Already Impressive Silicon Valley Women Are Dressing to Impress [Running In Heels]

Many of Silicon Valley's most powerful women are standing out amongst the area's schlumpy braniacs by dressing in expensive couture: Chanel cocktail shifts, Jimmy Choo heels, the works.

Of course, high-ranking men have donned fashion status symbols like cufflinks for ages, but it's a little different in Northern California, where most techies dress down à la hoodie-loving Mark Zuckerberg. But a number of notable women told the New York Times that "dressing well (and talking about it) could help erode the stereotypes that repel some women from the technology field."

"It's possible to hold your femininity and love of fashion," said Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, a former Google executive who now runs a video shopping site. "Now I feel not at all at risk that people would say, ‘How can she care about dressing well and run a billion-dollar company or be smart?'"

Marissa Mayer, who once paid $60,000 at an auction for lunch with Oscar de la Renta, said she didn't care what her employees thought of her proclivity for full skirts and bright colors. "My willingness to talk about it is because I believe the way we'll get more people into computer science and ultimately more women into computer science is by making it really clear that you can be yourself and don't need to give up parts of yourself to succeed," she said. "You can be into fashion and you don't have to be the pasty white programmer with a pocket protector staying up all night."

This is the first Times Styles trend piece about women and tech (or maybe, actually, Silicon Valley in general) I've read in ages that didn't make me groan. It's awesome that these women are wearing whatever they want, and even more awesome that so many of them are talking about it unabashedly, too.

Techies Break a Fashion Taboo [NYT]

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Christian College Suing Over Birth Control Mandate Didn't Realize it Already Covered Contraception [Pill Baby Pill]

Wheaton College, a private Christian school in Illinois, wishes to be exempt from the Obama administration's newly-enacted birth control insurance mandate, like other religious-run schools and hospitals. But there's one problem: Wheaton doesn't qualify for the exemption, despite the fact that they're adamantly against emergency contraception and birth control and all the unbridled harlotry that proliferates in the presence of the two evil medicines. The reason they don't qualify? Turns out that before all this Obamacare business, the school was already covering emergency contraception. I believe the technical word for what just happened is "Derp."

The Obama administration has offered to make concessions for religious-run schools and hospitals that are morally opposed to covering birth control. Rather than mandating that their sponsored insurance plans start covering 100% of the costs of contraception and sterilization this year, holy rollers have got until August 1st, 2013 to make a plan around how they're going to fit icky, icky whore pills into their employees' health care plans. And even after religious institutions' mandate kicks in, they won't have to cover any of the cost of procedures they find morally objectionable — that will fall on the shoulders of insurance companies. In order for religious-run schools and hospitals to qualify for this so-called "safe haven," they had to verify that their insurance policies didn't cover contraception or sterilization after February 10, 2012.

Should be easy enough, right? If a religious-run institution truly and sincerely believed that birth control pills cause millions of tiny zygote deaths, they'd totally be on the stick about making sure that they weren't helping their group plan enrollees pay for it, right? Again, derp.

The Huffington Post's Laura Bassett reports that Wheaton College, despite its serious, serious opposition to emergency contraception (school leadership's stance is that Plan B causes abortions, which it doesn't, but facts have no place in organized religion), the school "inadvertently" covered emergency contraception after the cutoff date of February 10th, which means they don't qualify for the exemption. And now, even though they're at fault for not taking the necessary precautions, Wheaton's administration finds itself pregnant — with rage.

When Bassett asked a school spokesperson how long emergency contraception coverage existed on Wheaton's plan, they referred her to a legal fund that's supporting the school's lawsuit against the Obama administration. Which means they were probably covering Plan B for a very, very long time. And the entire college didn't implode.

But that hasn't stopped Wheaton's team from playing the persecuted victim in their lawsuit against the law that would require them to provide coverage that they were already providing,

"Everyone knows Wheaton is a school that lives out its faith," Duncan said. "But today our government is telling Wheaton it is not ‘religious enough' to have a conscience, and so can be forced to participate in abortions or face heavy fines. Wheaton has always provided generous employee benefits, but now the government is forcing it to choose between caring for its employees and honoring its faith."

Yes, faith that was so vitally important that it was ignored for God knows how long.

One more time, with feeling: Derp.

[HuffPo]

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Already Major Air Force Scandal Is Even Worse Than We Thought [Sex Crimes]

Jul 27, 2012 4:10 PM  

Like most massive, long-covered up government infractions, the Texas Air Force Lackland base scandal is even more widespread than everyone initially thought; the number of instructors under investigation has increased from 12-15 and the number of alleged victims has gone up from seven to 38. Officials say there may be even more.

Six of the 15 original instructors have already been charged, like Staff Sgt. Luis Walker, who will be spending 20 years in prison for rape and sexual assault. Next up is Tech. Sgt. Christopher Smith, who "is accused of trying to develop an intimate relationship with a trainee, making sexual advances toward her, having illicit social encounters with a second woman and obstructing justice." Just the type of behavior you want in a supervisor, right? (Keep in mind that Lackland is where all recruits go through basic training, and that most instructors are male but one in every five recruits are female.)

A two-star general has launched a separate probe, nearly 80 members of Congress have called for a hearing, and the House Armed Services Committee is also holding a closed-door briefing next week on the investigation. We're kind of afraid to see what else is uncovered.

Lackland Air Force Base Sex Scandal: More Under Investigation In Widening Controversy [AP]

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