The XX Factor

We’re Talking About: March 10, 2010

A middle-aged woman from the Pennsylvania suburbs, self-titled JihadJane , has been linked to an assasination plot against a Swedish cartoonist who depicted the prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog. She allegedly recruited a network of terrorists in Europe and Asia and travelled to Sweden to kills the man and scare “the whole Kufar [nonbeliever] world.” [ New York Times , Los Angeles Times ]

Congressman Eric Massa is being investigated for allegedly groping two aides and propositioning male staffers . He has resigned-effective Monday-but on the talk-show circuit he equivocated about why. Massa told Glenn Beck that he got “too familiar with his staff,” and on Larry King claimed it was for health reasons and argued on Sunday that it was a Democrat healthcare-related conspiracy. ” This is a very sick person ,” said Nancy Pelosi . [ The Washington Post , Politico ]

Both French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni , are allegedly having extramarital affairs . Rumors link Sarkozy to a right-wing cabinet member, Chantal Jouanno , and Bruni to the musician Benjamin Biolay . [ NY Daily News]

The archdiocese of Denver, Colorado, refuses to re-enroll two children in a Boulder Catholic school because they have two moms . He insists it is a central tenet of Catholicism that “sexual intimacy by anyone outside marriage is wrong … and that marriage can only occur between a man and a woman.” [ CNN ]

According to a new study, the stronger a woman’s immune system-measured by a diversity of genes of the major histocompatibility complex- the more sexual partners she has . [ New Scientist ]