Frigid Jones' Diary

'Cutting up Playgirl' by Carrie Jones
That's what the author calls her autobiography which is scheduled to be published soon in an interview to the Daily Mail. It seems to be a tell-all book by a lady who has little to tell anyone. (George Mikes may have been right when he said that on the continent, people have a sex life but in England, they have hot water bottles.) I'm not sure what to make of it although it stuns me that she claims not to have told her family that she has written the book at all. I can understand not telling an abusive husband about writing a book which speaks of his behaviour but considering that she describes her husband as a good man, I cannot imagine why she hasn't told him or her daughters about the book. I know that if I were in their shoes, I would want to have some time to brace myself for the hullabaloo the book will in all probability cause in their lives.
Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=510248&in_page_id=1879

Woman with Disability Raped, Denied Liberty

James Chalmers says, "The Times also devotes attention to the Mental Welfare Commission’s scathing “Justice Denied” report on the case of Ms A, a 67 year old woman with a learning disability who appears to have been the subject of repeated assaults which have led not to criminal proceedings against her alleged assailants, but instead to subjecting Ms A to a “protective regime that effectively deprives her of much of her liberty”. The Times report is not online, but there is a BBC News story online, and a summary of the report can be downloaded from the Commission’s website." [1]

There were no prosecutions because she wasn't considered to be a reliable witness due to her disability.

According to the BBC report, "She was sexually assaulted by five men over the past decade - none of whom have ever been prosecuted, despite the attacks being reported to police. ... Four of these incidents, all of which were reported to the police and the fiscal, involved one man." [2]

The report on the Commission's site says:

"The UN Convention on Rights of People with a Disability places a duty on State Parties to ensure effective access to justice for adults with a learning disability on an equal basis with others. For a number of complex reasons, this did not appear to have happened for Ms A. ...

We are satisfied that Ms A is protected from further risk of assault. However, we do have serous reservations as to the lawfulness of certain aspects of her current care plan. ...

The levels of protection that have been put in place mean that she is barely allowed outside her flat without an escort. We believe that this level of restriction requires an appropriate legal intervention and the safeguards that would accompany it. It was generally acknowledged that Ms A was most at risk from a small number of identified men. The fact that these men were not prosecuted has left Ms A at greater risk. Management of these risks has been through highly restrictive care arrangements. If the people who Ms A claimed (and others believed) had assaulted her had been brought to justice, her safety would be less compromised and these restrictions less necessary. ...

It is difficult to escape the conclusion that different standards were applied to Ms A because she had a learning disability." [3]

Links:
[1] criminalletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/very-bad-news-day.html
[2] news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7349900.stm
[3] mwcscot.org.uk/web/FILES/Publications/Justice_Denied_Summary_FINAL.pdf

Jeans and Rape

BILL NUMBER: SCR 106 introduced by Senators Romero (and others) in California 'would recognize April 23, 2008 as "Denim Day California" and would encourage everyone to wear jeans on that day to help communicate the message that there is no excuse for, and never an invitation to, rape'.

Whoa! Wait a second? Who thinks that wearing jeans is an invitation to rape?" [1]

An Italian court, the Court of Cassation which is the highest appeal court in the country, primarily comprising elderly male judges said (in 1999) that women wearing tight jeans could not be raped because such jeans cannot be removed without their consent although that ruling was later rescinded. At the time, the court had 410 male judges and 10 female judges. [2]

Links:

[1] http://www.supremedicta.com/2008/04/retarded-state-legislation-california.html

[2] http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9406E0D7133AF935A25751C0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2

Types of Lawyers

Eric Schaeffer of The Legal Underground contends that there are 17:

#1: The Big Firm Summer Associate
#2: The Partner Who Talks Too Fast
#3: The Lawyer Who Advertises on TV
#4: The Lawyer Who Carries Another Lawyer’s Briefcase
#5: The Lawyer Who Brings Her Breast Pump to the Office
#6: The Mafia Lawyer
#7: The Modest Lawyer
#8: The Partner Who Golfs
#9: The Lawyer on the Run
#10: The Lawyer Who's in the Wrong Profession
#11: The Lawyer from the Planet Og
#12: The Lawyer Who's Writing a Legal Thriller
#13: The Stereotypical Lawyer
#14: The Lawyer Who's on The Apprentice
#15: The Associate Who Knew Where the Bodies Were Buried
#16: The Lawyer with the Shiny New Gadget
#17: The Associate Who Finally Gets a Chance to Meet the Senior Partner

Source: Robert Ambrogi

A Five Second Delay Could be Rape

In the 2004 case of Maouloud Baby, Maryland's highest Court of Appeal, has said that a man can be convicted of rape if he doesn't stop as soon as the woman asks him to stop.

In this case, "Maouloud Baby was convicted of first-degree rape in December 2004 after jurors heard testimony that the 16-year-old continued having sex with an 18-year-old woman for 'about five or so seconds' after she told him to stop," according to USA today. [1] This conviction was then reversed by the Court of Special Appeals.

However, Judge Lynne Battaglia writing the opinion in the Court of Appeal has now said, "We conclude that post-penetration withdrawal of consent negates initial consent for the purposes of sexual offense crimes and, when coupled with the other elements, may constitute the crime of rape."

This negates a 1980 ruling of the same court. In Battle v. State, 287 Md. 675, 684, 414 A.2d 1266, 1270 (1980), the Court said: "Given the fact that consent must precede penetration, it follows in our view that although a woman may have consented to a sexual encounter, even to intercourse, if that consent is withdrawn prior to the act of penetration, then it cannot be said that she has consented to sexual intercourse. On the other hand, ordinarily if she consents prior to penetration and withdraws the consent following penetration, there is no rape."

The court has also said that that rape trauma syndrome evidence should first be subjected to Frye-Reed analysis if an appropriate objection is interposed.

