Ah, Phoenix in the summer!

The New Neo Posted on by

There was a jumungous dust storm yesterday in Phoenix that reached a height of two miles:

Here’s a different perspective:

The storm came at the beginning of Phoenix’s monsoon season—yes, you heard me right, Phoenix’s monsoon season—which is in the summertime and features violent thunderstorms whose winds can kick up huge dust storms in the normally-dry area near Phoenix.

Years ago, I had to stay in Phoenix for a week during July. The good news was that they were practically giving hotel rooms away. The bad news was that there was a reason for that: no one who wasn’t forced to be there at that time of year would ever willingly choose to go.

When I made the reservation, I asked the clerk what time the weather cooled off somewhat. His answer was, “Around Thanksgiving.”

I said no, really—and he said yes, really. I found that during the day it was about 115, and at night it cooled off only a few degrees. The swimming pool water was like a hot tub, but it didn’t matter because you wouldn’t want to be out there, anyway. The city streets featured spritzers that sprayed you every twenty yards or so in order to keep you alive.

There was no monsoon and no dust storm while I was there, but one was hardly needed to make the stay unpleasant. And sightseeing was an ordeal, although sun umbrellas were provided at this place, where Frank Lloyd Wright had a home and working compound (wisely, in winter).

The Atlanta school cheating scandal

The New Neo Posted on by

[See UPDATE below.]

When I first saw the headline “Investigation Finds ‘Widespread Cheating’ in Atlanta Schools” I almost didn’t click on it, so ho-hum and ordinary that fact seemed to be. Cheating has probably always existed in schools, usually of a rather petty and impulsive sort such as copying from a nearby student, although sometimes it’s more premeditated and widespread. And I have little doubt it’s increased in recent years.

But it turns out that this particular situation is different from the student cheating of time immemorial, because it’s the teachers and administrators who were doing the cheating, not the students. Now, that’s news, a “man bites dog” story, and a terrible one at that:

The report found that teachers, principals and administrators were both helping students on the state’s standardized test, the Criterion-Reference Competency Test, and correcting incorrect answers after students had turned the tests in. Eighty-two educators confessed to the allegations detailed in the report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigations.

Calling it a “dark day” for Atlanta Public Schools, Mayor Kasim Reed said the yearlong investigation “confirms our worst fears … There is no doubt that systemic cheating occurred on a widespread basis in the school system. Further, there is no question that a complete failure of leadership in the Atlanta Public School system hurt thousands of children who were promoted to the next grade without meeting basic academic standards.”

Not only that, but the Atlanta cheating scandal occurred under the watch of a superintendent who had been much-lauded and honored for her success at boosting academic achievement in that beleaguered school system. But the results were bogus:

The investigation tarnishes the record of Superintendent Beverly Hall, who was named national Superintendent of the Year in 2009, due in large part to reported gains in the district. The 800-page report shows some educators reported cheating in their schools, but Hall and other school officials ignored the claims, and in some cases, punished those who came forward. Hall stepped down at the end of her contract on June 30.

“National Superintendent of the Year”—it has a real ring to it, doesn’t it?

Hall is not alone, either. Earlier, a similar thing happened in Washington, DC. Both districts feature especially challenging populations, with high percentages of black students with families mired in poverty and disruption of many sorts.

This report of cheating is just another example of breakdown in our society, not that we needed another example. The dire economic and cultural wasteland in which the students find themselves is the culmination of many decades of problems, some of them the legacy of discrimination but in recent years many of them the legacy of the welfare state. What excuse do the teachers and administrators have?

Investigators appear to be blaming the cheating (at least in part) on high standards:

…[I]nvestigators cited the following as the key reasons that cheating flourished in Atlanta: “The district set unrealistic test-score goals, or “targets,” a culture of pressure and retaliation spread throughout the district, and Hall emphasized test results and public praise at the expense of ethics.”

A fish rots from the head, and I have no trouble believing that if it was widely known that Hall winked at such violations and encouraged results at the expense of all else, it would have encouraged the spread of cheating in order to boost the stats. But that couldn’t have happened unless many teachers were already morally compromised.

Should this be surprising? Probably not. Teachers are just a macrocosm of what’s happening in society, and it seems that the end justifies the means more and more these days. If these are the mentors and role models for students, it does not bode well for our future.

