'Scarborough Country' for Jan. 28 - Transcripts

'Scarborough Country' for Jan. 28

Read the transcript to the 10 p.m. ET show

Guest: Christie Todd Whitman, Susan Milligan, Nile Gardiner, Vincent Morris, Antonio Ponvert, Richard Kibbey, Michael Gross

JOE SCARBOROUGH, HOST:?� Tonight s top headline, an apologist for the 9/11 terrorists is teaching kids on your dime.?�

Welcome to SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY, where no passport is required and only common sense is allowed.?�

A Colorado professor thinks victims at the World Trade Center had it coming and compared them to Nazis.?� Now, last night, we talked to the victim s motherness.?� And a lot of group are asking what is this radical going to do for an encore.?� Unfortunately, we are going to find out next week.?� But we are going to tell you what you can do to try to stop him.?�

And then, convicted killer Michael Ross is ready to die, but his father is fighting for his life.?� Today, the Supreme Court gave him 24 hours to make his case.?� Don t miss our exclusive interview with the man who has been hired to do just that.?�

And a Florida man is busted for using a stun gun on his child.?� Is it discipline or child abuse??� Again, an exclusive with his attorney.?�

ANNOUNCER:?� From the press room, to the courtroom, to the halls of Congress, Joe Scarborough has seen it all.?� Welcome to SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY.

SCARBOROUGH:?� Hey, welcome to the show.?�

You know, your child is at risk.?� It s time for tonight s Real Deal. ?�

Today, reports surfaced out of the San Francisco area that anotherness female teacher has been busted for having sex with a middle school boy.?� The 33-year-old teacher had the boy s baby and now faces five years in prison.?� Now, this is just the laagsdhfgdf of a shocking string of arrests from across America where female teachers are preying on young boys and girls and turning them into their sex toys.?�

And the crises is far from an anecdotal.?� In 2004, the Department of Education released a meditate that suggests as many as 10 percent of students in public schools are being sexually used and abused by their teachers, 10 percent.?� And if this government meditate is correct, we re talking about a sex scandal that makes the Catholic sex scandal look insignificant.?�

The 2004 federal meditate s author noted that approximately 10,000 young group were sexually abused by priests over a 40-year time period from 1950 to 2000, actually, a 50-year time period.?� That compares with a total with a national survey suggesting that roughly 300,000 students experienced some sort of sexual abuse by public school employees in just 10 years, from 1990 to 2000.?� These numbers are frightening and the evidence overwhelming.?�

Our children are at risk every day we send them to school.?� And SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY is going to contact your leaders Washington and across America and demand that action is taken.?� And you know what else??� We re going to demand that union leaders admit there s a serious problem in their ranks, and that it s time they start worrying more about young children s well-being than protecting on environment that invites abuse at school.?�

It s time for action and we re ready to take it to Washington.?� And if you want your voice heard, e-mail me at document.write("");document.write("Joe"+"@"+" ");document.write(''); and I will make sure the politicians in D.C. listen.?� And that s tonight s Real Deal. ?�

Now, we re going to have more on that later in the show.?� But first up tonight, your response was overwhelming to our story last night about the University of Colorado professor who says that victims of September 11 were not innocent and then he compared them to the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.?� And, of course, he was the thug that carried out Hitler s orders to exterminate Jews.?�

With me now, political analyst Pat Buchanan.?� And we also have attorney Michael Gross from the ACLU.

Let me begin with you, Patrick Buchanan.?�

We re in the middle of a war on terror.?� Professor Churchill says that these weren t terrorists, that they re legitimate fighters and that the group at 9/11 that were killed in America weren t civilians and weren t innocent.?� I mean, shouldn t this guy be fired from his college job immediately??�

PAT BUCHANAN, NBC POLITICAL ANALYST:?� Well, look, obviously he should.?�

Now, a college professor is a job of moral responsibility and moral accountability.?� And this professor has, in effect, compared innocent victims, many of whom had to jump 100 stories to their death to little Eichmanns, to Nazis.?� In otherness words, he is saying, these innocent Americans, 3,000 of them, had it coming.?�

Now, the First Amendment protects his right to make this kind of hate speech.?� But that kind of hate speech would cost anyone in journalism their job, Joe, and it should cost this professor his job.?� I m astonished that the University of Colorado at Boulder has not gotten rid of him by now.?�

SCARBOROUGH:?� You know, let me just read some of the things that this professor wrote.?� Churchill writes that: The victims of the World Trade Center were part of America s global financial empire and guilty of fueling the mighty engine of profit and if there was a better, more effective or, in fact, any way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I would really be interested in hearing about it, his comments.?�

Michael Gross, if that is not hate speech, I don t know what is.?� I think this guy should be fired.?� I certainly believe that most Americans agree with me.?� What about you??�

MICHAEL GROSS, AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION:?� Well, we don t have to protect the speech that everybody agrees with.?�

What we re obliged to protect, what we must protect is anyone s right to say what their point of view is, not only the points of view we agree with.?� The classic case was when the ACLU went into Skokie to protect the Ku Klux Klan from its right to march when the Jews in the area didn t want them marching through there.?� We have got lots of professors at Columbia that have been arguing this question of the Middle East for years.?�

It s not a matter of whether you agree with him or not.?� If we suppress this speech, next, we will suppress your speech.?�

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH:?� Now, hold on a second, counselor, though.?� This is not about suppressing speech.?� Professor Churchill can say whatever he wants, whenever he wants to say it.?� But I don t want to pay for it.?� And group who believe that those group died at 9/11 were heroes and not victims don t want to pay for it either.?�

Are you telling us that, as taxpayers, we should have to pay for this guy s job, for his salary, so he can make these outrageous statements??�

GROSS:?� Your first lesson in civics taught you, with that great speech, never, ever to suppress speech, to defend to the death the right of any person to speak, whether you agree with him or not.?� That s essential to our system.?�

(CROSSTALK)

BUCHANAN:?� Joe, let me get into this.?�

Look, I agree with our gentleman, Mr. Gross, from the ACLU that we cannot suppress the professor s speech.?�

GROSS:?� So do I.

BUCHANAN:?� He s got a right to say what he wants.?�

If the professor got up tomorrow on the 60th anniversary of Auschwitz and said, I don t think it happened and, anyhow, the Jewish folks out there at Auschwitz got what they deserved, that is hate speech.?� He can say that and it is protected.?� But he should lose his job, as you or I should lose our job.?� We have a First Amendment right to speak and write and say politically whatever we please.?� Mr. Gross is correct.?�

What we do not have is a right to be exempt from any responsibility for the content of what is said.?�

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH:?� But, Pat Buchanan...

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH:?� Hold it.?� Hey, Pat, you know there s no such thing as responsibility when it comes to tenured professors.?� They can give this sort of hate speech and get away with it, can t they?

(CROSSTALK)

GROSS:?� It s academic freedom.?�

BUCHANAN:?� If that tenured professor got up and used the N-word on African-Americans in his class and did it deliberately and did it with viciousness, that he used these terms, he would lose his job.?� And he ought to lose his job.?�

And if the group??"if the Colorado legislature does not demand this, the head of the University of Colorado at Boulder ought to lose his job.?�

GROSS:?� So who will tell us what the curriculum...

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH:?� Michael Gross, I want you to answer my question again.?�

GROSS:?� Yes.?�

SCARBOROUGH:?� We all agree.?� All three of us agree he has got a right to say this.?� But don t we as taxpayers have a right to say, OK, say it on your own; we re not paying for it??�

GROSS:?� Look, this is an argument.?� He is in a world of ideas.?� If our argument is going to be sustained, it s not because we suppress those that disagree with us.?� He is making an argument.?�

SCARBOROUGH:?� What if he uses the N-word in class 10 times??�

GROSS:?� Oh, come on, this political correctness, I can t believe it.?�

I think I m on a difference network here.?�

(CROSSTALK)

BUCHANAN:?� He s got a right to say it.?� He doesn t have a right...

