The Guardian’s “Respected American Academic”: Noam Chomsky

“The respected (?????) American academic Noam Chomsky has written to the Guardian to condemn government plans to deport the Palestinian activist Sheikh Raed Salah.”

Chomsky’s record is famously rich, but one of his more egregious actions was his decision to spend a week visiting Hizbollah in Lebanon in 2006, which included a meeting with Hassan Nasrallah who, weeks later, rained over 4,000 rockets down on northern Israel, killing dozens of civilians. During the visit, Hizbullah’s ‘Al Manar’ TV station quoted Chomsky as saying:

“Hizbullah’s insistence on keeping its arms is justified… I think Nasrallah has a reasoned argument and [a] persuasive argument that they [the arms] should be in the hands of Hizbullah as a deterrent to potential aggression, and there is plenty of background reasons for that. So until, I think his position [is] reporting it correctly and it seems to me [a] reasonable position, is that until there is a general political settlement in the region, [and] the threat of aggression and violence is reduced or eliminated, there has to be a deterrent, and the Lebanese army can’t be a deterrent.” h/t cifwatch.com

...and the Leftists I meet keep telling me that Chomsky is too old to take seriously and irrelevant.
image via Noam Chomsky on Venezuela @guardian.co.uk

"When human rights came, they saw our jails, they left, and they
said: Jails are good. Civilized, in accordance with democratic, because
the logic is Islamic logic." -Ayatollah Khomeini (Qom, August 19, 1979) note this was found in a place that has quotes that contradict in many issues. 

"Can an interrogator rape the prisoner in order to obtain a confession?" was the follow-up question posed to the Islamic cleric. Mesbah-Yazdi answered: "The necessary precaution is for the interrogator to perform a ritual washing first and say prayers while raping the prisoner. If the prisoner is female, it is permissible to rape through the vagina or anus. It is better not to have a witness present. If it is a male prisoner, then it's acceptable for someone else to watch while the rape is committed." This reply, and reports of the rape of teen male prisoners in Iranian jails, may have prompted the following question: "Is the rape of men and young boys considered sodomy?" Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi: "No, because it is not consensual. Of course, if the prisoner is aroused and enjoys the rape, then caution must be taken not to repeat the rape.""  Islam really is the Religion of Piece (of Ass)! One aspect of these permitted rapes troubled certain questioners: "What if the female prisoner gets pregnant? Is the child considered illegitimate?" Mesbah-Yazdi answered: "The child borne to any weakling [a denigrating term for women - ed.] who is against the Supreme Leader is considered illegitimate, be it a result of rape by her interrogator or through intercourse with her husband, according to the written word in the Koran. However, if the child is raised by the jailer, then the child is considered a legitimate Shi'a Muslim."" 

"Asked if a confession obtained "by applying psychological, emotional and physical pressure" was "valid and considered credible according to Islam," Mesbah-Yazdi replied: "Getting a confession from any person who is against the Velayat-e Faqih ("Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists", or the regime of Iran's mullahs) is permissible under any condition." The ayatollah gave the identical answer when asked about confessions obtained through drugging the prisoner with opiates or addictive substances. "Can an interrogator rape the prisoner in order to obtain a confession?" was the follow-up question posed to the Islamic cleric. Mesbah-Yazdi answered: "The necessary precaution is for the interrogator to perform a ritual washing first and say prayers while raping the prisoner. If the prisoner is female, it is permissible to rape through the vagina or anus. It is better not to have a witness present. If it is a male prisoner, then it's acceptable for someone else to watch while the rape is committed." This reply, and reports of the rape of teen male prisoners in Iranian jails, may have prompted the following question: "Is the rape of men and young boys considered sodomy?" Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi: "No, because it is not consensual. Of course, if the prisoner is aroused and enjoys the rape, then caution must be taken not to repeat the rape.""

...it is almost like the Iranians were Liberals. it's only marriage after all.

"In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a "wedding" ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard - essentially raped by her "husband." "I regret that, even though the marriages were legal," he said. Why the regret, if the marriages were "legal?" "Because," he went on, "I could tell that the girls were more afraid of their 'wedding' night than of the execution that awaited them in the morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die. "I remember hearing them cry and scream after [the rape] was over," he said. "I will never forget how this one girl clawed at her own face and neck with her finger nails afterwards. She had deep scratches all over her." "

...Ahmadinejad's Spiritual Advisor says, "Raping Prisoners Is OK But Wash Your Hands First".

Obviously the Feminist Nazis at Feministing are OFF to a predictable rant

there were complaints on a feminist blog...

why did you use this video *on a feminist site* as a chance to air your ‘joke-stereotypes’ of Jewish women — as nagging, manipulative, overbearing shrews with poor health (and some connection to a ‘Jewish lobby’)? It’s totally gratuitous. via Kh-L comment @ feministing.com

here is the quote:

Because Jewish mothers like to bug their kids about hurrying up and getting married and giving me some grandchildren already before I die because I’m not going to be around forever you know my health isn’t what it used to be, and right now the New York state legislature is standing in the way of that.

