awww Iggy! And he's a tiny little guy too.

Once I recognized him, all I could think was, "I've seen that guy naked." Stupid HBO not having decency standards.

I will say, every once in a while my male coworker will say something like, "Oh, I walk down that incredibly dark, skankeriffic alley at night all the time." And the whole room looks at him and replies: "That's because you're a boy, sweetie. We don't."

(The irony being that he's gay, but, all an attacker knows is that he's more than six foot tall and reasonably muscular. After him, I'm the most imposing person in the department. Which -- not.)

Oh, for sure. I don't mean to suggest that it's not being taken seriously by anyone other than the jackasses involved. (Someone turned in that email, after all.)

But I can't hand-wave the fact that out there among really a lot of men, hell, women too, there are those who conceive of women's rights, and even dignity, humanity, in a very different way than they do men's.

I said nothing about Barqs. As noted above, I prefer IBC. I don't drink a lot of Barqs because, as you've heard, it is caffeinated.

D'oh! Sorry, I got your post mixed up with Fred's. Mea culpa.

The saddest part about that scumbag Duke lacrosse player is that he's probably going to end up in the upper eschalons of the Department of Homeland Security.

But do you really think they assaulted the woman in question because they're men? Personally, I think they assaulted her because they're shitty examples of humanity, and what can go wrong with it.

I think this is a very good point.

I agree with you, Perkins. As much as I want the rapist (or attempted rapist) to get his face smashed in, chasing him off enough that the woman was safe was job#1. Apprehending him for the police (citizen's arrest and all that) job #3 (making sure the woman's okay would be #2 for me). Cracking him open with a tire iron is dessert, but you will be charged extra for ordering what's not on the menu.

Jamaican papers are full of reports on crime, and almost as full of reports of communities hunting alleged criminals down and beating and/or killing them. I get it, but it's not right.

Luckily everyone with more experience in the law and order field thinks the kravver will be found innocent. Still, sucks that he was detained overnight.

I'm not sure I see how it's possible to divorce the issue of gender from a rape charge.

But do you really think they assaulted the woman in question because they're men? Personally, I think they assaulted her because they're shitty examples of humanity, and what can go wrong with it.

Because they're men? Um, not quite sure that I'm getting what you're saying. So if it had been a mixed group, or only women, the danger would have been the same? Not my take. Because the victims were women? Hell yeah.

I think they assaulted her because they're shitty examples of humanity,

For sure. They're also shitty examples of men, behaving in a manner that is pretty unique to the group of men/lone female dynamic.

I'm not sure I see how it's possible to divorce the issue of gender from a rape charge.

If you divorce rape from sex, does it become easier?

I'm not sure I see how it's possible to divorce the issue of gender from a rape charge.

Because any gender can rape any other gender? And charging specifically based on which gender the attacker and victim are might lead to bias?

I know that women are at much greater risk because of the sexism in society, and it angers me, but even so, it doesn't mean that men as a whole don't value women. That's why I think the kind of coverage violent crimes get skews our sense of reality. The BF has a friend whose husband left her when she was diagnosed with cancer. He was a total asshole, but he doesn't represent "men" any more than my cousin's husband, whose response when she told him she had a gambling problem and had lost all of their savings was to say, "I am here for you and am not going anywhere. I will help you deal with this in any way I can" represents them.