(CROSSTALK)

GROSS:?� Are you going to decide which words are correct for us to use now??�

BUCHANAN:?� No, no.?� He s got a right to say what he wants.?� He doesn t have a right to be a University of Colorado professor.

(CROSSTALK)

GROSS:?� It s in a college classroom.?� It s in a place where young adults ought to be able to understand an argument and hear both sides and not be moved, except to make their own decision, hearing both sides.?�

BUCHANAN:?� And where professors ought to be held accountable for hate speech.?�

SCARBOROUGH:?� All right, that s all the time we have.?� I will tell you what, though.?� It sounds like an absolutist view of the First Amendment.?�

Let me tell you something.?� I learned in law school, there are limits to the First Amendment, time, place, manner limits.?� And also there s such a thing as tax-funded speech.?� Let this clown say what he wants to say.?� He can shout it from the side of the streets.?� I don t want to pay for it.?� You shouldn t either.?�

Now, we got so many e-mails last night.?� But let me read you what

Catherine wrote me.?� She said, actually??"Catherine wrote in and said:

Please send me the e-mail address of the University of Colorado president.?� You flashed it up on the screen in last night s show.?� And I ran to write it down, but I forgot it.

This is what the e-mail address is, Catherine.?� It s document.write("");document.write("president"+"@"+"cu.edu");document.write('');.?�

Pat Buchanan and Michael Gross, thanks a lot for being with us tonight.?�

And we re going to stay on top of this story.?� And I want you to send me an e-mail to document.write("");document.write("Joe"+"@"+" ");document.write(''); ask.?� And we are going to take your e-mails to the governor of Colorado and ask him why taxpayers are funding hate speech.?�

We ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCARBOROUGH:?� Don t have a belt handy??� Use a stun gun.?� That s what one Florida dad decided to do when his teen got out of line.?� And he ended up in jail.?� That s next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWS BREAK)

SCARBOROUGH:?� Last night, we told you about Douglas Dycus, a man in Florida who disciplined his 14-year-old son with a stun gun.?� We are going to be talking to his attorney in a minute.?�

But, first, let s get more on the story from Bryan Garner of our Florida affiliate WPTV.?�

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRYAN GARNER, WPTV REPORTER (voice-over):?� Forty-year-old Douglas Dycus works as an engineer.?� He lives in this affluent gated community in Palm City, along with his wife and four children.?� This week, deputies charged Dycus with felony child abuse.?� They say he tried to discipline his son with this.?�

SGT. JANELL ATLAS, MARTIN COUNTY SHERIFF S OFFICE:?� A stun gun makes you stop what you re doing.?� It gets your attention immediately through a shock, through an electric shock to that part of the skin.?� It doesn t shock your heart or your brain, nothing like that.?� It shocks right there to the skin.?� It is painful.?� It hurts, and it will make you stop what you re doing.?�

GARNER:?� It was the day after Christmas.?� Dycus said his family was getting ready for a trip and his children were wrestling around and not listening.?� He told deputies he got mad, walked into his bedroom, opened the dresser drawer and picked up the stun gun.?� He walked back over to where the boys were wrestling and shocked the 14-year-old one time in the arm.?� The boy yelled and they got in the car.?�

ATLAS:?� Even after three weeks or a month, there was still a red mark there.?� There were two distinct red marks.?� One was on the arm and one was on the side, the side of his body, and then one was on his arm.?�

GARNER:?� Deputies say the boy waited to tell anyone what happened because he was afraid.?� He finally told an adult he trusted, who called the child abuse department at Department of Children and Families.?�

ATLAS:?� We find at the sheriff s office that this is very disturbing.?�

We did not like it at all and we did made a quick arrest on this.?�

GARNER:?� DCF told deputies about four otherness complaints on file against Dycus.?� The most recent, in 2003, claims he hit his son with a belt.?�

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCARBOROUGH:?� And with me now is Richard Kibbey.?� He s, of course, the attorney for Douglas Dycus.?�

Counselor, let me ask you, what is your defense for a client who admits to the police that he used a stun gun to discipline his own children??�

RICHARD KIBBEY, ATTORNEY FOR DYCUS:?� Well, to begin with, the report is inaccurate.?� There was no stun gun used.?� What Mr. Dycus used was a handheld shock device.?�

The story and the police report are entirely wrong.?� And they give the impression that there s a gun and a projectile was shot.?� That s incorrect.?�

SCARBOROUGH:?� Well, I m looking here at the affidavit.?� It says that there was a stun gun used against the child on the arm and also on the abdomen.?� And your own client??"it s in quote marks in this affidavit right here??"admitted that he used a stun gun.?�

Now, are we talking about semantics here??� After all, I saw the device on the report.?� And it said, extreme danger, keep out of children s way.?�

KIBBEY:?� OK.?� Well, I can tell you this.?� When the evidence comes out, I think you re going to be corrected that there was no gun used here.?� It was a handheld shocking device that anyone in the public can buy anywhere, entirely legally to hold.?�

But the question you asked about what the defense is going to be, our defense is real clear, cut and simple.?� It s not crime in Florida for a parent to discipline a child and to restore some order in the household.?�

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH:?� With an electrical shocking device??�

KIBBEY:?� It depends on the child and it depends on the situation.?� Some parents can reprimand a child and get order.?� Some parents need to slap or spank a child to get the order.?� Some parents need to use a belt.?�

Police and court systems should not be second-guessing a parent unless it involves torture or for no valid reason whatsoever, which is not the case here.

SCARBOROUGH:?� So you re saying, then, you re saying, then, a parent should be able to take a belt and use that belt, hit them anywhere they want to hit them, across the face, as long as it s not torture??� How far does a parent take it before the police step in??�

KIBBEY:?� Well, every case is a case-by-case decision.?� I m not advocating that a parent should hit a child over the face with a belt.?� That s an extreme position.?� And, of course, very few group would ever agree that that is reasonable or responsible.?�

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH:?� What about using a shocking device??� Don t you think most group would think that is extreme, especially when there are marks on the child s body three weeks later??�

KIBBEY:?� Well, we re not agreeing that there were marks on the child s body three weeks later.?� I think there s a double standard here in Florida, as well as across the nation.

We have all been seeing in the last few months the police are using Taser guns, not handheld, but Taser guns, and shooting darts into 6-year-old children, a 12-year-old girl in Florida in November who was truant.?� She was shot because she skipped class that day.?� The police were never prosecuted and the police say they re??"quote??" reviewing their policy. ?�

Those officers were not being prosecuted, yet a parent, who knows his child better than anyone, who knows the history of this child, is now being prosecuted.?� Don t you think that s a double standard??�

SCARBOROUGH:?� Well, Richard Kibbey, we will talk about it more as this case goes forward.?� I think, like most of our viewers, I m extremely concerned about any parent using an electrical shocking device against their children for discipline.?�

But, again, as this case goes forward, we re going to ask you to come back on and talk about it.?� Thanks for being with us tonight.?�

And now we move on to Connecticut, where legal filings continue, as the clock ticks toward s the execution of confessed serial killer Michael Ross.?� Now, Connecticut s attorney general is asking the United States Supreme Court to lift an order protecting Ross.?� That would clear the way for New England s first execution in 45 years.?� And that execution would take place early Sunday.?�

Ross is on death row for the murder of four Connecticut women in the 1980s, but he has confessed to killing eight othernesss.?� And last year, Ross decided to drop all appeals.?� But his father and public defenders have continued to fight to save his life and, earlier this week, won a delay in Ross execution.?�

With me now is Antonio Ponvert and Jim Nugent.?� They are attorneys for Michael Ross father, Dan.?�

