Who is Ayn Rand? 04 Jun 2010 Charles Murray A review of Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, by Jennifer Burns and Ayn Rand and the World She Made, by Anne C. Heller
It is a chilly winter morning for many readers. Curl up with a hot cuppa coffee and review the news from last week's ifeminists' front page. But remember to check on the site every once in awhile because original commentaries are being posted on a daily basis and they do not show up in the newsfeed.
Enjoy! And stay warm, Wendy
NEW REPORTS
Haiti holds Americans accused of child trafficking http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15335 Haitian police detained 10 members of a US Christian group after they allegedly tried to leave the country with more than 30 children who survived the country's devastating earthquake. News of the charges came as the UN's food agency prepared to launch a massive food effort targeted at vulnerable women in a bid to ease some of the chaos surrounding the relief effort. Police had arrested five men and five women with US passports, as well as two Haitians, as they tried to cross into the neighboring Dominican Republic with 33 children late Friday, Haitian authorities said. [Ed.: I remember the false and hyserical reports of babies being raped in the aftermath of Katrina. I now view all sensation stories surrounding disasters with skepticism, especially when they involve sexuality or children. I look for the hard evidence offered.] (01/31/10)
Italy to ban burqa? http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15330 Legislation to stop Muslim women wearing the hood and other full-face veils such as the niqab will be introduced, equal opportunities minister Mara Carfagna said. France is already considering outlawing burqas and Miss Carfagna believes other European countries will follow suit. She said: 'This is about a sacrosanct battle to defend the dignity and rights of immigrant women. 'A law is being studied that would ban the use of a burqa and niqab, which are not religious symbols - that's not us saying it, but the top religious authorities of the Islamic world, like the imams of Cairo and Paris. [Ed: like so much legislation, it is a knee-jerk response, and one that ends up making everyone less free.] (01/30/10)
Obama in dilemma over do not ask, do not tell http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15329 President Obama reiterated his campaign pledge to eliminate the “don’t ask, don’t tell†policy preventing gay people from serving openly in the US military, but his State of the Union address Wednesday night was short on specifics concerning how or when he would do it. Mr. Obama is under pressure from gay rights advocates to change the policy, but doing so requires congressional approval. Even as Obama is leaning heavily on his military for operations overseas, he will have to ask them to accept a fundamental change that, despite changing attitudes within the military, run counter to its cultural grain. [Ed.: if he pursues this, it could scuttle his chances for a 2nd term. If he doesn't, it could alienate a large part of his core base.] (01/28/10)
Haitian kids desperate to be adopted in US http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15328 The young woman hesitated for just a moment before she offered me the child for adoption. Guerda Charles, a homeless victim of the earthquake, did not want money. Instead she wanted to give the girl to a good home in America – away from the chaos of Haiti, in a place where she had a chance of a decent future. As human traffickers scour the squalid camps of Port-au-Prince in search of children to sell, the fate of Haiti's orphans can depend on the adults that chance brings their way. [Ed.: the immigration laws that prevent these children from joining US families who want them are obscene.] (01/30/10)
CA SC questions constitutionality of Jessicas Law http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15327 The California Supreme Court on Thursday questioned the constitutionality of a "Jessica's Law" provision that allows indefinite confinement of sexually violent predators. It's the first of two decisions the court is expected to issue over the legality of the law that was passed as Proposition 82 in 2006. The Supreme Court is scheduled to rule Monday on a separate legal challenge to a provision prohibiting released predators from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park. {Ed.: indefinite confinement is not only unconstitutional but a travesty of justice.] (01/28/10)
UN sets up women only food aid in Haiti http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15326 The World Food Programme has started its first systematic food distribution system for Haiti since the earthquake, with 16 sites set up in the capital where only women may collect food. Food distribution since the quake on 12 January has often been marked by poor co-ordination, gaps in coverage and desperate, unruly lines of needy people in which young men at times have shoved aside the women and the weak and taken their food. [Ed.: I understand the purpose is to ensure that the physically weak receive food aid but it seems morally wrong to tell starving males that they cannot queue for available food.] (01/31/10)
Australia bans small breasts to fight pedophilia http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15325 Australia's government is "banning" adult publications and films featuring women with "small breasts," says Aussie activist Fiona Patten, on the grounds that such images encourage pedophilia. Patton, leader of the anti-censorship Australian Sex Party, is taking issue with a 2005 ruling which specified that even depictions of women who are over 18 but "appear to be" underage may be judged "illegal." Is this alleged practice a strategic way to fight child pornography, or — as Patten maintains — an absurd reaction to a perfectly normal female body type? [Ed.: utterly insane. It is impossible to use reductio ad absurdum against hysterical purity crusades because they arrive there themselves...and without shame or a sense of humor.] (01/29/10)
