Nymphomania has been mainstreamed into popular culture with references in magazines, movies, pornography, and television.

Regardless of the fact that it is no longer considered a disease and is now jokingly referred to, antiquarian notions of sexuality still underlie it. Most prominent is the double standard of male and female sexuality.

Promiscuous men are the standard, while women who have multiple partners are still somewhat scorned and referred to as ?sluts? or ?nympho." Why can't we assume that many women get great pleasure from having a lot of sex?   more »

With the NYPD facing difficult challenges such as combating terrorism and stopping the flow of illegal handguns into the city, what are the police arresting people for at a rate ten times greater than before 1997? Marijuana.

But they aren't arresting everyone who possesses marijuana; only poor people of color. When confronted with statistics demonstrating the grossly disproportionate arrest rates of African Americans, often conservatives are quick to respond that African Americans commit more crimes.

But then how would they explain the epidemic of marijuana arrests in New York City over the past ten years, a plague of over-policing that has swept up poor people of color, sending Blacks and Hispanics to jail for misdemeanor marijuana offenses at rates far greater than those of whites, even though, according to the U.S. government, whites use more marijuana per capita than Blacks and Hispanics?   more »

The satirical video short “Harlan McCraney, Presidential Speechalist” offers a comedic explanation of why George W. Bush comes off to many Americans as an inarticulate, even stupid politician.

It’s intentional: There’s “a genius behind the stupidity” - speechalist McCraney (played by Andy Dick), a consultant who coaches Bush to come off as a misspoken, folksy everyman.

So while many of us see an ill-equipped president not up to the job, there’s McCraney, off-stage, exclaiming “Yes!” and pumping his fist in victory as Bush mangles the “Fool Me Once” aphorism.

A similar dichotomy exists as many of us watch Hillary Clinton in TV interviews or Democratic debates.

We see a politician vacillating to the point of self-parody, talking out of both sides of her mouth on issue after issue.   more »

Research into the link between regular handset use and disease reveals the risks rise significantly after 10 years, despite official assurances that they are safe.

Using a mobile phone for more than 10 years increases the risk of getting brain cancer, according to the most comprehensive study of the risks yet published.

The study – which contradicts official pronouncements that there is no danger of getting the disease – found that people who have had the phones for a decade or more are twice as likely to get a malignant tumour on the side of the brain where they hold the handset.

The scientists who conducted the research say using a mobile for just an hour every working day during that period is enough to increase the risk – and that the international standard used to protect users from the radiation emitted is "not safe" and "needs to be revised".   more »

What's a neocon? A liberal "mugged by reality," Irving Kristol said. The reality in question, back then, was Communism-as-evil, the centrality of military force, the indispensability of the American idea, and much else.

But that's ancient history. The neocons are the guys who gave us the Iraq war, of course.

They're the guys who, in the words of the leftist commentator and blogger Matthew Yglesias, "believe that America should coercively dominate the world through military force" and "believe in a dogmatic form of American exceptionalism" and "favor the creation of a U.S.-dominated 'universal empire.' "

But the term, in these Walt-Mearsheimered days, often denotes more than that.

Neocon, for many, has become shorthand for neocon-Zionist conspiracy, involving a combination of plans to exploit Iraqi oil, bomb Iran, and apply U.S. power to Israel's benefit.   more »