If people can’t “snuggle and kiss inappopriately” on board airplanes anymore, then the terrorists have already won.

I blame John Ashcroft.

The latest salvo in Notre Dame’s “Vaginagate” controversy is being fired this week, as Her Loyal Daughters — sort of a homegrown, Notre Dame-specific version of the Vagina Monologues, but designed to be less divisive and more focused on the issue of sexual violence on this campus — is playing at the DeBartolo Center. It opened to a packed house yesterday, and produced a lengthy panel discussion afterward. It was performed again tonight, and will be again tomorrow and Thursday nights at 7:30 PM. According to the Observer:

“Loyal Daughters” emerged from the more than 50 interviews senior Emily Weisbecker conducted with Notre Dame students, faculty and staff members about the presence of sexuality and sexual assault on Notre Dame’s campus. These interviews resulted in 24 skits that touch on topics ranging from rape and drinking to virginity and self-defense.

“I think the fact that it tells stories about Notre Dame — they are true stories from our campus — makes it very close to home and that is something that can’t be touched on by any other play, because these are students right now,” said Weisbecker, who wrote and directed the production. “It just makes it very real — it makes it more urgent.”

Weisbecker wrote a letter to the editor in Monday’s paper, urging people to come see her play:

Dear Notre Dame community,

Rape happens at Notre Dame, and it happens more than you might think. In order to stop the violence, we must break the silence. More than 55 of your classmates and professors have come forward with their stories and perspectives on sexuality and sexual assault, so that you might develop a better understanding of the campus sexual culture, and thus get involved in making Notre Dame a safer place for all of us.

“Loyal Daughters” is a student-run production taking place at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center today through Thursday, and it’s worth your time. To those who oppose and protest “The Vagina Monologues,” I urge you to attend. We address similar themes of sexuality and sexual violence, but the focus is entirely on the truth about Notre Dame. If “The Vagina Monologues” bothered you, “Loyal Daughters” should be far more upsetting, not because it is or isn’t appropriate or offensive, but because it’s real, it’s here, and it’s now. Sexual violence isn’t unique to Notre Dame, but here at Our Lady’s University, we have the unique capacity to develop effective solutions. It all starts here. See you at the show.

Emily Weisbecker
senior
Lyons Hall

Sounds very laudable. I plan on going to see it tomorrow night.

Of course, because this is Notre Dame, it has caused controversy:

(more…)

Thomas J. Miller, who works on the custodial staff at the law school, has been missing since November 5:

Miller is 6 feet tall, weighs about 230 pounds and has brown hair, hazel eyes and glasses.

Miller, who works nights in building services at the University of Notre Dame, might be suffering from depression. He reportedly stopped showing up for work abut the time he was reported missing.

Police say Miller might be driving a 2002 Suzuki Esteem. It’s a four-door, silver car with Indiana license plates 71R 5769 and has a James Dean sticker in the lower left rear of the vehicle.

Anyone with information about Miller is asked to call the Mishawaka Police Detective Bureau at (574) 258-1684.

(Hat tip: Sergio.)

UPDATE, March 28, 2007: Tragically, Miller has been found dead.

This is so cool. SBA president Heather Cameron sent us an e-mail this morning, informing us that NDLS 1L Dan McGrath finished 33rd out of 37,954 finishers in the New York City marathon on November 5th, running 26.2 miles in a time of 2:25:29. You can view the Top 250 finishers here. Way to go, Dan!

The recount is over, and Democratic challenger Joe Courtney is the winner in Connecticut’s 2nd congressional district, edging Republican incumbent Rob Simmons by 91 votes, or less than 0.04%.

Technically, Simmons has until next Tuesday to file a complaint challenging the results in court, but I’ve heard of no controversies that would make such an endeavour likely to succeed, so I assume he will concede now that the recount is completed. Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz has scheduled a press conference for tomorrow morning to officially announce the results. [UPDATE: According to the above-linked article, Simmons will hold a press conference tomorrow afternoon. “He’ll be announcing his intentions,” said the state GOP chairman. “Whatever his decision, it will be in the best interest of the 2nd District.” The same party chairman is also quoted as saying — notably using the past tense — that Simmons “ran a great campaign” and “served with distinction in the 2nd District and he can hold his head up very high.” That certainly makes it sound like a concession is imminent. However, I was wrong about there being “no controversies.” Again quoting from the above-linked article, “Simmons’ campaign raised concerns about the vote tallies in Norwich, New London and Chester where it appeared more people voted than were checked off by the poll workers on Election Day or filed absentee ballots,” and Bysiewicz is quoted as saying that both sides “certainly appear to have [legal action] in mind” in the event of a loss. So, we’ll see.]

In addition to making Chris Shays the lone Republican in Connecticut’s five-person House delegation, Courtney’s victory increases the Democrats’ net gain in the House to 29 seats, which is exactly what Patrick Cullen predicted in the BrendanLoy.com House Contest. If nothing changes in the seven seats that are still undecided, Cullen will win the House Contest — possibly completing a sweep of the BrendanLoy.com Midterm Election Contests. (He’ll win the Senate Contest, too, if the official canvass later this month confirms that Joe Lieberman won by more than 10%.)

