Love hurts

 In honor of Valentine's Day,  I'm participating in a Blog Hop. Author A.F. Stewart has asked us to do a send-up of all the sappy sweetness of the day with something more startling, the rotten side of romance. You'll find a list of the other participating blogs at the end of my post.

I don't write horror, but you can't get more frightening than the truth.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

1 billion -- That's the number of women on the planet today who will be raped or beaten in her lifetime, according to www.onebillionrising.org

2.4 million -- That's the number of folks in bondage around the world, according to the United Nations' figures on Human Trafficking. The vast majority (80 percent) are being exploited for sex, ie slaves to love.
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$90 -- For less than the cost of  Telefloral's Beautiful Bouquet of a dozen long-stemmed roses, you could buy the average sex slave on the Human Trafficking market.

 1.3 million-- That's how many women are physically assaulted by their lover every year  in the United States.  Almost as many men -- 835,000 -- are assaulted by their intimate partners.  Instead of chocolates for Valentine's Day, they get a black eye.



 For our final Valentine's Day countdown:
5 -- The percentage of rapes that result in pregnancy (Sorry Mr. Akin). A 1996 study in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology reported that “among adult women an estimated 32,101 pregnancies result from rape each year.”

4 -- The average number of divorces every minute in the U.S. That means 6,646 divorces per day, and 46,523 divorce per week. The good news is the divorce rate is dropping. The Census Bureau says the divorce rate in 2005 (per 1,000 people) was 3.6 -- the lowest rate since 1970.. Of course, the marriage rate is also dropping.

 3 -- the number of women who will be murdered today in the United States by a husband or boyfriend.

2 -- As in minutes. Before Elvis can finish singing "Love Me Tender," another woman will be raped in America, according to The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.

Number 1 -- Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women, more than car accidents, rape and muggings combined. Statistically, the most dangerous man in the world is the one you are sleeping with.

Try to have a Happy Valentine's Day.