Sheriff Clarence Dupnik Calls Out Hateful Rhetoric

What an emotional day following the horrific and tragic shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona, and the death or injury of 18 others.  Pima Sheriff Clarence Dupnik gives voice to what has concerned me for years -- vitriolic, hateful rhetoric that permeates far too much of our public discourse.

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann delivered an excellent commentary on the subject as well that included taking responsibility for a comment he directed at Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her 2008 bid for the White House.  Violence has no place in our political process, and must be soundly denounced by individuals on all sides of the political debate.

This includes calling out violence comments on our own blogs and social network sites.  Until everyone takes responsibility the rhetoric won't end. 

I urge everyone to repeat after me: "The power to END violence BEGINS with ME."

More Violence Against Women

If these men are so damned unhappy why don't they just kill themselves and be done with it!! Why do they feel the need to take others with them.

A woman was killed and two of her co-workers were injured when the woman's estranged husband opened fire Tuesday at a drug-testing laboratory in suburban Portland before turning the gun on himself, police said.

The woman who was killed was identified as Teresa Marie Beiser, 36, of Gladstone. Her husband, Robert James Beiser, 39, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

Teresa Beiser worked at the Legacy MetroLab in an office park across from a strip mall in Tualatin (pronounced too-ALL-a-tin), about 13 miles south of Portland.

Let's Talk About Ending Violence Against Women and Girls

She isn't a noted Harvard Professor, or a personal friend of the president, but what happened to a little girl in Phoenix is tragic and deserves our attention, too.

Four boys in Phoenix, ranging in age from 9 to 14, raped an eight year old girl. They lured her behind a shed with the promise of chewing gum, and then sexually assaulted her.

To make matters worse, the girl is now under the care of Child Protective Services in Arizona because her family has shunned her. They claim "she brought shame on the family."

Police Sgt. Andy Hill says the father "told the case worker and an officer in the girl's presence that he didn't want her back." The 14-year-old boy has been charged as an adult with two counts of sexual assault and kidnapping.

The Maricopa County Attorney's Office says the other boys ages 9, 10, and 13 were charged as juveniles with sexual assault. The 10- and 13-year-old boys also were charged with kidnapping.

Authorities cited the family's Liberian background, noting that in some parts of Africa, girls who are raped often are shunned by their families.

My sister had a better idea: "Let's shame the father for his treatment of his daughter."

In a Facebook post Margot Friedman asks: "When will we protect girls from sexual abuse? When will this issue be important enough to be raised at a presidential press conference? Where is the outrage? The national conversation?"

I'd like answers to those questions, too.

Violence: Connecting the Dots

Francie Billotti-Wood and her three children are dead. So is her husband, Christopher Wood. This is a tragedy that never should have happened.

Despondent over excessive debts, Christopher Wood shot and then nearly decapitated his family before turning a gun on himself.

The man who killed his wife and three young children and then himself in a tiny town in northwest Maryland last week was at least $460,000 in debt and owned a Florida house that was in foreclosure, according to property records and police.

In one of six notes he left scattered about the rented house in Middletown, Christopher Wood, 34, described his financial hardships and his struggle with depression and anxiety -- factors that investigators believe contributed to the killings. [...]

At a news conference, authorities released a raft of details about the killings, describing a scene more ghastly than what had been known since the bodies were discovered Saturday morning.

According to investigators, Francie Billotti-Wood, 33, and the couple's 5-year-old son, Chandler, were each shot twice in the head with a .25-caliber handgun. Chandler's younger brother, 4-year-old Gavin, was shot three times; daughter Fiona, 2, was shot once.

After they were shot, their throats were slashed almost to the point of decapitation, officials said. Wood killed himself with a shotgun. [...]

Several experts said slayings of entire families by fathers and husbands are often associated with economic hardship. Some men get to the point where it becomes impossible to tell family members that they're going to lose the house or that the kids can't go to college, said Richard J. Gelles, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice and an expert on family violence.

"If you have built your identity around that you're the breadwinner, you're the backbone, and that becomes unglued, it undermines your sense of self," Gelles said.

