Join The Marines, Go To Iraq, Get Raped, Pregnant And Court-Marshelled

Don't know if you've been following this story but here's a thoughtful look at how U.S. general Anthony Cucolo's no-pregnancy order is dumber than a lobotomized lemur. (Salon)

Where Are The Women?

Dog Blog has over 60 posts this month. Only one is by a female contributor. This is ridiculous. Anyone have suggestions on how to fix our blog's heinous gender imbalance?

UPDATE: A friend just made the obvious suggestion: "encourage more women to write for Dog Blog." Good idea--why didn't I think of that? (Theory: I'm stupid. Fact: I have! But maybe I'm not trying hard enough. And I'm just stupid-looking, thank you.)

And so:

Are you a woman writer? Are you looking for the fame and glory that comes with contributing to a Regina, Saskatchewan blog read by LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE EVERY DAY? If so, we should talk. Dog Blog is looking to add one or two female writers who will contribute a minimum of two posts a week, because right now we're a total sausage factory and that sucks. We need smart people with strong writing skills and a voice that's compatible with what we're trying to do here (funny, insightful, informative, conversational, forward-looking, progressive). This is an unpaid opportunity (welcome to the realities of writing in the internet age), but strong writers will undoubtedly earn opportunities for paid freelance writing in our print magazine.

If you're interested e-mail us at freelance@prairiedogmag.com. Write DOG BLOG in the subject field, please. And please include short writing samples or links to same.

Perverse Morality?

Valerie Scott, one of the women mentioned in the linked CBC news story about sex trade workers challenging Criminal Code provisions related to keeping a common bawdy house and living off the avails of prostitution that imperil their safety has family roots in Regina. When she was home for a visit last summer, I interviewed her for a story that ran in prairie dog. As with the debate over marijuana, where prohibitionists condemn the violence and illicit profits that the drug trade engenders, the bottom-line is that the reason those problems occur in the first place is because weed and other soft recreational drugs are illegal.

When I spoke with Scott she made a compelling case that, regardless of one's personal feelings about prostitution and the overall commercialization of sex, the current situation is untenable as all it does is put women (and men) who work in the trade at the mercy of psychopaths like Robert Pickton and John Crawford.

Scott is executive director of the Sex Professionals of Canada (SPOC). When I spoke with her last June, the legal action was in the works, and she fully expected the fight would land them eventually in the Supreme Court of Canada. Here's hoping she and her colleagues win their fight.