Hello and a belated Happy 2007!

I am delighted to bring you the first revival issue of the ifeminists.net weekly newsletter through which you can stay current on the news and commentary that I handpick daily to post on the ifeminists' front page newsfeed. Its maw is always hungry for tasty morsels of news, BTW, and I encourage readers to email in items of interest. I also welcome your comments and suggestions. The best address to use is wendy©wendymcelroy.com.

Please feel free to browse or join a discussion BB that I moderate at http://www.wendymcelroy.com/smf.

And, now, it is time to take this puppy for a test drive by pressing 'send'.

Thanks for your continuing interest in and support for ifeminists.net.

Cheers,
Wendy

Alerts

Blog for pro-choice on Jan. 22nd
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On January 22nd - the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade – NARAL Pro-Choice America is asking pro-choice bloggers to raise the profile of reproductive rights issues in the blogosphere and the media, and to let everyone know that a woman's right to choose is nonnegotiable. So blog for choice on January 22nd, and this year's topic is a simple one: tell us, and your readers, why you're pro-choice.

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News Reports

Canada, dearly bewildered...
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The town of Bancroft, Ont., is reeling after the bombshell dropped a United Church minister ignored her credentials being revoked, and went on to conduct dozens of marriages that were never legally registered. Two OPP officers reportedly fell victim to the ex-minister -- with at least two of the couples expecting kids without their marriages sanctified by the church or officially recorded with the province. (01/17/07)

Spanish walkout over 'Saudi sexism'
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Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar was to deliver a lecture on the globalisation of terrorism at Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, the academic heart of Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi Islam. The Spanish reporters were prevented from entering despite the fact they were all wearing the traditional black abaya and veil, according to one of the journalists, Esther Bazan, of Spain's SER radio. Saudi authorities said the university was an all-male institution and women were not allowed. He cancelled the lecture. (01/15/07)

PA, Fed judge rules abortion protesters' rights violated
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Along with ruling freedom of speech and assembly were violated, U.S. Middle District Judge Sylvia Rambo determined that York City did not violate the anti-abortion group's religious freedoms. (01/17/07)

FL woman raped, tortured for porn
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Investigators went into the Brevard County woods and found ropes used to hang the woman still on a tree and a video camera apparently belonging to Woods. "(Wood) was arrested and confessed to attempting to make bondage porn," Local 6's Samantha Knapp said. "He planned to sell the video he made. Deputies declared this a heinous crime, saying he will never have that chance." (01/16/07)

Charges dropped against Iranian rape victim
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Fatehi was sentenced to death in an Iranian court a year ago, after admitting to stabbing to death one of three men who tried to rape her and a 16-year-old relative. Fatehi was 17 at the time. Former Miss Canada Nazanin Afshin-Jam, who worked hard to champion the case of Nazanin Fatehi, 19, excitedly reported the news to Canada AM Tuesday. "Two of the judges decided that [Fatehi] should be freed unconditionally," Afshin-Jam said. "And three of the judges said that, yes, in fact it was self-defence, but that she would need to pay blood money to the family of the victim." (01/16/07)

MD, wide berth allowed on teaching re: gays
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Two words buried deep within the regulatory code of Maryland advise school systems to teach "sexual variations." The county school system invoked those regulations in defense of disputed new lessons that introduce students to sexual orientation and transgenderism in grades eight and 10. Neither Maryland nor Virginia requires school systems to teach about sexual orientation, state officials said. Maryland's stipulation that schools teach sexual variations as one of several "areas of emphasis" in health classes is open to broad interpretation. Montgomery's new curriculum, approved last week for field tests this spring, goes deeper into sexual and gender identity than most other Washington area school systems have dared, judging by an informal survey. (01/16/07)

Ohio, Pharmacist denies morning-after pill
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Tashina Byrd, 23, of Springfield, said the [Wal-Mart] pharmacist "shook his head and laughed" when a pharmacy attendant asked this month about giving the woman and her boyfriend Plan B. The hormone pills can help prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. The attendant told Byrd and her boyfriend, Brian O'Neill, 37, of Columbus, that the store stocked Plan B, but nobody would give it to them. (01/16/07)