[UPDATE: Just a few minutes after writing this post, I discovered (hat tip: Althouse) a much more detailed article on the subject which is far more shocking than anything I’d read earlier. It makes it clear that the evidence supports a massive, systemic, and coordinated scam of long-standing duration under Hall’s supervision:

Area superintendents silenced whistle-blowers and rewarded subordinates who met academic goals by any means possible.

Superintendent Beverly Hall and her top aides ignored, buried, destroyed or altered complaints about misconduct, claimed ignorance of wrongdoing and accused naysayers of failing to believe in poor children’s ability to learn.

For years ”” as long as a decade ”” this was how the Atlanta school district produced gains on state curriculum tests. The scores soared so dramatically they brought national acclaim to Hall and the district, according to an investigative report released Tuesday by Gov. Nathan Deal.

In the report, the governor’s special investigators describe an enterprise where unethical ”” and potentially illegal ”” behavior pierced every level of the bureaucracy, allowing district staff to reap praise and sometimes bonuses by misleading the children, parents and community they served.

The report accuses top district officials of wrongdoing that could lead to criminal charges in some cases.

The decision whether to prosecute lies with three district attorneys ”” in Fulton, DeKalb and Douglas counties ”” who will consider potential offenses in their jurisdictions.

For teachers, a culture of fear ensured the deception would continue.

“APS is run like the mob,” one teacher told investigators, saying she cheated because she feared retaliation if she didn’t.

This is not just a case of ethically-challenged teachers and an administration that created pressure for them to cheat, and winked at violations. This is a group of of deeply corrupt and even criminal thugs running a school system. If these allegations are true, prosecutions should follow.]

[NOTE: Ironically, it may have been the meeting of those high standards that was the cheaters’ downfall. Results were so good that people became suspicious:

Among the achievements [Hall] cited: a 33 percent increase in graduation rates and one in three elementary students exceeding state standards…

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan praised Hall as recently as last month, noting that under her leadership Atlanta students made double-digit gains on national exams known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP.

But over the last two years, APS has faced a series of reports and investigations questioning improbable test score gains at some city schools…Questions about the tests were first raised in December 2008, when the AJC [Atlanta Journal Constitution] published an analysis that showed improbable gains at some Georgia schools ”” including some in Atlanta ”” on tests taken first in spring and then in summer by students struggling to master core skills.

Last fall, a second AJC analysis showed 12 Atlanta schools posted highly unlikely gains or drops on the spring 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, the state’s main academic measure for students in grades one through eight.]

Strauss-Kahn’s accuser sues the NY Post

The New Neo Posted on by

The Strauss-Kahn case has not only spawned other lawsuits in France, it’s spawned a new one here as well, as Strauss-Kahn’s accuser sues the Post for defamation when it reported she is a prostitute.

It is impossible at this point to know the truth here. But even if she is not a prostitute and ends up winning the defamation suit, the damage to her reputation has probably been done, and any trial of Strauss-Kahn (if it goes forward at all) would feature a tainted jury because of the prior press coverage.

If so, it wouldn’t be the first time.

Why are competitive eaters thin?

The New Neo Posted on by

Competitive eating is an exceedingly odd—not to mention distasteful—sport. I’m not at all into watching people stuff their faces at rates that seem physically impossible and at the very least highly undesirable.

But I was reminded of it recently because yesterday, the Fourth of July, is traditional for hot dog eating contests, and there were a number of reports about the Coney Island venue, at which the winner managed to stuff 62 of the things down his craw in a mere 10 minutes. And this by no means exceeded his own PR of 68.

You may notice from this photo of the Coney Island contest that, contrary to what one might expect, the contenders are all trim:

This is usual in eating contests, and counter-intuitive. I have often wondered about it, and this time I decided to see what the explanation might be.

Turns out that competitive eating isn’t just an exercise in gluttony, it’s also a sport in which the top contenders must be in the proper shape. And it also turns out that the proper shape is not rotund, it’s lean. There’s a good reason for this—actually, several good reasons:

The size of the stomach at rest is inconsequential. All that matters is the stomach’s ability to expand, to adapt itself to the amount of food being shoved down the esophagus. And as in any other competitive sport, stomach-stretching skills require training.

