WHAT GIFT FROM GOD?

 Yeah, I've been kind of falling behind here. I get caught up in the family tree and sometimes I goof up and have to fix it. Skipped a whole generation early on in one branch, sent me into totally different, I thought, direction. You're playing in the part of Europe that became France and Germany you will run into the same cast of characters if you go back far enough. Maybe more on that later. Saint and sinners, we kind of hope that as time goes by we get more saints than sinners. Doesn't seem to work out that way or perhaps the sinners get more press than the saints. 

Anyway read the following and weep. I remember when all these quotes hit the press. And the reported quote from that last, sorry, POS hit the fan I double and triple checked to make sure it was true. It was. He said he was sorry, sort of. Sorry he got caught most likely.

The Williams quote, said off the cuff back in1990, helped derail his campaign for governor. It's probably a prime example of something an individual who doesn't have to worry about being raped. 

The quotes from Akin, Santorum, and Mourdock hail from the 2012 election cycle. Republican candidates were essentially digging themselves into the ground parsing what was "legitimate rape" and what the victim should be allowed to do if she discovered she was pregnant, Akin claimed that "legititmate rape" was a term used by law enforcement. So far no one in law enforcement has agreed with him. 

As for the other two. Santorum pops up periodically. A former candidate who can't accept that most of us don't care what he thinks about anything. 

Laubenberg. You know I really don't want to run down Texas. I have perfectly sane familiy members living in the Houston area. But damn, this woman served on the health committee of the Texas legislature and the use of rape kits has been in the news for decades. Apparently that quote didn't really hit the news cycle. But the imagees of "getting cleaned out?" And frankly a woman should know better IMHO.

And last, and probably the worst, Lawrence Lockman. I believe I had a blog entry back when he got caught with his pants, word wise, down. He did apologize, sort of. Probably more that he got caught on record. 

Really read what he ssaid. That forcing a woman to have sex, hopefully not getting killed while being raped, is OK as long as abortion is legal. Forcing a woman to have sex that, in most cases does not result in her death, is OK because most of the time nobody dies. This is an individual who either doesn't really think through what he's saying or should only be allowed near women as long as the women have pepper spray and tasers. 

A lot of possible titles went through my mind. Rape Culture. Entitled to Rape. Settle on What Gift From God? And that was a hard one. Just putting a line of question marks in the title line didn't work for my either. 

But every quote but Laubenberg is from a man. Men don't have to wonder about how they dress, where they go, make sure the pepper spray on the bike handle can be reached if needed, damn I went to the rest room without finishing my drink should I dump it and order another? And that last one. The idea that men have the right to force a woman to have sex because they are stronger. Frankly I believe he would believe that even if abortion never came up. Wonder how many men in this country believe this, just don't say it.