I see "No comments yet. Be the first." Lucky me.

It is so good to see a man writing this article. Aside from that, it's ssdd and I'm left without hope, because of the men that read and comment on this article, it's predictable that a number of them will ridicule or brush off this story, this topic, this fault-finding of gender, perceived as an attack on all men.

Men. Not their fault. Not their problem. Sigh. In my dark moments, I believe ours will become a species without females, artificial cloning and women just a memory, because the world doesn't seem to be a place made for us. We weren't made to fight men, no matter how often men attack women. So many men are blind to what some of them do to so many of us, even though they are the only ones that can stop it. If they only would care to stop it.

It's good to see a man tackling this issue. Thank you.

This is good news, finally the international community starts focusing attention on this abhorrent practice. There's still hope.

Well said, Whatever4 ... you won't see many CD responders to articles about womens issues, especially abuse against women. Don't lose hope: My wise sister tells me her support of the space program is largely in part because she believes it may help women one day colonize our own planet.

A (male) idiot I work with said (when I mentioned this) - "Can we come visit?"

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And my response is NOT male bashing. You wanna talk gender bashing? Read the above article. It's just a start.

Arm women. Disarm men.

Please don't get me wrong: I abhor rape and the patriarical, testosterone-fueled mindset that would even consider rape. Rape is never sexual, it's always about control. That said,

Am I the only one that is absolutely dumbstruck by the irony of one of the biggest neocon political rapists doing a piece about rape?

A human body is not the only thing that can feel the pain of rape. Other things can also, the United States Constitution, for example.

Juliann, of course you aon't see a lot of CD posters talking about violence against women. This is partly because they have their heads up the behinds when it comes to such anti-woman ideologies as islamic fundementalism. Its also partly because lefty men have a chip on their shoulders for being lefty. They think it makes them less of a man, so they make up for it with idiotic jocularity concerning women. Some of the most sexist idiots I've ever encountered have been "progressives". Keep in mind during the 60's male protest leaders often said women were there for sex and cooking... The infatuation with sexist arab culture and support of arab causes certainly doesn't help either. Many of you so called "feminists" seem to be totally behind gang rapes and honor killings, as long as its a certain culture carrying this stuff out.

That being said, I wanted to respond to you saying "disarm men, arm women". You are half right! Women carrying firearms is the best protection against the scumbags who would victimize you! But don't take my guns away...

Let us not say that abuse only runs one way. In the average domestic situation there is equal possibility of men being abused. I think it would be a very big mistake to arm all women. This over reaction is the reason that renders some men impotent and lets some women run rampant, even if their intent is in fact criminal.

I have witenessed both situations at length.

There is doubtlessly a situation where the female sex needs help. I think we have to be very specific in outlining what the situation is.

I will be there one hundred percent of the way once this is done.

Love
Zero

It's curious that President Bush liked to strategically mention Saddam's alleged "rape rooms" (with a rhetorical pause for emphasis) in his speeches ginning up support for the USA invading Iraq. But we haven't heard much more on that subject lately. Perhaps Condi Rice will elevate the topic more generally at the UN this week, hopefully for itself, and not in pursuit of a pre-identified war goal.

As for posters above who believe that no men are interested in criticizing and curbing the practice of rape as a tool of war in such places as Sudan and Congo (or anywhere) , I beg to differ.
Some of us are far more sickened about this trend than you imagine and literally are angered to the point of wanting to just kill off the perpetrators (since they probably aren't "reformable"). Short of sending American soldiers (without invitation, which amounts to invasion) to police such places, it's sort of hard to know what to do, though. In addition to publicity and awareness, what's the appropriate starting point for action?

I understood this to be a progressive website. Absurd, backwards-thinking like "colonize our own planet" reminds me of the folks back in high school who used to talk about shipping all gay people to some island (I recall males AND females who said this). How come progressive so often tends to equal chip-on-the-shoulder?

It's good to see a man tackling this issue. Thank you.