Regular readers know that when tragedies like this happen I often suggest the man simply kill himself and leave his family alone. If a man is so unhappy (for whatever reason) and he sees no way out, why does his family have to pay such a high price?

The particulars of this case point to the need for change in at least three areas:

1) We MUST have affordable and readily available mental health care in this country. People under this much stress need help.

2) We MUST change our culture to embrace feminism. Rigidly defined roles contributed to why Christopher Wood must have felt he could not admit to his family his "failure" to provide for them.

3) We MUST change the culture of greed that fueled our current economic meltdown. Greed on the part of CEO's, bankers, and Wall Street investors whose actions have this country on the brink of another great depression.

This may seem oversimplified, but we must start somewhere to end violence against women and children.

Gov. Palin has an Extremist View on Abortion

Make no mistake about it, Gov. Sarah Palin has an extremist view on abortion -- particularly on the issue of whether or not abortion should be available to women who become pregnant as a result of rape.

I have never been raped, never even come close to being raped, but some of my good friends have. And if that violence had resulted in an unwanted pregnancy, I would gladly volunteer to drive them to a clinic.

The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, the nation's largest anti-sexual assault organization, offers the following statistics:

RAPE:

1 out of every 6 American women have been the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime (14.8% completed rape; 2.8% attempted rape).

17.7 million American women have been victims of attempted or completed rape.

9 of every 10 rape victims were female in 2003.

While about 80% of all victims are white, minorities are somewhat more likely to be attacked.

Lifetime rate of rape /attempted rape for women by race:

• All women: 17.6%
• White women: 17.7%
• Black women: 18.8%
• Asian Pacific Islander women: 6.8%
• American Indian/Alaskan women: 34.1%
• Mixed race women: 24.4%

15% of sexual assault and rape victims are under age 12.

29% are age 12-17.

44% are under age 18.

80% are under age 30.

12-34 are the highest risk years.

Girls ages 16-19 are 4 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault.

Pregnancies Resulting from Rape

In 2004-2005, 64,080 women were raped. According to medical reports, the incidence of pregnancy for one-time unprotected sexual intercourse is 5%. By applying the pregnancy rate to 64,080 women, RAINN estimates that there were 3,204 pregnancies as a result of rape during that period.

This calculation does not account for the following factors which could lower the actual number of pregnancies:

• Rape, as defined by the NCVS, is forced sexual intercourse. Forced sexual intercourse means vaginal, oral, or anal penetration by offender(s). This category includes incidents where the penetration is from a foreign object such as a bottle. Certain types of rape under this definition cannot cause pregnancy.
  
  
• Some victims of rape may be utilizing birth control methods, such as the pill, which will prevent pregnancy.
  
  
• Some rapists may wear condoms in an effort to avoid DNA detection.
  
  
• Vicims of rape may not be able to become pregnant for medical or age-related reasons.

This calculation does not account for the following factors which could raise the actual number of pregnancies:

• Medical estimates of a 5% pregnancy rate are for one-time, unprotected sexual intercourse. Some victimizations may include multiple incidents of intercourse.
  
  
• Because of methodology, NCVS does not measure the victimization of Americans age 12 or younger. Rapes of these young people could results in pregnancies not accounted for in RAINN's estimates.

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NOW Conference: A Focus on Global Issues

Irshad Manji, director of the Moral Courage Project at New York University, was one of the featured speakers at this afternoon's plenary session. The Moral Courage Project's goal is to develop leaders who will speak truth to power in their own communities for the sake of a greater good. She is the best-selling author of The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith, which has been published in 30 countries, including Pakistan, India, Lebanon and Indonesia.

In Muslim states that have banned her book, Manji is reaching readers by posting free translations on her website. So far, they have been downloaded more than 500,000 times.

Manji is creator of the acclaimed PBS documentary Faith Without Fear, which chronicles her journey to reconcile Islam with human rights. The film won Gold at this year's New York Television Festival. Through digital technologies, it is now being viewed in the Muslim underground worldwide.

For her pioneering efforts, Manji receives death threats and distinctions: The New York Times called her "Osama Bin Laden's worst nightmare"; Oprah Winfrey gave Manji her first annual Chutzpah Award; and Ms. Magazine selected her as a "Feminist for the 21st Century."

