When I was a wee lad of 9, I had to have a babysitter occasionally when my grandparents couldn’t have me while my parents were out for the night.
One Saturday afternoon, my mother commented “Shari” (not her real name) was coming over to babysit me. I didn’t think anything of it as I was ready to leave to play baseball against another bunch of kids from a different neighborhood. Once I returned home, I was told to take a bath and Shari would soon be over. I did as I was told and as on my parents bed reading a Tom Mix book, one of those “Big, Little Books” so popular years before that my grandmother gave me. Mom came and kissed me goodbye and following her was this beautiful creature of 16 – Shari.
I have to admit, even at 9 I had a thing for girls and natural curiosity by a young man was part of growing up. Shari was cute, smelled nice, and put her arm around me. We had a root beer float, watched a little TV, and I went to bed at nine o’clock, as ordered by my mother. I was under the covers and Shari came in, bent over, and placed her warm lips on mine. Wow, I didn’t expect that. No would you like a goodnight kiss or any warning, just planted one on me. I’m not going to lie, I liked it… I even asked for another, the naughty boy I was.
Was she a sexual predator? I was 9 and she was 16. I can remember everything about that night, where I was, how I got there, and what happened explicitly. The color of the room (blue) and bedspread (burgundy), the overhead light, the shadow of her body hovering over me, her perfume, her hair spray scent, her soft lips.
This really happened to me at 9 years old and I wasn’t drunk or drugged. I probably had a sugar high from the root beer float, but it didn’t affect my memory.
Ms. Ford can really only remember the names of those in the bedroom with her, but she can’t remember how she got there, what house she was in, how she got home, not much of anything except names of boys she didn’t know and had no exposure to before — they weren’t classmates, they weren’t neighbors.
And she admits she was under the influence of alcohol as were the boys trying to molest her. Her friends at the party don’t remember the incident or even remember the party or Brett Kavanaugh or Mark Judge.
In Julie Swetnick’s case, she said Brett Kavanaugh exposed himself to her and plied others with liquor in the punchbowl so rape could occur with young ladies at the party. Evidently Ms. Swetnick said these “gang rape parties” happened more than once and Mr. Kavanaugh was at one, or many, and he was the ring leader. Really, rapes happened at Yale on a regular basis and nobody, nobody said a thing in the 1980s, we are expected to believe this? I have strong suspicions that if one or a few rapes happened on campus at Yale or off campus, it wouldn’t stay a secret long, especially if they were repeated regularly.
As Army Bob and others have put forth before, the FBI investigates the background of candidates by talking to friends, work acquaintances, relatives, high school and college classmates, etc. They gather information, make a report and put it in a nice folder to present to those needing to know. They don’t come to a conclusion or recommendation, they just present information.
Mark Kavanaugh has been investigated six times previously during his climb up the civil service judge positions. He has proven he is a strong supporter of the U.S. Constitution, has been a solid jurist, and has had a superb career as a judge. The left and Fake News media (ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, MSNBC, etc.) are trying to stop his nomination because:
1) He was selected by President Trump.
2) He is viewed as a conservative leaning judge.
3) He attacked the Democrats and media over these accusations and what it is doing to his family, his honor, and his reputation. After what the Democrats have said and attacked him, I’m glad he stood his ground and fired back.
It is the classic “she said,” “he said” — with no corroboration, no evidence, no facts, no witnesses. In short, there is nothing there “there.”.Does she have a false memory? Maybe. No sane prosecutor would ever go to trial with a case such as this with no evidence, no corroboration, no facts nor witnesses.
To the Republicans, after this charade of Democrat resistance, take the vote after the FBI is done in a week and confirm this fine man to the U.S. Supreme Court and leave his family alone.
This is really about one thing, defending abortion. Democrats are worried about any vote concerning abortion rights with a conservative court. As well they should, since there are many that say it is unconstitutional.
Let the games begin.
