Augusta admits female members

Good news! And, might I add, finally!

For the first time in its 80-year history, Augusta National Golf Club has female members.

The home of the Masters, under increasing criticism the last decade because of its all-male membership, invited former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore to become the first women in green jackets when the club opens for a new season in October.

Both women accepted. . .

The move likely ends a debate that intensified in 2002 when Martha Burk of the National Council of Women’s Organizations urged the club to include women among its members. Former club chairman Hootie Johnson stood his ground, even at the cost of losing Masters television sponsors for two years, when he famously said Augusta National might one day have a woman in a green jacket, ”but not at the point of a bayonet.”

(Thanks CB!)

Philosopher Shaming

A funny tumblr to brighten up your Monday– tag line, “Own it. Own your shame.”

Rep. Akin’s Knowledge of Human Biology (or lack thereof)

(trigger warning for discussing rape and pregnancy.)

I’m sure a lot of people have seen the remarks made by Rep. Todd Akin (he’s currently running for a spot in the senate).  If you haven’t, here they are:

First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare.  If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

I’m not sure which is  more disturbing:
(a) the specifying of legitimate rape (which implies there is an important subset of rape called “illegitimate”  or  “women lying about being raped”)
or (b) the fact that this legislator–someone who participates in making laws about things like reproductive and sexual health–was walking around with a completely misguided and wrongheaded set of beliefs about human biology that probably could have been cleared up if he had taken / stayed awake in a sex ed or anatomy class.