VA, lesbian ordered to pay child support
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The child support order filed last month in Rutland Family Court calls for Janet Miller-Jenkins of Fair Haven to pay $240 a month to her former partner, Lisa Miller-Jenkins, the biological parent to the 4-year-old child, Isabella, she conceived by artificial insemination while the couple were joined in a Vermont civil union. The national headline-making case stems from the civil union breakup with between former partner and centers on their parental rights with regard to the child, who now lives in Virginia with Lisa Miller-Jenkins. (01/14/07)
Miss NJ resigns over pregnancy
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Harder, 20, told the newspaper she voluntarily stepped down because it's against pageant rules to compete while pregnant. She could not be reached for comment by The Associated Press. Both the pageant and the runner-up for 2007 Miss New Jersey USA confirmed Monday that the reins have changed hands. Erin Abrahamson, 23, said pageant officials called her Friday to let her know she would be assuming the title. (01/15/07)

51% of women are now living without spouse
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In 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000. Coupled with the fact that in 2005 married couples became a minority of all American households for the first time, the trend could ultimately shape social and workplace policies, including the ways government and employers distribute benefits. Several factors are driving the statistical shift. At one end of the age spectrum, women are marrying later or living with unmarried partners more often and for longer periods. At the other end, women are living longer as widows and, after a divorce, are more likely than men to delay remarriage, sometimes delighting in their newfound freedom. (01/16/07)

Romney created 'gay' marriage, family groups say
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According to the organization MassResistance.org, nearly four dozen family oriented leaders hand-delivered a letter to the former governor on Dec. 22, before he left office, documenting why they believe he voluntarily instituted directives that created homosexual "marriages" in that state, even though he did not have to. They asked him to act in response, and they say he didn't even acknowledge the letter. (01/16/07)

US apologizes for rape of 67-year-old South Korean
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The apology came hours after South Korean police arrested a 23-year-old US soldier for allegedly raping and beating the woman in an alley in Seoul. Major General John Morgan, the acting US 8th army commander, said in a statement posted on the US military website late Sunday that the case tainted the reputation of US soldiers. (01/16/07)

UK to Muslim mums, speak English at home
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Sir Cyril Taylor, the chairman of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, said that the failure of parents to speak English at home was a key reason why some schools were at the bottom of newly-published-league tables. The problem, described by Sir Cyril as a "major issue", should be addressed by a national campaign to encourage the mothers of ethnic minority children to attend English classes, he said. "A very high proportion of the mothers come from Bangladesh and Pakistan, not speaking English when they arrive through arranged marriages," he added. (01/14/07)

Terror-linked divorce includes claim against judge
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The divorce trial, which started Jan. 2, is pitting Rosaline Ghawji against her husband, prominent Memphis doctor Maher Ghawji, and includes her allegations that besides his ties to terrorism, he "has threatened to kill her and her two boys if they did not abide by radical Islamic doctrine,"according to a statement from the general counsel. A federal lawsuit was filed on Friday... The lawsuit names Judge Donna Fields of Circuit Court in Shelby County for the state's 13th Judicial District, alleging the circumstances she has allowed in the case have resulted in violations of the woman's civil rights, including privacy, attorney-client privilege, due process, equal protection and free speech. (01/15/07)

MI, Adultery could mean life imprisonment
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The ruling by Court of Appeals Judge William Murphy [that adultery is vulnerable to life imprisonment] is especially awkward for Attorney General Mike Cox, whose office triggered it by successfully appealing a lower court's decision to drop charges against a man accused of trading drugs for sex, reported columnist Brian Dickerson of the Detroit Free Press. Cox confessed to an adulterous relationship in November 2005. Murphy wrote in his opinion for a unanimous appeals panel, "We cannot help but question whether the Legislature actually intended the result we reach here today, but we are curtailed by the language of the statute from reaching any other conclusion." (01/15/07)

Prison time for viewing porn?
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The Bandys would soon find out just how serious the charges against Matthew were [he had accessed sites with pornography]. The family hired Ed Novak, a well-respected attorney from a large law firm in downtown Phoenix. "20/20" correspondent Jim Avila asked Novak what the family was up against. "We faced 10 years per count, there were nine counts," said Novak. "If Matt was convicted, those sentences would have to be served consecutively. In other words, he would have been sentenced to 90 years in prison. He would have served time until he died." (01/12/07)

