TRIANGLE, VA. — The highest ranking female Marine, who spent nearly four decades breaking gender barriers, began her final day of active-duty service by dedicating a statue honoring women who served in the Corps.

Maj. Gen. Angela Salinas, director of the Manpower Management Division, was the military guest of honor at the National Museum of the Marine Corps on Friday. She dedicated a replica of the Molly Marine statue, which stands in New Orleans and was the first to honor women serving during World War II. It was a fitting milestone at the end of Salinas’ 39-year career in the Corps, which began when she joined as an enlisted Marine in 1974.

Salinas told Marine Corps Times that dedicating the Molly Marine statue at the service’s national museum brings female service members into the fold. The statue sits just outside the museum in the Semper Fidelis Memorial Park, not far from the statue of Lt. Gen. Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller.

“People get to see her right down the walkway from ‘Chesty’ Puller and others from the legacy of our Corps,” Salinas said. “It really gives women the credibility I think they’ve been looking for for years.”

Salinas broke through several barriers during her career as a female Marine. In 1989, she became the first woman to command one of the Corps’ recruiting stations. In 2006, she was the first woman to be named commanding general of one of the Marine Corps’ fabled recruit depots.

Wisconsin Gov. signs strict abortion restriction bill that requires women to have ultrasound before procedure


Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed a contentious Republican bill that would require women seeking an abortion to view an ultrasound of the fetus before the procedure and prohibit doctors from performing abortions unless they have admitting privileges at a local hospital. Opponents have vowed to sue to stop the law.

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Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed into law on Friday new abortion restrictions that opponents said could lead to the closing of two of the state's four abortion clinics.

Opponents of the law, which goes into effect Monday, July 8, filed a federal lawsuit challenging it.

The Texas lawmaker looks a little different than she did 30 years ago, and one anonymous blog wants to know why

Wendy Davis claims to be a Democratic state senator representing Texas’ 10th district, but what does the public really know about her? Sure, the public knows that she stood and talked for more than 11 hours in order to block a vote on a sweeping measure that would have made (and may still make) abortion virtually unavailable in Texas. And yeah, OK, the public knows that she is a Harvard-educated lawyer with a history of advocacy for women’s health and reproductive rights.

But, does the public know if she’s a natural blonde? Or if she wears eyeliner? No, they do not — and that’s where the Wendy Davis truthers come in.

An anonymous blog popped up over the weekend to ask these and many other important questions about the filibustering senator; questions that would no doubt be asked of any man in a similar position.

For example: Why does Davis look a little different than she did in law school?

Now consider Texas state Senator Wendy R. Davis, who has recently been in the news being touted (however dubiously) as the Left’s technologically enhanced “feminist superhero.” She is 50 years old. Yet … it appears she gets better looking each day. If she has not found the Fountain of Youth, at minimum she has found very talented plastic surgeons and image consultants who have readied her for her closeup.

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/meet_the_wendy_davis_truthers/

The artist Luke DuBois, who presented several interesting pieces at the Aspen Ideas Festival, once did an installation that displayed the frequency with which words were used in State of the Union addresses. "The address is in many ways the best original source material for elucidating the concerns and anxieties apparent in the national zeitgeist for a given time," DuBois argued.

So he took the addresses delivered by a given president, analyzed the words that appeared most frequently, and displayed them in the style of those charts that eye doctors use to test your vision.

Here is the chart for George W. Bush's time in office:

1. We need to recognize that there is no “rule” of who gets targeted.

I mentioned in my post that I don’t dress provocatively at cons, don’t cosplay, tend not to post “sexy” pictures of myself online, and at times during the past 20 years I’ve been overweight–100 pounds, which isn’t a small number. I’ll be 40 in November, so I’m not a young woman. NONE of that has saved me from getting harassed. I pointed out all of those factors, not to say that I shouldn’t have been harassed, as if not being conventionally pretty (aka, having “model good looks) or being a certain age or weight or race makes you unattractive, and therefore safe. No one is automatically safe, which is what I was trying to say.

Here’s why: for every guy that will seek out the thin, busty, woman in the low cut top and tight skirt, with the excuse of “She was asking for it”, there is another guy who will seek out the woman he thinks won’t object. Women who are a little older, a little overweight. The woman who’s standing alone at a party. Those women, this kind of creeper thinks, are more accessible. They must be grateful for the attention.