Source: [1] http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/04/md-court-expand.html

Soonamai Desai

I have been reading the (unpublished) memoirs of Soonamai Desai, a Gujarati lady who lived to be 100. She died in 1983 and the memoirs speak of both her public and her private life. She was the first woman corporator in Navsari and travelled widely. I have been intrigued by her life and also by her description of social life in general, the difference between the India she grew up in and the one she died in, and the way in which her story ties up with 'standard' history.

For example, she speaks of meeting Madam Cama in Paris and of how the lady had made arrangements for what should be done if she died there as she expected to since at the time she doubted that the British would give her permission to return either to England or to India because of her Nationalist activities. As it turned out, the British did allow Madam Cama to return to her homeland and she died on Indian soil but I hadn't known anything at all about the French funeral arrangements. In fact, I didn't know that they had existed at all.

What I found particularly touching though weren't her memories but her description of growing old. She said that in old age, the respect and admiration of one's acquaintances give way to their mockery and to a 'don't care attitude'. After all what can the old actually do? They become dependent on others and are therefore helpless. To understand the lot of the old, one has to be old -- to understand how desolate they can be as all their contemporaries pass away and they have no one to turn to. She ended by saying, "So now my life is not only in its evening -- it is decidedly night and as I look back, with a few blinding spots which have hit me hard enough to make my head reel; life, fate, destiny -- call it what you will -- has been good to me and it is in this mood that I await the coming of a stage of life called death but which could be but another phase of life with some impatience and great curiosity."

Ida B. Wells Barnett (1862-1931)

The other day, I read about Ida B Wells.

"For speaking plainly about rape, sex and murder, Wells lost her home and her livelihood. For the rest of her life, she had to defend her reputation against both white and black people who called her a "negro adventuress" and "Notorious Courtesan." A black newspaper editor suggested that the public should "muzzle" that "animal from Memphis," and the New York Times dubbed her "a slanderous and dirty-minded mulatress." " [1]

(For those you who are wondering, a mulatress is the daughter of one white parent and one black parent.)

"Ida B Wells was a fearless anti-lynching crusader, suffragist, women's rights advocate, journalist, and speaker. She stands as one of our nation's most uncompromising leaders and most ardent defenders of democracy. She was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi in 1862 and died in Chicago, Illinois 1931 at the age of sixty-nine," says Lee D. Baker. [2]

Like Gandhi, one of the incidents in her life which propelled her towards activism involvoed discrimination while travelling. She "became a public figure in Memphis when, in 1884, she led a campaign against racial segregation on the local railway. A conductor of the Chesapeake, Ohio & South Western Railroad Company told her to give up her seat on the train to a white man and ordered her into the smoking or "Jim Crow" car, which was already crowded with other passengers. The federal Civil Rights Act of 1875—which banned discrimination on the basis of race, creed, or color in theaters, hotels, transport, and other public accommodations—had just been declared unconstitutional in the Civil Rights Cases (1883), and several railroad companies were able to continue racial segregation of their passengers." [3] When Wells refused to comply, the conductor dragged her out of the car with the assistance of two other men. She sued the railroad but although won in the local circuit court, the Supreme Court of Tennessee reversed the lower court's ruling in 1887.

She criticised lynching and exposed the myth that black people were lynched only when they ravished white women or did something else along those lines for what it was: a lie.

She also travelled throughout America and went to Britain twice to speak against lynching. In addition to this, she worked was a suffragette and, along with Jane Addams, stopped the establishment of segregated schools in Chicago.

Today, she is remembered as a crusader for civil rights and democracy.

Links:
[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/10/AR2008041003101.html
[2] http://www.duke.edu/~ldbaker/classes/AAIH/caaih/ibwells/ibwbkgrd.html
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_B._Wells

Against Pro-ana Sites

The National Assembly -- the lower house of the French parliament -- has unanimously passed a bill that makes publicly inciting extreme thinness illegal whether in magazines, advertisements or on websites. The bill was proposed by Valérie Boyer who belongs to the ruling conservative UMP party and under it, those who incite others to deprive themselves of food to an excessive degree can be fined up to 30,000 euros or, if the person dies, sentenced to up to three years in prison.
The bill will go to the Senate within a few weeks.

It remains to be seen if the bill will actually help curb anorexia nervosa should it become law.

Sources:
[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/15/france.fashion
[2] http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-france-fashion-anorexia,1,7093355.story
[3] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article3715030.ece

A Woman, A Widow, and A Witch

If

• you're a woman
• and a widow
• and belong to a lower caste

you could be

• stripped
• garlanded with shoes
• paraded through the village streets naked
• and accused of being a witch

should you attempt to enter a temple.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Widow_paraded_naked_for_entering_temple/rssarticleshow/2927206.cms

There's much to be said about the abuse of people from low castes. There's just much to be said about discrimination against women in general and widows in particular. But I'm not going to say it here. I'm going to focus on the fact that, in this case, this one woman was, of all things, accused of being a witch.

It happens. Say something you're not supposed to say. Stand up for yourself. In an urban setting, you'll probably be called either a slut or a ball-breaking bitch but chances are, you won't be called a witch.

The rationale behind the reactions in urban and rural settings is very similar though -- to denigrate what you cannot control hoping, in the back of your mind, that the self-confidence and assertiveness in the woman will disintegrate. And at the very least, if that doesn't happen, that you'll scare other women enough not to have them act similarly.

Witch-hunting is still prevalent in various parts of the world including some Indian states such as Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Between 1991 and 2000, over 522 cases of witch-hunting were registered in Bihar alone.

What's frightening though is that nowadays, being branded a witch is often just a device for people to do such things as settle property disputes and ensure that women do not stand up for their political and other rights. That seems to have been what's happened in this case: a woman who's three times as vulnerable because of not only being a woman but also a widow and a member of a lower caste was targetted when she entered a Kali temple in Dhanbad.

