Male Politicians Need To Shut Up About Rape

Todd Akin

Women are fed up with male politicians on both sides of the Atlantic diminishing this serious crime

Rape is having a moment. And not in a good way. Women who assumed that basic goals of equality were set in stone have been badly shocked over the past few days. On both sides of the Atlantic, from the Left and the Right, male politicians and two-bit “public figures” have made common cause on rape. Not to condemn it, or to pledge tougher action in policing it; but to minimize and dismiss it as a crime.

It started with Julian Assange, and the repellent decision of Ecuador to grant him “political asylum”. Assange is not accused of any political crime. He is accused under Swedish law of raping one woman and sexually molesting another. In granting asylum, Ecuador spat on the human rights record of Sweden, a liberal, even Left-wing, European democracy. As the Twitterati and army of internet Assange groupies began their celebrations, the belittling of the accusations began. What had allegedly happened was “not rape”, they argued. This, even though it is clear that one woman claims she was asleep and unconscious when, she alleges, Assange raped her. An unconscious person cannot give consent. The allegation that the woman had consented to safe sex with a condom but not to unsafe sex without one was rubbished; her right to withhold consent for possible pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases was apparently non-existent.

Assange has had his day in the English courts – several days, in fact. And more than once, our courts have made it clear sex without consent constitutes an offense of rape under English law.

As Assange gave a rambling speech on Sunday from the balcony of the Ecuadorean embassy, he painted himself as a martyr, sang the praises of the repressive regime in Ecuador, and totally ignored the two women, and the allegation of rape. The adoring crowd of Left-wingers on the ground clapped and cheered. Some of them sported Messiah-like photos of Assange, captioned “The Messenger”. Nobody called out: “What about the women?”

That was bad enough. Feminists of the Right and Left, myself included, lined up to condemn both Assange and the zealots that supported him. Left-wing media outlets like the Guardian and the New Statesman, whose internet pages are full of commenters minimizing the charges, were obliged to run pieces explaining why Assange had to submit to a Swedish court.

But then in waded George Galloway. “Not everybody needs to be asked prior to each insertion,” he said charmingly in a video podcast on Monday. “Some people believe that when you go to bed with somebody, take off your clothes, and have sex with them and then fall asleep, you’re already in the sex game with them.” While we were mentally vomiting at the term “sex game” used by Mr Galloway in any context, he made matters worse. “It might be really bad manners not to have tapped her on the shoulder and said, 'Do you mind if I do it again?’ It might be really sordid and bad sexual etiquette, but whatever else it is, it is not rape or you bankrupt the term rape of all meaning.”

Er, no. It is Galloway that is bankrupt of meaning: rape is when a woman does not consent. Because she is, for example, asleep and unconscious. Sexual consent is not football; you can’t buy a season ticket.

If conservatives were smug over the discomfiture of the Left, though, they did not have long to rejoice. At the same time, the Republican candidate for the Missouri Senate race, Congressman Todd Akin, was going on television to defend his pro-life position – no abortion in the case of rape. He came up with a cracker: “From what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” Akin said. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” And if “maybe that didn’t work, or something” then the rapist should be punished, not the child.

How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways. Akin cites purely imaginary “doctors” – and this is a politician who sits on the House Science and Technology committee. He states it is “really rare” for a pregnancy to occur from rape – but more than 31,000 of them occur in the US per annum. Then we have the lovely phrase “legitimate rape”. As opposed to “soft rape”, “diet rape”, “had-it-coming rape”? Here Akin makes Galloway’s point; that there is true rape and something less, where the woman is to blame even if she withheld consent – perhaps she’d agreed to sleep with the man before under different conditions, as in the Assange accusations. And lastly, we have the medieval contention that the “female body” can “shut that whole thing down”. Pshaw, condoms, why insist on them?

Yesterday, Mike Huckabee, former Republican governor of Arkansas, dug the ditch deeper, saying “extraordinary things” have been done by those born from “forcible” rapes. He once ran for president, and was taken seriously.

