More WikiLeaks

Some times wonder if I do not run off down the off ramps in all the directions the "Man" wants me to go. Do you suppose the survivors of the '48 uprisings felt about the world they ended up living in the same way liberals do about this one, but without I-phones I guess.

So I find my self writing about the sex charges against Assange and the positions taken by the liberal blogs, serious liberal blogs are taking on this. I kind of find myself going to the same place I was with the Roman Polanski thing. I was correct to seriously wonder about what kind of guy Polanski was, but not I was not correct to wonder about the "victim's" motives, or for that matter what was going on with the whole thing and the motives of all those involved because well it just wasn't right and proper.

The same with Assange and his accusers. It does seem that we are not permitted to seriously question the motives or the timing of the two women who brought these charges. One has allegedly worked extensively with the C.I.A. and anti-Castro groups. One gave a party for the guy after the alleged incident and texed friends about how neat he was also after the alleged incident. The complaints appear to be based on the allegations the Assange wasn't a particularly nice guy and didn't stop in mid-thrust as it were. (I'm not sure I've ever had that request.) Both women found out about each other and met and discussed things before they filed their formal charges with the police. The case was dismissed by one prosecutor and then refiled by another and placed on the "Most Wanted" Interpol List. Then Assange is denied bail even though he turned himself into the law when the arrest warrant was shown to be valid.

All of this is of a piece. You cannot take one part of it out and say let's just look at this by itself. If it was a simple assault case that had gone this route one would look at the complainants with a very jaundiced eye. As Rumpole would (and did in fact say): "I am treating this woman as a perfect equal and demanding the same level of proof that I would demand from a man."

I recall a Guild convention I was at in Atlanta decades ago. There was a very heated discussion about the feminist arguments that some pornography needed to be banned, because it was by its very nature harmful to women. I didn't have enough nerve to participate. But the positions of the participants were very interesting. Mostly it was younger women who were arguing that some things needed to be banned because they were just beyond the pale. Older individuals and they were mostly men who I suspect now been through the censorship wars involving Lady Chatterley, Junkie, and others; and remembered that censorship had once been used to keep birth control information from women took the other position.

But the position of the younger people was that women needed to be protected from these things. Not it seemed to me at the time a very empowering position.

So I guess it is possible that Assange is guilty of something, but not likely, and it looks like his accusers are willing pawns and being used by the very reactionary powers who always use those kind of people.