Mercenaries Now Subject To US Military Law

Do not be misled by the headline, this is about Mercenaries; private armies, not about Haliburton and Bechtel. And now that the damage is done the military finally applies the Military Code of Justice to these creeps. And the media still calls them contractors, deliberately confusing the public about the fact that these guys are privatized military and security forces made up of ex military and CIA personnel. Iraq is the model of the new market state, complete with privatized armies.

"A state that privatizes most of its functions will inevitably defend itself by employing its own people as mercenaries-with equally profound strategic consequences. " Phillip Bobbit

Accountability for Military Contractors Since the start of the Iraq war, military contractors have operated in Iraq without legal status or accountability. However, according to Brookings scholar Peter W. Singer, this may all change with a tiny section in recently passed legislation. "With the addition of just five words in the law...contractors' 'get out of jail free' cards may have been torn to shreds."

The UCMJ Change and its Applicability to Private Military Contractors

Over the last few years, tales of private military contractors run amuck in Iraq — from the CACI interrogators at Abu Ghraib to the Aegis company's Elvis-themed internet "trophy video" — have continually popped up in the headlines.

Unfortunately, when it came to actually doing something about these episodes of Outsourcing Gone Wild, Hollywood took more action than Washington. The TV series Law and Order punished fictional contractor crimes, while our courts ignored the actual ones. Leonardo Dicaprio acted in a movie featuring the private military industry, while our government enacted no actual policy on it. But those carefree days of military contractors romping across the hills and dales of the Iraqi countryside, without legal status or accountability, may be over.

Getting tattled on to the boss is certainly fine for some incidents. But, clearly, it's not how one deals with suspected crimes. And it's nowhere near the proper response to the amazing, awful stories that have made the headlines (the most recent being the contractors who sprung a former Iraqi government minister, imprisoned on corruption charges, from a Green Zone jail).

See:

Iraq

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Clear Eyed View of the Quebec New Right

An excellent piece From the Mind of a Netjin on the new right in Quebec and it's links to Von Mises liberal-tarianism.

Of course we have seen this movie before. The Harpocrites, including the Harper himself and Ambrose, Solberg, Kenney, Anders, etc. et. al, ad nauseum, claim to be libertarians.

And how quickly they abandon that pretext once in power. As the new right in Quebec will abandon their libertarian pretext, to set about slashing social programs paid for by the working class, and becoming the new business state.

Quebec's "Clear-Eyeds" Hit The Big Screen

Centred around Mario Dumont, Lucien Bouchard, the Action Democratique du Quebec, the Manifesto for a Clear-eyed Vision of Quebec and Quebec City shock radio CHOI FM and its slogan "Liberty, I shout your name", Quebec's young and dynamic right is attempting to kick start a new Quiet Revolution, but this time they want a libertarian one. This still minority but rapidly growing movement doesn't rally around independence from Canada, they rally around independence from the state. More precisely, the social democratic state as it exists in Quebec, the Quebec model as it is termed.

The reason I'm mentioning this is because the left in Canada often considers Quebec the progressive bastion, but this could change. In the future, we might not hear "Vive le Quebec libre !" so much, but more "Vive le Quebec libertaire !"

I too have blogged on this move to the right by ADM and Bouchard et. al, declaring the Quebec working class lazy and unproductive, which is just another way of saying we are going to tighten our belts around your necks.

As for the left considering Quebec the bastion of social democracy, and that it is secure, this is a valid criticism, though misguided. If the Left in Quebec views the right as unimportant it is because of their relative political positions. Dumont's Reform Party in Quebec Drag appeals to certain classes of people, whose power base in Quebec while 'respectable' is overwhelmend by the left state they live in. And like the right in Quebec their origins were in the Social Credit Party.

However the Left's preoccupation with pushing the PQ, BQ and nationalists to the left, does mean they ignore the new right at their peril.

For instances the longest most continous and successful assault on unionization, the right to work (sic) movement is strongest in Quebec and linked to that provinces faux libertarian movement.