 Seven years after founding Feministing, Jessica Valenti (one of the most well-known femisogynists) announced that she was leaving the blog she created. Besides being busy with other projects, she’s 32 now, which is like, totally old, and Feministing is only for young femisogynists. And everyone knows that 32 is practically grandma territory. And while Valenti said she would still be involved in an advisory capacity, her departure caused much sadness and sorrow among lefty feminists in the blogosphere. via NewsReal

the new staff seems to hit the Perez Hilton Gay Nazi crowd.

Bering in Mind: Sex, Sleep and the Law: When Nocturnal Genitals Pose a Moral Dilemma

It may seem to you that, much like their barnyard animal namesake, men’s reproductive organs the world over participate in a mindless synchrony of stiffened salutes to the rising sun. In fact, however, such "morning wood" is an autonomic leftover from a series of nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT) episodes that occur like clockwork during the night for all healthy human males—most frequently in the dream-filled rapid eye movement (REM) periods of sleep from which we’re so often rudely awakened in the A.M. by buzzers, mothers, or others.
For those with penises, you may be surprised to learn how frequently your member stands up while the rest of your body is rendered catatonic by the muscular paralysis that keeps you from acting out your dreams. (And thank goodness for that. Carlos Schenck and his colleagues [pdf] from the University of Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center describe the case of a 19-year-old with sleep-related dissociative disorder crawling around his house on all fours, growling, and chewing on a piece of bacon—he was ‘dreaming’ of being a jungle cat and pouncing on a slab of raw meat held by a female zookeeper.) Scientists have determined that the average 13- to 79-year-old penis is erect for about 90 minutes each night, or 20 percent of overall sleep time. With your brain cycling between the four sleep stages, your "sleep-related erections" appear at 85-minute intervals lasting, on average, 25 minutes. (It’s true; they used a stopwatch.) I didn’t come upon any evolutionary theories or a proposed "adaptive function" of NPT, but we do know that it’s not related to daytime sexual activity, it declines (no pun intended) with age, and it’s correlated positively with testosterone levels. Females similarly exhibit vaginal lubrication during their REM-sleep, presumably with many dreaming of erect penises.
Now, you may not think that such tedious biological details would be fodder for a moral quandary, but you underestimate our species’ massive confusion when it comes to understanding how its coveted free will articulates with its genitalia. Consider the case of a young Frenchman whose sleep-related erection was interpreted by another man as a sign of sexual interest but, swore the former, was nothing of the kind. As described by a group of investigators at the Annual Meeting of the French Sleep Research Society in 2001, the 24-year-old heterosexual male awoke to his horror with painful anal lesions. Although he had no conscious recollection of any such incident occurring, this led him to deduce that he must have been raped during the night. "The legal medical examination indeed reported on visibly recent tears of the anal margin," confirmed the researchers.
Then comes the sobering whodunit. What was especially disquieting is that the man’s boss had slept over the night before. The two had earlier been lounging in the pool and roasting together in the sauna. There was absolutely no evidence of date rape drugs, but alcohol, as it so often does in the south of France, flowed with relatively gay abandon that evening, and so the straight employee, being a gentleman, had invited his employer to sleep it off on his sofa while he retired to the mezzanine. Apparently, however, it was the employee that slept particularly hard that night, not the inebriated boss. The older man admitted readily that of course they’d had sex overnight, and he could only assume that his colleague’s erection, combined with the fact that the other didn’t resist as he mounted him, suggested that he was a consensual partner. (You thought you were a deep sleeper—imagine the somnambulistic fortitude required to snooze through your first anal penetration.) While the courts tried to sort it all out, the alleged rapist was imprisoned for two years, until finally a judge decided that both men were more or less right and the accused should be set free.
This is but one of many curious examples of sex and law intertwining. In recent years, the related phenomenon of sexsomnia ("sleep sex") has witnessed periodic public interest through a spate of high-profile cases, stories that have in turn motivated intriguing academic research on this little-known subject. Even Alfred Kinsey, the grand archivist of carnal facts, while spending a considerable deal of time on the subject of "wet dreams" and nocturnal orgasms in both sexes, didn’t mention how some people act out sexually during their sleep.
Unlike the aforementioned case of the sleeping employee being the passive, immobilized recipient in unwanted intercourse, it’s the sleeper that instigates the trouble in bouts of sexsomnia. Although researchers don’t yet have an exact figure on the frequency of this parasomnia, most specialists believe that it’s probably fairly common. Nearly all people who exhibit recurrent sexual acts while sleeping have a history of sleepwalking. In fact, many experts believe that sexsomnia is simply a variant of sleepwalking, which affects 1 to 2% of adults, and this is how it’s presently classified in the main diagnostic manual, the International Classification of Sleep Disorders, Revised. Most people do not seek out clinical treatment due to either their ignorance of the condition or embarrassment, and oftentimes their sexual ‘automatisms’ are innocuous enough—such as fugue-state masturbation, weak pelvic thrusts or steamy pillow talk. (More on the concept of automatism in a moment.)
In a 2007 issue of Brain Research Reviews, however, psychobiologist Monica Andersen and her co-authors [pdf] investigated all case studies that had, at that point, been published in the literature, and they attempted to piece together some common denominators underlying sexsomnia. They found that the most common precipitating factors of sleepsex are sleep deprivation, stress, alcohol or drug consumption, excessive fatigue, and physical overactivity in the evening. Being male and under the age of 35 is also a major factor; furthermore, when women do lapse into this altered nocturnal state, their actions tend to be comparatively innocent, moaning and masturbating rather than, like male sexsomniacs, fondling and grinding whatever is unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity of their bed that night.
One of the most extraordinary things about sexsomnia is that the sleeping person’s inappropriate behaviors are sometimes directed at people that, during their waking lives, are not particularly arousing to them. In a 1996 issue of Medicine, Science and the Law, psychiatrist Peter Fenwick describes the case of an allegedly heterosexual male cadet who was court-martialed for homosexual assault after he’d crawled into bed with another soldier and caressed that private’s privates. The case was dismissed after the court accepted that the absence of an erection in the accused—sexsomnia may or may not involve erections—meant that it was unlikely that the episode was "purposeful," but instead just a bizarre sleepwalking incident. (I’ll refrain, but there’s a clever Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell joke just waiting for you.) Another example of atypical homosexuality in sexsomnia involved a 16-year-old who walked into his aunt and uncle’s bedroom one night and began molesting his adult uncle.
Erections, as I hinted at earlier, complicate matters for the judicial system. One notorious case garnering international media attention, and as reviewed recently [pdf] in Current Psychiatry by a group of sleep researchers from The Cleveland Clinic, centered on a 30-year-old landscaper named Jan Luedecke, who drank far too much at a wild croquet party in the Toronto suburbs one night back in 2003 and fell asleep on a couch. "Some time later," explain the authors, "he approached a woman who was sleeping on an adjacent couch, put on a condom, and began sexual intercourse with her." From her terrified perspective, the woman awoke to discover that her underwear had been removed and a glassy-eyed Luedecke was trying to rape her. She pushed him off, ran to the washroom, and returned to find him standing there bewildered. Luedeke, who had an established history of sleepwalking behaviors, was acquitted after University of Toronto psychiatrist Colin Shapiro testified for the defense that the accused was in a dissociative state when the incident occurred and therefore he was not consciously aware of his actions.
Difficult legal cases such as these hinge entirely on the demonstrability (or at least strong probability) of an automatism—a crime committed during sleep. This is a concept for which Fenwick provided one of the clearest definitions:

