Tarts and penguins
Rape of women is under-reported, not over-reported. Another attempt to justify Bryant, sans any real facts.
- Patty
The fact that a new study shows that women are far more likely to lie about sex than men, in contrast with conventional wisdom, happens to lend some support to Kobe Bryant's story does not indicate that my column last week was an attempt to justify Kobe Bryant's behavior. This reader also sent in a manufactured statistic which claimed that only two percent of rape accusations are false, which is not only false itself, but as is usually the case with feminist-championed statistics, wildly inaccurate.
According to the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit's 1983 study on false allegations, 39.57 percent of the alleged rapes investigated were false. This is in accordance with the very low arrest rates reported in the 2001 FBI Uniform Crime Report, which shows that only 30.14 percent of reported rapes end in arrests, compared to the 85.44 percent of reported murders that do. This dichotomy is huge, considering the fact that investigators usually have the benefit of a witness and DNA evidence in the case of a reported rape, whereas in the latter case, they may well have neither.
In any case, Kobe will have to look for his defenders elsewhere, considering his 32.1 points per game against KG and the boys in last year's playoffs. Lock him up and throw away the key - please!
Women, as the upholders of society's sexual standards, seem equipped with an amazing ability to rationalize their sexual behavior. A promiscuous man usually does not bother much with rationalizations. ... Not so with women. Except in the most atypical and extreme cases, women are never truly proud of promiscuity. Oh, she may dress like a tart and sleaze around a bit, but a woman deeply wishes to be thought of as essentially moral.
- Stacy
Not being a woman, I can't say what any woman truly wishes, but this certainly sounds plausible. Of course, the fact that very few people today understand that morals are not and have never been personal only adds to the confusion. Wendy Shalitt's demolition of the myth of the happy slut perpetrated by Cosmopolitan and its ilk is very telling in this regard.
How can a Christian conservative take heart in the fact that women are lying about sex? Whatever happened to honesty?
- Sinjin
The fact that someone hides their behavior indicates that they have a conscience, which is telling them that their behavior is wrong. A person acting against the dictates of his conscience is far more likely to experience remorse and change his future behavior than one who is remorseless. Conservatives should fear the day when women do not feel the need to lie about sex.
Computers are tools for business. If a business can extend the life of its tools, the company is then able to allocate resources to other more profitable ventures. The computer replacement cycle should reach equilibrium just as the vehicle replacement cycle or furniture replacement cycle has. There is no intrinsic reason to upgrade today's business computer every couple of years, and there is no reason to upgrade end-user
productivity software with much frequency. Right now about the only IT company making major profit is MS. But their profit is tied to an engineered-in product obsolescence.
- Michael
Which is why we call them The Evil Empire. I'm not saying that I support the government's ridiculous pursuit of Microsoft under antitrust law, but there is something inherently despicable about building a profit model around planned inefficiency. Linux is only two or three generations away from being a real home-user option, and I'm looking forward to that day.
You seem like the kind of intelligent guy that would use a Mac. I'm disappointed.
- SJ
I started out on an Apple IIe and moved up to the original Mac in college. But I'm a gamer, so I've been on the PC since Wing Commander and my first 386/25. I know Umberto Eco disagrees, but I nevertheless stand by my position that an operating system is not a religion - with the possible exception of those of you who worship at the temple of Steve Jobs.
The first time I was on a jury, after the judge had us swear to uphold and abide the law as it was written, I asked if jury nullification has been outlawed. He answered, "Yes." After the trial I sent him a letter asking for information of the elimination of jury nullification. The paperwork he sent me only stated that he had the right to not inform jurors of their right to use jury nullification. É We need to start charging judges with perjury.
- Rich
I think it would be preferable to simply send them all to prison and start over with a new lot chosen at random. People tend to forget that the only reason juries even exist is because the judiciary was hopelessly corrupt - like any government entity, the judiciary has an inherent tendency to devolve into corruption over time.
We live in a world that is predominantly run by the sort of annoying losers who thought it would be cool to be junior high school president when they were kids. Think on that, and shudder.