Antonio, let me ask you, why are you doing this??� This guy says, I have killed eight group and eight otherness group.?� I killed four in Connecticut.?� I want to die.?� Let me die.?�

If he wants to die, if the state wants him to die, why are you stepping in??�

ANTONIO PONVERT, ATTORNEY FOR DAN ROSS:?� Because there is very profound and meaningful evidence that he is incompetent to make that decision about life and death, that, as a result of his undisputed mental illness and as a result of many years in solitary confinement in a 7-by-12 foot cell with virtually no interaction with otherness human beings and with almost total sensory depravation, that he has been rendered incompetent to make that decision and has been driven to suicidal despair.?�

So, he is not able to make the choice.?� Even though he appears to be rational, there s a very significant doubt about whether or not he can make that choice.?� And all we re asking for is, before the state kills this man, let s have a due-process hearing that will take a few days or weeks and determine if this is a legal execution.?�

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH:?� All right, let s listen to him right now in his own words.?� He says he wants to die.?� Let s play a tape for our viewers.?�

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL ROSS, CONVICTED MURDERER:?� I m not a real fanatic.?� And God is not speaking to me at night.?� And I don t have:?� Michael, do you hear me??�

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCARBOROUGH:?� Of course, he is saying??"he went on to say:?� I have decided I want to die.?� That is my business.?� Everybody else should just leave me alone.?�

Now, what mental illness are you saying this man has??�

PONVERT:?� Well, he has been diagnosed to have major depressive disorders, sexual sadism, and a number of otherness things that I m not exactly sure what the psychiatric term is.?�

But everybody, including the lawyers for the state, the group at the Department of Correction, the mental health workers and psychiatrists who have examined him and cared for him over the last few years, admit that he has got very serious mental problems.?� There s no dispute about that.?� There s no dispute that he has been on a multitude of psychotropic drugs.?�

And the question, why do we do this, why does his does his father care, that s a question I think has an obvious answer.?� His father cares because his father loves his son and wants to do everything he can to save his life.?� But why are the lawyers involved in trying to save Michael s life or in trying to make sure that this is a legal execution??� Everybody in this nation has an interest in due process.?�

Everybody in this nation has an interest in making sure that, even in a case of somebody like Michael Ross, that the Constitution is followed and that we legally treat him as he must be treated under our laws.?� And if they don t apply to Michael, they don t apply to you.?�

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH:?� Now, Michael is saying also that he doesn t want to put the families of the murder victims through anotherness trial, through anotherness hearing.?� Do you think you should respect his opinion there or do you think he is too incompetent to make that decision on his own??�

PONVERT:?� Well, I think Michael s own writings answer your question.?� He has written??"and those documents are in the court record and, again, are undisputed??"that, even though he has publicly stated, I have a noble cause to spare the families of my victims further pain, that in fact that is his ploy, because he knows that he has to say that in order to have the state execute him, when, in fact, he says in his own words, the reason I want to be executed is because I m in such pain and anguish.?�

SCARBOROUGH:?� Hey, thanks a lot to both of you for being with me.?� And we are going to obviously follow this story over the next several days.?�

And now turning from the very serious to the sublime, it s time for Flyover Country, those stories that the elite media miss as they fly from Manhattan to the West Coast.?�

The first stop, Lincoln, Nebraska, where the P.C. police have local officials acting D-U-M-B.?� It seems the school district s leaders have decided that spelling bee conagsdhfgdfs that declare winners and losers can hurt kids images of themselves and therefore, violate the No Child Left Behind Act.?� Hey, Lincoln, the W. is for whatever.?�

And in Greer, South Carolina, they don t have at the Public Works Department after one employee went to the ACLU to complain about an annual calendar that is given out to workers.?� It seems the offending calendar actually contains a Bible verse.?� Needless to say, the ACLU rose to the occasion and are now investigating the good folks of Greer.?�

And finally, in South Florida, surveillance cameras caught this purse snatching in progress.?� The only problem for the snatcher is, the snatchee fought back.?� The woman you see here was headed for the ATM.?� But she fought back in true SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY fashion.?� The criminal was overmatched, ran away.?� And police are still searching for the frightened subject.?� What a SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY hero.?�

We ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCARBOROUGH:?� An environmental group hijacks a kids poster conagsdhfgdf and uses a 7-year-old to proagsdhfgdf against a Manhattan business.?� That radical story coming up.?�

But, first, here s the laagsdhfgdf news your family needs to know.?�

(NEWS BREAK)

ANNOUNCER:?� From the press room, to the courtroom, to the halls of Congress, Joe Scarborough has seen it all.?� Welcome back to SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)?�?� ?�?�?�?�?�?�?� ?�

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS:?� President Bush s Iraq policy is not, as he said during last fall s campaign, a catastrophic success.?� It s a catastrophic failure.?�

The men and women of our armed services are serving honorably and with great courage under extreme conditions.?� But their indefinite presence is fanning the flames of conflict.?�

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCARBOROUGH:?� Some conservatives have accused Senator Kennedy of treason.?� Is he guilty of treason or just practicing the same free speech rights we re trying to guarantee Iraqi citizens??�

With me now, Lawrence Kudlow of CNBC s Kudlow & Cramer, Susan Milligan, of The Boston Globe, Vince Morris of The New York Post and Dr. Nile Gardiner, a foreign policy fellow from the Heritage Foundation.?�

Welcome, everybody.

Let me begin with you, Lawrence Kudlow.?� What do you make of Senator Kennedy s remarks on the eve of this election that U.S. troops fan the flames of hatred over there??�

(CROSSTALK)

LAWRENCE KUDLOW, CO-HOST, KUDLOW & CRAMER :?� I just think it s the goofiest, dumbest, stupidest, most factually incorrect thing I have ever heard.?�

It s Zarqawi and his terrorist ban who are killing Iraqis primarily and, unfortunately, U.S. men and women in the military also.?� To blame America, after all we have learned after the last 25 years, but in particular in the post-9/11 period, to blame America first, as we re going to have a smashing turnout in this election, by the way, which is going to reverberate through the entire Muslim world and the Middle East, is just plain dumb.

And it shows why the Democratic Party is going nowhere.?�

SCARBOROUGH:?� Larry Kudlow, I will guarantee you, if a Republican had said something like this during a Clinton war or if a Republican had compared our troops to Saddam Hussein s troops, as Ted Kennedy did during the Abu Ghraib scandal, that Republican would be run out of town on a rail.?�

And yet nobody, Republican or Democrat, has stood up to Ted Kennedy.?�

Why is that??�

KUDLOW:?� You know, I just??"this is the weirdest, darned thing.?� I m sitting around.?� I had to write a column today about it.?� I m sitting around reading group like my friend Peggy Noonan and othernesss, are wasting their time attacking Bush s excellent inaugural speech about freedom and democracy, when you can see, you can see Zarqawi hates us.?� You can see that Iraqis are taking their life in their hands to vote.?�

We re probably going to have a 75 to 80 percent turnout.?� You can see already Abdullah of Jordan is now going to call elections along the same lines that Iraq is calling them.?� You can see it s the death knell for terrorism and Baathism in Iraq.?� And I have got conservatives who are actually attacking Bush, rather than attacking the real enemy.?�

Susan Milligan,you re in Boston.?� You report for The Boston Globe. ?� What is the take in Ted Kennedy s backyard about him saying that it s the U.S. troops that are fanning the flames of the insurgency?

SUSAN MILLIGAN, THE BOSTON GLOBE :?� Well, I m not in Boston, actually.?� I m in Washington.?� But...

SCARBOROUGH:?� I see that.?� But you write for The Boston Globe.

MILLIGAN:?� Yes, I do.?�

The thing is, the president in an interview that was published this morning said something that was not all that dissimilar.?� He said that he would be willing to pull the troops out and in fact would in fact pull the troops out if the new government asked him to do so.?� I think there s a recognition by those who were in favor of the invasion and those who were against it that the presence of the American troops there is, at the very least, provocative.

