Two questions from the Bill Maher interview

1. What is the right number of rape accusations to know things are OK, or are at least improving? According to the guests on the show it cannot be zero, because that means someone is covering it up. It also cannot be 1 in 4, or 20, or 100, because one of those may be the current rate. So what is the right number of rape accusations? There isn't one, right? Because then there would be a way for this to end, and that's not good for business. These folks like to throw out rape statistics, but if you listen to what they say, the numbers are also meaningless. If they need to scare you with numbers they admit are meaningless, what does that say about the rest of their argument?

2. The response to the rape accusation is said to be "worse" than actual rape. That suggests to me that (a) much of what is being called rape on campus is not what most normal people consider to be rape, and (b) if rapists go to prison on average for a decade, and can be sentenced to life, then why aren't we so willing to sentence counsellors to, say, two decades in prison for being "worse" than rape? I think it's because we all know that it's NOT worse than rape. In our culture, rape is considered the crime that is just slightly less bad than murder. Keep in mind I did not say that counsellors responded correctly. I'm just saying that they did nothing "worse" than rape, and are being defamed.

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The whole thing just reminded me that THIS is how ridiculous it has become. A student in Oregon has been banned from campus, denying him his education, his housing, and his job just because another student claims he looks like someone else who is allegedly a rapist:
http://reason.com/blog/2015/02/19/male-student-banned-from-campus-beca use

Rather than being too lenient, the error these days is in the other direction, assuming all accusations are true, and punishing even known innocent people.