I might of on this blog been one of the people to condemn Strauss-Kahn, mostly because I really didn't like his politics... but at my job I actually pissed off my female boss by alleging the possibility of his innocence. It did seem a bit fluffy. How do you prove it was rape? Just because they had sex?
The sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn is on the verge of collapse as investigators have uncovered major holes in the credibility of the housekeeper who charged that he attacked her in his Manhattan hotel suite in May, according to two well-placed law enforcement officials.
Although forensic tests found unambiguous evidence of a sexual encounter between Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a French politician, and the woman, prosecutors do not believe much of what the accuser has told them about the circumstances or about herself.
Since her initial allegation on May 14, the accuser has repeatedly lied, one of the law enforcement officials said.
Senior prosecutors met with lawyers for Mr. Strauss-Kahn on Thursday and provided details about their findings, and the parties are discussing whether to dismiss the felony charges. Among the discoveries, one of the officials said, are issues involving the asylum application of the 32-year-old housekeeper, who is Guinean, and possible links to criminal activities, including drug dealing and money laundering. via nytimes.com
Just how backward is the Arab world compared with Israel? Please consider this from the Qatari publication The Peninsula.
Regarding patent rights, Israel has registered 16,805 patents. However, Arab countries have only 836 patents which is 5 percent of what Israel has.
Israel spends 0.8-1 percent of the total expenditure of the world on research work and Arab states spend 0.4 percent. It means Israel spends more than double that spent by Arab countries in this field.
Israel spends 4.7 percent of its income on research. However, Arab countries spend 0.2 percent of their total income on the same. United States spends about 2.7 percent of its income, UK 1.8 and Germany 2.6 percent on research work.
Asian Arab countries spend less than 0.1 percent of their total income on research work which is five times less than African countries which are spending 0.5 percent of their total income, according to a Unesco report. Arab countries spend about half of Israel though their GDP soared 11 times that of Israel and the area is more than 649 times.
Regarding per capita expenditure on scientific research, Israel stands at the number one position by spending $1272.8 per capita. United States ranks second with $1205.9 and Japan third by spending $1153.3. However, the Arab countries ranked hundred times less than Israel by spending an average of $14.7 annually per capita.
And the oil rich Asian Arab countries spend $11.9 per capita which is equal to African poor countries whose per capita expenditure reached $9.4.
...not surprised. Same Sex Relationships obviously is just one big Cock Block... or at least that is what the study shows. You can't make a Gay person Gay... but you sure can sexually frustrate a Heterosexual person. This is the nail in the coffin for progressive arguments towards greater freedom. Gay Culture isn't autonomous from straight culture. It's predominance comes at the cost of sexual freedom for heterosexuals. Any male that has been to a college campus in the last 20 years would have a very repressive experience. I wish it were not so, but my experience tells me likewise. Your study revealed something most dudes know, but can't talk about without being hushed by the Feminist police.
There’s long been something of a debate about this question, and I thought I’d note an interesting and apparently quite credible article touching on it, Nanette K. Gartrell, Henny M. W. Bos & Naomi G. Goldberg, Adolescents of the U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study: Sexual Orientation, Sexual Behavior, and Sexual Risk Exposure, Archives of Sexual Behavior (2010). (I learned of it because one of the coauthors is affiliated with the Williams Institute for sexual orientation and the law here at UCLA School of Law.)
The study was part of an ongoing study that, at this stage, involved 77 families, “31 continuously-coupled, 40 separated-mother, and six single-mother families,” and 78 17-year-old children (one family had twins). Of the girls, nearly 50% described themselves as at least partly homosexual in orientation, though 30% out of that 50% were “predominantly heterosexual, incidentally homosexual.” (None of the girls, though, identified themselves as predominantly or exclusively lesbian.) Of the boys, a bit over 20% described themselves as at least partly homosexual in orientation, though 13% out of that 20% described themselves as “predominantly heterosexual, incidentally homosexual.” (Two of the boys identified themselves as predominantly or exclusively gay.) “The ... Kinsey self-identifications [of the girls in the study] and lifetime sexual experiences were consistent with Stacey and Biblarz’s (2001) and Biblarz and Stacey’s (2010) theory that the offspring of lesbian and gay parents might be more open to homoerotic exploration and same-sex orientation.”