Kobayashi’s regimen includes shrinking his gut by jogging for hours, then distending it by chugging gallons of water. He regularly feasts on giant meals of low-fat, high-fiber foods like cabbage, which stay in the stomach longer before breaking down. (By the way, the world record for cabbage consumption is 6 pounds, 9 ounces, in 9 minutes, held by American Thomas Hardy.) And he keeps trim: A skinny man’s stomach has little fat to push against it and fight the food for space.

So there you have it: huge amounts of exercise and low-calorie food.

And I don’t even like to think of the results of that cabbage competition.

[NOTE: For those who might be inclined to criticize Americans for being so uniquely depraved as to indulge in these contests (as I read in the comments section of one article), think again—eating contests are neither as popular nor as well-compensated in this country as they are in many other parts of the world.]

The debt ceiling crisis

The New Neo Posted on by

You may have noticed I haven’t yet written about the fight over raising the debt ceiling. That is probably because not only do I have a tendency to shy away from anything to do with economics, but also because I believe that some sort of compromise will be reached in time to avoid a huge August default crisis, and that a lot of what’s going on now is political theater and strategic maneuvering. If the objection to compromise is that it’s just a method of kicking the can down the road and solves nothing, my answer is that sometimes—when that can is filled with explosives—it is necessary to kick it down the road temporarily and deal with the main problems later.

Ay, there’s the rub. Unfortunately, the two sides are diametrically opposed on the solution for the main problems, and the atmosphere in Washington is so toxic that real solutions seem distant and perhaps impossible unless one side or other (depending on your political leanings) controls the whole shebang. In the meantime, this country is in deep financial trouble.

It is easy to blame Washington, and much of that blame is deserved. Both sides of Congress have been acting like a bunch of children for way too long, and President Obama has only widened the already-existing divisions with his incendiary rhetoric and fake compromises.

But the American people are to blame, too, for sending so many of the players back again and again, term after term—and for wanting the impossible from them: low taxes and high entitlements. Any politician who threatens that unworkable duo is probably going to be unpopular. So how is a meaningful and lasting resolution of this crisis ever going to come about?

[NOTE: tune in here for lots of discussion of the debt ceiling negotiations.]

A memorable Fourth of July

The New Neo Posted on by

[Bumped up once again: Happy Fourth!!]

Here’s one you might remember. I certainly do:

Fans of the movie “The Great Escape” (and I must confess that I’m one, big-time) will recognize the above as the Fourth of July celebration scene, featuring the incomparable Steve McQueen playing the flute and James Garner with the drum.

Anyone who hasn’t already seen the classic 1963 action movie should rent it immediately and settle in with some popcorn for the long haul. I was a teenager in 1963 when I first saw it on the widescreen, a stirring combination of male pulchritude (not a female in the cast, and what a cast!), suspense, wit, ingenuity, and tragedy.

Although the film’s script merges a number of real people into single characters, and takes a few liberties with time (and invents the fabulous motorcycle chase in which McQueen gets to strut his formidable stuff), it’s historically accurate in the extreme, especially for a Hollywood flick. Oliver Stone, it ain’t—fortunately.

The makers of the film were dedicated to making it as true to actual events as possible. The screenwriter had been a prisoner of war in a Japanese camp, and a former prisoner and expert tunneler from the prison camp depicted in the movie worked as an adviser to the director. Follow the link to read just how much of the film was actually true to life.

Donald Pleasence, who played the rapidly-going-blind forger Blyth, had been a prisoner of war in a German camp during WWII. Hannes Messemer, the German actor who managed to bring an extraordinary humanity to the role of the Kommandant of the camp (a person who in real life was apparently well-liked and respected by the prisoners), had been a prisoner of war in a Russian camp, as had several of the other German actors in the film (these facts are to be found here).

“The Great Escape” was one of the first films I ever saw that defied my sanguine expectations. There was so much humor in it, so many likable characters, and so much Hollywood-type action that I assumed it would likewise have a Hollywood-type ending, in which all turned out well. It doesn’t.

But the Fourth of July scene is delightful. And I wish you all—wherever you are and whatever you choose to do to celebrate today—a wonderful Fourth.

