Monday - June 26, 2006

Bottoms Up!

“Hi there! Can I buy you a drink?”

Men of Wisconsin, don’t say you weren’t warned. The highly intelligent legislators in Cheese Country, with nothing better to do and time on their sticky little hands have decided (in their infinite wisdom) that personal responsibility should no longer apply to females, who obviously cannot be counted on to know when they have had enough booze.

While relieving females of all responsibility during their bar-hopping excursions, these legislators have decided that evil men, with the aid of demon rum, are to be chucked into the calaboose for getting broads tipsy and “taking advantage of their weakened condition.”

In a related note, with all due respect to the many dairy farmers in Wisconsin, I have worked on dairy farms in my younger years and I know cows produce two products in abundance. One is white and one is brown. This new law is as brown as it gets. It smells kinda familiar too. Shovel it, boys! Shovel it! MOOOOO!

Rape Law Expands To Include Alcohol
_{Mon., June 26, 2006 - 11:19 AM}

The nation’s top party school could get a sobering jolt from a change in state law that puts alcohol on a par with date-rape drugs as an aggravating factor in certain sexual assaults. The change, long sought by rape- victim advocates in Wisconsin, means that victims who are very drunk during a sexual encounter can be judged incapable of giving consent, triggering a possible second-degree sexual assault charge.

Prior to the change, which took effect in June, a victim who had been drinking typically had to be unconscious to be deemed incapable of consenting to sex. The law applies to alcohol-related sexual assaults committed by anyone anywhere in the state. But it may have particular resonance on hard-drinking college campuses such as UW- Madison, which was named the country’s No. 1 party school by the Princeton Review last year.

“It’s a great change,” said Carmen Hotvedt, a violence prevention specialist at UW-Madison’s University Health Services. “In our educational efforts with students, we define consent as freely given. The (new) law really enforces the educational messages we’ve been sending for a long time.” Wisconsin had been the only state to exclude alcohol as a potential legal intoxicant in rape cases before the law change, sponsored by Sen. Cathy Stepp, R-Sturtevant.

And while prosecutors say it is likely to be used only rarely - in cases in which victims don’t pass out but are so impaired by alcohol they are “unable to appraise their own conduct,” as one advocate put it - the change was heralded by experts who work with assault survivors. “Alcohol is the No. 1 date-rape drug, and we’ve felt strongly that our statutes should reflect that reality,” said Jill Groblewski, spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

The coalition started lobbying for the change in the mid-1990s, when language on intoxicants was added to the rape statutes in response to a surge in assaults aided by drugs. “The change in legislation allows prosecutors to hold offenders accountable who use alcohol to facilitate a sexual assault,” Groblewski said. “It gives prosecutors additional charging options.”

Under state law, having sexual contact with a person incapable of consent because they are under the influence of an intoxicant is defined as second- degree sexual assault. The offense is a Class C felony punishable by a fine up to $100,000 and a prison sentence of up to 25 years. Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard said the change was “long overdue” and is a good thing primarily for the message about alcohol that it sends - namely, that it can be just as dangerous as other drugs.

- More cheesy legislation at the Wisconsin State Journal ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/26/2006 at 12:42 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Sex •  
• Comments (8) • Trackbacks(1)  Permalink •  

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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