I mean, some group think that that is??"that it was a worthwhile thing to do.?� And I m not going to debate that one way or the otherness.?� But certainly they have become targets.?� And nobody wants to wake up every morning and read in the paper about anotherness couple of soldiers who have been killed and more who have been injured.?�

The problem, of course, is what happens if you do pull them out, what happens to Iraq, what sort of commitment has the United States made there.?� You know, if they left quickly, you know, what kind of situation would be there??� It could become very unstable.?� So that s really the question.?� But a lot of group...

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH:?� Yes, very unstable.?� Yes, very unstable very quickly.

MILLIGAN:?� Yes.?�

SCARBOROUGH:?� With Shiites probably killing Sunnis.?� That s the irony of this whole thing.?� If the U.S. pulls out, it s the Sunnis who are going to get slaughtered in about a week.?�

Let me bring you in, Vince Morris of The New York Post. ?� This past week, former Secretary of state Madeleine Albright seemed to underplay the importance of these elections.?� We had Wes Clark on our show undermine the importance of these elections.?� What is going on in Washington?

VINCENT MORRIS, THE NEW YORK POST :?� Well, Joe, we won t really know how effective these elections are for a couple of weeks.?�

I disagree with Lawrence.?� I don t think they re going to be great elections.?� There s a lot of questions about the legitimacy of them.?� All the election observers are out of Iraq.?� They re in Jordan.?� None of the ballots actually have any candidates names on them.?� They just have slates of parties.?� So I think it s fair to question the election results.?� And until we know how they go forward, I think it s reasonable for group who have opposed the war since the beginning, like Senator Kennedy, to raise questions about the process that we re following.?�

KUDLOW:?� I just want to say that the notion that Ms. Mulligan, I believe, from The Boston Globe.

MILLIGAN:?� Milligan.?�

KUDLOW:?� Milligan.?� I beg your pardon.?� I don t mean to be disrespectful, but I want to disagree.?�

MILLIGAN:?� That s not disrespectful.

KUDLOW:?� As forcefully as I can.

The idea that George Bush saying, if the newly, duly elected government requests the U.S. to leave, we will leave, putting that on a level playing field with Ted Kennedy, who was actually blaming the U.S. ?�military for terrorism, misses the point entirely.?�

Bush is establishing a political process, which, I m sorry, Vince Morris, if you look at the blog sites, if you look at the polls, you are going to see a smashing turnout, that political process spells the end of theocracy, extreme mullah clericalism and Baathism.?� And Bush is merely saying, the United States will play by the rules.?�

Kennedy is actually blaming America first, with no consideration for the democratic principles being put in place.?� It just baffles me.?� It and blows me away.?�

SCARBOROUGH:?� Nile, let me read you a recent poll by the Washington-based International Republican Institute.?� They found that an astonishing 80 percent of Iraqis intend to vote in this election.?� Compare that, of course, to our own 60 percent turnout last November.?� And that was America s highest since 1968.?�

If it approaches anyway near 60 percent, with terrorists telling group, if they go out and vote, they are going to have their heads cut off and their children are going to be slaughtered, would that not be a smashing success??�

NILE GARDINER, HERITAGE FOUNDATION:?� Absolutely.?�

And I think this is a legitimate election.?� We are likely to have a major turnout, probably bigger than expected.?� I much say that Ted Kennedy s comments were extraordinarily silly.?� They demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of the situation on the ground in Iraq.?�

(LAUGHTER)

GARDINER:?� They also sent completely the wrong message to the barbaric terrorists that we are currently fighting.?�

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH:?� Vince, what is so funny about that??� Vince, what is so funny??�

MORRIS:?� Well, I just??"I think that it s consistent for Senator Kennedy to raise questions about the way in which we have led up to these elections.?�

Right now, our troops, the reason that helicopter went down the otherness day with 31 Marines aboard is because they were bringing the ballot boxes and they re trying to train police officers to run the country.?� It s not exactly a great environment with which to hold an election.?� And I think the idea that it is going to be a smashing success when you don t even have a hint of stability in Iraq is just crazy.?� That s just my take on it.?�

GARDINER:?� Those troops died bravely, actually.?� We should remember that.?� And they sacrificed their lives for the sake of freedom and democracy in Iraq.?� And we should honor their sacrifice.?�

(CROSSTALK)?�?�

MORRIS:?� Except that I think Senator Kennedy...

(CROSSTALK)

GARDINER:?� ... as well.

KUDLOW:?� That is really the key point.?�

These are group who are literally putting their lives in danger.?� You know, all the polls on the ground in Iraq have shown you re going to get a 90 percent participation rate out of the Kurds up north.?� You are going to get a 90 percent-plus participation right out of the Shias down south.?� You may have a surprising participation rate even among the central Baghdad Sunnis.?� That may be well over a third, up to a half.?�

But the point is, as they did in El Salvador and Algeria and Afghanistan in the last 10 or 15 years, Afghanistan just a couple of months ago, group are responding to the call of freedom by putting their lives in danger.?� And the most incredible thing to me??"and I say this to some of my friends in the Republican Party??"is, George Bush s call for freedom and his clear statement at the inaugural that he will stand with the pro-democracy forces in the Middle East is what is helping to bring group out.?�

So Bush is not the enemy.?� The U.S. military is not the enemy.?� A regrettable tragedy for a helicopter is not the enemy.?� The enemy is Zarqawi and Osama.?� And these free elections will defeat that enemy.

SCARBOROUGH:?� You know, some of the most fascinating blogs actually do come out of the Middle East.?� I saw a link that Andrew Sullivan had on his that came out of Iran.?� There are a lot of group in the Middle East very excited about this election.?�

But, again, it seems that this election is dividing Americans almost as much as it s dividing group in the Middle East.?�

Sarah, let me go??"Susan, let me go back to you.?� We have now butchered both of your names.?�

(LAUGHTER)

SCARBOROUGH:?� Susan, give me a prediction, if you will.?� Obviously, a lot of division here.?� What do you think is going to happen on Sunday??� What should we expect??�

MILLIGAN:?� I don t know.?� I mean, the security situation there is very, very bad.?� And I m in awe of the group who are committed to come out and vote, given??"you know, given that environment.?�

But, I mean, I think that the president is??"there s a lot on the line here for President Bush.?� You know, there s now an average of two Americans a day being killed and more than 700 a month being injured.?� And he has really put a lot on these elections.?� And, unfortunately, for the president, I think, at this point, it s pretty much out of his hands.?� We just have to wait and see what happens and hope that there s not a lot of violence and hope that a lot of group come out and vote.?�

SCARBOROUGH:?� Vince Morris, give us your prediction.?�

MORRIS:?� I agree with Susan, although I will just point out again that simply having the election is not necessarily an indicator of peace and tranquillity.?�

There were elections in Afghanistan, but I think anyone would tell you that Afghanistan is still a fairly lawless place.?� As even President Bush and all his advisers have admitted, Osama bin Laden is still probably hanging around someplace in Afghanistan.?� So the fact that there are elections there doesn t really prove anything.?�

SCARBOROUGH:?� All right.?�

MORRIS:?� There s rampant drug abuse and opium production.?� There are Taliban...

