A Dose of Stupid v89

It happens every day. In fact, it is pretty hard to avoid it. There are some things that can only be understood with a slap on the forehead. Things so mind-boggling that one wonders how humans managed to evolve thumbs while being this mentally inept. Case in point:

This thing about male victims

What happens when one is a radical feminist and reads an article showing that men experience more domestic violence than one assumes? Does one challenge those radical feminist views? Does one rethink her understanding of domestic violence? Or does one try to disprove the statistics by playing semantics?

Karen Ingala Smith decided to go the latter route. She attempted to dismiss the finding of the British Crime Survey, a survey that showed a higher than expected rate of domestic violence against men. She got the ultimate smackdown from one of the professionals cited in the above article, but that did not deter Smith. She chose instead to list her problem with the notion that one in three domestic violence victims is male.

Let us break down her arguments point by point:

Bulletin Board v191

Boy Scouts agree to release ‘perversion files’ — The Boy Scouts of America said Thursday it will release to attorneys 10 years of confidential files it uses to keep pedophile suspects from becoming troop leaders or volunteers. The decision comes after the 4th Court of Appeals in San Antonio denied an appeal from the BSA to keep the files sealed. “Youth protection is of paramount importance to the Boy Scouts of America,” BSA spokesman Deron Smith said in an email. “We are thankful the court reviewed this matter and will comply with its order.”

Discrimination against men? — Recent Virgin airlines passenger, John McGirr claims Virgin airlines treated him like a sexual predator on a flight to Sydney. He claims a flight attendant asked him to move saying he was not allowed to sit next to children because he was male. According to Mr McGirr the flight attendant walked up the aisle and tried to find a female to swap seats with him. “By that time, people had looked around and it was like I’d done something wrong, (I felt) defenceless.

Ex-Scout leader admits sexual abuse of boys — Henry Calder, 60, who had been in a position of responsibility in the Scout Association for about 40 years, had taken videos between 1982 and 1991 at camps organised by the movement. He had also been an employee in the finance department at East Dunbartonshire Council until his retirement in 2010. Calder, of Kirkintilloch, was arrested in a raid organised under the auspices of Operation Alba, which targeted people who downloaded child pornography on the internet.

Jodi Arias convicted of first-degree murder

On May 8, 2013, a jury convicted Jodi Arias of one count of first-degree murder against Travis Alexander. Arias stabbed Alexander 29 times, slit his throat, and shot him in the face.

The conviction ended a five-year wait for justice for the Alexander family. Arias played everyone, starting with the family. Initially, Arias pretended to know nothing about the crime. She called Alexander’s phone and left him an email shortly after she killed him. She wrote about his death in her diary. She even went to his funeral.

There was some concern that Arias might walk. Arias is impressively manipulative. Specifically, she is passive aggressive. Her ability to play the victim is so developed that she conned two experts into believing her story. Arias also appears to be a sociopath. She seems to lack any empathy for anyone, and appears to always look for the best angle to control someone. When that does not work, she plays the passive aggressive card, presenting herself as a victim to try to win the person over. She tried this at trial on prosecutor Juan Martinez only to have him throw it back in her face.

That alone would have been enough to ensure a conviction because while Arias is quite manipulative, she is not great at it. She is good, but her style takes time. She is not good at conning people on the fly, and when she tries, her lies are obvious.

However, the details of the case were the most damning.

Zimbabwe Police Concerned About Rape Against Males

Recently, two women and one man allegedly kidnapped and raped a 25-year-old soldier. They reportedly held him for four days, sexually assaulting him multiple times:

Assistant police spokesman Assistant Inspector Muzondiwa Clean told the NewsDay news organisation that at around midnight on April 1, the soldier willingly accepted a lift into Mutare in a Mercedes Benz vehicle from the Birchenough Bridge business centre. [...] The soldier was allegedly threatened with a knife by the driver when he asked to be dropped off instead of travelling for food, and one of the female passengers blindfolded him shortly afterwards. Assistant Inspector Clean said the soldier was then taken to a house in an unknown location, where he was stripped naked and robbed of his mobile phone and $35. he solider claims he was sexually abused by the women on numerous occasions at the house, before the group drove him into the remote Dangamvura Mountains.