Afghan men struggle with sexual identity http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15324 An unclassified study from a military research unit in southern Afghanistan details how homosexual behavior is unusually common among men in the large ethnic group known as Pashtuns -- though they seem to be in complete denial about it. Apparently, according to the report, Pashtun men interpret the Islamic prohibition on homosexuality to mean they cannot "love" another man -- but that doesn't mean they can't use men for "sexual gratification." (01/28/10)
BC, Blackmore applies to intervene in polygamy case http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15322 Polygamist leader Winston Blackmore says he would like to introduce extensive evidence of persecution and discrimination against Mormons when the B.C. Supreme Court considers the constitutional reference on polygamy. In an application to intervene on a case that has attracted international attention, Mr. Blackmore says he would also want “full right†to challenge evidence and cross-examine witnesses that portray him and his congregation in a negative light. His participation would be conditional on finding the money to pay for his legal fees, he says, adding that he intends to ask the court to order the B.C. government to pay his legal bills. (01/28/10)
Pope urges annulments crackdown http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15320 Pope Benedict XVI has urged church tribunals to work harder to encourage couples to stay married and not resort to granting annulments "at all costs." An annulment is the process by which the church effectively declares that a marriage never took place. Many Catholics seek them so they can remarry in the church and receive Communion. Benedict told members of the Roman Rota, the Vatican tribunal that decides marriage annulments, that they shouldn't confuse "pastoral charity" in granting annulments with their need to uphold church law. (01/29/10)
Abortion doc killer guilty of murder http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15319 A man who said he killed prominent Kansas abortion provider Dr. George Tiller in order to save the lives of unborn children was convicted Friday of murder. The jury deliberated for just 37 minutes before finding Scott Roeder, 51, of Kansas City, Mo., guilty of premeditated, first-degree murder in the May 31 shooting death. [Ed.: the jury saw through the BS and rendered a just decision.] (01/29/10)
Bid to quash John Edwards sex tape http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15318 John Edwards's ex-mistress is seeking to suppress what appears to be a sex tape featuring her and the disgraced politician, according to court records. Rielle Hunter yesterday secured a restraining order against a former Edwards aide in connection with "a personal video recording that depicted matters of a very private and personal nature." Hunter reported that she was having an "intimate relationship" with Edwards in 2006, and that the video was made around September of that year. (01/29/10)
New morning after pill works five days later http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15316 A new morning after pill can be used up to five days after sex, longer than any protection against pregnancy developed so far, doctors claim. The tablet is more effective than existing drugs taken by thousands of women each year, according to a major study. It prevents up to two-thirds of unwanted pregnancies if used within the regular morning-after pill's time limit of 72 hours. The regular pill prevents 60 per cent of cases. Even when taken the full five days after unprotected sex, the new pill's success rate is 50 per cent. But anti-abortion campaigners last night warned that the drug, Ellaone, was an 'abortive agent'. [Ed.: expect huge controversy.] (01/29/10)
Airports could get mind reading scanners http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15315 WeCU Technologies is building a mind-reading scanner that can tell if a given traveler is a potential danger - without the subject's knowledge. WeCU Technologies (pronounced "we see you") is creating a system that would essentially turn the public spaces in airports into vast screening grounds:. "The system ... projects images onto airport screens, such as symbols associated with a certain terrorist group or some other image only a would-be terrorist would recognize, company CEO Ehud Givon said. "The logic is that people can't help reacting, even if only subtly, to familiar images that suddenly appear in unfamiliar places. If you strolled through an airport and saw a picture of your mother, Givon explained, you couldn't help but respond. (01/28/10)
Germany, Crusade against homeschooling http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15312 In Germany and California the secular, socialist political state is attempting to crush parents who teach Judeo-Christian moral principles to their children. Shades of Bismarck’s kulturkampf and Hitler’s pogrom to impose Aryan purity. Germany has criminalized home schooling, demanding that parents place their children in state schools, where they will be suitably indoctrinated in the religion of socialism. California is moving in the same direction. [Ed.: as an atheist I am not fond of the heavy emphasis on religion in this commentary but I am definitely pro parental rights in schooling children. I am definitely pro the right to homeschool.] (01/28/10)