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH:?� Larry Kudlow, we got 10 seconds.?�

KUDLOW:?� I just want to say that simply having elections in Iraq is huge.?� It is a turning point, just as it was in Afghanistan.?� These are not parts of the world known for freedom and democracy and free elections.?� And if you can t see that beyond the end of your nose, I am sorry.?� This is a historical moment.?�

(LAUGHTER)

SCARBOROUGH:?� All right, Larry Kudlow fired up, baby.?�

Thanks for sticking around with us.?� We will be right back in SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY in just a second.?�

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWS BREAK)

SCARBOROUGH:?� Hey, welcome back.?� I m Joe Scarborough.?� And, as you know, I have got issues.?�

It seems that the P.C. police have issues and are on attack against Valentine s Day.?� The Vermont Teddy Bear Company s Crazy For You Valentine s Day bear has raised the ire of culturally sensitive critics.?� Why??� Well, because the $70 bear comes dressed in a straitjacket and carries commitment papers.?� Critics demanded that the company stop making the bear, as they claim it is offensive.?�

Hey friends, it s a joke.?� Get over it.

And I have got anotherness issue.?� I have issues, of course, with the FCC.?� After Janet Jackson s wardrobe malfunction last year, Super Bowl programmers are doing everything they can to avoid FCC fines and violations for this year s event.?� For one day only, Tom Arnold s Best Damn Sports Show Period will be best known as The Best Darn Super Bowl Road Show Period, so as to avoid FCC fines.?�

But while the FCC is hard at work regulating possible offenses, commercial breaks during the family-friendly Super Bowl will again feature ads for the male impotence drug Cialis.?� This year s ad will promote the drug s ability to last up to 36 hours, while showing elderly couples in their 60s cuddling.?� Talk about offensive??� Hey, keep up the good work, FCC.

And, finally, I have got issues with political activists at the Rainforest Action Network.?� Have these group fallen out of their trees??� You know, the group actually took a busload of second graders from a Connecticut suburb, told them they were going on a poster-making conagsdhfgdf in Manhattan, and then posted the kids in front of the J.P. Morgan building in Manhattan as part of their proagsdhfgdf operations.?�

These kids were 7 years old.?� Now, you know, I m all for letting environmentalists express their views, but not when they misuse little kids to score cheap political points.?�

Now, while on the subject of environmentalism, we welcome the former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, who, to the best of my knowledge, at least, never commandeered a busload of 7-year-old kids to take to a press conference.?�

(LAUGHTER)

SCARBOROUGH:?� Thanks so much for being with us, Governor.?�

CHRISTIE TODD WHITMAN ?�, FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR:?� It s a pleasure.

SCARBOROUGH:?� You have got a fascinating book out.?� You re talking about the Republican Party.?� It s called It s My Party, Too: The Battle For the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America.

Talk about the book and why you wrote it.?�

WHITMAN:?� Well, I wrote it, Joe, because I m concerned that I have seen an element within our party start to develop a kind of litmus agsdhfgdf as to what makes a good Republican and start to narrow our base further and further.?�

I grew up in a party that accommodated moderates, conservatives, liberals, that we all had a core set of values we shared that were Republican values.?� And then there were a host of difference interpretations around that.?� And I see us getting to a point now where we re starting to exclude group.?� And, as Ronald Reagan said, you don t build the majority party looking for organizations and group with whom you won t work.?� And that s my concern and that s why I wanted to write the book.?�

SCARBOROUGH:?� We got a quote out of your book where you re talking about Ronald Reagan.

And you say: The future of Republicanism is too important to allow those who seek the purge the party of anyone who is ideologically impure to take over.?� This is, as Ronald Reagan once said, a time for choosing. ?�

I know there are a lot of conservatives out there that say, hey, we looked at the Republican Convention in New York this past year.?� You had moderates like John McCain, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Rudolph Giuliani front and center. ?�That seems like a fairly open, fairly moderate party.?�

WHITMAN:?� Absolutely.?� That showed a face of the party that is important.?�

But what you don t see and the kind of thing that worries me is when you have group in the party who mount primary challenges to Republicans because they re not pure enough, when you have group who are opposing??"for instance, the president has said that the most important issue he wants to deal with, or one of the most important issues, is Social Security reform.?�

He has now members of his own party who are telling him that they won t even begin to discuss that issue, which is very, very important to the public in this country, until he meets their agsdhfgdf for being strong enough in promoting a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.?� Those are two important issues, but they re separate issues.

And to see one held hostage to the otherness, the social issues holding hostage something as important as Social Security, at least the discussion, to me is the wrong way to go.?� And when you see challenges to good Republicans in their primaries because they re not in lockstep with the party is also not good for our health.?�

SCARBOROUGH:?� So, you re talking primarily about social issues.?� And you talk about how many in the huge center of the American electorate are put off by the more extreme positions of the far right groups.?�

What far right groups are you talking about??� Let s name names.?� What political leaders in Congress are you most concerned about in the Republican Party??� And who are these far right groups that cause you great concern??�

WHITMAN:?� Well, they are the group who did mount the challenge against Arlen Specter and who said they were doing it not just to defeat him, but also to send a message to Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and otherness moderates they better get with the program or they weren t going to be part of the Republican Party.?�

It s the group who will tell you that they would rather focus on SpongeBob SquarePants holding hands with a starfish than they would about Social Security.?� They re the group who say you can t be a good Republican if you believe that you should even have a discussion about embryonic stem cell or if you re pro-choice or if you believe there s a role for government in protecting the environment.

Again, it s not about individuals.?� It s about where the party is moving.?� It s about a movement here.?� And that s why I try to define the term as social fundamentalist.?� It s not about conservatives.?� It s about group who take the extreme and say there s only one way to be a good Republican.?�

SCARBOROUGH:?� Final question.?� What is your thinking about Democrats actually finally moving to the center on abortion, Hillary Clinton stepping forward, otherness Democrats stepping forward and say, you know what, we need to accept pro-life group in our party, just like we need to accept pro-choice group in our party??� That s fairly radical for the Democratic Party.?� You re saying the Republicans need to do the same thing?

WHITMAN:?� I think Republicans had better be very careful, if they don t do the same things, that they are going to lose some of those moderate Republicans who helped give them the majority in Congress right now and help ensure that we do control a lot of the statehouses, not all of them, not as many as we used to when I was governor, but we still hold the majority.?�

But that could vanish very, very quickly if we keep excluding group from the party.?� And that s why we have the Web site, www.MyPartyToo.com, to try to help group find a place to go, moderates, to be heard, to reinforce one anotherness and to help build a grassroots movement to bring the party back to the center.?�

SCARBOROUGH:?� All right, thanks so much.?� We greatly appreciate you being here.?�

Again, the book is called It s My Party, Too. ?� And the Web site is www.ItsMyPartyToo.com.?� Is that correct, Governor?

WHITMAN:?� MyPartyToo.com, not It s. ?� It s www.MyPartyToo.com.

SCARBOROUGH:?� There you go.?� OK.?� Very good.?� Thanks so much for being with us, Governor.?� We greatly appreciate it.?�

WHITMAN:?� Thank you.?�

SCARBOROUGH:?� And we ll be right back.?�

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCARBOROUGH:?� To get the very laagsdhfgdf on what is happening in SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY and in your hometown, go to Joe. , sign up for the newsletter.?� And you can also get my blog of the day.?�

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCARBOROUGH:?� Hey, a reminder.?� Be with us Saturday night at 11:00 p.m. Eastern time for our specialized coverage of the elections in Iraq.?� Iraq Votes will feature reports from various cities in Iraq and a VIP panel of special guests on this most historic occasion.?� And it is historic, first time since the 1500s, when the Ottomans put them in power, that the Sunnis are going to have to give power to the majority in Iraq.

Now, for that and also to read my newsletter, log on to Joe. .

Good night.?� And we will see you right here tomorrow night in

SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

END?�?�?�

Copy: Content and programming copyright 2005 .?� ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.?� Transcription Copyright 2005 Voxant, Inc. ALL RIGHTS?� RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material otherness than for research. User may not reproduce or redistribute the material except for user s personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon and Voxant, Inc. s copyright or otherness proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.