[NOTE: This is a slightly edited version of a post that appeared on this blog in 2005. I’m not sure why the video is so scrunched and makes everyone look skinny (maybe they’re on the Atkins diet?), but I can’t seem to fix it.]

Heroes vs. villains: Independence Day

The New Neo Posted on by

[NOTE: This is a repeat of a previous post.]

Today is the Fourth of July, our Independence Day. Although the focus is on fireworks—a tradition I intend to perpetuate this evening—deep down, this particular holiday is really about American history.

John Adams, one of our founding fathers, knew this, although he was off two days on the date. As he presciently wrote to his wife Abigail on July 3, 1776:

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

“Forever more” is a long time, to be sure. But so far the celebration is holding.

History often seems inevitable after it happens, and we tend to forget it is not—and that, most especially, the outcome is not known to those who live through the events in real time. The United States had a precarious existence at first, and Francis Scott Keys’s uncertainty about America’s continuance was not a ploy when he wrote of the fledgling United States in terms of a question, not a statement, “O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave/o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

Abraham Lincoln was determined to make sure the answer to Keys’s question would be, “Yes.” My old-fashioned education required that we fifth-graders memorize the Gettysburg address, and although at the time the I thought its opening phrase “Four score and seven years ago…”—referring back, of course, to 1776—sounded like a long time had passed, as I got older it occurred to me that when Lincoln spoke the nation was still relatively young and facing the greatest test of its existence, with the outcome unknown.

Lincoln wondered whether a nation devoted to liberty and the proposition that all men are created equal (and for “men” read “humans”) could continue to endure. He knew full well that such “equality” was imperfect under the law of the land; correcting flaws in its application to blacks was part of the reason for the Civil War that was being fought under his remarkable and eloquent aegis.

Independence Day isn’t about being perfect and celebrating that perfection. It’s about acknowledging the wonderful and optimistic vision of the original founders, being thankful for those in the past who have preserved it, and trying to honor it in the future. There are those who think our present government to be so pernicious that it has perverted the intent of the Declaration of Independence. There are others who, like me, think our government flawed but basically sound and that no such perversion has occurred, although course corrections are sometimes required—and have always been required—in our not-so-long history as a nation.

Speaking of that history—I’ve written before about the fact that the criticism of Lincoln by his own contemporaries was at least as bad (and very similar) to that meted out to Bush. This does not mean I’m equating the two in terms of statesmanship or vision or judgment; I am not. But my high estimation of Lincoln—and yours—was not shared by most of his contemporaries.

Here’s a quote on the subject from the excellent book American Brutus, Michael W. Kauffman’s biography of John Wilkes Booth:

The Civil War was unlike anything known in modern times, and the nation came closer to collapse than most people realize today. Emancipation of slaves, confiscation of property, and the draft often led to deadly clashes between the public and civil authorities. The political storm threatened not only the federal government, but state governments as well”¦In the middle stood Abraham Lincoln, blamed for the war and fired upon from all sides. It was not just the fringe element who hated the president; judges, senators, editors, and otherwise respectable citizens left no doubt of their contempt for him as well. One senator compared Lincoln to the tyrants of history, saying “They are all buried beneath the wave of oblivion compared to what this man of yesterday, this Abraham Lincoln, that neither you nor I ever heard of four years ago, has chosen to exercise”¦”

As I’ve written before, this isn’t the sort of thing one hears about in grade school or even high school history classes. Ordinarily one has to be in college level courses to be exposed to these rather startling facts of history as it was actually lived. But most people stop taking history courses before reaching that point, unfortunately, and therefore have little of substance to refer to when attempting to compare our present situation to the past.

Some believe the teaching of the history of the United States should involved focusing on the bad—the errors and misdeeds—over the good, and that teaching the latter is somehow jingoistic. Some believe that anything offending the tender sensibilities of some child or group of children or parents should be excluded, as well, and that history should be a PC endeavor to cater to all interest and ethnic groups.

I would like instead to see the teaching of a realistic and representative balance between the good and the bad in our history; and an awareness of the fact that although this nation is indeed flawed, that is only a reflection of the flawed human condition rather than some special and unique failing of our own. On balance, the US has a more heroic and inspiring vision than most, and has lived up to it far better and far more often than one might have expected, given the nature of humanity. And this is something to celebrate.