An automatism is an involuntary piece of behavior over which an individual has no control. The behavior is usually inappropriate to the circumstances, and may be out of character for the individual. It can be complex, co-ordinated and apparently purposeful and directed, though lacking in judgment. Afterwards the individual may have no recollection or only a partial and confused memory for his actions.

In other words, sexsomniacs are basically lascivious zombies. There’s presently no way to determine with absolute certainty if the phenomenon, when invoked as a defense, was really the cause or just a really convenient alibi. Still, certain criteria (detailed sleep pattern data from a nocturnal polysomnography, or PSG; sleepwalking and sleep-related sex in the past; known trigger factors, such as intoxication, fatigue, and stress; timeline of the alleged assault, since episodes typically occur within two hours of sleep onset during non-REM sleep; amnesia for the event; no attempt to conceal or "cover up" the incident, but instead confusion) can at least aid a jury in its decision-making. It’s tempting, to say the least, to be skeptical that a sleepwalker could act so purposefully as to fiddle successfully with a condom wrapper yet be conscious as an orthopteron, but London sleep researcher Irshaad Ebrahim reminds us that sleepwalking behaviors are highly variable and can be very detail-oriented, citing people preparing meals and eating, driving motorbikes and cars, even riding horses, all while getting a good night’s sleep.
For those for whom sexsomnia has become a serious problem, in a legalistic sense or otherwise, the good news is that it responds well to pharmaceutical intervention. Just a small dose of benzodiazepines—most notably clonazepam—before bedtime seems to do the trick for most. You might want to consider this if you’ve shown a history of sexual violence during sleep or, say, you’re a frequent sleepwalker and there are children in the home. (Several cases have, in fact, involved very unsettling child abuse charges being filed against alleged sexsomniacs.) But sexsomnia can be a problem even for those who live and sleep alone. After five years of waking up several nights a week with ejaculate mysteriously between his fingers, one 27-year-old was distressed to realize that he was a somnambulistic masturbator. The poor man broke two fingers when his nocturnal alter ego tore off the restraints he’d used to avoid moving in bed.
There are also those, I should point out, whose sex lives have actually benefited courtesy of their sexsomnia. Schenck and his coauthors review several such cases, including a woman who "reported infrequent and hurried sex with her [awake] husband, whom she described as distant and reluctant during wakefulness." This lady found that "nocturnal sex was more satisfactory, even if associated with bruises at times."
So, in closing, how do you determine if your partner’s overnight prurient poking is thoughtless or thoughtful? This is the very question that prompted me, several nights ago, to write this article. Apparently, snoring during sex is a good sign, and something that the partners of many sexsomniacs mention as occurring, quite out of the blue, during even the most complicated sex acts. It occurred to me also that zombified nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT) episodes may be distinguished from actual conscious sexual arousal by the presence or absence of, oh what to call it, "penile flicking." (That’s not a technical term, but since I dredged the depths of the literature in vain trying to find the proper term for this voluntary lateral, up-and-down movement of the erect penis through the clenching of the cremaster muscle—oh c’mon, don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about—please permit me a little poetic license.) I always thought such penile flicking responses must serve some communicative signalling function in our species, but apparently nobody has thought to study it from an adaptive perspective. Imagine that.
Anyway, could a sexsomniac use his social cognition to deliberately communicate a message of sexual interest by flicking his penis at his partner? It’s probably not a failsafe NPT detector, but I suspect not. And bear that helpful hint in mind in the days to follow, since God only knows the coming apocalypse will deliver it’s share of sex-crazed male zombies—a lot of randy gay ones too, according to Family Radio.
Image: Paul Delvaux: The 'Sleepwalker of Saint-Idesbald' (1897-1994) (from)
About The Author: Want more Bering in Mind? Follow Jesse on Twitter @JesseBering, visit www.jessebering.com, or friend Jesse on Facebook. Jesse is the author of newly released book,  The Belief Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny and the Meaning of Life (W. W. Norton).