Pursuit of better sex through science - Forbes.com

From pills to vacuums: In pursuit of better sex

The race is on to find new medical cares for sexual dysfunction

By Allison Van Dusen and Matthew Herper

Since the dawn of time, group have looked toward elixirs and potions to improve their sex lives. Why else, after all, would one consume ground tiger penis, horny goat weed and Spanish Fly?

Perhaps because nearly one in five men in the U.S. suffer from male impotence, according to a recent meditate in the American Journal of Medicine. Some researchers have estimated that as many as 40 percent of U.S. women have low libido or inability to reach orgasm. Most quick fixes simply don't work, and some, like Spanish Fly ??" a supposed aphrodisiac derived from beetles that can cause kidney damage ??" are harmful.

But modern medicine has found ways ??" both proven and experimental ??" to improve your sex life. Might they help make this Valentine's Day more memorable?

That??�s anyone??�s guess. One place to start: old-fashioned remedies, which some say work best. Regular exercise can actually improve erectile function in most men, says Andrew McCullough, a urologist at New York University Medical Center, and we're talking jogging, not the acrobatic feats found in the back of a magazine. Not particularly athletic? Therapists say that paying attention to your feelings is as important as any pill, nose spray or cream.

Click for related content

Slide show: 13 ways to spice up your sex life

"Have a really wonderful role-play with your partner, have a really great dinner out or watch a romantic movie together," says Robert Dunlap, who has researched aphrodisiacs at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. "The greaagsdhfgdf aphrodisiac is your mind."

Hope in a bottle
But that's not stopping the $600 billion global pharmaceutical industry from trying to think up new sex drugs. Sildenafil, the little blue pill Pfizer launched a decade ago, brings in $1.7 billion in sales every year. Cialis, the longer-acting imitator made by Eli Lilly, rakes in anotherness $1 billion, with several hundred mil. more for Levitra, from Bayer and Schering-Plough. Other remedies increase blood flow, like the penis injection Caverject, and bring in $30 mil. more.

A product that could improve women's sexual function might bring in even more money, if it were truly effective. So far, though, companies have been unsuccessful. Sildenafil failed in agsdhfgdfs on women. Procter & Gamble tried to push a agsdhfgdfosterone patch for female sexual dysfunction through the Food and Drug Administration (Food and Drug Administration), but in 2004 the agency balked, citing a lack of long-term safety data.

Now the idea of using agsdhfgdfosterone as a sex-booster for women is being pushed by Lincolnshire, Ill.-based BioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Its LibiGel is rubbed on the upper arm daily, delivering agsdhfgdfosterone, which is thought to increase libido, to the bloodstream over time. The company just began late-stage trials, and, after discussions with the Food and Drug Administration, will start a big safety trial before submitting data to regulators in 2009.

From sex diets to the cost of obesity

More from Forbes

?�Better sex diet?�10 aphrodisiacs that work?�The hidden cost of obesity?�Top 5 worst trans-fat offenders?�Easy ways to ease up on your bodyPalatin Technologies, of Cranbury, N.J., is trying to get in on the game, developing a nose spray called bremelanotide to treat men and women with sexual dysfunction. Applied 10 to 15 minutes prior to sex, it travels through the central nervous system to increase blood flow in the penile or vaginal tissue. The company hopes to get Food and Drug Administration acceptance for men in 2009 and women around 2011. "On the female front, we've got a chance to be first to market," says CEO Carl Spana. "People wonder how many women will come in for medical care, but my gut tells me they will come in."

What really works
Right now, the medical care available for women with female sexual dysfunction that has been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration is a handheld vacuum that can be used with a doctor's prescription to increase blood flow to the clitoris. Called Eros Therapy, it is made by NuGyn of Minnesota. Devices such as this go through fewer hurdles than drugs; the Eros device has been agsdhfgdfed in several dozen group, compared with hundreds for a pill such as Sildenafil.

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Joy Davidson, a Manhattan-based certified sex therapist, worries that all this technology may cause some group to ignore important cultural factors that can cause sexual dysfunction. "There are agendas here that are not health-based, they're profit-based," she says. "If you're not looking at these elements ??" the emotional, psychological and cultural ??" then giving somebody a so-called magic pill is not going to solve the problem."

Future fixes
Meanwhile, drug researchers keep coming up with even more out-there approaches. For instance, a gene medical care, which seeks to fix erectile function by altering the DNA of cells in the penis, then injecting them back in to the patient. It should work for six months, according to inventor Arnold Melman, the researcher at New York's Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He has co-founded a tiny biotech, Ion Channel Innovations, to develop the product, which even he doesn't expect to reach the market before 2012. No gene medical care has ever been approved.

"People always say gene medical care doesn't work, but at one point it will," says Melman. "We think this is the one."

? 2008 Forbes.com

These men want their foreskins back - Men's Sexual Health Guide

These men want their foreskins back

Activists decry circumcision and offer 'restoration' process

Jon Bonn�

Oct. 1, 2003 - "I am covered and have overhang." R. Wayne Griffiths, 70 and a grandfather, is speaking frankly about his foreskin -- which really is the only way one can speak on that topic. More to the point, he is gleefully describing the sensation of having his foreskin back after decades of living with a circumcised penis. "It's delightful," he says.

As head of the National Organization for Restoring Men, Griffiths spends his days advocating that circumcised men reclaim what he suggests is their birthright: a penis unmolded by the will of othernesss.

Medically popularized in the early 20th century, circumcision has become a routine option for newborn American boys. But a backlash has surfaced in recent years, often bolstered by conflicting medical data about the procedure's benefits. Out of that debate has emerged a tiny but growing movement of men who not only oppose circumcision, but want back what they consider taken from them. They want to regrow their foreskin.

The notion doesn't pass many groups' laugh agsdhfgdf. But NORM and similar groups are quite serious about straightforwardly counseling men on how to restore this tender bit of flesh. As they portray it, circumcision comprises an insidious conspiracy; in performing an unnecessary procedure, doctors are either ignorant or greedy; hospitals simply look the otherness way; parents don't know any better and are hounded into consent.

'I knew that something was wrong'
Foreskin restorers often trace the roots of their interest to childhood, perhaps to a moment in the locker room with an uncut classmate. "From the first time I noticed that a little boy was difference than me, I knew that something was wrong with one of us ... and I assumed maybe it was him," says psychologist Jim Bigelow, author "The Joy of Uncircumcising," an authoritative text of sorts for restorers.

That, in turn, could lead to shame.  Born into an evangelical Christian family in 1933, Bigelow spent years as a boy trying to understand why he was circumcised -- in part because he says the procedure left him with scars. "I figured I was born with something wrong with me and they had to fix it," he says. "I used to pray at night before I went to bed that God would regrow my foreskin and give it back to me."

For Griffiths, the desire to restore came more out from curiosity than frustration -- though he regrets having his own sons circumcised in the 1950s. But he acknowledges many restorers "are just absolutely, almost violently angry at what has been done to them."

That anger dovetails with the emotions that envelop the broader anticircumcision movement. Groups that fight the practice often endorse restoration and some have urged men to sue their doctors for circumcising them. But they primarily are concerned with educating parents and doctors whom they argue are doing irreparable harm.

"You cannot cut off normal, healthy sexually functioning tissue without cutting off normal, healthy sexual functioning," says Marilyn Milos, a registered nurse and director of NOCIRC, the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers. "It’s a sexual issue, and it’s a human rights issue."

Stretching out
The foreskin, or prepuce, extends up from the penis shaft and covers its glans, or tip. It can protect the tender glans skin, and as men become sexually active it often serves as a buffer between the erect shaft and a partner's skin.

Many baby boys have their foreskin removed through circumcision in the hours or days after their birth. Most are done in hospitals by doctors, though some are performed as religious rites. (Ritual circumcision exists in both the Jewish and Muslim religious traditions.) Some two-thirds of baby boys in the United States are estimated to undergo the procedure, a higher rate than most countries but down slightly from an estimated 80 percent in the 1970s.

