Desire

"Basketball Ref Has Foot Fetish, Prior Arrests

WESTBURY---The high school basketball referee who was arrested this past weekend apparently has a foot fetish.

The ref who was busted for making inappropriate comments about a female ballplayer's feet has a prior arrest in May 2005 for similar behavior.

Andrew Marks, 44, of Westbury was charged Saturday with endangering the welfare of a child after he allegedly made remarks to a member of the girls' varsity basketball team about her socks or sneakers.

Marks, a referee for Section VIII, Nassau County's athletic association, resigned following the Dec. 8 incident at Cold Spring Harbor High school.

Suffolk police said that Marks allegedly approached the student before a boys' basketball game and when the girl attempted to walk away, Marks allegedly followed her through the hallways. Police said the girl was able to notify school security who escorted Marks out of the building. He had been scheduled to referee the game. He was arrested following an investigation.

Police said that the comments, still not made public, were not sexual in nature.

According to court records, in one case it was alleged that Marks had approached a girl who was walking her dog, took off one of her shoes and began massaging her foot. Although he has prior arrests of child endangerment, he had not been convicted.

Following the previous incidents, officials of the Half Hollow Hills School District issued a warning to parents about a man who had approached female students, asking them about modeling shoes and sought their telephone numbers.

Marks is scheduled to be arraigned on March 8 in First District Court in Central Islip. 1-09-07 "

posted by maggie at 4:14 PM | Link | 2 comments

Women Reveal All

The inimitable Kay Hymowitz in the WSJ:

"Some of my best friends are women--heck, I am a woman--but I've come to the conclusion that we've seen too much of the fairer sex. . .

Some people believe that it is lingering misogyny rather than naive exhibitionism that leads the public to define women by their sexual anatomy and proclivities. Perhaps there is something to that. But the exhibitionism surely doesn't help. It seems that men, despite their reputation as braggarts, actually don't find self-exposure all that appealing. Where are the male counterparts to Britney Spears and "Girls Gone Wild"? Jessica Cutler, the D.C. sex-blogger known as Washingtienne and a one-time congressional intern, is now being sued for $20 million by one of her gentleman callers, who for some reason preferred that his bedroom antics remain, well, in the bedroom.

In the highbrow world, Philip Roth clearly writes autobiographical novels, but it took a bitter ex-wife--the actress Claire Bloom--to rip off the fictional veil and give us the private Roth. Tom Stoppard, interviewed recently for the New York Times Magazine by Daphne Merkin (she once wrote an article about being spanked, by the way), hopes that his biography will be "as inaccurate as possible. . . . I flinch when I see my name in the newspapers."

Why men have become more discreet than women, assuming they have, is one of those cultural mysteries that is yet to be solved. . ."

posted by maggie at 1:04 PM | Link | 3 comments

China's Missing 30 Million Women

Jan. 12 AP story, "China Facing Major Gender Imbalance":

"China will have 30 million more men of marriageable age than women in less than 15 years as a gender imbalance resulting in part from the country's tough one-child policy becomes more pronounced, state media reported Friday. Traditional preferences for sons has led to the widespread - but illegal - practice of women aborting babies if an early term sonogram shows it is a girl. . ."

posted by maggie at 1:00 PM | Link | 1 comments

New Jersey Civil Unions & Discrimination Law

Yesterday, the New Jersey attorney general issued an opinion titled “Whether Public Officials and Religious Figures May Decline to Exercise Their Authority to Solemnize Civil Unions.” For public officials, the opinion says they may decline to solemnize both marriages and civil unions but if they are “available generally” to solemnize marriages they must also be available to solemnize civil unions. If they solemnize marriages but not civil unions, they will be in violation of the state Law Against Discrimination. The reasoning is that “the availability of a public official to solemnize a marriage or civil union” is a public accommodation. The attorney general will bring an action against a public official who violates this law.

The opinion also says that the LAD “does not apply to the administration of religious rites by members of the clergy.” Religious organizations are not places of public accommodation under New Jersey law. The opinion also says that clergy refusal to solemnize civil unions does not raise any constitutional issues. Thus, clergy can still solemnize marriages without also solemnizing civil unions.
posted by William Duncan at 6:25 PM | Link | 9 comments

Schism?

From Reuters:

"Africa's leading Anglican archbishops plan to snub their pro-gay rights U.S. counterpart at a key summit next month as a bitter battle over homosexuality intensifies in a world church on the brink of schism.

