That Was The Week That Was In Links - March 14, 2025

Tim Baffoe

— 3 min read
That Was The Week That Was In Links - March 14, 2025
Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons

Some stuff I’ve consumed this week and items of note…

The NCAA has already said it won't defend trans girls and women. As the layers of the Department of Education are peeled away, and those that remain busy themselves with announcing investigations into school districts that support their trans athletes, it grows all too likely that there won't be enough people in the federal halls of power who care to use their power to keep as many women and girl's sports teams on the playing field as possible. That's leaving aside the threat presented by the Trump-appointed federal judges, past and future, who could reverse the legal precedents upon which Title IX's power rests for ideological reasons, or just on a whim. For decades, the security of women's sports has been taken for granted, both as a matter of settled law and as something as woven into the nation's cultural fabric as jazz, overstuffed deli sandwiches, and our very specific version of football. But all of that can be undone. One way or another, we are about to find out just how much our country really meant it when it promised all women and girls an education free from discrimination.
Buvaisar Saitiev, a three-time Russian Olympic freestyle wrestling champion who later became a member of the ruling United Russia party, was reportedly found dead after falling from a window in Moscow. His brother claimed that Saitiev may have accidentally fallen from the window of his third-floor apartment while doing chores.
Given the Egyptian experience with mysterious balcony deaths, I found Satiev’s death to carry the same suspicious hallmarks. The 49-year-old Chechen native was an influential figure in Russia, serving as a member of Russian Parliament and as an ally and advisor to Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov.
While there is currently no evidence to suggest that Saitiev was murdered, or that his death was ordered by the Kremlin or Kadyrov, there are various reasons to suspect foul play.
  • While the administration of the President of the TV is slashing federal jobs and services left and right, there’s still plenty of money for golf courses, reports The Intercept.
“What golf has to do with lethality is a question that the Defense Department failed to answer. Nor would the Pentagon weigh in on the hundreds of millions of dollars wrapped up in, or swallowed up by, military golf courses over decades. The Pentagon did not provide a full tally of its current inventory of golf courses, which The Intercept put at around 145. What is clear is that critics have been raising alarms about the military’s golf obsession for at least 60 years, and, despite claims of a new dawn at the Pentagon, putting-green pork is still par for the course.”

Were you there the night they lost the lightning
Were you there the day the earth stood still
Did you see the famous and the fighting
Did you hear the prophet tell his tale
We are one when dancing with the mountains

Weekend.

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