There aren’t many jobs in the U.S. that are tougher than farmwork. But the job is especially unbearable if you have to work yourself to exhaustion all day under the watch of the man who raped you.

Is the NYPD using sexual assault as a law enforcement tool? It sure looks that way.

Last Wednesday was Denim Day, an international campaign to raise awareness of sexual assault and rape. The campaign was in reaction to the Italian Supreme Court’s ruling overturning a rape conviction based on the fact that the victim of the rape was wearing tight denim jeans.

In his usual vainglorious, hypocritical way, Scott Walker pretended to commemorate the day and National Victims Rights Week by signing into law a bill called the Wisconsin Crime Victim Rights Preservation Act.

Today saw the astounding spectacle of alleged pedophile Jerry Sandusky going on national television, while under indictment, and proclaiming his innocence to Bob Costas while acknowledging that he sometimes showered with young boys and that was probably inappropriate.

A new Gallup poll taken after news of his alleged sexual harassment history broke shows he is still tied at the top with Mitt Romney. Apparently, the scandals haven’t yet hurt his standing, possibly because over 50 percent of Republicans tend to disbelieve the charges.

The word slut is used to dehumanize and blame far too many victims of sexual assault. Well, some women have had enough and are arranging Slut Walks all over the planet.

Here’s Ross spinning fantasies about how attempted rape is such great dramatic fodder.

Ron Paul introduces legislation that aims to “protect Americans from physical and emotional abuse by Federal Transportation Security Administration employees.” From the floor of the House, he blasted the TSA and Michael Chertoff for lining people’s pockets at the public’s expense.

Maybe some are blasé about these changes, but I think it goes to a larger stripping of civil liberties protections for Americans. This is a real and substantive fight over a signature issue, and it’s astonishing to see it waved away in such a cavalier fashion.

Haitian women, aided by women’s rights organizations, are banding together to protect themselves and all women in post-earthquake Hatii from sexual assault, rape and other forms of gender-based violence.