Let's all calm down

#Metoo has gone too far.  Now, if a guy got a little sexually eager with a girl 36 years ago, as teenaged boys tend to do when they're in the throes of emerging manhood, he's dumped in the dirt with Harvey Weinstein and the Boston Strangler.  Come on, people.  But yes, this apparently is the case with Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court, who is currently being vilified by a girl he met at a party in high school he may -- or may not (she can't really remember because she was also drunk) -- have sexually assaulted. 

Brett Kavanaugh has a law degree from Yale, clerked for three judges and has had a distinguished career in public service; his work ethic is prodigious.  Not that any of that would matter, if he had been a rapist, but does one juvenile act define a man for life?  These days, I guess so. 

Compare this to the treatment accorded Omar Khadr, writes Christie Blatchford in today's 'National Post'.  This guy pleaded guilty to killing a US special forces soldier and partially blinding another by throwing a grenade during a firefight in Afghanistan.  He only got eight years and to top it all off, Trudeau handed him a $10.5 million cheque to compensate him for....something or other.  It was ludicrous.

And then there's the ruined Jian Ghomeshi.  Acquitted of all the charges against him, he is nevertheless done for life.  Done.  Yes, he was in a position of power and used it to date and have sex with women.  What man in power doesn't?  But the women were willing and none objected.  Where's the assault in that?  I can't find it?! 

I was a speech writer for ministers in Trudeau senior's cabinet and I can't count the number of times most came on to me (I was young and gorgeous at the time).  It didn't bother me in the least.  In fact, I was flattered.  I could hold my own in such situations because everyone was good-natured about it.  It was harmless.  Women either said "yes" or "no" and no one pressed it, but you had to be aware that if you said "no", you might not have been given that particular assignment, depending on the personality and ego of the minister.  One thing that amazed me was that even when pregnant and "out to here", I was still propositioned.  Weird.  But should I go back and start "#Metoo-ing" everyone?  Please.   

Ghomeshi recently wrote an essay for the 'The New York Review of Books' and people attacked him in the ether without mercy for telling his side and actually apologizing for the assumptions he made with the women he dated.

It's all ridiculous and I'm sick of it.  And, by the way, Q has never been the same without him.