John Stossel; What a Schmuck

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/comments?type=story&id=4437402

Chesapeake JV Basketball Coach Accused of Having Sex with Student

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and will submit that this woman will be treated a little more harshly than she would have had it been a boy she had been caught with.
Again, we go back to those idiotic stereotypes: boys want sex regardless of where, when or whom it is. Girls never want sex and must be protected at all costs. ...Americans are so stupid.


Read the story [Here] .
www.wric.com

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) - The junior varsity girls basketball coach at a private school in Norfolk is accused of having sex with a student.
Chesapeake police say a parent at Norfolk Academy told police that 23-year-old Ashley Samaniego of Chesapeake was having sex with a 17-year-old female student.
Police say Samaniego was arrested at her home Wednesday evening and charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Samaniego was working part-time as a coach at the private school.

Female Sex Predators...?! What? That Must Be a Misprint!

I’m running across more and more of these kinds of stories. Whether that means such incidents are on the rise or that we’re just more aware of them is something I cannot answer.
I can speculate, of course; on that I would imagine that it’s a new trend.

As I've stated before, when it was males only exhibiting this behavior, society was content simply to prosecute the crimes and move on with life. After all, men - awash in their poisonous testosterone - are expected to beat each other senseless and assume the role of sexual predator. But now that women have been increasingly brought under media scrutiny for the same offenses, well now we as a nation are outraged!

Regardless of the answer, I may have to stop posting them here; they’re simply becoming too numerous and occurring with too much frequency. At this rate, the blog would assume the appearance of a crime blog.


[Suspended Tampa Middle School Teacher Arrested a Third Time on Charges of Having Sex With Students]

[Woman Arrested for Planning to Meet Eau Claire Boy for Sex]

Woman Arrested for Planning to Meet Eau Claire Boy for Sex

A judge set bond for the Albany, New York woman who police say made plans online to meet up with a 15-year-old boy.
Officers are holding 44-year old Tracy Taylor on $50,000 cash.
The Eau Claire Police Department says Taylor was taken into custody for attempted sexual assault of a child, using a computer to facilitate a sex crime and child enticement.
Officers say she met the 15-year-old boy on a social networking web site, and made plans to meet him for apparent sexual relations.
They say she had booked a room at the Days Inn Hotel on Truax Lane in Eau Claire, and checked-in Friday.
That's when detectives say they used a search warrant to go through her room. They say they found evidence that pointed to pre-planned sexual contact.
She's due back in court May 6th.

You can find the story [Here].
www.weau.com

Suspended Tampa Middle School Teacher Arrested a Third Time on Charges of Having Sex With Students

A suspended middle school teacher out on bail for allegedly having sex with two students will be back in court Tuesday after police say they caught her having sex with one of them again
Stephanie Ragusa, 29, was arrested for the third time in about six weeks on charges of sex with a minor, MyFOXTampa reported. She was being held without bond at the Orient Road Jail.
"I can assure you that we are doing everything we can right now to make sure that she’s not out at liberty to do this again," said Hillsborough County Sheriff's Lt. Fred Asteasuainzarra.
Officers discovered Ragusa and the now-16-year-old boy at his house about 12:20 p.m. Monday, the arrest affidavit states. Ragusa had gone to the teen's house to discuss the criminal case but wound up in bed with him, police said.
Detectives nabbed the woman as she was leaving and getting into her boyfriend's truck. Ragusa remained behind bars Tuesday, charged with two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor.
Ragusa was first arrested March 13 and charged with having sex at least three times with a Davidsen Middle School student, then 14, between January and May of 2007. During that relationship, police say she began another with a second Davidsen boy, who was 15 when they started sleeping together in February of 2007.
Ragusa and the second teen, who was one of her math students, had sex at least 20 times, according to the sheriff.
She was initially released March 18 after posting bail, but was re-arrested April 15 when investigators say they determined she'd had sex with a second student. She has been charged with several counts of lewd and lascivious battery.
Ragusa was previously arrested on charges of driving under the influence in 2005, according to police records.
She last taught at Martinez Middle School but remains suspended without pay, according to the Hillsborough County School District.