Tenn., False rape claim over bad sex http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15311 Two Tennessee women who accused a man of rape have admitted to cops that they had consensually agreed to sex with him in exchange for a pack of cigarettes. One woman told investigators that the duo filed a phony police report because they "didn't enjoy the sex," according to cops. Jessica Kathleen Alexander, 18, and Tammy Nicole Ortega, 29, were arrested today for filing a false police report. Alexander, top, and Ortega are pictured below in mug shots taken by the Washington County Sheriff's Office. The women had originally claimed that they had been assaulted last night by two men outside a Telford home. But Alexander and Ortega subsequently confessed to having a consensual encounter with a man they had met on a telephone chat line. (01/28/10)
Ontario, Rejected vanity plate deemed sexual http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15310 Ontario's licence censors have picked the wrong butt to kick. It belongs to Rick Evans, 49, who owns a couple of Survivor Bootcamp fitness franchises in Vaughan. His slogan is "We Kick Butt (Yours)." So it seemed a smart idea to get a vanity plate along those lines for the company Jeep. The website said KICKBUTT was unavailable. But BUTTKICK was open. So he typed in why he wanted it. Then he clicked and paid his $235. No big deal. After all, "kick butt" is used by sports announcers, U.S. Marines, coaches, motivational speakers, drill sergeants, headline writers, movie stars, political leaders, even clergymen. Everyone, that is, except the licence censors. [Ed.: it is a smallthing but the intrusion of gov. into every detail of our lives is far from a small matter and it should be fought on principle.] (01/29/10)
Jury hears closings in slain abortion doc case http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15307 Jurors must decide whether a man who openly confessed to killing a Kansas abortion doctor committed murder now that defense attorneys have lost their bid for a lesser charge of manslaughter. Scott Roeder's lawyers failed to show that Dr. George Tiller posed an imminent threat and therefore will not be allowed to ask jurors to consider a voluntary manslaughter charge, District Judge Warren Wilbert ruled Thursday. Wilbert also noted abortion is legal in Kansas. Voluntary manslaughter required the defense to show Roeder had an unreasonable but honest belief that deadly force was justified. Tiller says he acted to save the lives of unborn children. Jurors return to the courtroom Friday to hear closing arguments and jury instructions before beginning deliberations. (01/29/10)
CA school forcibly innoculates girl http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15305 Jose Gomez, 39, said he signed a form last November stating his daughter, a student at San Ysidro Middle School, was not to get a shot and reaffirmed that position to two people last week. The school provided vaccinations on Thursday. District Nurse Anita Gillchrest said she investigated the incident and has forwarded a report to Superintendent Manuel Paul, but she said she could not reveal the details. Gomez said San Ysidro Middle School officials insisted he sign a consent form even though he did not want his daughter to receive the vaccination. He said he was instructed to write “refuse†on the form and turn it in, which he did. Nonetheless, his daughter was pulled from class to get the vaccination. She advised the security guard who escorted her to the vaccination area that she was not supposed to get the shot and was told that maybe “her mom changed her mind,†Gomez said. (01/25/10)
FL, Sex offender can subpoena abortion records http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15304 In a decision that could spark a constitutional showdown over privacy rights, a judge this week gave lawyers representing multimillionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein the right to subpoena abortion records from women who are seeking millions in damages from the part-time Palm Beach resident. Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Donald Hafele said the records could help Epstein refute the women's claims that they suffered psychological ills after being paid to give him sexually charged massages at his Palm Beach mansion when they were as young as 14. (01/27/10)
UK, Wellow dads CSA case latest http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15303 David Chapelhow and his 13-year-old daughter Emma hit the headlines last month when they launched a landmark civil action against the agency for threatening to seize his house — even though the teenager has happily lived with him for more than two years. As part of a separate case on Friday, the CSA applied for an interim charging order to be made final so the fee can be placed on his property at Park Farm, Wellow — while Mr Chapelhow argued the order should be dropped completely while he runs an appeal. The defense is using Child Support Act law to say the CSAs pursuit of Mr Chapelhow goes against rules which say the agency should consider the welfare of any child likely to be affected by its decision. (01/26/10)
Ireland, Gov. grossly misleads on abortion http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15299 The Irish government came under increasing pressure to overhaul its ban on abortion today, after it was accused of exposing women to "grossly misleading" information about the procedure. According to Human Rights Watch, Irish legislation – under which women who have an abortion in Ireland face a life sentence in prison if prosecuted – is putting women's health at risk and exposing them to deliberate misinformation from rogue pro-life agencies. Women have been told they may become infertile, require a hysterectomy or possibly need a colostomy bag after an abortion by agencies that target women seeking advice about unwanted pregnancies, says the report. (01/28/10)