via scientificamerican.com

This is called PUSSY WHIPPED

...I welcome you to blame all men for your vanity. The Martyr Sex. Pathetic. If I were a woman I would be insulted. These spineless miscreants really think WARS were never caused by "Womyn"?  maybe in the Hollywood revisioned Helen of Troy... but the real story was probably based on a historical reality.  Do we really think women are some how capable of simply being merely victimized angels?  I wonder how many of these Feminized Alpha Male Yahoos were from Washington State?

If any one wonders how I came to resent feminism... or whatever the Womynists want to call themselves this week. It wasn't the "womyn" who got me to the point where I could not deal with it anymore in a dialog. It was manipulative liars like the ones in this video.

h/t Isahiah62 and image via X RAY DELTA ONE

ICANN has .xxx domain names? Yes!

The controversial step to approve .xxx domain names has today been taken by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, paving the way for a whole slew of new addresses suffixed by the famous triplicate x. Funnily enough, before the decision was made today, opposition to it was proffered by both conservative groups opposed to pornography and adult entertainment companies fearing they'd be more easily compartmentalized and potentially blocked by overzealous governments. Moreover, every popular adult website at present will pretty much be forced to buy its .xxx version, which, for an industry famous for its frugality, will be an understandably tough pill to swallow. We are surprised not to see the people of Amsterdam consulted, however -- their city's emblem features three Xs too, shouldn't they have a say in this?
A further meeting is scheduled by ICANN for June 20th to discuss opening up all possible domain name suffixes to registration, pending the validation of a set of guidelines for approval. That's looking quite likely to be passed too, as the AFP sagely notes that there's a celebratory party scheduled for two days after the event. URLs are about to get a lot more varied, it seems; they're certainly going to feature a lot more of the (English) alphabet's 24th letter, whatever the case.

via engadget.com

whoooooooopie?

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Israeli Gay Club Ad. Hilarious

Ali Abunimah avinunu RT @bangpound: Video promo for Israeli gay club depicts brutal violence against Orientalized, feminized Arab. http://www.youtube.com/watch... #pinkwashing #lgbt February 27 from Twitter

as you can see Avinunu is quite concerned.... or shall I say jealous he isn't in on the fun.

Dutch will look into NGO funding of anti-Semitic website

NGO Monitor told the Post that “EI executive director Ali Abunimah is a leader in delegitimization and demonization campaigns against Israel. In his travels and speaking engagements, facilitated by Electronic Intifada’s budget, he calls for a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and routinely uses false apartheid rhetoric.”

“Abunimah also equates Israel to Nazi Germany, comparing the Israeli press to Der Stürmer, referring to Gaza as a ‘ghetto for surplus non-Jews,’ and claiming that ‘Zionism is not atonement for the Holocaust, but its continuation in spirit.’” NGO Monitor criticized ICCO’s employment of Mieke Zagt, who is “the ICCO official directing the funding to EI,” a “former employee of Amnesty International’s Middle East division, and a vocal proponent of BDS herself.” BDS is the abbreviation for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel.

NGO Monitor reveals Dutch government funding for Electronic Intifada

November 29, 2010

IMRA: Electronic Intifada (EI), a website that publishes articles that compare Israelis to Nazis and promotes campaigns for anti-Israel BDS (boycotts, divestment and sanctions), has received funding indirectly from the Dutch  government. The Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO), a Netherland-based NGO has supported EI since at least 2007, including a 3-year funding commitment. ICCO receives 95% of its budget from the Dutch government and the EU.

