The other side of choice - The Alysha Cosby case

A tiny article buried deep in the Washington Post told me about Alysha Cosby today. She's an Alabama student in a Catholic school who got pregnant her Sr. year.

First they told her to stay home and finish classes via homeschooling, citing "health" reasons. Then they told her that she was barred from graduation, striking her name from the list of graduates, although the father of her child was permitted to be recognized with the rest of the class.

Alysha attended anyway - and when they had finished announcing the names of the members of class, she stood up, announced her own name, and walked across the stage. Which prompted police to remove not just her, but her entire family from the room.

The stench of moral turpitude rising from Alabama today is practically palpable, but it's not coming from Alysha, despite the news articles quoting people saying that her actions were in bad taste. It's coming from a school that doubtless teaches the Catholic doctrine that abortion is bad... and yet when a student follows those doctrines and does the right thing by her fetus and keeps it, they sequester and punish her while letting the father get off scot-free. When they tell us pro-choicers to "choose life" they conveniently forget to mention that even if we do, women will STILL be punished for daring to choose sex!

Pregnant Student Told to Stay Home
Pregnant Girl Defies Ban
Pregnant Student Banned from Graduation Walks Stage Anyway

(no subject)

In a cheap and sleazy attempt to get more commentary on the "First Line" post of yesterday, ( The answers to what line belongs to which book )

I had to go home to look it up, but turns out that the first line to publishing's biggest powerhouse is equally predictive of tone and plot: "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of Number Four, Privit Lane, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much." (Although the line where she had me as a fan forever was on the second page, when Mr. Dursley picked out "his most boring tie" for work.)

Pimping Girl Genius

I am so Phil Foglio's bitch, it's sad. I loved What's New With Phil and Dixie, and I got deeply into Buck Godot, Zap Gun for Hire - I even have a tattered copy of The Capture! (ETA: Also, a copy of the last issue of Menagerie. Phil was a fanboy, yes he was...)

So I have no idea what I was doing a few Worldcons ago when I saw the Studio Foglio table, noticed that they didn't have any new Buck, and turned my nose up at the pseudo-Victorian chick that he was drawing instead. Because of course now that Girl Genius is online (being dribbled out at the frustrating rate of 3 pages per week), I've gotten into it.

No, I haven't just "gotten" into it, I've taken a huge swan dive into it. Frustrated at the snail's pace for the "101 class" (original comics), I succumbed to the dastardly marketing plan and bought the back compilations, reading them all in 48 hours.

Remember what I keep saying about 6 hours' exposure to a new fandom? You're either infected or forever immune.

I'm not immune.

Dubbed a "Gaslight Fantasy," Girl Genius is an elaborate steampunk alternate universe, one full of odd machines ("clanks") and Frankenstinan experiments mix with the population, and the world is more or less ruled by "Sparks" - those who have the spark of inventiveness that makes them able to create such things. The general sanity rate of the Sparks has led the population to dub them "madboys." You see, they're not just inventors, they're compulsive inventors - and the compulsion tends to blow out other parts of their brain.

Roughly a decade or so before the story is set, there was a huge war between "The Other" and "The Heterodyne Boys" that devastated Europe. Bill and Barry Heterodyne, the folk heros of an otherwise unheroic family, swore to defend their nation. They invented their way into the sunset and neither they nor The Other has been heard of since. Since then The Other has become a boogyman, while the Heterodyne Boy legend has only grown through a series of plays, novels, and other fictions. Now Europe is ruled by Baron Wolfenbach, who appears to be equal parts Spark, psychotic dictator, and relatively good ruler.

Now we start our story with a frustrated young woman named Agatha. A woman who wants desperately to be a Spark, and who is under the protection of the city ruler, despite her incredible lack-of-success rate. A woman with a mysterious uncle named Barry...

The link to the right will take you to the "Advanced Class," which picks up 14 issues into the universe. Going straight to http://www.girlgeniusonline.com will take you to the option of reading the story from the beginning. At a maddeningly slow pace. Might as well spare yourself the time and buy the first compilation...

Non-spoilery CSI comment

I had grave doubts about this, not being a Tarantino fan. But I must say, this isn't (too) Tarantino (and yes, I type this just as we hit the end of the first hour and the events therein).

It's just a really, really good ep of CSI with lots of character stuff.