Incest

When a woman leaves dozens of diaries behind, describing the most intimate details of her life from her childhood on, it's logical to conclude that a biography can do little but abridge the collective epic. Not so with Anais Nin.This writer of autobiographical fiction and dreamy erotica is chiefly known for her journal, which elucidates her emotions even as it deepens her enigma. Noel Riley Fitch, whose books include "Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties," has skillfully lifted the veils that Nin so delighted in weaving.

Anne Arundel County police have charged a 50-year-old Montana man with incest and child abuse after his adult daughters claimed that he molested both of them from the time they were 5 years old until they were 18. Part of that time they lived in Glen Burnie.Sheriff's deputies in Flathead County, Mont., arrested the man Thursday after a six-hour standoff at his home in Bigfork. He was extradited Saturday to Anne Arundel County, where he is being held on $500,000 bond at the Detention Center.

An Annapolis-based support group for adult survivors of incest has been shaken by charges that a co-founder fondled three women, including a 19-year-old member of the organization.David B. Fulghum, 42, is also charged with attempting to fondle a 15-year-old girl, according to records in Anne Arundel County District Court. Mr. Fulghum is the boyfriend of Gloria E. Arnold, co-founder and executive director of the Onionskin Collective, a private, non-profit support group operated by the couple from their Annapolis home.

A SIDE FROM its understandable yearning to recapture the White House, the Republican Party should put prime priority in 1996 on abandoning its ill-conceived stand favoring a constitutional ban on abortions -- no exceptions allowed.Ever since the Reagan right took control of the GOP in 1980, the party has adopted four successive platforms espousing what it calls a "human life amendment." While it has not defined this term, both sides in the fierce abortion debate interpret it to mean a flat, unconditional prohibition of abortion.

WASHINGTON -- A campaign that states have been waging on two fronts -- the courts and Congress -- against paying for abortions for poor women whose pregnancies resulted from sexual assault fell short in the Supreme Court yesterday.The court turned down the first appeal to reach it in a new round of lawsuits by states that do not want to pay for abortions in cases of rape or incest.Those states prefer to pay only for abortions when a pregnancy threatens a woman's life.Although other cases are working their way up to the court's docket, yesterday's order -- issued without comment -- left the states with little hope for relief from the judiciary.

STURGIS, S.D. -- Volunteers pushing to overturn the nation's most far-reaching abortion ban are surprised and delighted by the response as they circulate petitions to put the law up for a public vote. Even in the most conservative corners of this conservative state, Republicans and Democrats - including some voters who say they oppose abortion - are eagerly signing the petition. In two weeks, volunteers have collected a third of the signatures they need to get a November referendum on the ban. Some voters dismiss the abortion rights activists as out of touch with South Dakotan values.

A central message of those leading the campaign against Maryland's same-sex marriage law is that they are not opposed to gays and lesbians or to ensuring their civil rights. But that contention is undermined by the video of a town hall meeting at Manna Bible Baptist Church in Baltimore in which a Randallstown pastor quoted Scripture to say that homosexuality or even condoning homosexuality is "worthy of death. " He went on to say that those who vote for Question 6 are "approving these things that are worthy of death.

There has always been something truly unseemly about the desire of conservatives in Congress to assert their control over the residents of the District of Columbia. Not only because it represents a white and male-dominated culture forcing its values on a city of more than 617,000 (more than half of whom are black and an even higher percentage female), but it runs so blatantly counter to the GOP's alleged preference for a hands-off federal government. Tuesday's vote by the House of Representatives over a proposed ban on abortion for all District women after 20 weeks of pregnancy, even those who are the victims of rape and incest, surely represents a new low for this plantation mentality.

"Just, Melvin: Just Evil" is just an incredibly intense television viewing experience. In fact, it is so intense I found myself wondering during the HBO documentary, which tells the story of a man so depraved that he forced himself sexually on his own children when some were as young as 3 years old, whether this should even be on Sunday night prime-time television. After much thought, I say not only should it be on, but HBO should also be commended for airing it right after "The Sopranos" tomorrow night, giving it the best chance for an audience of several million viewers.

Poor Sansa Stark. First, she was pledged to marry the despicable, pathetic, cruel, spineless boy-king Joffrey. Now, the Lannisters are plotting to stick her with his even less-attractive uncle, Tyrion. Granted, to viewers of “Thrones,” if you're going to have to marry a Lannister, you'd definitely choose the funny, likeable Tyrion. But to 12-year-old Sansa, who has watched Lannisters behead her father, plan to kill her brothers and generally be horrible to her, Tywin Lannister's plot is going to be a form of mental torture.