Several African leaders have blasted Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman to head the U.S. Episcopal Church, for backing gay clergy and same-sex unions. They have urged Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams not to invite her to a global meeting of Anglican primates in Tanzania.

Williams, who admitted this week he was losing control over the divisive debate, insisted Jefferts Schori meet her critics "face to face" but sought to appease traditionalists by inviting conservative U.S. church leaders too.

The archbishops from Africa, home to more than half of the world's 77 million Anglicans, say they will stop short of an all-out boycott but cannot meet with Jefferts Schori.

Kenyan Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi said he found it "difficult to share a meeting with somebody who is ... fighting what we believe Scripture is saying. . ."

posted by maggie at 12:10 PM | Link | 2 comments

Stronger home lives help children stay on track

With stronger home lives, more students are 'on track'
By Cheryl Wetzstein
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 11, 2007
More American children are "on track" academically and live in homes
where parents set rules on television viewing than a decade ago, according to a
new federal snapshot on the well-being of children.
...
According to the report, 79 percent of children 5 and younger, 73 percent of children 6 to 11 and 58 percent of children 12 to 17 had dinner with their parents every day during a typical week.
...
Teens who eat regularly with their families are more likely to do well in school, delay sexual activity, have better mental health and are less likely to get into fights, think about suicide or smoke, drink or use drugs, he said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20070110-112456-1761r.htm

posted by Margaret Nell at 10:14 AM | Link | 1 comments

French Losing Their Religion

Barely half of French are Catholics (compared to 80 percent in the early 90s). . .and only half of French Catholics believe in God:

"In its institutions, but also in its mentalities, France is no longer a Catholic country," wrote Frederic Lenoir, editor in chief of Le Monde des Religions. . .

Yesterday's poll showed that only 10 per cent go to church regularly — mainly to Sunday mass or christenings. Of the 51 per cent who still call themselves Catholics, only half said they believed in God. Many said they were Catholics because it was a family tradition. . ."

Amy Welborn notes:

"A poll published in Le Monde des Religions yesterday showed the number of self-declared French Catholics had dropped from 80 per cent in the early 1990s and 67 per cent in 2000 and to 51 per cent today.

The number of atheists has risen sharply to 31 per cent from 23 per cent in 1994."

UPDATE: comments (not very kind to the French) from an old friend, an American in Paris (well, the south of France actually), married and raising his family there:

"George Eliot felt that as belief in God diminished, people would no longer act morally out of fear of eternal (or temporal) judgment, but from a desire for good. Yet this takes a particularly strong character, one the French obviously lack. The polls you cited are interesting to me because I see France as a fundamentally medieval culture (despite all its enlightenment and postmodern rhetoric). Imagine a medieval society that doesn't believe in God. Now that's frightening."

posted by maggie at 1:11 PM | Link | 3 comments

Turkey Campaigns Against Honor Killings/Forced Suicide

From the LA Times:

". . .In a United Nations poll conducted last year, 17% of Turkish men said they approved of honor killing. Many more approved of lesser punishments, one of the most common being the slicing off of a woman's nose. . .

Victims say they've been ordered by relatives to kill themselves, locked in rooms with a gun or rope, watched over while they were expected to slit their wrists. The infraction can be as slight as a desire to work or the wearing of jeans, the sentence often decided in a family council.

Handan Coskun, a former journalist, started a women's center in Diyarbakir in response to suicides she began investigating several years ago, when the rate in southeastern Turkey was two to three times the national rate. There were dozens of cases, many not related to honor issues. One consistency was that far more females committed or attempted suicide than males, which is the opposite of the worldwide pattern. . .

At not quite 5 feet tall, Coskun has had to shout down angry fathers as she rescued women and girls, or gone toe-to-toe with 17 armed clansmen who invaded her office looking for their female relative. She believes she and her team have prevented 17 killings in the last year.

"When we intervene with a family that seems likely to kill a daughter, we have to be very tough to show the same toughness that the family shows," she said.

Turkey's failure to improve the status of women has long been one of the impediments to its integration into Europe. Outsiders are watching to see whether the latest steps will bring real change.

