Reading Materials: There are some books that force you to step back and think about the decisions in your life, both the good and the bad. When you read the novel In A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz, this is exactly what happens.  The books of Jane Austen guide the author in ways that [...]

I’ve seen a lot of chatter the last week about college students needing to know what majors will pay off.  That is a horrible idea.  You find what you love and do it the rest of your life.  I’m still working on that.  I had been doing what I’d always wanted fresh out of college [...]

In the midst of all the budget talks, one is apparent—women are missing from the table. The Huffington Post published an article today “Women’s Voices Missing From Federal Budget Negotiations.” Let me just say one thing: Yikes! With all of the interests for women so wrapped up in the budget outcome—comprehensive healthcare programs, the disproportionate [...]

Anyone who knows me, knows someone who knows me, or knows how to type my name into a google search, knows how deeply and passionately I care about ending sexual violence against women, particularly during times of war and conflict.  And so you all know that I’ve been closely following the Nobel Women’s Initiative Conference [...]

It’s only Wednesday, and it’s already been a rough news week for women. Several research studies were released about the acute health problems faced by poorer women: According to Time, the abortion rate in the United States dropped for every group between 2000 and 2008 – except poorer women. The rate for these women actually [...]

When you’re sixteen, growing up in the suburbs with two full-time working parents, a driver’s license is literally a life-saver.  If you’re me, you have a packed schedule filled with dance classes, tennis lessons, and after school club meetings.  The lack of public transportation options in the suburbs suddenly becomes the curse of your very [...]

This is an account by my friend and candidate for the presidency of Cameroon, Kah Walla: Kah Walla, president of the Cameroon People’s Party and candidate for the presidential elections 2011 was abducted from the Mont Febe Hotel in Yaoundé at about 11:15 a.m. on May 20th. The following is a step-by-step account. 11:15 a.m. [...]

Ben Stein is good at stirring up controversy.  He has insisted Bob Woodward made up Deep Throat, and had Nixon not had to resign the Khmer Rouge never would have come to power.  Bob Woodward, Mark Felt, and Ben Bradlee are really to blame for the genocide that happened in Cambodia. Just over a year [...]

For several weeks now, I have been seeing the same set of advertisements around DC. Every time, I pause for a moment to let their strangeness wash over me. No, I’m not talking about those “Free Abortion Alternatives” posters plastered across the buses. No, in this case, I’m talking about the pedestrian safety advertisements produced [...]

Much has been made already of the idea that Bridesmaids is breaking boundaries by proving that women can, in fact, be funny.  That we don’t always have a big stick up our behinds, whining about patriarchal hegemony while burning our bras.  This is true. But Bridesmaids goes even deeper than that.  Any woman who has [...]