And then there is the so called 'libertarian' radio host who is now an independent Quebec MP in the house of commons; André Arthur, and true to form he is ignoring the state while collecting his Parliamentary salary. Arthur told reporters Monday night that he has no intention of muting his style in Ottawa. Ha, ha, oh please stop it.

His silence in the house since his election last year has been deafening. But as I said once these faux libertarians get into power they drop all pretences and become the same old right wing mouthpieces for their special interests.

Mr. Arthur is a federalist and leans to the right in his views. Since taking the job, he has supported the government's budget, its approach to the Kyoto Accord and its decision to renew Canada's commitment to the war in Afghanistan for two more years. "I must say that I'm quite impressed with the kind of government they've given Canada for the last months," he told the Hill Times. "Here's a guy, Harper, who does what he says and says what he does. That's a long time in Canada since we've seen that. It's marvellously refreshing. It gives confidence to voters."

You would be forgiven forgetting that there are actually two independent MP's in the house, since it appears there is only one real outspoken libertarian MP and that is Garth Turner.

See:

Duh Oh

Quebec BQ vs Conservatives

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CIBC Says Opp's

Do you think the CIBC will lower service charges for having screwed up, of fire anyone? Nah....

For the second time in three years, the ability of the CIBC (TSX:CM) to protect confidential data has come under scrutiny after a computer file containing information on up to 470,000 Talvest Mutual Funds clients was lost in transit between offices. In 2004, it was disclosed that the bank had for three years been inadvertently sending faxes containing confidential information to scrap yards in West Virginia and suburban Montreal.

And CIBC is not the only one who has breeched your right to privacy.

As for the credit card information at HomeSense and Winners, senior representatives from the Canadian banks held a conference call with major Canadian card issuers, VISA and Mastercard, to discuss damage control Thursday.

A senior banking executive confirmed information has already been used for fraudulent activity and the banks had received thousands of calls about the compromised credit card information.

TJX Co. Inc., based in Framingham, Mass., said they became aware in mid-December of a security breach during which the credit and sales transaction information of "significantly less than millions of holders" was removed from company databases.

The company said computers that handle customer interactions and store information, including credit card numbers, were illegally accessed at several store locations in December. Stores belonging to the TJX chain also accept American Express and Discover credit cards.

The compromised information was from transactions that took place in 2003 and during the period between mid-May and December 2006.

The problem is of course that privacy laws in Canada are a paper tiger.

Regardless of any potential amendments which may be made to PIPEDA in the near future, businesses should, in order to avoid privacy liability under PIPEDA: obtain legal advice in the event that they suffer security breaches (or "involuntary disclosures" of personal information under their control) prior to deciding whether or not they should be notifying the individuals whose information is at stake, credit agencies and other entities such as relevant government agencies or banks of the security breach;

And you can be in charge when a criminal breech of privacy occurs and just go on your merry way complete with payout package....

CRA commissioner resigns in wake of reports of privacy breaches

The head of the Canada Revenue Agency has told his staff he intends to resign his post in April.

"I have come to a stage in my personal and professional life where it is wise to reflect on what I have accomplished," agency commissioner Michel Dorais writes in an internal e-mail dated Jan. 12.

"It has become clear that the time is now ripe for me and my family to take on a new direction, outside of the federal government."

Dorais's resignation follows several media reports that detailed privacy abuses at the agency, including the leak of Liberal MP Ken Dryden's personal tax information and confidential tax information mistakenly mailed out to the wrong recipients.

CRA employees who are found guilty of disclosing confidential tax information - a violation of the Income Tax Act - face fines of up to $5,000 or jail time of up to 12 months. Under the Criminal Code of Canada, breach of trust by a public officer is punishable by a maximum prison sentence of five years.

See:

Nice Job If You Can Get It

Criminal Capitalism

CEO's

CIBC

Banks

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Little Mosque Bombs

As I predicted once you lost the audience outside of GTA....

the ratings for Little Mosque on the Prairie have dropped from 2.1 million viewers for the first episosde down to 1.2 million for episode 2.

And CBC has six more shows in the can...it can only decline further, it just is not funny.

