A rant post, be forewarned if you don't like controversy

I am feeling disgusted and frustrated today.  Not by anything specific that has happened in my little microcosm of the universe but by things in the national news here in the US.

1) Herman Cain

It goes without saying that I think sexual harassment says a lot about a person's true feelings about equity between the sexes and personal entitlement.  Let's ignore that for a minute and go to my jaded disgust.

Why does anyone think that accusations of sexual harassment will have any negative effect on Herman Cain's campaign for president?  From what I have seen very few people in this country seem to think that disrespecting women is a problem. 

I mean really, we live in a country where more and more people think that women shouldn't have access to birth control but rather be taught to save themselves for marriage, shouldn't be given a vaccine to protect them against cervical cancer because they shouldn't be having sex anyway (but it's a different story for boys), and that if they do have sex they shouldn't have to the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.  It's like we are moving back towards medieval times in terms of women's rights.  What happened to us?  I am so afraid that I will end up having had more freedom and control over my body than my daughter will.

2) Penn State

I am not a huge fan by any measure of the financial burden that Division 1A collegiate sports puts on the academic mission of universities (for example, my university spends on average $13million a year out of our academic funds to support an increasingly expensive intercollegiate athletics program -- yes it brings in a lot of money but it spends $13 million more than it raises, at the same time that we are closing down the recreational facilities for all the other students on campus, oh, and no longer have a gynecologist at our student health center...)

But I did think that if there was a big-time football program that might have some dignity to it that this would be Penn State and Joe Paterno.

How wrong I appear to have been.  If Penn State can't even do it then I don't think there is a respectable Division 1A football program out there.  Disgusting I tell you, disgusting.

It will be an interesting test of moral decency to see if people's love of "the gladiators" amongst us overwhelms their aversion to abusing children.  I hate to say it, but I'm afraid that most people will defend the gladiators and forget about those little boys.