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A Young Girl Chooses ‘Empowerment’

Posted by Michelle Moquin on July 27th, 2009

It is rare that an e-mail from a reader will get to me, but I am always delighted when it does. An anonymous reader requested that I post this article. It is my pleasure who ever you are. I love accomodating my readers whenever I can.

Unfortunately, sometimes the topic is not always delightful. This is one of those. However, delightful or not, it is a must for my blog entry. It is one of great bravery and where this kind of sacrifice more than deserves a mention.

A courageous young Pakastani girl who against the advice of family and friends, driven by her fury, chooses to turn her horrific endeavor into one of empowerment.  Here is the story of Assiya Rafiq.

Assiya Rafiq, right, in front of her mother, Iqbal Mai.

After being kidnapped at the age of 16 by a group of thugs and enduring a year of rapes and beatings, Assiya Rafiq was delivered to the police and thought her problems were over.

Then, she said, four police officers took turns raping her.

The next step for Assiya was obvious: She should commit suicide. That’s the customary escape in rural Pakistan for a raped woman, as the only way to cleanse the disgrace to her entire family.

Instead, Assiya summoned the unimaginable courage to go public and fight back. She is seeking to prosecute both her kidnappers and the police, despite threats against her and her younger sisters. This is a kid who left me awed and biting my lip; this isn’t a tale of victimization but of valor, empowerment and uncommon heroism.

“I decided to prosecute because I don’t want the same thing to happen to anybody else,” she said firmly.

Assiya’s case offers a window into the quotidian corruption and injustice endured by impoverished Pakistanis — leading some to turn to militant Islam.

“When I treat a rape victim, I always advise her not to go to the police,” said Dr. Shershah Syed, the president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Pakistan. “Because if she does, the police might just rape her again.”

Yet Assiya is also a sign that change is coming. She says she was inspired by Mukhtar Mai, a young woman from this remote village of Meerwala who was gang raped in 2002 on the orders of a village council. Mukhtar prosecuted her attackers and used the compensation money to start a school.

Mukhtar is my hero. Many Times readers who followed her story in past columns of mine have sent her donations through a fund at Mercy Corps, at www.mercycorps.org, and Mukhtar has used the money to open schools, a legal aid program, an ambulance service, a women’s shelter, a telephone hotline — and to help Assiya fight her legal case.

The United States has stood aloof from the ubiquitous injustices in Pakistan, and that’s one reason for cynicism about America here. I’m hoping the Obama administration will make clear that Americans stand shoulder to shoulder with heroines like Mukhtar and Assiya, and with an emerging civil society struggling for law and social justice.

Assiya’s saga began a year ago when a woman who was a family friend sold her to two criminals who had family ties to prominent politicians. Assiya said the two men spent the next year beating and raping her.

The men were implicated in a gold robbery, so they negotiated a deal with the police in the town of Kabirwala, near Khanewal: They handed over Assiya, along with a $625 bribe, in exchange for the police pinning the robbery on the girl.

By Assiya’s account, which I found completely credible, four police officers, including a police chief, took turns beating and raping her — sometimes while she was tied up — over the next two weeks. A female constable obligingly stepped out whenever the men wanted access to Assiya.

Assiya’s family members heard that she was in the police station, and a court granted their petition for her release and sent a bailiff to get her out. The police hid Assiya, she said, and briefly locked up her 10-year-old brother to bully the family into backing off.

The bailiff accepted bribes from both the family and the police, but in the end he freed the girl. Assiya, driven by fury that overcame her shame, told her full story to the magistrate, who ordered a medical exam and an investigation. The medical report confirms that Assiya’s hymen had been broken and that she had abrasions all over her body.

The morning I met Assiya, she said she had just received the latest in a series of threats from the police: Unless she withdraws her charges, they will arrest, rape or kill her — and her two beloved younger sisters.