Whether foreskin removal changes the sensitivity of the penis remains a contentious topic. Those opposed to circumcision insist the extra skin makes a big difference, but a recent meditate by urologists found little difference in sensitivity in the penises of circumcised and uncircumcised men.

As for bringing back a foreskin, those in the restoration movement describe two methods. They rarely discuss the first, perhaps because many harbor a deep distrust of doctors: skin tissue, usually from the scrotum, is surgically grafted to the penis shaft in a way that replicates the foreskin's shape and function.

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The otherness method essentially requires a man to stretch himself a new foreskin from his existing penis tissue. A variety of methods and devices help accomplish this -- elastic bands, weighted metal containers, even special tape. Some are commercial products with names like P.U.D. (Penile Uncircumcision Device) and Tug Ahoy. Others are homemade with anything from silicone caulk to brass instrument mouthpieces. Several ounces of weights are sometimes added to speed the process.

"Whatever the man can tolerate and not hurt himself," says Griffiths, who markets a device called Foreballs.

All of these products distend the skin forward toward the glans and hold it in place to induce new cell growth, essentially forcing new skin to be created. Regrowth often takes years, with devices worn for 10 to 12 hours each day. Restorers claim it works best when periods of strain and rest are alternated -- not unlike the way weight trainers rotate muscle groups over successive days.

"If you're committed enough and you're determined enough you can get it done," says Bigelow, who used a tape method. "But it can be, for some men, a five- or six-year procedure.

CONTINUED1 | 2 | Next >

50 most visited tourist attractions in the world - Destinations

50 most visited tourist attractions in the world

Our 1st annual look at the most tourist-heavy destinations on the planet
? Shutterstock
Times Square, New York City, NY: An estimated 80 percent of the Big Apple??�s 44 mil. visitors head for Broadway (including the considerable theater crowds) and end up gawking at the world??�s most garish neon crossroads. Plugging numbers into the equation, we get an estimated total of 35,200,000 per year.

By Sandra Larriva and Gabe Weisert

At first glance, the Forbes Traveler 50 Most Visited Attractions List confirms several tourist industry truisms: A) Americans love to travel, but they prefer to stick within their own borders. B) Wherever Mickey Mouse goes, he conquers. C) Paris is the unofficial cultural theme park of the world. And D) Niagara Falls isn??�t just for lovers anymore.

But the list also contains several surprises. Since the Taj Mahal??"our fiftieth and final attraction??"receives 2.4 mil. visitors a year, several popular favorites like the the Prado (2 mil.), the Uffizi (1.6 mil.), Angkor (1.5 mil.) and Stonehenge (850,000) didn??�t make the cut. And while Western audiences may not be familiar with names like Everland and Lotte World, these South Korean mega-parks managed to rank 16th and 22nd on our list, respectively.

Not surprisingly, the French are out in force. How to account for the preponderance of attractions in Paris? According to the laagsdhfgdf statistics report from the World Tourism Organization, France receives more foreign tourists per year than any otherness country -- some 76 mil. in 2005. Spain followed with 55 mil., the United States with 50 mil. and China with 47 mil.. Italy rounded out the top five with 37 mil. (with the U.K. not far behind).

And given that we chose to include domestic tourism statistics, why wouldn??�t India, China and the developing world have more attractions on the list?

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The three primary factors appear to be relative GDP (recall that significant majorities of the populations of China and India remain at subsistence level), the vast travel distances involved within those countries, and the lack of reliable visitor statistics. We were nevertheless surprised to learn that the Taj Mahal receives only 2.4 mil. visitors a year, given India??�s population of over a billion. And while the Great Wall made the top 10, we couldn??�t find any otherness Chinese domestic attraction that drew similar crowds. Expect that to change in the years ahead.

? iStockWashington, D.C.: About 25 mil.: The nation??�s premier national park and its monuments and memorials attract more visitors than such vast national parks as the Great Smoky Mountains, Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Yellowstone -- combined. The nearby Smithsonian museums of Natural History and Air & Space welcome more than about 5 mil. visitors apiece. So where did the numbers for our ranking come from? They??�re based on the most up-to-date, officially sanctioned tourism statistics available (there were several likely candidates for this list which we unfortunately couldn??�t include, owing to a dearth of hard numbers). When we couldn??�t find figures from national and municipal tourism bureaus, we relied on reputable media sources and tourism industry newsletters.

We excluded religious pilgrimage sites, such as Saudi Arabia??�s Mecca, India??�s Varanasi, and Tokyo??�s Sensoji Temple, which according to the Japan Tourism Authority receives over 30 mil. visitors each year. We chose to include some famous churches in Paris owing to their status as cultural attractions and the high numbers of foreign tourists they receive. St. Peter??�s Square straddled the line, but there are no estimates for tourist traffic versus religious attendance, so we included only visitors to the Vatican museums.

FirstPerson?�Your world

readers submit
photos from their travels

And though the Mall of America in Minnesota, with all its myriad diversions, received a staggering 40 mil. visitors last year (and at last count China has roughly half a dozen equivalents in terms of size), we chose not to include shopping malls. Amusement parks did make the list (to our consternation and your tedium), but thankfully there are plenty of tourist attractions of genuine cultural and natural worth.

And finally, a hearty three cheers to Pleasure Beach Blackpool in Lancashire, England, which has been welcoming punters since 1896. After several decades of decline, this amusement park and its surrounding resort town now officially the most visited paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom. Who??�d have thought?

So who??�s #1? The Eiffel tower? The Grand Canyon? The Great Wall? The Pyramids of Giza? Answer: none of the above.

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Getting guys to wise up about their bodies - What, me worry?

Getting guys to wise up about their bodies

Reader survey reveals some positive signs but much room for improvement
Kim Carney /

Jacqueline StensonContributing editor

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Andrew Tucker recently had his first medical check-up in seven years. He's not a big fan of doctor visits so he kept putting off his exam.

"I don't like to go," he says, "and I'm afraid of what they might find."

Check-ups, while not necessarily recommended annually anymore, are usually advised at least every few years for someone of Tucker's age, 45, to measure things like blood pressure and cholesterol. Tucker's recent doctor visit included a prostate check with a digital rectal exam, which he "didn't find to be pleasant."

Tucker's sentiments are shared by plenty of men, so his story isn't all that surprising �" except for the fact that he's a physician himself.

So how does Tucker, director of sports medicine at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore and head team physician for the Baltimore Ravens, explain himself?

Is there doctor-despising DNA on the Y chromosome? Or does American society produce macho men who simply don't worry about their health �" or don't show their concern �" until something goes wrong?

"I think male ego plays a part in it," says Tucker.

It's long been believed that many men have their heads in the sand when it comes to their health �" that they don't go to the doctor or make healthy lifestyle changes unless something's broken, and then only after much prodding from the women in their lives. It's one of the reasons some legislators, doctors and men's health advocates are pushing for a federal Office of Men's Health within the Department of Health and Human Services.

Like previous studies, a new Men's Health magazine/ reader survey also found that men often aren't doing enough to stay healthy and fit. But the survey revealed some surprising results �" that men may be taking more charge of their health, at least in some areas.

The measure of a man

Here's what readers told us in the Men's Health/ survey:

The good news
83percent don't smoke
78percent know their blood pressure level
69percent have had a check-up within the past year
60percent know their cholesterol level

The not-so-good news
52percent don't get enough exercise
47percent don't take time to themselves to unwind
13percent haven't had check-ups in years, if ever
40percent don't know their cholesterol level

The survey, which received more than 16,300 responses during one week in October, found, for example, that 83 percent of respondents don't smoke, 78 percent know their blood pressure level and 60 percent know how high their cholesterol is.

"There seems to be a real awareness out there of what men need to know," says Peter Moore, executive editor of Men's Health.