Gere cheers sex workers in AIDS fight
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"No condom, no sex. No condom, no sex. No condom, no sex," Gere hollered into a microphone as about 10,000 prostitutes gathered at a dusty Mumbai fairground [in India] joined him in chorus. The actor, dressed in a brown jacket and black trousers, presented awards to sex workers in recognition of their work on various HIV/AIDS intervention programs. (01/10/07)

RCMP launches sex har. suit
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Cpl. Sherry-Lee Benson-Podolchuk claims she suffered years of abuse that forced her to take stress leave and has caused other ailments, including clinical depression, anxiety and loss of self-esteem. Benson-Podolchuk, 44, is seeking unspecified financial damages from the RCMP and the federal government in one of the first civil cases of its kind in Manitoba. (01/14/07)

Rice: Single women can understand war
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"No," Rice answered when asked if her status hinders her understanding of the sacrifices involved. "I also think that being a single woman does not in any way make me incapable of understanding not just those sacrifices but also that nothing of value is ever won without sacrifice." Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., told Rice during a testy Senate hearing on Thursday that without an immediate family Rice will pay no personal price for the Bush administration policy in Iraq. (01/14/07)

Iran, girl who killed rapist may be spared
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The case of Nazanin Fatehi, highlighted in The Independent on Sunday last week, has caused an international outcry. She was sentenced to be hanged a year ago, but a retrial was ordered by Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, head of Iran's religious judiciary, after an Iranian-born singer and former Miss Canada, Nazanin Afshin-Jam, gained more than 300,000 signatories to a petition. (01/14/07)

Another Roe challenge launched in Georgia
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State lawmakers in Georgia are considering whether to affirm the 'personhood' of the 'unborn' -- that is, the fetus. The plan by Rep. Bobby Franklin and several other lawmakers notes that the state's duty is to protect life "from the moment of conception" and cites the 1973 Supreme Court opinion that created the "right" to abortions itself in proposing its downfall. [Ed.: As a pro-choice advocate, I almost regret the Roe ever occurred. It is a very weak foundation from which to argue for aboriton rights.] (01/13/07)

Biden wants Legal Brigade for domestic safety
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Biden, an attorney, has written a bill that would create an electronic network of 100,000 lawyers willing to do volunteer work on behalf of victims of domestic violence. The bill would also set up a fund to help a separate group of lawyers--those who spend a majority of their time working on behalf of domestic violence victims--pay back their school loans. (01/11/07)

S.D. law on abortion gets rehearing
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The appeals court grants only about one in 50 requests for a full court rehearing, state Attorney General Larry Long said Wednesday. "This is a rare and unusual event, and we're just delighted." The temporary block to enforcement of the law was issued by U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier in Rapid City, who said plaintiff Planned Parenthood has a fair chance of succeeding in its claim that the law violates doctors' free-speech rights. Under the law, doctors would be required to give the patients a written document including the statement that "the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being." (01/11/07)

CO, State sides with ladies night foe
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Steve Horner learned Thursday that the Division of Civil Rights for the Department of Regulatory Agencies sided with him in his complaint that men were unfairly having to pay cover charges and higher drink prices than women at the Proof’s Ladies Nights. "Ladies Night is now illegal,’’ said Horner, a 59-year-old corporate speaker, who says he’s been on an anti-feminist crusade since his wife left him with two young children several years ago and he regularly encountered discrimination against men. (01/05/07)

DA drops Air Force rape case
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The district attoney's office decided after reviewing the case to drop the sexual assault charges against Capt. Joseph Harding, saying, "We do not believe we can meet the required burden of proof." Harding said he never raped the cadet whose allegations sparked a scandal at the Air Force Academy. The case was put on hold because the alleged victim's therapist refused to turn over her notes saying the notes were confidential information. (01/10/07)

1st female Saudi pilot
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The 26-year-old woman will be the first accredited female Saudi pilot, although she will still need to be driven by a male chauffeur to the airport. Hindi, who wears the hijab along with her pilot’s epaulets and trousers, was the only woman in her flight-training course in Jordan in 2004. But, she said, one of her trainers, Lena Al-Rabdi, was an Arab woman. “I also know the first female Palestinian captain, who was always supportive and friendly at the academy,” she said. (01/12/07)

