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vol. 215, March 8, 2010


reflections from self...
(Unsubscription instructions at the bottom)

This issue tackles the intersection of two sensitive subjects - sex and religion....No, this is not Oprah's new venture, but recent news and a new study tie into this subject...

Sexual escapades in religious circles is not new news - we all have seen countless cases of bible-thumping evangelists succumbing to the lapses of flesh - but a string of cases from the Vatican to India in the last few weeks is unusual...read on to get the gory details...and a hypothesis that this all is a sign of higher intelligence...

feedback/suggest articles

so what's new?

Religion, Sex and IQ.

Do you cheat if you are smart? Or are you more likely to be an atheist if you are smart? I'm surprised we haven't heard more about this based on the study which came out a couple of weeks ago - "Political, religious and sexual behaviors may be reflections of intelligence, a new study finds.

Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs. This applied also to sexual exclusivity in men, but not in women. The findings will be published in the March 2010 issue of Social Psychology Quarterly..."

"Kanazawa did not find that higher or lower intelligence predicted sexual exclusivity in women. This makes sense, because having one partner has always been advantageous to women, even thousands of years ago, meaning exclusivity is not a "new" preference..."

Very interesting, and open to your interpretations...

So now the latest scandals - first the Vatican: "The Vatican is facing allegations that one of Pope Benedict's ceremonial ushers, as well as a member of the Vatican choir, were involved in a gay prostitution ring. .."

...and then, closer to home, two recent cases involving sex and "god-men", as described in the attached article...

Another case which is rousing the middle class in India is that of a 14 year old girl who was molested by a police officer, and then harassed into committing suicide: "Ruchika Girotra’s ordeal is hardly unique. Girls are molested all the time in India; powerful officials often abuse their office to avoid criminal prosecution; sclerotic courts are painfully slow and often corrupt.

But the case is emblematic of the way India’s growing middle class, egged on by a lively news media hungry for sensational stories, is increasingly unwilling to accept these seemingly immutable truths and willing to fight back.

And increasingly the courts of law and public opinion have forced the government to act against the grossest abuses of power. The fight for justice for Ruchika has become a symbol of middle-class rage at a broken system..."

And finally, when you think you have heard it all, this pops up: FL Driver caught shaving bikini...

Till next time...

The DFW Desi


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Meet game-changer Naresh Vissa on Prime Time with NetIP, March 17th 7pm EST only on HumDesi radio.



in this issue
1. Sex scandals: a bad week for India's 'godmen'
2. Flower power

3. Outsider Artist


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1. Sex scandals: a bad week for India's 'godmen'
Bangkok Post

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With two sex scandals and a fatal stampede, it's been a bad week for India's "godmen", the self-styled Hindu ascetics whose followers range from farmers and housewives to politicians and rock stars.

On Thursday, 63 people -- all of them women and children -- were crushed to death in a stampede at an ashram run by a popular holy man in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

The day before, angry villagers in the southern state of Karnataka attacked another religious retreat after a television station aired footage purportedly showing its long-haired 30-something guru fondling two women.

And last weekend, police in the capital New Delhi revealed they had arrested a godman for allegedly running a vice ring involving air-hostesses, college students and housewives.

For sceptics, the sex scandals show that many godmen, despite their spiritual air and claims of mystical powers, are nothing more than confidence tricksters craving cash and power.

Click here for the complete article.




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2. Flower power

The Economist

“WE BELIEVE that we can have the same kind of impact on energy that the mobile phone had on communications.” So says K.R. Sridhar, the boss of Bloom Energy, which on February 24th unveiled what it claims is a revolutionary fuel cell. Thanks to such grandiose pronouncements and a vigorous public-relations blitz, the “Bloom Box”, as the company’s product has been dubbed, has attracted plenty of headlines. But there are good reasons for scepticism.

That Bloom is now being promoted so loudly is hardly surprising. The firm, which has kept its work secret for the past eight years, has attracted a hefty $400m from venture capitalists, including some who bet on the Segway, a high-tech scooter that promised but failed to change the world. A successful initial public offering or a sale to a strategic investor would allow Bloom’s backers to reap a return on their investment. It would also give a fillip to the clean-tech sector, at which Silicon Valley’s moneymen have thrown billions of dollars in the hope of hitting a Google-like payday.


Click here for full article.







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3. Outsider Artist

New York Magazine


Shilpa Ray turns alienation into lusty, bluesy rock.

The Indian-American front woman for blues-rockers Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers grew up in suburban New Jersey feeling like a freak. “My dad once said he felt sorry for me because when I go back to India they won’t accept me and here I’ll never be accepted as American. I feel that way sometimes, but I’ve embraced being an outsider. I’ve been one all my life.”

There were a lot of rules at home, “but I took music class and was classically trained in vocals because that’s what good girls did.” When the family moved from blue-collar Hamilton to Princeton Junction, being a good girl got harder. “There was a huge shift in class,” she says. “I was now surrounded by professors’ daughters and diplomats’ sons. When you grow up in a working-class community, they’re hateful to your face. In a place that’s more refined, it’s always behind your back.” Freshman year of high school, after her father, a bank employee, and schoolteacher mother left for work, Ray—inspired by Fairuza Balk in The Craft—would transform into a witchy goth-punk princess, complete with safety pins through her fingernails. When the school called her parents to discuss Ray’s truancy, “my mom was crying and my dad was just so pissed,” says Ray, now 30. “But in a weird way my mom started embracing it a little. One time, friends were going to New Hope, Pennsylvania, to buy cock-ring chokers, and I wasn’t allowed to go. Mom said, ‘I thought you were smarter than that. Go to an arts-and-crafts store and make your own. Just don’t tell your father that you’re like this.









For the complete article, please click here




Featured Non-Profit

The goal is to provide exposure to non-religious, South Asian related Non-Profits. Suggestions welcome

American Cancer Society: This year, nearly 1.5 million people will hear the words "You have cancer," and there's a good chance that some of them will be people we know and love. I have chosen to create a world with less cancer and more birthdays – where cancer never steals another year from anybody’s life – by helping the American Cancer Society’s work. With our help, the American Cancer Society saves lives and creates more birthdays by helping people stay well, helping people get well, by finding cures, and by fighting back.


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