You can find the story [Here] .
www.foxnews.com

Bigotry? An X Chromosome is All You Need

In a similar vein to aOC’s posts (rants ;) ), I just thought I’d point out that bigotry doesn’t require a Y chromosome.
Now I certainly can’t prove racism was the motive for what was happening here, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this girl is a pasty-white neo-Con whose complaint against “them foreigners” is “they’re takin’ ‘r jebs!”


ATHENS--- An update now to a story we reported Tuesday about an alleged beating at an Athens school. Wednesday the superintendent said the whole thing was a lie.
Gloria Gallardo was in Athens Wednesday and found that some parents at the school say Melanie Bowers should apologize the same way she told her story on television.
[Read More--> ]

Bigotry? An X Chromosome is All You Need (cont.)

Others at Athens Middle School say they are relieved the truth was found in the investigation.
More importantly they say they're glad no one was assaulted on campus.
Picture of scratches and bruises caught the eye of East Texans and the rest of the country this week . Melanie Bowers claimed those pictures proved she was beaten by a group of students.
Even more disturbing was the claim that "the Hispanic" kids threatened her life over a school assignment last Friday.
But by Wednesday afternoon the Athens superintendent Fred Hayes was getting an apology from Bowers' parents whom the superintendent says are "distraught" over the lie their daughter has told.
Hayes says after reviewing surveillance video and interviewing teachers they found out Bowers was displaying a school project poster that said: If you love America stop illegal immigration."
Apparently another student did take the sign and ran to the gym. Bowers followed him and then went to the principals office. Hayes says, "and the student told the principal that a boy had yanked a poster out of her hand."
Hayes the says that the school official told Bowers to go to class and that Bowers then passed three other teachers and that's when he says the hoax began.
Hayes says, "Ms. Bowers was seen in the hallway scratching her face, arm and neck area." Creating the disturbing images and a story that made local and national news and put several other students in the hot seat.
Elvia Bojalil says her son took the poster and she says it's a hurtful situation in a place that's supposed to be safe.
The school district is pressing charges on Bowers over the false report but Ms. Bojalil says she's just glad the situation is over and she feels for the girl and hopes God blesses her.

Shari Dunn
[KETK NEWS]
Apr 9, 2008

More Female Violence?

Just to reiterate an earlier point, I am somewhat amused by the media's hysteria on this issue. When it was just boys beating each other to death, there was little talk about curbing their behavior. "Boys will be boys" and similar bullshit.
However, when it's girls beathing each other to death...why, something must be wrong. What's happening to our girls?! JESUS CHRIST, WHY HAVE YOU FORESAKEN US?!
Girls just don't do that sort of thing. It doth offend our sensibilities.

There are simply too many news reports to post here, so I'll just link to them.
Now, someone please tell me why boys and girls are innately different.

Female-instigated violence on the rise in Chattanooga:
[Read More--> ]

Middle-school girl brawl in Indiana
[Read More--> ]

Harrisburg, PA
[Read More--> ]

Madison, Wisc
[Read More--> ]

A New Disturbing Trend
[Read More--> ]

Men More Forgetful Than Women

Now this is an interesting study, and it certainly raises important questions. But I really, really don’t think such an all-encompassing statement can be made about gender in dementia trends based on one study; one study that focused on one town.
I hate to generalize, but since we have a study based in Minnesota, can we safely assume the population of this study is predominately caucasion?
Education is certainly an important aspect of this study, but why wasn’t occupation listed as well?
Was there any correlation between onset of dementia and the length of time of residence?
What possible environmental factors could be at work?
I cannot say whether the conclusions listed in this article are the work of Ms. Bryner or the authors of the study itself; with the state of scientific journalism today, I would think the former.
In fact, after re-re-reading the article, the authors seem hesitant to suggest just what Ms. Bryner concludes.
I can only sadly shake my head. At one time, scientific journalists would only report on new discoveries, not interpret results.