The family is in hiding. It has lost its livelihood and accumulated $2,500 in debts. Assiya’s two sisters and three brothers have had to drop out of school, and they will find it harder to marry because Assiya is considered “dishonored.” Most of her relatives tell Assiya that she must give in. But she tosses her head and insists that she will prosecute her attackers to spare other girls what she endured.

(For readers who want to help, more information is available on my blog at:www.nytimes.com/ontheground.)

Assiya’s mother, Iqbal Mai, told me that in her despair, she at first had prayed that God should never give daughters to poor families. “But then I changed my mind,” she added, with a hint of pride challenging her fears. “God should give poor people daughters like Assiya who will fight.”

Amen.

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

I have read this story now a few times over and I am so blown away by Assiya’s strength and courage to go against all odds, in order to bring about change for other girls, so that they will not have to endure what she has had to.

As a woman living in America I can not imagine this ever happening to me, but that is no excuse for any of us to turn a blind eye to the atrocities that others endure outside of our own little worlds. It may be a difficult read, but ignoring the read does not make the inhumanity disappear.  We no longer can claim, ‘We didn’t know.’

I am so grateful to the reader who sent this to me. This kind of abuse to women in this world, inflicted by men, has got to be brought to light over and over again until the abuse stops. The story is not a pleasant one, nor is the appalling abusive treatment to women around the world uncommon. It is way too common. And the more we read about it, the more fury I feel. I hope that you feel it too, and that it fuels your fire to do something.

~~~~~~~~

Al:  Your way with words can be so refreshing sometimes. You add a light touch that makes a topic easier to look at,  and yet doesn’t take away from the seriousness of it.

Olivia: I liked the way that you stood up to your husband even though you backed down because you didn’t want to ‘upset him’. I say, ‘fuck it. Let him get upset.’ I would be upset if I were you that he deposited such thoughts into the minds of your daughters. However, it seems that they have minds of their own in spite of their fathers racist remarks. I only hope that you are inspiring more of that type of thinking when conversing with your daughters from now on.

Juanita: I am well aware of HFCS, and I make it a point to not buy products that contain it.  But maybe many of my readers are not aware of how bad it is, so thank you for the comment. And thank you for the reminder of the movie  - I have been avoiding seeing it for fear that I won’t want to eat anything except from what I grow on my own. But ignorance will not be blissful in this case. :)

Peace out….

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: Your Bad Ass Bitch Editor

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23 Responses to “A Young Girl Chooses ‘Empowerment’”

  1. Mehtarlam  Says:

    Michelle

    I will pray to Allah for you for the rest of my life. Thank you for printing this article. So many of us are in need of help from the evil men who use God to exploit women.

    Mehtarlam

  2. Health info Says:

    30 SECONDS OF EXERCISE BOOSTS HEART HEALTH

    Athletes have long added short bursts of high-intensity effort to their workouts to pump up muscle function and exercise performance, a topic I’ve written about before (see Daily Health News, September 3, 2007, for more information on interval training for peak fitness). New research reveals that this technique also measurably improves the structure and function of arteries, which is good news for cardiovascular health, since healthy blood vessels play an important role in transporting blood to and from the heart and all the other muscles and tissues in the body.
    At McMaster University in Canada, researchers divided 20 participants (10 each healthy males and females with no known heart disease, average age 23) into two groups. One engaged in interval training with 30-second “all out” sprints, followed by four-and-a-half minutes of recovery with low-intensity cycling three times a week… and the other completed 40 to 60 minutes of moderate-intensity cycling five times a week. After six weeks, researchers found that both sprint exercise and endurance exercise training improved the ability of a main artery in the leg to dilate, with no measurable difference between the two exercise groups.
    These findings suggest that brief, intense exercise can be just as effective as longer, traditional endurance exercise in improving arterial activity. Maureen MacDonald, PhD, an associate professor in the department of kinesiology at McMaster University and senior author of the study, told me that it seems that interval exercise — even very brief — results in beneficial changes that facilitate relaxation of the artery walls. Changes in the actual structure of the walls may also occur. Apparently you don’t have to endure long periods of hard work to improve your health.
