Is rape the national pastime in Wasilla, Alaska?

[kimmerspixelated]

Sarah Failin requires rape victims to pay for their own rape kit. She is trying to look out for the bottom line, cut costs, right? Well, if she is that worried about the costs of such a thing, it must mean there are a lot of rape victims in Alaska! In addition to the fact that this woman is obviously not a champion for women's rights, shouldn't we also be asking, what the hell is going on up there on her watch for there to be so many rapes?!!!!

[ray of light]

1. I thought of that too!

[PBS Poll-435]

2. And Meth.

[Breeze54]

6. Wife beating is in the top 5, with rape and methamphetamine use!

Domestic violence happens in Alaska more frequently than in any other state, according to Donn Bennice with Alaska Family Services. And in Alaska, the Mat-Su Borough ranks first in the number of calls per capita, he said.

One shelter with 32 beds in Palmer serves as a refuge for women, including women with children, fleeing the threat of violence in their homes. The Dorothy Saxton Shelter in Wasilla has 10 beds available for boys and girls between 12 and 18 who need respite from their homes. There are no shelters set up for adult males who are victims of domestic violence.

http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2006/10/31/news/news3.txt

[DinahMoeHum]

7. Don't forget OxyContin.

n/t

[JackBeck]

3. Too many tweakers with lots of free time on their hands.n/t

[valerief]

4. If it's incest, is it considered rape, too? What about incestuous rape

while high on meth?

And then shooting those semi-automatics in the air.

What a horrible place.

[opihimoimoi]

5. Cut their quota of Viagra/etc....They got some horny dudes up there

LOL

[gumby]

8. Maybe all the rapes

and all the Meth are why kids don't graduate in Alaska?????

[sunnybrook]

9. thought I read it was the highest in the nation

but it is a stretch to pin the rape rates to Palin, this is a long term issue. Alaska also has a very high rate of alchoholism. I spent a year there and it is different. But it is a beautiful, wondrous place, Palin is not representative of it to me. So attack her for charging for the kits, but blaming her in total for the statistics of rape is ridiculous

[Captain Hilts]

13. Stop being logical!

[sunnybrook]

15. oops!

my bad!

[Eric J in MN]

14. Problems in Wasilla, Alaska aren't all the fault of Sarah Palin. However,...

...we shouldn't let her idealized description of small towns go unchallenged:
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http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/president/conventions/videos/transcripts/20080903_PALIN_SPEECH.html


And a writer observed, "We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity," and I know just the kind of people that writer had in mind when he praised Harry Truman.

I grew up with those people. They're the ones who do some of the hardest work in America, who grow our food, and run our factories, and fight our wars. They love their country in good times and bad, and they're always proud of America.
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[Captain Hilts]

17. Agreed!

[27inCali]

10. hey, there aint much to do up there

but smoke meth and rape your cousins.

[donco6]

11. Too bad she couldn't get another earmark for that.

They must have scratched the "rape kit" line item.

[stray cat]

12. McCain tells jokes about rapes - I wonder if Palin appreciates the humor

[Fire1]

16. Rhetorical question: WHO CARES WHAT THEY DO IN WASILLA!!!!

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

18. Alabama with polar bears...

Andrew Sullivan