The persecution of so-called witches is sometimes due to Shamans who encourage such acts and due genuine ignorance and superstition while at other times, as I suspect is the case here, it's due to the need for a covert and 'socially acceptable' means of keeping women from asserting their rights.

It ranks among the most ignored crimes against women in Indian society today but many social activists say that legislation alone is unlikely to do much to help solve the problem unless there is a change in the attitudes of the people. And until attitudes do change, India will continue to have the dubious distinction of being, as someone once put it, 'a Nuclear Power engulfed in a Black Magic frenzy'.

References:
In the name of the witch : frontlineonnet.com/fl1723/17230870.htm
I've also quoted from an article I wrote ages ago here.

The Word 'Rape'

(Source: You Weren't Mugged, You Just Gave Away Your Belongings)

In 2007, a Nebraska judge, Jeffre Cheuvront, banned the use of the word 'rape' in Tory Bowen's rape trial supposedly because it was too inflammatory and prejudicial. He required that the words 'sex' or 'intercourse' be used instead to describe what happened between her and Pamir Safi.

Discussing ruling, Dahlia Lithwick said: [1]

"The real question for Judge Cheuvront, then, is whether embedded in the word sex is another "legal conclusion"—that the intercourse was consensual. And it's hard to conclude otherwise. Go ahead, use the word sex in a sentence. Asking a complaining witness to scrub the word rape or assault from her testimony is one thing. Asking that she imply that she agreed to what her alleged assailant was doing to her is something else entirely. To put it another way: If the complaining witness in a rape trial has to describe herself as having had "intercourse" with the defendant, should the complaining witness in a mugging be forced to testify that he was merely giving his attacker a loan?
The fact that judges are not rushing to ban similarly conclusory legal language from trial testimony—presumably one can still say murder or embezzlement on the stand—reflects not just the fraught nature of language but also the fraught nature of rape prosecutions. We as a society still somehow think rape is different—either because we assume the victims are especially fragile or because we assume they are particularly deceitful."

Indian courts have not used the word rape in a number of their judgments although I think that that has more to do with being conservative than to do with worrying about the word being prejudicial which is anyway a non-issue since jury trials do not exist in India.

Their mindset is revealed in statements like this one made by the Rajasthan High Court in the case of Babu v State of Rajasthan [1984 CrLJ 74 : 'virginity is the most precious possession of an Indian girl and she would never willingly part with this proud and precious possession' ...if not anything else, that statement in itself could just as easily have been written by a Victorian judge in the 19^th century.

Link:
[1] http://www.slate.com/id/2168758/pagenum/all/#page_start

Not a Post Feminist World

I just came across a link on Quizlaw.com in which the author points out that we aren't really living in a post-feminist world.

"I’m used to seeing ugly misogyny in the gossip world, but aside from the usual right-wing nutjobs, I’m not as accustomed to seeing it as much in politics. However, New York Magazine ran a fascinating piece over the weekend on Hillary Clinton and the way her candidacy has brought the sexist douchebags out of the woodwork..."

Following the link which spoke about the gossip world, I reached an article which speculates about whether Ellen Page is gay -- the evidence: she apparently hasn't shaved her armpits in some film. (And, incidentally, if you're like me and have no idea who Ellen Page is, wikipedia has an article about her.)

It reminded me of an amazing post I read a few days ago about the politics of body hair by Anji in which she says:

"The hair on our heads must be our ‘crowning glory’; the rest of our bodies must be as bald as a newborn. Much of this can be attributed to the fetishisation of youth. Like glossy hair, bright eyes and unlined skin, hairlessness gives the body the appearance and feel of a young girl’s, or what I once saw described on the website of a hair removal product as a ‘prepubescent appeal’. It is curious that in a society where paedophilia is so reviled and such a huge problem, it is thought of as harmless and ordinary that men live out their paraphilic fantasies by requiring that the women they are exposed to look as young as possible.

... A woman, taught throughout her life that beauty through youth is her ultimate goal and that upon ageing her beauty dies, may feel compelled to remove every trace of adulthood within her control - and hair removal is so easy, so readily available, and she is so socialised to believe it is normal, that she reaches for the razor."

Anji's post doesn't really talk about being perceived as homosexual because of not removing body hair but I think it is interesting that to be considered a heterosexual woman one has to look a certain way. In fact to be considered a woman at all, one has to conform to various norms.

One woman discovered that the hard way: Khadijah Farmer was thrown out of a ladies' restroom Caliente Cab Company after New York's gay pride parade last June because the bouncer thought that she was a man and refused to look at her identification.

Anji's post: shutupsitdown.wordpress.com/2008/04/07/the-politics-of-body-hair/

First Case Registered in NRI Police Stations

Earlier this year, six police stations were set up in Punjab to deal with NRI crimes since NRIs have increasingly apparently begun to arrange for contract killings in India because laws are far less systematically applied in India than in the countries where they live.

The Hindustan Times, for example, says, "Kuldeep Singh of Mukerian was killed in October 2005 following a land dispute with Gurdev Singh, an Indian living in the US. The NRI is said to have paid Rs 1.2 million for the contract killing." [1]

In addition to this, NRIs often face situations where their property in india is grabbed by relatives or by tenants who refuse to leave. According to the Times of India, '327 criminal cases were registered by police department last year on complaints filed by NRIs'. [2]

However, the first case to be filed in these police stations has been one which involves domestic violence, dowry issues and an NRI husband who appears to have deserted his wife. The case was filed by Deesho of Natha Nangal who married Kulwinder Lal of Rotanda in April 2003. Soon after her marriage, she began being harassed for dowry. her husband left her in his parents home when he went to Dubai but she shifted to her own parents' home because of their abuse. He apparently didn't visit her when he last came to India. [3]

Links:
[1] http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=fe31b492-8459-40c3-96ef-3cb4f83f6e89&&Headline=Contract+killings+on+the+rise+among+NRIs
[2] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Rise_in_NRI_complaints_in_Punjab/articleshow/2832201.cms
[3] http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/view/9914/38/

Fair Use, Copyright and Rowling (Again)

Ms Rowling plans to testify in the case of Warner Bros. Entertainment and J. K. Rowling v. RDR Books where the author and Warner Bros. are trying to prevent a small publisher from publishing 'The Harry Potter Lexicon'.

