What the fuckitty fuck?
This week, Rep Todd Akin of Missouri (who is running for Senate against Claire McCaskill, and in a sad statement on the people of Missouri, is actually ahead in the polls) has made a complete ass of himself.
Being a cosponsor along with VP Candidate Paul Ryan of HR3 (referenced above) that tried to redefine rape wasn't enough. Now he continues his fight to redefine rape as "legitimate" vs not legitimate. Because if you're legitimately raped, all your baby-making parts shut down so as to avoid pregnancy. Thank goodness. Because if there's no pregnancy, then no harm, no foul. Phew!
Except that the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology (that horrid, academic journal written by smart people who went to college and all) did a study on this, and found that
The national rape-related pregnancy rate is 5.0% per rape among victims of reproductive age (aged 12 to 45); among adult women an estimated 32,101 pregnancies result from rape each year...
A total 32.4% of these victims did not discover they were pregnant until they had already entered the second trimester
Now I know we can't trust these book-lernid dockters and all, but still, even if they were just making it all up, it's something to think about.
Not only that, but Akin believes that criminalizing marital rape only gives the woman ammunition to use against her husband in the event of a divorce.
First, YES. RAPING YOUR WIFE SHOULD BE USED AGAINST A HUSBAND IN A DIVORCE. Oh, and to THROW HIS ASS IN JAIL.
Second? Why all the need to compartmentalize and categorize rape?
RAPE IS RAPE.
Looks like we are back to the whole rape is a sexual act thing. No, it is not. Rape is an act of violence. An abuse of power. Carried out in the most humiliating, most painful way possible for the victim.
The end.
There is no qualification that needs to be attached to it. If you qualify it, you do just what Akin has done. You legitimize it.
Of course, in typical 2012 GOP fashion, he tried to get a do-over, claiming he "misspoke". That's Republican for "Crap, I got caught, dammit."
You don't make statements like Akin did without a deeply held belief built over years that you are right. That men should have the right to rape their wives. That some rapes are actually ok. That women can't get pregnant if they're really forced into having sex.
Which brings me back to Akin's fundamental misunderstanding of rape. It is not an act of sex.
Rape is an act of violence, perpetrated by one with more power over another.
I DARE the mainstream media to give this story a voice and to claim that Akin is wrong. This is a story that directly affects the future of the Senate. They should be giving this airtime, and not just stating that Akin said "oops, didn't really mean that."
In the same week, Akin has put out all this garbage, he also decided it was time to starve poor kids and repeal the Voter's Rights Act. Maybe he's on to something. If we starve all the poor folks to death, there's no need for a Voting Rights Act. Because then all those black and brown and un-moneyed and lazy and old people (hey, they're gonna die soon anyway right?) couldn't vote against his party.
George Carlin once said: "Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders."
Looks like we're there already, and if they all have their way with our education system, we'll have selfish, ignorant leaders for decades to come.
Yay America!
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