Mark Steyn has written that Prime Minister Howard of Australia has said the teaching of history in that country should be taught as a “heroic national narrative.” That’s a novel thought, is it not? But I think our history could honestly be described that way. Remember, real-life heroes are not Supermen; they make errors and have weaknesses, and they struggle to overcome them. Our own Civil War was an example of one of these struggles to correct a major flaw in the execution of the concept that all are created equal, and to more perfectly fulfill the original vision in the Declaration of Independence. There will be other such corrections, no doubt, in our future—hopefully, neither as wrenching not as bloody.

But we must be careful not to overcorrect or overreact; the Fourth of July is not a day of national breast-beating. It’s as good a day as any, and better than some, to celebrate the remarkable and laudable vision under which this nation was founded, and to be deeply grateful for those who have preserved and expanded that vision. The fact that its execution will always be imperfect is no reason to consider ourselves the villains of the piece. There are enough true villains out there for comparison, if anyone cares to look.

The Catcher in the Sofitel

The New Neo Posted on by

Of all the hard-to-believe scenarios involved in the DSK case (and that includes all of them), this one reported by the NY Post might just be the most implausible so far:

Before she ever walked into Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s dazzling suite at the Sofitel, his accuser was well aware of his VIP status — and planning to get her hands in his deep pockets, sources told The Post.

“She figured he’s a rich dude, and she would get paid,” said a source close to the defense investigation. “She was told by the crew she ran with that this was a gold mine.”

The maid, who routinely traded sex for money with male guests, parked her cleaning cart outside Suite 2806 on the morning of May 14 and keyed her way into the room — knowing what he looked like from a photo hanging in a maid closet that identified him as an important guest.

Multiple versions have emerged of what happened next, but nobody disputes that the 32-year-old maid performed oral sex on the Frenchman known as “the Great Seducer.”

Sources now tell The Post that when the two were finished, the woman demanded cash from Strauss-Kahn — but he refused to pay…

The humiliating exchange sparked the maid’s anger, prosecutors suspect.

The woman’s lawyer has charged that DSK angrily grabbed her breast and vagina, leaving her with bruises to the groin area.

So, what’s so improbable about that? It’s not that she might be a hooker, or that DSK was amenable to a quickie with her before leaving town.

But what hooker doesn’t negotiate a price before rendering services? And what would be DSK’s motive for not paying up? Unless she was asking for some exorbitant amount in payment, what would be the point of his refusal? And if she knew who he was, and wanted that kind of money, then why not blackmail him instead? After all, she had the semen on the dress, and could threaten to go to authorities. Wouldn’t blackmail be far more lucrative? But that has not been alleged so far by anyone connected with the case.

DSK is on record as having suspected earlier that he would be set up for some kind of sex scandal (specifically, a false rape accusation) in order to derail his campaign. If so, then why was he not more on the alert when this woman presented herself? And even if he succumbed to temptation despite his wariness (which he clearly did) and had Clintonian sex with “that woman,” why would he not then pony up the dough, knowing how vulnerable he was to false charges of rape? Why run the risk of angering her? And then why rough her up in the bargain?

I’m not exactly conversant with the world of prostitution in high-priced hotels (or low-priced ones, for that matter), but DSK would be. His alleged behavior makes no sense if a man is trying to protect himself, and hers also makes no sense for the woman in such a situation.

Why have I written so much about this case? I think the fascination with the story of DSK and the maid is that it contains a mystery—actually, several mysteries. It also touches on a number of ancient and modern themes: sexual relations between the high and mighty and the lowly, “he-said she said” scenarios and the near-impossibility of ever knowing the truth in such situations, hints of dark conspiracies to bring a political man to ruin, his cooperation in that possible downfall through character flaws of his own, and differences between American and European attitudes towards philandering.

These latest allegations also put me in mind of a famous scene from Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye (hey, I’m a literary sort; what can I say—and the following may not be perfectly accurate, since I don’t have a copy of the book at hand). Holden wasn’t a rich French politician, but he did contract (with the elevator operator Maurice) for a prostitute’s services in the seedy hotel where he was staying in Manhattan. When the hooker—a very young woman named Sunny—arrives, Holden is flummoxed and loses all interest, although he offers to pay her the contracted-for five dollars (yes, there’s been quite a bit of inflation in the over-half-century since the novel was written). She says the fee was ten, and they have an argument, after which she goes off in a huff. Later that night, after Holden falls asleep, she and Maurice return to claim the money, and Maurice roughs Holden up a little.

