Thursday, October 10, 2013

Why is ignorance as to whether your partner is too drunk to consent a defense to rape of an adult?

Jurisprudence 101
A person cannot lawfully consent to sexual intercourse if they are beneath the age of consent or too drunk.
Ignorance of the age of your partner is not a defense for rape.
Why is ignorance as to whether your partner is too drunk to consent a defense to rape of an adult?

References:
http://news.walla.co.il/?w=%2F10%2F2684018
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Sudanese-man-charged-with-raping-17-year-old
State of Ohio R.C. 
http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2907
--HT Rhys Cartwright-Jones.
http://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/if-you-have-a-drunk-girl-at-your-house-and-she-con-1368191.html

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

4 points on J-Street (response to Nancy Goroff)

1. The US cannot survive with out God. And God chose the Jews. But the US may not survive in recognizable fashion -- certainly the Obama administration has done a lot to move toward a polity and society that is typical of the Americas. The salient question is "will the US survive without Israel." Realistically, the answer is no, but the causal chain is not so simple. See my 2008 review of Gelernter's Americanism and Mearsheimer and Walt's The Israel Lobby:

2. Whether Israel can survive with the backing of the US as a great power -- that too is an experiment that is going to be tried.

3. J-Street, in every case in which it has lobbied, has lobbied to oppose Israel's actions against Palestinian or Arab aggression.

4. The J-Street point of view, judging by its record, is that Israel must risk its existence in order to secure an agreement with the Palestinians. Should (or realistically, when) the Palestinians then violate such an agreement by launching or tolerating attacks on Israel, J-Street will lobby against American support for Israel's actions. This is the view of J-Street held by every serious political actor in Israel.