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(10/25/06 6:40pm)
It may still be a week before Halloween proper, but one of the best things about the holiday has already arrived: the proliferation of horror movies on your TV. Every year, for a few choice days, traditional programming is swept aside for a torrent of zombies, serial killers, vampires, werewolves, acid-bleeding space monsters and other awful, wonderful things. From the artsy cult-classics Turner Classic Movies will be offering on the 31st, to the Sci-Fi Channel's marathon of comically bad B-movies, to Bravo showing the "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Friday the 13th" franchises, to American Movie Classics' grab-bag of seemingly anything they could afford broadcast rights for, grotesque creatures are splattering hapless teenagers all over the airwaves.\nAnd I do mean "splattering" -- Halloween just isn't the same without heaping helpings of movie gore. After all, it wouldn't be the Halloween that I remember from my childhood in the '80s, if every third boy weren't dressed as Freddie Krueger or Jason Voorhees, wielding plastic weapons and obsessing about blood, guts and slime. Some of us even read Stephen King and played "Doom."\nClearly, our parents must've been raising a generation of bloodthirsty killing machines, right?\nThis was the argument behind last spring's congressional rustling about violent video games, and just such an idea is the gist of a new commercial sponsored by Rep. Mike Sodrel's re-election campaign. The ad features the voices of children as they play a violent video game (the best line being "Hit the hooker with the tire iron!") while white text against a black background criticizes Baron Hill for voting against a 1999 "amendment to a juvenile crime bill that would have prohibited the sale of violent and sexually explicit movies and video games to teenagers" (The Associated Press, Oct. 20). \nHorror movies continue to be tremendously popular. On Oct. 11, CNN reported that "The Grudge" and the "Saw" movie series had made a combined $252 million since their respective releases. Should we be worried?\nLook, I'm no fan of Hill -- but I've also seen the Department of Justice statistics on juvenile violent crime. The fact is that the number of violent crimes committed by juveniles has plummeted over the past decade -- and the number of juvenile violent crimes for 2003 (the most recent year for which data are available) was more than 40 percent below the average for the past 24 years. Murders committed by juveniles have declined 65 percent since 1994 and are now at their lowest level since 1984. Meanwhile, polls of the "millennial generation" (those born between 1977 and 1994) have found that the generation raised under the specter of such violent fare is closer to its parents than the baby boomers were to their own and is more concerned with religion and community.\nThe course is clear: If children really are shaped by watching violent films, we have got to make Halloween a year-round thing.
(10/25/06 6:37pm)
Last week, some IU faculty expressed concern about the secrecy in the ongoing search for the University's next president. The search, which could continue into 2008 when current President Adam Herbert's term is set to expire, has thus far been confidential. The candidates' names have not been made public -- those in consideration for the position are only known to the 13 representatives on the presidential search committee.\nIn an Oct. 18 Indiana Daily Student article, IU law professor J. Alexander Tanford, speaking on behalf of anxious participants at the biweekly Bloomington Faculty Council meeting, said he was "concerned that information that comes from normal faculty-to-faculty communication was not getting to the search committee." Those who want the identities of presidential candidates to be released say the next president should be someone who understands the "unique administrative structure of IU" and is also willing to "work more closely with the state." However, trustee Sue Talbot, a member of the presidential search committee, said that while she can sympathize with the concerns, it is nevertheless "important to keep a certain level of confidentiality so potential candidates would not jeopardize their current positions."\nWe agree. Though it is a hard stance to take in our society, where great value is placed on the public's right to know what those in power are doing, certain processes are able to achieve better overall results when left to the initiative of trusted representatives rather than the direct involvement of the public. This is, after all, why we elect government officials rather than voting as a nation on every single law.\nLike everyone involved in the presidential search, we want to give the position to the person who is the most highly qualified and has the very best credentials. However, to obtain that person, the University may have to lure him or her away from someone who will not wish to surrender such a talented leader. Making the information about those under consideration public means we must also inform whatever institutions that currently employ them of our intentions to steal away their prized staff members. And getting caught in a bidding war is hardly a winning proposition for IU. \nAnd not only would the release of this information jeopardize the search -- it's also unnecessary. The presidential search committee is made up of representatives whose job it is to reflect the concerns of those who weren't given positions on the committee. The search has been set up this way for a reason: If the faculty have a grievance, they can contact their representatives and see that their concerns are taken into consideration. Now if only Bloomington students and undergraduates could be more confident in their representation ...