With 1 child policy, China missing girls http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15289 When Chinese officials created the country's one-child-per-couple policy in 1978, they intended to contain the country's burgeoning population for the sake of economic growth, national security and environmental preservation. But Chinese boys now outnumber Chinese girls by the millions, and the impact of the lopsided sex imbalance is starting to spill beyond China's borders. This phenomenon of "missing girls" has turned China into "a giant magnet" for human traffickers, who lure or kidnap women and sell them — even multiple times — into forced marriages or the commercial sex trade. (01/27/10)
UK, Cannot discriminate v. the unreliable http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15298 When it comes to hiring staff, there are plenty of legal pitfalls employers need to watch out for these days. So recruitment agency boss Nicole Mamo was especially careful to ensure her advert for hospital workers did not offend on grounds of race, age or sexual orientation. However, she hadn't reckoned on discriminating against a wholly different section of the community - the completely useless. When she ran the ad past a job centre, she was told she couldn't ask for 'reliable' and 'hard-working' applicants because it could be offensive to unreliable people. (01/27/10)
MSU censors personal opinions in email http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15297 After FIRE notified Michigan State University (MSU) President Lou Anna K. Simon that MSU remains on FIRE's Red Alert list because of its extremely restrictive new "spam" policy, President Simon shockingly responded by saying that MSU e-mail accounts are no place for personal opinions. "The University's email services are not intended as a public forum for the expression and dissemination of personal opinions," Simon wrote in a letter to FIRE. "Rather, other means exist within the University community for the expression and dissemination of personal opinions." MSU used a similar policy last year to find a student government member guilty of "spamming" for e-mailing professors about controversial changes at MSU.
Bangladesh, 101 lashes for pregnant rape victim http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15291 A 16-year-old girl who was raped in Bangladesh has been given 101 lashes for conceiving during the assault. The girl's father was also fined and warned the family would be branded outcasts from their village if he did not pay. According to human rights activists, the girl, who was quickly married after the attack, was divorced weeks later after medical tests revealed she was pregnant. The girl was raped by a 20-year-old villager in Brahmanbaria district in April last year. Bangladesh's Daily Star newspaper reported that she was so ashamed following the attack that she did not lodge a complaint. (01/26/10)
UK, loud sex a jailable offense? http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15290 A British woman who received several citations for having sex too loud was spared jail time — for now. But Judge Beatrice Bolton gave the woman, Caroline Cartwright, an eight-week suspended sentence, and vowed to throw her behind bars if she disturbs neighbors again. Cartwright had invoked the U.K.'s Human Rights Act, saying she had a right to "respect for her private and family life." But Bolton said a recording proved that Cartwright and her husband, Steve, made no effort to comply with an order to curb their noisy lovemaking. "It needs to be a prison sentence because you need to be deterred," Bolton said. (01/26/10)
BBC censors nipple on classical painting http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15288 BBC bosses ordered an auction house to remove a neo-classical oil painting of a semi-naked woman in case her exposed nipple offended viewers. Auctioneer Alan Aldridge was being filmed for Flog it!, BBC2's daytime antique programme, when the production team asked him to take down the 19th-century oil painting. (01/22/10)
Utah may charge women for illegal abortions http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15287 A House committee approved a bill Tuesday that would allow charges to be filed against a woman who tries to arrange an illegal abortion. The change, sponsored by Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, was prompted by a case in Uintah County, where a 17-year-old girl paid $150 to a man she met at a convenience store to beat her in an attempt to induce a miscarriage of her 7-month-old fetus. Because, under current Utah law, a woman cannot be charged for attempting to arrange an abortion, a judge dismissed charges filed against the mother. The state has appealed the dismissal. (01/26/10)
EHarmony settles lawsuit over gay matchmaking http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15286 The popular eHarmony online dating service will have to do more to welcome gays and lesbians to its site, under a proposed settlement of a class-action lawsuit announced Tuesday. For example, a "gay dating" link would be added to the bottom of the home page where there now are links for black, Hispanic, Jewish, Christian and seniors dating. The firm also would establish a $2 million settlement fund, with about $500,000 set aside for gay, lesbian and bisexual Californians who can show they were harmed by eHarmony's policies. The company did not admit wrongdoing. (01/27/10)
Merriam Webster dictionary banned from US classroom http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15284 An American school has banned a dictionary from classrooms. Now the Menifee Union School District is forming a committee to decide if the dictionaries should be allowed back, or permanently banned. The dictionary - the much-respected Merriam-Webster's Collegiate version - was pulled from classrooms after a parent at Oak Meadows Elementary School complained. This was because a child had found the definition of "oral sex" in the book. (01/25/10)