And just when women were reeling from the dies horribilis on Monday, it was capped by Craig Murray, former Lib Dem (though luckily for Nick Clegg, he left the party) and self-described “human rights activist” going on Newsnight, again to support Assange. He attempted to discredit the two women who have brought the rape and sexual molestation allegations, but he also named one of them. If the alleged offence had been committed in the UK, it would be illegal to name the complainant. Murray was once a British ambassador.

Why do male politicians get this so wrong? Unfortunately, the answer is simple: because they believe what they are saying. Galloway, Akin and Murray represent the tip of an iceberg of resentment and base sexism.

Before his merciful defection to Ukip, Roger Helmer MEP shamed the Conservative Party when he distinguished on his blog in May 2011 between “classic stranger rape” and “date rape”, where a boyfriend is “unable to restrain himself” when his lover gets “cold feet and says stop!” He wrote: “Most right-thinking people would expect a much lighter sentence in the second case. Rape is always wrong, but not always equally culpable.”

Helmer added that, in this case, “the victim surely shares a part of the responsibility, if only for establishing reasonable expectations in her boyfriend’s mind”.

What a loathsome thing, and by a then-member of my own party. I spoke out to condemn it; the party distanced itself, as the Republican Party is now doing from Akin. But we did not withdraw the whip, as we undoubtedly should have done.

A year on from Helmer’s remarks, the Justice Department has no women in the most senior roles; it stumbled both on trying to grant anonymity to men accused of rape, a Lib Dem idea, and in Ken Clarke’s own unfortunate comments about rape. I hope (and expect) that the Prime Minister will use the opportunity of the reshuffle to promote some of the talented female lawyers on his benches into the department that governs rape, sexual trafficking and other crimes against women. Women are fed up with male politicians diminishing, dismissing and demeaning the horrific crime of rape.

Some politicians know it, too. It’s no wonder Mitt Romney and the Republican Party were going all-out to persuade Todd Akin to withdraw from the ballot yesterday. Not only is the Senate seat winnable, but Missouri is a must-win state. With Akin, they would be in real trouble with women voters. “Akin is right,” one tweet said, “the female body does have ways to 'shut that whole thing down’. Walk to the voting booth and vote for Claire McCaskill [Akin’s opponent].”

All too often, the media pretends that feminism’s work is done. This week shows us what so many male politicians really think about consent, and sex, and the rights of a woman to withhold it, or attach conditions to it. There is a long way to go.

Please follow Politics on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/AE2QaR1MYwo/male-politicians-need-to-shut-up-about-rape-2012-8

consolidation debt loan payday consumer debt advocate consumer debt collection consumer debt relief

The 'One Thing' Mitt Romney Regrets About His Private Equity Career

Mitt Romney

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is a very wealthy man.

He says he's worth $250 million.

He made most of that money as the CEO of Bain Capital, a private equity firm. Private equity firms, or "PE" firms, make their money in all kinds of ways. One type of deal they do is called a leveraged buyout or "LBO."

Here's how a LBO works, and how a firm like Bain makes money from them.

  • Step one: The PE firm starts with $10 million.
  • Step two: The PE firm borrows $90 million from a bank. This is the "leveraged" part of an LBO.
  • Step three: The PE firm takes the combined $100 million, and buys a company with it. This is the "buyout" part of the LBO.
  • Step four: The PE firm assigns the $90 million debt to the company it has acquired.
  • Step five: The PE firm runs the acquired company to make it attractive for re-sale.
  • Step six: A couple years later, the PE firm sells its stake in the acquired company for $15 million.
  • Step seven: The PE firm counts its profits: $5 million, a 50 percent return on invest for a couple years worth of work.
Those are just hypothetical figures. Normally, LBO deals involve much larger sums.

But that's how a lot of LBO deals work, and it's how Bain—and by extension—Mitt Romney, made a LOT of money.

But sometimes Bain and other PE firms tweaked the way LBOs worked to make even more money. The difference is in step five.

Instead of merely re-organizing the acquired company into shape for re-sale, some PE firms, including Bain Capital, will take the acquired company's earnings and use them to pay dividends to the PE firm's shareholders.

