strong support from the mayor.

Well, ex-mayor. Not too surprisingly, he didn’t make it past Tuesday, either.

It had been a good run for the ordinance’s author Phil Steele, who had been preemptively selling the licenses since the fall, with up to 900 of the now-decorative paper permits being issued, though, Steele admitted to the LA Times, only three of them went to residents.

What? Now Deer Trail, Colorado residents will not have a reason to discharge firearms indiscriminately into the sky?

It's like they have lost their raison d'etre.

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Courtesy of Naples News:

Lizbeth Benacquisto won’t be at the state Capitol on Thursday evening tending to state business.

Nor will she be at a Sanibel Island candidate meet-and-greet. She told sponsors a couple of weeks ago that her schedule wouldn’t allow it.

Now, however, there is room on the Fort Myers Republican’s schedule to sling barbecue with Sarah Palin at a $500-per-person fundraiser at a private residence in Naples for Benacquisto’s congressional election campaign.

Her decisions have Benacquisto’s Republican opponents asking why she can come back to the district for a fundraiser, but not for candidate forums in the past month.

“It’s unfair to the voters,” said David James, spokesman for Curt Clawson, a Bonita Springs Republican running for Congress. “We now have a situation where she’s saying one thing and doing another. Voters see through it.”

Ah yes, snubbing constituents and playing hookey from your job just so you can rub bony elbows with a one time politician and failed reality star. Good choice.

Somehow I don't think this is going to improve her chances of coming out in front of the pack of four Republicans vying for this nomination.

Perhaps back in 2010 Sarah Palin was a hot property when it came to endorsements, but that was before she started showing up to the opening of bowling alleys and co-hosting "America's Next Top Moron."

Palin at Lizabeth Benacquisto fundraiser

More from the Naples News:

Calling her a "mama grizzly" who will protect Southwest Florida, Republican political power Sarah Palin backed congressional candidate Lizbeth Benacquisto on Thursday, breezing through Southwest Florida for a private fundraiser.

"It’s time to get a good character in there that we can respect and that we know will do well for the future of our country," Palin said, alluding to disgraced former congressman Trey Radel. "She’s a mama grizzly. She’s one of those who will stand up to protect the next generation."

Same crusty old moosepoop, different patch of woods.

Palin at Benacquisto fundraiser apparently mistaking Florida for the Big Island.

Local news station WINK managed to interview Palin on her way into the $500 a plate BBQ fundraiser.

Personally I am not sure it is such a good idea to be mixing medications right before appearing in public, but what do I know?

Tune into @seanhannity tonight to see @SarahPalinUSA interview from tonight's BBQ. #FL19 #LizbethForCongress pic.twitter.com/Pc0FiyaVsh
— Lizbeth Benacquisto (@lizbethkb) April 4, 2014

Palin also made an appearance on Hannity that she filmed while at the barbecue.

In it Hannity showed Palin's pathetic Tonight Show appearance and let her get a few last shots at Letterman, who just announced that he would retire in 2015.

Palin also mentioned that her endorsements might just get some of her chosen candidates "on the map" suggesting that she might recognize that many of them are unlikely to win.

All in all this was a whirlwind day for Palin, appearing at the Karen Handel fundraiser in Georgia for Karen Handel, before flying on her broom over to Florida to personally place her curse on the Benacquisto campaign.

Headed to serve BBQ to 100+ of our great supporters! #FL19 #lizbethForCongress pic.twitter.com/i9OPJypAk7
— Lizbeth Benacquisto (@lizbethkb) April 3, 2014

And they say that nobody ever sees the devil anymore.

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The above was the commercial that Honey Maid put out last month.

As you can imagine it attracted quite a lot of vitriol from those on the Right Wing.

Including this idiotic response from One Million Moms:

Nabisco should be ashamed of themselves for their latest Honey Maid and Teddy Graham cracker commercial where they attempt to normalize sin. Right away it shows two men with a baby, followed by other families, and ends with different families pictured including the one with two dads. This commercial not only promotes homosexuality, but then calls the scene in the advertisement wholesome. The ad states, "Everyday wholesome snacks for every wholesome family. This is wholesome."

One Million Moms stands up for Biblical truth which is very clear in Romans 1:26-27 about this particular type of sexual perversion.

Honey Maid is also using the hashtag #thisiswholesome. There is concern about the way this ad is pushing the LGBT agenda, but an even greater concern is the way that they are changing the meaning of the word "wholesome." This is truly sad.

If this is what Honey Maid thinks is wholesome, then my family will no longer purchase Honey Maid or Nabisco products.

(By the way One Million Moms has nowhere near that many members.)

Apparently these homophobes thought that if they threatened not to eat graham crackers anymore they would bring Honey maid to its knees.

So how did the company respond?

See for yourself.

You know what I haven't had in a long time?

Graham crackers and peanut butter.

I think that would just about hit the spot today.

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And then if the disagreements are deemed worthwhile I am sure that God will be happy to forward them to Neil deGrasse Tyson.

If it doesn't happen fast enough then I suggest the fundamentalist community simply pray harder.

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