(10/25/06 4:22am)
SAN JOSE DEL CABO, Mexico -- Hurricane Paul weakened to a tropical storm Tuesday as it headed toward the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, whipping up high surf that left one person dead and another missing in the resort region.\nPaul's maximum sustained winds fell to near 45 mph and the storm was expected to weaken further before making landfall south of Los Cabos early Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.\nForecasters warned, however, that the storm could still dump up to 10 inches of rain in the mountains on Mexico's mainland, causing severe flooding.\nPaul's maximum sustained winds had reached 110 mph on Monday, making it a Category 2 hurricane. It was the third hurricane to threaten the Pacific coast's resort areas this season.\nLate Tuesday, Paul was 130 miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas on southernmost Baja California, and about 300 miles southwest of Mazatlan on the mainland. It was moving northeast at 14 mph. A tropical storm warning was in effect for the tip of Baja.\nA 23-year-old Mexican fisherman died Monday after he slipped off rocks being battered by the rough sea in the coastal community of Todos Santos, north of Los Cabos, said Baja California Sur civil defense director Jose Gajon.\nOff the coast of Cabo San Lucas, officials were searching for the body of an American man who was swept away by the waves while he was walking along the beach with his wife and sister.\nGilberto Guzman, manager of the SolMar Hotel, identified the missing tourist as John Skoor, 65, of Moses Lake, Washington. Guzman said "an enormous wave" swept Skoor and his sister out to sea late Monday. Hotel staff were able to save the sister.\nKnown for their rugged beauty, San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas are popular with sports fishermen and celebrities and famous for world-class golf courses and pristine beaches flanked by cactus-dotted deserts.\nStreets were already flooded with ankle-deep water in Cabo San Lucas, where authorities closed schools and opened eight shelters Tuesday. Tourists were taking the wet weather in stride.\n"I'm used to this kind of thing. I spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy so it doesn't bother me," said Keith Howard, 55, of British Colombia, who was walking in cloudy San Jose del Cabo. "I don't plan on going fishing though."\nDave Snow, 47, and Shauna Grady, 39, of Boulder, Colo., walked the rain-soaked streets of San Jose del Cabo early Tuesday after Paul forced them to postpone their stay in Cabo Pulmo, an exposed stretch of coast to the north that is popular among divers.\n"If it had stayed at hurricane level, it would have been scarier," Snow said. "It seems pretty mellow now."\nIn Cabo San Lucas, hotel guests played board games in lobbies or read in their rooms.\n"It looks as though the storm is dissipating and we're not going to get much of anything at all," said Sandra Scandiber, owner of the small Los Milagros Hotel in Cabo San Lucas. "I don't think today is going to be a beach day, but tomorrow just may be."\nMexico's Pacific coast was struck by two hurricanes last month. Hurricane John battered Baja California, killing five people and destroying 160 homes, while Hurricane Lane hit the resort town of Mazatlan, causing relatively minor damage.\nBoth Atlantic and Pacific hurricane seasons, which end Nov. 30, have been normal this year, Feltgen said, adding that the U.S. has been fortunate to not be hit by any of the five hurricanes in 2006. The Atlantic had a record season last year with devastating storms, including Hurricane Katrina, which slammed New Orleans and the U.S. Gulf coast.
(10/25/06 3:40am)
Four members of the IU swimming and diving team were removed from the squad after being arrested over the weekend, said Pete Rhoda, the director of Athletic Media Relations. Rhoda would not comment further on the issue. \nKeith J. Dawley, 19, Jensen V. Ried, 18, Andrew M. Bengtsen, 18, and Tyler John Nielsen, 18, were arrested early Sunday morning for vandalizing several cars on campus, according to an IU police department report. \nAll were arrested on preliminary charges of illegal consumption, criminal mischief and public intoxication, IUPD Capt. Jerry Minger said, and were transported to Monroe County jail where they were released upon their own recognizance. \nIUPD has no arrest history with any of the men prior to Sunday's arrests, Minger said.\nIU swimming and diving coaches and the four arrested former team members could not be reached by press time.
(10/25/06 2:49am)
QUESTION: I am having a relationship problem, and I believe that one of the reasons is because my partner and I are not having sex. I am gay, and I would like to have intercourse with him. He is not opposed to the idea but he is not able to have sex (he is too tight). I am curious about what you can tell me about the importance of sex to a healthy relationship, and possibly how being gay or male may be related to this. Thank you for your help.
(10/25/06 2:46am)
Dennis Hastert urged ethics investigators to work quickly to unravel the congressional pages scandal Tuesday, testifying before them just after a GOP lawmaker whose recollections differ from his. The Republican House speaker and some other Republicans have suggested revelations about the messages were timed to hurt the GOP in next month's elections.