It now has the same amount of viewers as Corner Gas, which is also about Saskatchewan and actually made in Saskatchewan, unlike LMOTP, which is made in a Toronto back lot.

The producers continue to show a lack of prairie understanding, for instance making goat curry jokes when everyone out here knows that we favour lamb curry, being that lamb is plentiful out West. Including the hallal lamb that I get from my local butchershop.

And last time I checked the Prairies included Alberta.

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TV

CBC


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A Sad Story

This is a sad story....in more ways than one....a dumb idea for an attack blog ends up struck dumb by lack of support.....

Courtesy Big Blue Wave....

Friday, January 12, 2007

New Blog: Stop the Greens!

In my search for blogs to add to Opinions Canada, I happened upon this one, Stop the Greens!, a blog devoted to trashing the Green Party of Canada.

I'm not really for or against the Greens. I figure they will split the vote on the left anyway. I'm just bemused by the concept of a blog devoted exclusively to making another party look bad.

I just thought I'd offer that up to the blogging community. Maybe someone will find it useful or interesting.

UPDATE: Looks like Alex is giving up. He says he's not getting enough support.

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Blogs




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TANSTAAFL Except in Alberta

There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

-TANSTAAFL - except in Alberta....

The King has left the building.....

Here is a lesson in Ralphonomics, gone but not forgotten. Business as usual in the Kingdom of Alberta.

Alberta government departments spent nearly $1 million on catering and coffee service in the year ending March, 2006, according to the “blue book” which records grants, supplies and services.

Betting is big business in Alberta, it funds the province and is in turn funded by taxpayers. In last springs budget Horse-racing in Alberta got a $45 million horse racing subsidy

It is after all the sport of Kings and Ralph considered it one of his favorite sports, being the gambler he was.

The heads of Horse Racing Alberta make more money than the premier - and they're being paid with taxpayer's dollars, claim the Alberta Liberals.

And this is really rich....literally....now imagine if the Federal Liberals or Conservatives did this, why the outrage in Ottawa. Oh yeah, there they have an opposition that can bring down the government, here we have a One Party State.

20-year oversight
Alberta Grits demand action after finding Tories haven't filed financial reports since '87
Alberta Grits are demanding an overhaul of the province's election finances disclosure law after Elections Alberta revealed the Tories haven't filed required financial reports for nearly two decades.

The situation involves a secret "foundation fund" the party was allowed to keep after the financial disclosure law was passed in 1978, provided it filed annual reports on transfers from it.

Deputy Electoral Officer Bill Sage told the Sun he failed to notice that the statements stopped coming.

"I was responsible for it. I was the director of financial operations at the time. It was something that escaped me and I didn't realize it until just recently."

Yeah it was supposed to happen twenty years ago....I wonder whose son this guy is that he can blythely say he was responsbile for the oversight , after he was told by the reporter looking into this, and forget to tender his resignation.....wait sorry this is Alberta not Ottawa.

Finally the ultimate lobbyist gets the ultimate lobbyist job, move over Rod Love here comes Ralph.....

Ralph hooks up with 'straight-talkers'
Less than a week after leaving provincial politics, former Alberta premier Ralph Klein has joined a top law firm to advise clients on business opportunities in the booming province.

Too late though comes this announcement after the horse has left the barn....

Stelmach promises registry for lobbyists





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Alberta

PC

Klein

Stelmach



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Blowing in the Wind

So is there a need for more federal corporate welfare for utility companies to go green, I think not.

TransAlta gets 25-year wind power purchase deal
Canada's top publicly-traded electricity generator, said on Friday it has been awarded a 25-year power purchase agreement to provide 75-megawatts of wind power to New Brunswick Power Distribution and Customer Service Corp. With the addition of Kent Hills, TransAlta will operate approximately 260 megawatts of wind-generated power in Canada. TransAlta said it has tripled its wind business since acquiring Vision Quest Windelectric in 2002.

No need for folks to pity poor Jim Dinning for not getting coronated as CEO of Alberta he still has TransAlta to play with.