There’s a third kind, the woman who looks like a victim. That means different things to different men, but some examples are: a woman alone in an elevator, in a hallway, in a dark corner of the room–women in a space where there is no one to help them if they need it. Young girls, women with disabilities, women who are physically small, even women who seem shy or confused about how the hotel is laid out–also potential targets. Women who are in service positions, like dealer’s assistants, who can’t walk away. It all boils to power–some guys get off on forcing themselves on women who (they assume) can’t defend themselves.

The fourth kind, which is rare in terms of physical harassment but commonly verbally harassed, is the woman in power. A writer with a good publishing records. Guests of Honor. Well-known editors. Women who appear physically strong, or who have taken the place of a man on a panel… women signing autographs in the dealer’s room. There’s a kind of guy who resents women having that power, and will make sexist, abusive, derogatory, and sexually suggestive comments as a way to put us “in our place”. We often think of them as trolls, but it’s another side of the same guy. They harass angrily because you’re no longer available to them as a potential date/fuck/target. They harass because they feel their losing what they’re “entitled” to, and they’re afraid.

AUSTIN, Texas — More than 5,000 Texans gathered on the lawn of the State Capitol Monday to voice their outrage about stringent new abortion restrictions that, if passed, would make it virtually impossible for women in large swaths of the state to access reproductive care.
Large turnout for the rally came after Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) called a second special session in order to try to pass legislation that had been defeated by State Sen. Wendy Davis (D) in a remarkable 13-hour filibuster last week. If it succeeds, the legislation would, among other changes, criminalize abortion after 20 weeks and create onerous new regulations that would force virtually all of the state’s abortion clinics to shut down.
One hallmark of Monday’s massive protest was the number of men who joined the rally for women’s rights, some even driving from as far as Houston and Dallas to attend. Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, remarked to ThinkProgress that their presence showed “these are not just women’s issues, they’re family issues.”
ThinkProgress spoke with over a half-dozen men at the rally about what it meant for them to be there and the importance of women’s rights being a universal issue. Here’s what they told us:


PHIL PERKINS: “They may pass it, but I’ll still protest it. And when they pass it, I’ll keep protesting it. Inside that building there are a lot of men working against women. I’m just representing all the men that are outside this building that support women.”

MICKEY SHANAHAN: “Just like every civil rights fight, if someone is not free, none of us are free. All of our rights are at stake. This is not the first issue where our rights have been eroded, but this is one that happens to affect 52 percent of the population. We all need to fight for this.”

More:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/07/01/2242971/texas-men-womens-rights/?mobile=wt

Every morning this week I have woken up to my email inbox and social media feed filled with inspiring stories and images of resistance as part of the Idle No More and Defenders of the Land call for Sovereignty Summer. Sovereignty Summer is “a campaign of coordinated non-violent direct actions to promote Indigenous rights and environmental protection in alliance with non-Indigenous supporters.”

Colonialism in North America has been designed to ensure the forced displacement of Indigenous peoples from their territories, the destruction of autonomy and self-determination within Indigenous governance, and the attempted assimilation of Indigenous cultures and traditions. This has been justified through racist civilizing discourses, such as the discovery doctrine and terra nullius, whichuphold the political and legal right for colonial powers to conquer supposedly barren Indigenous lands.

Colonialism continues today in many forms. In particular, resource extractive development projects, including mining, forestry, and oil and gas development, are devastating Indigenous lands and communities without governments or corporations obtaining free, prior and informed consent from impacted communities. Given Canada’s current push towards a petro-state, it comes as no surprise that Indigenous opposition has been most vocal to the tar sands boom in Alberta and to oil and gas pipelines from coast to coast.

At the helm of this opposition to industrial genocide are a number of Indigenous women.

Crystal Lameman is a member of the Beaver Lake Cree nation, leading the struggle to prevent expansion of the tar sands. The Beaker Lake Cree have launched a significant legal action arguing that tar sands projects and big oil are violating their treaty rights to meaningful access their traditional hunting grounds and fishing waters. They are taking the government to court for no less than 17,000 treaty violations.