One can understand Holden’s refusal to pay—he’s not rolling in dough, and in the end he didn’t even ask her to do anything sexual. But what would be DSK’s excuse?

Good catch

The New Neo Posted on by

A mother performs a heroic act to save a child.

Somebody else’s mother, and somebody else’s child.

The girl, named Zhang Fangyu but known by the nickname Niu Niu, was in the care of her grandmother Saturday afternoon when the older woman left the 10th-floor apartment outside the eastern city of Hangzhou to run an errand, CCTV said.

Neighbors saw Niu Niu dangling from the apartment window for several minutes, Xinhua said, and when the girl fell, Wu Juping “kicked off her high-heeled shoes” and ran to catch the child.

“It was so urgent. I saw her when she was about to fall and rushed there, and after tens of seconds she fell off,” CCTV quoted Wu as saying.

A 31-year-old mother, Wu told CCTV that when she saw the hanging girl she thought of her own seven-month-old son who had once fallen from a high chair and cut his mouth: “I thought to myself ‘I should stretch my arms to her. Because I am right here, I must get her.’ Then I made it. I caught her in my arms.”

The impact knocked Wu out and sent her crumbling to the ground along with breaking her left arm, the reports said.

The Atkins diet and me

The New Neo Posted on by

While we’re talking about diets (and we were, yesterday), let me just say that I don’t think much of the Atkins diet. It’s an eating plan a number of commenters touted on yesterday’s thread.

I’m sure it’s fine for some people, maybe even for many people. But it sure isn’t for everybody. Years ago when it first came into vogue, I decided to try it. I wanted to lose the usual fifteen or so pounds, and I was pretty young, so you’d think it would have been relatively easy. I went on the diet and followed it without cheating.

But I felt lousy. Protein foods are not my favorites, so the prospect of chowing down almost unlimited meat, chicken, cheese, and the like did not appeal. I certainly didn’t overdo those foods, and I drank all those glasses of water with ease. What I craved was fruit; I used to dream about it, actually. And I won’t even speak about what the diet did to my digestion; let’s just say it didn’t improve it.

But worst of all, I didn’t lose weight. You’re supposed to keep to the most restrictive part of the diet for two weeks, and “[t]he Induction phase is usually when many see the most significant weight loss ”” reports of losses of 5 to 10 pounds per week are not uncommon when Induction is combined with daily exercise.” I was exercising up a storm, because this was back in my ballet dancing days. I even stayed on the diet for an two extra weeks, because I couldn’t believe the weight wasn’t dropping off.

But it wasn’t. I think I lost a total of a pound in those four weeks.

One of the conclusions I’ve come to about diet and weight loss is that everybody is different, often very different. Some quite overweight people I know just don’t eat all that much. Even a normal amount is enough to put weight on for them. Some thin people who aren’t all that active simply cannot gain weight no matter what they eat or how hard they try. Some diets work for some people and not at all for others—although there does seem to be a general tendency for bigger people to lose weight faster, and for men to lose weight more easily on diets than women.

I don’t know why I’m talking about diets today, though. It’s a holiday, or at least the beginning part of a holiday—although it’s a holiday that would fit in quite nicely for those on the Atkins diet. Just grill up some steak or burgers or chicken or fish or whatever you happen to like, and you’re good to go.

And don’t forget those deviled eggs:

The Strauss-Kahn accuser and female genital mutilation

The New Neo Posted on by

Strauss-Kahn’s accuser appears to be quite a piece of work. She’s a serial liar and an operator, at least as far as her immigration story goes. She said she was gang-raped in Guinea, and apparently this was not the case. And in this country, she’s in tight with drug dealers.

We still don’t have any idea whether Strauss-Kahn raped her or not. But in her taped conversation with her prison-residing boyfriend, she told him a version of the rape story that was very similar to the one she told authorities—and the discussion was in their native Guinean tongue, which authorities translated from a “unique dialect of Fulani” into English. This points to at least some credibility on this score.

