You wanna talk about rape? Let's talk about rape.

Akin, Mourdock, rape, rape, rape.

We all know about Todd Akin's absurdly stupid comments from earlier this year. Now, the Left is all up in arms over Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock's "controversial" views expressed during a debate this week.  In responding to a question on abortion -- specifically whether the practice was acceptable to terminate a pregnancy in a case of rape or incest -- Mourdock went where few politicians dare go: his faith.

"Even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended to happen," Mourdock explained.  If you listened carefully, you could hear a million feminists cry out in abject horror.

(Mourdock later attempted to clarify his remarks: "God does not want rape, and by no means was I suggesting that he does," Mourdock later tried to clarify.  "Rape is a horrible thing, and for anyone to twist my words otherwise is absurd and sick.")

What controversy! Mourdock is making the absurd suggestion that God (gulp) creates life.  <--When did this become a such controversial opinion?  As someone who also subscribes to this nutty idea, I took no real offense to Mourdock's comments, but the outcry from the Left has been deafening.

President Obama took to "The Tonight Show" to disavow Mourdock's "controversial" views.  "I don't know how these guys come up with this idea," the president said, referring to Mourdock and, apparently, his faith in God (?).  "Let me make a very simple proposition: rape is rape; it is a crime,” the president explained to Jay Leno, lest there be confusion on this point.  Obama went on to use the Republican rape gaffe ju jour to attack the notion of "politicians, mostly male, making decisions about women's health care decisions."

I don't want politicians making decisions about my health care, either.  Yet I still agree with Mourdock -- life is created by God and the means by which that life is created does not detract from its ultimate sanctity.

Obama's comments, however, did not surprise me.  The president has demonstrated time and again that he'll do and say lots of things to get reelected.  Take, for instance, his appearance today on MTV.  Despite his clear opinions on rape and how wrong it is, he doesn't seem to mind ignoring such serious issues when it benefits him.

In the same week the President Obama invites MTV into the White House for a live interview, the cable television channel made an out-of-court settlement in a lawsuit brought by one of its reality stars, Tonya Cooley of Real World/Road Rules Challenge.  According to the complaint, Cooley says was raped by her castmates while MTV producers stood idly by and film crew kept cameras rolling. Earlier this year, MTV's parent company responded to Cooley's lawsuit -- not by denying the accusations, but by basically saying she had it coming:

"[Cooley] failed to avoid the injuries of which she complains. [She] was frequently intoxicated, rowdy, combative, flirtatious and on multiple occasions intentionally exposed her bare breasts and genitalia to other contestants."

Here's more:

In the complaint filed on October 27, 2011—which names MTV, Bunim-Murray Productions, and The Challenge castmates Kenneth Santucci and Evan Starkman—Cooley alleged she was a victim of sexual harassment, discrimination, wrongful termination, and sexual battery. According to the complaint, Santucci and Starkman "took another male participant's toothbrush and rubbed the toothbrush around [Cooley]'s genitals, including rubbing her labia and inserting the toothbrush into plaintiff's vagina" while she was passed out drunk. She says that producers were aware of what happened and more than likely watched it on monitors while it was going on. But they did not stop it, nor did they reprimand Santucci or Starkman. They did, however, replace the toothbrush. They never informed Cooley of what happened. She reportedly learned about the incident after the fact from other female cast members.

And this isn't the first time MTV has been accused of such things.  During the filming of another season of "The Real World" in 2004, a 22-year-old woman claimed she had been raped after being roofied by a castmate's guest.  The cameras rolled as she later woke up naked, lying on the bathroom floor and one of her female roommates informed her that she may have been sexually assaulted.  The police were called to the scene, but a lawyer for MTV stepped in and refused to let the police search the premises.

Now I will not make judgments about MTV or her parent companies.  Rather, I'd just like to throw this question out there for people to ponder: Is such a place really appropriate for a president of the United States to visit, let alone one who prides himself for being a champion of women??  

There is no dignity in this.