The case hinges on fair use and where fair use becomes copyright infringement. Under the law, 'in determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered include —
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.'

A few issues come to mind when one thinks of this:
1. Can content which accompanies some other work and which has been published online and endorsed by the copyright holder of that other work subsequently be accused of violating copyright simply because the author of the second work plans to publish it in a more traditional manner?
2. What is the relationship between an online work available to readers without charge and a book sold to readers both of which contain the same material?
3. Can a copyright holder actually stop the publication of a companion work considering that the copyright in the original work does not extend to preventing the publication of companion works? Can a copyright holder legitimately claim that their work has merely been repackaged? And can that claim be made after the work has already been endorsed by the copyright holder?

The New York Times [1] says that 'though the case pits a billionaire author against a tiny publishing house, the Potter fan base seems to have little sympathy for RDR' although in an earlier article, [2] it described Ms Rowling as a copyright hog. I find that surprising considering that most Harry Potter fan sites exist in part due to the right of fair use. And I'm not sure if such a work in which an author has put a substantial amount of effort into can infringe a copyright simply because it's not a available at no cost to readers.

Links:
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/books/14potter.html?_r=1&ei=5090&en=960332b363f2f96c&ex=1365912000&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/business/09nocera.html?_r=1&ref=business&pagewanted=all

Save the Turtle

A friend of mine just sent me a mail in which he said:

"I've just written to Ratan Tata asking him to not to go ahead with building a port in Dhamra, Orissa, dangerously close to one of theworld's largest sea turtle nesting grounds for the Olive Ridley Sea Turtle. I think its a good idea for Mr. Tata to move the port toanother location rather than endanger the turtles. By living up to the Tatas' environmental legacy, Ratan won't just save the highly-endangered Olive Ridley Turtles, he will also end up making Tata a better company."

He goes on to talk about how everyone should send Mr Tata a petition. I'm not sure if petitions would make any difference but I suppose there's no harm in trying.

The Dhamra Port which is is being constructed at one of the largest mass nesting sites of turtle in the world is a 50:50 joint venture of the Tatas and L&T and is apparently being financed by ICICI Bank. [1]

Belinda Wright, Executive Director of WPSI has said that 'the olive ridley turtle is a species that enjoys the same legal protection as the tiger. Yet despite its ecological significance, the Dhamra area was purposely excluded from Bhitarkanika and Gahirmatha Sanctuaries to facilitate the Dhamra Port.' [2]

Sources:
[1] http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/11/04/stories/2006110400702000.htm
[2] http://www.greenpeace.org/india/tata-port-threatens-sea-turtle

Link: What Life’s Taught Them

Shyam sent me a link to a list of things some people have learnt from their lives. These are my favourites:

• The truth hurts, but only if you let it.
• Upload your work.
• Laziness is too easy.
• You can’t dodge your own shadow.
• Trying to Fit In, Only Gets Me Lost.
• Feeling stupid is ok.

Source: http://www.thingsihavelearnedinmylife.com/

Fish Net Stockings Banned

Sometime ago the Wall Street Journal law blog discussed whether associates [at law firms] are too freewheeling with fashion [1] following the publication of this article. [2]

Now, it appears that a law firm in London has banned its staff from wearing fishnet stockings, because employees find them “distracting”. [3]

Responses to this [4] seem to vary from:

What a total load of tosh - it's all about their inadequacies, not yours! My male partners openly coo when I'm wearing Jimmy Choos, short skirts and nicely cut tops as it all reinforces the image they wish to project about themselves, the people they work with and the quality of bird they've attracted to the partnership. The fishnets though makes them feel uncomfortable - one step too close to their perceptions of tartiness!
Posted by: City Woman on 03 Apr 2008

to

Fishnet stockings? Are you out of your mind?? Which law firm do you work for? Soho Working Girls LLP? If you want to recognised for your legal skills rather than your ability to lie on your back, stop being so stubborn.
Posted by: Investment Banker on 03 Apr 2008

I'm not entirely certain I understand why fish net stockings have specifically been banned but although I'd love to wax eloquent about the importance of freedom and choice, I'm not sure whether everything is acceptable work wear or if a line should be drawn somewhere (though presumably not at fish net stockings -- yeah, I like them though I can't remember the last time I wore a pair; for some reason I usually get stuck in plain brown or beige ones.)

A while ago I heard of an Indian IT company banning gaudy Indian clothes from being worn at the office. Considering that a large fraction of Indian clothes are, well, loud, I'm not sure how that worked out.

Links:
[1] blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/01/31/are-associates-too-freewheeling-with-fashion/
[2] online.wsj.com/article/SB120175142140831193.html
[3] timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/rod_liddle/article3689757.ece
[4] legalweek.com/Navigation/28/Articles/1112050/Career+Clinic+Management+says+my+fishnets+are+a+distraction!.html

Non Violent Rape = Being Forcefed Chocolate Cake

Nick Erikson who was to stand for election to the London Assembly representing the British National Party wrote in his notorious rightwing blog:

"I’ve never understood why so many men have allowed themselves to be brainwashed by the feminazi myth machine into believing that rape is such a serious crime.

