as apparently gotten the wee sister into bondage. But when i asked her about a safe word she had no idea what i was talking about. so clearly HE is into BDSM but without any safety precautions, and is not teaching her and she's refusing to seek out information. Any rec's on a basic into to BDSM that would be appropriate for a very very naive 15 year old who has gotten in way past her maturity level?

erin, I wanted to say one more thing now that I'm awake and caffeinated. I don't know this dude, and he doesn't sound like an awesome fellow, BUT -- (and I realize that since I don't know him I could very well be wrong about what I'm going to say) -- since he's only 19 himself, there's a very good possibility that *he* doesn't know dick about safewords or other safety concerns when it comes to kinky stuff. It's definitely not uncommon for someone to just think "Hell yeah, I'm getting FREAKY LAID!!!" and not know a damn thing about what they're doing, and not give a shit about whether it's safe.

So he might not be deliberately trying to put your sister in harm's way; he might just be ignorant. The end result could be the same, though, so send her to Scarletteen.com. And *maybe* if he's just uneducated, if she reads up on it, he might be open to a little education. (Of course, if he really is just a dangerous jackass, rather than just ignorant, all bets are off.)

So, just my .02 on the matter. Either way, encourage her to do a little reading herself.

In May of 2010 a young woman, a senior at Virginia Tech, was found dead.

If that's Yardley Love, it's UVA, not Tech. The Post is giving it good coverage.

The Post was also one of the rare ones to cover the Handmaids' Tale Hearing yesterday, though I saw a small link way down CNN's news cycle - WTF New York TImes?

Nothing like editing your husband's obituary.

This fucking sucks.

It does. Can I offer any help?

Yes, Yeardley Love. Sorry - I had Tech on my mind.

Thank you, Todd. It's done. Unfortunately, we're working with a deadline to get it in tomorrow's papers. It will be in the Frederick News-Post and the Harrisburg Patriot-News.

Thought I'd offer. I copyedit. It would have been less painful for me.

If it makes anyone feel any better, I think they're overreaching and will ultimately have to pay. turning the existing gender gap into a gender chasm will not do well for them in the fall and beyond. But it seems like inflicting short-term pain is kind of what they're into these days. Bastards. (I think I have my outrage on sort of like a virus scan that's in the background...comes on every day, kind of slows up the works but I'm moderately able to do other things.)

{{{Maria}}}

{{{{Maria}}}}