Too bad it has to be a man who's only too "modest, learned, and brimming with virtue, a man whose words and accomplishments unblushingly suggest the Christ on one of His better days". Kristof has driven women's rights activists up the wall for years with his holier-than-thou grandstanding. His journalistic specialty is "reduction of a complex political context to a morality tale unfolding in a world populated by villains and victims who never trade places and so can always and easily be told apart"; journalistic integrity and fact-checking (check out how victims' numbers seem to always be on a roller coaster ride in his columns) aren't his strong points. But, Kristof's type of "voyeuristic" journalism hides a bigger problem in the view many have of problems in the Third World:

This new view of conflicts in the South and the East is based on a disoriented Western imagination, which discusses political violence through dramatic and sensationalist metaphors, such as 'Holocausts', 'Genocides', 'Ethnic Cleansing' and 'Mass Rape Camps'. Consequently, when it comes to violence in Africa or Asia, genocide has become the default diagnosis of events. From the Congo to Darfur to Kenya, bloody conflicts are recast as harbingers of holocaust.

Through today's promiscuous use of the term 'genocide', conflicts become transformed into morality plays about human destruction, and tend to be seen as being both incomprehensible and inevitable. Western reporters see only a sudden, inexplicable outburst of violence--a kind of murderous descent into hell--and overlook the structural causes of crises in the Third World.

The big problem with most government's reaction to mass and gang rape is that the governments are composed mainly of men and they really don't believe rape is an issue they need to be concerned with [ie China and Russia's attitude]unless of course, their families are affected. If more women were members of the governments and indeed the UN, rape would have been given its due a long time ago. I could say the cultures that devalue women are more proned to such behavior, but since rape occurs more frequently in the US and in the US military, I am unsure where it would be "safe" for any woman to live, work or just be. I pray the women of the Congo are able to sustain their courage, faith and determination to change the way women are treated and respected.

"The world woke up to this phenomenon in 1993, after discovering that Serbian forces had set up a network of "rape camps" in which women and girls, some as young as 12, were enslaved."

And what happened to Serbian forces above?

They were awarded half of Bosnia, court in Hague acquitted them from charges of genocide, and they are being accepted to EU. Way to go EU and international community, raping Muslims is OK!

btw, the passage quoted in my previous post is from this article on recent riots in Kenya.

And never forget that the USA has been using hetro and homosexual rape as a weapon of choice in its' "War on Terra" for years, in Abu Graib, Gitmo and elswhere.

Rape: definition by American Heritage Dictionary

NOUN:

1) The crime of forcing another person to submit to sex acts, especially sexual intercourse. (as seen in Abu Graib, Gitmo, CIA Black Sites, etc.)

2) The act of seizing and carrying off by force; abduction. (extraordinary rendition)

3)Abusive or improper treatment; violation: a rape of justice. ( the entire Bush Regime's actions to date)

How ironic that the author reports this as an ignored issue in other countries when in the United States, rapes of white people by black men and women, usually followed by a horrific torturous murder, goes unreported or praised. These racists crimes are being committed by blacks against white women in numbers far exceeding that in any other continent and grossly exceeding any such number during the American slavery period, but yet it never is reported.
Case in fact. In 2007, Channon Christian and Hugh Christopher Newsom were pointlessly abducted via car jacking by a gang of black men and black women in Knoxville,TN. Christian and Newsom were white. Newsom was raped in front of Christian, then mutilated and burned. Channon was raped by the entire neighborhood for days and was mutilated and her mouth cleansed with kitchen cleaner. Before she died, she was simply stuffed in a garbage can by her black murderers.
CNN laughed about the incident and simply said "wrong place wrong time". I imagine that everyone on this sight can rationalize this by pointing out that the victims were American whites and because of their skin color, they were sacrificial victims to fun loving and heroic American blacks merely venting their frustrtation that people they were never related to may have been slaves to others who were never related to Newsom and Christian.
Who are we to judge people in other countries who use rape and torture when we as Americans joyfully ignore the helplessness of whites at the hands of blacks. Whites are certainly marked as easy prey since the American press, like the press in Sudan accept this crime so long as it is committed against the right(white) people. Sudan educates their citizens to view those commiting these rapes as brave heroes just like America has educated its citizens to view blacks who commit these crimes against white women and men as brave heroes.
Maybe the citizens of Sudan have learned to view the victims of rape in their country as we have come to view the victims of rape in our country- insignificant sacrifices necessary to right previous wrongs. We obviously rationalize the tens of thousands of white men and women raped and murdered by blacks over the last forty years much in the same way Sudan views the victims in Darfur- a cause for laughter and celebration, just like CNN does.
So, what is the purpose of the article? Is there something that we as Americans are supposed to find different, appalling or wrong with Sudan or the countries that support it? The government in Sudan allows some people in Darfur to rape and murder others because of their belief or skin color without punishment and they encourage the press to ignore the issue. The US government allows black Americans to rape and murder white Americans because of their belief or skin color without punishment and they encourage the press to ignore the issue. Again, what is the point of the article?
Zahra Abdelkarim is alive to tell about her experience. Christian and Newsom were horrifically murdered after their rape and mutilation by fellow Americans who enslaved them, yet the author is silent. Sounds like Zahra Abdelkarim and alot of others in Darfur have it better than white victims in the United States. At least the Darfur victims' voices are heard.

