Democratic National Convention Going Anti-Akin; To Become Celebration of Abortion

Well, that's the tendentious reading of the Washington Examiner, but it does seem like a fair characterization.

Democrats said that they will feature Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parent Action Fund, Nancy Keenan, president of the NARAL Pro-Choice America and Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown University student whose plea for federal birth control funding drew the ire--and a subsequent apology--from Rush Limbaugh.

What's more, the Democrats are expanding their list of women ready to assail the GOP on women's issue, adding Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski and actress Eva Longoria to the list that already includes Sen. John Kerry and Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren.

Bless their hearts. (Second chart especially.) It's hard to know which way the abortion issue cuts because you'll have a majority saying they're pro-life but also a majority saying they think abortion should be legal in certain circumstances. Either way, a majority at least gesturally identifies as pro-life; this is not the political dynamite Democrats seem to believe it is.

In one of the dumbest stories I've ever read -- dumb question, dumb answer -- Paul Ryan refuses to define "forcible rape." Which is an idiotic question to ask -- everyone knows what forcible rape is. Forcible rape is distinguished from statutory rape, which is illegal and considered rape due to the youthful age of the victim, and yet is nevertheless consensual. Statutory rape is so-called because the statute defines it as rape, even though a witness would not see the characteristics of what "rape" is usually taken to be -- i.e., force, coercion.

So why is Paul Ryan badgered on the meaning of a word which has had the same definition for 150+ years? Just so the media can get video of him saying "Rape."

"Forcible rape" is a common term in law. This is not some newfangled Xtianist make-'em-up. If you google forcible rape you'll see, I don't know, 20 million hits at least, I'd guess.

And what I don't understand is why Paul Ryan doesn't just answer. I guess maybe because he doesn't want to get into line drawing, like "I might not oppose abortion in the case of forcible rape but I wouldn't in the case of statutory rape," and I guess that's because the American public is stupid and has no idea what common terms mean.

Here's an Odd Fact: As far as sex-crimes go, there's actually another category.

What if the woman actually consents, but she only consents due to fraud or trickery? There actually are such cases; for example, doctors have told women that in order to examine them they'd have to probe them with their penises (no, this really happened; there are cases in the books).

There are lots of varieties of rape-by-trickery, including slipping into a woman's bed, counting on her to mistake you for her husband. (This really happens.)

In earlier days, proffering an offer of marriage just to induce a woman to sleep with you, with no intent of actually carrying through, was also a crime of this type.

Anyway, there is actually an old common-law crime for this sort of rape, but they didn't call it rape. In the common law, until about 50 years ago, when people started realizing this sounded wrong, they called this crime "Seduction."

No, seriously. Look it up.

Frank Sinatra was charged with it:

n more modern times, Frank Sinatra was charged in New Jersey in 1938 with seduction, having enticed a woman "of good repute to engage in sexual intercourse with him upon his promise of marriage. The charges were dropped when it was discovered that the woman was already married."[6]

Anyway, apparently the media now has its stupid hat on and is going to ask Paul Ryan to define words whose meanings are quite clear, just so they can get him on tape talking about rape.

posted by Ace at 03:30 PM

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