Religions
Where is Emma Sulkowicz?
Over the past few days walking around New York City I have begun to notice graduates of Columbia University. It seems like it is that time of year again where college kids actually go out into the real world. No more safe spaces, trigger warnings, Title IX kangaroo courts and no more walking around with mattresses for college credit. All of that stuff is in the past and these kids are supposedly ready to enter real world.
I wonder how the “Mattress Girl” Emma Sulkowicz is holding up. Is she still making porn videos? Is she still holding onto her mattress?
Well, what I do know is that the dude who had to deal with the fallout from having sex with her isn’t giving up his fight. If my son were to ever go through what he went through, I’d be in court making sure someone pays for the nonsense he dealt with.
Just in case you didn’t know about Emma, she was a Columbia University student who accused her classmate Paul Nungesser of raping her in 2012. The university found him “not responsible” in a Title IX investigation. She eventually protested the decision by carrying around her mattress around the campus as part of a so-called “art project” titled Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight). She insisted on doing so until Paul was no longer on campus.
For some bizarre reason, she actually received academic credit for it. Paul maintained his innocence and later filed a lawsuit against Columbia, its president, Lee Bollinger, its trustees and art professor Jon Kessler in April of 2015. He alleged that the school violated Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded education.
The lawsuit was dismissed but he has filed a new suit claiming that since Columbia permitted Emma to publicly protest, even after they found him “not responsible” for sexual misconduct, the school violated his rights under Title IX but with a new complaint.
In a recent Newsweek article, they reported that Nungesser filed a new 100 page complaint stating that he was discriminated against because he is male. His complaint:
“urges the judge to consider “the case at hand if the genders were reversed,” and then proposes a scenario involving people named Paula and Emmet, with details mirroring what happened between Nungesser and Sulkowicz.
The new complaint also alleges that Columbia’s policies and practices “perpetuate the stereotype of the sex-driven male,” which violates Title IX. For example, the complaint says, Columbia’s policies include no examples of sexual violence involving a male victim and a female perpetrator, only female victims and male perpetrators, or gender-neutral victims and perpetrators.
Also, it says, all videos shown during a mandatory sexual respect program for students focused on “violence against women” and not gender-based violence more generally.
Further, the complaint alleges, the school’s sexual violence policies focus only on penetration as opposed to someone being “made to penetrate.”
I feel it is time for men on these college campuses to keep up the fight and use the law against those who feel it is supposed to protect only women. The law was written gender neutral and if there is discrimination in any form against any sex, the law has been violated.
Male students’ recent lawsuits against colleges have begun to gain some traction in recent months. There are cases in Washington and Lee University as well as Brown.
We’ll see what happens. I wish Mr. Nungesser well and hope that Emma isn’t living in the college fantasy world anymore. It’s time to end the madness on college campuses and we need to stamp out the government overreach and ideological fanaticism. It has gotten completely out of hand.
55 years of Marriage
Today is my parents’ 55th wedding anniversary. They are the model for what long-term relationships are supposed to be. No marriage is perfect, but theirs seems like it has stood the test of time. I feel their partnership is what a good marriage can ultimately be. I certainly know what a bad marriage looks like, since I was once in one.
My parents are people who I still admire and look up to for all they have accomplished in their lives. It’s rare for people to be married as long as they have been. It is unfortunate our society doesn’t have more models like them to emulate.
55 years is a long time to be with one person. I don’t know how they did it but glad they are still alive and kicking. I’m also happy that they are still together for me, my two sisters and their grandkids.
Even though they will probably never see this post (since they aren’t on social media), and I’ve already spoken to them, Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!
The Republican Party Is Broken
No need to be scared my liberal socialist friends. Stay calm and read Marx.
You’ll be fine with that orange dude as prez. We’ll all be suffering together in a few years. His presidency will be more proof that there hasn’t been an effective republican president in what, 30 years?
Take the country down…isn’t that what the GOP has been trying to do for the past 7 years?
GOP: You have the monster you created. Good luck!
I found an interesting article that I want to share. This excerpt sums things up for me:
“Virtually the entire Republican apparatus will follow Tr*mp sooner or later, because without the voters, they have no power. And those voters have revealed things about the nature of the party that many Republicans prefer to deny. Whatever abstract arguments for conservative policy — and these arguments exist, and a great many people subscribe to them earnestly — on the ground, Republican politics boils down to ethno-nationalistic passions ungoverned by reason. Once a figure has been accepted as a friendly member of their tribe, there is no level of absurdity to which he can stoop that would discredit him. And since reason cannot penetrate the crude tribalism that animates Republicans, it follows that nothing President Obama could have proposed on economic stimulus, health care, or deficits could have avoided the paroxysms of rage that faced him.”
“The paranoid mendacity of Joe McCarthy, the racial pandering of Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, and George Bush, the jingoism and anti-intellectualism of Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Sarah Palin — all these forces have embodied the essence of American conservative politics as it is actually practiced (rather than as conservative intellectuals like to imagine it). Trump has finally turned that which was always there against itself.”
Thoughts and Reflections
If you look through my blog you will see years of my thoughts. I have posted my thoughts on divorce, family court, college “rape,” male/female relationships and so much more. I started blogging a few years after my divorce as a way to share my experience and hopefully help others who are in a similar position as me.
During this time I’ve received several emails through this site asking me if I can help a new partner who is dealing with an ex in family court, or a father who is dealing with any number of issues with their wife, girlfriend or future ex-wife. While I cannot give legal advice, I can only give you my thoughts and reflections on what I’ve done and would possibly do.
I’ve seen a lot over the past 9 years and learned from many other people’s mistakes. What I know for sure is that you cannot play defense for your entire life. If you are always reacting to everything in your environment, you will forever feel out of control. While humans can’t be in charge of everything around us, we can be proactive. We can try to think more like a chess player and not like we are in a game of checkers. We can stay in the moment and enjoy life all around us, but in times of potential crisis, we must think three or four moves ahead.
I have found this approach most advantageous in my life, especially when it comes to issues in court. You don’t have to believe anything I write. I suggest you look at what happens if you take a different path. While your journey might not be the same as mine, there are ways of handling situations where, in the end, could result in a much smoother ride in the long term. I feel that in life, it is either pay now or pay later. I tend to choose to pay now and get the worst part out of the way. I want to enjoy the long term benefits that come with getting the wort part out of the way early.
I chose to take the road less traveled in my dealings with the family court system, dating, relationships and dealing with family court. What I’ve done seems to have worked for me. I hope it can work for you as well.
I am taking a different approach in the years to come with my writing. I will speak my mind with the intent on disseminating information that will make you think differently, act differently and hopefully get you to a place than you would not normally be in.
Again, these are simply my thoughts and reflections and I hope I can be of some assistance to you or anyone you might know who is in the same boat I was once in. It’s nice to be off of the rough seas of yesteryear, but I do know how to navigate through the storms. I have a radar system that can see trouble coming miles away and have learned how to avoid danger.
Start HERE to understand the beginning of my journey.