Arm women. Disarm men.

Works for me. I'm perfectly willing to stay home from the next war.

Zero Point Field wrote "I think we have to be very specific in outlining what the situation is. I will be there one hundred percent of the way once this is done." ZPF, the *situation* is RAPE. Is that difficult to comprehend? Do you want me to draw stick action figures for you?

And don't equate this level of rape with domestic abuse. There are indeed similarities but the article is about systemic, institutionalized rape. (And btw – twice as many women than men experience domestic abuse – it is NOT equal.)

Stilba – there is no comparison between stupid people saying gays or any group should be shipped off to another location and my reference to some of us women wanting to colonize our own planet. It would be different if I said some other group SHOULD be shipped off to another planet.

As a man, I feel that anything I say on this topic will be offensive to someone. So, I'll just jump in with both feet.

It is my opinion that rape is purely about humiliation and feeling dominant. The fact is that the poor, dumb bastards who setup rape camps and things like this are already in a position of inferiority, as compared to the groups they are 'fighting' against. These men feel like weaklings and they equate that with femininity (I do not). So, to maintain and psychologically regain their manhood, they rape.

None of what I said will change anything. It is horrifying to see that we cannot seem to evolve past the will to dominate as a compensatory defense mechanism against our own feelings of powerlessness.

Something practical...I can't think of anything but armed womens' protection groups. Forget the UN or other 'peacekeeping' groups. Good, ol' fashioned women armed with Colt's finest taking down these rapists would go a long way toward helping to end the practice. I feel sick that this seems to be the only thing I can think of. I'm sorry to be human, sometimes.

There seems to be a glaring omission of the US's use of rape in this piece. Of course the US government can't say much about other countries' use of rape, without the world community bursting into giggles.

When is Donald Rumsfeld going to stand trial for telling American soldiers to ram coke bottles up the rear ends of underage captives in the Bagram and Abu Ghraib US military bases, by the way? Forgive me if I can't put my finger on the US government's euphemism for rape just at the moment.

Juliann: "there is no comparison between stupid people saying gays or any group should be shipped off to another location and my reference to some of us women wanting to colonize our own planet. It would be different if I said some other group SHOULD be shipped off to another planet."

The gay-island rednecks say that an entire population should be moved because one batch of humans is not compatible (by its very nature) with the remaining batch of humans. You say that women should move to another planet because they are not compatible with men (due entirely to male nature). How is this not fascist/apartheid-thinking?

I've always been in favor of gun control but on this issue I think I'd have to deviate from that point of view.

As a woman who was once almost raped and managed to fight off the guy, I will say that I think the only way to fight this is to FIGHT THIS! It is way past time that we stopped being VICTIMS and started standing up for ourselves.

Man who rape have to be stopped and if that means fighting back, then so be it. Where is it written that we are supposed to sit back and take this crap from men? I guarantee you that if MEN were the ones being raped by US, they wouldn't just sit there and take it. They'd fight back. So, why aren't we?

