My email is not working very well

Consequently, I cannot reply easily to folks who are complaining about a thread that has spun out of control down below, fractaling off into discussions about rape and women’s suffrage and whatnot. In addition, I cannot net.nanny the blog because I’m on the road and running around and have barely had time to look in and see if people are playing well with others. One of my correspondents is a rape victim (and I know I have other readers in the same situation) who, not too surprisingly, say that comments like Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” remark and those defending him are extremely painful to those who have experienced rape. I agree. Let’s remember that such conversations are always being conducted in the homes and offices of people for whom the memory of their own rape is as near as closing their eyes and remembering. Therefore, that conversation will go to private email and will stop now. Thank you.

I further would like to add that I would just as soon the whole discussion of women’s suffrage go to Zippy’s blog . I have no particular problem with enfranchising all adults in having a say in how they shall be governed (here GKC and I differ) and don’t buy the notion that enfranchisement of women necessarily means an abortion license. There are plenty of women who oppose abortion and plenty of men who support it (it’s been a huge boon for irresponsible men). Here in the US, the prolife movement has made steady progress at the cultural level because anybody can see the justice of it. I daresay nobody (including me) can see the justice of denying women a say in how they shall be governed as a way to stop abortion. Those who want to make that case should please take it to Zippy’s site. I think the world of Zippy and regard him as one of most honest, decent, good and fearless proponents of the Faith I’ve met in cyberspace. His calm, clear-eyed refusal to be bamboozled by the Right’s prostitution to torture enthusiasm is a model of how a Catholic should think with the Church and not with the Tribe. But I disagree with him here on this entirely prudential matter which has, as far as I can see, no connection at all to the Church’s teaching, though I’m honored to call him a friend.