CA, Prop 8 prosecution rests case http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15283 Lawyers for two same-sex couples challenging the constitutionality of California’s ban on same-sex marriage rested their case Monday after showing videotape of a simulcast in which supporters of the ban said gay marriage would lead to polygamy and bestiality. Lawyers for Proposition 8 sponsors called their first witness, a Claremont College political scientist. (01/25/10)
Obama wants to double child care tax credit http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15279 President Obama proposed nearly doubling the child care tax credit for middle-class families Monday, the latest administration initiative meant to reassure Americans nervous about the slow pace of the economic recovery. The proposal is one of five new recommendations from the president's Middle Class Task Force, which was established one year ago this week. It comes as an increasingly populist White House struggles to regain the political advantage among swing independent voters. (01/25/10)
Neb., Abortion bill could be constitutionally challenged http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15278 A Nebraska bill (LB 1103) that would ban abortion after 20 weeks' gestation in nearly all cases could prompt a legal battle regarding its constitutionality. The bill, introduced by Speaker of the Legislature Mike Flood (R), would allow abortion past 20 weeks only to save the woman's life or to "avert serious risk or substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function." Current Nebraska law bans abortion after viability except to preserve the life or health of the woman. Janet Crepps of the Center for Reproductive Rights said the Nebraska bill goes much further and has several constitutional flaws. (01/26/10)
CBS asked to scrap pro life ad http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15277 A coalition of women's groups called on the CBS network on Monday to scrap its plan to broadcast an ad during the Super Bowl featuring college football star Tim Tebow and his mother, which critics say is likely to convey an anti-abortion message. The ad -- paid for by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family -- is expected to recount the story of Pam Tebow's pregnancy in 1987 with a theme of "Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life." After getting sick during a mission trip to the Philippines, she ignored a recommendation by doctors to abort her fifth child and gave birth to Tim, who went on to win the 2007 Heisman Trophy while helping his Florida team to two college football championships. The New York-based Women's Media Center was coordinating the protest with backing from the National Organization for Women, the Feminist Majority and other groups. (01/25/10)
How and why Local TV news tries to scare women http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15293 The “sausage making†of TV news is not a fun thing to watch. On one level it is silly and ridiculous, on another level it is demeaning and insulting, especially to women. The business that prides itself on protecting women actually holds them in derision. The first thing you need to know is that women are the target viewer of any newscast. Advertisers know where they can find the men, they’ll flip on the tube…oh, sorry, they don’t use tubes anymore… they’ll flip on the LCD 1080p HD on Saturday or Sunday to watch football. Women supposedly are home morning, noon and night and they want their news. TV newscasts are Oprah without Oprah, since she can’t be everywhere all the time protecting women. (01/21/10)
Nude awakening http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15336 Let’s not mince words about these machines. They are a virtual strip search--and an outrage. Body scanners are a form of what security expert Bruce Schneier has called “security theater.†That is, they give people the illusion of safety without actually making us safer. A British MP who evaluated the body scanners in a former capacity, as a director at a leading defense technology company, said that they wouldn’t have stopped the trouser bomber aboard the Northwest flight. Despite over-hyped claims to the contrary, they simply can’t detect low-density materials hidden under clothing, such as liquid, powder, or thin plastics. In other words, the sacrifice these machines require of our privacy is utterly pointless. And, as it happens, it’s possible to design and use the body scanners in a way that protects privacy without diminishing security--but the U.S. government has failed to do so. (01/29/10)
Female sexual abusers are not as rare as believed http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15333 The set of facts involving the Windsor-area mother who sexually abused her two-year-old son horrified both those involved in the case and those who'd only heard about it. "Society expects the mother of a toddler would do everything in her power to make sure her child is protected from harm," said the judge who on Friday handed the 24-year-old woman a 3 1/2-year prison sentence. He called her crimes "appalling" and "abhorrent." While female sexual abusers are rare in the court system, those who deal with child sexual abuse know the woman is not unique. She may be the first Ontario woman to be jailed for making child pornography featuring her own offspring, but she's not the first mother to sexually abuse a child. A national study released in 2005 shows that biological mothers were the perpetrators of sexual abuse in 5% of the substantiated cases investigated by child welfare authorities. The instance is probably higher, since researchers are certain that many cases of child sexual abuse never come to light. "A lot of people have difficulty believing women are capable of sexually abusing children," said social worker Angela Hovey, whose doctoral thesis deals with a topic related to this theme. (01/29/10)
