Betty Dodson with Carlin Ross

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I heard several interviews with Rick “The Sanatorium” Santorum last week. They were particularly infuriating to my feminist sensibilities. I find it hard to believe that he actually says what he says, completely on the record, on national TV. His anti-female position on abortion is crystal clear to me now: rape is justified if it brings forth life!

The crazy part is that he’s in hallowed company – according to religious doctrine. Rick and God share the same depraved position: women should never have a choice when it comes to their bodies. They believe that the hard line of “no abortions ever” is doing the right thing – no matter the circumstances.

OK, I know, I know. A lot of people will be pissed off by my writing this blog. What else is new?

Yesterday I was working with a client who was gang-raped as a teen. She grew up in a small Southern California town, and everybody knew everybody - including the rapists-kids.

Here’s the catch; the gang raping teens were not punished. My client was. She was scolded for what she wore. She was psychologically abused and humiliated. Her mom asked her “What did you do bring this upon yourself?” “God,” her mom said proudly, “is punishing you for being a little whore.”

If reading this makes you want to punch the computer screen, you are not alone.

I’m a “spiritual” guy who gets enraged! For me, rage is a positive, transformational emotion. I use it a lot.

I know it is a faux pas in the sex-positive porn industry these days to mention it if you've been raped. This is due to the fact mentioning it feeds that old assumption that sex workers have all been sexually abused or assaulted in some way and that sex work is not the kind of work a healthy woman who has not experienced abuse would ever choose.

My buddy Greg Palast explains why the housekeeper from Guinea who Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted sought asylum in the US:

"Director-General DSK's cruelty, arrogance and impunity toward African and other nations as generalissimo of the IMF is right in line with the story told by the poor, African hotel housekeeper in New York City.

Let's consider how the housekeeper from Guinea ended up here in New York. In 2002, this single mother was granted asylum. What drove her here?

It began with the IMF rape of Guinea.

Here is a newsweek article exposing something I've only heard of in old world military structures. Rape between men in the military.

After I finished reading the article, I placed myself in two different sets of shoes involved in the assault. The victim's and what I would do and the onlooker's who has to go along with one man's evil or else be the target himself. Then there are the commanding officers who don't report it because they want promotions and decorations, not justice. Then I thought about the victim's feeling of being trapped with your rapist(s) every day and you can't quit, you can't turn them in. Then I thought, what do women in the military feel when that situation is before them?

I can't imagine the strength and presence of mind it takes to head over in a cab to the hotel where you know they're holding a foreign press conference - lie and say you work for the hotel to get past security - and rush the cameras to tell the world you've just been gang raped by Gaddafi's men.  

Iman al-Obeidi shared her story with Anderson Cooper this week - risking her life yet again. In her own words:

I think it's time we reached the "end of our tolerance" for the sexual double standard, limits on our right to choose, lack of access to sex ed and contraception, and the gender wage gap.

I just signed up to fast with other MoveOn.org members on Saturday to protest the brutal and unjust budget cuts being debated in Washington. When Congress can seriously debate forcing veterans into homelessness and cutting food aid to pregnant women and children, while giving tax breaks to billionaires, something is very, very wrong.

Just watch the senator from Indiana who looks likes like a puffy over-stuffed pig state why women will fake rape to get an abortion. Quite unbelievable but there it is before our very eyes:

I wanted to post something about this story but I don't like to promote women as victims - I want to show how women harness tragedy for change. 

Eman al-Obeidy, the woman who burst into the foreign press dining room on Saturday telling of her gang rape by Qaddafi's men, may just have sparked a feminist movement in Libya. Yesterday, women staged rallies in Benghazi and Tobruk in support of al-Obeidy. She has women taking to the streets - and she has exposed the use of rape as an instrument of war.

“I really don’t believe in abortion.”

– Justin Bieber, in the latest issue of Rolling Stone.

When asked “how about in cases of rape,” Bieber responded: “Um. Well,
I think that’s really sad, but everything happens for a reason.”

This is why it's so important to teach kids about sex, contraception and intentional motherhood without religious underpinnings.  To think that a young man with so much influence believes so absolutely about something he'll never experience is chilling.   

While sitting at the sushi bar last night with Betty, I checked my blackberry to find the latest newsletter from truthout.org and read the following items on the list of new stories. If this isn't a full out assault on women's rights I don't know what is WTF!

women disappearing from the workforce; evidence from rapes often sits untested; Bush rushes to secure abstinence-only funding.