Any bill that is so bad it requires a “clean-up” bill should just be chucked so they can start from scratch. It saddens me that our legal landscape is such a patchwork of good and bad and loopholes in both…

This weird dynamic is the seamy underbelly of the puritanical official culture surrounding matters of consent, sex and intoxicants on campus. I imagine fewer students, male or female, would have such kinky proclivities if they weren’t berated by administrators who are boorish, sanctimonious twits. What are kids supposed to think when barraged by personal stories from administrators about how after twenty years of marriage they still ask their spouses for explicit consent for every step in every sex act? That waiting for consent is the province of fools, I imagine; that’s certainly what I’d think if I didn’t have sane reference points to triangulate the mad ravings of administrators.

Nonsense. The reason why women like “thugs” is because they behave like strong, dominant, masculine men unlike the “nice, sensitive” guys that most people think they should want. Ever notice that most nice guys are about as a milquetoast as a typical government bureaucrat? Expecting a typical woman to be strongly attracted to that is like expecting the average man to be attracted to shot, chubby, small-breasted plain lookin woman instead of a thin, busty beautiful woman.

On the other hand, Adolf Schittler, mildly grandiose Viennese hack painter, makes for a pleasant counterfactual history set in 1942. Provided, that is, that the counterfactual corollary isn’t a batshit crazy Stalin rampaging unchallenged across Central Europe. Sometimes there’s something to be said for being able to choose one’s poison.

This weird dynamic is the seamy underbelly of the puritanical official culture surrounding matters of consent, sex and intoxicants on campus. I imagine fewer students, male or female, would have such kinky proclivities if they weren’t berated by administrators who are boorish, sanctimonious twits. What are kids supposed to think when barraged by personal stories from administrators about how after twenty years of marriage they still ask their spouses for explicit consent for every step in every sex act? That waiting for consent is the province of fools, I imagine; that’s certainly what I’d think if I didn’t have sane reference points to triangulate the mad ravings of administrators.

When college administrators say idiotic things like that, they unwittingly (I presume) turn fairly staid advances into edgy, sexually stimulating transgressions of official norms. E.g., “ooh, I just brushed a hand over her ass, and I’m not supposed to do that–HOT!” As Spitzer, Weiner, Craig et al. have shown us, for some people there’s nothing like the adrenaline charge of doing something naughty. It gives them the invigorating rush of staying just a step ahead of the college disciplinary system, their wives, gossip bloggers, Sgt. Karsnia, whatever–or not.

American colleges have been doing the same fucking thing to alcohol for decades. College students in Europe who want a drink can go out to a pub and order one. They can take a joyride on the Stockholm-Mariehamn ferry, get absolutely plastered, dump a shopping cart full of liquor down a spiral staircase and bear-hug strangers (I’ve been on the receiving end), as long as they don’t turn into ugly drunks (dude was a teddy bear–a huge, overly friendly teddy bear). American students, admonished not to drink a drop before they turn 21, get their jollies from Natty Ice keggers and fake IDs. Sane people can see that that’s twisted.

“After all, there are limits to free speech. For example, painting a fire in a crowded theater is not protected speech.”

I think you mean falsely painting a fire in a crowded theater. ;)

Good point. I was conflating two different issues there. The trauma of a victim pressing forward with rape accusations is likely to deter people from doing it haphazardly, the “morning after regret” cases that people fret about but I’ve never really heard of actually happening.

The maliciously false ones are likely being perpetrated by people disturbed enough to not care about the process, especially if they are not victims themselves. I’m still not sure even those cases are that frequent.

My hunch is that most “false allegations” arise from misunderstandings. Someone blacks out and wakes up with a stranger in the bed… someone who did legitimately have their ability to consent inhibited… neither party really remembering what happened… etc.

This guy could have worked from a photograph, in the privacy of his studio, and exposed the public to his ‘disturbing’ vision only in the socially acceptable confines of an art show. He chose to paint from life. Fine. He was painting a disturbing image in a public space. He disturbed somebody. In this day and age when the web is full of people spewing violent rhetoric about banks and fatcats and who knows what all, if I were a bank manager and somebody was painting a picture of my bank branch in flames, I think I’d feel I had to do SOMETHING. I also think I’d feel like a fool, but let’s face it; the popular culture is full of stories (fiction, but ubiquitous) about serial killers, bombers, and similar monsters who make complicated arty collages or paintings about their intentions. Half the suspense films made since 1980 must have that slow pan across the killer’s bedroom wall..

I’d feel like a fool, but I would also call the cops. And when the painter turned out to be just a politically correct avant-guard twit, I’d breathe a big sigh of relief, and feel like an even bigger fool. And be very very happy that I’d called.

Actions have consequences. If you go out of your way to freak out the neighbors, my sympathy for your treatment at their freaked-out hands is limited. If you are legally in the right, I will back you. But you are still a goddamned fool.

All that is certainly true and it’s a good reason to think that actual rapes are underreported (even more so than other kinds of crime). And male rape victims face, if anything, face even worse kinds and degrees of shaming, blaming, and revictimization; general society’s attitudes towards violence and sex are fucked up in their own special ways, so of course their attitudes towards sexual violence is fucked up squared.

I’m not sure this should inform us in any way about the rate of false accusations, though. A false accuser would be a woman (or man) who hasn’t actually been traumatized by the original rape (which never happened), so I don’t think the way rape victims are treated would deter them all that much. (Which is, of course, another good reason to treat rape accusers with dignity: because treating them like shit only deters actual victims from reporting, not cynical liars).

I’m sure there are instances of malicious allegations being prosecuted. But my hunch is that the pale in comparison to A) real rapes/sexual assaults that cannot meet the burden of proof, B) real rapes/sexual assaults that never get reported, C) false accusations that grow out of ambiguity surrounding the situation in question. The problem is that the presence of any of these situations is not enough to justify changing the rules of evidence. What should be done? Hell if I know. But if the argument is that it should be HARDER for women (or men) to seek justice in sexual assault cases because some folks have abused the system is silly, even acknowledging that the harm of abuse in this case is greater than in most other cases (being falsely accused of rape has a way of sticking to a man unlike any other demonstrably false accusation).

And yes, I see routine cases of the police prosecuting malicious allegations (not just false, actively malicious) of rape in the papers. It should be a sex crime, afaik…

@19 – Right. Just ban sex and all alcohol on the campus. Tell the students to direct complaints to the Government.

So, when a child with no training shoots someone charges are pressed. But when an adult, with training, and who is a “professional”, and who is a member of the group who are the only ones to be trusted with guns does, not so much.
Got it.

Unfortunately…you do get it…as I well know. Commonwealth Attorneys don’t always have a “WEALTH of COMMON” sense in their decision making…I know that too.

“Speaking from the other side of the fence, I would believe that young man and his family would be able to get counseling in other ways to deal with their grief,” said Deborah Caldwell-Bono, a Roanoke defense attorney and a member of the Virginia Bar Association’s criminal law section. “Sending that young man through the criminal justice system, I’m not sure that is the best way.”

She is correct, sending that young man through the “justice system”…is NOT the best way…the family…should be the ones…to make the decisions regarding counseling…and what would be in their son’s best interest…as well as theirs…since they are all dealing with grief…and will be forever changed…by this tragedy.

My condolences and prayers go out to this family.

http://www.justiceforsal.com

The depiction in the story of the plainclothes detectives coming to his house was an awesome opportunity for the artist to turn the tables. “Do you hate your country, detective? Do you hate the Constitution? Did you tell the complainer that they were being a pussy?” yadda yadda.