ePublishing, the Orwellian side http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15332 When Amazon realised that copies of two Orwell books - Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm - had been added to the Kindle store by a company that did not have rights to them, it hit the delete button. Next time users who had bought a copy logged on to Whispernet, the wireless service through which Amazon delivers its e-books, their copies self-destructed. Customers commenting on online forums had earlier reported the disappearance of digital editions of Harry Potter books and the works of Ayn Rand over similar issues. Online commentators had a field day when news of the Orwell incident flashed across the web. Here was the world's biggest bookseller effectively walking into its customers' homes under cover of darkness and removing books from their shelves. And it couldn't have happened to a better novel. (01/28/10)
Huge gender gap in colleges. Why? http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15331 At age 22, women were more likely than men to be enrolled in college and were more likely to have received a bachelor's degree. Twenty-nine percent of women were attending college during the October when they were age 22, compared with 25.2% of men. Moreover, 12.8% of women had earned a bachelor's degree, compared with 6.9% of men. The standard "disparity-proves-discrimination" dogma will not be applied in this case of a huge gender imbalance in college completion by age 22, because the disparity favors women, not men. But consider what happens when the disparity favors men, and this is just one example of many... (01/29/10)
When Nanny is there all sex is unsafe sex http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15323 State laws make all teenage sex dangerous. It isn't dangerous because there are consequences to actions that nature imposes. In nature there is always a cost to something. Governments, however, like to screw around with that premises. So they minimize the risks of some bad things by subsidizing them. For instance, government will subsidize tobacco growing, help subsidize people who get cancer from smoking, provide "insurance" to people who build in flood planes, etc. All of these are cases where government lowers the cost of risky behavior thus encouraging more of it. (01/29/10)
Obama spreads more myths on gender pay gap http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15321 National Coalition for Men (NCFM) Spokesman Marc Angelucci affirms that during President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address on Wednesday evening, the President ignored “overwhelming evidence showing the pay gap is the result of choices made by men and women, including how many hours they work, the type of work, flexibility, commute distances, physical risk, and other factors.†In his presentation, President Obama said: “We’re going to crack down on violations of equal pay laws - so that women get equal pay for an equal day’s work.†In stating this, says Angelucci, “President Obama helped spread the myth that the gender pay gap is due to sex discrimination.†(01/29/10)
Open the shut case http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15317 In addition to going after her truthfulness in its court pleadings, KBR has mounted a zealous public campaign to "correct the facts" about the Jones litigation stemming from her accusation of being raped byKBR employees—urging, for instance, that "Ms. Jones' allegation of rape remains unsubstantiated" and that she wasn't locked in a shipping container but rather "provided with a secure living trailer." Apparently KBR fails to appreciate the irony of demanding that all of its counter-facts come to light despite its love for secret arbitration. You can holler about trial lawyers all you want, but nobody wants to be told their legal disputes ought to be worked out in secret, off the books, and in dark rooms, just so the justice system can be preserved for other people. And nobody wants to be called out publicly as a liar before they have found a safe place to try to tell their truth. The Supreme Court may have given corporate personhood a great big shot in the arm this past week , but KBR is making a huge mistake if it assumes that actual personhood—as in Jamie Leigh Jones—doesn't count for anything. (01/28/10)
Juicy politico porn reveals much about America http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15314 After a debate, Hillary on Obama: ‘What an asshole.’ Elizabeth Edwards (wife of John) is asked to help her husband’s campaign: ‘Why the fuck do you think I’d want to go sit outside a Wal-Mart and hand out leaflets?’ Hillary, after her comeback win in the New Hampshire primary: ‘I get really tough when people fuck with me.’ The media slams Hillary for saying she’s staying in the race because ‘Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June’. Hillary responds: ‘Unfuckingbelievable!’ John McCain pulls even with Barack Obama in the polls. Obama to his adviser: ‘This shit would be really interesting if we weren’t in the middle of it.’ John McCain, into his wife’s face, both middle fingers raised and extended: ‘FUCK YOU! FUCK, FUCK, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!!!’ McCain changes his positions on the economy on a daily basis. Obama: ‘No fucking discipline.’ (01/28/10)