Afterward, the group stoned him, resulting in an injury to his foot. The soldier eventually made his way to the police and reported the incident.

Bulletin Board v190

Boy reveals parental abuse via Facebook — “Hi, my name is S. and I am 14. Since I was 8, my parents beat me regularly. Whenever there was a family argument that I was not connected to and I made eye-contact with my father, he would get angry and punch me hard, sometimes with a belt.” This post, published Friday night by a 14-year-old-boy from Haifa on the police’s Facebook page, raised suspicions of harsh abuse and led to a police investigation and the subsequent arrest of the child’s parents.

Experts see increase in male sexual assault awareness — A California man who, as a child, was sexually molested by his mother, said the trauma he endured has stayed with him well into his adult life and affected his ability to comprehend his emotions and be intimate with women. The 50-year-old, who asked to remain anonymous, said he only came to the realization that his mother’s behavior was inappropriate with him as a boy, within the last few years. “I still battle with a voice that says I’m a baby,” he said, adding that coping is a continuous struggle.

Female rapists abuse soldier for 4 days — A 25-YEAR-OLD soldier was allegedly kidnapped and detained for four days by suspected female rapists, who are said to have sexually abused him several times before releasing him early this week. Police in Mutare have confirmed the incident, saying they were hunting for the suspected culprits. Manicaland assistant police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Muzondiwa Clean told NewsDay yesterday that on April 19 around midnight at Birchenough Bridge business centre, the unsuspecting soldier boarded the women’s vehicle on his way to Mutare.

R.I.P. Earl Silverman

Last month, I wrote about Earl Silverman closing down his shelter for abused men. The Men’s Alternative Safe House (MASH) was reportedly the only private men’s shelter in Canada. Earl paid for everything out of his own pocket, but could no longer shoulder the costs. He eventually sold the home. The day after he finished packing everything up, Earl hanged himself in the garage. According to the article, Earl was a victim of abuse at the hands of his ex-wife, and found it difficult to get help:

“When I went into the community looking for some support services, I couldn’t find any. There were a lot for women, and the only programs for men were for anger management,” Mr. Silverman told the Post shortly before his death. “As a victim, I was re-victimized by having these services telling me that I wasn’t a victim, but I was a perpetrator.”

Bulletin Board v189

Church must compensate clerical abuse victims — In August 2011, two defrocked priests were sentenced to jail for sexually abusing eleven boys placed in their care at St Joseph’s Home in Santa Venera. The former Father Charles Pulis and Father Godwin Scerri, both members of the Missionary Society of St Paul, had sexually molested the victims, in ways too disgusting to describe here, over a long period until 2003, when the abuse allegations at the St Joseph Home were first brought to public attention.

Conference to help male sexual abuse survivors — A conference taking place in Sudbury on Friday is finding ways for male survivors of sexual abuse to incorporate traditional Aboriginal values into their healing process. The “Healing the Fire Within” conference is being organized by the Shkagamik-Kwe Health Centre. The executive director of the organization said the sexual abuse of Aboriginal men has roots in a traumatic piece of history. “With the residential school came a number of intergenerational affects of trauma,” Angela Recollet said.

Drug treatment counselor admits he tried to rape boy — A Seattle drug treatment counselor accused of attempting to rape a 10-year-old boy has pleaded guilty. Charged in September 2011, David Allan Scratchley attempted to rape a 10-year-old boy at his Seattle apartment. He pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempted child molestation and is scheduled to be sentenced early next month. A prominent substance abuse counselor at the Matt Talbot Center, Scratchley, 53, told a patient at the center that he planned to have sex with the boy.