WoW. No. Not a Game.

I was initially reluctant to use the term War on Women. It sounded too much like a political catch-phrase, meant to drum up emotions and suppress logic. Also, it shorthands to WoW, which means something entirely different to me.

But then.

So by now you probably heard/read Rep. Todd Akin's comments about "legitimate rape." Now his fellow Republican conservative, Rep. Steve King (no relation to Stephen King, although the man speaks horror) claims that he's never heard of pregnancy resulting from incest or statutory rape, but he's willing to discuss it.

Funny. A bunch of OBGYNs did a study back in the 90s that showed "significant" numbers of women get pregnant from rape every year. Of course that looks suspiciously like science, so chances are Akin and King didn't bother to read--wait. Akin's on the House Science Committee. And last year he and King tried to define "forcible rape" for a bill. It's becoming clear that unless you fight like hell when someone rapes you, and come off bruised and bloody and maybe badly wounded, these assbags are not going to believe you were "legitimate." And maybe not even then, if you're one of that significant number who ends up pregnant, because your magic lady-bits didn't prevent the Hate Sperm from conception.

This isn't a war. It's a regression to the fucking Middle Ages.  

Maybe that makes it a little more World of Warcraft after all. Maybe those of us who didn't luck out on the lowest difficulty setting (thank you, John Scalzi) need to hurry up and level up. The Horde is on the way.

things i have learned

 Where summer has been hiding. It's been in the Inland Empire the whole time. Now it seems to have followed us home to the coast. I hope, if we don't feed it, it will wander home soon.

Some people have no shame. Oh former associate, you did not actually just ask me to help you with a project from which you removed me unceremoniously several months ago... right? She must think I am very stupid, or very flattered to have my opinions solicited, when what I am is too professional to say "you're kidding, right? Go ask my replacement."

Images of medieval death are pretty awesome. So is The Getty, though not the afternoon commute, and I think Dante missed a level called "the 405 during rush hour" in his Inferno.  I especially loved the map of Dante's Hell, and the prayerbook illustration of the girl for whom the book was intended, with said girl facing Death and three rotting corpses of other women who had presumably failed in their devotionals. I also liked the 10,000 handed devil chained to a slab in Hell, burning and skewering all the damned souls on his 100,000  fingers like a marshmallow roast. The images of heaven, otoh, were rather dull. Cool, pale colors. Everyone in white. Clearly, hell was more fun to draw.

oh, benevolent gods and ancestors...

Please let the Mars lander, er, land with a perfect 10. Then let people care about the space program again. Or maybe--let the media report science stuff as Cool! and Neat! and Check it out! instead of manufacturing controversy by pretending evolution is actually up for scientific debate and then wondering why our students are so behind the rest of the world in math and science.