Sheesh. So according to this definition, Max Clelland and John Kerry were gang raped back in 2004?

Just another example of right-wing fucktards and their double-standards.

Maybe the RNC will help pay for her rape kit.

Yeah, rape only has one definition.

Rape
4. an act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; despoliation; violation: the rape of the countryside.

Violation only has one definition, too.

Violation
5. the crime of forcing a woman to submit to sexual intercourse against her will.

These words can only be used in these ways.

im getting a lot of joy out of reclusiveleftist these past few weeks.

it's the RNC & McCain campaign staffers that are feeding the rapists.

@3. Connotation vs. Denotation. Look it up.

#6, huh?

Hmm--what was she wearing when she was "raped"? Oh, right. Did she get around to donating those to charity yet?

@2 - That is definitely my favorite answer of the day!

Inconceivable!

Let the insanely hyperbolic whine-fest begin. We've got a minimum of four years worth of this kind of crap to look forward to from conservatives.

Mmmmm - elections are over. Time for the raging, insufferable feminist to come hurtling back at us. Hear her roar. Loud, yet still ignorable.

@12 reclusive leftist never went away.

@3, Why do those Mormons want to stop bundles of sticks from having happy marriages?? Why do they want to arrest happy men who have stage 2 Freudian gender?!? I'm so confused, I got a dictionary but don't know how to use it!!

"Sarah Palin dared to be the crab climbing out of the bucket. The other crabs have snapped and clutched to force her back into her place... back in the bucket."

Wow, stupendous writing

Any fule kno that "rape" is what Palin was intending to do to the country, not the other way around.

Wow, that was some of the worst writing I've ever read. I couldn't get past the first paragraph. What a dunce.

I'm pretty sure using "rape" as cool slang for pretty ordinary acts, like this case of intense scrutiny, is only cool in frathouses, not so much in semi-serious journalism.

So the press actually performing its democratic function (for once) is now "rape," huh? Talk about soft bigotry . . .

Beth Shaw, meet Andrea Dworkin.

Confirms my theory that if you go far enough to the left or right, you end up in the same place.

@7 - While "rape" may have multiple denotations, the word's connotation is very clearly one of violence and crime. Particularly when you're using it in reference to a woman, and not, say, "the countryside".

Short version: rape really only has one primary meaning in common usage today. To use it in a story like that is pretty ridiculous.

By that definition, I got raped in English 202 last semester.

I'm sure she was really asking for it.

@21, regardless of how much you LIKE the usage, it's ridiculous to state that rape 'really has only one primary meaning'. As the article clearly illustrates, it has more than one meaning, even if it's an idiot using the word.

damned prescriptionists.

I stand by my opinion. There are really two points here.

(1) The primary denotation of rape is the sexual violation of a woman. Ask anybody on the street to define rape, and I would be 99% will give that definition. The others are extremely rarely used in common speech.

(2) Even if one of the less prominent denotations is being used, the connotation of rape is violence (specifically, violence against women). So, to use it in this article is not appropriate.

Maybe she was just using it in the South Park/Indiana Jones sense.

I'd like to drench the bitch in canola oil.

@24, that same argument could be made with Nader saying "Uncle Tom", and it would miss the point just as much.

@28... I thought that's why everyone was upset about the use of "Uncle Tom"? That, there is a denotation that makes sense in terms of Nader's usage of the phrase. But, "Uncle Tom" has such a strong connotation of a black person betraying their race, that people were upset by it.

Or, are you saying people shouldn't have been upset by Nader's comment?

Not unlike former GOP vice president Dan Quayle thinking that "potato" is spelled "potatoe," a GOP headline writer and supporter of Sarah Palin probably thinks that "rap" is spelled "rape."

did anyone notice the other link to "sarah palin has a 120 IQ"? wtf?!

@29, I agree people should be upset. The real definition of the word "ghetto" is an area that is home to singular type of people. So if I go around calling retirement homes a ghetto, I might be using the word correctly, but I'm bound to confuse someone.

People should speak to their audience, not to their encyclopedias.