The night I was almost raped, 40 years ago, I was carrying an umbrella. I NEVER thought to use it. But I had my hands and I had my teeth and I had my voice, and I screamed so loudly and bit down so hard on the hands of the man who was trying to stop me from screaming that HE took off screaming himself.

If it means that women arm themselves, then so be it. Are we not allowed to protect ourselves? Are we not allowed to defend ourselves? If men can, then so can we!

Preach on impeach!! We need more women in the world like you.

One thing I would like to mention:

The women who stand for self-defense and protection against rape are admirable. However, these same women tend to be non-existent to assist their brethren who experience horrible rape and violation in our prison system. While there is not a single civilized human being who will allow a joke about rape to pass by, jokes about 'don't drop the soap' and 'Big Bubba' are an everyday occurence in our entertainment media.

I'm not saying this to belittle the suffering experienced by any of our sisters at the hands of vile, weak and dangerous rapists. But, if you don't speak out for others, there will be no one to speak out for you. Rape in prisons is an accepted and even encouraged practice that can turn a prison stay, for a non-violent crime, into a death sentence by AIDS. Where's the rape activists on this issue?

The article is about the ubiquitous "use" of rape in war. Many have strayed from the topic.

STILBA: I have seldom agreed with ANY thing you've posted on CD but your lack of compassion in this instance, and readiness to jump on a side track is appalling.

VIOLENCE is a facet of human existence, but it is encouraged in MEN. Sports push a social framework where "survival of the fittest" favors the most savage and brutal. This behavior is CHAMPIONED in our culture and becomes the prelude to war and the conditioning of young men to identify with the "winning" "team" on the battle field.

It is true that the US has a high rape rate and it's highest in military families. Whether readers have had enough exposure to TRUE astrology to recognize its veracity or otherwise, it is difficult to argue with the timeless archetypal imprints that flesh is heir to. Mars is the symbol of violence. Over the course of 30 years of studying the "as above, so below" celestial equation, I've pondered the positive uses of Mars. The answer? Mars is the intended cosmic consort to Venus, the archetype of romantic love as well as (she has 3 faces or personae) that of the great Mother. Mars is intended to LOVE his partner and PROTECT her. To the degree that violence has been instead projected upon the feminine counterpart suggests the degree to which the function of Mars in our world has become debased to senseless violence and turning the power-to-protect into its converse: that of taking advantage of those less powerful. THAT is what rape is about. It reveals the asymmetry of an intended balanced Divine equation. Had we been taught to be LOVERS on this planet of splendid gardens and abundant wildlife, we might have not identified with weapons and war making and violence. Now what was intended as LOVERS has instead become depravity, cruelty, sadism, destruction and vengeance.

Human beings have been taught to ONLY see the masculine side of the Divine force(s). As a result, MEN do see themselves as superior to women. Some men have evolved and this belief exists only as a shadow deep within their nature. Men who live in regions where they feel no power are quickest to turn on women. Until spiritual equality is taught, until the totems that influence beliefs are brought into balance, many men will prey upon women.

To the idiot who tried to suggest women are capable of domestic violence, there is no doubt a small portion who have learned to fight back. When women are convicted of killing their spouses (I forget the exact statistic but one of the main reasons women go to emergency rooms is violence from men, often their partners) they get longer sentences as their acts are taken as PREMEDITATED murder. As if a woman, generally easily overpowered by the larger male, could execute aggression (usually to save her own life, often after a long cycle of humiliating domestic abuse) on the spot and "win."

Violence towards women is tolerated in the world. I remember a 60 minutes episode where the topic--domestic abuse in the military--was under the limelight and the women who went to their husbands' commanding officers were pretty much brushed off. The offending husbands were seen as not keeping their women IN LINE. So long as there are MILLIONS who fall under thrall to fundamentalist religions--all 3 patriarchal ones are guilty here--and told to SUBMIT to their husbands, or earlier that it was not "god's" will for them to vote, hold property, choose their own sexual partners/husbands, decide when to have children (these issues STILL at play)... women are treated as 3/5 men, or partial citizens. It's a disgrace that has literally thrown the entire world off balance, a fact that is seen in the insane worship of war, militarism and our US defense budget that IS a direct incarnation of MARS; or as I prefer to state it, Mars rules! Mars twisted to kill and deform his intended beloved. Serial killing is another of its aberrations, seen in the "leadership" of our land.

