It looks like Iran’s Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a woman sentenced to death for adultery, might avoid stoning after all. Iran apparently has a human rights council (did you know that? I did not know that!), and some of its members are stating publicly that it looks like Ashtiani’s punishment might not be the ultimate. It must have been all those boobs …
But seriously, while this is certainly good news for Ashtiani and also perhaps some slight sign that Iran is demonstrating a shred …
Greg Gould has his roots in New Hampshire, and he was very much looking forward to the day when his wedding announcement could appear in the Union Leader, the local newspaper to his hometown of Manchester. Except, sorry, it’s not gonna happen. Because he’s gay.
While Gould and his husband (he and Aurelio Tine were married on Saturday in Portsmouth) stressed like any couple about wedding day minutiae, they were floored to learn that their marriage, despite being legal according to the courts, was not evidently good enough for the Union Leader. Although same-sex marriage is now legal in the Granite State, it seems that the state’s largest newspaper is going to flex its …
Ah, Ladies Night at the local pub. A time to go out with a bunch of friends, order half price dinners shared five or six ways, and indulge in cheap alcohol. I would never have survived my first few years of teaching without it.
Apparently, though, the concept of discounted cover charges and two-for-the-price-of-one drinks designated solely for women on a specific night didn’t sit well with “self-proclaimed ‘Men’s Rights’ lawyer” Den Hollander.
Hollander claimed that the idea of “Ladies Night” was unconstitutional and blamed this alleged gender inequality on a very common whipping boy girl: feminism.
Hollander insisted that because nightclubs are licensed by the state, the special deals required them to adhere to the equal protection clause of the Constitution. Without court intervention, Hollander claimed “none other than what’s left of the Wall Street moguls” will be able to afford to attend nightclubs.
Manhattan’s Second Court of Appeals rejected Hollander’s claim, so “Ladies Nights” are safe … for now.
The thing is, this idea of sexism against males as a result of feminism run amok is a Pandora’s box that gets opened from time to time. And eventually, the conversation about whether or not there is some truth to these accusations is going to have to happen.
Hollander, however, is clearly not the guy to lead the charge (you can check out his website here … I think he’s pretty creepy).
South Carolina Gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley is pushing on with her message—and leading the polls by quite a margin—despite the all-too-usual disdain some hold for women in politics … and the stigma attached to her ethnicity (a state senator referred to her as a “raghead”). Oh, and she’s also been accused of sleeping around.
Will Folks, a conservative blogger, and lobbyist Larry Marchant, a former campaign worker for rival Andre Bauer, who sits at the bottom of the poll, said they’ve shared pillow talk with Haley. Then, state Sen. Jake Knotts used “raghead” to describe Haley and the president of the United States, two elected officials who may be politically opposed but are similar in the way that matters most to Knotts.
Haley, a Methodist, was born and raised in South Carolina and attended Clemson University there; her parents, immigrants from India, are Sikhs, which must make Haley some sort of stealth candidate in Knotts’ view.
The politically tainted accusations of sexual misconduct, the ethnic slurs passed off as harmless and “intended in jest,” reek of sexism and nativism that is unfortunately as American as the apple pie some would also see as under attack – maybe by a sexy dish with multicultural spices. While Americans talk a good game about welcoming everyone, it’s clear that to a lot of people some citizens are more American than others. In 1928, the Catholicism of presidential candidate Al Smith was a deal-breaker. That you have to now have Muslims or Sikhs in the family tree to engender the wrath of some Christian Americans could, I suppose, be considered slow progress.
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