The Times of India has done it again. Having long abandoned any pretense of journalistic integrity, here is the latest rubbish from our favorite go – to desi paper.

Under the cringe inducing headline “ Study links lesbianism to career” ,   the TOI quotes a dubious study from un-named NGOs in Chandigarh that : ( I am not making this shit up – this is a direct quote!)

A study by two NGOs to understand the nature of lesbian behaviour in the city has found that most women take to this alternative sexuality while staying in hostels of educational institutions or working at call centres and marketing companies

Apart from personal choice, the reasons for these women’s (sic) turning lesbian were found to be an abusive childhood or being widowed or divorced.

There is zero mention of genetic predisposition and makes the whole issue of homosexuality sound like a lifestyle choice as opposed to a congenital orientation.

This sounds like it was dictated by the far right – defense of marriage act types in the US …

Anyways, I matched their “checklist” against my personal history and:

- Stayed at hostel of educational institution : Check

- Working at call centers or marketing companies : Check

- Abusive childhood : No

- Widowed or Divorced : No

Does this mean there is a 50 % chance I am going to play for the other team ? But, but …I love Bruce Willis ..so that can’t be true? Can it ? Can it?

Who writes this crap?

Dr.Susan Xiao -Ping “Su” was arrested last week at her home in Pleasanton, California bringing one chapter in the entire sordid Tri Valley University scam to a close. UD had covered this earlier here.

From the Pleasanton patch newspaper:

Susan Xiao-Ping Su, 41, of Pleasanton, founder of Tri-Valley University, was arrested Monday after being indicted by a federal grand jury on 33 counts relating to student visa fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, alien harboring and making false statements, among other violations   ( link)

If you visit the Tri Valley University website, it displays a final message from Dr.Su:

The final message from Ms. Su as TVU’s President is an ENCOURAGEMENT to you all to MOVE ON! Let me give the closure by reminding and ensuring you all that: after the darkest moment is the dawn— a new day with the sun rising and shining!

In His Service and Grace!

I paraphrase an old saying  “Religion: The last refuge of scoundrels!”

As for the students, an ICE spokesperson told India – West that several of the students have been placed in deportation proceedings.

Kice confirmed that several former TVU students have been placed in deportation proceedings, but could not confirm the exact number by press time  (link)

The Boulder Court office where the so -called University operated is now closed. Presumably, it will be seized by the government and auctioned off.

I passed by the other day and took a photograph to show you all. Its closed up and abandoned. A gentleman from the neighboring unit was smoking outside and as I took the photograph he gave me a wry smile.

Starting the New Year off with some good ole fashioned narrow-mindedness and prejudice, a family “catches” their daughter hanging out with a long-haired dude, who allegedly, is from a different community*. The parents are worried and a nosy younger dude suggests CommunityMatrimony.com because forcing their daughter to marry from the same community ensures a virtuous, reliable, good-character life mate, right? [video link @desinole via Twitter]

* Community in this instance, could stand for caste, sub-caste, “gothra”, clan, other sub-categories or combination thereof.

We previously blogged about Kamlesh Agarwal, killer of his cousin, Deepa Agarwal.

This case, which spanned more than a decade has finally come to an end. [CFNews13]

What started as a fight at a University of Central Florida area apartment 11 years ago ended with a murder confession in an Orange County courtroom.
The killer, who fled the United States after the murder, explained what drove him to kill his cousin.

The victim Deepa, 20 at the time, was the youngest ever PhD student in the history of the Univ. of Central Florida. Kamlesh, her cousin, appears to have murdered her in a fit of jealousy and rage.

Agarwal said he was jealous one night Deepa returned home late after being with another man.
“I then started shaking her hard, brought her down to the bed violently,” defense attorney Bill Sheaffer read. “She hit the headboard and after that she did not move.”
Her body was found stuffed in a box in her closet eight days after her death.

Kamlesh fled to India, where he initially hid with the help of his family and then turned himself in but fought extradition for close to a decade.

Both sides agreed on a guilty plea to second-degree murder, but it was up to Judge John Adams to determine the sentence.
He said Agarwal’s actions after her death led him to impose the maximum of 25 years.

While Deepa’s family received some measure of closure, unfortunately, there is no happily ever after to this story.

The media and now infrequently haunted blogosphere seems to be ablaze with news on Juan Williams firing from NPR for his remarks on Muslims. [NPR]

NPR has terminated its contract with Juan Williams, one of its senior news analysts, after he made comments about Muslims on the Fox News Channel.
NPR said in a statement that it gave Mr. Williams notice of his termination on Wednesday night.
The move came after Mr. Williams, who is also a Fox News political analyst, appeared on the “The O’Reilly Factor” on Monday.
He continued: “I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

**** time off for #facepalm moment ****

My question to the decision makers at NPR is how did they hire Juan Williams in the first place or why was he not terminated (for ignorance/stupidity) after confusing Indian-Americans with Native-Americans (which we tweeted about here). [WSJ Blog]

Nikki Haley ran far ahead of all other contenders for South Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial nomination, though the official returns give her 48.9%, just shy of a majority, which sets up a runoff against Rep. Gresham Barrett, who got 21.8%. Haley is a woman. She is 38. She is Indian-American, which by some lights makes her nonwhite (although South Asians are “Caucasian” in the traditional racial taxonomy.) We witnessed an amusing moment on Fox News Channel last night when Juan Williams observed that Haley would be “the first native American governor.” It was left to host Bret Baier to explain the difference between Indian-Americans and American Indians, and also to point out that Louisiana’s Gov. Bobby Jindal (also a 38-year-old Republican, albeit a man–hey nobody’s perfect) is in fact the first Indian-American governor.

Who hauuun Williams is now full time with Faux News. We wait with bated breath for Who hauuun Williams to confuse Nikki Haley’r origins, for Muslim instead of Sikh.