In 2008, ICCO received €124 million in Dutch government funds, representing 90% of its €139 million budget. An additional €8.5 million (6.1%) came from the European Commission (Annual Report, p. 135). When NGO Monitor contacted ICCO regarding funding for EI, our researcher was directed to the coordinator of government funds, Mieke Zagt. Ms. Zagt did not return NGO Monitor’s phone calls or emails.

As documented by NGO Monitor, EI plays a central role in the Durban strategy of political warfare against Israel, with frequent accusations of “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “slow genocide.” Articles on the EI site justify violence against civilians, call Gaza a “concentration camp,” and label Palestinian participation in peace talks as “collaboration.” EI has an extensive section supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. EI co-founder Ali Abunimah, as well as other contributors, also employ antisemitic and anti-Israel themes in their writings and Twitter statements.

Despite the evidence to the contrary, ICCO praised EI as an “internationally recognized daily news source” that “contributes to a balanced opinion.”

In an article (Jerusalem Post, November 26, 2010), journalist Benjamin Weinthal quoted Netherlands Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal: “I will look into the matter personally. If it appears that…ICCO does fund [EI], it will have a serious problem with me.”

In sharp contrast, Chairman of ICCO’s Executive Board Marinus Verweij called EI “an important source of information” and said “in no way is the EI anti-Israel or anti-Semitic.” The Post also reported that ICCO informed the Dutch government that EI “was funded with Dutch subsid[ies] until 2010. From 2010 on it has allocated only non-subsidy funding.” The evidence for this claim has not been provided.

MORE HERE

via tundratabloids.com

Oh, by the way, Gaddafi tried to rape a female reporter

Gaddafi’s Favorite Ukrainian Nurse:  I GO HOME NOW

even bad Jews like Muammar al-Gaddafi have good taste in women... DAMN ASSHOLE IS GETTING ASS!

Here’s hoping she makes it.

Embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is set to be deserted by another close ally after his Ukrainian nurse said she was heading home.

A vignette in a Benny Morris article:

Which reminds me of a story a fine, young journalist once told me about her experiences in Tripoli. It was in the 1980s, I think. She had come to interview Qaddafi. She was ushered into the famous tent. Qaddafi sent his aides away and the two of them shared lunch. And then Qaddafi tried to caress her. Flustered, she got up to leave. He then chased her around the table, bent on rape. She was brave and apparently fit; she outran him, at least long enough for his aides to rush in at the sound of her screams. Rape averted.

And then he makes this astute observation:

It is a shame journalists did not usually publish their impressions of and experiences with Qaddafi. This no doubt facilitated Western and Arab acceptance of cooperation with this almost unique, base specimen of humanity.

Unfortunately, this is still happening today. Only after the people start revolting does the Western media wake up and say, "Oh, I knew about how evil that despot was for years!"

Of course, they never reported it at the time.

And usually they still refuse to. It is an insidious game where the reporters know much more than they are willing to report, because they want to push certain narratives more than they want to contradict them.

(h/t Silke)

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com

Galyna Kolotnytska, described in a diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks as a “voluptuous blond” who “travel[s] everywhere” with Col. Gadhafi, called her family in Kiev on Friday to say she intends to return to Ukraine, her daughter told daily Segodnya.
“Mom got in touch yesterday. She said she was now in Tripoli,” Tetyana Kolotnytska said. “She spoke in a calm voice, asked us not to worry and said she’d soon be home.”
According to the cable from September 2009, contacts in Tripoli told U.S. diplomats that Col. Gadhafi “relies heavily” on Ms. Kolotnytska, then 38, as “she alone ‘knows his routine.’”
The cable also reported claims from unnamed sources that the eccentric Libyan leader and the nurse, part of a retinue of four Ukrainians, “have a romantic relationship.”
Ms. Kolotnytska’s daughter said her mother had been in Libya for nine years, originally employed in a hospital before starting work for Col. Gadhafi.
“Other Ukrainian women also work for him as nurses. Mom is one of them,” she said. “For some reason, he doesn’t trust Libyan women with this matter.”

via weaselzippers.us

;^)

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

h/t islamizationwatch.blogspot.com

 

The recent release of classified documents, from the Wikileaks US Embassy Cables, reveals that Galyna Kolotnytska is identified as a “voluptuous” blonde nurse who is the constant companion of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qadhafi.

Apparently, Colonel Gaddafi states that he cannot travel without Galyna Kolotnytska, as she alone “knows his routine.” Well, from these photos of her, I can certainly see why that might be although I'm not too keen on finding out anymore details about Gaddafi's "routine".

images via zimbio.com

via (WSJ)

Ladies Night

I came across this story on a Conservative blog and was offended at his lack of respect for the Constitution.

this is what he said... (and I usually find this guy amusing, but not this time)

I'm not quite sure what this guy's problem is and let's just hope he decides to drop his crusade now. The thought of having the Supreme Court hear arguments on the legalities of allowing women to drink at a discount just strikes me as un-American.

via jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com

I find it amusing that so called Conservatives and Feminists would team up because in the end everyone is looking for their cookie.  This is not the way fair law should be applied.

The problem here is the blogger takes the stance that this guy is in the way of getting stupid drunk girls.

