Oh please. Yeah, I hate *all men* because I think Alvin crossed a legal line you think is merely unethical.

I see a clear, wide bright line between intentionally masquerading as a specific other person and pretending you have more money, more hair, a nicer car or a separate address than your parents'. Waking up to find your dream lover is a loser is embarassing, and the loser is unethical, but not criminal. Waking up to find you lover is his evil twin, who intentionally masqueraded as your lover, is criminal. When we "borrow" someone's credit card it's fraud *and* it's theft. When we "borrow" someone's identity to get laid when we know the answer would be "no" as ourselves, it's fraud *and* it's rape.

If rape is about control and power, and not about the friction of intercourse, then deliberately deceiving someone about your identity (as in masquerading as a specific real someone who is not yourself, not just you with a better paying job or nicer car) is more sinister than unethical. Your "partner" did not consent to sex with you, and you know they would not have consented if they knew it was you. Discovering your true identity is devastating to your partner: it's a violation of their trust, it's an invasion of their body. And that seems like rape to me.

As unbelievable as many say this scenario is, it certainly has lots of literary support. Which doesn't "prove" anything, but means some cultures think it is plausible. Arthur, King of the Britons was conceived when Uthyr Pendragon came to Igraine disguised as her husband. Greek mythology is full of Gods disgiising themselves to have their way with mortal women (which is regarded as rape even by the ancients: see "The Rape of Europa" and "The Rape of Leda" for starters). Shakespeare made a career of women-disguised-as-men (actually played by boys, but I digress) being pursued by straight (but deceived) women, though his heroines were generally trying to avoid sexual consumation with their pursuers. And of course, let's not forget "M. Butterfly" which is actually based on a true story. There a man pretended for *years* to be a woman, including pretending to have menstral cycles, and a pregnancy that produced a living child. This certainly is fraud, but isn't the deceived (again, assuming the partner in tis was truly deceived) violated? And there's "The Crying Game": remmber Fergus' reaction to discovering he almost slept with a man, which he thought was a woman? He was physically ill.

As for the reverse scenario, the Greeks already thought about that one, too. Read the tale of Myrrah in Ovid (lifted from an older Greek myth). She coerced eer father into having sex by pretending to be her mother. And while she had the "Aphrodite made me do it" insanity plea, it didn't save her. She was cast out of her house, denounced by her horrified dad, and eventually melted into tears and flowed into a stream.

If a woman did the same thing to a man in Massachusetts (let's say, in an attempt to get herself pregnant), I'd call her a rapist as well.

You know, every time there is a new story about this administration, I get more and more demoralized. I just want to take a shower and wash the corruption off me.

the post-mortem conversation Falwell will be having with the late Chief Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist. I seem to remember Falwell praying for "vacancies" that Bush could fill with new appointees. Tha's gonna be awkward.

It seems that Riza was vastly overpaid by State Department standards, since her salary was significantly higher than that of the Secretary of State.

I do not understand how one can work for the State Department, but be paid by the World Bank, without a reasonable person thinking something is off-kilter. I am also suspicious of the two promotions and two pay raises that happened since Wolfowitz began his tenure at the World Bank.

I'm not saying his girlfriend isn't good at her job, and didn't deserve these rewards. But, if this was happening in my office, I'd demand an explanation. If an explanation was withheld, was intentionally vague or misleading, I'd call that more suspicious. And if I was then attacked as being "out to get" my employer for asking reasonable questions, I'd be hiring a lawyer and looking for a new job.

If I were dating my boss or my employee, I'd either end the relationship or end the job. It's pretty clear that those are the only honorable options. Either party in this case would probably find employment pretty easy to come by.

This isn't a manufactured scandal (as in, state troopers lying about what a former governor did while under their protection). It's an actual scandal. And, in my view, it's scandalous behavior.