Critics of LBO deals call this "looting the company."

The reason why?

Sometimes those dividends can leave the acquired businesses saddled with debt and low on cash—and sometimes, that can lead to bad consequences.

Sometimes, the businesses acquired by PE firms in LBO deals either go out of business or they have to fire a lot of people.

Sometimes this happened to the companies that Mitt Romney's firm, Bain, bought.

Paying out dividends in this manner, is, in fact, the "one thing" that Mitt Romney says he regrets about his private equity career.

In 2007, he told The New York Times that if any payment to Bain caused a company it had purchased to go out of business and cost people jobs it “would make me sick, sick at heart.”

"It is one thing that if I had a chance to go back I would be more sensitive to,” Romney told the Times.  “It is always a balance. Great care has got to be taken not to take a dividend or a distribution from a company that puts that company at risk.” 

In their deeply reported biography of Romney, "The Real Romney," Michael Kranish and Scott Helman detail an instance in Bain's history that probably does make Romney sick at heart:

In 1996, Bain invested $27 million as part of a deal with other firms to acquire Dade International, a medical diagnostics equipment firm, from its parent company, Baxter International. Bain ultimately made nearly ten times its money, getting back $230 million. But Dade wound up laying off more than 1,600 people and filed for bankruptcy protection in 2002, amid crushing debt and rising interest rates. The company, with Bain in charge, had borrowed heavily to do acquisitions, accumulating $1.6 billion in debt by 2000. The company cut benefits for some workers at the acquired firms and laid off others. When it merged with Behring Diagnostics, a German company, Dade shut down three U.S. plants. At the same time, Dade paid out $421 million to Bain Capital’s investors and investing partners.

We learned all this reading The Real Romney, a deeply reported and informative book by Michael Kranish and Scott Helman. You should read if want to know about the guy whom half the country wants to be our next president. Pre-order the up-coming, updated, paperback version here. Or buy the Kindle edition.

Please follow Politics on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/DeP6jrXlQcc/the-one-thing-mitt-romney-regrets-about-his-private-equity-career-2012-8

debt iva debt lawyer debt management group debt management software

The 15 Biggest Knockouts At This Year's Pebble Beach Car Auctions

1953 jaguar c-type

Every year since 1950, lovers of luxury cars have flocked to Monterey, California for the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Over a long weekend, the rich and famous throw around millions of dollars as they build their classic car collections.

The five biggest auctions raked in $260.3 million this year, an all-time record that blew 2011's total of $197.5 million out of the water, according to CNBC.

Last month, we looked at the 15 best automobiles going on sale. Now it's time to see how they stacked up on the auction block.

A 1960 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider sold for $11.3 million

Why it's awesome: This classic Ferrari, the most expensive car sold over the weekend, is one of only nine of its kind. It took first in class as the 1994 Falcon Club of America Nationals, and was restored with new disc brakes and covered headlights.

Sold by: Gooding & Co., for the Sherman M. Wolf Collection

A 1968 Ford GT40 sold for $11 million

Why it's awesome: Since Steve McQueen used this GT40 as the camera car to film the classic racing film Le Mans, it makes sense that the GT40 just became the most expensive American car ever sold at auction. After being removed to fit a camera, its roof has been restored.

Sold by: RM Auctions

A 1938 Horch 853A Special Roadster sold for $5.2 million

Why it's awesome: Predicted to sell for $6-8 million, this 74-year-old Horch is the most expensive of its kind ever sold. A Pebble Beach Best in Show winner, only five of its kind were ever built.

Sold by: RM Auctions, from the Collection of Joseph & Margie Cassini

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow Getting There on Twitter and Facebook.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/AGWgoEiYBZg/top-15-cars-auctioned-pebble-beach-2012-2012-8

debt consolidation florida debt consolidation leads debt consolidation lenders debt consolidation loan calculator

Fighting Unsecured Debt * The Top Methods Of Take Away A Person?s Unsecured Debt

When we finally contend with a aftereffects and then tension connected with pacificdebt.com|pacificdebt consolidation|pacificdebt|pacificdebt loansfinancial obligation, we’re feeling rather by itself and sometimes displaced. Really a lot more people contend with this approach exact predicament when compared with some of us discover, along with realism, we aren’t by itself in the least. You’re able to [...]