I'm actually not against ladies night.  Nor am I against a "Jew night" or Christmas.  We have events that cater to groups and our laws should never get in the way of this.  As long as other groups have an opportunity to also have nights for them... or an event or even a prayer group of men (as Jewish Orthodox men do with their minions).  This is not a matter of separate but equal because this is private property.

As for the man who is claiming that ladies night is sexist, I also disagree.  In fact I'm fairly certain that a feminist like Gloria Steinem would be bemused to see a man trying to take advantages of women away because it would put them in a position of being sex objects.  I'm not a fan of feminism and I think affirmative action and thinking in terms of gender as a means to advocate change is wrong constitutionally, but at the same time we also need to acknowledge identity and the needs for identity to congregate.  We also need the government to recognize identity (which is why I'm against gay marriage) because identity is a form of transparency which is a characteristic that government should strive to attain.

From the blog one gets the feeling however that the judge ruled against the man against ladies night because he was threatened because of a  need to take advantage of women.  I agree with his finding that ladies night is constitutional, but the reason is not because it is inconvenient.   I also think that even though the man is wrong,  we should congratulate him for thinking about the slippery slope between discrimination and the right to be different. 

here is the news story.

Lola can still get into the Copa for free.
A federal appeals court this morning upheld "Ladies' Nights" promotions at the Copacabana and other city nightclubs.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected claims by "anti-feminist lawyer" Roy Den Hollander that charging men more for admission than women violates their civil rights.
A three-judge panel unanimously ruled that Hollander failed to prove that several popular nightspots -- including China Club, Lotus and Sol -- are subject to a law barring discrimination by anyone acting under government authority.
Hollander alleged that the clubs "engage in state action" because they sell booze pursuant to licenses issued by the state Liquor Authority.

"(W)ithout the draw of alcohol, his argument goes, the nightclubs would not be popular destinations and accordingly, would not be able to charge for admission," the judges ruled.

"Regardless of the veracity of this statement, we cannot agree that the state's liquor licensing laws have caused the nightclubs to hold 'Ladies' Nights;' liquor licenses are not directed related to the pricing scheme."

The judges noted that Hollander "paints a picture of a bleak future, where 'none other than what's left of the Wall Street moguls' will be able to afford to attend nightclubs."

But because they agreed with a lower court ruling that Hollander "has failed to sufficiently allege state action, we must affirm."

Hollander blasted the ruling, saying it will allow nightclubs to "discriminate against any group of persons by charging them more for admission than other groups."

"It does not matter whether the nightclubs charge males or females or blacks or Latins or any other identifiable group more for admission—it is now constitutional," he said. "It’s either a decision driven by feminist ideology or the Second Circuit decided to punt the case to the U.S. Supreme Court."

via nypost.com

Qur'an Sorah al-Baqarah 2: 223

Mernissi argues that Islam allows the Muslim man to have anal-sex with his wife against her wish. The verse was revealed when an Ansari woman refused to allow her husband to have anal-sex with her (Mernissi 1993: 145). The woman went to Um Salama (wife of the prophet Muhammad and women's representative) and requested her to bring the matter before her husband. When Um Salama inquired from the prophet a verse descended from heaven, which says, "Your women are a tilt for you (to cultivate) so approach your tilt in any position you wish" (Qur'an al-Baqarah 2: 223). This verse gave men the right to choose the sexual position they want and if they desire they are permitted to sodomize their wives against their wishes (Mernissi 1993: 146).

RAMROD!

Group of boys suspected of using girlfriend of one them as a sex slave

Group of boys suspected of using girlfriend of one them as a sex slave.

Police revealed Monday that 13 youths were arrested and their remand extended several times for allegedly using a girl as a sex slave over at least three years.
According to the allegations the girl met a boy her age when she was 15 and fell in love with him. He is suspected of exploiting her affections for him by making her have sexual relations with him and his friends.
Only one of the suspects is not a minor. The group is suspected of rape, abuse, blackmail, and committing acts of sodomy.

They allegedly also beat the girl and documented their actions on video.
Police said the case is one of the most severe rape cases exposed in Tel Aviv in the past years and that they may arrest additional suspects.

via jpost.com

The case was revealed after the boys spread the rumor and the parents of one of the suspects decided to notify the police.
The suspects claim that all sex acts were done with the girl’s full consent.
The main suspect, with whom the girl was in love, is also suspected of attempting to rape two of the girl’s friends.

