Sounds like you have two separate issues, LW.

The first is that you resent putting this much money towards your parents' support without any assistance from your siblings. I'd echo those who advise you to act on this separately. Let your siblings and your parents know that you simply cannot afford to "loan" this much money to your parents on a regular basis. Hopefully, your siblings will be willing to work with you on this issue, and your parents will understand. Even if they don't, stand firm. You do need the money, and it's only fair that your siblings pitch in.

The second is that your parents voting habits seem to belie the affection they profess for you and your husband. Talk to them, but depending on their age and openness, perhaps in small sessions over time. Tell them how personal this is to you, because the Republicans have painted a big target on your back.

And if they cling to the idiocy of "fiscal responsibility," there's no end of information showing how the Republicans have acted, well, not even like drunken sailors on shore leave, because drunken sailors spend actual money, and the Republicans have been digging us ever deeper into debt. Hmmph. Like a thief with a stolen credit card.

If even that cannot change their minds, if the habit of seeing Republicans as good and Democrats as evil is so firmly entrenched in their minds that neither the emotional appeal of their son nor the rational appeal of the disaster of the last eight years can move them...I have no idea what could. Would it be too wicked to suggest that you cut down so much on the amount that you send them that they can no longer afford cable TV, and thus no more Fox "News"? ;-)

Timbuktom, WTF?

No, it's NOT alright if she would have enjoyed it if someone else did it. It's NOT ALL RIGHT. She doesn't want that specific person to touch her in that way, and she has the right not to be touched without her consent.

Would it be all right with you if a man caressed your thigh? What do you mean, no? You'd be okay if your girlfriend/wife (assuming you have one) did that. You'd be okay if Anna Kournakova did that. So you should be just hunky-dory with you that this man did the same thing.

Get the point yet? Sheesh.

LW, I don't know how you grew up, or what you might have suffered. But there is this:

You are a human being. You have the right to your own body. No one else has a right to touch it without your consent. Not your boyfriend, and certainly not his slimy friends. No one else grants you this right. It's yours, because you're a person.

When someone gropes you, it is not your boyfriend's job to take care of it. It is your job, because it's your body they're violating.

Your boyfriend's job is to back you up. His job is to support you, and not the friends who so clearly see you as a walking set of tits.

Please, get into therapy. There are places that have sliding fees, if the expense is an issue. But you have to learn how to speak up for yourself, how to value yourself enough to tell the fucker who assaulted you three times to stop it, how to demand respect from your boyfriend.

As a first step, take another poster's excellent advise and refuse to go out with your boyfriend's misogynistic asshole friends. Leave if they come over. Recover your outrage, and refuse to let yourself be put into situations where you will be groped, harassed, and possibly worse. It's your choice to spend time with them or not. So don't.

I suspect you're probably not ready to leave, but if your boyfriend cannot treat you with respect, that's what you're going to have to do.

Legally speaking, personhood begins at birth. To attempt to put that line someplace else results in a huge mess. Viability is a red herring as far as conferring legal rights upon an entity is concerned.

Personally speaking....You know what, no. It's none of your business. I'm not attempting to legislate my personal morality.

kufir77-

Sure, a zygote is alive and made of human cells. So's the polyp in my colon.

If a fertilized egg is a person, can you imagine the havoc that will be created? I mean, how do you count people for censuses and congressional districts and various statistics, since one can never know exactly how many "people" there are?

Do all women get to file for tax exemptions for "children," even if the "child" never implanted and got flushed down the toilet on a tampon? How many "children" can a woman file for in a year?

Can all women use the carpool lane, because there might be another "person" in there?

How will the state file legal documents (normally called birth certificates) to ascertain the citizenship of fertilized eggs? How will the state file death certificates? Will all women be required to send in their pads and tampons for testing, to ensure that no "people" were conceived and died? Will a woman who had a "person" show up on her tampon be investigated for murder?

Someone may believe that a person is created at fertilization, but it's patently ridiculous for the government to behave as though that's the case. (And that's excluding the fact that the debate over when a potential person becomes an actual person is a religious or philosophical debate, and thus the government should butt out.) Oh, I know, it's all about the baaaaabies, and the practical aspects of such a law be damned! /snark