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Sunday, December 19, 2010

Please. Aren't we supposed to be able to hold two ideas in our heads at once?
Posted by Jill | 10:36 AM
There are a number of reasons I haven't written about the whole Wikileaks/Assange mess. One of them is that jurassicpork is doing such a whiz-bang-up job of it, another is that I am again in work-seven-days-a-week-to-meet-a-deadline mode, and a third is that it requires more attention than I'm able to give it.

What grieves me about the blogtopia (™ Skippy) response to the arrest of Julian Assange on sex chatges in Sweden is that for a bunch of supposedly intelligent people, we sure are incapable of holding two conflicting ideas in our heads.

Isn't it just possible that Julian Assange is both a crusader for truth AND an incorrigible douchebag where women are concerned? Do we have to ignore the service that Wikileaks may be doing in getting truths out to a public from which all too much is hidden because Assange is an asshole? And conversely, do we have to automatically brand Assange innocent of sex charges just because we may value what he's done with Wikileaks?

Now, I'm on record many times as stating that I think the tendency among much of the feminist blogosphere to brand every kind of unwanted sexual attention as "rape" not only minimizes the horror of rape, but it creates a culture of victimology that makes it impossible to live a normal life. I'm not claiming to tell anyone how to respond to rape, but I fail to understand how it's empowering to call yourself a "survivor of rape" and then have every possible stimulus in the culture be a trigger for a hyperemotional response. I understand about sexism in the culture. I understand about the objectification of women. I also know first-hand what it's like to be with a guy in a fraternity house and be told that your choice is to have sex with him or have your chothes torn from you by force and thrown out the window. I went on after that to a) make a point of staying out of fraternity bedrooms; and b) live a normal life that includes a happy 24-year marriage.

Whenever we have a high-profile rape case in the news, the issue of "at what point can you withdraw consent" comes up. In an ideal world, you can withdraw consent at any time. In a real world where you're not having sex with an arrogant asshole who fancies himself an adventurer, you can withdraw consent at any time. You SHOULD be able to withdraw consent at any time. If Julian Assange is guilty of continuing to have sex after consent is withdrawn, it's definitely a type of sexual assault.

What I question is whether this particular case of sexual assault would become an international one, with involvement by Interpol, if Assange weren't pissing off some Very Powerful People. It's not all that much different from Republicans having the vapors over Paula Jones' claim of sexual harassment by Bill Clinton when many of them are doing the same thing. No one would have given a shit about what may have happened in that Arkansas room if Clinton hadn't been a Democratic president with high approval ratings. But he was pissing off some Very Powerful People. Former chief UNSCOM weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who was vocal about there being no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, was also pissing off some Very Powerful People. Ritter still awaits trial from a January 2010 child endangerment charge resulting from an internet sex sting. It's the second time he's been caught in a similar sting after charges in a 2001 case were dismissed.

The question is not whether Assange is a creep or Ritter is a child predator. It certainly appears that Assange IS a creep and Ritter IS a child predator. The question is whether sex charges are being pursued not to protect women (in the case of Assange) or children (in the case of Ritter), but instead for political reasons. Given the overall misogyny in the culture surrounding women and sex, and the snickering and leering that otherwise normal men do about sexy-looking teenaged girls, I question whether sex charges in cases like these would be pursued with the same vigor if there were not strong political points to be made by prosecuting such people.

If Scott Ritter is a guy who can't control himself around teenaged girls, that would make him a sex criminal. It would NOT make him wrong about Iraq. If Julian Assange has a pattern of sexual misbehavior, it makes him a shithead that women should avoid. It doesn't mean that what Wikileaks reveals is not true.

It shouldn't be that difficult for us to keep these two ideas in our heads at the same time.

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Saturday, August 21, 2010

Julian Assange; Hero or Rapist? Sheesh!
Posted by Melina | 3:12 PM

This is the oddest thing. I was scanning my email today and I read an urgent report from last night from CNN's urgent news report service, that Julian Assange, of Wikileaks fame, had been charged with rape in Sweden. I was sort of taken aback but figured I'd look into it today and see if its some ginned up attempt at discrediting him for lack of anything else to do about stopping Wikileaks. Interestingly, not 10 posts later was another special CNN report saying something to the effect of 'oh never mind, the charges have been dropped'...huh?

It appears that Assange is hiding out in Sweden, where the main set of Wikileaks servers are located, because of their laws protecting journalists, while the likes of Michael Moore call him a hero and raise money for his defense. According to the San Francisco Chronicle two women who knew each other, one in her 20's and one in her 30's, came forward and charged him with rape and molestation, but the refused to file official reports....huh? They supposedly knew all about the wikileaks issue and were "afraid of his power"...huh? I'll be looking for them both, weeping on Larry King, looking for their own reality show. Apparently all charges have been dropped and this is just another strange blip in this story, which which would make this guy either a patriotic folk hero or a war criminal/rapist....huh? Assange responded on Twitter thusly:

the charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing.


According to Reuters, Co-workers have said that they were expecting the attacks and that they were all purely to discredit Wikileaks content. But Wikileaks is well beyond being just about Julian Assange and anyone who doesn't realize that is a fool.

I believe that what he has done for this country in his brave publication of documents that have definitely made him a target, and his strong stand on continuing this work is no less than patriotic and brave. The information in the documents stands as the real testament of its own worth and lacking a real press in America these days, this guy has done us a huge service.

I also know that when the powers that be are at the end of their collective ropes and can't stop something like this, they resort to this sort of discrediting of those who, at one time, might have been the Woodward and Bernsteins of this war. The playing field is so different and our information network is huge and global, but this feels to me like duct tape left over the lock on a door at the Watergate Hotel.

Michael Moore is raising money for Assange's defense and encouraging us to support him. Of course, even the floated hint of this sort of sexual impropriety could ruin not only that support, but also his life. Its a chance that you take when you go up against the big boys, and I'm sure that Assange was well aware that they would try everything to stop him. But this is so heavy handed as to seem almost like a private extortion attempt by some local assholes. It would be truly sad if this was the work of the CIA, as the SF Chronicle suggested, because if that's so then we need to pump more training into our intelligence divisions.

I hope to see more on this as it unfolds; its too good for the tabloids not to pick up. My advice to Mr. Assange is to keep your head down and, as someone smart recently said to me, draw a line around yourself, close your doors, and just stay inside until things die down.
Godspeed.

RIP Coco...you cant get there from anywhere...still working on it...

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