See

Environment

Hydro



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Free Speech Works

See no need for the Israel Lobby to throw a hissy fit, free speech and debate should not be opposed with threats and name calling, because it is about a controversial issue.

Anti-Israel motion defeated by Ontario teachers union local
CBC Toronto

Union rejects boycott of Israel Globe and Mail

However do notice the influence of the Lobby on the CBC headline versus the Globe and Mail headline which actually says what the motion was about.

See:

Israel

Zionism


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Corporate America Greener Than Harper

The whole focus of the Harpocrites attack on Kyoto, even under the new Environment Minister, has been on how useless carbon credit trading is......

Ten major US corporations, including industry giants General Electric, DuPont and Alcoa, have joined forces with leading environmental groups to call for a slash in carbon-dioxide emissions of 10-to-30 per cent over the next 15 years. The New York Times says introduction of the group is aimed at bolstering the recent impetus for Congressional action on emissions controls and creation of a market “in which allowances to emit carbon dioxide could be traded in a way that achieves the greatest reduction at the lowest cost.”

See

Environment

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Star Wars The Next Installment

This will provoke another round of debate on the need for Ballistic Missle Defense and Canada's involvement with the infamous and ineffectual US Missle Defense System. Of course the Chinese took a page from North Korea when they saw how effective the U.S. was in countering it's nuclear tests.

Chinese missile destroys satellite
Telegraph.co.uk - 11 hours ago
By Toby Harnden and Alex Massie in Washington. The prospect of "Star Wars" between China and the West loomed last night after Beijing used a ballistic missile to destroy a satellite in space.

The U.S. has a policy of weaponizing space, and now China is obviously joining the club. We need to end the weaponization of space, period.

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BMD

North Korea

China


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Leahy Damns US Government Over Arar

U.S. 'knew damn well' Arar would be tortured: senator

Which is a stronger statement than the Harpocrite government has ever made about Arar. Oh yeah he is still waiting for that Official apology from the New Government of Canada.

Gonzales was grilled relentlessly on Thursday by Senate judiciary committee chairman Patrick Leahy. Leahy said that when Arar — a citizen of both Canada and Syria travelling on a Canadian passport — was detained in 2002, American authorities knew he would be tortured if they deported him to Syria.

"We knew damn well if he went to Canada he wouldn't be tortured," said Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont. "He'd be held and he'd be investigated.

"We also knew damn well if he went to Syria, he'd be tortured. And it's beneath the dignity of this country — a country that has always been a beacon of human rights — to send somebody to another country to be tortured.

"You know and I know that has happened a number of times in the past five years by this country. It is a black mark on us."

And Arar still cannot get into the United States despite the weak tea protest by Harper, Day and MacKay. In fact he is still on the No Fly List, which the Government continues to collaborate on. Canada mum on giving US no-fly names

Mr. Chertoff refused to comment on why Mr. Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen, still cannot enter the United States or fly over its territory.

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Arar


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No Profit In Ending Cancer

This hits it on the head. Why can't capitalism find a cure for the ultimate disease of capitalism; cancer. There is no profit in ending the disease.

Cancerous tumours can be shrunk without radiation by administering a drug already used safely in humans for decades, says a doctor whose research is creating a major buzz in medical circles. But because the drug cannot be patented, pharmaceutical companies won't be eager to fund clinical trials to bring it to market, leaving its future in question.

"We've succeeded in reducing tumours with a drug shown to have little side-effects in humans. You could essentially take it as a pill," said University of Alberta researcher Evangelos Michelakis.

The drug is called dichloroacetate, or DCA.

Michelakis, working with several researchers in Edmonton and Ottawa, discovered how DCA can reverse the hallmark weapon of cancer's plague: The sudden ability of abnormal cells to multiply indefinitely, unchecked.

DCA restores a specific function of mitochondria -- the mini power engines that drive cellular activity.

Mitochondria normally cause unhealthy cells to die off, but that function is suppressed in cancer patients.

"In more than 50 years, no one's been able to figure out how to fix mitochondria in cancer patients," said University of Calgary oncology professor Dr. Randy Johnston, who's been studying cancer for 25 years.