"There is no evidence yet that we are changing the mentality," said Meltem Agduk, a Turkish expert on honor killings who works with the U.N. "The important thing is that people are not so quiet about the issue. And because of that, change will be more rapid than it has in the past."

posted by maggie at 11:02 AM | Link | 0 comments

Update on British Religious Liberty Fears

Christians ask for the Queen's protection. . .Not that she has any formal powers here. British Jews decline to join the protest.
posted by maggie at 10:40 AM | Link | 0 comments

SSM Bills to Be Introduced in Vermont and Washington (state)

No word on prospects of passage. A Vermont story here. A Seattle Times story here.
posted by maggie at 10:37 AM | Link | 0 comments

Pew Poll: Next Gen on Marriage and More

The Pew Report is here. January 10, 2007, Associated Press story:

"The young adults of Generation Next are more optimistic, more tolerant and more likely Democratic voters than their predecessors, according to a new study.

The group's tilt toward the Democratic Party is far different from the previous younger generation, known as Generation X, who grew up during the Reagan administration of the 1980s and was more inclined to support Republicans. . .

Forty-eight percent of young adults age 18 to 25 said they were Democrats or leaned that direction while 35 percent said they were Republican or leaned that way in 2006, according to Pew polling.

The study also found a great acceptance for same-sex marriage. Forty-seven percent of those age 18 to 25 favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry while 30 percent of those 26 and older favor gay marriage.

While they are a generally optimistic group, large majorities think that casual sex, binge drinking, illegal drug use and violence are more prevalent among young people today.

Asked about their generation, most say getting rich and being famous are top goals.
The study found that the young adults:
--Are less inclined to vote than older generations, though young voter turnout was up significantly in 2004. About 54 percent of those from 18 to 24 voted in 2004, and 74 percent of those 25 and over voted, Keeter said.
--Have more liberal views than other generations on questions of race and homosexuality and immigration.
--Read the newspaper and follow the news on television and radio less than those in older generations.
--Keep in close touch with their parents, both for advice and for financial help.
--Are inclined to use online social networking sites like Facebook and My Space. More than half had used one of these sites.
--Tend to most admire people they personally know rather than the famous. Entertainers were twice as likely to be named as political leaders.
--Have often gotten a tattoo, dyed their hair an untraditional color or had a body piercing.

The study, a collaboration of the Pew Research Center and MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, is based on Edison-Mitofsky exit polls, past Pew polls and a Pew survey of 1,501 adults, including 579 people from ages 18-25, taken Sept. 6-Oct. 2. The study had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, 5 percentage points for the young adults."

UPDATE: Some other findings that jumped out at me:

When asked, from what you have seen, would you say it is easy, hard, or probably impossible to have a good marriage today? 20 percent say "easy" 65 percent ssay "hard" and 13 percent say "probably impossible."

27 percent have children, but only 17 percent have ever been married (15 percent are currently married).

95 percent definitely or probably want to get married (no decline since 1990)

36 percent have a tattoo (but so do 22 percent of Americans 26 plus).

40 percent live with their parents.

posted by maggie at 10:33 AM | Link | 2 comments

Swedish Adoption Case

Some news outlets have been reporting this morning on a Swedish trial court decision (or decisions) in which the judge refused to allow an adoption by a partner of a child’s biological mother. According to this Swedish article, at least one of the decisions was made December 20, 2006. I have not found a copy of the actual opinion online (at least not in English) but this story adds some interesting information. Specifically, that the judge was concerned that the adoption might circumvent the “basic right of the child” to know its biological parents. In this case, the insemination took place in Denmark, which in contrast to Sweden, allows for anonymous sperm donation.
posted by William Duncan at 4:21 PM | Link | 5 comments

British Law Provokes Religious Liberty Fears

I don't know how realistic these fears are; they seem to be widespread. (And I should note that in my view requiring public carriers such as hotels to serve gay couples is a very different issue from forcing schools to accept the government's moral teachings on orientation):

"The organisation representing British Jews says new government laws compelling it to promote homosexuality in the UK must not restrict Jewish community members' "freedom of conscience and conviction" at the same time. . .

Religious groups - including the Board of Deputies as well as elements of the British Christian and Muslim communities - are concerned that the rules will force religious groups to promote homosexual rights and, if they refuse, could persecute them on moral grounds.

. . ."It must be possible for people to live their lives in the manner in which they choose as long as it does not impinge upon the rights of others," a spokesman for the Board of Deputies said Thursday.