One of the topics Manji talked about was honor killings, and how progressive non-Muslims contribute to this injustice in the name of showing "cultural sensitivity." They often "tolerate the intolerable." If you are unfamiliar with honor killings, it involves a woman or girl being killed to reclaim family honor.

The cause of the dishonor can range from a woman or girl appearing in public without a veil, to a the woman or girl being raped.

Manji offers three actions for what you can do to help end honor killings:

1. Support legislation introduced last year by Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas). Get more information here.

2. Join the International Campaign Against Honor Killings. They're doing terrific work.

3. Stay tuned to this blog. That's because an organization with which I'm a scholar -- the European Foundation for Democracy -- will soon be launching an effort to raise awareness about honor crimes. We also aim to change public policies, foreign and domestic, to promote human rights for all. I'll say more about that effort in the coming weeks.

I'm [in] Washington, DC to speak at the annual conference of the National Organization of Women. Right-wing media love to ask, "When it comes to denouncing the oppression of Muslim women, where are feminists?" Here we are.

"I Shot the Sheriff" Comes to Mind

This is not the first, nor I fear the last news report we hear about law a enforcement official sexually assaulting women in their custody. This latest incident occurred in Oklahoma.

Authorities have charged Sheriff Mike Burgess with "coercing and bribing female inmates so he could use them in a sex-slave operation run out of his jail."

[S]tate prosecutors filed 35 felony charges against him, including 14 counts of second-degree rape, seven counts of forcible oral sodomy and five counts of bribery by a public official. [...]

Among other things, Burgess is accused of having sex with a female drug court participant who was in his custody. The crimes are to have occurred between October 2005 and April 2007.

A federal lawsuit filed in October claims Burgess told one drug court participant he would have her sent to prison if she didn't comply with his sexual demands. [...]

Burgess also faces two counts each of sexual battery, rape by instrumentation and subornation of perjury, and one count each of engaging in a pattern of criminal offenses, indecent exposure and kidnapping.

He could be sentenced to 467 years in prison if convicted on all counts, special prosecutor James Boring said, though a lesser sentence would be more likely.

The topic of violence against women came up at dinner last night. My friend shared a story about a conversation she had with a group of men who were trying to convince her that violence against women, and particularly rape, is a result of how men have evolved. Now I must confess I'm not precisely sure how they made this case, and I am sure it's not because they are "anti-evolution" since I know some of the men and we are all activists who engage others in support for the theory of evolution.

My friend's response to them was something like (not sure this is a completely accurate quote): "Then maybe the answer is that every time a man is convicted of raping a woman his punishment is to have his penis cut off -- and then chopped up into a thousand little pieces in front of him. Maybe THAT would inspire men to evolve in a new direction."

It's an interesting thought.

People who know a lot more about this subject than I do have often told me that men who commit this type of violence rarely do it just once. For that reason they cringe when they hear the term "serial rapist" used to describe some men, because to them EVERY rapist is a serial rapist.

We have heard about the sexual violence taking place in our military, against our own female soldiers. There are countless stories of women being used as weapons of war, with the action usually involving rape and other forms of torture. We know that sexism is ingrained in our culture, and contributes to a sense of entitlement some men feel towards women. My question is when, as a nation, are we ever going to address this?

I can hear the comments now ... your post is titled "I Shot the Sheriff" ... you've talked about chopping off a man's penis ... doesn't this contribute to the whole issue of violence? Maybe it's the way some women have evolved.

Blog in Solidarity: Congo Rape Epidemic

I cannot improve on what Melissa McEwan has written at Shakesville, so I won't try. I do encourage you to visit her blog and read this important post. The war on women must be stopped, and you CAN help make a difference.

Inspired in large part by Lisa Jackson's film, The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo, which is airing this month on HBO, SheCodes at Black Women Vote (via Elle, Marcella, and Anxious Black Woman) exhorted other bloggers to participate in a blogswarm "to raise awareness by blogging about this issue on April 13th."

