I'm confused as to why so many in the GOP leadership/media are asking Akin to step down.

Because it lends credibility to the whole Republicans Are Warring Against Women angle which has been a big advantage for Dems.

Or...is it that there are some of them who want off the crazy train?

Akin is just disadvantageous.

But they can just as easily spin this, too. There was some jackass on Bill Maher a couple of months ago who said the war on women was really high prices at the gas pump!

And no one said what I was thinking, which was, "dude, when you shove the pump in my vagina and tell me I don't have to look at the price but I'll have to wait 48 hours and come back to the station to drive my car, that would be an apt comparison." But they just let it slide.

What this dude said doesn't seem any different to me than the dude who said that his livestock doesn't suffer carrying dead fetuses until they naturally come out so it's no problem for women to do the same...and that law got PASSED. And no one seems to give a shit.

So why this one?

Rape is more loaded than carrying a stillbirth?

I don't know, Amy. In my head, once you've been able to make no distinction between livestock and women...I guess I reached maximum rage there and this just feels like, "oh, well they already told us we're animals, so of course."

Part of it is just bad timing, Allyson.

It's just getting too close to the elections. Conservatives have been working hard to shore up their position with women and haven't made too many gaffes lately on that front. But this stirs up a bunch of publicity at the wrong time for them.

It undermines their strategy.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that they give a shit on the issue. Because you've only got to look down Jezebel's list of the history of "legitimate rape" on the far right and its many instances to know it's an entrenched notion.

I think part of the "legitimate rape" thing is in large part of the just world fallacy.

When I got carjacked, quite a few people asked me why my doors weren't locked. See, it was my fault. I did something wrong. If you do all the right things, NOTHING BAD can happen to you!

I always want to ask these folks why we send anyone to prison at all, when after all, all of the victims of crime were asking for it. If none of us were stupid and did all the right things, nothing bad would happen, and criminals would be all, "oh darn, this door is also locked, I guess I will commit no crimes, today!"

I need four more of me. That way, each of us only has to work one day a week.

Better get to work on that 3D printer. And some type of neural interface thingy.

I'm confused as to why so many in the GOP leadership/media are asking Akin to step down.

They don't want national candidates painted with the same brush (it's a little late to think about that) and they don't want something that will draw more liberals to the polls.

When I got carjacked, quite a few people asked me why my doors weren't locked. See, it was my fault. I did something wrong. If you do all the right things, NOTHING BAD can happen to you!

After my foot-meets-lawnmower incident someone asked me why I wasn't wearing shoes. I wanted to show them the bloody shoe with the ginormous SLICE across it.

I finished all the shirts now.

This is the sister's: [link] . The ex is wearing a shirt with her baby picture on it, and my mother suggested he submit one of his childhood pictures for her shirt.

Shirts for my parents...I don't know if I can mom+sis and mom+dad pics. Maybe I'll just get them separate all four of us, or something. I don't know. I'm tired.

You know what's nice about having Netflix streaming?

Watching Dollhouse.

Because I don't want to own it since I have no desire to watch most of the first season. But I did really miss several of the characters (Dewitt, Topher, Dr. Saunders, Bennett, Alpha), and starting at "Briar Rose" towards the end of S1 (where we finally meet Alpha) and going forward there's still much to like. Because there's a four or five episode stretch in S2 that's good as anything Joss ever did.

The RNC wants Akin to step down because they only need four more seats to close the gap in the Senate. And this once easily won race against McGaskill is now up for grabs. They have until 5pm today for Akin to step down voluntarily under Missouri law.

If he does, the state party can select a new candidate--one that has less baggage and some big name cache.

That's why the other candidates in key Senate races were so quick to denounce this douche's idiocy. Not because they disagree with it, but because it throws a monkey wrench in their carefully laid plan to take back the Senate.

The "legitimate" rape thing was just another way to put the earlier "forcible" label on rape. Remember a few months back when they were kicking that legislation around and they wanted to make sure that only women raped by knife-wielding strangers were able to get abortions? And not some slutty co-ed who was just asking for it?