Bloodless Coup

Mutterings, links and what not

It's been light posting for me, due to midterm grading and prepping to take a group of students to Washington DC for a diplomatic simulation. I am remiss in not attending to my duties, especially having been tagged by the Stealthbadger to do the "Five Things" meme and Moon to deal with the nonsense about "hookup culture."

First, for the Stealthbadger, more stalling. And for Moon, I have Amanda and Ezra, as well as stalling.

There have been several pieces in recent weeks about the unconscionable treatment of women soldiers in Iraq. A summary from Feministing, the New York Times story it references (and some thoughtful commentary about the photo choices for that story), as well as this piece from Salon on the "private war" faced by women soldiers who not only can't rely on their "comrades in arms" but are forced to defend themselves daily from their enemies within the ranks.

Last but not least, another real winner for the bench... and he swears that the fact that he authored the "Human Life Protection Act" would have nothing to do with how he will make decisions. Uh-huh. Let's hope his confirmation process touches on that a little bit, eh?

However, in the meantime, today is the first day of the last year of my fourth decade (and yesterday was a similar celebratory day for Armand, the youngest member of the triumvirate). I'm taking the evening off.