Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ucbvax!ucdavis!lll-crg!seismo!brl-tgr!matt
From: matt@brl-tgr.ARPA (Matthew Rosenblatt )
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: Something NEW...
Message-ID: <2232@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 17-Oct-85 16:38:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.2232
Posted: Thu Oct 17 16:38:54 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 20-Oct-85 07:23:22 EDT
References: <5986@cbscc.UUCP> <5@uscvax.UUCP> <6032@cbscc.UUCP> <1333@ihlpg.UUCP> <590@linus.UUCP> <917@utcs.uucp>
Distribution: net
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
Lines: 47


>>Why is rape illegal?  [PHILLIP W. SERVITA]

> It's not!  Rape is SOMETIMES illegal, sometimes not.  For example, in most
> states it is legal to rape your wife.  Etc. [ALAN J. ROSENTHAL]

In those jurisdictions where forced sex with one's wife is legal, 
rape is DEFINED so as to exclude such sex; therefore, in such
jurisdictions, IT IS NOT LEGALLY RAPE.  However rape is defined,
it is always defined as a crime, therefore the statement "it is
legal to rape X" is never true.

> 					Also, it seems absurd to me
> to call something illegal if someone does it and is not convicted for it,
> or especially if they are actually acquitted, so many rapes are not illegal,
> by a reasonable definition of 'illegal'.  [A. J. ROSENTHAL]

Wow!  That means the people who broke into our apartment locker and
stole our dishes didn't do anything illegal -- after all, the police
never caught them, so they were never convicted for it.  Most criminals
are never arrested; most of those arrested never get indicted; and most
of those indicted never go to trial, let alone get convicted.  If this
is a reasonable definition of "illegal," then "legal" must mean 
"anything you can get away with doing and escape punishment."

> In case you were asking, Why do we abhor rape?, I don't think this has a
> direct answer.  Being raped often ruins a woman's life.  At least it has
> a profound negative effect on the rest of it. [A. J. ROSENTHAL]

Yup.  And "we" abhor it so much that "we" made it illegal, subject to
heavy punishment.  WHO made rape illegal?  Well, rape was outlawed
in England and the U.S. long before women had any say at all in the
government, so it must have been MEN who made rape illegal, after
seeing the suffering it brings.  Men didn't want their wives, sisters,
mothers and daughters to suffer.  The victims of rape could not speak
for themselves in a legal forum, so "merciful men, the sons of merciful
men" had to speak for them.  (Forced sex, even with one's wife, has
ALWAYS been against Jewish religious law.)

Now -- if Mr. Servita has some sort of analogy with anti-abortion laws
in mind, let him make it.  It ought to be apparent from the preceding
paragraph just what sort of analogy Matt Rosenblatt would make.

But if we are going to see a rehash of Susan Brownmiller's preposterous
bilge tripe, please spare us.

					-- Matt Rosenblatt