George Will Sucks

The cover of Newcity as spotted in Hot Doug's today.
My wife is back in Newcity again this week, talking about rape culture.

My favorite part is the bit about George Will.

The article explains: "In his June 6 column in the Washington Post, columnist George Will, a Cubs- and bowtie-loving conservative who heretofore seemed to reflect an older, more genteel brand of right-wing ideology, set off a tempest worthy of Rush Limbaugh when he took on the growing activism on campuses around these issues, most notoriously writing “when they make victimhood a coveted status that confers privileges, victims proliferate,” as if being raped was for social strivers like, say, wearing the football hero’s letterman’s jacket."

Kate's response explains why George Will's math is bad, but more importantly, applies some rational thinking to his theory. She explains, "Any emotionally healthy, reasonable person can see there’s very little upside to faking a rape [accusation]. The statistics and a mountain of anecdotal evidence tell us that women who report rape are often met with disbelief and derision; that perpetrators are rarely prosecuted, let alone convicted; that on campuses, the rapists are rarely kicked out and the victims often drop out. What’s the supposed benefit here? The warm embrace of your campus feminist group? You can get that by showing up with cookies and not being an asshole."

Kate Harding is one of Newcity's Lit 50

Kate Harding Photo: Joe Mazza/BraveLux
Congratulations to my wife Kate Harding who was just listed #47 in Newcity's 2014 Lit 50 in Chicago. Find the whole list here, or click here to jump straight to the page with her entry.

Fun fact: Some people have a thing about the number 47. Including trumpeter Steve Kenny, who randomly ended up as #47 on a poster of jazz musicians that me and another guy put together back in 1999. I helped to configure the print layout and it was probably my pen that happened to assign him number 47 as we labeled all of the musicians. I had no idea that Steve was previously a fan of the number 47 prior to this. My wife and Steve will now have something to talk about if they ever meet.