Rape is simply sex (I am talking about 'husband-rape' here, for those who deliberately seek to misunderstand me). Women enjoy sex, so this type of 'rape' cannot be such a terrible physical ordeal. To suggest that rape, when conducted without violence, is a serious crime is like suggesting that force feeding a woman chocolate cake is a heinous offence. A woman would be more inconvenienced by having her handbag snatched. ... Again, for those who are seeking to cause trouble by deliberately misunderstanding me: yes, violent rape by a stranger in the street is a terrible crime, but I am not talking about that -- I am talking about 'husband-rape'.

The demonisation of rape is all part of the feminazi desire to obtain power and mastery over men. Men who go along with the rape myth are either morons or traitors."

This is what the same politician had to say about domestic violence:

"Take domestic violence for instance. The truth is that Home Office figures have shown that there is an equal amount of violence perpetrated by men and by women, but the feminist media keep repeating the myth that virtually all domestic violence is men attacking women. The Sun has recently launched a campaign against domestic violence - just another excuse by its female editrix, Rebekah Kemp (nee Wade), to vilify men.

But now the full ugliness of Rebekah's misandry has - it seems - been revealed. She has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting her husband (the actor Ross Kemp)! Eventually released without charge - remember that the police are also committed to the feminist agenda - Rebekah has been keeping very quiet about this incident. It was Noel Coward who said that "some women are like gongs - they need to be struck regularly". It would seem that the editor of the Sun fits this description perfectly! Come on Ross, let's see if you're as tough as your on-screen persona - give your wife a good slap!

As an aside, unprovoked male violence against females is, in fact, extremely rare. The vast majority of domestic disputes are initiated by the woman. What often then happens is that the man defends himself and the woman, being generally smaller and weaker, comes off worst. She then calls the police and the man is arrested and convicted, even though he is the innocent party who was merely acting in self-defence!"

I don't even know how to respond to this.

Sources:
[1] thisislondon.co.uk/standard-mayor/article-23470426-details/Women+more+troubled+by+bag+theft+than+rape,+BNP+candidate+claims/article.do
[2] salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/04/02/brits/
[3] reddit.com/info/6ef6d/comments/

IP Nuggets

In Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co., 1995, the US Supreme Court held that a colour alone could be registered as a trademark. [1]

Earlier this year, the Italian Parliament passed a law legalizing the sharing of degraded music for non-commercial purposes thereby legitimizing a large fraction of P2P sharing although the law does not seem to have come into force as yet. [2]

Links:
[1] 33 Law and Social Inquiry 173 (2008); web.austin.utexas.edu/law_library/trademark/
[2] arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080201-whoopsitaly-inadvertently-legalizes-some-p2p-music.html

Judgments

“If you’re a person who loves Alice Munro and you’re going out with someone whose favorite book is ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ perhaps the flags of incompatibility were there prior to the big reveal.”— Sloane Crosley

I’ve always believed that you can learn everything you need to know about a person by looking at their bookshelf. The problem with that though is that (a) they may not read at all and (b) even if they do read, they may not buy books because they’re on a pro-environment paper-saving binge, because they can’t afford them or because they’re miserly.

I read about people deciding whether to spend time on a relationship because of the other person’s taste in books the other day. As I read the write-up, it seemed a little far-fetched to me but a few minutes ago, I began to think of it after I almost unsubscribed from a blog which reviewed a novel which I’d like to read called ‘The Palace of Illusions’ by Chitra Divakaruni by saying that although it’s ‘not as good or as strong as Dan Brown’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’, it’s still very much worth reading’.

Judging people by their taste in books isn’t something I thought I did, but when I read that sentence, I almost unsubscribed from the blog. Dan Brown. Strong? I’ve enjoyed reading Mr Brown’s books but his writing is hardly great literature. If it weren’t for the subjects he’s chosen, I’m sure he’d be just another novelist in the list: John Grisham, Jeffrey Archer, Arthur Hailey, Stephen King.

Thinking about it, I realise that if someone told me that their favourite author was someone I didn’t think too highly of, I’d write the person off. Never mind that my own favourite authors are Beatrix Potter and A A Milne.

I somehow believe that a person’s tastes and choices reveal who they are with far more clarity than any of their assertions ever do. And those choices are not restricted to what they choose to read.

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About ‘The Palace of Illusions’ from Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s site:

“Relevant to today’s war-torn world, The Palace of Illusions takes us back to the time of the Indian epic The Mahabharat—a time that is half-history, half-myth, and wholly magical. Through her narrator Panchaali, the wife of the legendary five Pandavas brothers, Divakaruni gives us a rare feminist interpretation of an epic story.”

Read the first chapter at randomhouse.com/doubleday/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385515993&view=excerpt

Woman Without Identification

There’s a woman I came across some time ago who’s about my age.

She’s been widowed twice. Has a son. Lives with her sister’s family. She’s alive. She has a life.

She has no identification: no birth certificate, no school certificate — she never went to school — and no marriage certificate — neither of her marriages were registered. She certainly doesn’t have a Voter’s ID, PAN card, Ration Card or Driver’s Licence.

I know she exists. As far as the government is concerned, she doesn’t.

She can’t open a bank account or do anything which requires some form of identification.

Her son’s a child. Her sister isn’t too happy about having her in her home, or so I hear. If she disappeared, I’m not sure who, if anyone, would notice.

(Image: babasteve)

Castrating Sex Offenders

Every time there’s a conversation about what an appropriate punishment for rape is, someone is bound to talk about how castration is the answer.

A Louisiana Senate Committee seemed to agree when it considered castration to supplement (and not to supplant) punishment in cases of ‘aggravated rape, sexual battery, selling pornography that shows minors under 17 years old, incest, simple kidnapping of children under the age of 14, and child abuse’. [1]

The castration envisaged is through the use of a drug called MPA (medroxyprogestrone acetate) although an offender may choose physical castration.

The bill is by Senator Nick Gautreaux, an Abbeville Democrat, and will now go to the full Senate.

Links:
[1] 2theadvocate.com/news/17412114.html
[2] nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/04/senate_panel_approves_bill_req.html
[3] foxnews.com/story/0,2933,348171,00.html

A Car from Rock Vegas?

