Religious leaflet: Blame the rape victim

By GottaLaff

Bristol Herald Courier-Andre Teague

Keshia Cantor, left, talks to her mom, Pam Yates, about a religious pamphlet that was given to her by a Hi-Lo Burger customer that takes issue with women’s clothing.

A 19-year-old girl was handed a pamphlet through a drive-thru window at the fast food restaurant where she works. She was dressed pretty much as you see in the photo above. “Women & Girls” was written across the top of the pamphlet.

Here's what was inside:

“You may have been given this leaflet because of the way you are dressed,” it begins. “Have you thought about standing before the true and living God to be judged?”

It continues with one essential theme: The sins of men are, in part, the fault of women, specifically women in tight-fitting clothing. [...]

“Scripture tells us that when a man looks on a woman to lust for her he has already committed adultery in his heart. If you are dressed in a way that tempts a men to do this secret (or not so secret) sin, you are a participant in the sin,” the leaflet states. “By the way, some rape victims would not have been raped if they had dressed properly. So can we really say they were innocent victims?”

The hand-out is signed “anonymous.”

So all those elderly women and toddlers who have been raped asked for it?

Sandra G. Rasnake, the sexual assault program director at Bristol’s Crisis Center:

Victim blaming is the most prominent reason rapes are so rarely reported and even more rarely taken to trial. [...] It’s become a societal defense mechanism for dealing with issues of sexual assault. [...]

“Blaming victims is the way we who have not been victimized feel safer,” Rasnake said. “If it’s their fault then I’m safer because I wouldn’t do that. If someone steals your purse, can you imagine someone asking why you had a purse? If you are sexually assaulted, it is not because you come with breasts.”

Nothing like perpetuating the worst kind of message, huh? Lives are destroyed because of a selfish desire to feel more secure and blameless. Or to justify some religious belief. Hey, she asked for it! Slut! Okay, time to get back into my safe little cocoon... reality be damned... until I'm the rape victim.

“It’s insulting to men,” she said. “The men that I know and associate with are not so lust-driven that they cannot control their urges. By this person’s argument, everyone working at Hooters deserves to be raped.”

That last part reminds me of the controversy over Don't Ask Don't Tell. I've said this in the past, but it bears repeating: The implication is that gay men and women have so little control over their sexual urges that they have to be treated differently from straight men and women. Discrimination is justified.

So what about all those military rapes by straight men that have been reported?

To paint any group with a broad brush is absurd.

To blame women for being brutalized, both mentally and physically, is equally absurd.

To spread sick, destructive lies by way of religious literature is, well, a sin.


H/t: Mark Karlin at BuzzFlash

Poll-itics: Blame Bush

By GottaLaff

It's not all good news for President Obama, but this was interesting:

While the president is showing signs of vulnerability on his handling of the economy — a majority of respondents say he has yet to offer a clear plan for creating jobs — Americans blame former President George W. Bush, Wall Street and Congress much more than they do Mr. Obama for the nation’s economic problems and the budget deficit, the poll found.

They credit Mr. Obama more than Republicans with making an effort at bipartisanship, and they back the White House’s policies on a variety of disputed issues, including allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military and repealing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.

Psst! John Sidney McCain, spread the word: "Blame Bush".

"I am an immigrant; I voted for Obama; and I know how to spell that word: v-o-t-e."

By GottaLaff

Via L.A. Times letters to the editor (bolding mine):

Re “ ‘Tea party’ convention a forum for woes, worries,” Feb. 6

Hey, Tom Tancredo! Giving the opening speech of the National Tea Party Convention, you told an audience that "people who could not spell the word 'vote' or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House -- name is Barack Hussein Obama."

I am an immigrant; I voted for Obama; and I know how to spell that word: v-o-t-e.

I brought my children with me and raised them in this country. I am sure that they know how to spell too: They attended Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA and Harvard. (By the way, they also voted for Obama.)

Reading about your past and present activities, I learned how to spell some other words: h-a-t-e, o-b-s-e-s-s-e-d, b-i-g-o-t-r-y.

It is your turn to learn some English words such as "democracy" and "civil rights." You might also listen to a popular Spanish-English phrase: "Hasta la vista, baby!"