Duke Prof quits assignment over Lacrosse invitation
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"The decision by the university to readmit the students, especially just before a critical judicial decision on the case, is a clear use of corporate power, and a breach, I think, of ethical citizenship," Karla Holloway, an English professor and former dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, wrote to Duke's black faculty caucus. [Ed.: no amount evidence or lack of evidence will ever clear the reputation of the Duke 3 in the minds of those who want 3 rich, white boys to be guilty.] (01/12/07)

Nifong asks to be taken off case
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A source close to the investigation said Nifong sent a letter to North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper asking his office to assume responsibility of the case. Calls to the Attorney General's office and Mike Nifong's office were not yet returned. Three Duke Lacrosse players, Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans were indicted in 2006 on charges of rape, sexual assault, and kidnapping. (01/12/07)

Pakistan: All laws against women to be scrapped
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The government would introduce legislation aimed at regulating the sale of acids and would punish those who throw acids on women, said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. This he stated while chairing a meeting of the ministry of women development on Wednesday. The prime minister directed the minister concerned to prepare legislation in coordination with the ministry of law and justice. The government was keen on enhancing the status of women for which a number of legislative measures had been introduced, he said, adding that the Protection of Women Act was historic. More legislation was on the anvil in order to do away with the anti-women laws and social practices. (01/11/07)

Syphilis epidemic raging in China, says study
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In 1993, the reported rate of syphilis in China was a mere 0.2 cases per 100,000. In 2005, it had surged to 5.7 cases per 100,000, a figure that may well be a serious under-estimate, according to the paper by Chinese epidemiologists. In addition, the number of babies born with syphilis has shot up. Congenital syphilis occurred among just 0.01 per 100,000 live births in 1991; in 2005 it was 19.68 -- an annual rise of nearly 72 percent over that time. (01/12/07)

CT, Lawyer arrested for kissing employee
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Ralph Crozier, 55, of Southbury was arrested Thursday for kissing a female judicial marshal at Waterbury Superior Court on Dec. 22. Crozier said state police investigators told him the marshal did not invite him to kiss her, which was why criminal charges were filed. "This is the biggest baloney I've ever seen in my life," Crozier said Thursday. "How many tens of thousands of people in Connecticut wished their co-workers and friends `Merry Christmas' the day before Christmas?" (01/12/07)

Mentally ill woman wins in Miss. court
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On Tuesday, the state's highest court took a key step toward reuniting the mother and child, in what is considered a significant ruling for the rights of mentally ill parents.The Missouri Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Williams was unjustly denied parental rights based on an outdated mental evaluation of bipolar disorder. The case had raised broad questions about mental illness, what it takes to be a fit parent, and how the system ought to regard parents whose mental health improves. (01/10/07)

China, 30 million men may be single
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The report, issued by the State Population and Family Planning Commission, said China's sex ratio for newborn babies in 2005 was 118 boys to 100 girls, compared with 110:100 in 2000. In some regions, the sex ratio has reached 130:100. "Discrimination against the female sex remains the primary cause of China's growing gender imbalance," said Liu Bohong, vice director of the women studies institute under the All-China Women's Federation. (01/11/07)

Duke accuser recants re: Seligmann
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The accuser in the Duke lacrosse sex assault case now says that one of the players did not sexually assault her at all and has changed the time she alleges the attack took place, according to new motions filed by defense lawyers today. The accuser now "admits that Reade Seligmann did not commit any sex acts on her," defense attorneys said in court papers. (01/12/07)

Norway, young women opt for abortion
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Eskild's study marked the first time that researchers tracked the incidence of abortions and births among ethnic Norwegian women. Results showed major differences between those who chose to abort and those who chose to give birth. More than half of pregnant women under 25 chose abortion, a rate double that for pregnant women over 40. The abortion rate for women under age 20 was nine times higher than that for women over 40. (01/09/07)

Boxer's low blow at Condi
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Rice appeared before the Senate in defense of President Bush's tactical change in Iraq, and quickly encountered Boxer. "Who pays the price? I'm not going to pay a personal price," Boxer said. "My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young." Then, to Rice: "You're not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family." (01/12/07)

TX bill would trigger abortion law
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Freshman Sen. Dan Patrick, the Republican talk-radio host from Houston, made the abortion ban the subject of his first bill, SB186, which he filed Wednesday. Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, filed an identical bill, HB175, in the Texas House on Nov. 13, the first day to pre-file. The bills would ban abortion except to "prevent the death" of the mother — if Roe is overturned. They contain no exemptions for rape, incest or to protect the health of the mother. (01/10/07)