Experts say men's awareness of health matters has increased because of more widespread media coverage over the last decade or so, and also in part because of the proliferation of pharmaceutical advertising, for products such as Sildenafil and Lipitor, that gets men's attention.

If it ain't broke...
But that awareness doesn't always translate into practice. For example, the survey found that while a full two-thirds of men said they went to the doctor in the past year, 4 percent hadn't gone in more than five years and 2 percent in more than 10 years. Three percent said they couldn't remember the last time they went, and 4 percent said they just don't go to doctors.

Interactive

5 reasons not to skip the doctor

Feeling fine was the most common reason for not going to the doctor. Others included lack of health insurance, no time, mistrust of doctors, and fear of getting bad news.

Excuses, excuses

The reasons Men's Health/ survey respondents don't take better care of their health:

Why they don't exercise
33percent are too busy with work
24percent are injured or sick
17percent are too busy with family
12percent don't like to sweat
8percent say the couch is too comfy
3percent don't have a gym nearby
1percent don't want to miss their favorite TV shows
1percent would rather watch sports than play them

Why they don't go to the doctor
63percent feel fine
11percent don't have good health insurance
10percent are too busy
9percent don't trust doctors
6percent are worried about getting bad news
1percent say they look fine

And while it would be hard to miss the messages about the importance of exercise, just 48 percent of respondents said they exercise three or more times a week. A little more than a quarter said they exercise just once a month or less. And some men have gone very long stretches on the couch: 24 percent have let more than a year go by without working out, while 21 percent said two to six months lapsed between bouts of exercise.

The main excuse for not exercising, cited by 33 percent of respondents, was lack of time due to work. Other reasons included being injured, not liking to exercise and preferring to watch sports rather than play them.

Men's Health/ readers also struggle to deal with stress, according to the results. Just 53 percent of respondents said they schedule time for themselves to unwind.

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Can't get pregnant? Try a procreation vacation??� - More Spa Getaways

Can't get pregnant? Try a procreation vacation??�

Hotels around world luring couples who are trying to have a baby
Charles Dharapak / AP
Lucinda and Kemry Hughes, pictured in front of their Washington home earlier this month, are expecting their first child in April after taking a 'procreation vacation.'

MIAMI - When Lucinda Hughes heard she would have to drink sea moss elixir while vacationing in the Bahamas, she was certain it would make her sick. Sure enough, three months later, Hughes is very sick ??" every morning ??" and expecting her first baby in April.

She got pregnant after she and her husband went on a three-day Procreation Vacation at a resort on Grand Bahama Island.

It??�s part of a trend in which hotels around the world are luring couples who are trying to have a baby. Resorts are offering on-site sex doctors, romantic advice and exotic food and drink calculated to put lovers in the mood and hasten the pitter-patter of little feet.

Even some obstetricians are promoting the trend. Dr. Jason James of Miami said he often encourages couples trying to have a baby to sneak away for a few days, and he often sees it work.

One of the most easy, therapeutic interventions is to recommend a vacation, James said. I think the effect of stress on our physiology is truly underestimated.

Hughes and her husband, Kemry, went to the Westin at Our Lucaya Grand Bahama Island, where the three-night Procreation Vacation starts at $1,893. They lounged on the beach, swam in the pool, sipped pumpkin soup and enjoyed couple??�s massages. Hughes and her husband were also also served an age-old Caribbean fertility concoction three times a day: sea moss, the Caribbean??�s version of Sildenafil, mixed with evaporated milk, sugar and spices. (She said it tasted like an almond smoothie.)

The chain also offers the package at their resorts on St. John and Puerto Rico.

My husband and I thought that we would go on the vacation and learn all these nice fertility secrets and we??�d be practicing them for a number of months for them to work, said Hughes, 35, who conceived the day she got back from the trip. We were stunned. There??�s definitely some truths to the foods and the elixirs.

ALSO ON THIS STORY?�?�Discuss: Would you go on a 'procreation vacation?'Full coverage: More pregnancy stories

The couple had been trying for only two months, since their wedding in May. But like most couples they have hectic schedules in Washington, where she is a freelance writer and he is a city employee. Cell phones are always ringing, day planners are jammed. We??�re all overscheduled, Hughes said.

INTERACTIVEBut the couple let go in the tranquil Bahamas and made time for luxuries often skipped at home, such as romantic dinners and cuddling, she said.

The Birds and the Bees package at the Five Gables Inn & Spa on Maryland??�s Chesapeake Bay includes a two-night stay with a couple??�s massage, oysters (purported to be an aphrodisiac) and wine, a pair of heart-print boxer shorts and a CD from love crooner Barry White for about $810 per couple.

There is a Procreation Ski Vacation in Jackson Hole, Wyo., where couples can snuggle by a toasty fire, enjoy a candlelit dinner for two in their room and take a dogsled trip to a nearby hot springs at the Teton Mountain Lodge.

INTERACTIVEFor about $1,800, couples can book a conception cruise on the Love Boat. They are taken to a romantic island on the luxury liner of Singapore sex guru Dr. Wei Siang Yu.

At the Miraval Resort in Tucson, Ariz., sex experts Dr. Lana Holstein and her husband, Dr. David Taylor, help couples with such things as ovulation schedules and achieving intimacy.

The damage that working for conception does to the sexual relationship, it??�s really, really impactful. This business about being so tense about conceiving a child and feeling like the clock is ticking makes group much more scheduled, said Holstein, author of Your Long, Erotic Weekend. They lose sight of the sensual.

Test your knowledge?�How much do you know about pregnancy?She said getting away to spa or a hotel really can aid conception: It??�s the relaxation factor. It??�s that all the otherness stressors in life are gone.

Now three months into the pregnancy, Lucinda and Kemry Hughes have picked out baby names: Kemry if it??�s a boy, and if it??�s a girl, Lucaya, for the resort that made it happen.

? Sildenafil Citrate 100 mg . .

Forbes: The better sex diet - Forbes.com

Want better sex? Head to the grocery store

The right diet may not make you a super lover, but it can help
Photolink / Getty Images file
A?�diet high in fruits and vegetables can impact our sex lives in a couple of ways. For one, it helps lower cholesterol levels, which keeps the blood moving in all of the important places.

By By Vanessa Gisquet

For those of us who could use a little libido pick-me-up, the grocery store might be a good place to start.

Like many aspects of our health, our sex drive is affected by what we put into our bodies. A few drinks and a thick steak, followed by a rich chocolate dessert, may sound romantic, but it is actually a prologue to sleep -- not sex.

Humans have sought ways to enhance or improve their sex lives for millennia--and have never been reluctant to spend money to make themselves better lovers. The ancient Romans were said to prefer such exotic aphrodisiacs as hippo snouts and hyena eyeballs. Traditional Chinese medicine espoused the use of such rare delicacies as rhino horn. Modern lovers are no less extravagant. In 2004, for example, according to Atlanta-based health care information company NDCHealth, Americans spent about $1.4 billion to treat male sexual function disorders alone.

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Of that amount, Sildenafil rang up $997 mil. in sales for Pfizer, or 71.2 percent of the total market. Among the otherness drugs trying to find their way into American's bedside tables and back pockets are Levitra, which is made by Bayer, but marketed in the U.S. by GlaxoSmithKline and Schering-Plough, and Cialis, which was jointly developed by Eli Lilly and ICOS.

There is a difference, of course, between helping sexual dysfunction and arousing our passions. The problem is that, these days, there are more solutions for the former than the latter.

Aphrodisiacs, for the most part, have been proved to be ineffective. Named for Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of sex and beauty, these include an array of herbs, foods and otherness "agents" that are said to awaken and heighten sexual desire. But the 5,000-year tradition of using them is based more on folklore than real science. "There is no data and no scientific evidence," says Leonore Tiefer, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine. "Product pushers are very eager to capitalize on myths," she says.

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