********

Re “ ‘Put your faith in ideas,’ Palin tells convention,” Feb. 7 The Republican Party, starting with Ronald Reagan, has systematically thrashed the economy and the federal government.
After each Republican administration, the Democrats were left to clean up the mess, which under George W. Bush had grown into an unbelievable catastrophe.

Now Sarah Palin is rallying her troops by ridiculing President Obama for not cleaning up the Republican mess fast enough, and Republican candidates are lining up to dog-pile Democrats across the country. What is wrong with this picture?

There were no letters to the contrary, which tells me that nearly 100% of the letters were like this, if not all of them. And for good reason.

Satan's letter to Pat Robertson

By GottaLaff

When Pat Robertson blamed Haiti's pact with the devil for the earthquake, he struck a chord... a chord from hell in the key of hot.

The devil felt compelled to respond.

Satan's letter to Pat, in part:

If I had a thing going with Haiti, there'd be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox -- that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it -- I'm just saying: Not how I roll.

You're doing great work, Pat, and I don't want to clip your wings -- just, come on, you're making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That's working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.

Best, Satan

You can read the rest here.

H/t: jazzcattrio

Video- Rep. Ryan Admits Republican Failure On Health Care

Not particularly controversial, but since it's a Republican saying it, I thought it should be noted.

Handle her? I hardly know her! IWRC* Palin May Cut Off Handlers

By GottaLaff

That IWRC*! She's so gosh darned mavericky that she's now ignoring her own advisors.

And-- now tell me if you've heard this old chestnut before-- Randy Scheunemann called bulls*** on this very thing just yesterday. Coincidence? I. Don't. Think. So:

Four Republicans close to Gov. Sarah Palin tell Politico she "has decided increasingly to disregard the advice of the former Bush aides tasked to handle her, creating occasionally tense situations as she travels the country with them."

Said one: "She's lost confidence in most of the people on the plane. I think she'd like to go more rogue."

"Rogue" as in countries that harbor terrorists? Why, that would mean that she's just like them!

"Anger among Republicans who see Palin as a star and as a potential future leader has boiled over because, they say, they see other senior McCain aides preparing to blame her in the event he is defeated."

Everybody now! Join me in singing The Blame Game. "Palin! Palin, Palin, Mo Malin, Banana Fanna Fo Failin'.... "

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

Republicans blame Senator Schumer for bank failure

By GottaLaff

Commenter Chris got me started, so big hat tip to her. The Republicans are actually blaming Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer for the recent bank meltdown and starting an entire campaign (read: news cycle) about it. Yes, it's all his fault. One person caused the collapse of a whole financial system, and his name doesn't start with "George W".

Now, Schumer isn't always my ideal Democrat, but he doesn't deserve to be "Schumered":

Here's the story. A major bank failed yesterday, and a Bush appointee in the government put out a statement directly blaming Democratic Senator Schumer. So the narrative the right is pumping out is that "the government" says Schumer is at fault for the bank failure. (What Schumer did was say that the bank appears to be insolvent because it was. Republicans say this "caused" a run on the bank. The fact is the bank was closed because it was insolvent, not because people were taking their money out. Runs can't cause SOLVENT banks to fail because the Fed provides all the cash needed during a run. The FDIC closes banks that are NOT solvent. But facts don't matter.) I suspect you'll be hearing a lot more of this from Limbaugh Monday.

If you'd like to really get angry, go read what the righties are spreading around, here, here, here, here, and here. Or just go here for a recap.

As Johnson points out in his piece, the Democrats could have stepped out ahead of this one by emphasizing how the cost of the war or the huge borrowing that resulted from the tax cuts destroyed our economy. Instead, we get to watch the right wing gas bags spew out their usual bile, the corporate media will recycle it, the public will buy it, and Democrats will have to expend an inordinate amount of effort digging their way out of it.

The Democrats' being put on the defensive when they're on the right side of any given issue is sadly redundant and becoming grotesquely common. And what's worse is, they often bring it on themselves by not learning from past... and by past, I mean the past 200+ years.

You'd think they'd wake up by now.