Now that the Taliban is no longer in power, it's all good!  Hamid Karzai would never do anything like make it illegal for a woman to resist rape.

That's what I said.  The Times describes the new law -- which applies only to Shiite women, how fair -- as permitting marital rape, but it's actually even worse than that.  According to the article, the ( Read more... )

VERMONT!

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of marriage equality.

Iowa.  Home of cornfields and creative writing students.  Iowa is now officially cooler than Maryland.

Of course we know what's coming, but let me bask in the glow a little bit.  *basks*

Every president since John Adams has lived in the White House.  It looks like Barack Obama will be the first president to live in D.C.*

Everyone who's been to our nation's capital  knows it is a profoundly weird place.  There's Washington, home of the federal government and dignitaries from all over the world, and then there's D.C., home of regular ( Read more... )

And in yesterday's paper was this scary, scary article detailing the CIA's torture of prisoners at overseas "black sites."   Every Amerikan needs to read this.  And a pack of top officials from the W administration, starting with Himself, needs to be brought to justice.

These descriptions of torture left me feeling sympathy for Khalid Shaikh ( Read more... )

Of course you knew that already.  But today I learned that Judges Kozinski and Reinhardt are made of awesome.   They've both ruled in employee grievance cases that the court must give health benefits to the spouses of its employees, regardless of  what kind of junk they have in their pants.   Reinhardt, in a truly inspiring display of awesomeness, ( Read more... )

The governors of a bunch of states, including our very own Martin O'Malley, are looking at getting rid of the death penalty because it costs too much.

Kudos to my learned friends who represent capital defendants, at trial and in post-conviction appeals -- you made this happen.  This is brilliant -- put in so many procedural safeguards, make it so ( Read more... )

Did you know that the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery is 87 years old?  I didn't.  I want to be as awesome as he is when I grow up.  May he live to stick it to the Man for many years to come.

ETA:  And Jon Stewart calling him "the most adorable civil rights legend" was perfect.

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy ( Read more... )

This article about the ancestry of the First Family made me cry.  This is the American dream, people -- the real one, the true one.  Michelle Robinson Obama's family in particular sounds so familiar to me:

Only through education, generations of Robinsons taught their children, would they ever succeed in a racist society, relatives said. “My mother ( Read more... )

We're not going to the inauguration -- and the freezing weather dissuaded us from going to Obama's appearance here in Baltimore -- but we did go to our local Martin Luther King Day parade this afternoon.  It was bigger than last year, and the mood was festive, although it was snowing pretty hard the whole time.  Lots and lots of posters showing ( Read more... )