Reverse Discrimination
Recently there was a story published about how a 36 year old single mother who had sex with a 12 year old boy 191 times being sentenced nine years in jail. Reading this story has brought up an interesting issue in my mind: reverse discrimination, specifically reverse sexism.
The first thing I have to say is that this woman clearly has something wrong with her if she’s actively pursuing 12 year old boys. The article gives the message that this boy most likely wasn’t very consenting to this, with sentences such as “Mr Bennett added: ‘The defendant groomed him by buying him gifts to keep him happy’” sticking out at me. However, when I first saw this article my first thoughts were of the 12 year old boys I knew in middle school and what they were interested in. Overall, though, it seems that in this case the woman took advantage of this boy and had to buy him gifts to bribe him into being happy. So we’re going to assume that this was, in fact, a case of sex with an unwilling victim–more commonly called rape.
And yet the word “rape” is not used once in this article. And then I think of what would happen if a similar case came around where a 36 year old single father had sex 191 times with a 12 year old girl, and the absolute media shit storm that would ensue. In Texas, repeat sexual offenders are classified as capital offenders, meaning they are eligible for the death penalty, and have an absolute minimum sentence of 25 years in prison (source). If this case had happened in Texas, there is a very good chance this man would be put on death row for his crimes.
I realize that this crime happened in England, but regardless, child molestation cases are taken extremely seriously virtually everywhere. However, I believe that, even though I’m not very familiar with England’s court system, a man would have gotten a longer sentence. This woman is 36 years old now–in nine years she’ll be 45: just old enough to qualify as a cougar. Gee, I can’t WAIT until she gets released again!
I think this case is interesting in that it really shows a gender divide as far as sentencing for crimes goes. While I can’t think of any off the top of my head and my Google-fu is broken for the night, I’m sure I’ve heard of cases where a man had sex with a preteen four or five times and got more than ten years in prison for it. This woman had sex with this boy 191 times, and her sentence is nine years.
I believe this case shows that gender discrimination can go both ways, especially with how women tend to get off easier for some crimes. What this woman did was disgusting, and she deserves to spend a much longer period of time behind bars as far as I’m concerned. Unfortunately, women are often portrayed as victims, and sometimes the fact that they can also be perpetrators is missed by some people. So yes, while we should strive for equality between men and women, this also means not constantly treating women like victims in legal settings.
Species Avoids Extinction by Abstaining from Sex for 30 Million Years
Why yes, you did read that title correctly. A certain species of tiny invertebrates called Bdelloid rotifers managed to survive possible extinction from parasites by drying up and blowing away in the wind.
From the article:
“These animals are essentially playing an evolutionary game of hide and seek,” said Sherman. “They can drift on the wind to colonize parasite-free habitat patches where they reproduce rapidly and depart again before their enemies catch up. This effectively enables them to evade biotic enemies without sex, using mechanisms that no other known animals can duplicate.”
You can read the article here. Simply fascinating stuff.
The Horrors of Evolution
While the page titled “Evolution Fucked Your Shit Up” isn’t something I’m proud to be linking to, this is some pretty interesting stuff.
Evolution Fucked Your Shit Up: The World’s 50 Freakiest Animals
Fun fact: on the head of the Human Faced Carp, it looks like a distorted face is screaming (and no, that’s NOT what the “Human Faced” part is referring to).
Sheep Gives Birth to Human-Faced Lamb
There really isn’t anything witty I can say in response to this.
Well, I’ll quote the article at any rate:
The governor of the province where the ugly goat was born said that the little goat was the fruit of unnatural relationship between the female goat and a man.
“This incident is very shocking. It is my first time to see such an evil thing. It is really embarrassing,” he reportedly said. “The head belongs to a man while the body is that of a goat. This is evident that an adult human being was responsible. Evil powers caused this person to lose self control. We often hear cases of human beings who commit bestiality but this is the first time for such an act to produce a product with human features,” he added.
The mutant creature was hairless. Local residents said that even dogs were afraid to approach the bizarre animal.
The locals burnt the body of the little goat, and biologists had no chance to study the rare mutation.
Okay, granted, that thing is creepy as hell… but burning it? So sad scientists couldn’t study it. Hopefully next time one of these is born, it will be in a more developed nation where locals don’t kill the animal, claiming it is evil and sent by the devil. Unfortunately, this excludes many parts of rural America as well.
Cloning from the grave
IT’S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!
Okay, let me explain. This is my first reaction to reading about how scientists have made several clones of a mouse that had been frozen for 16 years. That’s right, scientists were able to clone an animal that had been dead for sixteen years.
Now, let’s look at this reasonably: out of over 1,100 attempts, only 7 clones came to fruition. It’s still impressive that this was at all possible, however.