As to actual sexual behavior, 15% of the girls had had sex with other girls, compared to 5% in a sample of 17-year-old girls at large; 54% of the girls had had sex with boys, compared to 63% in a sample of 17-year-old girls at large. The boys showed no greater participation in homosexual sex compared to the sample of 17-year-old boys at large, but showed a markedly lesser participation in heterosexual sex (38% as opposed to 59%). For both the boys and girls who had had sex, the age of first sexual contact was about a year later than in the samples of 17-year-olds at large. All these differences are statistically significant.
The study has obvious limitations: It’s fairly small (though large enough for the authors to get statistically significant findings). It might be subject to various confounding factors; the families in the study and the comparison families from the population at large “were neither matched nor controlled for socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, or region of residence.” It doesn’t speak to children of gay men, including children raised by the men either alone or with male partners. It doesn’t tell us what will happen to the 17-year-olds in the future (though a planned follow-up will interview the children when they are 25).
the beauty is it is their own study. meant to prove that gay marriage children will not end up being gay. what they proved is the boys are victims of this culture. It is easy to find a study that proves something that you want. how often do you find your opponents study proving your own point?
In the pre-1970 era, when surveys showed women
with higher levels of happiness, most men held jobs that
enabled their wives to be fulltime homemakers.
“The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness” is a peer-reviewed reseach publication by Drs. Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, forthcoming American Economic Journal: Economic Policy http://bpp.wharton.upenn.edu/betseys/papers/Paradox%20of%20declining%20female%20happiness.pdf
Alexis de Tocqueville traveled the United States in the early-19th century, he recognized the fact that respect for marriage is very American. He wrote: "There is certainly no country in the world where the tie of marriage is more respected than in America, or where conjugal happiness is more highly or worthily appreciated."
In recounting what happened when a similar flotilla tried to breach Israel's blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza, Greenberg writes the following:
"Israeli commandos who boarded a Turkish ship in a similar flotilla 13 months ago encountered resistance and killed nine people."
Ah, those trigger-happy Israeli commandos opened fire on "people" (not radical, violence-bent activists) who merely put up some "resistance." There's not the slightest intimation in Goldberg's piece that when the commandos rappelled from a hovering helicopter onto the top deck of a Turkish vessel, they were brutally attacked by some of these "people" with iron bars and other lethal weapons. Nine commandos were injured, some severely. The commandos fired in self-defense after some of their own were beaten to within an inch of their lives.
Ayman, Saad, Fahd, and Ouday al-Hariri,
sons of the slain Premier Rafik al-Hariri
(Reuters) - The U.N.-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri handed over indictments and four arrest warrants to Lebanon Thursday, the state prosecutor said.
The long-awaited move was hailed as a "historic moment" by Hariri's son, opposition leader Saad al-Hariri, who urged the government of Najib Mikati to cooperate with the court.
Prosecutor Saeed Mirza did not disclose the contents of the indictments, but they are expected to accuse four Hezbollah members of involvement in the Feb 14. 2005 bombing in Beirut which killed Rafik al-Hariri and 22 others.
Hezbollah, both a political movement and guerrilla army, which with its political allies forms a majority in Mikati's new government, denies any role in Hariri's killing and has called the court a tool of Israel and the United States.
It has vowed not to hand over any of its members and wants Lebanon to end cooperation with the tribunal, withdraw Lebanese judges and halt its contribution to the court's funding. More...
Hezbollah has been strengthening its position in Lebanon--not only militarily, in defiance of the UN Resolution that brought an end to the Hezbollah-Israel war, but politically as well.
Najib Mikati, the new Lebanese Prime Minister, had both Syria's and Hezbollah's support for his new position, so it is unlikely that he will just hand the 4 Hezbollah members over.
Left unanswered is the question of Iranian involvement. After all, would Hezbollah do anything so drastic as the assassination of someone so popular in Lebanon without the approval of its mentor?