Siouxrose, I continue to learn from you. Thank you. And thank you for your comment to Stilba - I was stunned to see s/he still doesn't understand my initial post.

To dablackanarch - rape of anyone is a horror. However, you refer to a controlled environment of men imprisoned in confined areas and attacking other men. We women are angry about rape of women by men going on worldwide, the violence of it, the HORROR of it, the degradation and bodily harm, the deaths.

Going to the basement now to work on that spaceship ....

JULIANN: Thank you. I believe the statistic is that one in two women worldwide will be touched by violence during the course of her lifetime.

It's always amazed me--an article long ago in Ms. Magazine did an apt job of relating this fact--how often Hollywood makes use of a screaming, bleeding, knived, shot, or raped woman as "a plot device." The normalization of violence has led to an epidemic of it becoming banal in our culture; but ours is a culture of death, one enamored by guns and inured to war, probably our favored "export" these days.

For Hillary Clinton, the embrace of power meant identifying with macho projections of force and that hurt her. Women of and in power generally are forced to identify with the "male" model. A few on CD tend to argue back that many women are vicious or capable of violence and that IS true; but it entirely misses the point of the overt and covert factors of American "civilization" that support aggression. We are absolutely SOAKED in it. It's amazing that people can still manage to LOVE in this distorted nexus!

P.S. JULIANN, etc... years ago I published a tongue-in-cheek piece, "The Top Ten Reasons for Reincarnating." It was a mock survey, and extremely funny how my Virgo editor wanted it to conform to the actual RULES of a serious survey! In any case, my top ten includes SEX which is why I still get into the ring with men... when two people do go to that "float place" together, COMMUNION is possible. I've known that, so I know men and women CAN be lovers and helpmates... but our society makes that ecstatic shared zone SO hard to come (ha) by! And harder still to retain!

tolerancenow--

i see you, and your white supremacist bullshit ramblings.

your submission that the us government is biased in favor of black people:
"The US government allows black Americans to rape and murder white Americans because of their belief or skin color without punishment and they encourage the press to ignore the issue."

your assertion that white people regularly have their voices and concerns ignored and suppressed by the US press:
"Sounds like Zahra Abdelkarim and alot of others in Darfur have it better than white victims in the United States. At least the Darfur victims' voices are heard."

your idea of why it is that no one cares about the rights of white people anymore:
"I imagine that everyone on this sight can rationalize this by pointing out that the victims were American whites and because of their skin color, they were sacrificial victims to fun loving and heroic American blacks merely venting their frustrtation that people they were never related to may have been slaves to others who were never related to Newsom and Christian."

i'll remember your name now, and be sure to always point you out as the white supremacist you are.

ZeroPointField:

"In the average domestic situation there is equal possibility of men being abused."

Equal?

Hmmm..I thinketh not.

I am not saying it doesn't occur with alarming regularity...but even in Lesbian domestic abuse size and programming matter. Men are disproportionatly larger than the women with whom they cohabit, usually.
Men have much programing which encourages violence and violence of thought. Which isn't to say women are demure and too good for the business of violence...surely women have just as much innate and learned tendencies to violence...men are just encouraged more frequently in many more ways to resort to and utilize violence.

The sheer numbers indicate women as well as men, worldwide, are VASTLY more likely to be beaten or killed at the hands of a man than anyone is likely to be beaten or killed at the hands of a woman. Period. For any reason, or none at all, men do the most beating and killing eveywhere at all times of anyone.

Women beat and kill too. Mostly partners and kids and this is no less tragic or outrageous....but the sexual assault and murder of men and kids by women is nowhere institutionalized as it is when these acts are perpetrated by men. All over the planet men buy and sell women and children for sex and or labor. All over the world sexual conquest is used as an act of war as well as part of too many societies' norm.

Stop the violence. Stop rape.