Men are more likely than women to have problems with memory and other thinking skills, symptoms considered to be an early stage of dementia, research suggests. The new study, to be presented at an annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Chicago this week, expands the field of research on aging and memory into a touchy arena — cognitive differences among men and women.
[Read More -->]

Men More Forgetful Than Women(cont.)

Forgetfulness linked with aging, or just a frenzied day, is normal. Say, you misplace your car keys or wallet, or you can't remember where you parked the car. Red flags should pop up when you start forgetting things you normally remember, and on a routine basis, such as weekly appointments, doctors say. These are signs of so-called mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which can lead to dementia.
People with mild cognitive impairment are three to four times more likely than others to develop Alzheimer's disease, according to the Mayo Clinic. Considered the most common form of dementia, Alzheimer's is a neurological disorder that affects your ability to think, speak, reason, remember and move.
The recent findings come from a study of nearly 2,000 residents of Olmsted County, Minn., who ranged in age from 70 to 89. Dr. Rosebud Roberts of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and her colleagues followed the participants beginning in the fall of 2004, collecting new data every 12 to 15 months.
Overall, 74 percent of the participants had normal mental function; about 16 percent had MCI; and 10 percent had full-on dementia.
Men were one-and-a-half times more likely to have mild cognitive impairment than women. The prevalence in men increased from 12 percent in men ages 70 to 74 up to 40 percent in the oldest age group, ages 85 to 89. "This was an unexpected finding," Roberts said during a press briefing, referring to the difference between men and women.
The finding remained the same regardless of a man's education or marital status.
"These findings are in contrast to studies which have found more women than men, or an equal proportion, have dementia, and suggest there's a delayed progression to dementia in men," Roberts said. "Alternately, women may develop dementia at a faster rate than men."
Continued study of the participants could help to solve this mind puzzle.
"To be able to find out whether the findings are definitive, we need to follow our subjects over time," Roberts said, "to see if men indeed develop new MCI at a faster rate than women."
The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Robert H. and Clarice Smith and Abigail Van Buren Alzheimer’s Disease Research Program.

Jeanna Bryner
[Article]
[LiveScience]
April 16, 2008

Greetings Again from America, Land of Hypocrisy

Greetings again from America, land of hypocrisy

By now, you have probably seen at least one of the three following stories: [Here] [Here] and [Here].
As you may have noticed, all three feature female-on-female violence.
While such shenanigans were once the province of males only, society – or at least, pop culture – seemed content to let such behavior slide; “boys will be boys” after all.
Now that girls have begun exhibiting the same behavior, suddenly it’s a national crisis!
I can't tell you the number of network affiliates I've seen whose anchors have wondered, "what's happening to our girls?" 'Cause, you know, girls just don't DO that sort of thing.
You see, it’s quite natural for boys – flush with testosterone – to beat others senseless and engage in anti-social behavior. Males are held at the whim of their hormones, powerless in succumbing to their base urges of violence or sex. Often of course, they succumb to both simultaneously. Pop culture teaches us (and really, when has it ever steered us wrong?) that men are the sexually aggressive gender; men are ALWAYS pursuing sex. Women NEVER pursue sex (except for sluts, yes?). To suggest otherwise is to upset profound “truths” held by a great many Americans. Well, conservatives anyway.
Yep, conservatives are usually the segment of the population that insists that gender differences are inherently genetic (except for homosexuality). I should know: I used to be a right-wing conservative republican. I believed this stupid bullshit at one time.
I’m not suggesting that liberals DON’T believe that way as well. It just seems to me that we’re not so dogmatic - gwnerally - in our beliefs.

Girl Attacked with Chair

There's more disturbing video circulating on the internet of violence inside a school. This time the video shows a teenager in Arizona being hit over the head with a metal chair.The attack, which was recorded on a cell phone occurred last week in Prescott Valley. Watch today's [Netcast] to see one student walk up behind the victim in the cafeteria and hit her over the head with a metal chair. The victim says she was knocked out, and when she came to she had 20 people standing over her.The student who hit her is facing assault, and disorderly conduct charges. Police say it started as a verbal argument.

