Police officers acquitted of rape

Apparently because she could walk, the sex could not have been non-consensual:

Although the defense never conceded that the two had sex, a central point of argument in the case was whether the woman was too drunk to consent to sex. Under the prosecutors’ theory of rape, they had to prove that the woman was physically unable to consent to sex, meaning that she was either unconscious or unable to speak when she was penetrated.

Defense lawyers pointed to surveillance footage of the woman walking on her own as she entered the building in front of the officers as evidence that she was conscious and able to communicate.

The officers insist it was “just cuddling” although one admitted to wearing a condom.  As Boing Boing notes, “If you’d like to not have on-duty police officers “cuddle” you when drunk, remember to get so plastered as to be unconscious by the time the cuddle condom comes out”.

(Thanks, Mr Jender!)

The agenda project

The Agenda Project is a NYC based group. You can find their quite vivid videos on youtube.com. Apparently, Fox News thinks the following goes over the top. Compared to their claims, it seems rather mild.

2 milllion hits

UPDATE: Something I should have said below.  It was just a few of us who started this blog, and we never expected to be joined by such an awesome and far-flung team of bloggers.  That’s definitely one of the best things.  That and the awesome far-flung readers.

Sometime this week, we’ll get our two millionth hit.  It seemed to us a good time to reflect on how far we’ve come.  When I started this blog, I didn’t actually expect much of anyone to read it.  I certainly never expected that we’d become one of the top philosophy blogs.  But that’s not what’s pleased me most.  What are the things that have pleased me most?

• The Gendered Conference Campaign, and the difference it’s making.
• Having an absolutely awesome theme song written for the Gendered Conference Campaign by the absolutely awesome Monads.
• The worldwide attention we helped bring to the cause of someone appallingly treated by the organisers of an NEH seminar.
• The worldwide attention we helped bring to the idea of donating to Planned Parenthood in Sarah Palin’s name.  (Not sure how this happened.  The campaign wasn’t by any means our idea, but for some reason we became one of the top hits for it.)
• Developing one of the friendliest, most constructive, least snarky online communities around.
• Perhaps most of all, getting comments and emails from all the people to whom this blog has made a positive difference.

What have the biggest downsides been?  Well, there are always the trolls and their charming view of feminists, but we just delete ’em.  Then there are all the people who want to tell us what size women they most like to have sex with.  I guess I’m pretty bored with that.

But enough about me.  How about you?