"We hope that to this effect the regulations will be framed in such a way that allows for both the effective combating of discrimination in the provision of goods and services whilst respecting freedom of conscience and conviction."

The Board of Deputies' criticism of the rules was, however, far more mild than some groupings which expressed explicit condemnation of the law. Dr Majid Katme, of the Islamic Medical Association, yesterday urged Muslims to join protests against the "unjust" laws, including a torchlight parade in Westminster to coincide with a Lords debate next Tuesday.

Christian campaigners fear churches which refuse to let out parish halls or conference centres to gay groups would face legal action, as could schools which fail to teach that homosexuality is equal to marriage.

The Church of England has complained that vicars who refuse to bless civil partnerships may be also targeted. And the Roman Catholic Church has threatened to close its nine adoption and fostering agencies if they are forced to place children with homosexual couples. . ."

posted by maggie at 1:59 PM | Link | 0 comments

Oops

It's very inconvenient when the ancient tribal people you want to use to license your postmodern ideas turn out to be. . . not dead yet:

". . .More than 100 [British] organisations have obtained the Navajo charter mark under a scheme set up to ensure that they are "gay-friendly".

The project's supporters say the name was chosen because the Navajo traditionally believed that homosexuals had "special spiritual powers", and afforded them a "unique" status in society, where they were "admired and honoured for their sexuality".

The native Americans, however, are furious. Their attorney-general has written a letter, passed to The Sunday Telegraph, expressing "great concern". The 300,000 Navajo live on a huge reservation in north-eastern Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, and enjoy considerable independence from Washington. They make many of their own laws, including one passed overwhelmingly in 2005, banning homosexual marriages. . ."

posted by maggie at 1:27 PM | Link | 1 comments

Embryo for Sale

Wapo, Jan. 6:

"A Texas company has started producing batches of ready-made embryos that single women and infertile couples can order after reviewing detailed information about the race, education, appearance, personality and other characteristics of the egg and sperm donors.

The Abraham Center of Life LLC of San Antonio, the first commercial dealer making embryos in advance for unspecified recipients, was created to help make it easier and more affordable for clients to have babies that match their preferences, according to its founder.

"We're just trying to help people have babies," said Jennalee Ryan, who arranged for an egg donor to start medical treatments to produce a second batch of embryos this week. "For me, that's what this is all about: helping make babies." . . .

But the new service marks the first time anyone has started turning out embryos as off-the-shelf products. . .

"People have long warned we were moving toward a 'Brave New World,' " said Robert P. George of Princeton University, who serves on the President's Council on Bioethics. "This is just more evidence that we haven't been able to restrain this move towards treating human life like a commodity. This buying and selling of eggs and sperm and now embryos based on IQ points and PhDs and other traits really moves us in the direction of eugenics."

"We find this very troubling," agreed Steven Ory, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. "This is essentially making embryos a commodity and using technology to breed them, if you will, for certain traits."
Ryan dismissed the complaints.


. . .Ryan is, however, using only egg donors who are in their 20s and have at least some college education and only sperm donors who have advanced education, such as a PhD or law degree. All must undergo a standard round of health tests required for all egg and sperm donors, as well as screening to make sure they have no criminal record or family history of mental illness, Ryan said. They answer detailed questionnaires that ask about their childhood temperaments, favorite books, adult hobbies and family histories.

"If I do discriminate, it's that I only want healthy, intelligent people," Ryan said. "People will say, 'You're trying to create the perfect human race.' But we've always done gene selection just by who women choose as their husbands and men choose as their wives. This is no different."

Ryan said the main advantage is not the attributes of the donors but the cost: She charges $2,500 per embryo and estimates the total price tag should be less than $10,000 for each attempt at pregnancy, which is much less than the cost of standard adoption or in vitro fertilization. . .

The cost, convenience, prospects of success and ability to vet the donors all are attractive to Ryan's clients -- potentially not only infertile couples and single women but also gay men and lesbian couples.

"You get to get an idea of what your baby will look like, and it just seems like it's a lot easier and more affordable," said Joan, 42, of Birmingham, Ala., who asked that her last name not be used. She contacted Ryan after she was unable to get pregnant using three egg donors and becoming disenchanted by the prolonged process of trying to adopt a child or a leftover embryo. She and her husband want a sibling for their 3-year-old son. "I am not going to give up until I have another baby. This seems very, very attractive," she said. . ."

posted by maggie at 10:06 AM | Link | 2 comments