(10/25/06 2:41am)
VIENNA, Austria -- The United States, France and Britain will urge the U.N. Security Council to ban the sale of missile and nuclear technology to Iran for its defiance of demands to stop uranium enrichment, diplomats said Tuesday.\nThe U.N. diplomats told The Associated Press that a draft resolution would commit U.N. member countries to deny entry to Iranian officials involved in developing the country's missile or nuclear programs.\nThe measure also would deny most expert help provided by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Typical projects run by the U.N. atomic watchdog in Iran, as listed in a confidential IAEA document seen by the AP, help in disposing of nuclear waste produced by any reactor and local radiotherapy against tumors.\nOne of the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the draft was not yet public, described all three measures as moderate and narrowly focused in an attempt to win Russian and Chinese backing to punish Iran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. The diplomat added that Moscow and Beijing could be formally presented with the draft as early as later this week.\nOn Monday, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, warned sanctions could backfire by making Tehran "more determined to continue with its nuclear activities," the country's official news agency reported.\nIran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. The United States and dozens of other countries fear, however, that it is secretly trying to make nuclear arms.\nA Security Council resolution passed last week imposed similar sanctions on the sale and transfer of technology that could contribute to North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs after its test of a nuclear bomb.\nBoth Russia and China, which have veto power as permanent Security Council members, have agreed in principle to sanctions over Iran's refusal to heed an Aug. 31 ultimatum to freeze uranium enrichment and sharply increase cooperation with the IAEA in the Vienna-based agency's probe of its suspect nuclear activities.\nStill, both continue to publicly push for dialogue instead of U.N. punishments, despite the collapse last month of European Union-brokered attempts to entice Tehran into agreeing to at least a temporary enrichment freeze as a condition to multilateral talks meant to banish suspicions that Iran might want to build nuclear arms.\nCanceling IAEA technical assistance would do little to ease such fears. Such programs, which are freely available to all member countries, are restricted to medical or agricultural help, nuclear safety expertise and other peaceful applications that cannot be diverted for weapons purposes.\nBut it would be the first instance of IAEA technical cooperation being withdrawn from an agency member nation. As such, it would send a strong signal of international displeasure with Tehran.
(10/25/06 2:39am)
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. officials said Tuesday that Iraqi leaders have agreed to develop a timeline by the end of the year for progress in stabilizing Iraq, and Iraqi forces should be able to take full control of security in the country in the next 12 to 18 months with "some level" of American support.\nEven as October marked the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Iraq this year, with 89 American service members killed in combat so far, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said he felt the United States should continue to focus on drawing down American forces in the country.\nRegardless, Gen. George Casey said he would not hesitate to ask for more troops if he felt they were necessary.\nHe appeared at a rare joint news conference with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad. A power failure in the Green Zone briefly cut off the broadcast of the remarks.\n"We are about 75 percent of the way through a three-step process in building those (Iraqi) forces. It is going to take another 12 to 18 months or so till I believe the Iraqi security forces are completely capable of taking over responsibility for their own security that's still coupled with some level of support from us," Casey said.\nWith violence in Iraq at staggering levels, the United States is battling on both the military and political fronts to tame growing chaos in regions where Sunni insurgent violence now is compounded by sectarian killing.\nKhalilzad said the Iraqi government had agreed by the end of the year to develop a timeline for progress. At the same time, he declared, the United States needed to redouble its efforts to succeed in Iraq.\n"Iraq leaders have agreed to a timeline for making the hard decisions needed to resolve these issues," Khalilzad said. "Iraqi leaders must step up to achieve key political and security milestones on which they've agreed."\nDetails of the milestones were not spelled out, but Khalizad mentioned several areas in which progress would be measured, including devising a system to share the country's oil wealth among all religious and ethnic groups.\nHis comments came a day after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said U.S. government and military officials were working with Iraq to set broad time frames for when Iraqis can take over 16 provinces still under the control of U.S. troops. He said officials were not talking about penalizing the Iraqis if they don't hit certain benchmarks.\nThe Iraqis have taken control of two southern provinces but have been slow to take the lead in others, particularly those around Baghdad and in the volatile regions north and west of the capital city. Rumsfeld said specific target dates probably will not be set. Instead, he said there might be a broader time frame -- such as a one- to three-month window -- for the Iraqis to take control of certain provinces.\nRumsfeld said the United States was looking at when the Iraqis would move close to setting up a reconciliation process to help quell worsening sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites.\nViolence has spiked during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Casey said the Iraqi army lost 300 men during the fasting month ending this week.\nThe American military announced the deaths in combat of two more U.S. Marines in the insurgent stronghold of Anbar province. The deaths raised to 89 the number of U.S. forces killed in October, the highest toll for any month this year and on course to surpass the October 2005 total of 96. Before that, the deadliest months were January 2005, at 107; November 2004 at 137 and April 2004, at 135.\nA U.S. military spokesman also said earlier Tuesday there had been no word on the fate of an American soldier reported missing the day before in Baghdad. Troops carrying photos of the missing soldier continued door-to-door searches while Army Kiowa reconnaissance helicopters circled overhead in the central Karradah district.\nKhalilzad said the government should transform the committee that was formed to ensure that Saddam Hussein's loyalists held no important national positions into an organization that would seek to entice them back to the political process.\nThat was seen as a bow to the Sunni insurgency. Sunnis comprise a minority of the population in mostly Shiite Iraq but were dominant under Saddam's regime.\n"We are helping Iraqi leaders complete a national compact. ... Political forces must make difficult decisions in the coming weeks to reach agreements on numbers of outstanding issues on which Iraqis differ," Khalilzad said.\nCasey and Khalilzad castigated Iran and Syria, Iraq's neighbors east and west, for trying to undermine the American effort to stabilize the country, with Casey saying both countries had been "decidedly unhelpful."\nKhalilzad said radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr had agreed through Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to U.S. demands that the government develop a timeline that would include the eradication of militias.\nAl-Sadr controls the Mahdi Army, the country's most feared band of armed men, largely drawn from the downtrodden, poor and unemployed in Baghdad's Sadr City, a Shiite slum enclave.\nThe U.S. ambassador said the United States was engaging with insurgent leaders, trying to persuade them to lay down their weapons and join the political process. He also announced the Americans had sought and received agreement from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan -- all largely Sunni Muslim countries -- to intercede with the insurgency.
