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theotherside's comments:
on Bottling It Up in Cascade Locks
The world would be a better place if everybody could drink water from Cascade Locks. The demand for bottled water is enormous and so long as people want it, they might as well get the best water on Earth.
Take your crusade against bottled water to the consumers. I can't believe you make a huge deal about bottling water when just up the river in White Salmon they're building robotic war machines.
Just for the record, I think those UAV's are awesome! But if you're looking for the least-impact product known to man, bottled water comes close. Beer contributes to disease and traffic fatalities, hatchery fish compete with their wild cousins, robotic aircraft help pinpoint fiery attacks from the sky... and bottled water? Keeps my kid from getting dehydrated at the soccer match. Sheesh!!
posted 3 years, 10 months ago
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on Change to Oregon Rape Law?
Yes, the current law is far over-reaching and allows consensual sex to be cast as the most heinous of acts.
posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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on Change to Oregon Rape Law?
WomenVote,
There are two issues here. One is the problem of sex crimes, including rape. The other issue is the prosecution of alleged sex crimes.
You could find yourself in handcuffs tomorrow, accused of a sex crime. Any one of us could. I know you would be innocent, but that won't help you once you are in the criminal justice system.
There is a large and growing problem of innocent people being charged with sex crimes, and a large number of them are women.
If you don't think this is a real issue, then let's have a Think Out Loud segment on this. The horror stories will astound you. The police and prosecutors, courts and jails, have enormous power and almost unlimited financial means compared to one, innocent citizen. America does not honor "until proven guilty" when it comes to crimes that have such high emotional impact.
posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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on Change to Oregon Rape Law?
MeanMachine,
Even according to the current Oregon law, a man can be charged with rape in the first degree if he and his sex partner both suffered from diminished mental capacity.
This new law will be a nightmare is it passes.
posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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on Change to Oregon Rape Law?
Sue,
My son was charged with first degree rape, due to mental incapacity. My son's crime? Getting drunk and having sex with a stranger. It started out as kissing, progressed to intimate touching, and finally he asked her if she wanted to have sex. They discussed birth control.
So when does a boy, who had consensual sex with a stranger, find himself locked in jail and facing a mandatory minimum 8 years and four months?
It is a long and sad story that involves a history of mental illness on the part of the young woman, a very stressful home situation for her, and a mother on a crusade to take down my son. How can a young man like that protect himself from police, prosecutors, courts, prisons, and an angry public that cannot believe a young woman would ever, ever press charges unless they were true?
The emotional toll this has had on him, and on our whole family, cannot be measured and will never go away. Who pays for that? I have no interest in seeking "justice", I just want my life to go back to normal.
Please consider the unintended victims of this bill, since the current law has plenty already.
posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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on Change to Oregon Rape Law?
What if you are so drunk you can barely stand up? What if you are kissing and touching each other, and the suggestion is made to have intercourse, and you agree. You were wondering when he would finally ask! What if afterward you feel like a slut, the guy calls you a drunken whore in front of everybody, and your friends ask... did you really want to sex with that guy?
The answer is, "I was too drunk to know what I was doing."
Now the DA has a case, and we're talking first degree rape with a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 8 years and four months. All you have to do is tell the bastard defense attorney, shout it in tears, NO! I did not want to have sex!
I'm not talking about the new law. This happens today, with the current law.
posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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on Change to Oregon Rape Law?
Unfortunately, while most rape victims decide not to come forward and go after the rapist, there are many, many cases of non-victims coming forward due to anger, pressure from parents, or mental health problems. If the woman agreed to sex with the expectation of receiving love and attention, she will feel violated if the man turns out to be deceitful and self-serving. Young women discovered having sex may be reluctant to claim consent, when consent was enthusiastically given at the time. Remember with Measure 11, these crimes are handled in adult court, for most high school aged kids.
Finally, the sad fact is that mental illness is very common. Sometimes mental illness will cause a woman to make a rape claim due to her desire for attention, or from her inability to properly perceive reality. Most of us, however, are incapable of detecting mental illness in people we have met only casually.
This new law is very, very bad. In fact, the current law is bad. Too many innocent people have their lives ruined. The solution is to improve the Grand Jury system, so that rape charges are no longer rubber-stamped, but examined carefully and thoroughly before any indictments are written.
posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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on Change to Oregon Rape Law?
There was a case where a waitress received a $1000 tip from a very, very drunk customer. She called a cab for him and sent him on his way. The next day his wife came after the waitress to get the tip back from her. This went to court but I can't remember how it was resolved.
Clearly there should be a difference in the laws between forcible theft (or rape), and drunk people acting like drunk people.
posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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on Change to Oregon Rape Law?
I have recent, personal experience with the current rape law.
My son was charged with first degree rape after having drunken sex with a stranger at a high school party. Her friends walked in on the activity and she became very distraught, not because of any kind of assault, but because of embarassment. Her friends, however, did not know my son and assumed something bad was happening.
The young woman stayed at the party for several hours after having sex. Several female friends of my son, who did not know the young woman, talked with her afterward. She described feeling ashamed and dirty.
When she arrived home, very late and very drunk, her mother was furious. Her friends then related the story of the supposed sexual assault, and suddenly the mother had a very different attitude. She took her daughter to the hospital and had a rape kit done. Her daughter also claimed to having had only a very small amount of alcohol, so the mother concluded that her daughter was drugged.
Several months later, my son was arrested and jailed, charged with first degree rape, and bail was set at $250,000. We spent all of our savings on the legal defense. You might be surprised how much a lawyer charges to investigate a serious crime like first degree rape. The bill came to $125,000.
But after much work and more than a year, the truth (or should I say the lies) came out, and the rape charges were dropped. But the DA could not let it go and my son spent 90 days in jail and will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
You cannot imagine the trauma and pain this has caused my son.
The financial ruin is bad, but the emotional toll is much higher. Everything in society that is there to protect us, the police, the prosecutors, the judges, the jails... they are now the enemy. They have no interest in protecting the person charged with a sex crime. Their only interest is to see you put away.
The young woman never claimed to be forced or threatened or in any way raped in the way you and I would think of it. She only claimed that she was not able to consent because of her intoxication.
This new law will be a nightmare for many, many innocent families.
posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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