[abcnews2.com]

3 Ole Miss Students Injured with Box Cutter

University of Mississippi officials say three female students were treated for cuts and another was arrested after an altercation on campus that likely involved a boxcutter. Authorities said Marisha Porter, a 19-year-old freshman from Columbus, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault. The incident at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday involved at least six students. A news release from the university said the three injured students were treated at Baptist Memorial Hospital and released.Campus police believe their injuries were inflicted with a boxcutter. Investigators said the incident arose from an ongoing personal dispute among the women.

By: Andrew Harrison
Apr 09, 2008
[WCBI.com]

Video of Teen Beating Raises Questions

Eight Florida teenagers charged with beating another teen so they could post the "animalistic" attack on YouTube got exactly what they had wanted - worldwide exposure.
But that doesn't mean YouTube or any other media company should get the blame, legally or ethically, for the attack, media experts said Friday.
In fact, they have a duty to share the video, said Kelly McBride, the ethics group leader at the Poynter Institute journalism think tank in St. Petersburg, Fla.
"The fact that the video was shot because they were seeking publicity was secondary," McBride said. "A crime was committed in our community, and if there's a videotape of it, I want some information. That video was incredibly revealing. It told more truth about what happened than any other form of reporting could have told."
The teenagers have been arrested on charges that they beat the teen so they could make a video of the attack to post online. One of the girls struck the 16-year-old victim on the head several times and then slammed her head into a wall, knocking her unconscious, according to an arrest report.
"It's absolutely an animalistic attack," Sheriff Grady Judd said earlier this week. "They lured her into the home for the express purpose of filming the attack and posting it on the Internet."
On Friday, a judge set bail for each of the defendants at $30,000 during the teens' first court appearance. Prosecutors said seven of the girls will be tried as adults in the March 30 attack in Lakeland, Fla. They face charges of kidnapping, battery and witness tampering.
It's not clear who posted the video on the Internet. But the Polk County sheriff's office released a clip that has been widely circulating online and on television, including The Associated Press' video network.
Those who blame YouTube or news organizations should blame themselves first, said Steve Jones, a communications professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
"The public is culpable as well because they are paying attention," he said. "There is no medium that forces them to pay attention."
CNN spokeswoman Barbara Levin said the cable news network has tried to place the video in the proper context.
"In reporting the story, we have gone to great lengths to explain that these young women face severe consequences for their actions, and in fact may be facing harsher sentencing because the videotape provides evidence of the nature of the attacks," she said in a statement.
YouTube, owned by Google Inc., declined to comment on the video, but said its general policies call for the removal of clips that show someone getting "hurt, attacked or humiliated."
From a legal standpoint, YouTube and other online service providers are largely exempt from liability because of a 1996 anti-pornography law. One provision says Internet service providers are not considered publishers simply because they retransmit information provided by their users or other sources.
Federal courts have applied that broadly to cover not just Internet access providers, but also video-sharing sites, message boards and other online services.
Even without that provision, there doesn't appear to be anything illegal about the video, said John Morris, senior counsel with the Center for Democracy and Technology, a civil-liberties group in Washington, D.C.
"There is no legal reason this video cannot be shown. It is obviously distasteful, abhorrent what the teenagers did to the victim, but it doesn't really make sense (to ask), 'Should YouTube have taken it down?'" Morris said.
Even if there were a claim of illegality, he said, the courts should be the ones deciding, not YouTube.
"Many of those assertions are really very difficult, legal determinations that YouTube has no ability to make," Morris said. "Really, YouTube is not in a position to be a traffic cop."

By: Anick Jesdanun
AP Internet Writer

Surveys? No, thank you. I just ate.

[Relevant Link]

I have no problem pointing out flaws with research like this.
The report won't be out until June, so we really can't reliably criticize it. Buuuut, I can tell you what I normally see with studies similar to this onfe.