The rotting of America from within continues…
I am struck by the ignorance of our anonymous Ranger where it concerns sexual assault. He relates to us a story of a young boy who enjoys the attentions of a 16 year-old babysitter. The first kiss is so pleasant that he asks , note ASKS, for a second kiss. Nowhere does he say that the experience was scary, threatening, or unwelcome. Of course his memory wasn’t compromised! He is describing to his readers an experience that he is happy to relive whenever the spirit moves him. Compare that to an experience that happened to Christine Blasey Ford when she was only 15. She was overpowered by a boy or boys who shoved her into a bedroom, locked the door, turned up the music, and then threw her onto a bed where one groped her against her will, pulling at her clothes and covering her mouth when she tried to call for help. This experience was traumatic! Not a heady, perfumed, gentle kiss from a “beautiful creature of 16.” The difference is stark and Ranger’s oblivion to that difference is alarming.
I cannot get beyond this part of his column to give any credence to his other points.
A man so ignorant about the consequences of sexual trauma, so insensitive to the horrible, contradictory feelings of a girl molested against her will, makes himself impossible to take seriously on any other matters. He is willfully ignorant. He should be ashamed of himself.
Mrs. Mandaville,
The presumption of innocence the law and due process are a human right, this is not true just because you want it to be true. The three witness and the accused said it did not happen. The evidence against this is overwhelming but we need to bring in the guilty man and give him a fair trial and hang him. Judge Kavanaugh is guilty of being the swing vote on the Court against Roe V. Wade if he was pro abortion this never would have come out, the media would have ignored it. Even if the FBI report is favorable to Judge Kavanaugh the left will not accept it.
No presumption of innocence is in your comment, she was attacked, a slam dunk it did happen the witnesses be dammed, the law be dammed,
due process be dammed, truth be dammed, if Dr. Ford said it happened it happened. This kind of injustice is found in Socialist governments not in our Constitutional form of government.
Judge Kavanaugh will be confirmed, stand ready for the firestorm.
With respect, Bob, my objection to Rick is his total ignorance in equating his experience with a babysitter with whom he was enamored, and the experience Christine Ford endured. I did not mention Kavanaugh’s name because that was not part of my point. Rick implies by comparing his story to Ford’s that the situations are equal, that the fact that he remembers all the details of a pleasant kiss means Ford should also be able to remember the details of the trauma she experienced. That is where his willful ignorance comes into play. He has no understanding of the psychological consequences to sexual assault victims, male or female, at all. It’s just so easy for him to blame the victim.
You are correct that the Kavanaugh dissenters, are, in part, motivated by the possibility that Roe could be compromised or overturned. And there will be a firestorm when he is confirmed. But some of us are opposed to Kavanaugh because he displayed a temperament unfitting a justice, he showed extreme partisanship, and a hint of vengeance toward those who oppose him (Democrats), and he lied and obfuscated to the panel about a variety of things. All of that overshadows, for me, an accusation that cannot be corroborated of sexual assault. There are so many other qualified candidates for the Justice position that I am forced to wonder why this particular man, with all the baggage, is so important to Republicans that they cannot turn to another applicant for the job. An honorable man would withdraw his name from consideration after this circus. Just my opinion.
I think the Ranger and Tread Boy need to seek some kind of therapy. Too much anger.
Yes unwanted sexual assault is a terrible thing. . So when did our children start not understanding what the word NO means. Look at the young today and by young I mean anyone under the age of 65…Those of us older quickly understood the meaning of the word NO. Today it seems No really means maybe or yes.
Now looking at the allegations brought forth in this hearings…are they flawed??
The answer may truly be yes and no..they can be flawed in regards to at this party we know many may have been drunk or high on drugs. So does a sober person stay or leave. If both were drunk or high and with no witnesses, who is telling the truth?
The allegations may have some merit. Are there any witnesses who were not drunk or high? Was the victim sober? Why was a 15yr old girl at a party with alcohol and drugs ? Was she not free to leave the party prior to the alleged assault? Was she ever warned by her parents to the dangers of being a wild parties ?
This is why sexual assault can be so hard to prove. It turns into a he said she said argument
It is always possible what may have started as consensual, one may have had a change of mind after.
I state again NO should always mean NO stop what you are doing. Sadly we have a generation where many believe there is a gray area in the definition of NO.
Sadly also without concert facts or proof wrongly accusing and convicting a innocent person is a horrible crime also.
Let’s work hard on everyone understanding what NO means…and just maybe incidents like this may become few and far