The post Fighting Unsecured Debt * The Top Methods Of Take Away A Person’s Unsecured Debt appeared first on legal debt help online.

Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2012/07/01/fighting-unsecured-debt-the-top-methods-of-take-away-a-persons-unsecured-debt/

bad debt write off bankruptcy debt relief best debt consolidation company best debt consolidation loan

iRobot?s Outsourced Customer Service Tired Of Me, Dumps Me As A Customer

scoobacat"Outsourced" doesn't always mean that work is shipped overseas. An outsourced call center can be anywhere. Well, anywhere with a low cost of living. What it always means is that the people doing outsourced customer-facing work are stuck reading from scripts and have limited information. That's what Charles' wife discovered this past weekend when dealing [...]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2012/08/irobots-outsourced-customer-service-tired-of-me-dumps-me-as-a-customer.html

debt management software debt management uk debt managers ltd debt negotiation companies

How The Stupid Shipping Gang Sends A Bottle Of White-Out

witeWe're sure that Staples has a very, very good reason for packing a single box of white-out in a massive box full of air pillows. Perhaps that product was in a different warehouse than the rest of the order going to Ian's company. Perhaps they were out of small boxes or padded envelopes, and speed [...]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2012/08/how-the-stupid-shipping-gang-sends-a-bottle-of-white-out.html

langhorne debt solutions medical bankruptcy mercers debt michigan debt consolidation

Bernanke Needs To Shame Congress, Obama Into Doing More

The Fed, through its members' speeches and its research papers should become a more vocal critic of current U.S. fiscal policy. The Fed after all, has shouldered the responsibility of getting us as far along the path to recovery as we have come.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/08/20/bernanke-needs-to-shame-congress-obama-into-doing-more/

consumer debt collection consumer debt relief consumer debt settlement consumer debt solutions

Take A Look Inside This Stunning New Student Lounge At Bangkok University

bangkok university lounge

The students at Bangkok University have a new lounge designed by Supermachine, and it's absolutely stunning.

"There have been a lot of discussions about today's education whether it happen in classrooms, libraries, homes, cafes etc. when knowledge has been way easier to access in the era of internet and social networks," write the folks at Supermachine on their blog. "Schools and universities are adapting their environment to the new epoch."

Supermachine calls the lounge a “youngsters’ ecology.” Here, they will be able to study, and have space to take a break in the social areas.

Should every college have a student sanctuary as fancy at this one?

We're sure students are going to love all the amenities, but of course, it's always going to come down to willingness to invest.

Supermachine calls the upstairs a "village" ? a place for students to take a break from the everyday grind of studying.

There's a super-long pool table and a giant dartboard.

Even a "dancing pole" and disco ball.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow War Room on Twitter and Facebook.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/CL98e53lplI/inside-bangkok-universitys-stunning-new-student-lounge-2012-8

mercers debt michigan debt consolidation military debt consolidation moorcroft debt recovery

Tax Hikes Have Already Happened: Will Congress Help You Dodge Them?

-->

Tax AMT
Millions of taxpayers are afraid about the fiscal cliff of tax hikes scheduled to happen at the beginning of next year. What many of those people don't realize, though, is that some big tax increases have already taken effect this year. And without Congress moving quickly to take action, those hikes could add thousands to your tax bill come next April.

Earlier this month, right before taking off for a five-week vacation, the Senate Finance Committee passed a bill that potentially would get struggling taxpayers off the hook. But skeptics note that the bill, as written, has little chance of getting through the House of Representatives, and in an election year, every attempt at progress is likely to face stiff opposition.

When a 'Millionaire's Tax' Hits the Middle Class

The biggest threat to many taxpayers is the alternative minimum tax. The AMT was initially created to make sure that ultra-rich Americans paid at least a minimum amount of tax every year, rather than using deductions and other loopholes to avoid paying any tax at all.

