The Red Pill: A Review

After years of waiting, I finally got the chance to watch Cassie Jaye’s documentary The Red Pill. Jaye’s documentary began as her examination of the men’s rights movement, and grew into her journey out of feminism.

The film received a great deal of backlash during its filming, post production, and initial release. All of the negative response, from people contacting Jaye’s financiers to cut her funding to people backing out of interviews to protests against the film, came from feminists. Most notably, they came from feminists who never saw the bulk of the footage or the completed film.

The reaction has been so overblown that it has likely increased people’s desire to see this horribly misogynistic film that gives a platform to rape apologists. Or something to that affect.

Is that Jaye’s film? Is it a love letter to women haters? Is it an attack on feminism? Does it excuse male violence against women?

Bulletin Board v248

As Falsely Accused Man Sits in Jail, A Woman’s Rape Accusations Fall Apart on Damning Video — In the video, we see a woman’s rape allegations against her male co-worker fall apart as he sits helpless in jail. Though one case is not representative of all cases, it does raise the question of how many rape allegations are false. A thesis by Edward Greer published in the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review examines the issue of false rape allegations and reports some of the findings. At issue is the oft-repeated claim that only 2 percent of rape allegations are false.

Harvard Law Professors Slam Government Stance on Sexual Assault — One of America’s most prestigious law schools got a legal slap on the wrist on Tuesday, and many of its professors are unhappy. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced that Harvard Law School had failed to respond adequately to student claims of sexual harassment and assault and was therefore in violation of Title IX. The decision will see that the Ivy League law school revise its sexual harassment policies again, in addition to the university-wide changes announced earlier this year.

Judge orders more jail for mother who contacted teen sex-abuse victim — A Landisville woman convicted of sex abuse of a 17-year-old boy is not getting out of prison just yet. A local judge again scolded 32-year-old Rikki Salzman for breaking terms of her original house-arrest sentence by having the teen victim over to her home. Lancaster County Judge Howard Knisely ordered that Salzman spend four more months in Lancaster County Prison. She’s been in since Aug. 26, in accordance with Knisely’s previous order.

A (Double) Dose of Stupid v84

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:

A New Mexico State Representative introduces a bill that treats the unborn as “evidence”, and the left loses what little mind it has left

New Mexico State Rep. Cathrynn Brown presented House bill 206 which calls for treating any forced or coerced abortion as a criminal evidence tampering. From the bill:

“30-22-5. TAMPERING WITH EVIDENCE.–

A. Tampering with evidence consists of destroying, changing, hiding, placing or fabricating any physical evidence with intent to prevent the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of any person or to throw suspicion of the commission of a crime upon another.

B. Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime.

The bolds are mine, and it appears they need to be pointed out because none of the liberals and feminists going bananas over this seem to understand that part. Granted, laws are not written in common language.

You’re not helping v8

Here is a suggestion for people who oppose abortion in the case of rape: you need to have a better argument than “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

Republican Senate nominee Todd Akin offered that stunning piece of inaccurate bio-babble in an interview on The Jaco Report. When asked if there should be an exception for abortions when the woman is raped, Akin said:

People always want to make it into one of those things — well, how do you slice this particularly tough ethical question. First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that is really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

Yes, of course. The vagina, detecting an unwanted penis, sends enzymes to kill the sperm while the uterus floods itself with acid just in case one of those rape sperms makes it through.

I understand that Akin respects life. Just before he made the above moronic comment, he gave an unprompted rant about the sacristy of life, including a genuinely touching story about a US marine saving an Iraqi soldier because “It’s what we do.” So I do not begrudge Akin his desire to protect life, including the unborn, no matter what.

However, his above comment is so blatantly ignorant that one must imagine he either knows nothing about vaginas or he has never had to explain his position of abortion before. More stunning is that Charles Jaco let the comment slide. It happens about four minutes in the second part of the interview. Instead of challenging that statement or at least asking for some clarification, Jaco pulls a Stephen Colbert and “moves on.”

Akin’s interview prompted immediate criticism, leading him to release this statement:

As a member of Congress, I believe that working to protect the most vulnerable in our society is one of my most important responsibilities, and that includes protecting both the unborn and victims of sexual assault.  In reviewing my off-the-cuff remarks, it’s clear that I misspoke in this interview and it does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year.  Those who perpetrate these crimes are the lowest of the low in our society and their victims will have no stronger advocate in the Senate to help ensure they have the justice they deserve.

I recognize that abortion, and particularly in the case of rape, is a very emotionally charged issue.  But I believe deeply in the protection of all life and I do not believe that harming another innocent victim is the right course of action. I also recognize that there are those who, like my opponent, support abortion and I understand I may not have their support in this election.

But I also believe that this election is about a wide-range of very important issues, starting with the economy and the type of country we will be leaving our children and grandchildren.  We’ve had 42 straight months of unacceptably high unemployment, trillion dollar deficits, and Democratic leaders in Washington who are focused on growing government, instead of jobs.  That is my primary focus in this campaign and while there are those who want to distract from that, knowing they cannot defend the Democrats’ failed economic record of the last four years, that will continue to be my focus in the months ahead.

If he misspoke, what was the right thing he meant to say?

A Dose of Stupid v.53

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:

Anti-Choicers Playing Footsie With Rape Apologism

Pro-abortion activists really do not like anyone who opposes abortion. It does not matter what reasons a person may have, whether they be a simple moral dislike of the act or a moronic religious reason, the pro-abortion crowd will find a way to vilify the person. So it comes as no surprise that when Amanda Marcotte caught wind of Rebecca Kiessling’s “Conceived in Rape” tour, Marcotte had little nice to say.

Kiessling’s tour is based on her life experience:

… [Kiessling] is that she is a daughter of rape, conceived when her biological mother was abducted at knifepoint in 1968. She likes to point out that she has spent her 41 years on this earth only because abortion was illegal in the state of Michigan that year. Her mother went to two back-alley abortionists before being forced, because of the law, to carry Rebecca (whom she gave up for adoption but recently readopted) to term.

To which Marcotte commented: 

Bulletin Board v.18

Much in the same vein as “This Week in the News,” the Bulletin Board will list news stories and also blog and forum posts. It should be noted at I do not necessarily endorse or support the items linked. I simply find them to be interesting and/or relevant to the issues discussed on this blog. As the weeks go by, each new “volume” will be added to a page link, that way the way easily available without having to do a search or hunt through all my posts (not that I am suggesting not to hunt through the posts).