    Results of the research were published in the July 2008 issue of the American Journal of Physiology — Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.
    WIN THE RACE AGAINST HEART DISEASE
    According to Dr. MacDonald, not only can this kind of higher intensity training be used by extremely fit people to achieve a new level in their training, it can also be a simple, efficient way to boost fitness for healthy people in search of a way to add variety to their training or who simply need to squeeze in shorter workouts. She adds that modified interval training has also shown great promise for people with medical problems who are unable to sustain higher exercise levels for long periods of time. Such people may benefit from shorter and less intense “sprint phases,” which may be easier for them to tolerate than the 30-second “all out” sprints performed in the study, says Dr. MacDonald.
    Not everyone can do high-intensity interval training, as it is quite strenuous. (Check with your doctor if you are concerned about health problems that may make this dangerous.) But then again, not everyone needs to do it that way: What this study demonstrates is that exercise — either brief and intense or slow and steady — can be used to improve the function and structure of arteries and help keep your heart healthy. That’s a prescription just about everyone can follow.

    Source(s): ?
    Maureen MacDonald, PhD, associate professor, department of kinesiology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

  3. Anna on Guam Says:

    Here are the names of the two Guam exchange students selected by Japan. I know many of you who emailed me asked to be notified as soon as I knew. Well here’s your answer.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    The Consulate General of Japan has announced that two Guam residents have been selected to participate in the 2009 Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program, which seeks to promote mutual understanding between Japan and other nations.

    Chelsea Reidy and Shinju Flynn will attend a pre-departure orientation/question-and-answer session on cultural etiquette, team teaching, culture shock and more by Guam JET alumni Patricia Blas and Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Scholarship gradaute Andrew Tenorio.
    It will be held from noon to 2:30 p.m. on Friday at the Consulate General of Japan Cultural Information in the ITC building, Tamuning, in preparation for their Aug. 2 departure.
    The program aims to give JET program participants the opportunity to serve as coordinators for international relations in local authorities and as assistant English language teachers in public and private elementary, middle and senior high schools.
    =======================================
    Hafa adai

    Anna

  4. Teyrawah Says:

    Michelle

    My story is one of shame and terror. The men in my family use God as a excuse to treat women as meat for their pleasure. If Madaline could eliminate the all, it would be for the better.

    Teyrawah

  5. Free Alcohol Ad Says:

    The Value of a Drink

    ‘Sometimes when I reflect back on all the wine I drink
    I feel shame. Then I look into the glass and think
    about the workers in the vineyards and all of their hopes
    and dreams. If I didn’t drink this wine, they might be out
    of work and their dreams would be shattered.
    Then I say to myself, ‘It is better that I drink this wine and let their
    dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver.’
    ~ Jack Handy

    WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may leave you wondering what the hell
    happened to your bra and panties among other things.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    ‘I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. When they
    wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re
    going to feel all day. ‘
    ~Frank Sinatra

    WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may create the illusion that you are tougher,
    smarter, faster and better looking than most people.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    ‘When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.’
    ~ Henny Youngman

    WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may lead you to think people are laughing WITH you.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    ’24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not.’
    ~ Stephen Wright

    WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to think you can sing.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    ‘When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk,
    we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin.
    When we commit no sin, we go to heaven. So, let’s all
    get drunk and go to heaven!’
    ~ Brian O’Rourke

    WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause pregnancy.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    ‘Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.’
    ~ Benjamin Franklin

