Columbia Professor Charged With Incest

Not a bad idea, says Columbia prof's lawyer

(NEWSER) - The Swiss parliament has drafted a law that would allow parents to have sex with their children or siblings to have sex with each other, provided everybody involved is a consenting adult. "First-degree" incest is already legal in countries including France and Russia, but the Swiss measure hasn't won widespread support, with conservative lawmakers labeling it "completely repugnant," and polls showing a clear majority of the public in opposition. More»

Plagiarism allegation was 'cooked up,' lawyer says

(NEWSER) - The Columbia University professor fired for plagiarism shortly after a noose was found hanging on her office door is suing her former school for $200 million. Madonna Constantine’s reputation was ruined by the “baseless” allegation, her lawyer tells CNN. The black professor has previously charged that the noose incident is related and that she was “systematically targeted” by the Teachers College. More»

She calls school probe a racist conspiracy

(NEWSER) - The Columbia professor who made headlines when she found a noose on her office door has plagiarized from students and another professor, the school says. The university’s Teachers College found two dozen instances in which Madonna Constantine stole from other's works in articles published under her name. Constantine, who's been given an unspecified punishment, calls the charges “structural racism,” reports the New York Post. More»

Vanity Fair excerpts new biography

(NEWSER) - President Obama must be just thrilled his old girlfriends kept their letters. Vanity Fair today publishes an excerpt of Barack Obama: The Story, a biography written by Washington Post reporter David Mariniss. The excerpt focuses on the 20-something Obama's relationships with Alex McNear and, later, Genevieve Cook, when he studied at Occidental College and then Columbia, notes CBS News . Some snippets:

• Obama letter to McNear: "Remember how I said there's a certain kind of conservatism which I respect more than bourgeois liberalism—(TS) Eliot is of this type. Of course, the dichotomy he maintains is reactionary, but it’s due to a deep fatalism, not ignorance.” ( Daily Intel has some fun with this one.)
• Another from Obama to McNear: "Caught without a class, a structure, or tradition to support me, in a sense the choice to take a different path is made for me. The only way to assuage my feelings of isolation are to absorb all the traditions [and] classes; make them mine, me theirs."

German argued ban interferes with his private life

(NEWSER) - Incest is not a human right, a European court has ruled. The not-surprising decision was passed down yesterday by the International European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, in response to a suit by a German man who has had four children with his biological sister. Dad Patrick Stuebing, 35, has been convicted several times for incest. He argued that the German law banning incest "violates the fundamental right to respect for private and family life" guaranteed by the European Convention for Human Rights. The seven justices ruled unanimously that while German officials did indeed interfere with Stuebing's private life, the incest prohibition is "aimed at the protection of morals and the rights of others," and was thus permissible, reports Der Spiegel. More»