The Post Where I Write "Rape" Eleven Times

You know what boils my potatoes? Crap like this. Picture it--Israel, the country that receives more foreign aid from us than any other country (and no, the tanks and bombs that we send to Iraq don't count as "foreign aid") and which super-genius Sarah Palin argues is worth getting into a nuclear war to defend. An Arab Muslim meets a Jewish woman, leads her to believe he's Jewish, and they have a consensual sexual relationship. After that, she discovers he's an Arab, freaks out, and now the man is being charged with rape by deception.

Sounds fair, right? I'm sure any defender of Israel would also find it just peachy if a black man were charged with rape because the blind white woman that he had sex with was led to believe he was white beforehand. Also, any right thinking person should agree that if a man meets a woman in a bar, tells her he's a millionaire, and it turns out he's not, then he should be tossed in jail for rape. Right?

What's sort of galling on top of the fact that this Israeli woman is just a garden-variety racist scumbag is the fact that this is a horrible mockery of rape laws. "Rape" by any intelligent person's definition should mean nonconsensual sex. Physically forcing yourself on someone--that's rape. Having sex with them when they're not capable of consent--when they're drugged, asleep, in a coma, underage (though the arbitrariness and inconsistency of statutory rape laws are another matter for discussion), etc.--that's also rape. But this "rape by deception" concept ignores the fact that consent was actually given. Just because a woman thought a man was of a certain race, religion, monetary means, marital status, etc.--that should not negate her consent. Otherwise, any man--or woman!--could be guilty of "rape" for any sort of lie before they slept together. Is a woman wearing a wig when she met the guy in a bar? Is the man actually unemployed though he dressed nice and led the woman to believe he had a good job? Did one of them borrow a friend's much nicer car before they went on the date?

This whole thing is absurd and just waters down the meaning of the term "rape". Enough with these stupid laws.