Without getting too deep into the revolting details, let’s talk a little about the Cornell rape case.

I think we have been conditioned to think of gang rape in a certain way. Unless we’ve experienced it ourselves (shudder), we may think of it in a porn-y way (a woman held down by two or more men, who cries until she really gets into it, etc. etc.). Or we may think of it the way Jodie Foster and her colleagues acted it in “The Accused.” Again, a woman lifted onto a barroom pinball machine, assaulted by a series of men until she runs out, screaming.

We may have heard whispers of “gang bangs,” with the high-school slut or a prostitute, perhaps arranged for a party. She’s drunk — you’d have to be — and never says no.

Or we may be skeptical in general. The infamous Rolling Stone rape story about the University of Virginia turned out to be hooey. It’s unwise to believe everything before you know all, or at least some, of the facts.

There are men, and a few women, who are denying the claims made in the Cornell case by saying that she was willing until she wasn’t, and was she even unwilling, toward the end? She started out by saying yes to a threesome, then yes to a different arrangement, and it was only days later that she decided she’d been raped. So how can it be rape? How can you say no once you’ve said yes?

Simple: By saying no, but more critically, by men recognizing that a woman who is insensate or semi-conscious IS NOT CAPABLE OF GIVING CONSENT, EVEN IF SHE SAYS OK. We’re not talking tipsy or a little high. This woman reported being 10 drinks in before she even showed up at the frat house, then had more to drink plus ketamine.

Next week we’ll cover how to get her some help when no one else will. A big step, I know.

Let’s move on to an issue that really matters: Susan Dell’s face.

I’ve seen a million comments on it, and don’t really feel the need to add my own. She is entitled to do what she wants to her body, and I’ve reached the point I no longer trust photography. Here is her photo on her own foundation’s website:

And here’s a photo from Yahoo Finance:

I think I’ve told the story here before, when I was dating a news photographer and watched him printing and reprinting a photo of Jeane Kirkpatrick, burning and dodging to emphasize her wrinkles. He didn’t like her, and I’m sure the photographers who work the White House have no great love for the people they shoot there. But I’ve looked through a bunch of recent photos of her, and the second image seems closer to reality than the first. All I really have to say is: It’s too bad. She was so pretty once, and in what seems to be a misguided effort to hang on to pretty as long as possible, she…made some mistakes. It’s taken this long, but I am honestly grateful not to have been a knockout in my youth, or even much beyond average-looking, because the alternative seems to be the panic over its inevitable fading that leads to faces like this.

Also, Madonna looks terrible. Just gotta say that.

Plastic surgery seems to be a mixture of many volatile elements — the surgeon’s skill, the material s/he has to work with (bone structure, mainly), luck (will the skin stretch evenly?) and the most unstable of all, i.e., the client. Will s/he be satisfied with the result? Can s/he even see it? What do we see when we look in the mirror? That’s the real mystery.

Finally, Hoosiers: Jeff Gill tipped me off to these groyper pieces of crap the other day. If you spend any time online, you may recognize “heritage” as right-wing code for white, and Heritage Indiana does not disappoint:

We’re friends who realized the world we grew up in is being destroyed.

We each came to this in different ways. Maybe you went back to your hometown and it was filled with strangers or you’ve noticed kids don’t play outside anymore.

We asked: “Who represents Hoosiers who want to preserve our way of life?” No one. If we don’t, our home will be erased. We are banding together to take back our state. This is what thousands of patriots are waiting for.

Their current beef is that Fort Wayne’s biggest hospital has an internal-medicine resident class of 15, and 14 are FOREIGN. Why won’t the media cover this story? they ask. Maybe because it’s not new, and who gives a shit. You want your kid to become a doctor, ride them every day of their lives the way south Asian, Asian and Middle Eastern parents do their own.

Enough with these racists. Time to upload and get the week going.