January 2006 – Feministe

How Can This Be?

Okay, at least they have Amherst and Northampton to go out in, if they can’t drink on campus, and maybe perhaps I’m letting my own experience at UConn, where there was pretty much nothing else to do but drink, color my perceptions. But, gah!

What is college without a good rousing game of Three Man or Up the River, Down the River on occasion?

Congrats to Miss Lauren!

For her much-deserved Koufax nomination. We’re rootin’ for ya.

PBA Ban Unconstitutional. Again.

Figure it out, kids (pdf).

The Ninth Circuit Court ruled on Planned Parenthood v. Gonzalez, and, unsurprisingly, that the so-called Partial Birth Abortion Ban is illegal. According to the FindLaw summary:

Planned Parenthood v. Gonzales, No. 04-16621 (9th Cir. January 31, 2006)
The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 is unconstitutional since it: 1) lacks the
health exception required of all abortion regulations in the absence of a medical
consensus, that the prohibited procedure is never necessary to preserve women’s health;
2) imposes an undue burden on a woman’s right to choose a previability abortion; and 3)
is impermissibly vague. The appropriate remedy for the serious constitutional flaws in
the Act is enjoining the enforcement of the statute in its entirety.

Well knock me over with a feather.

Thanks to Dad for the link.

Dying to Avoid Rape

Female soldiers in Iraq are having to make an impossible choice: Risk being raped , or risk dying of dehydration. Many of them have ended up dead.

In a startling revelation, the former commander of Abu Ghraib prison testified that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former senior US military commander in Iraq, gave orders to cover up the cause of death for some female American soldiers serving in Iraq.

Last week, Col. Janis Karpinski told a panel of judges at the Commission of Inquiry for Crimes against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration in New York that several women had died of dehydration because they refused to drink liquids late in the day. They were afraid of being assaulted or even raped by male soldiers if they had to use the women’s latrine after dark.

The latrine for female soldiers at Camp Victory wasn’t located near their barracks, so they had to go outside if they needed to use the bathroom. “There were no lights near any of their facilities, so women were doubly easy targets in the dark of the night,” Karpinski told retired US Army Col. David Hackworth in a September 2004 interview.

It was there that male soldiers assaulted and raped women soldiers. So the women took matters into their own hands. They didn’t drink in the late afternoon so they wouldn’t have to urinate at night. They didn’t get raped. But some died of dehydration in the desert heat, Karpinski said.

Read the whole article.

Two Deaths

Coretta Scott King, 78.

Wendy Wasserstein, 55. Gail Collins has a lovely remembrance here.

It’s over

The filibuster that wasn’t. The Senate voted 73-25 to cut off debate.

I can’t find a list yet of who voted which way. However, Lincoln Chaffee voted to cut off debate yet plans to vote against Alito — something that NARAL apparently didn’t have a problem with.

Jane Hamsher says not to give up.

Why I Love Attaturk

Because I am 12 years old.

The Top 100 Opening Lines in Literature.

I’m very glad to see #22 ranked so high. I’m partial to #83, while Julia, from whom I swiped the link, favors #47.

Hamas Continues Its Hard Line

Well this will ruin your morning.

The exiled political head of the radical Islamic group Hamas said Saturday in Damascus that the group would adopt “a very realistic approach” toward governing the Palestinian Authority and would work with the Fatah president, Mahmoud Abbas, on an acceptable political program.

But the leader, Khaled Meshal, also said that Hamas would not “submit to pressure to recognize Israel, because the occupation is illegitimate and we will not abandon our rights,” nor would it disarm, but work to create a unified Palestinian army.

Ten Views Meme

This one via Hugo is a little old, but I’m doing it anyway.

Ten Views I Hold Without Evidence

1. Indian food is the best cure for the common cold. The spicier the better.
2. Nice skin is all about exfoliating and moisturizing, not using harsh cleansers. Lotion will get rid of pimples faster the Clearasil will.
3. Dogs make the best pets.
4. There is nothing wrong with wearing black year-round.
5. Chapstick is physically addictive. Burt’s Beeswax is far superior to all other chapsticks.
6. There is a God, and He is nowhere near as much of a vengeful jerk as the religious right makes Him out to be. (But I’m not sure that He is a He, or even a gendered being)
7. Most people are good at heart. No one is as simplistically “bad” as we think.
8. Lauren will be back.
9. If you’re going to buy into the beauty myth, you might as well do it with DiorShow mascara.
10. You’re either a Robbins or a Vonnegut. It’s possible to like both, but most people are fans of one or the other.

I tag everyone.