The prevalence of rape in the Congo has been described as the worst in the world:

The prevalence and intensity of sexual violence against women in eastern Congo are "almost unimaginable," the top U.N. humanitarian official said Saturday after visiting the country's most fragile region, where militia groups have preyed on the civilian population for years.

John Holmes, who coordinates U.N. emergency relief operations, said 4,500 cases of sexual violence have been reported in just one eastern province since January, though the actual number is surely much higher. Rape has become "almost a cultural phenomenon," he said.

"Violence and rape at the hands of these armed groups has become all too common," said Holmes, who spent four days in eastern Congo. "The intensity and frequency is worse than anywhere else in the world."

Hundreds of thousands of women have reportedly been raped in the Congo, with sexual violence "so widespread that the medical aid charity, Médecins sans Frontières, [said in November] that 75% of all the rape cases it deals with worldwide are in eastern Congo." (more)

Ohio police sexually assault an innocent woman

The following video is very disturbing, and frankly hard to watch. The woman and her husband have courageously decided to go public with this story in the hope that what happened to Hope Steffey will never happen again.



Rawstory.com reports:

Woman sues Ohio sheriff's deputy over 'outrageous' strip search

Hope Steffey's night started with a call to police for help. It ended with her face down, naked, and sobbing on a jail cell floor. Now, the sheriff's deputies from Stark County, Ohio who allegedly used excessive force during a strip search 15 months ago face a federal lawsuit, and recently released video won’t help their case.

Steffey's ordeal with the Stark County sheriff's deputies began after her cousin called 9-1-1 claiming Steffey had been assaulted by another one of their cousins. When a Stark County police officer arrived, he asked to see Steffey's driver's license. But instead of handing over her own ID, she mistakenly turned over her dead sister's license, which she contends she keeps in her wallet as a memento. That's when the situation became complicated.

"Hope was not treated as a victim," her lawyer told WKYC News. "The officer said to her 'shut up about your dead sister.'"

Eventually, Steffey was arrested and taken to the Stark County Jail, charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. But once in custody, her attorney says seven jail workers, male and female, forcibly removed Steffey of all her clothes, including her undergarments, while she lay face down in handcuffs. Local news footage shows Steffey wailing, asking "What are you doing?!?"

"And you have to ask yourself, what was the purpose of the strip search?" said Steffey's lawyer. "What was the necessity of it? This was a disorderly conduct claim." (full story)

I think the Sheriff and all the officers in Steffey's cell that night should be marched handcuffed and naked through the center of town, and made to stand there while a jury decides their fate.

h/t Crooks and Liars

When Violence Hits Close to Home

A woman who appeared to simply be waiting for her ride, was violently attacked this morning, just a few miles from where I live. CNN reports that police are trying to find a man who ambushed and attacked a 27 year old woman with a bat and tried to kidnap her.

The video of the attack is disturbing. A quick (unofficial) transcript of the report is as follows:

Det. Corporal Andrew John, with the Tacoma Park (MD) Police Department said: "We believe she was waiting for a ride." The incident occurred at 7:50 am. The man was behind the wheel of a white delivery-type truck that he positioned just right so he could commit the crime. "He is either trying to trap her ... or he's trying to block any further view of what he's about to do from the roadway."

Seconds later after raising the back door of the truck the man pulled out a baseball bat and went on the attack. "Whoever did this is a dangerous person."

"He grabs the victim, she struggles, he throws her to the ground. Picks her up and tries to full body slam her into the back of the truck, but she's fighting."

She continues to fight until the suspect hits her with the bat and gives up -- fleeing east on University Blvd.

It is very likely that the woman was just getting off from work and was waiting for her ride home. It would also seem that the man was either deliberately after this woman, or had been plotting to attack and kidnap ANY woman that might appear vunerable. I certainly hope he is found and locked up for a very long time.

I had just finished watching this video, when another headline caught my eye: "Body parts found in 8 bags along Interstate"

A woman's severed head was found Tuesday in a trash bag along an interstate highway, one of eight bags containing body parts discovered beside expressways in northeastern Pennsylvania, authorities said.

The parts are believed to belong to the same victim.

It was unclear whether all the body parts have been found, investigators said.

What sick bastard would kill a woman, cut her up into pieces, and then toss the body parts along side a road.