My own thoughts are that this is amazing, and yet I’m a bit scared for our future. While a clone may be an exact genetic copy, it isn’t the same as the original as far as personality and thought go–they may have the same biological makeup, but they have different experiences who shape who they are. While I don’t want to get into a debate about nature vs. nurture, we cannot expect a clone to be exactly the same as its original. Both nature and nurture have an impact on how a person becomes who they are–certain people may be more susceptible to conditions such as depression from their genetic makeup, but this doesn’t necessarily mean they will be depressed.
Overall, this brings me to my personal stance on cloning: it is an amazing thing that scientists can do, but we really shouldn’t be trying to make cloning something accessible to everyone. I also think of what a human clone would have to go through, living their life under the metaphorical microscope of the scientific community. Come on, people–hasn’t science fiction taught us that creating a sentient being for the purpose of studying it always ends tragically?
At a certain point, I have to wonder when we are considered “playing God” in an extreme form. While modern medicine is a form of “playing God,” modern medicine merely preserves life, while cloning creates it. Where do you draw the line, and what is considered “too far”? In the end it comes down to personal taste, which is something that differs from person to person.
I’m reminded of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, where Victor Frankenstein plays God and creates a “monster” from dead flesh. The monster is viewed with disgust (almost reminiscent of the uncanny valley hypothesis), and is cast out from society. The monster ultimately rebels, and the question is raised: even though we can, should we? The people treated Frankenstein’s monster with loathing, and as a result it grew to dislike humanity. Is this a realistic possibility that may result from cloning?
As I stated before, I believe cloning is amazing but should be limited to scientific research only. I can only hope I never live to see a day when we are so afraid of death, the most natural occurrence, that we clone ourselves to live forever.
Coral eats jellyfish
I found this article pretty interesting. Not much else to comment on, just sharing. Enjoy!
WAT.
Well, here’s a quote I never thought I’d see:
“There’s just no excuse for using aborted babies in skin-care products.”
Well, besides the fact that I’m endlessly amused that a pro-lifer compared using aborted fetuses in skin products to the plot of Soylent Green, I’m a bit torn on this. First of all, I’m pro-choice, so the fact that an abortion happened doesn’t bother me. It’s the fact that they’re using the product of the abortion for skin care products.
Now, maybe I’d understand more if it were a serious medical breakthrough like a way to grow new body parts–but anti-aging creams? I mean, yeah, I guess you can’t get much younger than a fetus, but it seems like it crossed a moral line somewhere. I suppose that if you want to put aborted fetuses on your skin, you should be able to. But I feel like that piece of fetal skin could have been better spent in a laboratory doing research on medical breakthroughs that could save lives, not on the faces of vain, leathery middle aged women who want to attract guys with huge credit card limits or guys half their age.
I also have to point out just how creepy it is that the company was “inspired by fetal skin’s unique properties.” Maybe I’m missing something, but how do they know what fetal skin feels like? Is there some county fair petting zoo exhibit where you get to touch fetuses that I’ve never heard of?
Overall, the pro-choice viewpoint has received some blows recently, such as the abortion addicted woman who is publishing her life story, which includes 15 abortions in 17 years. I mean, how do you respond to that? I think it’s unfortunate that this happened to her, but even more unfortunate that she’s sharing her story so it can be used by right wing evangelical pro-lifers who are screaming about how God hates abortions and fags in an attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade and save the fetuses (but not the whales).
The Beatles Never Broke Up
I’ll let this guy’s website, The Beatles Never Broke Up speak for itself. Whether or not you believe him, the music’s still pretty fun. Someone on the forum I got this from said it’s a bunch of mashups. Either way, I enjoy it.
But yeah, this dude’s probably a nut job. Hearing “all I had heard about parallel worlds before…” tipped me off–dude’s nuts and already into this stuff. I’m not saying parallel worlds exist–hell, I’m always open to the possibility of being wrong!–but I highly doubt this guy went to a parallel world and grabbed an album The Beatles never put out on this world.
Man Arrested for Making Coffee Naked at Home
(I know that these stories have a tendency to get deleted after a few weeks, so I’ll copy and paste the article under the “more” section at the end of this post.)
Okay. Uh, wow. So a dude wakes up at 5:30am and is making coffee. In his own house. He’s not wearing clothes because it’s 5:30am and he’s at home. Nothing wrong with this, right?
According to some dipshit, wrong. Some jackass decided to call the cops because she and her 7 year old son were walking by outside. Maybe I’m missing something, but who’s out and about at 5:30am on a Monday morning? My elementary school didn’t start classes until 7:45.
Anyway, this idiot decided to call the cops and this man got arrested for indecent exposure. For making coffee naked. In his own home.
… REALLY, people? This scares me. I don’t want to get arrested because some creepy person is outside at 5:30 in the morning looking into my kitchen, where I may or may not be covered.
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m going to be closing my kitchen blinds from now on.
For $1.5M, you can own a car with a whale penis interior!
I really can’t say anything about this, other than linking to someone else’s thoughts on the matter.
Taking the expression “penis extender” to a whole new level.