Artist Michel de Broin has constructed a Shared Propulsion Car which is part sculpture and part quadricycle by stripping a 1986 Buick Regal of its engine, suspension, transmission, and floorboards and installing votive candles for headlights.

The artist describes it as ‘an expression of a paradox; the big luxury American car, and pedal power, or the right to drive versus the right to pedal a car’.

Justice of the Peace Patrick Marum (Toronto) has ruled that it is safe and pointed out that Amish people use candles on horse-drawn buggies.

Source: www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=d58997be-dbc1-4ea1-97b1-d00ba2f47489

Paying for Unsolicited Commercial Offers

I’m tired of having to deal with unsolicited commercial communication. I don’t like being rung up by phone companies advertising their schemes. I can’t stand being offered credit cards by arbit banks. And if I get one more call about an insurance policy, I’m liable to scream the caller to death.

However, being obliged to pay for an unsolicited promotional offer is where I absolutely draw the line…

I stopped being a member of ITBC last year when my membership expired; I didn’t renew it because I wasn’t thrilled with their service. Nonetheless, they’ve just sent me a package of three books — Emma, a book by Robin Sharma and Eleven Minutes — apparently under some promotional offer (through order no. OGO8092125 of March 15; invoice no. OR0800091171 of March 18) which I certainly didn’t order and for which I had to pay 525 INR. I am absolutely furious about having had these books which I do not want delivered to me.

ITBC has offered to take back the books and reimburse me and while I’m grateful for that, it’d entail a lot of extra, unnecessary hassle for me and I’m not amused at all. I sent them a mail and this is the response I received:

---

Friday, April 11, 2008
Dear Member,

Hi Sir/Ma’am,

Stick to one salutation and figure out if you’re mailing a man or a woman. Also, figure out whether or not the person is a member of your book club.

We thank you for your mail to us. We deeply regret for the inconvenience caused to you in this regards, thou unintentional.

thou? If you’re going to leave me angry, at least don’t send me mail that looks like an SMS.And how exactly was this unintentional?

In This regards I would like to bring this to your kind notice that the, 3 books were dispatched to you under a promotional offer, from our marketing team BOOKS BUDDY, which worth 1000/- Rs. in the out market, and were sent to you at 500/-Rs. flat 50% discount, along with that we have also given you a gift voucher worth Rs. 500/- which you can redeem anytime, if you are placing order for 1500/- or more before 30th of October.

In This regards? Once again, proof read the letter, please.
And am I supposed to feel good that you’re sending me books I don’t want and that you’re not charging me the market price? No wait, I can actually buy a Wordsworth edition of Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ from almost any bookshop for 90 INR, and you’ve charged me 147 INR for an edition from an Indian publisher I’ve never before heard of.

We have also sent an confirmatory e-mail and mailer to your address to confirm, that your packet of 3 books from BOOKS BUDDY were been dispatched and will be delivered to you soon.

were been dispatched? If you’re going to claim to have sent me an eMail, decide when you did so. In any case, I never received any such letter.

Now, even after these schemes, if you are not interested in the books anymore, we would request you to send the packet back to us through courier along with your original courier slip. As we receive your parcel we will arrange for refund your money along with your courier charges.
We deeply regret for the inconvenience caused to you in this regards.
Thanking and assuring for the best of the services at all times.
For further assistance/queries feel free to get back to us.India Today Book Club team.response@indiatodaybookclub.com

Not interested in the books anymore? I never was interested in them.
The reimbursement offer: finally, there’s something that doesn’t leave me hopping mad. However, I’m so angry that I don’t think I’m going to send the books back and hope that ITBC will actually reimburse me as promised. I just don’t want to have to deal with them.
I didn't get a gift voucher for 500 INR from them but they did send me an offer of a free bag they say is worth 499 INR. I just might take them up on it. If I'm going to pay, I might as well get as much as possible out of the deal.

---

Incidentally, if you’re wondering — as I did — if the publication of this mail involves infringing ITBC’s copyright, this is what their disclaimer says:

This e-mail communication and any attachments may be privileged and confidential to Living Media India Limited and are intended only for the use of the recipients named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not review, disclose, disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail and attachments. If you have received this email in error, please delete the same along with all attachments there to and notify us immediately at ithelpdesk@intoday.com.

Considering that the mail is intended for the use of its recipients and I am a recipient, as I understand it, I’ve been granted a licence allowing me to use the mail. Only those who are not intended recipients have been requested to (and not prohibited from) reviewing, disclosing, disseminating, distributing or copying the mail.

And then, there’s also the matter of this post being true and of it’s being a good idea for people to stop accepting unsolicited calls etc. and to talk about them. Perhaps then they’ll stop.

(Check out this blog : stop-calling.blogspot.com which now seems to be defunct by Nikhil Pahwa and AmitKen. Personally though, I've found that the easiest way to get banks to stop calling is to say, in response to 'आप क्या करते है?' : 'Law' ...watch the caller run for cover! )

Addendum: (April 13, 2008)
I did follow the link and claim the bag and got this message:

"Your claim for the bag has been recorded. Kindly give us 15 days to process your request.You may call at 011-40502424 or email at response@indiatodaybookclub.com in case of any queries."

I hope that the bag does in fact reach me!
...who cares that I don't even use adidas?

IMBRA

Here’s an article about immigrant women which is also a case of plagiarism that has been called out by Sylvia in a way I’ve never seen before. Apparently, the author of the article appropriated almost all her ideas from someone else.