Growth is not only good, it is essential http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15313 If someone was transported from 1900 to the present day, their first reaction would almost certainly be amazement at what humanity has achieved. Then they would probably do a double take. After getting to know our world better they would be bemused by the widespread resentment towards the benefits of prosperity. Such anxiety about rising prosperity is best referred to as ‘growth scepticism’ as it is typically presented as a healthy questioning of the priority attached to growth. (01/29/10)
So your freedom loving kid is going to college http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15309 It is simply impossible, short of attending Hillsdale or Grove City College or some religious colleges, to avoid the fact that the vast majority of college faculty members will have a worldview different from yours and your child’s. The classroom will inevitably reflect their views, just as my classes are colored by my views. The concern about potential “indoctrination,†however, should arise only if agreement with the teacher’s views determines the evaluation of the student’s work. In my experience such behavior is more the exception than the rule. The majority of left-leaning faculty, especially where teaching is valued, are not after students who agree with them but rather students who show a capacity for critical thinking, can express their views cogently in writing and in speech, and support them with evidence. To gauge this, explore how focused the school is on helping their students acquire skills in writing, speaking, critical thinking, and research. (01/28/10)
Tiller's killer puts abortion on trial http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15308 The question now is not whether it was Roeder who did the shooting, which he confessed to on the stand, but whether there's any way he can be found not guilty of first-degree murder. Judge Warren Wilbert has ruled that the jury will not be able to consider Roeder's crime either second-degree murder or manslaughter. The former conviction, which carries shorter jail time than murder, was possible because a bizarre Kansas statute lays out a form of involuntary manslaughter committed on the ground that the killer has an honest belief--whether reasonable or unreasonable--that the circumstances justified deadly force. But, because testimony showed Tiller's murder clearly involved premeditation, forethought and planning, the judge has ruled that lesser crimes won't be under consideration. Still, Judge Wilbert's decision to give the defense "some pretty wide latitude" in presenting evidence of Roeder's antiabortion beliefs is like an invitation to wacko killers everywhere: explain your reasons well enough and you might be able to get away with murder. (01/28/10)
Diversitys double standard http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15306 Diversity is worse in professional sports. In the National Basketball Association, almost 82 percent of the players are people of color, higher than last year's 80 percent. One can understand the absence of concern for diversity in professional sports; they are in it just for the money. But one is left flummoxed by the lack of sports diversity in college sports. After all, you can't listen to any college president or provost speak for more than five minutes before the word "diversity" drops from his lips. Colleges take diversity seriously, and they spend tens of millions of dollars on it. Juilliard School has a director of diversity and inclusion; MIT has a manager of diversity recruitment; Toledo University, an associate dean for diversity; Harvard, Texas A&M, California at Berkeley, Virginia and many others boast of officers, deans, vice presidents and perhaps ministers of diversity. But, in what appears to be the height of deviousness and deceit, these diversity-driven administrators allow sports, the most visible part of the college, to be the least diverse and least inclusive. (01/28/10)
The war on salt http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15302 The war has been going on for thousands of years. It comes up again and again. It manifests itself as a war on drugs, a war on terror, a global warming crisis. It is the war amongst those who would rule everyone else asserting that they know better how to run your life and it is the war against you. The war on salt is just one aspect of this same, tired, ancient, boring, despicable, and horrid war—a war with billions of casualties, a war against human spirit, a war on possibility. It is the war that doesn't give you a walk-on role in the world, only a lead role in a cage. What I'm talking about is the war on the future we were promised, with flying cars, much longer lives, colonies in space, hotels in the Moon, terraforming of Mars. It is the war which impoverishes nearly everyone, the war which enriches only the cronies of big government. (01/27/10)
For and against the face veil http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15295 A French parliamentary panel has recommended that face-covering veils such as the burqa or the niqab be banned in public insitutions such as hospitals and schools. The decision is the result of a six-month inquiry into full veils, after Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said they were "not welcome" in the country. Here the issue is debated by Hadiah Ahmed, a niqab-wearing Muslim, and Shaaz Mahboob, vice chair of British Muslims for Secular Democracy. (01/25/10)
Yrs of abstinence programs, more pregnancies http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15294 Teen pregnancy rates have risen in the US by 3%, the first reversal in the downward trend that started in 1990. Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association, a group that only exists because of Bush redirecting money from your pocket into theirs, says the rise in pregnancy rates is "another opportunity to throw a barb at abstinence education." Abstinence doesn't need education. Abstinence is doing nothing and any idiot can do nothing. On the other hand, responsible sexuality takes information and knowledge—two things that religious loons think are dangerous even for adults. (01/27/10)
