Now that the video of Ray Rice actually landing the punch on his then-fiance that rendered her unconscious was made public, Rice is now a former player for the Baltimore Ravens. Yes, you could say he’s gone down.
The world has now seen that actual act of violence instead of just the aftermath – the big brutish ball player dragging his unconscious paramour out of the elevator and then kicking her legs out of the way of the closing doors for good measure.
The first video we saw only merited a two-game suspension, but the actual beat down being streamed globally merits a change in tone from the Raven’s front office – who yesterday announced they had released Rice from his contract – to the executive suite at the NFL, where Commissioner Roger Goodell reversed his own already reversed rules and suspended Rice from the league “indefinitely.”
We should mention Goodell here. As someone who gives not one hoot about football (unless my dad’s betting system proves to work 40 years later and can amass a gambling fortune for me), I really don’t know what the NFL Commissioner does. But I can guarantee you it isn’t worth $44 million a year!
Seriously. I don’t think anyone is worth $44 million a year, but the topic of a maximum wage is one for another day…
Today was time for another gathering of the Gliberal Goddesses… Every other Tuesday morning, I’m joined by GottaLaff and She’s History‘s Amy Simon. We talk about whatever is on our minds. Today, of course, we spoke about the sad truth that is the proliferation of domestic abuse.
In this case, while there was more than enough victim-blaming to go around, Janay Rice seems to be the textbook example of the battered wife standing by her sorry excuse for a man. She broke her silence on Instagram this morning to write this:
Now I feel even sorrier for her than I did when I saw her being dragged out of that elevator. I’ve watched enough crime dramas on TV to know it’s just a matter of time before he hurts her again… You know that he’ll blame her for his being cut from the Ravens.
And on a related note, the NCAA took back some of the sanctions it had imposed on Penn State for the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal! Really.
We also spoke about Kirsten Gillibrand’s new book which tells stories of sexism and truly misogynistic behavior on Capitol Hill. Shocker! (And Mika Brzezinski just wants her to name names, damn it!)
And about the epidemic of sexual assault on college campuses which are not prosecuted and are kept quiet because those institutions of higher learning don’t want parents to stop sending their kids there.
And finally, just because we need some laughs after all that, a big thank you and shout out to David Letterman for pointing out that Chuck Todd is an ass (not that it needed pointing out…)
If you tuned in this morning for Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church & State, I apologize. I made a scheduling error! Barry will be with us Thursday morning at 11:30ET instead… I’m sorry for the inconvenience!
Tomorrow morning, I’ll be joined by Susie Madrak of Crooks & Liars, and the always brilliant Heather “Digby” Parton! Talk to you then, radio or not!