(10/25/06 2:32am)
VALPARAISO, Ind. -- A woman who considered loneliness a curse left $2.9 million to several agencies that serve the elderly, including $725,000 each to a day center and a Meals on Wheels program.\nLifelong Valparaiso resident Dorothy Risto, who died March 19, 2004, at age 78, told her attorney and longtime friend James Bozik she wanted her money to be used to expand opportunities and assistance for local senior citizens.\n"Dorothy said, 'I want my peers to enjoy this,'" said Bozik, who is the executor of her estate.\nBozik said he began distributing the money six months after Risto's death and kept giving out the funds through last month. He said it took awhile because he wanted to make sure it was used for the types of programs Risto desired.\n"She wanted to use the money to make life interesting for people who are over 60 who are retired," he said.\nRisto's family had owned and operated the former Greyhound Post House restaurant on U.S. 30 near Valparaiso University in the city about 20 miles east of Gary. The eatery provided meals to passengers of the well-known bus service, Bozik said.\nBarbara Kubiszak, director of the St. Agnes Adult Day Service Center, said the donation came as a surprise because as far she can tell, Risto never set foot in the center.\nThe same was true for Meals on Wheels, said Laura Harting, executive director of the Visiting Nurse Association, which runs the program.\n"It was very unexpected," Kubiszak said. "What a wonderful legacy this woman has left."\nRisto also left gifts to the Porter County Cancer Society, the Porter County Council on Aging and Valparaiso Parks and Recreation Department.
(10/25/06 2:31am)
SELLERSBURG, Ind. -- President Bush will visit Indiana on Saturday for a rally for U.S. Rep. Mike Sodrel, who's in a tight re-election battle in the 9th District against former Democratic Rep. Baron Hill.\nThe president will speak at 1 p.m. at Silver Creek High School gymnasium in Sellersburg, Ind., 10 miles north of Louisville, Ky. It is the first presidential visit to the 9th District since Lyndon Johnson came to Clark County in 1964, said Sodrel campaign manager Cam Savage.\n"It's a great opportunity right before the election to energize the base," Savage said.\n"People are going to hear directly from the president about how important this election is, how important keeping control of Congress is to win the war on terror, keep taxes low and keep the economy moving in the right direction."\nTickets are free and will be distributed through the Sodrel campaign and county Republican parties throughout the 9th District.\nSodrel is battling for a second term against Hill, who held the seat for six years before losing to the Republican in 2004. Libertarian Eric Schansberg is also running.\nPolitical observers say the race is too close to call.\nMike O'Connor, an adviser to Hill's campaign, said Republicans are "making one last push and will pull out all the stops to keep change from occurring."\n"I don't want to underestimate the power of the commander in chief, but people want change and we think they'll support change in the people they're sending to Washington, D.C.," he said.\nBush's visit will come three days after a scheduled Wednesday rally featuring his wife, first lady Laura Bush, in Columbus, Ind. That event is also free and open to anyone who signs up through the campaign or local parties.\nIn March, President Bush spoke at an Indianapolis fundraiser for Sodrel.