Surveys are a great resource tool. Unfortunately, they are not always a reliable resource tool.

I'll get back later with specifics, but lest I be mistaken, 3,300 people is a sufficient sampling of a population. However, geographical location can play just as large a role - if not larger - than any other factor in many surveys.
Now of course we also have to consider the survey questions to determine if there is any biased slant.

If these should all pan out, we must then consider the results reliable. So what do they suggest about gender?
Only that men and women are socialized differently in the U.S. in regards to race relations.
Counter to what the researchers may conclude - if it differs from my opinion - I don't believe
this points to any innate differences between the genders.
Do innate differences exist? Almsot certainly. But this study ain't the definitive truth you're looking for.

Men More OK with Discrimination Than Women Are

There are a lot of problems with studies like this. I won’t even go into the problems regarding reliability and sample sizes, but I do take issue with the way it’s presented by the press.
If you’ll notice, there doesn’t appear to be any fact-checking by the reporter; all too often, they look over the press release, cut it down to size and print the results. I wish I could say that it’s not a common occurrence, but I know better.
I have a job that allows me to view different news broadcasts from around the country, and I’m embarrassed by the intellectual laziness of these people. Local stations, even in large cities, simply regurgitate stories they receive from the national media. I don’t mean roughly the same either; it’s typically word-for-word. And there have been occasions where I’ve seen the broadcasters report the exact opposite of what was being said.
anyway…


Men are more tolerant of discrimination than women are, but both tend to accept prejudice against some immigrants and Arab-Americans, according to a new study.
The results come from telephone and online surveys of more than 3,300 people conducted in 2002 by University of Southern California researchers. Each of the questions dealt with a form of discrimination that targets a distinct class of people.
[Read More --> ]

Men More OK with Discrimination Than Women (cont.)

Here are some details of the overall findings:
- A larger percentage of men than of women accept discrimination, in general. For example, men on the phone were 7.6 percent more likely than women to tolerate discrimination against the obese and 8.9 percent more likely to accept racial profiling of African-American motorists.
- The “sex gap” – that is, the difference between the percentages of men and women accepting discrimination, as a percentage of their average – was smallest when it came to discriminating against Arab-American airplane passengers and greatest in regard to African-American motorists, among those surveyed by phone.
- The highest percentage of people in both the phone and Web surveys accepted discrimination against “poorly educated immigrants” (27.7 percent and 32.3 percent, respectively), followed by acceptance of discrimination against Arab-Americans (26.4 percent of phone respondents, 17.8 percent of online respondents).
- Respondents were least likely to accept discrimination against the genetically disadvantaged, or people who are revealed via genetic testing to be at high risk for diseases that require expensive medical care (6.7 percent of phone respondents, 3.2 percent of online respondents).
- Men were 19.6 percent more likely than women to tolerate discrimination against the obese and 17.4 percent more likely to accept racial profiling.
Edward J. McCaffery, a USC law professor, who co-authored the study with Timur Kuran of Duke University, said that an individual who sees nothing wrong with certain kinds of biases will often find others objectionable.
“Many political struggles of our time, in the United States as elsewhere, amount to clashes over the appropriate boundary between permissible and impermissible forms of discrimination,” McCaffery said. “We have found that, while discrimination in its traditional forms – based on race and gender – may be receding somewhat, discrimination in other domains, as based on appearance, persists.
Study design and results

Respondents to the telephone and online surveys were presented with five scenarios, each of which dealt with a form of discrimination targeting a distinct class of individuals: Arab-American airplane travelers, seriously overweight people, the genetically disadvantaged, poorly educated immigrants and African-American motorists.
All questions used the same format, first explaining a controversy and then providing a statement in favor of discrimination followed by a consideration of justice. An overwhelming percentage of the respondents chose the equality position in every category.
“As a matter of practice, people morally opposed to discriminatory policies based on reviled forms of prejudice do not insist on equal treatment for everyone, in every context,” McCaffery said. “The surveys reported in this article validate this poorly appreciated fact in reference to several matters of political importance. In addition, they show that expressed attitudes toward discrimination vary by sex as well as context.”
The results will be detailed in the June issue of the journal Political Research Quarterly. The research was funded by the USC-Caltech Center for the Study of Law & Politics.

