This is the thing I find so baffling about this conversation—women have been in combat in Canada, Israel, and a whole bunch of other places. And it’s been fine!

I have two females I work with that weight under 140 lbs and could not pick me up or drag me if their life depended on it.

Well, hey, now that we have a few anecdotes about some poorly performing “females” from your training days, who needs a publicly-funded scientific study?

“mixed-gender units had “superior problem-solving” and better discipline.”

It’s not that the maths involved is hard (maths is actually one of my strong points), although why exactly should I be doing maths when I’m going there to eat, at least beyond the basic maths money handling requires? More to the point though, isn’t the percentage you actually choose a subjective thing? I mean I’ve…

It’s one of the world’s great ironies that a woman in the military is more likely to be raped by her commander than an enemy combatant. And it’s funny, in the blackest, most twisted gallows-humor sense of the word “funny”, that a lot of people hear about this, scratch their hollow pates, node sagely and say: “Well,…

The problem isn’t that integrated units hurt morale and unit cohesion.

I read this line somewhere the other day: we disgrace our heroes by permitting villains. This shit really needs to stop.

I served for 5 years. As a pretty white woman, I was fairly high up on the privilege ladder, as far as tips go, so if anyone would “lose” in this scenario, it would be someone like me. And I wholeheartedly support it - and did even when I was serving - because the patent unfairness of our tipping system is SO OBVIOUS…

I find it extremely hard to believe someone would say that on a crowded plane. That sounds exactly the type of story one would make up in an attempt to make someone look bad. It just sounds super villain evil fake.

This is by who’s account? In every single experience I have had flying they would allow someone who needed assistance to board first. If that person shows up in the middle of the boarding process, they ask them to wait. I find it hard to believe, it sounds made up to get the most sympathy, if you ask me.

When you are packed in like sardines on a plane there is little chance something like that would go unheard. I hope any witnesses, for or against, come forward.

It would be a bigger tragedy if Oxygen stopped marathoning the early seasons.

Okay, I think we need some clarification here. Criminal charges are ALWAYS brought by the state. “Pressing charges” isn’t really a thing, it just means that the victim is willing to cooperate with the prosecution and testify against the victimizer. There’s no way to get a conviction on a domestic violence charge (or…

Actually, they are. The State of Florida requires that one party be arrested if there are ANY visible injuries, and then The State of Florida is listed as the victim and presses charges. THe only case where a victim presses charges is if there are no witnesses, and no visible signs an incident occurred. If there are…

The fact that the woman's life is in danger is probably the exact effing reason the judge was so pissed that she didn't show up. The judge probably was forced to release the abuser when she didn't show.

The state does bring criminal charges. But they can’t do anything, most of the time, if the victim doesn’t testify.

Having charges being brought by the state doesn’t change anything in this situation. The victim is still a witness. Having the victim not be in charge of whether to press charges means MORE unwilling victims will be subpoenaed and they will have more of a chance to be held in contempt for not showing up.

I often go to my favorite little wine bar to do some writing on the fic I’m working on. Much as I love the confines of my bed and mechanical keyboard, occasionally I just need some outside inspiration and change of scenery. You would be shocked (or maybe not, really) at the number of guys who think I want to discuss…

OH MY GOD, all I really want out of the universe is to be left alone on on my goddamn lunch break.
Case in point, yesterday. I attempt to eat, I crack the lid on my exciting tupperware-housed leftovers, and a head pops around the corner: