Another Republican Excuses Rape; What's Wrong with These People?

Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss blames "hormones"
and "nature" for rape and sexual assault in the U.S. military

Will Republican Scott Walker meet with a rape victim, and explain why the government should force her to carry her rapist's fetus? He should, because the GOP has gone crazy.

"Gee whiz, the hormone level created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types [rape and sexual assault] of things to occur. So we’ve got to be very careful how we address it on our side," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga) at a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Monday, addressing the epidemic of rape and sexual assault in all the military branches of the United States.

What is it about the Republican and Tea Party and their aversion to stopping rape? Consider the Party of Scott Walker and Paul Ryan and its misogyny:

• Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" craziness (in U.S Senate campaign, 2012)
• Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga) defended Akin's comments
• Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Il) stated that abortion is no longer needed, hence should be outlawed
• Rep. Steve King (R-Ia) supported Akin's comments
• Richard Mourdock (R-In) says rape is God's will

But as William Saletan wrote last October, these people represent the mainstream of the Republican and Tea Parties.

As do Scott Walker, Paul Ryan, and other anti-choice Republicans who—like the majority in Republican world—call for instituting the government forcing rape victims to bear their rapists' children.

In fact, this is the GOP's official position on rape and abortion.

And no Republican can be elected GOP nominee for the presidency with a pro-choice position.

President Obama won the women's vote by 12 percent in 2012.

Here's what Chambliss said:  "The young folks who are coming into each of your services are anywhere from 17 to 22 or 23. Gee whiz, the hormone level created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types of things to occur. So we've got to be very careful how we address it on our side."

Men don't rape women, Nature does, in the Republican world view.

I guess we should not be surprised when the likes of Richard Mourdock call rapists impregnating their victims "something that God intended."

Mourdock, and his supporters like Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan for example, sounds like he walked out of an episode of Criminal Minds in which a serial rapist confronted by a FBI profiler tells the agent his rape victims should be grateful, just before the enraged FBI agent shoots him to death. (Criminal Minds; Season 5, "The Aftermath")

In the political realm, reasonable people have profound differences of opinion, but when politicians would force rape victims to carry rapists' children, there is something wrong with these people. It's called Misogyny.

On one positive note, Amanda Terkel reports, "Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has called military sexual assaults a 'scourge' and promised to make addressing them a top priority. A recent Pentagon report estimated that as many as 26,000 service members were assaulted in 2012."

From a political perspective, if the Republican Party ever wishes to narrow the gender gap, it must abandon the lunacy that women ever bear any responsibility for rape and sexual assault, and it must refrain from placing the blame on God's will or nature's plan.

Defending a women's right choose is also a good place to start for the White, Over-60 Male Party (aka GOP) that only gets elected outside of Appalachia and the south by appealing to misogyny and racism, gerrymandering political districts, and obstructing the right to vote through GOP-crafted voter IDs.

From the Rachel Maddow Show:

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Rape Is Not Funny

In the American entertainment world, prison rape is an amusing topic and there is some wonderful prison-rape fun for the whole family.

Hey, there’s Chris Rock on cable making a hilarious prison-rape joke in his HBO Special monologue. Good one, Chris!

Or Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality(Donald Petrie, 2000) laughing it up at the end that the villainess, Candice Bergen, is going find her self getting raped in prison. Ha, ha, ha.

Rape is so funny! And you can find great prison-rape lines easily in American comedies, amazing that it's all over the cinema but we do need to lighten up sometimes and find relief from war.

Actually, as any decent person knows, rape is tragic. From David Kaiser, Lovisa Stannow in the New York Review of Books:

Prisoner rape is one of this country’s most widespread human rights problems, and arguably its most neglected. Frustratingly, heartbreakingly—but also hopefully—if only we had the political will, we could almost completely eliminate it.

In the second part of this essay we will discuss the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission’s report, which analyzes the dynamics and consequences of prisoner rape, shows how sexual abuse can be and in many cases already is being prevented in detention facilities across the country, and proposes standards for its prevention, detection, and response. Those standards are now with US Attorney General Eric Holder, who by law has until June 23, 2010, to review them before issuing them formally, following which they will become nationally binding. We will discuss the attorney general’s troubling review process, the opposition of some corrections officials to the commission’s standards, and why some important corrections leaders are so resistant to change.

In the meantime, the next time you hear a prison-rape joke, make a note: Not so funny.

The Catholic Church's Moral Bankruptcy

Archbishop Jerome Listecki is off to a deplorable start as he continues the cover-up of child sex abusers by the Catholic Church.

He condemns a bill that would eradicate the statute of limitations on civil actions by victims of child sex abusers, like priests, under employ of the Catholic Church.

Incredibly, Listecki says the Catholic Church is the victim here [suffering the "injustice of targeting the Catholic church"] and that the bill would bankrupt Catholic dioceses throughout the state.

How about moral bankruptcy? How about selling off some property to pay victims for what the Church has done?

Listecki makes it clear that absolutely nothing has changed since the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal first broke and that the Catholic Church is devoid of compassion for its many victims.

Hey Listecki, how about letting the light shine in?

Vatican Issues Instruction on Bioethics

Well, the Vatican has issued instruction on bioethics.

From ELISABETTA POVOLEDO and LAURIE GOODSTEIN in the Times:

The Vatican issued the most authoritative and sweeping document on bioethical issues in 20 years on Friday, taking into account recent developments in biomedical technology and reinforcing the church’s opposition to in vitro fertilization, human cloning, genetic testing on embryos before implantation and embryonic stem cell research.

I realize the Vatican's feeling towards sodomy, but in the face of what science can offer the world, the Vatican's profound ignorance and foolishness offends me.

So here are other instructions: Stick your suggestions up your collective ass.

Your child molester-protecting outfit is out of its league when talk of ethics arises. How about the Vatican issues a disclaimer on the bottom of every official document for the next 50 years apologising for its collective sin?