UMass bans drinking games.

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?

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

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.

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.

Coretta Scott King, 78.

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

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.

Because I am 12 years old.

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.

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.

(more…)

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.

…Is it just me, or is every show currently on the air a formulaic crime drama?

These are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head:

Law & Order: Original Flavor
Law & Order: Now With More Dead Strippers
Law & Order: Vincent D’Onofrio
CSI: Why Won’t Her Forehead Move?
CSI: God’s Red-Headed Stepson*
CSI: Gary Sinise
Cold Case
Criminal Minds
Wanted
Crossing Jordan

Even Nip/Tuck had a serial killer all season.

What gives?

Update: Oh, and Without a Trace.

On the menu tonight (thanks, TiVo!): serial killer targeting vulnerable women, murdered stripper, murdered debutante, “Killer Cupid” (no, really–promo features assassin armed with bow and arrow who shoots couples in flagrante delicto), missing soldier convicted of rape, the squad searches for a female detective in danger of harming herself, murderous plastic surgeon, baby found in the trash and traced back to a co-ed, detective’s daughter witnesses an icky murder.

*I cannot take credit for this joke. I stole it from Television Without Pity.

Sunday morning at the park with my tree-climbing, treat-whoring dog.

(more…)

Well, when it’s politically expedient we do. Otherwise, we really couldn’t care less.

The Bush administration has said that while Mr. Aristide was deeply flawed, its policy was always to work with him as Haiti’s democratically elected leader.

But the administration’s actions in Haiti did not always match its words. Interviews and a review of government documents show that a democracy-building group close to the White House, and financed by American taxpayers, undercut the official United States policy and the ambassador assigned to carry it out.

As a result, the United States spoke with two sometimes contradictory voices in a country where its words carry enormous weight. That mixed message, the former American ambassador said, made efforts to foster political peace “immeasurably more difficult.” Without a political agreement, a weak government was destabilized further, leaving it vulnerable to the rebels.

(more…)

That quote comes from a discussion between friends of this letter to the editor about ftms interacting sexually with gay men (the first one), which is in response to this article. You might want to read the article first.

(more…)

There won’t be many cat pictures after all. We put her to sleep this morning.

(more…)

Twisty writes A Cult Is A Cult Is A Cult, about invisibility, feminism, aging and religion.

I can’t believe I’m actually writing this, but I love Pink. Video via Lauren.

This piece by Bitch Lab has been going around for a while, and has generated quite a few responses (see Amanda here and here, F-Words here). Everything I would say has already been said. I identify as a sex-positive feminist, and I think it’s completely possible to be sex-positive and simultaneously able to criticize the commodification of sex in our culture, the misogyny of the sex industry, and the problems with pornography. It’s also possible to be a sex-positive feminist and have your life involve things other than sex. Which is basically what Bitch Lab says.

Textaisle gives us a piece on parental consent in the UK.

Saudi blogger Farah’s Sowaleef takes on 99 Traits A Man Would Love to Find in His Wife.

The Countess on Breaking the Silence and child custody.
Super Babymama reminds us: Anyone can be poor.

Amp takes on the very basic economics of abortion, arguing for its necessary legality in a fabulous post.

If you haven’t read this poem at blacademic yet (second item down), go, now.

Our Word details stories of abortions before Roe.

Thank goodness this guy ain’t my daddy.

GenderGeek Emma says the vacuum cleaner is not liberating.

Liberal Serving explains why the Dobson-view of why same-sex marriage will inevitably lead to turtle-humping.

Maryanne gives us a taste of what it’s like to grow up female in Egypt.

Digby calls out an anti-choice leader on her bullshit.

Scott at Lawyers, Guns and Money tells us that, to our great surprise, conservative white guys are not quite the same as African-Americans in the 1950s.

Michael Berube comes in with a thorough post on academic freedom.

Pinko Feminist Hellcat on bias against boys.

I know this is cruel to laugh at, but come on.

Charming. Diet wine, pitched to women by playing to their insecurities:

This off-the-mark targeting reaches its full height with White Lie, Beringer Blass’ new lower-calorie, lower-alcohol wine for women. The marketing of this Chardonnay revolves around the maxim “a little white lie never hurt anyone.” Minor fibs like “My hair is naturally this color,” are printed on the red label under the White Lie name, in florid cursive, and an additional lie—”But it was on sale”; “I can’t wait for football season”—is offered on each cork. The company has even enlisted the talents of chick-lit author Jennifer Weiner (Good in Bed; In Her Shoes) to pen an endorsement of the wine and judge its promotional short-story contest.

Great. It’s the Chick Lit of wines.

(more…)

As someone who lives there, I will say no. Yesterday at the grocery store, there was a woman in stretch pants and stilletto knee-high boots carrying a white puffy dog wearing a coat and two pink bows in its hair. She asked me to carry her two roast chickens from the deli to the checkout counter because her hands were full with the dog, and her poofy little friend apparently couldn’t be bothered to actually walk five feet (yes, the dog was inexplicably wearing a fancy leash). That’s the Upper East Side. White people (particularly old white people in fur coats), small dogs, and lots of money. Decidedly uncool.

But apparently the UES has shifted slightly — probably thanks to all the downtown kids (like my room mate and I) who’ve moved up there after we can’t find anything decent in the Village. Now if only they’ll open up a single decent bar or lounge… (then again, maybe not. Damn you, Underbar. And damn me for frequenting you).

Echidne would like you to read her series on the gender gap in earnings.

It’s quite long, and quite dense, but also quite good.

Update: The Guardian reports that one in five UK firms responding to a government study were breaking equal-pay laws, often routinely paying men more than women in the same job.