“It is very clear from the evidence, her physical injuries and her recollection of it that she was not a willing participant,” RCMP Inspector Derren Lench told reporters. “She is 16 years old and has gone through something none of us can imagine.”

Several folks at the party gathered ’round to watch, like tourists, and one boy took photos. And of course the pics keep appearing on Facebook, in spite of police efforts to remove them, because we really like to look at Not Rape, especially Not Child Rape.

“Every time it’s shut down on one Facebook [account], it seems to reappear [...] so the victim has to relive it on a daily basis,” Inspector Lench said in an interview.

I’m so glad I live in a Not-Rape Culture.

Wore my red shoes
Wore my red shoes again

Stupid girl
She was dressed like
She deserved everything that she got¹

1. Flaming Red, Patty Griffin

• Post Title of the Week: Schrödinger’s Rapist: or a guy’s guide to approaching strange women without being maced. And the post itself is good, too.
• BTW: Barbie is now too fat. Come on, you knew it was only a matter of time!
• Balloon baloney: I was as spellbound as anyone by the balloon boy story until the article I was reading mentioned that his father just happens to be an alum of the Wife Swap reality show. Is anyone seriously surprised this might have been a hoax? What, a confirmed attention whore pining for his long-gone 15 minutes of fame creates a fake news story? Never!
• The Male Gaze strikes again:  Poor men. Some of them just cannot cope rationally with the women’s romance genre. Which is to say they have a problem accepting women’s desire when it does not conform to what they want women to desire. To wit, the latest from Esquire: Edward Is Twilight in his loafers, and that’s why adolescent girls want to have sex with him. Ladies, the take-away: men who profess their undying love for you, desire you so much they can barely restrain themselves (but they do), and spend more time with you/thinking about you than they do scratching their balls in front of the tube = GAY! Mystery solved.
• Men We Love: The National Organization for Men Against Sexism is having their 34th annual conference in Portland this month; their theme is Men, Sex and Justice.
• Men We Hope Burn in Hell:  And speaking of sex and justice, Polanski should get in prison exactly what he gave to that 13 year old girl. Because after all, the “so-called crime” of unconsentual sodomy isn’t “rape-rape.”
• So Hillary Clinton works more than she poses for the camera. Apparently, this is bad. Only Hillary could get criticized for doing her job too much. Oy.
• Now you can get custom-made leather fetish wear for your toddlers. Shut up, haters – we’re totally not sexualizing our kids! It’s just good clean fun, like those stripper pole toys!
• It’s National Racist-But-Not-Racist Month! First the old man and his “nigger rig it” sign, then the justice of the peace who won’t marry interracial couples. They aren’t racist, they just stand up for what they believe (In between lynchings.)

Ladies, strapping yours across your chest, not your shoulder, can help deter these thieves!

Drop it like it’s hot:

• Awww: the Dalai Lama  “identifies” as a feminist and knows that ultimately, we’re all just fruit of the womb.  “Whether you believe this religion or that religion, we are all the same human beings. We all come from the same mother. That creates the basis for compassion.”
• Speaking of dollies: there’s something wrong with a toy homeless kid that costs $95.  It’s a lot like those expensive sheets you can buy that look like cardboard boxes. Stay classy, capitalism. Blech.
• One day at a time: I grew up with that show. Mackenzie Phillips’s Julie was the cool teenager I hoped I would grow up to be.  It’s depressing when the rosy film that covers childhood memories is wiped away, such as finding out Michael Landon was frequently plastered while on the set of Little House, and the One Day star’s father raped her repeatedly. A revelation that, by the way, has spawned the grossest headline I’ve read in a while: Is father-daughter incest always rape? Just, ick.
• Big fat scandal: No one is more subversive than an unapologetically “fat” woman. Except maybe an unapologetic man who doesn’t think she’s unattractive.   I admit to being a tad cynical about this new trend of including women over size 2 in fashion industry.  I hope it’s not just a fad destined to slowly waste away.
• Cervix spelunking: I admit it – I have never done the Mirror Thing. You girls know exactly what I’m talking about.  That thing with the mirror and your hoo-haa and the cold bathroom floor that every well-meaning health educator tells you your are supposed to do in order to Avoid Misogyny and truly Love Your Body.  Well, I like to think that I have made it to adulthood without a raging case of vulva-phobia even though I haven’t actually laid eyes on my own cervix. And I must say that it wasn’t self-lurv I felt when viewing someone else’s via the  Beautiful Cervix project so much as nausea, as it immediately reminded me of having my IUD put in. Like, Oh, hai, im ur cervix an OWWWWWWWWWWWW.
• Blondes have more fun:  No doubt all ya regular Rib Readers will remember the Primacy of Purity, aka “the state of girl’s twat is everyone else’s business.”  Well, it appears the people of the not-very-Christian Religious WrongRight aren’t the only practitioners to pedastalize the unpunctured pussy:

Via.

Logo by Cool Text.

We Should Worry originally uploaded by stevechasmar.

Through blinking, bleary eyes, we watched the Twin Towers come down, over and over and over.

“Nothing will ever be the same again,” someone said.

In the aftermath, I read very few of the many articles about the attacks because I just didn’t have it in me. But I could not avoid seeing images, and two of them were so moving they’ve stuck with me for eight years.

One of them was a snapshot someone took of an offering left in front of the American Embassy in Denmark. It was a candle surrounded by flowers and a hand-lettered sign that read in English: “All of us today are USA.”

The other image was the one below.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget how these pictures made me feel, just as I will never forget that day.

Guardian Angel Ice Sculpture by artist Darlene Racicote of Ontario, Canada, originally uploaded to Flickr by jvc_scout_mom.

Just so you fully appreciate what I go through for you: this week’s tour of Hell was made even more torturous than usual by the roughly thirty-six thousand articles about a certain third-rate entertainer who beat up his girlfriend and then took his crocodile tears to Larry King. I would rather be lashed to a hot slab and have my innards pulled out, roasted over an open fire and masticated slowly by a scaly, b.o.-reeking demon than read one more word about that asshat.

• Oh, snap:  Barney Frank handles the dining room table from Planet Moron who compares Obama’s plan for health care with Nazi policy.
• Article Title of the Week:  You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream for (Gay Marriage) Ice Cream! Sweet.
• Badass: What woman “blew the minds of the entire intellectual community like an unstoppable mushroom cloud of face-melting science” back when women were still considered to be TSTL?¹
• RIP Ted Kennedy: So many icons dead this summer. Is the apocalypse coming or what?
• Fierce:  Did you know that Beyonce is possessed by the devil? It’s totally true.
• Ain’t to proud to squat:  DO NOT WANT more shit to drag around.
• Today in Creative Rationalizations for Sexism: Pimps are people, too.
• Kiddie porn: Apparently there are a bunch of supposed adults who think Pole Dance toys are a harmless reflection of little girls’ desire to emulate adults. The chicken-shit, deliberate cluelessness of these people makes me want to ground them in their rooms for the rest of their lives.
• Ack, after that, I need funny: How about these guys. BTW, what is it with the English and cross-dressing?
• Speaking of going girlie: I am an unapologetically girlie girl. So if anyone were to put any of these gorgeous things under my tree this Christmas, particularly the bra, I would not turn such a gift rudely away.
• Fear of a Black President:  Some parents don’t want Obama talking to their kids because the Nazis told their kids to stay in school, too.
• Sick and wrong (but so damn funny):  The Teaches of Piggy.
• It’s baaaaack:  School starts with swine flu. Did you know this virus can be traced back to one adorable little towheaded pig-licker? Figures.

1. TSTL = Too Stupid To Live. I had to look it up.

Found here.