Can you put a price on married sex? Apparently so, in France.
Under article 215 of the country's civil code, which states married couples must agree to a “shared communal life”, a 51-year-old man was fined for not having sexual relations with his wife.
According to the judge in Nice, Southern France, the code implies that “sexual relations must form part of a marriage”.
The precedent decision came after she filed for divorce two years ago, blaming her hubby's lack of bedroom antics for their break-up.
Although the judge granted the divorce and blamed it on the husband, known only as Jean-Louis B., his 47-year-old ex-wife later sued for damages in the form of 10,000 Euros -- for “lack of sex over 21 years of marriage”.
In spite of Jean-Louis blaming “tiredness and health problems” for him being less than attentive between the sheets, the judge ruled in the wife's favour.
“A sexual relationship between husband and wife is the expression of affection they have for each other, and in this case it was absent. By getting married, couples agree to share their life and this clearly implies they will have sex with each other.”
Bet there are a lot of women out there, French and otherwise, shaking in their boots right now. If the shoe is on the other foot, we're in big trouble, yummies. A legitimate grounds for divorce, sure. But do you think withholding sex should be punishable by law?
Low-riding pants may be the bane of moms to teenage boys all over the country. But are they really more than a sartorial faux pas? Southwest Airlines thinks so, having booted Green Day hard rocker, Billie Joe Armstrong, off a flight in California for his saggy bottoms.
Clearly shocked, Armstrong immediately tweeted about it: "Just got kicked off a southwest flight because my pants sagged too low! What the f*ck? No joke!"
Being the modern age and all, the war was waged with a return tweet by the airline: "Very sorry for your experience tonight, someone from our Customer Relations Team will reach out to you to get more details."
When a flight attendant asked Armstrong to pull his pants up, he reportedly asked: "Don't you have better things to do then worry about that?" (Like get the celebrity a beer)
Sadly, this isn't the first such incident involving low riders. In June a US Airways passenger was arrested after he refused to pull up his saggy pants. Prosecutors later said they would not file charges against him.
Are airlines taking their power too far? Do they have a right to refuse a passenger on the basis of wardrobe, provided no (X-rated) flesh is actually on show?
Measles are making a comeback. No, I'm not talking about some hip band from your youth.
This year alone over 150 cases of measles have been reported in the United States, and there have been similar outbreaks in Europe -- a sign the disease is making an alarming return.
The reason: some parents are refusing standard immunizations for their children, fearing a link between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism.
Even though Dr. Andrew Wakefield's 1998 study making the MMR-autism connection was later found fraudulent by the British General Medical Council, suspicions about the vaccine have persisted.
"A rising portion of the population is deciding not to immunize their children because of this controversy, and these children are now susceptible to the measles virus," says Dr. Poland, Mary Lowell Leary Professor of Medicine and director of the Mayo Clinic Vaccine Research Group.
"The results have been devastating," Dr. Poland says. "The campaign against the vaccine has caused great harm to public health across multiple nations, even though it has no scientific basis. There have been over 20 studies, spanning two decades, conducted in several countries. Not one has found scientific evidence of a connection between autism spectrum disorders and MMR vaccine."
Measles remain the most contagious human infectious disease, killing roughly three out of every thousand people infected. Through successful immunization programs worldwide, indigenous cases of the disease had been ruled out in the U.S., as was smallpox. Not so now.
Dr. Poland insists parents have to get to the heart of the research and listen to the facts, rather than jeopardize their children's health.
"Just as significantly," he adds, "we need to direct appropriate and significant funds to determine what's really causing autism in our children."
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