LiveScience Staff
posted: 03 April 2008 ET

A Reflection on All Things Butterfly and Cookie

As I stated in an earlier post, I'm new to blogging. So if you shold have any criticism please keep it constructive. I still may not care what you have to say, but at least be polite.

It may not be apparent judging by what I've written, but I don't disagree that there very well may be innate differences - behaviorally - between the genders. The problem I have with the debate, especially in the media, is how often a behavior is assumed to be a trait of men or women. If anything, Biology and psychology have taught us that most things human, which includes behavior, exist on a spectrum; there is nothing concrete that belongs strictly to either.
Point out a behavior or trait you believe is unique to one sex, and I can almost certainly point out an exception.
Go on, try. Yeah...that's what I though, bitch!

More Gender Shit

It’s been a few days, and I see that the blog remains guest-free. No matter; in time it may be seen by many. Or may not. Whatever.
Anyway, to further my contention that there are few if any innate gender differences, I present the following.


Among promiscuous African topi antelopes on the savannah, the battle of the sexes runs in reverse — females aggressively compete for mates, while the males play hard to get.
Such role reversals more common in the animal kingdom than currently thought.
Females of most species are typically seen as choosy about whom they mate with because they often have to pay a high price biologically for bearing offspring. On the other hand, males, for whom sex is often cheap, will try and mate as often as possible — or so the stereotype goes.
[Read More -->]

More Gender Shit(cont.)

"When biologists talk about the 'battle of the sexes,' they often tacitly assume that the battle is between persistent males who always want to mate and females who don't," said researcher Jakob Bro-Jorgensen, a zoologist at the Zoological Society of London.
Now Bro-Jorgensen has found a reversal of these stereotypical sex roles with the topi, which dwells in the savannahs and floodplains of Africa.
"Since I was 3 years old I have always been fascinated by the free spirits of the antelopes on the African savannahs," Bro-Jorgensen said. "The African savannah is such a fantastic place to work. You never know what will happen to you over the course of a day — sometimes topi calves playing or narrowly escaping a hyena will make my day; on less fortunate days, car breakdowns have forced me to cross crocodile-infested rivers or come face to face with lions. However, it is all exciting."
In this frisky species of antelope, each female typically becomes receptive to sex for one day a year. This extraordinarily tiny window of time that female topi have for sex makes them very promiscuous, leading to "rampant mating," Bro-Jorgensen said. Each female mates with about four males on average during her fertile day.
"Because of this rampant mating, hotshot males get completely knackered during peaks in mating activity," Bro-Jorgensen said. He found that females aggressively struggled over valuable limited supplies of sperm from the most desirable members of the opposite sex. Females even went so far as to attack males when they are with other females, in order to monopolize their time.
At the same time, Bro-Jorgensen discovered that male topi grew pickier about whom they mated with, each deliberately choosing females they had mated with least and launching counterattacks against aggressive females they already mated with.
Scientists study factors behind fidelityAnimal swingers play the mating gameGay animals coming out of the closet?
Such role reversal might be far more widespread than now thought, as topi are in many ways "a very typical mammalian species," Bro-Jorgensen told LiveScience. "We should look out for more such role-reversed conflicts particularly in promiscuous species, but also in situations where all females favor the same few males."
One reason why such role reversal "may have been overlooked so far is that we don't see when males are uninterested in mating because they simply avoid mounting," he explained. "This contrasts with unwilling females who often make spectacular attempts to escape male mounting."
"We should not regard coyness as the only natural female sex role, just as we should not expect that it is always the natural male sex role to mindlessly accept any mating partner," Bro-Jorgensen added. "Nature favors a broader range of sex roles."
Bro-Jorgensen detailed his findings online Thursday in the journal Current Biology.

-Charles Q. Choi
Livescience