    WARNING: The consumption of alcohol is a major factor in dancing like a stringless puppet.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    ‘Without question, the greatest invention in the
    history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the
    wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does
    not go nearly as well with pizza.’
    ~ Dave Barry

    WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to tell your friends over and over again that you love them.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    To some it’s a six-pack, to me it’s a Support Group. Salvation in a can!
    ~ Dave Howell

    WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you can logically converse with members of the opposite sex without spitting.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    And saving the best for last, as explained by Cliff Clavin, of Cheers.
    One afternoon at Cheers, Cliff Clavin was explaining the ‘ Buffalo Theory’ to his buddy Norm.

    Here’s how it went:

    ‘Well ya see, Norm, it’s like this… A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.

    In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That’s why you always feel smarter after a few beers.

    WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you are whispering when you are not.

  6. Billy says Says:

    The roundest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Conference.

        He acquired his size from too much pi.

  7. General Info Says:

    Q: A friend asked me if he could register his car at my address because he won’t be living in our area for six months. Is there any liability risk to me for doing this?

    A: If he plans to continue driving the car while living somewhere else — and using your home as the address of record — that could be insurance fraud on his part, though probably not on yours. Insurers decide on rates based partly on where a car is garaged or parked.

    Example: If you live in a rural area, rates usually will be lower than in an urban area. If the person wants to register the car at your address and leave it there while temporarily living elsewhere, that is probably all right from an insurance standpoint — but check with the Department of Motor Vehicles to make sure you’re in accordance with its regulations.

    Our inside source: Carolyn Gorman, vice president, Insurance Information Institute, based in Washington, DC.

  8. Delatam  Says:

    I agree with Teyrawah. Muslim men are pedophiles, rapists and pimps who use the name of God to justify keeping women as their personal sex slaves.

    Most muslim men will tell any kind of lie to justify the conditions they keep us under. Muslim women support their men because we are afraid not to. The consequences are dire.

    If there were a Madaline I could believe in, I would pray every day for the destruction of all muslim practicing men over the age of 10. My brother included.

    Delatam 

  9. Stock tip Says:

    Retailers to Bet On

    Kimberly Scott
    Ivy Mid Cap Growth Fund

    espite the recession, a few strong retailers are especially well positioned to grow. While competitors are folding or, at best, losing market share, these top chains have strong balance sheets and good business strategies, says fund manager Kimberly Scott. In fact, the best companies are not only offering shoppers good values and distinctive merchandise — they are also still opening new stores, taking market share from traditional department stores and specialty competitors. Two of Scott’s current favorites…

    Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY). With the housing market still sinking, sales have slipped for this dominant home furnishings retailer. But the company is solidly profitable and has no debt. Management expects to open 50 new stores this year — meanwhile, arch-competitor Linens ’n Things closed all its stores. That should enable the company to increase total sales and market share in preparation for an economic recovery. Recent share price: $29.95.
    Kohl’s Corporation (KSS). As consumers have less disposable income and cut back on purchases of apparel and housewares, Kohl’s, a value-oriented department-store chain, faces tough competition from traditional department stores and discounters. But the company should continue to grow by selling national brands at moderate prices. New stores opening in the Southwest and West and the closing of stores by a key competitor, Mervyn’s, should help to increase sales. Recent share price: $43.77.

  10. Billy says Says:

    I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island,
        but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

  11. Helena Says:

    As it turns out the cop Sgt Cromley lied. The witness got a lawyer. Her lawyer said that Sgt Cromley lied when he claimed in his report that he talked to Whalen at the scene. Also “And she never said to any police officer or to anybody ‘two black men.’ She never used the word ‘black.’ Period.”

    Sgt Cromley lied on his report to cover his actions. He knew according to the 911 tapes that the people in questions were entering with suitcases. The guy lied about the so many things in his report. I hope it goes to a civll suit. Then all the facts will come out.