UK, Kelly could lose seat over schools row
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Ms Kelly, whose slender 2,064 majority in Bolton West is under threat from the Tories, had hoped to fight the next election in the neighbouring safe constituency of Bolton South East where the sitting MP, Brian Iddon, is retiring. But according to reports in today's Times and Sun, party workers are said to be so angered by her "betrayal" of socialist principles [by sending her child to a private school], that they are understood to be planning to block the move. (01/10/07)

Lennon 'was a wife-beater'?
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The alleged $US2 million ($2.5 million) extortion plot by Koral Karsan emerged when his supposed blackmail note was made public in court documents. The alleged material included a recording of Sean telling his girlfriend that John Lennon was "a wife-beating a---hole". (01/12/07)

Duke accuser changes story - again
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he attacker identified as Reade Seligmann was repeatedly urged to take part in the alleged attack, she told an investigator, but he said he could not because he was getting married, the papers said. "The accuser's most recent recollection of events demonstrates clearly that she cannot accurately recall and describe her attackers and that any identification made by her is necessarily unreliable," the defense filing said. Lawyers have said Seligmann, 20, has a girlfriend, but there been no indication that he was engaged or married. (01/11/07)

KS, special prosecutor in abortion case fired
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The special prosecutor assigned to legally pursue notorious abortionist George Tiller – accused of performing illegal late-term abortions on girls as young as 10 – has been fired. The case has an extended history, with former Attorney General Phill Kline seeking as far back as 2004 records from several abortion businesses in Kansas that he believed may document the commission of crimes. For example, he asked how could dozens of underage girls be given abortions in Kansas without a single case of assault on a child being reported? (01/11/07)

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Commentary and Opinion

Kashmir's half-widows struggle for fuller life
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Begum is fighting to confirm that her husband, who disappeared while traveling on business to New Delhi in 2002, has been killed in the ongoing war in Kashmir, the disputed border region between India and Pakistan. Now 35, Begum became one of the thousands of Kashmir's "half-widows," wives whose husbands are lost in the limbo between missing and confirmed death. The wives of the missing often can't remarry. Not only do they lack proof of being widowed, their observance of Islam often means they must wait at least seven years before taking another husband. The Indian government's policy is to deny the half-widows any relief before the expiration of seven years. At that point they can receive the standard relief offered to widows who have lost husbands to the insurgency; either a one-time grant of between $1,000 and $2,000 or a monthly pension of about $10. (01/14/07)

Willful ignorance
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The lack of public, comprehensive, and complex sex education in this country contributes to this toxic sexual culture on most college campuses. The abstinence-only sex education that most young men and women receive does not teach them how to articulate their own sexual needs and respect those articulated by their partners. Teens who are merely told "Just don’t do it" are lacking more than an anatomy lesson or information on contraceptive choices. They are also missing out on essential communication skills and life-saving knowledge about sex and power. Which is bad news for teenagers in our paradoxically hyper-sexual and hyper-conservative contemporary America who are in desperate need of wise mentorship. (01/17/07)

In Duke 'rape' case, accused fight back
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The aftermath: Nifong is now trying to orchestrate the fall-out as surely as he created the injustice. After his swearing-in ceremony as D.A. on January 2nd, Nifong declared, "Durham has some healing to do. And I need to be part of that healing process." But Nifong cannot recast himself as ‘healer’; his only proper role in the aftermath is to apologize and offer restitution, including his resignation. That won’t happen. At the same moment he spoke of healing, Nifong added, ""I don't feel that I'm part of the problem [of the Duke case]." The aftermath rightfully belongs to the true victims, to those who have been falsely accused and reviled. (01/09/07)

Boxer-Rice exchange resonates for women
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However one interprets Sen. Barbara Boxer's remark last week to Condoleezza Rice that the secretary of state, single and childless, doesn't have a "personal price" to pay in Iraq, the brief exchange still has people debating. And for some women, it highlights a larger question: Just how do you define "personal price" when talking about your country's war? (01/16/07)

