Article Launched: 04/24/2006 12:00:00 AM PDT
found at http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/opinions/ci_3742455
HOWEVER the Duke lacrosse rape case turns out, one lesson that absolutely
will not be learned is this: You can severely reduce your chances of having
a false accusation of rape leveled against you if you don't hire strange
women to come to your house and take their clothes off for money.
Also, you can severely reduce your chances of being raped if you do not
go to strange men's houses and take your clothes off for money. (Does anyone
else detect a common thread here?)
And if you are a girl in Aruba or New York City, among the best ways to
avoid being the victim of a horrible crime is to not get drunk in public or
go off in a car with men you just met. While we're on the subject of things
every 5-year-old should know, I also recommend against dousing yourself in
gasoline and striking a match.
Everyone makes mistakes, especially young people, but the outpouring of
support for the victims and their families is obscuring what ought to be a
flashing neon warning for potential future victims.
Whenever a gun is used in a crime, there are never-ending news stories
about how dangerous guns are. But these girls go out alone, late at night,
drink their butts off, and there's nary a peep about the dangers of drunk
women on their own in public. It's their "right."
Yes, of course no one "deserves" to die for a mistake. Or to be
raped or falsely accused of rape for a mistake. I have always been
unabashedly anti-murder, anti-rape and anti-false accusation - and I don't
care who knows about it!
But these statements would roll off the tongue more easily in a world
that so much as tacitly acknowledged that all these messy turns of fate
followed behavior that your mother could have told you was tacky.
Not very long ago, all the precursor behavior in these cases would have
been recognized as vulgar - whether or not anyone ended up dead, raped or
falsely accused of rape. But in a nation of people in constant terror of
being perceived as "judgmental," I'm not sure most people do
recognize that anymore.
It shouldn't be necessary to point out that girls shouldn't be
bar-hopping alone or taking their clothes off in front of strangers, and
that young men shouldn't be hiring strippers. But we live in a world of Bill
Clinton, Paris Hilton, Howard Stern, Julia Roberts in "Pretty
Woman," Democratic fundraisers at the Playboy Mansion and tax
deductions for entertaining clients at strip clubs.
This is an age in which the expression "girls gone wild" is
becoming a redundancy. So even as the bodies pile up, I don't think the
message about integrity is getting through.
The liberal charge of "hypocrisy" has so permeated the public
consciousness that no one is willing to condemn any behavior anymore, no
matter how seedy. The unstated rule is: If you've done it, you can't ever
criticize it - a standard that would seem to repudiate the good works of the
Rev. Franklin Graham, Malcolm X, Whittaker Chambers and St. Paul, among
others.
Every funny woman who has had an abortion feels compelled to defend
abortion for all women; every man who's ever been at a party with strippers
thinks he has to defend all men who watch strippers; and every Democrat who
voted for Bill Clinton feels the need to defend duplicity, adultery, lying
about adultery, sexual harassment, rape, perjury, obstruction of justice,
kicking the can of global Islamo-fascism down the road for eight years and
so on. (clip art intilectual)
This is crazy. (I can say that because I've never been diagnosed with a
psychiatric disorder. Although I did test positive for "Olympic
fever" once.)
In no area except morality would a sane person believe he can't criticize
something stupid because he's done it. How about: If you've ever forgotten
to fill up your car and run out of gas, you must forevermore defend a
person's right to ignore the gas gauge. Or if you've ever forgotten to wear
a coat in cold weather and caught a cold, henceforth you are obliged to
encourage others not to dress appropriately in the winter.
This deep-seated societal fear of being accused of "hypocrisy"
applies only to behavior touching on morals.
But we're all rotten sinners, incapable of redemption on our own. The
liberal answer to sin is to say: I can never pay this back, so my argument
will be I didn't do anything wrong.
The religion of peace's answer is: I've just beheaded an innocent man -
I'm off to meet Allah!
I don't know what the Jewish answer is, but I'm sure it's something other
than, "therefore, what I did is no longer bad behavior" - or the
Talmud could be a lot shorter.
The Christian answer is: I can never pay this back, but luckily that
Christ fellow has already paid my debt.
Ann Coulter is a columnist with the Universal Press Syndicate, 4520 Main
St., Kansas City, MO 64111.
Deliberate
Orgasm Duet