Tag: sexual abuse

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Sex Ed and the Senator

It was the sign. That’s what did it. That, plus this one kid I know…

Everything else was pretty innocuous. Like he intended. Without the sign, Senator Ron Muzzall’s Legislative Review might have earned no more than a quick once-over on its way to the recycle bin.

But there was the sign. And then there was the email.

Ron Muzzall is a Republican serving Washington State’s District 10, appointed in 2019 when his elected predecessor had to step down. Seems like a decent guy. A Whidbey Island farmer and businessman, and a stand-up community member.

And Senator Muzzall thinks sex education grooms our children like a predator. Continue reading “Sex Ed and the Senator”

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Another day in gym class

“I mean, it was fifty years ago, so…”

The old guy’s eyes are tired. Exhausted, desperate, like it’s fifty years of poison.

I sip my beer and try to stay calm. “Why does that matter?”

“C’mon, it’s just the way they did things then.”

“They say the same thing about slavery. OK. Does that make it right?”

“Well… well, hell no. But nobody ever complained, nobody ratted him out to their parents. If it happened to me, I mean it didn’t, but if it did, my parents and the school principal and everyone else would be like, ‘hey he’s a teacher, that’s his job, you shouldn’t have screwed up, and you wouldn’t have gotten it.’ And everyone else knew it too.”

Photo cred: The Atlantic

“Gotten it? What’s ‘it?’” Continue reading “Another day in gym class”

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Football bonding: fun or sex abuse?

So it took a couple days to get my head around this one.

According to the Seattle Times, Bothell High School football players have a hazing tradition called Rape Squad. Now, yes, today, in 2019. It’s a not-so-secret, boy-on-boy pranking thing, and it’s got the community outraged. The fellas call it “jubies.”

Bothell: Nice leafy suburban school. With a creepy criminal secret abusive bonding ritual.   (Google)

Continue reading “Football bonding: fun or sex abuse?”

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The crusader you’ve never heard of

“We’re braining our boys and raping our girls.”

That’ll grab your attention at the beginning of a forty-five-minute conversation. Irv Muchnick was asked what drives his passion to report on training deaths in football and sexual abuse in swimming. When you follow Irv’s work, you get used to hard-hitting stuff. But that was an extra level of truth.

Muchnick: Don’t try to hide from this man (Broadsheet)

Continue reading “The crusader you’ve never heard of”

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Abuse looks like this

This is what abuse looks like, and it’s not even about the abusers.

Where would abusers be without their enablers?

Will we ever have the courage to look in the mirror and realize who the enablers are? But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s circle back to that in a minute. Meanwhile grind your teeth at a few examples.

Kathie Klages, comfortably retired. Maybe.

Michigan State University has been front and center in the Larry Nassar scandal. But how did he get away with it for so long? Continue reading “Abuse looks like this”

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Too little too late, Mister Pope


It is I, Francis, your shepherd. Hear me, I have spoken.

Great news, Catholics. This week in pedophilia, your very own Pope Francis wrote you a nice letter. A letter too long coming, a letter strong on intention, a letter too weak on real-world action.

As reported by BBC, His Holiness penned the message after a sharp kick in the ass from the Attorney General of Pennsylvania, Continue reading “Too little too late, Mister Pope”

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Target Practice

Readers: This piece is full of metaphor. Please don’t go shooting anyone. Thank you.

Where’s the bad guy?

Been going to the gun range once a month. Not in a flag-waving, Second-Amendment, don’t-tread-on-me way. Just a nice thing to do with friends, then we go out to dinner, talk about our kids, families, stuff that really matters. It’s a better Friday date night than a movie or a church potluck. Continue reading “Target Practice”