Boxer's personal hit on personal price
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In case you missed the exchange, this is what Boxer said to Rice at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing: "Now, the issue is who pays the price, who pays the price? I'm not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young. You're not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, within immediate family. So who pays the price? The American military and their families, and I just want to bring us back to that fact." Actually, Rice is paying a personal price. She has not lost a son, but Rice has had to live with whatever mistakes she helped make, and she has put her own life at risk when visiting Iraq. [Ed.: this is a tempest in a toilet.] (01/16/07)

Congress proves `the personal is political'
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Readers of a certain age will remember the phrase and cringe. Once it was a favorite maxim of radicals. Now it's a maxim for everybody who dares take a political position. At least the radicals had an intellectual case, however rickety. For left-wing eggheads and their gullible followers in the 1960s, that phrase meant that political institutions unfairly limited the possibilities for personal happiness. Without a political revolution, therefore, personal happiness was impossible. It's a goofball idea but it had its own kind of logic. In contemporary politics, though, the phrase has come to mean something quite different and much less logical: that your personal experiences can somehow prove the rightness of your political positions. (01/16/07)

The European demographic crisis
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Europe's population is shrinking. Pope Benedict mused upon the nature of Europe’s demographic crisis. Even the inflated statistics of the United Nations Population Fund put Europe’s total fertility rate at a fatal 1.4 and assert that Europe’s population is already shrinking. “Before these families with their children, before these families in which the generations hold hands and the future is present, the problem of Europe, which it seems no longer wants to have children, penetrated my soul. To foreigners this Europe seems to be tired, indeed, it seems to be wishing to take its leave of history,” the Pope said, referencing the suicidal impulse of that apostate continent. “Why are things like this? (01/15/07)

Child porn in Turkey: fact or overstatement?
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Based on police records, recent media articles have suggested that interest in child pornography is growing dramatically. However not all experts agree, with many arguing that child pornography has simply become easier to generate and more readily accessible. Media coverage of such stories has expanded, making news about children's sexual abuse more conspicuous. "I think social awareness on this subject is increasing, and consequently, initiatives to fight the sexual abuse of children are also taking root. This also makes it appear as if there is an explosion of interest in child pornography," said psychologist Harika Yücel of the Yeniden Society, which works to prevent the sexual exploitation of children. (01/16/07)

Utah sex-crimes cases highlight stereotypes
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Gary Searle, prosecutor with the Tooele County Attorney's Office, said stereotypes linger about males and females when it comes to sex crimes. "People just do not view males as victims in these types of cases [teachers having sex with students], and it's especially true when it's a female victimizing the male," Searle said. "Some people say, 'How were you a victim in something every boy dreams about?' (01/15/07)

The left, feminists and Afghanistan
http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.5499
The silence of the Canadian feminist lambs suggests strongly that this is a classic case where anti-Americanism and anti-Bush sentiment, combined with anger at Stephen Harper's Conservative government and its policies, easily outweigh the harm done to Afghan females by a fundamentalist cabal. Not that the feminists and the left have been completely silent on Muslim outrages against women. (01/15/07)

Uterus transplant may enable pregnancy
http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.5498
The wombs would come from dead donors, just as most other organs do, and would be removed after the recipient gives birth so she would not need anti-rejection drugs her whole life. The hospital's ethics board has conditionally approved the plans, although the hospital's president warned women not to get false hopes because a transplant is not expected "any time in the near future." Several experts cautioned that much more research must be done, and one declared this bold concept "not really ready for prime time." (01/15/07)

BBC, 'I love the C-word' documentary
http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.5495
The programme - tentatively titled I love The C-Word - is billed as examining why the word has become more mainstream in recent years. Both the BBC and North One claimed it will not be sensationalist. A spokeswoman for the programme said: "It will look at how a word that was considered completely unacceptable has moved into the mainstream, particularly by younger people. The tone will be a serious exploration of the word." (01/14/07)

A daring feminist theologian
http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.5489
Ross is one of three central figures in religious feminism in Israel: Prof. Alice Shalvi supplied the educational aspect (at the Pelech High School for girls in Jerusalem), Dr. Chana Kehat supplied the public aspect (in the women's organization Kolech) and Ross, who is not as well-known, supplied the theological foundation when she did not hesitate to speak about the "masculine bias of the Jewish sources." (01/14/07)