These two stories both speak to what seems to be the never ending problem of violence against women. The woman attacked near my home was the "lucky" one. She is still alive. What would motivate ANYONE to treat another human being in this way?

Albuquerque Dangerous for Women and Girls?

Recent headlines would suggest that it is. Attacks on clinics that provide abortion services are up. There were two attacks last Tuesday at two buildings belonging to Planned Parenthood of New Mexico. The New York Times reports:

An arson fire damaged a surgery center the organization uses for abortions, and the windows of a Planned Parenthood family planning clinic 12 blocks away were smashed, the officials said.

Neither building sustained significant damage, and activities at both of them resumed Wednesday, a spokeswoman said.

The attacks came just weeks after the Albuquerque clinic run by a nationally known abortion provider, Dr. Curtis Boyd, was destroyed by arsonists on Dec. 6.

It isn't clear whether the attacks are related.

The small, tightknit group of abortion providers here reacted with a mix of shock and fear over the attacks. In 1999, the same Planned Parenthood surgical center was set ablaze. An ex-convict, Ricky Lee McDonald, who has a history of violence against New Mexico abortion clinics, was found guilty in that attack and sent to prison. [...]

The Planned Parenthood of New Mexico spokeswoman, Martha Edmands, condemned the recent attacks ... “It makes me really angry,” Ms. Edmands said. “It’s really upsetting that anyone would attempt to put any kind of doctor out of business.”

She said the group was revamping security measures when the attacks occurred. Protesters regularly picket the surgical center, she said.

Overall clinic violence is down.

A study issued last year by the Feminist Majority Foundation, which monitors attacks on abortion clinics, concluded that the most serious anti-abortion violence had declined since 1994, when federal legislation gave greater protection to providers and patients. According to the report, 18 percent of clinics experienced severe violence in 2005, compared with 52 percent in 1994.

Still, the report said, many clinics are still targets of extreme violence.

A second news report that gives cause for concern involves an Albuquerque girl jailed in connection with a rape case.

A victims' rights group wants to help protect a 14-year-old girl who was jailed this month for refusing to testify against the stepfather prosecutors say raped her in 2005.

The girl, who lives in Albuquerque, spent five days at the Juvenile Detention Center and was released Dec. 20.

Linda Atkinson, New Mexico Victims' Rights Project executive director, said she lodged objections with the Bernalillo County District Attorney's Office over the treatment of the girl.

"They wouldn't do this to an adult woman. Why did they do this with a child? Because they could. That made me furious," she said.

Project attorney Melissa Stephenson said this week she was considering filing complaints with the Judicial Standards Commission and the State Bar of New Mexico over the actions of the judge and the prosecutors who wanted the girl incarcerated so she would give a statement that could be used at trial.

A young girl is raped by her stepfather. He very likely threatened to further harm her if she said anything, maybe even threatened others in her family. She must wonder who would believe her, or what kind of protection she could expect from the authorities -- if she can even comprehend it all.

The girl was arrested and booked into the Juvenile Detention Center on Dec. 16 after State District Judge J. Michael Kavanaugh issued a warrant at the request of the district attorney.

She failed to appear for her stepfather's rape trial in November. The trial has been rescheduled for April.

The girl was released from custody Dec. 20, but no statement was taken because Kavanaugh did not have time and no other judge was available, said Todd Heisey, deputy district attorney. [...]

The intent was "to get her in front of the court and impress her with the seriousness of this matter," Heisey said.

Are these guys kidding? They want to "impress her with the seriousness of this matter"? I would imagine she is fully aware of the seriousness, which is why she chose to protect herself in the only way she could probably think of.

On Dec. 19, prosecutors filed an emergency motion to review the defendant Manuel Quinonez's conditions of release because they believe he has "played an integral part in preventing the child from testifying."

In the motion, prosecutors cite two incidents reported in December by the girl to 911. She said her stepfather "had been at her home, hit her, threatened to return to beat her again and was intoxicated."

Prosecutor Rachel Bayless said she has to wait until Jan. 8 or later to have the motion heard by Kavanaugh. He's scheduled to return to his office Jan. 8.

