Author: Annie Lane

By Annie Lane / San Diego Free Press

In a reassuring victory for assault victims everywhere, convicted rapist Brock Turner lost his appeal for another trial recently after his attorney, Eric S. Multhaup, argued that his client only sought to have “outercourse” with the former Stanford student he is convicted of assaulting — not intercourse.

For anyone wondering what that means, you’re not alone. The three-panel judges were at a loss as well.

“I absolutely don’t understand what you are talking about,” Justice Franklin D. Elia told Multhaup on August 8, according to Mercury News.

By Annie Lane

In the early 20th Century, African Americans were primarily featured in stereotypical and unflattering roles, such as comic clowns or in black minstrelsy — shows performed primarily by whites which mocked and demeaned black people as inferior. The first all-black sitcom to appear on television in the 1950s, Amos ‘n’ Andy, is demonstrative of this racist trend, and was taken off the air after roughly 70 episodes due to protests by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other groups.

It would be 20 years before black sitcoms would officially take root in American television.

By Annie Lane / San Diego Free Press

While Mike Pence decided to recognize Black History Month by honoring a white man, Donald Trump was busy vaguely listing the few black people he’s heard of throughout his 70-plus years of ignorant life in a zero-hearted attempt to care about anyone other than himself.

One such man was Frederick Douglass, the ex-slave turned abolitionist, author, suffragist, editor and diplomat. Here’s what Trump said:

“Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice.”

The one thing Trump didn’t notice? Douglass died in 1895.

Editor: In an important update, San Diego Police have backed off their earlier threats of arresting any demonstrator outside the so-called “free speech zones”, and now say people can demonstrate outside of the designated zones, but they must follow laws and cannot block traffic.

The day has come.

Donald Trump is rallying in San Diego at the Convention Center at 2 p.m. (doors open at 11 a.m.). The San Diego Free Press – the OB Rag’s associates – will be live blogging today’s events. We’ll be pulling pictures and updates from people on the front lines who use the hashtag #NeverTrumpSD or you can send them directly to contact@sandiegofreepres.org.

By Annie Lane

Men are from Mars and women are from Venus. We all know this. But there’s a pretty key difference in how women prep for dates — especially first dates — and it’s way bigger than shaving our legs, trying on multiple outfits multiple times or otherwise attempting to look cute.

In a “so sad it’s funny” social commentary, the YouTube channel Unsolicited Project offers up its newest video, How Women Get Ready for First Dates. In it, the woman tells her roommate: “Just remember exactly what I’m wearing right now just in case I go missing.” By contrast, the guy throws on a jacket and heads out the door.

By Annie Lane

“I want to play with those,” my 4-year-old nephew said, pointing at the Star Wars Lego magnets on the fridge.

“No, no,” my mom replied.

By Annie Lane

The 1999 Columbine High School shooting jolted me. I was 15 at the time. That is, I was still immortal and arrogant in the way that only a teen can be. Despite this, I remember being jolted by the violence of it, and the permanence. The kids killed were my age; they were essentially moments away from entering into the adult world, however unprepared, just like me.

The black-and-white cafeteria footage that ran on a seemingly endless loop across news stations nationwide was spell-binding. It was simultaneously real while perfectly mimicking Hollywood violence – or was it the other way around?

Columbine’s Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were outcasts, no doubt. But I distinctly remember gawking at the idea of that being their motive. Really? I was a Thespian for Heaven’s sake. If your adolescent goal is to receive near-constant ridicule, join the theatre.

By Annie Lane

Feminism comes in many shapes and sizes, though if you ask author Karin Agness of the Time Magazine article Seriously? This Is What Passes for Feminism in America it appears that it should only ever manifest itself in the form of an 11-year-old girl who was shot in the head, as was the case for Malala Yousafzai.

Thankfully, Yousafzai survived the senseless and depraved attack on her life by the Taliban in 2012, and has gone on to be the voice for women’s rights in Pakistan. And the world is better because of her.

But according to Agness, American girls, such as the ones who appeared in the controversial FCKH8 video that went viral last week, don’t even graze the surface of what it means to be a Feminist. Instead, they are merely some part of a cheap marketing ploy to sell t-shirts: …

It’s difficult to imagine anything other than a crusty, inflatable, creepy-looking … thing when picturing a sex doll in the mind’s eye. A likeness to the figure in Edvard Munch’s The Scream, though slightly more unsettling if that’s even possible.

But sex dolls actually have quite an interesting history, reaching back as far as 8 A.D. with the myth that Pygmalion obsessed over a woman he sculpted from ivory so much so that Aphrodite eventually made her real. In the 1940s, Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler devised the “Borghild Project,” which involved the production and shipment of sex dolls to German soldiers in an effort to lure them away from diseased French prostitutes.

Dozens protested Friday evening to show continued support for Ian Rey, a longtime Sprouts Farmers Market employee who said he was fired after 14 years for mistakenly taking a coworker’s jacket.

Rey was terminated from Sprouts on Monday, and has experienced an outpouring of support from the community and customers alike – many of whom say they won’t shop at the local grocery store anymore.

By Annie Lane / San Diego Free Press

Last week I came across a Steve Breen cartoon in the San Diego Union-Tribune entitled “Mapping Bob Filner’s Brain” (see left). I had quite the guffaw. I mean, if guffaws were redefined to be humorless, silent events that’s what it was.

I find it interesting that, given Breen’s skill and Pulitzer Prize history, the brain he chose to draw was so boorishly simple. Don’t worry, I get it — it’s intended to represent the supposedly simple mind of our union-sympathizing, anti-hotelier mayor.

Rules, rules and more rules! Jan. 1 sees a total of 876 new laws signed into effect, covering a wide range of issues from social media to universal healthcare. Below is a sampling:

• AB 1844 prohibits an employer from asking for or requiring an employee or applicant to provide their username or password to any social media outlet. It also prohibits employer retaliation for not complying with such a request.

• AB 2020 removes the option of choosing a urine test to determine the drug content of blood. Instead, those suspected of driving under the influence will only be given the option of a blood or breath test. If a blood test is unavailable, a urine test will be administered in its place.