Boxer's Condi comments
http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.5487
"Here you have a rich white chick with a huge, big mouth, trying to lynch . . . an African-American woman, right before Martin Luther King Day, hitting below the ovaries here.” So said Rush Limbaugh on Friday about the public dustup between California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, “the rich white chick,” and Republican Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, “the African-American woman,” whom Boxer said was unable to understand the horror of war because she has “no immediate family” - i.e. no husband or children - to lose. (01/14/07)

Definitive account of Duke rape hoax
http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.5486
Ten months into one of the most dramatic racial rape hoaxes in American history, the suspects still can’t get their lies straight. By suspects, I do not mean defendants Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, or Dave Evans. They’re the crime victims. The suspects are Durham, NC DA Mike Nifong who finally backed off on Friday asked North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper to appoint a special prosecutor in the case; Durham Police Sgt. Mark Gottlieb; Duke University President Richard Brodhead, various Duke administrators; the almost 100 professors (including the “Duke 88”;) who sought to have the victims railroaded, and who incited hatred against them; the socialist MSM; hoaxer Crystal Gail Mangum; and assorted John and Jane Does. (01/13/07)

France, threat to homeschooling averted
http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.5483
"Thank you so much for your calls and e-mails to the French Embassy," an alert from the organization said. "In an incredible turnaround of events, the sponsor of the restrictive amendments which would have outlawed homeschooling has withdrawn his amendments." An earlier alert had gone out just a few days ago, noting that a "draconian" plan had been proposed in the French parliament that would shut down homeschooling across the nation. (01/13/07)

No more women for Sir Macca
http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.5477
Sir Paul McCartney poured out his heart to pals while on holiday with daughter BeatriceThe former Beatle, 64, told them at his five-star resort in Jamaica: “I’m through with women. It’s been horrible. “I’m just glad to be able to get away with Beatrice. (01/12/07)

1st test-tube baby gives birth
http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.5476
Louise Brown, who was the world’s first test-tube baby, conceived without the aid of in-vitro fertilisation. She and her husband, Wesley Mullinder, 37, were reported to be “over the moon” at the birth. Ms Brown’s sister, Natalie, 23, became the first test-tube child to give birth in 1999. The birth of her child, Casey, made medical history and also ended fears that girls born through IVF treatment would not be able to have healthy children. (01/13/07)

Who’s afraid of ‘Frankenbunnies’?
http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.5466
In the run-up to Christmas, the UK government published a White Paper titled Review of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act. It attracted limited press attention at the time. However, one proposal in it – to ban the creation of ‘hybrid’ embryos under any circumstances, including for research purposes – hit the headlines at the end of last week. One of the scientists interested in pursuing this work seems to have been warned by the regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), that in the light of the government’s proposals it was unlikely that the HFEA would approve his application when it is considered at its meeting this week. (01/08/07)

A queer rally
http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.5465
Last night, the UK House of Lords debated the Northern Ireland Sexual Orientation Regulations, designed to prevent discrimination against gays in the provision of goods and services and due to be implemented across the UK by April. The Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship staged a torch-lit rally in protest against the new guidelines on the streets outside. They sang sombre (and out-of-tune) versions of Christian classics such as ‘This Little Light of Mine’, ‘Amazing Grace’ and ‘All Hail King Jesus’. The religious protesters don’t want to be required by law to serve, support or encourage gays. [Ed.: it is not clear to me whether the law only prohibits discrimination in 'public' services. If it prohibits private discrimination, then I oppose it. People have a right to associate (or not) with whomever they choose.] (01/10/07)

Media completes turn around on Duke
http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.5457
While journalist Susannah Meadows [of NewsWeek] is careful not to make proclamations of innocence, the sympathetic profile represents a full 180-degree turn from the fire-and-brimstone declarations that dominated the scandal's early coverage. The story, which broke last April, led to a cannonade of anger over the alleged rape of a low-income black woman by three privileged white men in a town known for heavy class and race disparities. Public furor grew as witnesses recounted racist expletives hurled at the women by Duke students, and the subsequent resignation of the school's lacrosse coach and cancellation of the lacrosse season only deepened cries of outrage. The New York Times in partcular was charged with pushing an anti-Duke agenda, with articles highlighting the university's fears over its sullied reputation and columns asking hedged questions like "What happens when a school sells its soul for sports?" (01/09/07)