Bayless said she wants the defendant taken into custody to protect the victim until his trial in April.

"I believe he's a danger to the child," Bayless said.

Stephenson predicted the case would attract national attention and increase support for victims' rights groups and child advocates.

"The national movement to protect victims is growing due to cases like this," she said.

Data indicates four out of five sexual assault victims of all ages do not report the crimes to police because they distrust the justice system.

The jailing of the 14-year-old will only add to that distrust and have a chilling effect on other victims, advocates say.

"It's so shocking what the judge has allowed. The power of the court was used to bully this child," Stephenson said. "The system is broken."

We must do all that we can to end violence against women and girls -- whether it's by family members, strangers, or the judicial system.

Gang-Rape Cover-Up by U.S., Halliburton/KBR

A few people need to go to prison over this one.

Bush, having just criticized the Saudis for their insensitive handling of a rape case needs to step up to the plate. Our leaders have no moral authority to criticize anyone else, if they allow this crime to go unanswered.

From ABC News:

A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.

Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job.

"Don't plan on working back in Iraq. There won't be a position here, and there won't be a position in Houston," Jones says she was told.....

Poe says his office contacted the State Department, which quickly dispatched agents from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to Jones' camp, where they rescued her from the container.

According to her lawsuit, Jones was raped by "several attackers who first drugged her, then repeatedly raped and injured her, both physically and emotionally."

Jones told ABCNews.com that an examination by Army doctors showed she had been raped "both vaginally and anally," but that the rape kit disappeared after it was handed over to KBR security officers....

Over two years later, the Justice Department has brought no criminal charges in the matter. In fact, ABC News could not confirm any federal agency was investigating the case....

In a statement, KBR said it was "instructed to cease" its own investigation by U.S. government authorities "because they were assuming sole responsibility for the criminal investigations."

h/t to John at AMERICAblog

Give me your tired, your poor ... and the war on women

"Give me your tired, your poor ... Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free ..." it seems at times we have forgotten these words, inscribed on the Statue of Liberty.

Just ask Zhenxing Jiang and her husband, Tian-Xiao Zhang. Jiang miscarried twins last year after being taken to New York to be deported. The New York Times reports:

It was a case that galvanized protests in Chinese-American communities around the United States last year and drew international attention: the pregnant Chinese woman who miscarried twins soon after she was taken by federal immigration officers from Philadelphia to New York to be deported.

This week the woman, Zhenxing Jiang, 33, was granted political asylum by an immigration judge in New York after the government unexpectedly dropped its longstanding opposition to her request. [...]

They had entered the country illegally in the mid-’90s and each applied for political asylum, with Ms. Jiang eventually contending that under China’s one-child policy, she could face forced abortion or sterilization if she were made to return with two American-born children. [...]

Ms. Jiang and her lawyers contend she suffered physical and mental abuse by immigration officers when they took her to Kennedy International Airport from the Philadelphia immigration office, where her husband and two sons were waiting in the lobby, unaware of what was happening.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials vigorously deny the lawyers’ account that Ms. Jiang was manhandled, denied food for eight hours and ridiculed when she first pleaded for medical care.

It is not disputed that shortly before her flight, an ambulance took her to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where doctors found that the two fetuses she was carrying had died.

Ms. Jiang's attorney, Theodore N. Cox, reasoned the judge's decision to grant asylum "was tantamount to acknowledging that she was mistreated.” He added that the Department of Homeland Security indicated the government no longer opposed giving Jiang asylum. Cox noted the shift was unusual, and reflected how politically embarrassing the Jiang case had become both domestically and overseas.

Women have often had difficulty gaining political asylum. There have been cases of women seeking asylum to avoid genital mutilation, yet the government has sometimes treated them as criminals.

Forced abortion or sterilization, honor killings, female genital mutilation, trafficking of women and girls, rape as a weapon of war ... is it wonder women feel under siege? The global war on women must end.

Take Back the Blog!

One need only read the comments under a post below on pay equity to understand why there needs to be a Take Back the Blog blogswarm. Does anyone REALLY believe that women choose to be downwardly mobile because of their desire to find a mate? Someone named "Stanton" does.