(10/25/06 2:30am)
ANDERSON -- More than a dozen of the 23 Indiana taverns shut down after video gambling raids in September will soon be back in business.\nAuthorities shut down taverns in Madison, Delaware and Henry counties last month after a series of raids capped an investigation into what police said was a gambling ring operated by John Neal, a former state Teamsters chief. Neal, 69, of rural Yorktown, remains in jail under a $2 million cash bond.\n"Most of the people involved in this case are not the real parties we're pursuing," Madison County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings said Monday. "In many ways, they are as much a victim as the people who were playing the gambling machines."\nA judge allowed seven of the taverns to reopen, and six more are expected to reopen in the coming weeks. Those that have reopened include bars in Gaston, Alexandria and Muncie.\nAll of the reopened bars will be allowed to serve alcohol and will be operated by the same proprietors that operated them before the raids, Cummings said. State excise police had seized the alcohol permits from the businesses.\nMore than 28 people besides Neal face charges of professional gambling and money laundering, and many are part-owners or employees of the bars under investigation. Cummings said the charges against them could be reduced if they cooperate with investigators.\nNeal's supporters argue he was unfairly targeted because most bars in the state offer some form of gambling.\nOne of the bars that reopened last week is The Curve Inn in Alexandria. The proprietor, Bo Alexander, faces eight felony charges. Alexander, a 43-year-old single mother of two, and her 12 employees have been out of work since the Sept. 18 raids.\n"About 75 percent of the people put out of work were single mothers -- the only thing Rodney Cummings and Madison County succeeded in doing was hurting the working poor," Alexander said.\nCummings said Neal was responsible for that harm. Some of the tavern proprietors had purchase agreements that required them to have the gambling machines on the premises, he said.\nAlexander said the video gambling machines she is accused of having are common and can be found in many taverns.\n"It looks as though the county has said, 'You guys are OK,' but any and every bar related to John Neal, they closed it," she said. "The closest I've ever come to laundering money is finding a few bucks in my dryer"
(10/25/06 2:28am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- A hospital system has started notifying at least 260,000 patients of its Indiana and Illinois hospitals that a medical records contractor has lost compact discs containing their Social Security numbers and other personal information.\nOfficials of Sisters of St. Francis Health Services, however, say the lost CDs were recovered and that they do not believe any of the information was improperly accessed.\nA letter to patients of St. Francis, which operates 10 hospitals in Indiana and two in Illinois, said that in July an employee of a medical billing contractor copied the data onto several CDs and placed them in a new computer bag to work on it from home.\nThe employee later decided the bag was too small and exchanged it at a store, accidentally leaving the discs inside, the letter said.\nLisa Decker, a spokeswoman for St. Francis subsidiary Greater Lafayette Health Services, said the person who later bought the bag immediately returned the discs to the company and that officials were confident the data was not accessed.\n"A lot of work has been done trying to compile the data and recreate the records, so we knew who to contact to let them know that this data was temporarily unsecured," Decker said.\nSt. Francis patient Pam Newton said she was worried about how the information was mishandled by the worker.\n"She had no malicious intent, but why would they allow their employee to carry such instant information away from an office?" Newton said. "They have everything they need to obtain my identity."\nThe letter to patients urged them to check their credit reports.\nDecker said the hospital system was examining its procedures for handling patient information and training for hospital employees and contractors.\nSt. Francis operates hospitals in Indianapolis, along with the Indiana cities of Crawfordsville, Crown Point, Dyer, Hammond, Lafayette, Michigan City and Mooresville and the Illinois cities of Chicago Heights and Olympia Fields.
(10/25/06 2:24am)
Jules Massenet's "Manon," which opened Friday night at the Musical Arts Center, is melodrama of the highest degree. Its tale of youthful love and folly, with accompanying displays of overwrought anguish and excessive jubilance, is at once an achievement of musical art and a pinnacle of theatrical camp.\nManon Lescaut, performed by graduate student Betsy Uschkrat, is the epitome of self-absorbed hedonism. She consistently exploits the love and devotion of her lover, Chevalier des Grieux -- sung beautifully by graduate student Brian Arreola -- for the sake of wealth and luxury. Only at the brink of death does she acknowledge her folly, denying both herself and her lover the happiness he so desired and she never deserved.\nUschkrat, a lovely young woman with a jewel of a voice, established a solid rapport on stage with Arreola, who turned out a fine vocal performance with lyricism and passion. The two made quite the young (and foolish) couple, even though their sound could not pierce some of the orchestra's fuller moments. Uschkrat's shimmering soprano was agile and light, befitting the coquette she was portraying, and Arreola's performance displayed great emotional strength and nuance.\nTheir love affair faced considerable resistance from a number of characters, not the least entertaining of whom was Guillot de Morfontaine, a classic dandy of a nobleman, played by graduate student Daniel Shirley. Also discouraging the young lovers were tax-collector \nDe Bretigny, played by graduate student Jonathan Green, whose full baritone was among the strongest voices to grace the stage, and Count des Grieux, Chevelier's father, played by graduate student John Huckle. Huckle's thunderous bass has filled the MAC for several years, and the hall welcomed him as warmly as ever.\nThe only ally the couple could rely on was Manon's own cousin, Lescaut, performed by graduate student Michael Weyandt. Weyandt played Lescaut to gentlemanly perfection, employing a lovely, lyrical sound that revealed a softness and sympathy underneath his decidedly masculine exterior.\nThough framed by an \noccasionally ill-fitting set piece, and encumbered by often less-than-inspired staging, this remarkably strong cast delivered a fine performance, reminding at least this critic just how extraordinary the opportunities at IU are. The opera will be performed again at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and should prove to be a satisfying adventure -- though at three-and-a-half hours long, it's certainly not for the faint of spirit.
(10/24/06 9:22pm)
Q: I had a yearly exam in January, then started getting bikini waxes. I noticed some strange things going on down south so I got another exam in June. After the exam, the doctor called to tell me that I had chlamydia and to warn me about having unprotected sex. But I didn't have unprotected sex; I only had protected sex between the January and June exams. My partners claim they were uninfected. I'm so grossed out, and wondering if my partners lied to me. Between the two exams, I had 3 partners, all with condoms. All three claim that they have gotten tested and that they don't have chlamydia. Is it possible to get chlamydia from a bikini wax?