Period.

This neo-con writer says nothing about the rapes committed by US forces overseas in Japan, Korea, Okinawa; quite a few of those rapes on teenage girls. Naturally he says nothing about the problem that exists back home in the U.S.

He makes it seem like a problem that affects other parts of the world and to which China and Russia contribute by their non-involvement behaviour. Of course, by inference, the U.S. is quite innocent...

Which is the purpose of the article in the first place. Sympathy for women? Don't bet on it...

Siouxrose - I am a Virgo. Sept 8. Now my Scorpio sister would have been your editor, insisting on all the data of your "survey" before allowing the ten reasons to reincarnate to be published! Please cut 'n' paste those into one of your CD responses (appropriate to the topic or not) - I'd love to see if "cats 'n' coffee" are on there! Blessings.....Juliann

kinda reminds me of the old belief that "the pen is mightier than the sword"

and makes you wonder, if that were true, why does every body pick up the sword when in danger.. not the pen?
we often define things in terms of strength or weakness...without really considering what values we are taking on board and expressing whilst we do..
take for example the word "victim"...what image appears in your minds eye when thinking of the word ?
is it one of strength? or is it one of weakness...?

thinking further on...if one becomes a victim..has one moved from a position of strength to a position of weakness?...."had your butt kicked" for example??

any genuine consideration of the word victim doesn't have to go to far before reaching the realisation of the sort of genuinely admirable qualitys required for survival after victimisation...(disempowerment) and that these qualitys are apparently not recognised as valid in a victim...

"A former UN force commander there, Patrick Cammaert, says it is "more dangerous to be a woman than to be a soldier."

yet what qualities come to mind when considering the word "woman"
weakness..perhaps?
and what qualities come to mind when considering the word "soldier"
strength perhaps?

it's this sort of insane polarisation that seems to govern everything from domestic violence right up to and including governmental foreiegn policy...

these women will almost certainly be ostracised when they return to their so called "communitys".....why? there's the rub "strength"? "weakness"?
..the soldiers on the other hand...well..."strength"? "weakness"?

victimisation?...heroism?...time to stop patronising the victims of violence and hail them as the heroes they have had to become in order to survive..

ostracise the concept that violence is justified as a means to an end..
ostracise the concept that might is right...

Good morning, Juliann... true astrology takes YEARS to understand, indeed it IS a meta-science. Scorpio is "ruled" by Pluto, which transited Virgo from l956-l970, so if your sister is born in those years, she'd take on Virgo traits. It's all about synthesis, cosmic chemistry of a HIGH order. While people can learn what any planet in any sign means, ultimately it's a Divine alphabet consisting of 10 planets (we count sun & moon) and 12 signs, but the capacity to READ the entire framework, a LOGOS, takes a lot of practice and GUIDED intuition.

You know there is no proper 10... it might be an interesting Zen-like exercise for readers to sit down and ask why they may have--at the soul level--incarnated into this intense time of global age phase transition. Then to empower what we live FOR, write your OWN 10 reasons for incarnating... to me walking in a forest after a rain, great sex with a man I am chemically bound to in a process that transcends the physical to HIGH domains, certain foods--like Indian curry, home made ice cream, and yeah, coffee (espresso) might just make my top ten list. If we count the PEOPLE (as individuals) that we love, who according to author and past-life regression expert Dick Sutphen we incarnate TO be with... then the list would extend well beyond the top ten. Happy counting! It's full moon Sag with Pluto just now retrograde back into this powerfully optimistic fiery sign, before it returns to the authoritarian realm of Capricorn, thereby empowering the old, traditional elites and the corporations they have morphed into--for the next (gasp) 17 years! Hail the sunshine! Long process of rising...

Hey Tolerancenow...
What the hell are you talking about????
What farm were you grown on man??

That a cultural perception of rape as a sort of "fun thing", not least in the United State of Arrogance, should be mentioned here. Matt Yglesia's, among others, quotes a prominent Texas politician, Clayton Williams:

"If rape is inevitable, you might as well lay back and enjoy it..."

