by Rupe | Aug 18, 2009 | Mad Musings
An Afghan bill allowing a husband to starve his wife if she refuses to have sex has been published in the official gazette and become law.The original bill caused outrage earlier this year, forcing Afghan President Hamid Karzai to withdraw it.
But critics say the amended version of the law remains highly repressive.
They accuse Mr Karzai of selling out Afghan women for the sake of conservative Shia support at next week’s presidential election.
The law governs family life for Afghanistan’s Shia minority.
Sexual demands
The original version obliged Shia women to have sex with their husbands every four days at a minimum, and it effectively condoned rape by removing the need for consent to sex within marriage.
The original bill caused outrage within Afghanistan and around the world
Western leaders and Afghan women’s groups were united in condemning an apparent reversal of key freedoms won by women after the fall of the Taliban.
Now an amended version  of the same bill has passed quietly into law with the apparent approval of President Karzai.
Keep reading….
by Rupe | Aug 16, 2009 | Mad Musings
– Change is good…but so is tradition
– There is more to war than warfare
– Only the dead have seen the end of war
– Even a good cause doesn’t justify the use of any method to achieve it.
– Facism –> Communism –> Islamism!
by Rupe | Aug 16, 2009 | Mad Musings
Shot of Family Site. Right-click and open to see it at full resolution.
by Rupe | Aug 13, 2009 | Mad Musings
Just felt like making a copy of the cooliest desktop around. It is my dream car – Lamborghini Gallardo Nera (right-click and open to see it a full resolution)
by Rupe | Jul 22, 2009 | Mad Musings
Unemployment among blacks in New York City has increased much faster than for whites, and the gap appears to be widening at an accelerating pace, new studies of jobless data have found.
While unemployment rose steadily for white New Yorkers from the first quarter of 2008 through the first three months of this year, the number of unemployed blacks in the city rose four times as fast, according to a report to be released on Monday by the city comptroller’s office. By the end of March, there were about 80,000 more unemployed blacks than whites, according to the report, even though there are roughly 1.5 million more whites than blacks here.
Across the nation, the surge in unemployment has cut across all demographic lines, and the gap between blacks and whites has risen, but at a much slower rate than in New York.
Economists said they were not certain why so many more blacks were losing their jobs in New York, especially when a large share of the layoffs in the city have been in fields where they are not well represented, like finance and professional services. But in those sectors, the economists suggested that blacks may have had less seniority when layoffs occurred. And black workers hold an outsize share of the jobs in retailing and other service industries that have been shrinking as consumers curtail their spending. Â Continue…
by Rupe | Jul 22, 2009 | Mad Musings
The housing market has tanked, you can’t find a buyer and you’re stuck. Your best option is to rent out your house, to at least help cover the mortgage. You are about to become a “reluctant landlord.”
“One in five of our members move every year. In today’s real estate market, we know it’s more difficult for our members to sell their homes,” says Christopher Villa, USAA’s senior product manager for rental home insurance. Â Continue reading…
