Unconventional Wisdom

AverageBro obviously doesn’t like the act Rev. Jeremiah Wright put on at the National Press Club on Monday. Check out the ensuing videos provided over there.

Another article via Newsalert. I was like “WHAT!?!?” when I saw the headline here…

The Quebec Human Rights Commission ruled a Montreal gay bar discriminated against a woman last May by asking her to leave.

Audrey Vachon complained to the commission when she entered Le Stud bar in Montreal’s Gay Village last year, she was asked to leave. Tuesday, the commission announced a settlement had been reached, but details weren’t released, The Gazette newspaper reported.

In a statement, commission spokesman Robert Sylvestre said the bar, which has only one public washroom, had agreed to adhere to regulations.

Just for the heck of it some gays gotta a problem with a politician using the term pansy via Instapundit.

Let’s not give the tough on crime crowd any ideas here. Article via Newsalert…

Rape reform in NSW means that post-coital regrets can now be refashioned into rape claims that send innocent men to prison. That’s why Gold Coast Titans footballer Anthony Laffranchi is a fortunate man. He walked free from a rape charge last week after the prosecution failed to establish lack of consent. He and his then Wests Tigers NRL teammates met a woman at the Sapphire Club in Kings Cross in September 2006 and continued to party at a teammate’s apartment. The footballer said he had consensual sex. The woman, who was “significantly affected” by alcohol, claimed she was raped. Had Laffranchi met the woman after January this year, he would probably be a convicted rapist facing a long stint in prison.

Let us be clear. Rape is wrong. It is a crime that calls for imprisonment. It can destroy a victim’s life. But let us be clear about something else. Wrongful claims of rape are made. And they can destroy a man’s life. No one knows whether a rape occurred that night when Laffranchi had sex with the woman. But under the old laws of rape, the defendant’s actual state of mind was critical. If the accused had an honest belief that sex was consensual, the rape charge failed. And when the evidence became a simple contest between “he said, she said”, a reasonable doubt would lead to an acquittal. Criminal law says that is as it should be; we are talking about a serious crime and imprisonment.

Not anymore. Now the rules have changed. Now, in a contest between he said it was consensual and she said it was rape, a jury may be forced to convict the man of rape without any further corroborating evidence.

The new laws say that if a woman is “substantially affected” by alcohol, she may lack the capacity to consent to sex even if she says “yes” to sex. More disturbing, even if a man honestly believes consent was given, his state of mind is now irrelevant. Now, the man is effectively deemed to have knowledge of lack of consent if there are no reasonable grounds for believing consent was given. And it gets worse. When asked to determine whether the man had no reasonable grounds for believing the woman gave consent, the jury must ignore the fact that the man was drunk.

In other words, the fact that the woman who says “yes” to sex is drunk is highly relevant: it may vitiate her consent. But the man’s intoxication must be ignored when working out whether he had “reasonable grounds” for believing consent was given. It is a curious law that says alcohol only affects the cognitive abilities of women.

These new rape laws degrade women. They treat them as helpless victims, stripping them of the power to make decisions about sex after consuming alcohol. Down a few too many Bacardi Breezers, and the law says you are no longer responsible for your actions. Is this really the message we want to send to young women?

From Reason via Archpundit…

The Permanent Candidate has failed to win the nomination of the paleoconservative Constitution Party. Eric Garris reports:

Last night, CP founder Howard Phillips strongly denounced [Alan] Keyes as a warmonger, neocon, and egomaniac. Phillips was subsequently attacked by Jim Clymer, the CP national chairman.

In spite of Keyes bringing in a lot of delegates, the CP remained true to their anti-interventionist views and rejected Keyes.

The nomination instead went to the antiwar conservative Chuck Baldwin, by a vote of 383.8 to 125.7. It’s a small but satisfying victory for two noble though possibly lost causes: the movement to end the occupation of Iraq and the transideological coalition to get Alan Keyes to shut up.

The Constitution Party doesn’t even want Alan Keyes. The man should just quit while he’s ahead. I could have thought he’d have a home there especially since Keyes is something of an evangelical. Though it’s probably less about his personality and more about his stands on the issues of Iraq amongst other things.

Here’s another kicker!

…the California affiliate of the Constitution Party is the old American Independent Party, a group formed as a political vehicle for the segregationist George Wallace. Jim Antle of The American Spectator, who has done the best reporting I’ve seen on the CP race, tells me that the California delegation backed Keyes, a black man — while the party’s two black state chairs were Keyes’ leading opponents. It’s a complicated world, innit?

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I first heard about this at The News Junkie!

From the Washington Post…

They lined up shoulder to shoulder inside the gray high-rise downtown, their politics as diverse as their backgrounds. An ex-felon who needs health insurance, followed by a high school student seeking empowerment, followed by a Marine Corps veteran who wants to prevent his country from crumbling.

Like hundreds of others, their quests led them to the Wake County voter services office this month to register as Democrats for the first time. The line of newcomers that snaked across the checkered tile floor was emblematic of those that have formed across the country this year: black voters, young voters, lifelong Republicans switching parties — all registering in record numbers, and all aligning as Democrats.

Elections Director Cherie Poucher waited for them behind a counter with a jar of pens and a 10-inch stack of registration forms. She had hired 10 people from a temp agency to help handle the rush on this final day of North Carolina voter registration. Now, as she watched four more people file through the door, Poucher wished she had hired more.

“In 20 years,” she said, “I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

The past seven states to hold primaries registered more than 1 million new Democratic voters; Republican numbers mainly ebbed or stagnated. North Carolina and Indiana, which will hold their presidential primaries on May 6, are reporting a swell of new Democrats that triples the surge in registrations before the 2004 primary.

The contest between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama has engaged enough new voters to change the political makeup of the country, experts say. The next several months — and the general election in November — will reveal the extent of the shift. Is it a temporary increase in interest resulting from a close election between historic candidates? Or is it a seismic swing in party realignment that foretells the end of the red-blue stalemate?

“We are likely to set an all-time record for primary turnout,” said Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate. “Whether this makes a major historical impact depends on who these voters are and whether or not they get what they want.”

Oh my what attention must this former child star need now:

The honeymoon is over for Gary Coleman and his new bride.

The 40-year-old actor and his 22-year-old wife, Shannon Price, are set to appear on TV’s “Divorce Court” on May 1 and 2. The couple wed in August after meeting on the set of the 2006 comedy “Church Ball.”

Among the problems the pair discusses with Judge Lynn Toler are Coleman’s anger and intimacy issues. Coleman and Price agree they have “ugly” monthly fights.

“If he doesn’t get his way, he throws a temper tantrum like a five-year-old does,” Price says, according to a transcript of the show provided to The Associated Press. “He like stomps the floor and yells, ‘Meehhhh,’ and starts throwing stuff around. He bashes his head in the wall, too.”

Coleman says he gets frustrated because “the male is always the bad guy.”

“When I try to state my case or explain things to her or try to get her to understand my point of view,” Coleman says, “my point of view doesn’t matter.”