Overpaying for green power http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15292 Green power advocates in the United States have started pushing for a European-style subsidy scheme in which homeowners or businesses that install solar panels or windmills can sell their excess power back to the grid at inflated prices. Utilities are required by the state to pay above-market rates for this environmentally-friendly power. These so-called feed-in tariffs were first devised in Germany in the early 1990s and have been adopted by nearly 20 other countries since then as a way to boost the installation of renewable energy production. And if encouraging the installation of renewable energy capacity is the chief goal, feed-in tariffs do work. As the result of its feed-in tariff scheme, Germany has the world's second-largest installed wind capacity—behind the United States—and the largest installed solar photovoltaic capacity in the world. However, a recent report by the independent German economics think tank, RWI, noted that the solar electricity feed-in tariff of 59 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2009 is more than eight times higher than the wholesale electricity price and more than four times the feed-in tariff paid for electricity produced by on-shore wind turbines. (01/26/10)
Ruining kids in order to save them http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15285 That the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would even need to hear oral arguments in the case of Miller, et al. v. Skumanick last week is a pretty good indication that law enforcement officials in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania have lost their collective minds. At issue in the case: Whether the U.S. Constitution permits prosecutors to charge minors who pose for nude or risque photos with child pornography. You read that correctly. In order to protect children from predators and child pornographers, the local district attorney is threatening to prosecute minors who pose for racy photos as if they were child pornographers. (01/25/10)
Science, politics in a heat haze http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15282 Scientists screw up sometimes, especially when they take off the white laboratory coat and go out to mix it with politics. This should not shock and dismay us any more than the sight of national governments, called on to assume part of the burden of fixing a global problem, insisting that the others should go first. Certainly, lapses in preparation of the United Nations report in 2007 on climate change are regrettable. There were the emails between climate scientists at the University of East Anglia, obtained by a hacker, suggesting they had prevented data that fuzzed the scenario of steadily average temperatures from being included in the report. Now we have just had the revelation that one of the report's most dramatic warnings - the likely disappearance of the Himalayan glaciers by 2035 - was shoddily transcribed in a chain of references to a Russian glaciologist's prediction of a complete melting by 2350. Another claim, of a linkage between climate change and the ferocity of recent weather extremes, is also dubious. (01/26/10)
Free speech on campus? Yes. A free ride? No http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15281 In our era of dumbing down, where the academy risks turning from a hotbed of Platonic debate and Truth-seeking into a conveyor belt that churns out jobsworths, it isn’t often one can agree with the words uttered by a university provost. But yesterday Malcolm Grant of University College London (UCL) made a statement that spiked can get behind. In response to claims that the ‘Pants bomber’, Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, was radicalised during his spell as a student at UCL, and therefore that ‘extremist speech’ on campus should be curtailed, Grant said it is not a university’s job to ‘police’ its students’ beliefs or speech. (01/26/10)
More on Why Ayn Rand? http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15280 Recent political developments have clearly contributed to interest in her political philosophy. But recent events do not change the actual relevance of Rand’s ideas, political or otherwise. The election of Barack Obama, for instance, changes little. There have been left-wing democrats for a long time, and there have been calls to socialize medicine for decades. The principles of individual rights are exactly as true as they have been throughout human history, and the nature of the opposition to those principles has changed little in the past few decades. Contrary to the impression one might get from listening to “tea party†enthusiasts, things are probably getting better, from an individualist’s standpoint, in the medium to long term (on the scale of decades and centuries). (01/22/10)
A breakthrough plan for ending the cycle of abuse http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.15274 With Violent Partners: A Breakthrough Plan for Ending the Cycle of Abuse, New York University Social Work and Law Professor Linda G. Mills has published her fourth book and her second book focused on domestic violence (DV) issues allied with men’s rights. As with her previous book on this topic, Insult to Injury: Rethinking Our Responses to Intimate Abuse (Princeton University Press, 2003) Mills calls herself a feminist but positions herself as sympathetic to true gender equality without actually writing exactly the sort of book one of us might produce. (01/24/10)
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