(10/24/06 4:16am)
The departure of Pronk, an outspoken, tireless campaigner for peace in Darfur, could set back efforts to halt the violence in the western region, where fighting between pro-government and rebel forces has recently intensified.\nThe order issued Sunday for Pronk to leave was the government's second slap at the United Nations in three months. In August, it rejected a U.N. Security Council motion that proposed replacing the understaffed and under-equipped African Union force in Darfur with a much bigger U.N. peacekeeping operation.\nSecretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she would try to call Annan later Monday.\n"The situation in Darfur is deteriorating, and the international community needs to be able to act there," she said in Washington. She did not elaborate.\nPronk, a former Dutch politician, had written on his personal Web log that the rebels had inflicted two defeats on government troops, causing a loss of morale and the firing of generals.\n"Reports speak about hundreds of casualties in each of the two battles, many wounded soldiers and many taken as prisoner," Pronk wrote Oct. 14.\nHe said the government had responded by deploying more troops and members of the pro-government Janjaweed Arab militia, which is widely accused of atrocities.\n"This is a dangerous development. Security Council resolutions which forbid armed mobilization are being violated," Pronk added.\nThe Sudanese military denounced Pronk, accusing him of waging "psychological warfare against the Sudanese army," and a general was quoted Friday as calling for his expulsion.\nOn Sunday, the Foreign Ministry said Pronk had shown "enmity to the Sudanese government and the armed forces" and gave him 72 hours to leave.\nIn New York, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Annan had received a letter from the Sudanese government asking that Pronk be removed from the post.\n"The secretary-general is studying the letter and has in the meantime requested that Mr. Pronk come to New York for consultations," Dujarric said.\nThe Sudanese government has long opposed Western efforts to get a U.N. force of 20,000 troops to take over peacekeeping in Darfur from the 7,000-member African Union force. U.N. officials say the African Union force is too small and ill-equipped to cope with the violence and protect civilians from rape, murder and pillage.\nPresident Omar al-Bashir has branded a U.N. peacekeeping force as an attempt to restore colonial rule.\nMore than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in more than three years of fighting in Darfur.\nDespite the move against Pronk, the official news agency said Khartoum was "committed to cooperate" with the U.N. and would work with a new envoy "in accordance with signed treaties with the U.N. and the current principles of international law."\nIn Geneva, U.N. spokeswoman Marie Heuze noted that Pronk's comments were on his private blog and reflect "only his personal views."\nLast June, the Sudanese suspended the work of all U.N. missions in the Darfur except UNICEF and the World Food Program after claiming the U.N. had transported a rebel leader in violation of agreements.\nThe next day, the government reversed the decision following a meeting between a representative of the Sudanese Foreign Ministry and the United Nations.\nDarfur, a largely arid plateau in western Sudan, has been in turmoil since February 2003, when ethnic African tribes rebelled after years of neglect by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.\nThe government responded with a military campaign in which the Janjaweed are alleged to have committed widespread atrocities. Khartoum denies supporting the Janjaweed.\nA peace deal in May was signed by the Sudanese government and the main rebel group, the Sudanese Liberation Movement.\nBut a breakaway faction and another rebel group rejected the deal and fighting has escalated, causing increasing numbers of aid workers to withdraw, leaving the refugees without food and medicine.\nPronk, 66, served several terms in the Dutch parliament and served in the Dutch Cabinet under two prime ministers. He was appointed as U.N. special representative for Sudan in June 2004.
