In date rape cases, it's his word against hers

How can juries determine who's lying?

Feminists often assume the man must be guilty

Yet some women make false accusations,

misinterpret events or even deceive

themselves about what's occurred

   more »

Keywords: rape, blame, date

One of Baudrillard's better known theories postulates that we live in a world where simulated feelings and experiences have replaced the real thing.

This seductive “hyper-reality,” where shopping malls, amusement parks and mass-produced images from the news, television shows and films dominate, is drained of authenticity and meaning.

Since illusion reigns, he counseled people to give up the search for reality.

“All of our values are simulated,” he told The New York Times in 2005. “What is freedom? We have a choice between buying one car or buying another car? It’s a simulation of freedom.”   more »

The decline of the empire, which had been gradual and inevitable since the "global revolution of 1968" has been accelerating exponentially since 2003, before the predictable failure of the American invasion of Iraq.

A country that cannot subdue a small and exhausted nation, after a terrible decade of global sanctions, cannot be in any condition to take the lead in global affairs. This is one of the principle conclusions that Wallerstein outlines.

The United States moved from imposing "95%" of its will upon the world between 1945 and 1970 to a situation of impotence that manifested itself in the arrival to power of the neoconservatives of George W. Bush in 2001.

This was a demonstration of weakness and not, as is usually believed to be the case, a show of strength.   more »

Unlike his classmates in thrall to Keynesianism, with its promise of building a better world, Greenspan was simply good at maths.

He started doing research for powerful corporations; it was profitable, but Greenspan made no claims to a higher social contribution.

Then he discovered Ayn Rand. "What she did ... was to make me think why capitalism is not only efficient and practical, but also moral," he said in 1974.

Rand's ideas about the "utopia of greed" allowed Greenspan to keep doing what he was doing but infused his corporate service with a powerful new sense of mission: making money wasn't just good for him, it was good for society as a whole.   more »

John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, told delegates at the Conservative Party conference today that efforts by the UK and the EU to negotiate with Iran had failed and that he saw no alternative to a pre-emptive strike on suspected nuclear facilities in the country.

Mr Bolton, who was addressing a fringe meeting organised by Lord (Michael) Ancram, said that the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was "pushing out" and "is not receiving adequate push-back" from the west.

"I don't think the use of military force is an attractive option, but I would tell you I don't know what the alternative is.

"Because life is about choices, I think we have to consider the use of military force. I think we have to look at a limited strike against their nuclear facilities."   more »