[Eric]

On a more serious note: Evidently, a young woman was assaulted on the Coppice. Sadly, the majority of such crimes go unreported; and this is partly the fault of law enforcement agencies whose attitudes are still mired in the middle ages ... or at least the nineteenth century. There are certain truths surrounding this assault that do not easily lead to a humorous interpretation. Most of them concern the fact that, on the day she was assaulted, millions of women on this insane planet of ours were also victims of violence. Many more millions, perhaps as many as a couple of billion, are denied their rights, political and human, by governments and religion. That many women are now political leaders, CEOs of major corporations, doctors, lawyers, writers, thinkers ... you name it, merely masks the fact that for most women, "feminism" never happened, nor does it seem likely that it will happen soon. Attempts at "top-down" solutions to the problems ... and if you don't think such things selling women into sexual slavery are problems, you have a problem ... will never work. You cannot legislate what people think ... or, for that matter, what people consider humorous. Change has to come from the bottom ... which will be us. And we don't need harsher laws; we need to create a climate in which women feel comfortable .... maybe that ain't the right word, but I believe you know what I mean ... going to the authorities knowing that their cases will be taken seriously.