Posted via web from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Coasties, JAPs, Sexism, Weeds, Rejuveniles and the Definition of Hotness

I seldom use this space to cry "anti-Semitism" or to rail at the misogynist patriarchy, but every once in a while, the Jewish feminist in me uses her guest posting privileges.
why not? it's a reality we totally deal with. stop kissing ass to your "liberal" and "progressive" friends... and you totally know what I'm talking about here Ester. don't act like I can't define you because I hate that. you know damn well you want to rant about shit, but ranting about a philosophy and world view is very different then ranting about your genetilia and who wears the pants. both can be fun to talk about however, but really you act as if feminism should be taken seriously at this juncture. you can choose to be a Jew. I never chose to have a penis Ester. It's wrong to put the two subjects together. it leads to some kind of equivalence argument that you package for your liberal readers. excuse me as I thumb my anus a little bit...
Over the past week or so, my Jewish circles online and off have been buzzing about two things. Most recently, this video ("The Coastie Song," via DCC at Jewschool) from the University of Wisconsin that is an ode to (or perhaps a condemnation of) the East Coast Jewish honeys who are blowing Daddy's money. But even before that came this Details magazine article by Christopher Noxon, celebrating "The Rise of the Hot Jewish Girl" - with its subtitle of "Why American Men Are Lusting After Women of the Tribe," hailed by many as a long-overdue paean to Jewish girls, or women.
oh come on... this is a no brainer. it's because they have written Jews off as elitist and getting to screw an elitism is like busting a virgin. it is pathetic and about power. My last boss in advertising was a Greek and he used to spend half his time telling me about the Jewish women he screwed... probably because I was a Jew and he thought it pissed me off. It didn't really because any woman no matter who her parents were that thought that guy was worth screwing deserved what she got... probably a disease. He obviously didn't think highly of any of his Jewess trophy screws because he settled down with a Venezualan who shared his Chavistan politics... but that is another story.
After a few mentions of Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman, and Mila Kunis, the focus is revealed to be Jewish women in pornography. As feminist site Jezebel noted, "It's a pretext for a package of "JILFS" (guess) that include photos of and interviews with starlets whose appeal hasn't historically hinged on their rabbinical status." Are these two pieces of popular culture evidence for the appeal of Jewish women, or are they insults masked as compliments? Are they anti-Jewish, or anti-women, or neither?
well ya knows... they did kill an awful lot of us off. if one were a bitch connoisseur and not a real lover... a kind of ego based pursuit in the bedroom kind of thang?
It's not that the "Coasties" song itself is so bad - I mean, these guys didn't invent the term (although they did put a beat to defining it) - and with or without "Coasties," the JAP stereotype (as much as all stereotypes) is still alive and well. As a friend just pointed out in an IM chat, women getting offended by this video is kind of like him getting offended by a portrayal of the ludicrous men on "Jersey Shore" (which I'm not sure about, but I get what he's saying).
really I have no idea wtf you are talking about Ester. Coasties? background on that please. I spend most of my time hanging out online and don't go to bars. how on earth did Jews get called Coasties? is it because we aren't in Middle America? boy is that a myth
I'm pretty sure that this stereotype has skipped me - I've neither the money nor the inclination to spend $500 (or even $15) on sunglasses or wear Uggs (although I admit, I am from the East Coast and occasionally drink Starbucks). But as a single Jewish woman, I still suffer the fallout from stereotypes. After years of writing about relationships between Jewish men and women, I believe that anything that paints Jewish women in general as superficial damages the reputation of all Jewish women, and empowers others to use this stereotype as fact in conversations and in cultural products. (Despite it's clever riff on "Gold Digger," this is why I'm not a fan of the "Gelt Digger" t-shirts.)
well Amen Sister. of course it is bullshit. my sister barely gets by as well. but I think there still is something special about you for being a Jew
People who may not know many Jewish women and who form their opinions of things based on popular culture may see this kind of video in a vacuum and determine that the behavior depicted is typical, or may read the Details article and think all Jewish women are porn stars.
now we are all porn stars... oh lord... what next will they say? it isn't our fault that we are often top of our field. oops elitism...
But even people who should know better and who deal with Jews many times a day use these tropes to justify bad dating behavior. I think there's a reason that on JDaters Anonymous, my most-commented-on post of the last two years is "Driving the Jewish Men Away," offered originally in jest, but leading to some bitter conversation on why Jewish women may or may not be at fault for the lack of available, willing Jewish men.
hey Ester... I might be available this month. moo ha ha ha... but seriously... guys really don't like to be a commodity. especially since our chances of employment are no better then yours and yet our sexuality is completely tied in to our ability to provide. frankly I've given up on that fight... hence all my social networking that doesn't bring me a profit. my best friend is a Jewish Doctor. I can set you up with him if you want... he really gets turned off by women and their needs however. He makes plenty of money and he is a great guy... ok maybe a little passive aggressive, but other then that... he's my best friend, but he remembers being the nerdy kid that girls wouldn't touch and he resents the behavior of most dames.