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Israel Lobby Opposes Free Speech

Union motion to debate Israel brings 'hate into the classroom': B'nai Brith head
OSSTF's Toronto district approves debate request by 2 teachers
A decision approving a request by two Toronto high school teachers to have a union debate on whether to condemn Israel's treatment of Palestinians has come under fire by human rights groups. It was approved by the Toronto district of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, and is being opposed by B'nai Brith and the Jewish Defence League.

B'nai Brith is part of the Israel lobby, which regularly calls for the Canadian State to censor or arrest those who oppose the State of Israel. Pressure like this led to the successfull lobbying effort to censor the play about Rachel Corre.

B'nai Brith and the Jewish Defence League had described an earlier motion as propaganda and said it could easily morph into racism. The teachers' union shot back that the lobby groups were engaging in what amounted to a bullying campaign aimed at stifling free speech.

And the Jewish Defense League is not a human rights group but a known terrorist organization. Kettle, pot, black.

Once again any legitimate criticism or debate about the State of Israel and its aparthied program in the occupied territories is deliberately mislabeled Anti-Semitism.

Those who live in glass houses.....

Four Jewish youths who were arrested in Paris are suspected of a racially motivated crime against a truck driver originally from Mauritius. The incident occurred on Sunday in the Marais district, a major Jewish hub of Paris. According to a French police source the youths belong to the Jewish Defense League.

Eight Palestinians abducted; no international outrage.

Also See:

Israel

Zionism


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Poll Trolls

Ah there is joy in big blue Blogging Tory land, an online poll has put the Harpocrites in the lead on the environment.

"Who do you think would do a better job of protect
18-01-07, 4:23 am @ Small Dead Animals

Another poll going horribly blue .......

Enviroment Poll
18-01-07, 4:22 am @ I am (also) Canadian

Online of course - Who do you think would do a better job of protecting the environment?Conservatives 3339 votes (41 %)Liberals 2246 votes (27 %)NDP 1517 votes (18 %)Other 1137 votes (14 %) Total Votes: 8239

Ahem, attention, this is an ONLINE poll which means it is about as reliable and valid as well an online poll. It gets trolled and partisans click and vote, since there is no restrictions on voting more than once. It's a Troll Poll.

Nothing more to see here, lets move on.

See:

Environment

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Education As Birth Control

It is an empirical fact that education for women is liberation, which is why patriarchal cultures discourage and or restrict it and force women to abandon it for marriage or child rearing.

Perhaps more importantly when considering the effect of sex ratio imbalances, Naz et al also found that for unmarried women, the relationship between education and fertility was negative. That is, increasing levels of education for unmarried women lowers fertility amongst that group. The potential effect of changes in sex ratios on the ‘marriage market’, fertility and employment


In this study we contrast two South Indian villages which offer women very different employment opportunities. Many women in Village I roll beedis, which are crude hand-rolled cigarettes. The structure of beedi work was designed to meet the needs of the beedi contractor, but inadvertently it has provided women with substantial autonomy. In Village II very few women work for pay. We argue that these different employment opportunities affect women's autonomy, which in turn influences important demographic outcomes. More precisely, we argue that greater autonomy will increase contraceptive use among women who want no more children. We find strong support for this hypothesis. But, because there are few competing employment opportunities in Village II, women in that Village have received substantially more education than those in Village I. This higher level of education is also associated with greater contraceptive use. Thus, overall, the level of contraceptive use does not vary greatly between villages. More generally, this study shows that fertility decline occurs, and that low fertility can exist, in very different settings.Women's Work, Autonomy, and Birth Control: Evidence From Two South Indian Villages

"Love, work and knowledge are the well-springs of our life. They should also govern it."

- Wilhelm Reich

Lack of education leads to increased single parent families, which restricts womens abilities to gain employment or further education hence autonomy. In an advanced capitalist country like America drop out rates are effected by class more than race.

It is estimated that about 2,500 students drop out of U.S. high schools every day.

