Safety in Seattle News

One of the first things I do Sunday morning is sit down with the Sunday comics and a mug of coffee. Most of the time it is pure leisure. This week I found two timely toons. One, unsurprisingly, is Doonesbury on the reporting of sexual assault in the military through the chain of command -- and why it remains a bad idea. (http://doonesbury.slate.com/strip/archive/2013/12/8) The next was a surprise. It's a strip called Baby Blues, and it's about a family with small children. The dad was teaching

I'm going to be posting every week or two a smattering of stories ripped from the headlines. They all will be on women or girls who were attacked and thwarted the evil-doer's dastardly plans. They all, preferably, will give some details on what the defender did that worked. For this week, our first story is close to home (Seattle, that is). A young woman bit her attacker's hand, continued fighting, screamed for help, and ran for help. This story was in The Seattle Times, and you can read it at

No, I am NOT advocating to my self-defense students that we consider this a viable self-defense weapon. But self-defense does take on a different timbre in other locations. Such as Libya. Souad Soltan, a congresswoman in Libya, carried a hand grenade for self-defense. It was found via metal detector as she entered Tripoli's City Hall for a meeting. It was confiscated. On her way out she asked for it back, claiming she needed it for self-defense. Her request was denied. I don't know if she's since

Alert reader Donna saw this article in Oprah's magazine. It recounts how one woman out jogging used the self-defense skills she had learned in a class long ago.