In the Details article, I learned that Jewish women are only seen as hot when they shatter the otherness/expectations/limitations of their Jewishness, through looking, behaving or sounding not-particularly-Jewish but while otherwise conforming to contemporary standards of attractiveness. Heterosexual men are attracted to conventionally hot women - although we could unpack how conventional attractiveness is constructed, this is not really a news story. As for Jews in porn, a population that I doubt reads this blog, they are working in an industry that by its definition casts all its actors as sex objects - so that men (gentiles or Jews) who enjoy watching women in porn also enjoy watching Jewish women in porn is, again, not a surprise.
translation: be a blonde Gentile woman and pretend to be Jewish for hotness. I knew a lot Caucasian non Jewish Girls who were adopted into Jewish families when I was growing up and they did very well in life.
Jezebel blasted writer Noxon for his Details piece; I don't know Noxon personally, but I do know, as a writer, that you can't always assume the piece - or even the headline - is the writer. But what I think is interesting is that Noxon has his own experience with Jewish women, most notably his wife - "Weeds" creator Jenji Kohan - which we can only hope/assume inspires a positive image of Jewish women. So we can assume (or at least, I'm assuming) that Noxon's perspective is not an inherently anti-Jewish or misogynistic one.
some stereotypes have some truth to it I guess... any niche sexuality shtick has it's drawbacks. I wouldn't want to be a nebbish Jewish stereotype that often can lead to success. I prefer to be my obnoxious self that isn't afraid to offend anyone. I'm a one girl kind of guy and I see no benefit of playing to that libidinal cliche.
While I was on Noxon's site, I read about his last book, "Rejuvenile" - an examination of how people (mostly men) are holding onto childlike behaviors and putting off adulthood (in this clip reel from his site, he talks about how he met and eventually proposed to Kohan - on the kickball field), and how this presents an opportunity for marketers. But my question is, how is this desire to look, feel, act and be younger, this maintaining the grip on a more adolescent attitude, impacting relationships in terms of both shaping attraction and commitment?
is this about Jewish guys or guys in general? Women seem to be very tolerant of this boy stuff. I find it to be as annoying as most women. it really leads to a lot of school yard style abuse. if anything I find women benefit from the Bull fighting and school yard play. It produces a more dominant mate, but then you have to share him. you can always chase Ishmael out of the tent though. they say Gorillas live in Harems. So do some Arabs in Saudi Arabia.
ooops... I said something elitist again
Standards of beauty and which traits are considered attractive in women in a particular era are a product of that era's social norms, expectations and culture. What's interesting to me is what plays out in popular culture - although Jewish men don't have to look a certain way to be seen as desirable as long as they display other traits (intelligence and/or humor, primarily) that are considered attractive, the language around attractive Jewish women seems to require us to see their primary worth as attractiveness first and as an afterthought add, "and you'd never believe she's Jewish!"
Ester I can't tell you how much psychology it forces most men to deal with. a lot of flattery and deceit. It really is a lot of work and it gets in the way of actually making a living... which is something a lot of ladies want their men to do. it's not a problem for me however since I've given up on both making a living and flattering women. Most heterosexual guys are a lot less critical then the gay ones who are a lot of women's best friends. the materialistic femme culture really isn't men's fault. It's something you femmes do to yourselves.
This leads me to wonder about other assumptions about men and women in general, that women are more emotionally attuned and therefore attracted to inner substance and potential, while men are more visual, concerned with status and are attracted to appearance. And is all of this a concession to the overall emphasis on staying younger longer?
the status bit isn't true. we aren't concerned with status at all. it's you who are. and we want you ladies. we don't like to be humiliated and with all those Gorillas running around that you (ladies) encourage in the school yard the one thing that protects us is indeed status.
I lack the formal sociologist's training or feminist educational background to do anything but conjecture.
just don't shave your legs.
Besides, I wouldn't want to make any generalizations - that could lead to dangerous stereotyping, accusations of misogyny and misandry, and, in a worst case scenario, to more YouTube videos. And no one needs that.
oh noes. wouldn't want to be objective about anything. it is post feminism you are talking about?

via estherkustanowitz.typepad.com

below is what I posted on her profile.... ;^)

Noah David Simon

I'm enjoying your latest post... will get back to you on it later

6 hours ago

Noah David Simon

you do realize I'm going to tear you a new asshole for your opinions... but I'm going to enjoy every second of it. I'm going to be reposting parts of your latest blog post on my blog because I think you are dealing with some real juicy stuff... that I totally disagree with, but I admire that you aren't afraid to think about.

Esther Kustanowitz

Believe it or not, I don't write to incite you, or anyone. But honestly, I hope you're engaging in the conversation on a high level, and not with the intention of tearing anyone a new anything, which I find to be a violent and uncomfortable image. I'm all about the conversation, but I believe it's got to serve a purpose and be conducted with respect.

Noah David Simon

PS... I think you are hot. I guess that might niche me in the scurvy syber freak that is posting weird shit on my profile category and probably doesn't have a job. I'm ok with that.

Noah David Simon

but I can tell you that most of my Jewish guy pals are more concerned with their Jewish noses then you know. I can also tell you that hooking up with a Jewish girl is near impossible... especially for a dude like me that is on edge and can't keep a job because I scare people... probably because because I talk about shit. either way it's a Jewish trait that I'm ok with. it is very true that I've got a big mouth... my looks have nothing to do with that. if I didn't say a word you'd of thought I was an intimidating Spaniard or something. at any rate... my sister is the same. she has a big mouth and she don't look like a JEW JEW... she looks like my sister.

Noah David Simon

oh yes... respect... um... right. um... well that takes time to think about being respectful. this is just me in reaction mode

via facebook.com

REAL PUPPETS

http://video.seesmic.com/threads/9fWOYdjuNT