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Page Not FoundWe need to be united in the fight against fascism and repression.
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Can progressives win the battle for the party's future?
Labor grows more skeptical about invading Iraq.
The Blame Game
Black voters did their part for the Democrats.
"My Zimbabwe"
How did Mugabe become such a monster?
No Child Left Unrecruited
Power Mad
The liberal media strike again.
Viewpoint
The bogeyman of neo-fascism.
Coffee growers struggle to survive a global slump.
Planned Parenthoods look local.
Don't Tread on Them
Cities move to protect the Bill of Rights.
Going AWOL
Russian soldiers desert en masse.
In Person: Robert Fisk.
Love and Hate
BOOKS: Living in The Eagle's Shadow.
BOOKS: Barbed Wire: A Political History
BOOKS/FILM: Return to Solaris.
A Winning Progressive Politics
The courage to redefine the "center."
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December 6, 2002
Appall-o-Meter
Sodom vs. Saddam 2.1
He’s not the kind of sado-masochist that would, say, rule a Middle Eastern country through torture and mass murder. He’s the kind that would serve as a founding officer of the Leather Leadership Conference, an outfit that trains “current and potential leaders of the sado-masochism/ leather/fetish community.” There’s a difference, you know. According to the Washington Post, McGeorge is a co-founder of Black Rose, “a pansexual S&M group,” and a past leader of something called the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. But that’s just in his spare time. He also runs a firm called Public Safety Group Inc., which offers seminars on chemical and biological weapons, along with other “bioterror products.” When confronted by the Post about his sexual proclivities, McGeorge said he would resign from the U.N. team if the newspaper publicized them. “I have been very up-front with people in the past about what I do, and it has never prevented me from getting a job or doing service,” McGeorge said. “I am who I am. I am not ashamed of who I am—not one bit.” Nor should he be. In fact, the world might feel a little safer knowing a leather man was on the case. Toys in the Trunk 3.5
Need another reason not to live in Texas? Kathy Grubbs, a 47-year-old traveling saleswoman, was driving drunk near the town of White Oak. The cops pulled her over, searched her truck, and found 17 sex toys and other products. Grubbs sells them, it turns out, in a version of the Tupperware Party. Big deal, right? Yes, it is. Possessing more than six dildos implies intent to distribute, missy. And that’s a felony in the Lone Star State. According to the Longview News-Journal, Grubbs could face a couple years in jail for it.
Soooey Cum Laude 2.2
When it serves its own interests, the American academy likes to explain itself as a charmingly archaic institution. Graduate students and adjunct facultoids, for example, are not ruthlessly exploited wage-earners—they are apprentices. But what are we to make of Lindenwood University, a liberal arts college in St. Charles, Missouri, which accepts tuition payment in pigs? According to the Los Angeles Times, Lindenwood accepted some 50 hogs in lieu of the $22,000 it would have cost farm girl Sally Miller for her junior and senior years. Sally’s folks haven’t been treated too nicely by the commodities markets of late. So Lindenwood President Dennis Spellmann thought outside the box and hit upon the hogs-for-learning scheme.
Heart-warming as the story may be, it belies a disturbing trend. Tuition inflation has outstripped median wage growth by 400 percent in the past two decades, with no sign of abating, and federal financial aid has been cut drastically. Return to top of the page. |
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In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together.
Poor Harvey John “Jack” McGeorge. A former Marine and Secret Service agent with experience in disposing chemical and biological agents, he was ready to serve the cause of world peace as a U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq. Then the world found out he was a sado-masochist.
