Colorado state representative Joe Salazar demonstrated yesterday that, as far as politics are concerned, making undiplomatic remarks about rape appears to be a bipartisan issue. The Democratic legislator cautioned yesterday that women, fearing they are going to be raped, may shoot and injure innocent victims.This is a stupid thing way to put it; most women are pretty aware of both the threat and when the threat is about to become more than that. So condemn condemn condemn, it's okay by me. I can imagine what his point might be, but why offer charity? Anyway:
Arguing a in favor of bill that would ban the individuals from carrying concealed weapons on college campuses, Salazar acknowledged, “There are some gender inequities on college campuses” that put women at risk. He explained, “It’s why we have call boxes, it’s why we have safe zones, it’s why we have the whistles. Because you just don’t know who you’re gonna be shooting at.”
Salazar continued, “You don’t know if you feel like you’re gonna be raped, or if you feel like someone’s been following you around or if you feel like you’re in trouble when you may actually not be, that you pop out that gun and you pop, pop a round at somebody.”
Republican senate candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock were defeated in November after making remarks about rape and reproduction that were widely criticized by politicians and pundits on both sides of the aisle.Here's what Todd Akin had to say:
“First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV in an interview posted Sunday. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”And here's what Richard Mourdock said:
Akin said that even in the worst-case scenario — when the supposed natural protections against unwanted pregnancy fail — abortion should still not be a legal option for the rape victim.
“Let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work, or something,” Akin said. “I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.”
“I’ve struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God,” Mourdock said. “And even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”Is run-of-the-mill women-are-silly sexism the same kind of sexism as God's-plan-is-to-make-you-have-your-rape-baby-and-is-rape-legitimate-anyway sexism? If so, then yes, this Colorado state representative is just as brain-numbingly terrible as the two Republican Tea Party candidates for the US Senate.
[...]
Democrats seized on the remarks following the debate. Perhaps anticipating the impact they might have, Mourdock tried to backpedal in the minutes following the debate.
“Are you trying to suggest that somehow I think God ordained or pre-ordained rape? No, I don’t think that anyone could suggest that. That’s a sick, twisted - no, that’s not even close to what I said,” he told reporters, according to the Evansville Courier & Press.
But he reaffirmed his view that conception is determined by a higher power.
“It is a fundamental part of my faith that God gives us life. God determines when life begins,” Mourdock said. “I believe in an almighty God who makes those calls. ... There are some things in life that are above my pay grade.”
Congratulations are due, I suppose, to Colorado Republicans for playing the sexism angle when they don't give a shit.