    Chris Mattews show white washes the cops lying by saying he thinks the cop was projecting. He was lying on a report to justify arresting a black man. That is what white cops do everyday, 24 hours a day against white men.

    They lie about what the accused did or said just as Cromley did. They lie about witness just as Cromley did, they lie in their reports just as Cromley did.

    Now whites will spend their time scapegoating this liar. It will be a “teaching moment.” Why is it a teaching moment when OTWs experience racism. But when white america has a case of “reverse discrimination” the government itself must be turned over to get justice for a white man.

    Helena

  12. Janet Says:

    I saw a poll on CNN that said that 40% of the people are favorable to Sara Palin. How many white people must be for the idiot to bring the national level to 40%. I am almost embarrassed to be white.

    My woman’s group an I were watching CNN together when that statistic was announced. It is a pretty diverse group. It is made up of 93 members. about a third are white. We took a straw poll to see how we thought of Sara Palin. Not one who was not white voted for Palin. Almost half of us white women voted raised their hands in support of Sara Palin.

    Me and two of my white girlfriends had a talk. We were so embarrassed that it was obvious to everyone here that only stupid white people support Palin.

    Janet

  13. billy says Says:

    She was only a whisky maker, but he loved her still.

  14. Ruth Says:

    Some facts about Henry Gates
    ———————–
    Gates’s nickname is “Skip”… Gates attended Cambridge after graduating from Yale, but didn’t formally receive his MA and PhD until 1979… Gates said in a 2009 interview that he is 5’7″ tall… Gates walks with a cane due to a fractured hip joint at age 14 that left his right leg shorter than his left.

    In 1964, when Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was 14 years old, he suffered a hairline fracture of the ball-and-socket joint of the hip while playing touch football in his hometown. He didn’t realize the severity of the injury until a few weeks later when the joint sheared apart while he was walking. The white doctor who examined Gates shortly afterward questioned the boy about his injury as well as his career plans. When the young Gates replied that he wanted to be a doctor and then correctly answered many questions about science, the doctor made his diagnosis. He told Gates to stand and walk, and the young boy fell to the floor in intense pain. The doctor then turned to Gates’s mother and explained that her son’s problem was psychosomatic–a black boy from Appalachia who wanted to be a doctor in the mid-1960s was an overachiever. Years later Gates wrote in an article for the New York Times that “‘overachiever’ designated a sort of pathology: the overstraining of your natural capacity.” As a result of the misdiagnosis, Gates’s right leg is more than two inches shorter than his left.

    Since that time Gates has been trying to overcome not only his personal physical handicap but his race’s general metaphysical handicap as well. “The most subtle and pernicious form of racism against blacks [is] doubt about our intellectual capacities,” he explained to Maurice Berger in Art in America. Gates has easily dispelled such doubts, having earned some of the highest scholastic achievements and placing himself in a position to argue logically and eloquently for a multicultural approach to education.

    ….. having graduated summa cum laude from Yale University with a degree in history

    =========================================

    I excerpted the following from M. Dowd’s WaPo column:

    And Gates says that if anyone thinks he’s a fiery black militant, they’ve got the wrong guy, considering he married a white woman, has mixed-race daughters and has white blood himself.
    —————————————————
    Ruth

  15. Billy says Says:

    A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because

        it was a weapon of math disruption

  16. Harry Says:

    Billy shut the fuck up.

    Where is my HOT Zen Lill? Did Viv come or did he take her with him?

    What’s up Zen Lill?

    Harry

  17. Billy says Says:

    Okay Harry, people like you and George should love this one.

    The butcher backed into the meat grinder
        and got a little behind in his work.

  18. Shir Khan Says:

    Michelle if your article does nothing but start a dialogue between muslims, it will be a Godsend.

    Thank you for your concern. You have shown an unwavering commitment to the female effort to attain equality the world over.

    I am a continent away from America, but I feel like an fellow American when I read your blog. And I feel that you are a fellow Saudi.

    Shir Khan

  19. Scott Says:

    I like this. Maybe it will help someone.

    Q: Do you have any advice on how to ask for a favor — when it is something you really need to have them do?