(10/24/06 4:02am)
Fairfield this week offered a $100,000 cash bounty to the person or business that brings new employment opportunities to the Wayne County seat of 5,400, about 30 miles from the Indiana border.\nIn addition, Fairfield is offering $1 million in grants to businesses relocating to the city to help offset the cost of new construction and equipment.\n"We can't just sit here and wait for industrial growth and expansion to come to us," Mayor Mickey Borah said. "Fairfield needs to be aggressive and seek out new opportunities for growth."\nCurrently, with 850 workers, Airtex Products Inc., a manufacturer of fuel and water pumps, is the town's largest employer. All the other local industries combined employ a fraction of that number.\nCity leaders hope to add distribution or back-office facilities to the mix of employers, though they'd welcome another manufacturing company.\n"We need to diversify," economic development director Susan Murphy said. "Not everybody is fit to work in a factory."\nAlthough it's worth a try, there's no guarantee offering cash will be enough to turn the tide, experts said.\nExecutives looking to relocate businesses consider geographic and demographic factors such as transportation and workforce characteristics long before they consider community incentives, said Kimberly Nelson, assistant professor of public administration at Northern Illinois University, who has studied economic growth plans in a number of southern Illinois communities.\n"An incentive package generally makes very little difference to a company, and is often the last item on its list," Nelson said.\nEven so, she said, "it would sound as if Fairfield is doing it the right way, with a lot of specifics, but they still need to be careful."\nNelson said Fairfield might consider a provision requiring new employers to do business in the community for a specific length of time or pay back the incentives, to protect against predatory businesses that might move in and then leave within a year or two.\nJohn Hammond, director of the master's program in public administration at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, said communities that are overly eager to attract new businesses often harm themselves by sacrificing too much of their property tax base.\n"These things tend to fuel all sorts of bidding wars, and communities wind up being lucky to break even," Hammond said.\nBut Murphy said Fairfield leaders have been considering the bounty program for several years. The city had a similar program 15 years ago that wasn't successful because of the paltry amount offered -- $5,000 -- and the lack of follow-through, she said.\nSo just over a year ago, officials hired a consultant who suggested they do it again on a nationwide basis, and do it right. That meant developing new marketing material and redesigning the town's Web site.\nThe effort comes as state officials recognize a need to invest in job training in the region. Gov. Rod Blagojevich in September provided $240,000 in funding to address a shortage in skilled manufacturing workers expected to develop in southern Illinois in the next five years.\nFairfield's Bounty for Jobs Program has a tiered award schedule based on the size of the new investment. An investment of $1 million to $3 million that brings 50 to 100 new full-time jobs and a payroll of $1.4 million will result in a $25,000 payment. An investment of over $10 million that brings 200 or more jobs and a payroll of more than $5.6 million will result in a $100,000 payment.\n"It took better than a year to get the confidence that we had it right in order to do it," Murphy said.\nShe also said the town has more to offer than just money.\nLocated just north of Interstate 64, Fairfield has municipally owned electric, natural gas and water utilities, and industrial sites ranging from five to 150 acres, as well as a growing junior college, an excellent school system and a hospital.\nBut she acknowledges that any town could put money on the table and make the same boast.\n"Businesses don't want to come to a city because all the kids have straight teeth and rosy cheeks," she said. "They are in it for the profit. When they come here, they will see a city that is prepared to work with them and ensure profitability"
(10/24/06 3:38am)
For quite some time, PETA has pretended to care about animals. On its Web site, PETA urges people to become vegetarians and not wear clothing made from animals. In response to Steve Irwin's death, PETA claimed any positive message of wildlife preservation that Irwin had communicated was lost when he exploited and harassed the very animals he meant to protect on his TV show. It seems odd that PETA would scream for animal cruelty because of a harmless TV show that was hosted by a conservationist but has no problem preventing the births of dogs and cats.\nPETA also urges people not to buy animals from pet shops or dog breeders because those animals could have been mistreated and possibly very sick. "Many pet shops fail to provide proper veterinary care to animals and often sell sick and injured animals," PETA says on its Web site. Instead of buying animals from pet stores, PETA tells people to " encourage pet stores that sell animals not to do so." \nWouldn't it seem customary to buy all the animals you could afford and take care of them yourself if you really cared about the sick animals? PETA would rather just have you "encourage" the store owners not to mistreat the animals. It also suggests that you not be tempted to give an animal as a gift. \n"While it's easy enough to toss an unwanted necktie to the back of the closet, a puppy, kitten, fish or other animal who is given as a gift risks a lifetime of suffering, unloved and unwanted." Never mind all those animals who got homes last Christmas.\nPETA wants people not to eat animals, but, at the same time, it doesn't want animals to reproduce. I think PETA's overarching conspiracy is that it wants to make the entire animal population extinct, not because it hates animals so much, but because PETA hates meat-eating humans even more. I suspect PETA knows that when all animals are gone from the Earth, the meat-eating humans will begin eating other humans. Then, all the meat eaters will fight among themselves until they're all dead. Then, and only then, will there be only vegetarians left in the world. \nThe absolute best thing for this world would be if the people at PETA spayed and neutered themselves -- that would end everyone else's suffering, at least.
(10/24/06 3:23am)
Since beginning work as a columnist, I've strived to offend every group possible. While I still have a long way to go, some people have already called me out for my vicious attacks. For example, in my first column, I more or less said Texas sucks and its residents can be found at the bottom of outhouses. Just a joke, of course, but I got a nasty e-mail:\n"Scott -- I'm offended by your words about Texans. I live there one month out of the year (usually August) and find it a wonderful place to avoid my job. My friends from Saudi Arabia enjoy Texas as well. If you don't knock it off, I'm going to send my friend Dick to shoot you in the face with a shotgun. You don't want to mess with Dick." -- G.W.B.\nSo here I stand, faced with the threat of death and, even worse, being condemned to eternal damnation for my insensitive remarks. I have to apologize now, for I can't stand the prospect of spending eternity in hell with Tinky Winky, the gay Teletubby, and Jerry Falwell, the nice Christian who condemns such lifestyles.\nThe first group I wish to apologize to are the members of St. Benedict's Catholic Church. You don't know this, but when I was 5, I urinated on the stairs in the lobby during Mass because I was too scared to go in the dark basement to use the restroom. I hope you can forgive me.\nIn a previous column, I referred to a homecoming dance in high school that I attended with a girl purely out of sympathy. What I didn't tell you was that I rigged the balloting to get her elected homecoming queen and then dumped pig's blood on her when she took the stage to be crowned. She subsequently burned down the school. The incident was made into a book and eventually a movie. I apologize to the American public for causing a crappy movie based on Stephen King's "Carrie" to be produced. \nAnother group that might have felt misrepresented by my words is exotic jungle animals. In a column about stereotypes, I mentioned how I inaccurately thought gay men only wore leather. Clearly, I was wrong. It is not fair to single out the by-product of cows as the only thing being worn. What about leopard skin or, better yet, tiger? Grrrrrr. They too deserve to be worn skin tight and strutted around a dance floor during a drag queen contest. Sorry for my negligence.\nThe last group is members of greek organizations. Damn. I'm out of column space. Guess I'll see you in hell.
