The High Price of Violence (2003-04-28)
Domestic violence in the United States costs $5.8 billion a year in health-related costs, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Women in Afghanistan Still Live in Fear (2003-04-09)
I just finished a story on women in Afghanistan. While the Bush adminsitration made much show out of liberating women there from the oppressive Taliban regime, they have been distinctly less talkative about what's happening to women there now.

In case you missed this news amidst the all-Iraq-all-the-time news coverage, here's some highlights from a March 2003 State Department report on human rights practices in Afghanistan:

"As lawlessness and sporadic fighting continued in areas outside Kabul, violence against women persisted, including beatings, rapes, forced marriages, and kidnapings."

"Approximately 85 percent of women were illiterate and in rural areas, illiteracy rates among women often were nearly 100 percent. "

"There also were reports that minority women sometimes were subjected to forced marriage, which sometimes resulted in self-immolations"

In other words, women are still waiting for liberation. But our thoughts are turned toward liberating others now. Too bad for them.

Clip Art Comes of Age (2003-04-02)
"The news of irony's death was greatly exaggerated in the wake of 9/11," says this Mother Jones' interview with comic artist David Rees, creator of Get Your War On. The online comic dishes up biting social commentary in the form of ironic clip art comics.