But over the years, the AMT increasingly has snared more workers, including some people who are squarely in the middle class. In particular, people who live in states that impose high income and property taxes could easily find themselves stuck with a bigger bill thanks to the AMT.

The big problem with the AMT is that it's not indexed for inflation. As a result, Congress has to revisit the issue every year. This time around, it didn't bother taking care of the problem before 2012 began, which could potentially add as much as $8,000 to tax bills for millions of taxpayers.

Taking Care of Business

The Senate proposal would solve the problem for both 2012 and 2013, raising the AMT exemption from $45,000 to $78,750 for joint filers in 2012 and $79,850 in 2013. It would also extend some other favorable provisions, including the ability to make tax-free charitable contributions from IRAs and a deduction for qualified tuition expenses.

But, even though the Finance Committee approved the bill overwhelmingly, it still faces an uphill battle. A controversial provision to extend tax credits for wind energy projects could prove to be a lightning rod for debate and hold up passage.

As painful as Congress's procrastination is, there's little that taxpayers can do but wait and see what happens. As the nation's fiscal situation becomes more uncertain, you can expect situations like this to become all too common.

For more on taxes:

Motley Fool contributor Dan Caplinger expects to be in the line of AMT fire this year. You can follow him on Twitter @DanCaplinger.


Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin Wordpress | Android Forums | Wordpress Tutorials

Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/08/20/tax-hikes-have-already-happened-will-congress-help-you-dodge-th/

erase credit card debt family credit counseling federal debt consolidation freedom debt relief scam

The Ridiculous State Of Gay Marriage In The U.S., Illustrated By Fab.com CEO's Recent Marriage

Thomas Goldberg, Jason Goldberg's ex-husband

Jason Goldberg, the CEO of e-commerce startup Fab.com, just married his boyfriend, Christian Schoenherr, over the weekend.

Before he could marry Schoenherr, though, he had to take care of a not-so-small matter: his previous marriage to his ex, Thomas Goldberg, whom he'd wed in Canada years ago, when same-sex marriage wasn't legal anywhere in the U.S.

Because same-sex marriage was illegal in the U.S., so too was same-sex divorce. (A ridiculous state of affairs.)

It's perfectly legal to go to Canada and get married on a visit. But to get a divorce, you actually have to reside in Canada. (Also, a ridiculous state of affairs. If they were a mixed-gender couple, their Canadian marriage would be viewed as valid here and they could just get divorced here.)

Until New York's move last year to legalize same-sex marriage, and with it, same-sex divorce, the Goldbergs were stuck in a legal limbo. 

"You have to prove you are divorced from any previous marriage in order to get married, so our attorneys had us divorced in New York even though we were never actually married in New York," Jason told us. "It's complicated but we worked it out."

This is not a new topic of conversation for Jason, or his now ex-husband Thomas. They discussed the sad state of gay marriage and divorce in "Start Me Up," a documentary video about the launch of Fab.com, then known as Fabulis. At the time, they were split up, but still on friendly terms—friendly enough to work together.

"I have a lot of problems with Thomas," Jason said in the documentary. "But I also think he could be helpful here."

Fab ended up changing direction from a gay social network to its current, wildly successful incarnation as a purveyor of high-design lifestyle accessories. Thomas briefly worked as Fabulis's West Coast manager. He's now an associate director of social media at Digitas, and he doesn't list Fab or Fabulis on his LinkedIn profile.

Goldberg and his new husband donated $100,000 to promote the cause of marriage equality—an effort that may well spare other same-sex couples from the kind of legal headaches they had to go through.

Good! We wish Goldberg and Schoenherr many happinesses.

In the meantime, we welcome to the inevitable headaches of same-sex marriages—like figuring out the crazy extra tax paperwork they'll have to file.

Here's "Start Me Up," the documentary about Fab's early days before it discovered daily deals:

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/zSR95Z8tuTI/before-he-could-marry-his-boyfriend-fabcoms-ceo-had-to-get-divorced-and-that-wasnt-easy-2012-8

credit card debt services credit debt elimination credit debt solutions debt advice uk