Now that this woman has been exposed as a habitual liar, it’s hard to evaluate the following for its veracity. But if true, it’s an ironic twist in the case:

…[I]f the woman’s application [to enter the US] was based on fraud, the Justice Department could seek to reopen the case and have her thrown out of the country. Her attorney Kenneth Thompson said she went to prosecutors to tell them the truth, and she had initially feared she’d be deported if she told them why she really left: because she was a victim of genital mutilation and she didn’t want her daughter, now 15, to be similarly affected, Thompson said.

Whether or not the accuser has been a victim of FGM (female genital mutilation, rampant in north Africa) would be an easy enough fact for the court to determine. But it is indeed likely that this women has been genitally mutilated, because the practice (according to this study of Guinea in 1998-1999) is so widespread there as to affect virtually all of the woman in the country: 99%. Guinea may actually have the highest rate of FGM (called the more neutral FCC, or “female genital cutting,” in the study) in the world.

What’s more, in 1998-1999, respondents reported that the cutting was occurring at a younger and younger age to girls there, often performed by the age of 9. The accuser’s daughter is reportedly 15 years old now, and the accuser’s application for political asylum to the United States was made in 2004, which would mean that her daughter would have been about eight at the time. That would be the age at which FGM was imminent, and it tends to support the accuser’s new story on the true motive for her emigration, which is at least as sympathetic as her original story of gang rape.

This woman represents a conundrum for feminists and the left. Originally she was the perfect victim: black, poor, and sexually abused by a man. She’s still black, but it seems she’s not so poor, since hundreds of thousands of dollars have been deposited in her bank account by the drug-dealing boyfriend and his confederates. As for abuse, if the accuser’s FGM tale is correct (and it is very very likely to be), she has most certainly been sexually abused, although paradoxically it would have been by women, who tend to perpetuate the practice, although the motivation is to be “pure” enough to be accepted in marriage by a man.

In 1969 the practice was made a crime in Guinea, but no one has ever been prosecuted there for it. There are varieties of FGM, some of which are more mild than others, but the milder forms are exceedingly uncommon in Guinea and elsewhere. I will be a bit graphic here: according to the 1998=1999 study, only 1% of women in Guinea (mostly members of a certain tribal group that is predominantly Christian) are unmutilated, and only 2% of women undergo a mild nicking of the clitoris. Eighteen per cent of Guinean women have had a partial clitoral removal, while 28% have had a total clitoral removal, and 50% a total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora as well (that is, the entire external genitalia of the woman and the significant organs of pleasure). At the time of the study, 80% of the girls there were operated on at age 9 or younger. In the Fulani group (to which the accuser seems to belong) the figures are 12% undergoing partial removal of the clitoris, 35% complete removal, and 50% complete removal of both clitoris and labia minora.

If FGM was indeed the woman’s motivation for immigration, and if she lied about that motive on her application, it would be ironic, because FGM itself is grounds for an asylum application. It is incredibly hard to know the truth about went on with this woman, but her lawyer says she was unaware that FGM would have sufficed as a reason for asylum, and was told by a friend to invent the gang-rape story to buttress her case.

Of course, none of this excuses anything she may have done or the lies she’s told. But a culture that does this to its women is even more inexcusable. I don’t care about the custom’s antiquity and its origins; it is a brutal and violent outrage.

[NOTE: I have previously written two posts on FGM, here and here.]

[NOTE II: And don’t come on this thread and compare FGM to male circumcision. There is absolutely no analogy, except to the mildest form of FGM that is very seldom practiced (1% in Guinea, and uncommon elsewhere). If you want an analogy, try comparing the process to removing all the external male genitalia. Fortunately, this is not a regular practice of any culture any earth—and if it were, that culture wouldn’t last long.]

[ADDENDUM: The plot—and the accusations against the accuser—thickens. Now an unnamed informant told the NY Post that she’s a hooker. If so, and if the NYPD didn’t find this out right away, I think they could be accused of negligence.

And then there’s this, reporting that DSK used other prostitutes in the past who complained about his roughness and aggressiveness and refused to see him again. Make of it what you will.

And am I the only one who thinks the mainstream press and the National Enquirer have recently merged?]