Automated Attack Monkeys, Scalpel Mines, & Acid

I've been chatting to Martin Robbins recently and I share his incredulity that the blogosphere isn't aflame with outrage over the plans to include blogs, either by conspiracy or cock-up, depending on who you believe, in the Leveson Royal Charter.

Here are four blogs posting about it:

http://blog.indexoncensorship.org/2013/04/12/blog-regulation-not-waving-but-drowning/
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2013/04/12/what-happened-when-the-dcms-met-some-bloggers/
http://www.mjrobbins.net/?p=518
http://talkaboutlocal.org.uk/leveson-implementation-consultation-meetings-on-smaller-bloggers/

Frankly I am unsurprised that Sunny Hundal is putting his faith in the DCMS to 1, do what it told him it would and 2, not cock up the implementation. Sunny, bless him, has always had a touching faith in people that drove me mental even in the days when I used to post at LC. What excuse does everybody else (other than Martin and Index on Censorship) have, though?

I admit, I have been internet-shy the last few days because of the furore over That Woman, but I would have thought I'd have at least heard a squeak from the Lib Dem blogosphere. Were any of you invited to these meetings? Or are we just waiting for the other shoe to drop before we build up a proper head of outrage here? I'm genuinely perplexed.

Some people will find this entire entry triggery. I apologise for that in advance, but I think what I am putting here needs saying. I've put the worst bits behind a cut.

Sometimes a person fails through lack of empathy; this is not their fault, necessarily, although it can be if they do it wilfully. But mostly, it's just that they haven't really thought about what it would be like to be another person. There has been a lot of vilification of Ken Clarke today for comments he has made about rape, and I find the revulsion that he has triggered in many people entirely understandable. But then, I have been raped. I suspect Ken Clarke hasn't. And I further suspect that most of the people who think the way that he seems to on the matter of rape have not been raped either. It seems to me that most of the people who think that way have only considered the physical ramifications of a rape: if you are forced to have sex against your will by someone you have never met, there is much more likely to be the use of a weapon and much more likely to be serious physical injury, therefore that is worse than so-called "date rape".

This takes no consideration of the psychological effects of rape whatsoever.

I'd like to put forward four scenarios for your consideration, dear reader, and then there will be a poll. I'd like you to answer for yourself in the poll because obviously, none of us can know how another person will react. As always, if you don't have a Dreamwidth account you can log in with openID (any google, blogger, yahoo, myspace, wordpress, flickr, or lots of other accounts can function as an openID) here.

( cut for triggeryness )

( my answers )

I can understand what people are saying when they say that you can't classify rapes; that each rape must be considered on a case by case basis, and that ranking types of rape is wrong. I can understand it, but I don't fully share that view. I do rank types of rape. I classify them and I rank them. The problem is that I give far more importance to the psychological damage caused by rape, and therefore my rankings are radically different from the rankings of those who only consider the physical damage caused by rape.

For me, I can conceive of cases of date rape that would be less awful than some forms of stranger rape, for example if if a stranger rape happens in a place where you previously felt safe, like your home. But if all other elements of the crime are equal (level of force applied, etc.) date rape is a lot worse than stranger rape. Where I do agree with those who say you can't categorise rape is that each case should be considered on its own facts, and no case of rape should automatically fall into one sentencing bracket or another.

But then, I think that about ALL crimes.

Fresh Squeezings from the veins of the internet:

• One of my current favourite blogs is Crust of the Grouch (crust_of_the_grouch_feed). Grouch is a non-aligned political commenter. The text of her comments tends towards the pithy, so she won't overwhelm your f-list with essays like some. But the best bit is that she's an artist, and therefore each post has a satirical illustration of some kind. The one that jumped out to me today is here.


• Count Packula, Prince of Markness documents what happens when the twitterverse applies itself to a Daily Fail poll. Basically, hilarity ensues.


• The European Court of Human rights has SENSE shock! Via Feminist Law Professors (feministlawprofessor_feed) comes the news that the European Court of Human Rights has unanimously found that a state violated the human rights of the applicant and her mother in failing to protect them against domestic violence. Hurrah!


• Of all the fallout from my resignation from Liberal Conspiracy, this is the bit that makes me saddest. Aaron was the person who convinced my to write for LC in the first place, and although he might not have the purity of liberalism some of my fellow Lib Dems would like to see, he's a good man, and his heart's in the right place, even when his typing fingers aren't. Hope the sanity break does the trick, sweetie.


• Today's Lib Demmery: Mr Quist is one of many commenting on the Michael Brown thing today. Honestly, other parties have SHITLOADS of dodgy donors. We have ONE and nobody will ever let us forget it... And Lib Dem Voice has a post illustrating the importance of literacy. Nob = posh person. Knob = cock. Spelling is important!

And now for today's meme:

If your comment to this post includes the words Peter Cushing lives in Whitstable I will ask you five questions. You must then answer those questions and make a similar offer on your own blog.

sideshow_meg asked me the following five questions:

1. If you could buy anything, what would it be?
2. What did you want to be when you were little?
3. What is your favourite tv show?
4. What is your favourite alcoholic drink?
5. Where would you like to travel if money was no object?

and the answers are ( under the cut )

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