    A: How to get people to do what they don’t want to. Say: “I know you don’t want to do this, but…” People are 29% more likely to grant a favor when the person asking for it uses this phrase. Why: Showing that you understand that someone is reluctant empowers him/her to feel that he/she has a choice — and to decide it might not be so bad to grant your request.

  20. Peter Says:

    Hafa adai

    Here’s an opportunity to make a little money on some rare Guam quarters.
    ________________________________
    GUAM – The first heads-up, double-die mark on a Guam Quarter has been reported to a coin collecting news site. The as-yet ‘unique’ irregularity is a double-die mark below the earlobe of George Washington on the obverse side of a Philadelphia-Mint Guam coin.

    That, according to Numismaster.com.

    Due to what’s been described as extremely low production volumes (less than 90 million coins), the Guam Quarter had already been declared the rarest of the U.S. Treasury’s new-series quarters. And that may make George’s double earlobe all the more valuable!
    ________________________________

    Peter

  21. Mandi Says:

    I just can’t get over this.

    I was sitting in a coffee shop when the weird guy who had been pacing the store talking to himself approached our table. He looked at me, and in all seriousness, said, “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your butt crack is showing.”

  22. Health info Says:

    A DREAM COME TRUE? WATCHING SPORTS MAKES YOU SMARTER

    If you or your significant other plans to sit around and watch college football at every opportunity these next few weeks, it may be that what looks like laziness actually can be called an exercise in self-improvement. According to a new study, watching sports is not just fun and relaxing, it’s also a good brain workout. Researchers at the University of Chicago have found that fans improve their mental function by stimulating the brain’s ability to understand the sometimes arcane language of sports.
    GAME ON
    In the study, associate professor of psychology Sian L. Beilock, PhD, and her colleagues asked a group that consisted of 12 hockey players, eight fans and nine individuals who don’t watch games at all to listen to phrases that included specific hockey jargon — for example, finish that shot. Next they listened to sentences about everyday actions, such as ringing a doorbell or pushing a shopping cart. As participants listened, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to map brain activity to see which areas of the brain were most active, then participants took simple tests to measure how well they had understood the sentences.
    Everyone had approximately equal understanding of the ordinary action sentences, Dr. Beilock reports, while (no surprise here) the hockey players and fans better understood the hockey-related language. The unexpected finding was that the motor areas of the brain associated with planning, controlling and performing actions — not just those involved with language — were activated in fans when they listened to the sports-related sentences, even though they had no intention to, say, make a slapshot. This shows that neural networks normally geared to producing action were activated even in people (the fans, in this case) who hadn’t spent time on the ice. Said another way, both players and fans worked multiple areas of their brains, rather than just a single area.
    This study adds to an increasing body of evidence suggesting that the adult brain remains flexible and dynamic and is able to absorb and use new information and language. Dr. Beilock notes that it also indicates that when we watch sports, the brain areas associated with language interact with those normally focused on physical action. It’s mental multi-tasking. Results of the study were published in the September 9, 2008, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
    THE BEST DEFENSE
    No doubt there will be nay-sayers who contend there are better ways to sharpen mental skills — crossword puzzles, chess, book groups, learning a foreign language or playing a new instrument, to name a few. But for a simple boost in brain fitness and maybe even better brain flexibility and language skills, you can just settle yourself on the couch and watch a football game. Take a pass on the beer and chips, though — this workout burns very few calories.

    Source(s): ?
    Sian L. Beilock, PhD, associate professor in the department of psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

  23. Greg Says:

    I took my girlfriend to a comedy club after her mother died about a month ago to cheer her up.

    The comedian’s theme for the night happened to be mother-daughter relationships.

    I wanted to take her home, but she insisted on staying. She was laughing so hard at the comedian’s jokes that I became uneasy.

    I thought she was over compensating for the lost of her mother. She had had a few more drinks than usual so I insisted that we go home.

    I apologized again about the topic of the comedian. She said it was okay because he was right on on most of his jokes. She said that he hated her mother and that she had been planning on killing the bitch if she had not slipped and fell down the stairs.

    I am stunned.

    Greg