Archive for April, 2013

So Right And So Wrong

Posted in Society on April 29th, 2013

On Tuesday, April 23, 2013 University of Arizona (UA) student Dean Saxton aka Brother Dean Samuel royally pissed off a lot of fellow students when he counter-protested their well-publicized Take Back The Night event, carrying a placard that read, “You Deserve Rape.”

Saxton / Samuel - You Deserve Rape
If You’re Asking For It, You Deserve To Get It

Essentially, the UA junior who is studying civics and religious studies believes that if women dress and act “immodestly” they’re asking to be sexually assaulted.

Saxton, a junior studying classics and religious studies, said his sermon was meant to convey that “if you dress like a whore, act like a whore, you’re probably going to get raped.”

“I think that girls that dress and act like it,” Saxton said, “they should realize that they do have partial responsibility, because I believe that they’re pretty much asking for it.”

UA’s Dean of Students Office received stacks of written complaints, emails and multiple phone calls demanding official reprisals against Saxton. Somewhat shockingly, the refused to do anything against the controversial student preacher under the grounds of his being protected speech.

Why Saxton Is Right

Despite the outrage of many, Saxton is right in his belief that women who dress in an overly sexualized manner, those who overtly and publicly act in a commensurate manner, and/or those who just fail to display certain basic forms of common sense are setting themselves up to be sexually assaulted. As such, they must and do share some of the responsibility for such an attack happening to them in particular.

Like it or not, when women dress or act in such a manner as to be labeled “slutty” or “whorish” those women have lowered their value in the eyes of many and dehumanized themselves in the eyes of some. They’ve also turned themselves into “soft targets” which will likely cause sexual predators to choose them as victims over other women.

If women are truly to be considered the equals of men then they must be held to the same standards of personal responsibility as their male counterparts. Since the many variations of, “He was asking for it,” don’t bring outrage when some guy does something untoward and/or stupid and gets beat down, the same standard must be applied by society to women as well.

Why Saxton Is Wrong

Firstly and most importantly, no woman deserves to be raped because of how she dresses or because she acts in a manner that would by normative values indicate that she was promiscuous. Like it or not, statements to the effect that these women deserve to be sexually assaulted de facto excuse the rapist(s) in question.

What is worse it that this idea was long ago co-opted by defense attorneys and used in defense of their rapist clients.  These lawyers have not only enjoyed a certain amount of success by attacking the moral character of rape victims, they’ve fostered a court environment that makes women almost as afraid of reporting rape as being raped.

To put it bluntly, while a woman ethically and practically must bear some measure of responsibility for the negative consequences of her choices, such arguments have no place in a court of law.

The Obamacare Upside

Posted in Politics on April 28th, 2013

#ILikeObamaCare years and many victims laterThe overwhelming majority of Americans, and not a few Liberals as well, think of Obamacare as an unremitting and unalloyed failure – a chimaerical disaster unequaled in American history.  For Americans, however, this is not exactly true; it does have an upside. The Obamacare upside is that it might just be straw that breaks the camel’s back when it comes to the labor unions and their strangling of American industry.

Indeed, last week the 22,000-member-strong United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers (UURWAW) – an AFL-CIO cell – not only ended their support of the PPAC, they are now calling for its repeal.

These provisions jeopardize our multiemployer health plans, have the potential to cause a loss of work for our members, create an unfair bidding advantage for those contractors who do not provide health coverage to their workers and, in the worst case, may cause our members and their families to lose the benefits they currently enjoy as participants in multiemployer health plans

— Kinsey Robinson, UURWAW President

Essentially, the union found out what was in it, had their noses rubbed into the fact that Obama lied through his teeth about much of it, and now want Obamacare to be scrapped before they go out of business.

Frankly, if this is the case in general and Obama will “gut-shoot” the unions, Americans might want to keep Obamacare around long enough for them to “bleed out” before scrapping it.

Important Conversions

Posted in Humor, Technology on April 26th, 2013

Science and technology, especially engineering require precise and specific measurements for the important sake of accurately completing necessary mathematical calculations. These are esoteric and often insular disciplines however, and many of these measurements and their more important conversions are not well known outside of the circles of engineering.

  • The ratio of an igloo’s circumference to its diameter = eskimo pie
  • 2,000 lbs of Chinese soup = won ton
  • 1 millionth of a mouthwash  = 1 microscope
  • The time between slipping on a peel and hitting the pavement = 1 bananosecond
  • Weight an evangelist carries with God = 1 billigram
  • Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile / hour = knotfurlong
  • 365.25 days of drinking low-calorie beer = 1 lite year
  • 16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling
  • 1/2 of a large intestine = 1 semicolon
  • 1,000,000 aches = 1 megahurtz
  • Basic unit of laryngitis = 1 hoarsepower
  • Shortest distance between two jokes = a straight line
  • 2,000 mockingbirds = 2 killomockingbird
  • 1 kilogram of falling figs = 1 fig newton
  • 1,000cc of wet socks = 1 literhosen
  • 8 nickels = 2 paradigms

Enjoy and remember that, by any measure, humor converts to reduction in stress and the clearing of the mind.

Warning Signs

Posted in Humor, Politics on April 25th, 2013

Here in America we’re inundated by warning signs and cautionary labels, a clear indication that the powers that be don’t consider Americans to be responsible actors in own lives. This is a problem but an even bigger problem is that these same patronizing elite fail to post the more important warning signs.

Caution - Financial Hazard
Caution – Obama Is A Financial Hazard

Given the number of warning signs posted to make people aware of hazards so obvious as to be beyond all logical need of warning, you’d think that they would post signs warning of an equally clear and present danger to every American’s financial well-being. 😉

US Anthem Remix

Posted in Music on April 22nd, 2013

Madison Rising gives The Star Spangled Banner an update with their remixed version of America’s national anthem.
 

Madison Rising’s Star Spangled Banner

 
If you want to support Madison Rising or, if you just love their version of the Star Spangled Banner, you can purchase it from either iTunes or Amazon for a mere $0.99.