Stanton says:

One social force which I believe shapes the pay gap (and have not seen explored) is the mating instinct. Simply stated, higher pay increases the field of possible mates for males and decreases the field for females. This exerts downward pressure on the motivations of females to increase their compensation levels and upward pressure on that of males.

Do you believe this?

Native American women face high rape rate

Take Back the Blog! A few years ago I attended a conference organized by a coalition of African American women's groups. One of the astounding things I learned was that at least 50% of African American women are raped or assaulted. When the workshop presenter ask everyone who had been assaulted to stand up, nearly everyone in the room got up. I was just blown away.
Now the Washington Post reports that one in three Native American women will be raped at some point in their lives.

The report, "Maze of Injustice: The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA," noted a variety of reasons that rape is so prevalent on reservations, according to its authors.

In 1978, the Supreme Court ruled in Oliphant v. the Suquamish Indian Tribe that tribal governments have no criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians. When a crime is committed, tribal police and their non-Indian counterparts must hash out whether the suspect is Indian or not.

Tribal governments lack the funds and staffing to patrol their lands, the report said. At the million-acre Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, which straddles North and South Dakota, seven police officers are on duty. In Alaska, where state and native police patrol a vast landscape, officers took four hours to reach the village of Nunam Iqua, during which time a barricaded suspect raped a 13-year-old girl in front of her siblings.

"It is extremely frustrating," said Jason O'Neal, chief of the Chickasaw Lighthorse Police Department in south-central Oklahoma. "It's confusing for the victim because they don't know who they should be calling. A victim of domestic violence may call 911, the sheriff's office or our office."

The Bush administration can spend billions on a civil war in Iraq, but we don't have sufficient funds to protect women in the United States.

"It is disgraceful that such abuse exists today," said Larry Cox, Amnesty International's executive director. "Without immediate action, an already abysmal and outrageous situation for women could spiral even further out of control."

The power to end violence begins with each and every one of us. What could YOU do to make this country safer for women and girls?

Take Back the Blog!

from Crablaw.com

... [Crablaw.com] will host the April 28, 2007 Take Back the Blog! Blogswarm in support of the rights of women to participate fully in all aspects of our society, including specifically online in the world of blogging but indeed everywhere and at all times, day and night, without fear of harassment, intimidation, sexual harassment, online stalking and slander, predation or violence of any sort. This page will be modified without notice during the next several weeks to accommodate the incoming structure and content for this Blogswarm.

This is a link to the LARGE LOGO.

For additional information visit Crablaw.com.

Men and their rage

We have yet another apparent example of male privilege gone mad. A young man who is upset enters a dorm at Virginia Tech, where a possible girlfriend lives, and starts shooting. He kills a woman and a man and then moves to another point on campus and continues the violence before finally killing himself.

Please don't take my next comment the wrong way. I'm not advocating suicide ... but if these guys are that full of rage, and intend to kill themselves anyway ... why don't they just point the gun at themselves first, and save everyone else the heartache.

The Washington Post reports 33 dead and at least 30 injured. My heart breaks for ALL the families.

The shootings, which included both students and staff members, took place at West Ambler Johnston, a dormitory, and Norris Hall, which houses the College of Engineering, at opposite ends of the sprawling campus. Authorities said the first shooting was reported shortly after 7 a.m. at the dorm and the second about two hours later at Norris Hall.

At some point society needs to address how to stop this senseless violence.

A must read from Feministe

Why Feminism Is Still Necessary

Because when women speak up and voice their opinions, men feel entitled to do things like this (serious trigger warnings).

The threat of violence, particularly sexualized violence, is a favorite tool for insecure men, usually safely anonymous themselves, for trying to push women out of the public sphere. Women targeted by AutoAdmit found themselves wondering which of the men they knew were posting updates on their locations and making rape threats; last year, Jill missed several days of classes. Melissa McEwan dropped out of the Edwards campaign after receiving increasingly credible threats. Amanda Marcotte’s been threatened. Pretty much every feminist blogger has, at one time or another — and you should see some of the stuff that turns up in our moderation queue.

I encourage you to check out the rest of the post!