Census data have revealed that about one out of every three children born in the U.S. these days is the child of an unwed mother. The data from the Barna survey also show that nearly one out of every four adults (23%) who has never been married has children living in their household. Overall, one out of every six households (17%) with children under 18 is headed by an adult who has never been married.

Black and Hispanic youth are more likely than non-Hispanic whites to drop out of high school. In 2004, 7 percent of non-Hispanic whites ages 16 to 24 were not enrolled in school and had not completed high school, compared with 12 percent of blacks and 24 percent of Hispanics. The high rate for Hispanics is in part the result of the high proportion of immigrants in this age group who never attended school in the U.S. Asian youth, with a dropout rate of 4 percent, had the lowest dropout rate among all racial and ethnic groups in 2004. Child Trends DataBank - High School Dropout Rates

Oregon is the latest state to consider action in a nationwide movement to raise graduation requirements after a speech Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates gave to the nation's governors in 2005. Students were leaving high school with diplomas, Gates said, but without the skills needed to succeed in college or the workforce.
High schools raise diploma requirements

Muncie Community Schools analyzed graduation data further by gender. Broken down by sex, 63 percent of Central's black males graduated, with zero percent dropping out, compared to 67 percent of white males graduating, with a dropout rate of 8 percent.

Eighty-one percent of black females graduated, with no dropouts, compared to 83 percent of white females graduating with a 3-percent dropout rate. (Figures don't add up to 100 percent because they don't include students from the Class of 2006 who have remained in school rather than graduating or leaving.)

Poverty and race are indicators that a student is at risk to drop out, but the socioeconomic class of Muncie's black students at both Central and Southside high schools could be different from other schools across the state, Supt. Marlin Creasy said.

"Muncie has a middle class black population and that's reflected in the student body," Creasy said, adding that, more than race, poverty is the "biggest indicator" of a potential dropout. Central has no black dropouts

See:

Women

Feminism

Contraception

Birth Control


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Thank God for SSM

Canadian marriage rate plateaus: StatsCan

Thank god for Gay Marriage it meant that actual marriages in Canada last year did not just plateau but would have declined without them.

Canada gay-wedding central

And the truth finally comes out, the Christian Right Wing admits that marriage is not sacred just another contractual obligation like any other business dealing.

"Why, why is Canada issuing marriage licences to people from another country? We wouldn't issue a business licence to a company that had no intention of staying in the country." said Brian Rushfeldt, executive director of the Canadian Family Action Coalition

And more and more folks recognize that marriage is an 'institution' and has nothing to do with sex or freedom to love ....In fact the biggest decline in marriage can be attributed not to SSM but to common law relationships, which were finally recognized, after the State recognized no fault divorce and divorced itself from the Church as moral law maker.

Marriage no longer the norm for American women

More people are saying I don’t
Low marriage rate reflects changing relationships, more cohabitation

In the absence of a reasonable period of courtship in which the couple get to know each other, and conduct a protracted evaluation process, marriages are liable to be incompatible, and unstable. Early marriages are also more likely to end in divorce.

"This gradual rise in the average age at first marriage is largely due to couples cohabiting and delaying marriage

Actress Sushmita Sen doesn't believe marriage is a prerequisite to share bed with a person one loves. “For me marriage is a mutual trust between friends. Tying a knot just for the sake of it is not marriage in its true sense. If I trust someone fully, the relationship is no less than marriage,” said Sushmita. She said she had no problem with living in a relationship. “Marriage is not a must for having sex. I have no problem with living in a relationship with someone who I trust fully and giving birth to his child.”

But the good news is....

About 95% of U.S. residents have premarital sex by age 44, according to a Guttmacher Institute report published Tuesday in the January/February issue of Public Health Reports, the AP/Chicago Tribune reports (Crary, AP/Chicago Tribune, 12/19).

And in some cases it's a good thing that some institutions did not get married, Mon dieu.

“Vive la Frangleterre”: 1956 Anglo-French Marriage proposal uncovered



See

Whose Family Values?

Marx on Bigamy

Paul Goodman

Libertarianism

Five Things Feminism Has Done For Me

Gay Marriage

SSM

Same Sex Marriage


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