“If you ever want to despair of the human condition, Google the term “IMBRA” — the vast majority of the results returned are authored by men outraged at these entirely reasonable measures that keep men from beating their immigrant wives and using green cards as leverage to perpetuate the violence. Strangely, few of these websites argue that men should be given the direct right to beat women, but it’s hard to imagine what other worldview they could be operating under, when they think that it should be perfectly legal for a man to threaten his wife with deportation if she leaves him after a round of beating. If you are under the incorrect impression that sexism is dead and feminism isn’t needed anymore, I recommend listening to the howls of men who think the government owes them the right to treat immigrant women like a population available for their punching bag and sexual assault needs. That goes double for you if you’ve ever sneered at the term “intersections of oppression,” because I can’t think of a better example myself.“

Sylvia says that all original ideas in this excerpt from an article called ‘Sexual Abuse Fueled by Abusive Immigration Language‘ remain unlinked. She’s given the same treatment to the whole article in her blog.

I’d never heard of IMBRA so I googled the term. It turns out that it’s the ‘International Marriage Brokers Regulation Act’ — a federal Act which became law along with VAWA in 2006 and is designed to protect non-American women from American men by requiring men’s backgrounds to be disclosed to women whom they approach through paid international marriage brokers.

Source: Problem Chylde: Nerdy but Mighty (and Still Learning)

Malaysian Woman Sues for Loss of Virginity

There have been several cases in India dealing with promises to marry. I’ve never come across one like this though:
A Malaysian woman is suing her husband for the loss of her virginity (before their marriage). He obtained her consent by promising her a happy marriage. However, her in-laws refused to recognise the marriage which, as a result, was anything but happy.
In addition to close to a million USD, she wants the marriage to be declared null and void.

Source: earthtimes.org/articles/show/196636,malaysian-woman-sues-husband-over-lost-virginity.html

A History of Clichés

Another book on my wishlist:
The Cat’s Pyjamas: The Penguin Book of Clichés by Julia Cresswell
The book is exactly what it says it is: a book which discusses the origins of clichés.
And as for the title, according to Urban Dictionary, cat’s pyjamas is ‘1920s lingo’ used to describe someone or something who is the best. It goes on to say that it usually ‘indicated stylishness or innovation since pyjamas were a relatively new fashion in the 1920s. The term ‘cat’ was beginning to be used as a term to describe the out going and unconventional jazz-age flappers’.

Copyright in a Student’s Work

That the copyright in a student’s assignments belongs to him isn’t disputed; he has the right to control how or if his work is published.

An IIT student — that’s the Illinois Institute of Technology — Roman Kofman, doesn’t seem to have been able to convince one of his professors who has posted some of his work online of this and isn’t sure of what to do next:

“Should I serve my professor with a formal “cease and desist”? Should I go to legal counsel with a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice? The DMCA notice would make IIT (as the internet service provider for the site) liable if the content was not removed. Surely, this would produce results. I doubt I would actually sue the school, but who knows?”

Mr Kofman says, “Winning a case of willful copyright infringement would net me a nice payout to help me with my student loans.” I’ve not heard of a student in India having a similar problem although if he were to have such a problem, his rights would be similar. I’m not sure if, practically speaking, his remedies would be the same.

In the Indian scenario, would a student actually want to send a legal notice to a professor who controlled his grades? If he tried to file a suit, how far would he get? Would it take too much time and effort to try to enforce his rights? Would it be worth it if he did win: I don’t see him getting too much in the way of damages. And what would the fall out be? Would either the school or the professor refrain from holding it against him? Would it diminish his chances of future employability if he was thought of as being litigious?

technews.iit.edu/index.php?id=973

MP v. Pilot

I was just reading about a row between a member of Parliament, Abdul Wahab, and the captain of an Indian airplane, Rajat Rana.

I have no idea of what the rights and wrongs of the situation are. Considering that we spend much of our time engaged in unrestrained sycophancy, I find interesting that in the comments in response to this story on the Times of India website, not one person seemed to support the MP. The one commenter who said that the pilot was in the wrong said:

vijayamohan,coimbatore,says: The pilot’s action was totally unjustified. His writ runs only while the plane is airborne. Technically, the correct procedure would be to offload the MP in midflight (preferrably without a parachute)

[9 Apr, 2008 1213hrs IST]

The MP’s side of the story:

“I arrived at the airport well ahead of the schedule departure of the flight at 8.55 am. But the flight which was coming from Doha was delayed. Around 9 am, the duty manager escorted me and my wife to the aircraft. Mr Rana who was waiting at the ladder shouted at the manager for delaying the flight, alleging he was bringing in passengers late. His anger wouldn’t ebb even after I had taken my seat inside the plane. … It was at this point I decided to intervene. Mr Rana then told me it was none of my business. I replied he was only a glorified driver and shouldn’t equate himself with a people’s representative. He became furious and called up the duty manager to get me off the plane. As I didn’t want to cause any inconvenience to co-passengers, I decided to get down.”

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/MP_offloaded_from_plane/articleshow/2936142.cms
(As far as I know, the pilot hasn’t made a public statement. And, incidentally, as someone pointed out, the pilot would have had to shout to be heard over the engine noise.)

Treating People Like Dirt

2008
A few minutes ago, a man from the electricity department come to read the meter. I opened the front door; he asked me to open the back door for him to come in. I refused to open the back door: I saw no reason why he couldn’t use the front door. And there was also the matter of my being too lazy to be willing to walk to the back door.
I find it superbly annoying to be asked to open the back door to let people in but I wonder if maids/carpenters/ plumbers and apparently meter men are often not allowed to come into a house thorugh the front door. Surely, they wouldn’t ask for a back door to be opened if it wasn’t standard practice for them to use it.
As a child, I remember seeing women who would, when people who worked as secretaries in their husbands’ offices came over, not so much as offer them a chair and leave them standing in the living room, with chairs all around, for extended preiods of time.
I’ve read accounts of people behaving like this in: (a) a fifteenth century manual for domestic staff, (b) in a great deal of 19th century literature and (c) in a book called ‘The Champagne Girls’ set in early 20th century France in which an heiress who wants to become an opera singer is told that musicians and other artists are pratronised and do not become friends. They are not invited as guests; they are let in and out through a side door.
I’m a little stunned that similar attitudes exist today and that people are willing to put in a lot of extra effort for just a little extra snobbery.