A Nun Mouse and Joe Badger still have a chance to beat Cullen in the House contest, though. If Republican Max Burns, who currently trails Democratic incumbent John Barrow by 930 votes (0.65%) in GA-12, requests a recount (which is likely to happen either tonight or tomorrow) and makes a comeback to win the seat (which appears highly unlikely), A Nun Mouse — who predicted a Dem net gain of 28 seats — would win the contest, assuming the Republicans hold onto their slim leads in NM-1, NC-8, OH-2, OH-15 and WY-AL, and assuming the Republican incumbent wins the December runoff in TX-23. On the other hand, if Barrow holds onto GA-12 and the Democratic candidate in even one of the above-listed Republican-held seats makes a comeback, thus pushing the Dems’ net gain to 30 or better, Joe Badger would win the contest.

P.S. NRO’s Jim Geraghty crunches the numbers and concludes: “There was a shift to the Republicans in the closing days of the campaign; but it was only enough to reduce a 50 seat shellacking to a 30 seat shellacking.”

UPDATE: It looks like the Republican will win Wyoming, too. That would reduce the number of undecided seats to six: GA-12 (Dem lead), NM-1, NC-8, OH-2 and OH-15 (GOP lead), and TX-23 (GOP plurality; December runoff).

“We end almost more confused than when we started. But then, that’s the point of a graduate seminar.” –Prof. Kaveny

It just occurred to me: I think I’m addicted to the word “thus.”

I use it constantly, in law-school papers and legal briefs and even my blog. And I could easily use it twice as often if I wasn’t careful; I frequently catch myself using it excessively, and edit what I’ve written accordingly.

Is there a 12-step program for this?

Arash Markazi:

The season is the playoff.

That’s the answer given by most purists to every proposed playoff system in college football. Implementing any kind of four, eight or 16-team playoff would, in their eyes, kill off the “Game of the Year” atmosphere that surrounds the sport week in and week out from early September through late November. It’s why a Sept. 9 matchup between Texas and Ohio State is just as important to the national championship picture as Saturday’s game between Ohio State and Michigan.

I’ve always had a problem with this argument. Not because it’s necessarily wrong, but because it’s certainly not always right. The basis of “the season is the playoff “mantra is that if you win all your games you should be in position to play for the national championship at season’s end. If you lose a game, you’re all but done (depending on when and to whom you lose and how the other teams in front of you fare.) The theory, however, is hit or miss. There are some years when the teams that began the season ranked Nos. 1 and 2 win out, giving no chance to teams below them that may go undefeated (see Auburn and Utah two years ago), and then there are some years when teams that are unbeaten are ranked below teams with one loss because they began the season ranked so low (see Rutgers and Boise State this season). Something always seems to go wrong.

The one person who seems to make things go right for his team is Pete Carroll. Two weeks ago, USC was left for dead after losing to unranked Oregon State, 33-31, dropping the Trojans from No. 3 to No. 9 in the polls. While the loss was certainly surprising, USC’s leap back up to the No. 3 spot in the BCS standings within 14 days shouldn’t be shocking to those who have followed the Trojans in recent years. It’s almost as if Carroll has voodoo dolls for each team sitting in front of him in the polls and after he suffers a loss, [he pokes] each one off week by week.

Heh. Read the whole thing.

P.S. But if Poodle Pete really was Voodoo Pete, wouldn’t he have been able to prevent this?

According to the Hartford Courant, Democratic challenger Joe Courtney now has a 82-vote lead over Republican incumbent Rob Simmons in Connecticut’s 2nd District. The recount is expected to be completed tonight:

The stomach-churning ride is expected to screech to a halt late tonight, when every community in the sprawling, 65-town district will have completed its mandated recount. By law, the municipalities have until midnight Wednesday to report their revised tallies to the secretary of the state’s office, but 56 had completed the process by Monday night and the final nine will do so today.

The Courant has the deadline wrong — it’s midnight Thursday (i.e., one minute after 11:59 p.m. Wednesday), not midnight tonight (er, tomorrow morning) — but I assume “the final nine will do so today” is based on what election officials are saying about the actual progress of their recounts, not on the Courant’s misinterpretation of the state election calendar. (Hat tip: TPM Cafe.)

A win by Courtney would mathematically eliminate Joe Mama from the BrendanLoy.com House Contest, and would make Patrick Cullen the odds-on favorite to win. (Previous post here.) Cullen is also the odds-on favorite to win the Senate Contest, pending the announcement of Joe Lieberman’s final, official margin of victory.

Meanwhile, the number of undecided House races (including CT-2) is down from ten to nine, after the Democrat conceded in WA-08. (Hat tip: My Boaz’s RUth.) The Democratic candidate has the lead in the one undecided Democrat-held seat, and the Republican candidates have the lead in the seven undecided Republican-held seats (excluding the Simmons-Courtney race), so if nothing changes, the Dems’ net gain would stay at 29 seats (assuming Courtney wins). However, one of the seven undecided Republican-held seats, TX-23, will require a December runoff.

South Africa is now moving ahead of the United States in, of all areas, civil rights… With a recent approval of same sex marriages.