Fresh Loaf

LEAD STORY: Italian and U.K. legal authorities have recently discarded rule interpretations based on embarrassingly anachronistic stereotypes of women. In July, Italy’s Court of Cassation reversed a 1999 ruling creating a legal presumption that a woman wearing tight jeans could not be the victim of rape because such jeans would be impossible to remove without her assistance. Coincidentally, at about the same time, the British government formally removed the special, ameliorating defense of “provocation” for husbands charged with murdering their wives, thus putting domestic homicide on the same footing as other homicides. (Some husbands had received lesser penalties by claiming that their wives’ affairs had provoked them to murder.)

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LEAD STORY: The Other “Fight Clubs” Are for Sissies: At the August Dog Brothers “Gathering of the Pack” in Southern California, it was “[A]nything goes,” according to one warrior (looking to fight with “blunted knives”). A Reuters reporter witnessed two men without padding beat each other with heavy sticks and two others fight with electrically charged knives. The latter duel ended when, during a wrestling hold, one slipped a hand free and planted a 1,000-volt surge. The action seems exhilarating. Said one, “I’ve never felt better than when I’m doing this.” Another: “Honestly, I wish I could find a church with the same spirit of support and love [as I feel here].” Said “Crafty Dog” Denny, it’s “higher consciousness through harder contact.”

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Calling Chuck Shepherd!

A Republican convicted of sodomy with a child under the age of 14 just tried to run for Newton County Board of Education.

Not a joke.

He withdrew his candidacy after the public found out that he’s a convicted child molester, but says he’s not done with politics.

From today’s Newton Citizen:

COVINGTON - Republican candidate Horace Don Gresham withdrew from the District 2 Board of Education race Wednesday, shortly before a hearing to determine his eligibility was scheduled to take place.

Three residents filed challenges to Gresham’s candidacy with the Board of Elections after news broke that he was convicted of sodomy with a child under the age of 14 in DeKalb County in 1988.

In a letter notifying the Board of Elections of his withdrawal, Gresham said he’s not finished with politics: He intends to run for the District 2 Board of Commissioners seat in 2010.

“These actions that I have taken was just a test run for me in running for the school board,” the letter states. “In other words, I have also used the newspapers to see what the voters thought about someone that had a record.”

I wonder if Gresham’s candidacy is an example of The Change We Deserve?

(Mortarboard-tip to Jim Galloway at AJC.com’s Political Insider for turning me on to making me aware of this story.)

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