(10/24/06 3:22am)
Recently, I was stopped in the Union by a representative from Ruckus. Ruckus, if you remember, is the online music downloading service IU agreed to license to deter students from stealing pirated music online. It's rare that I'll strike up a conversation with these flier-pushers -- the discussions inevitably decimate my spirits, and these days, I close my eyes and pretend I'm alone if I see someone with a handful of papers smiling and waving in my direction. Unless, of course, they have prizes.\nThe Ruckus representative gave me a cheap plastic mug in return for a review of the Ruckus software. I told him it's still too early to know how students will use Ruckus -- if they use it at all -- but the informal discussions I've had and my personal usage come to one universal conclusion: weak.\nI expressed my sentiments to the representative behind the desk as he chewed on his Whopper Value Meal, nodding solemnly and trying not to spill on himself. When I finished, he reminded me of Ruckus' only selling point: that the license is free. I'll never know for sure, but I think he was implying you get what you pay for. I had to point out that stealing is also free and that pirated music plays on any device. \nSince Ruckus' encrypted files can't be converted into an iPod-friendly format, the songs iPod owners download are stuck on their computers, which entirely ignores the real advantage of digital music. If listeners were overly concerned with sound quality, they'd return to vinyl -- the market for digital music is portability. When you think about it, a computer that plays music is really just an oversized CD player.\nStill, the root of the problem is that Ruckus isn't really "free." IU is only licensing the songs -- basically leasing the library -- and students lose the rights to play their library cost-free once they graduate. They're then stuck with either a monthly fee or thousands of unusable files. There's just nothing revolutionary about a loan. \nIf anything, the lesson here is crime pays. Ruckus' method of distribution is great, giving music freely to any student who wants it. The question is why anyone would bother, considering the user will be forced to download an illegal copy of the same song once he or she leaves IU. Downloading music from Ruckus is like picking up a fler you know you're going to throw away.
(10/24/06 3:22am)
For those who do not know who I am talking about, here's a quick summary:\nRep. Nancy Pelosi is the congresswoman for California's 8th congressional district, which includes San Francisco. If Democrats retake the House of Representatives, she will become speaker of the House.\nNancy Pelosi is a committed San Francisco leftist, and her elevation to speaker would have disastrous consequences for the country.\nOne only needs to look at her voting history to know how dangerous it would be to have such an individual in a position of power.\nShe voted against the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which would have authorized construction of a 700-mile fence along the Mexican border; H.R. 4437, which would have toughened border security; H.R. 4297, which would have extended economically beneficial tax cuts; and a constitutional amendment banning flag burning. \nFurthermore, she will have little ability to work with the president on anything. If Bush said the sky is blue, she would likely argue it is green.\nA classic example of this partisan blood feud: Just a few months after taking office, President Bush held a retreat where he fielded policy questions from congressional Democrats. During the retreat, Pelosi asked, in a rude and disrespectful manner, why the President suspended funding for international family planning. This just goes to show that Rep. Pelosi, like many committed liberals, has such a deep seated personal hatred of President Bush that her election to speaker would cause at least two years of complete gridlock in Washington.\nSo what does this mean for voters in this area? Well, be careful whom you cast your ballot for.\nTwo of the well-known Democrats running for Congress in Indiana, Baron Hill and Brad Ellsworth, seem to be positioning themselves as conservative Democrats who just want to restore Washington to working order. That sounds all well and good, but when the time comes for them to choose a House speaker, whom do you think they will vote for?\nAs minority leader, Nancy Pelosi is the most powerful Democrat in the House and has raised more money than any other congressional Democrat. Consequently, a vote for Hill or Ellsworth could very well turn into a vote for Nancy Pelosi. \nWhile the voters of San Francisco can choose whomever they want to represent them, the radical leftist values that have held that city hostage for so long should not be able to govern the whole country. If Nancy Pelosi becomes speaker of the House, that is exactly what will happen.\nSo, on Election Day, remember: Nancy is coming!