Trademark Used to Fight Spammer

Although Germany does not have anti-spamming laws, Microsoft won a case against a porn-spammer from Schleswig-Holstein who sent spam using falsified Hotmail accounts by basing its claim on trade mark (infringement) law and (unfair) competition law.
Through Class 46 and the Microsoft Press Release: http://www.microsoft.com/germany/presseservice/detail.mspx?id=532143

What (Some) Judges Say About Rape

“A raped woman is framed socially and within the law as something broken. Neither Madonna nor whore but somewhere in between. The carrier of bad luck. There is a general but grudging acceptance that it isn’t really her fault, but if she had done something else, gone in another direction, not had that drink or worn that dress or smiled that way, it might never have happened…”From ‘The Story of Jane Doe: A Book about Rape’ (Random House, 2003 at 118)

1982: Judge Bertram Richards said that a teenager who had been raped was “guilty of a great deal of contributory negligence” by hitchhiking home late at night. www.newint.org/issue187/death.htm

1983: Judge Brian Gibbens, 76, said he had “considerable sympathy” for a 35-year-old builder who had sex with a seven-year-old girl, and added: “It strikes me as one of the kinds of accidents which could almost happen to anyone.” justice.org.nz/pubs/reports/1999/family_conference/author_24.html

1986: Mr Justice Leonard, the High Court Judge in the Ealing Vicarage rape trial, said, “the trauma suffered by the victim was not so very great.” He gave the burglar who organised the raid a much harsher sentence than the two rapists and was later hauled up for placing more value on property than on person. telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/08/nsaward08.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/03/08/ixhome.html

1988: Judge Sir Harold Cassel QC said that an ex-policeman was driven to indecently assaulting his twelve-year-old mentally-retarded stepdaughter because his wife’s diminished desire for sex during her pregnancy had caused “considerable problems for a healthy young husband”. He accused the woman of ‘encouraging’ the assaults although the she said, “As far as the sexual side, my husband did not go without the whole time through my pregnancy, so I do not know where the judge got his information from.” bunker8.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Sue/body.htm

1991: Sir Arthur Myerson reduced rapist Brian David Huntley’s sentence because he “showed concern and consideration by wearing a contraceptive.” news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1263875.stm; http://homes.cerias.purdue.edu/~spaf/Yucks/V1/msg00061.html

1993: Judge Ian Starforth Hill described an eight-year-old victim of a sexual attack as “not entirely an angel”. business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article2876160.ece

1993: Judge John Prosser let a 15-year-old rapist go free ordering him to pay his teenage victim £500 “for a good holiday”. business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article2876160.ece

1993: Judge Smedley in a case heard at the Old Bailey explained why evidence of the victim’s distress should be disregarded: “A word of warning. If the account the complainant is giving was completely fabricated you may think she is clever, then clever enough to act out distress”. bunker8.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Sue/body.htm

2003: Judge Richard Benson, a circuit judge, gave a 58-year-old father a three-year community rehabilitation order for repeatedly molesting his daughter while her mother was shopping when she was seven and eight since he thought the case was at “the more bland edge of the spectrum”. guardian.co.uk/world/2003/dec/16/law.ukcrime

2006: Judge Addison passed a suspended sentence of nine months on a swimming instructor, Ross Sweet, who sexually assaulted two eight-year-old girls on two occasions and praised him for being a good and caring teacher. thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article65397.ece; news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6288819.stm; telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/23/njudges123.xml

2007: Judge Julian Hall said to Eric Cole, 71, who had sexually assaulted a six-year-old: “In criminal terms, what you did was quite mild.” He ordered Cole to pay his victim compensation of £250, adding: “If it buys her a nice new bicycle, that’s the sort of thing that might cheer her up.” dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=433514&in_page_id=1766

2008: Judge Julian Hall of the Oxford Crown Court said a ten-year-old girl had dressed provocatively while letting her rapist, Keith Fenn, 24, and his accomplice Darren Wright, 34, off with astonishingly lenient sentences. news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21969117-663,00.html

Incidentally, rape is apparently not illegal under Nigerian law. worldivided.com/2007/12/07/when-submission-becomes-a-routine/
In 1913, Rebecca West said: “I myself have never been able to find out what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.”Edit this entry.

Link: QuizLaw.com

I just came across a site which lists stories like this:
The Government of Singapore is involved in the introduction of a ‘course teaching students about flirting and relationships. Subjects include love song analysis, speed-dating and online chatting’. [1]
According to IOL, a German lorry driver wasn’t punished for using his cell phone while driving since he claimed that he was using it as a ear warmer and produced a bill to show that he had made no phone calls at the time he was arrested. [2]
Gene R. Morrill, 57, tried to excuse his pedophilia by claiming to have been molested by the mythical Bigfoot. [3]
A 35-year old woman got stuck to her boyfriend’s toilet after sitting on it for two years. [4]
Luzerne County Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. ordered three Spanish-speaking men to learn English or go to jail. [5]
Links:

[1] http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080320/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_holdsingapore_love

[2] http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=29&art_id=iol1205573962357C415

[3] http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0308/506664.html

[4] http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/bizarre/5613590.html

[5] http://news.lp.findlaw.com/ap/other/1110//03-27-2008/20080327115008_03.html

Tom Leonard

Years ago, I fell in love with his poem ‘Fathers and Sons'.
Today, I came across a litany he wrote entitled ‘Blair’s Britain' and was delighted to find that he doesn’t think too highly of Blair’s politics.

b-52pray for us
CBU-72 cluster pray for us

Other poems on his site which I like include ‘Being a Human Being' and ‘treat the child gently'.