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/mccain_and_clayton_williams.php

The wickedness here is that the entire aspect of violation of an individual is ignored. I suspect that people of such a mind set see a vagina as "property" and thus the crime in rape is in its being a violation of property rights.

When/if the world becomes civilized, people will puke when they hear about such atrocities.

Chuck Cliff - we have a radio station here in NE Ohio that has a talk show w/ two men who recently asked people to call in with their "favorite rape jokes." I've been contacting sponsors of these shows & recently talked w/ a female manager of a car dealership. For her it's perfectly okay because these radio shows send customers her way. I had an almost violent gut, heart, and head reaction while I talked w/ her on the phone. It was beyond what I ever expected.

We lost progressive radio in Ohio about 18 months ago. I love good talk radio but there's none here in NE Ohio - none. The talk shows that ARE out here (along with four stations that carry Rush Limbaugh for 3 hours every afternoon - same time) are part of what I believe is the serious dumbing of NE Ohio (Columbus is a different world), which of course is part of the dumbing of America. There's a huge population out there that lives for Friday night, a pack of cigs and a six pack and I don't mean their abdomens.

Goddess help us.

PS Siouxrose - I so value you but your last posting left me saying "huh?" You are so far over my head - but that's ok. Keep on keeping on!

The oppression of women continues and rape is still a
primary weapon in the war against women --

Patriarchy, organized patriarchal religions and capitalism
are suicidal concepts ---

Global Warming gave way to a funeral for a celebrity journalist which exceeded our mourning for President
John F. Kennedy after his assassination ---

Humanity and the planet are now suffering the full impact
of the insanity of patriarchy ---

the insanity of "Manifest Destiny" and "Man's Dominion Over Nature" --

Tolerancenow,

I don't usually deviate from the topic but please forgive me...I simply have to here:

I don't quite understand how you can come to the conclusion that violence against whites by blacks in the US has anything to do with what we are now witnessing in Darfur, the Congo, or other hotspots around the world. Why did you pick such a name as "tolerance"? Your bigotry certainly says more about you than your pseudonym. If you want to talk about racial issues in the US, do your homework. Whites are not being besieged by blacks. You use examples here of aberrant behavior to make your point. Thus, your logic falls apart. Certainly, crime in areas where people are living in poverty (black, white, purple or green!) is higher than places where everyone has jobs, homes, cars, etc. And it should be noted that in the US if you are poor, you are more likely to be non-white. The reason for the violence is that desperate circumstances breed desperate behaviors. Place the blame for poverty where it belongs. One cannot look seriously at the history of this country and not confront racism. Violence is a symptom of the larger disease of poverty. Poverty is part and parcel, in this country, of racism.
The oppression of women in these countries is sickening. But then again, so is the oppression of racial minorities in this country and your apparent ignorance of it.
I wish you could see through my eyes as I work training teachers to work in high needs inner city schools. Maybe then you'd see the promise of young black children that should be equal to that of whites. (And I should say -- of all children of color). Maybe then you'd be less likely to tout yourself as tolerant when in reality what spews from your fingertips is anything but...

-- a progressive (and white) woman

Juliann June 17th, 2008 1:02 pm wrote:
Well said, Whatever4 … you won't see many CD responders to articles about womens issues, especially abuse against women. Don't lose hope:

Thank you Juliann, coming back to read other comments later always fills me with trepidation. Subjects like this can really bring the creeps out of the woodwork, but I think it's the rational-sounding condesending monsters that bother me the most. I'll never understand how rational beings can ignore rampant violence, just because they don't see it, because it is generally (a "though not always" is implied) not directed at them.

I'm all in with arming women, starting at age 12 or so. A new planet colonized by women sounds fantastic. A science fiction story.

please don't let the name fool you--tolerancenow isn't confused or unaware or reading the wrong studies. he's a white supremacist, spewing the same shit you see all over white supremacist sites.

I'm late reading Weapon of rape. But I'm urging everyone to note the healafrica.org website. These victims need our help. We probably will never be able to eradicate rape but we can help these women try to heal with a monetary contribution to the two hospitals listed in this story. Let us try to make a difference across the Atlantic.