American Bedu points out that while Saudi women can't drive or visit a graveyard, they can own property and businesses. Here's our list of the rights and restrictions for women here in the US of A.

American women can:

— drive
— vote
— run for President
— be really rich (but it helps if you're a Walton)
— join the Navy
— compete in the Olympics (but not in boxing)
— top the New York Times Best Seller List
— become men

American women cannot:

— walk alone at night without fear of being assaulted
— buy birth control pills without a prescription (except Plan B)
— marry another woman (except in Massachusetts and Connecticut)
— be a Navy SEAL
— play professional baseball
— get fat without apologizing for it
— look plain without getting shit for it
— look hot or get drunk without "asking for it"

Now add your own!

What Saudi women can and cannot do [American Bedu]

It's not like we're talking about peeing standing up or fertilizing our own eggs here. The news story is literally that two highly intelligent, well-trained and (presumably) ambitious women got to the top of their mutually-chosen profession and happened to do so at nearly the same time. It's great that they've broken yet another glass ceiling, but why is it the biggest news out of the space program since the diaper-wearing stalker lady astronaut?

In what is surely completely unrelated news, because no government agency would do this sort of thing just to get public attention, NASA's funding for Fiscal Year 08 has yet to be passed (since Congress and the President are dancing around the appropriations bills) and some people are saying that it's not nearly enough money anyway.

Space Docking, With Women at the Helm [NY Times]
One Giant Leap For Womankind As Two Female Astronauts Link Up In Orbit For The First Time [Daily Mail]
Making Sperm, No Men Necessary [NPR]
Astronaut's star was on the rise at NASA [CNN]
More NASA budget reaction [Space Politics]
FY08 NASA Budget Request Insufficient For Space Exploration Program Say Republicans [Space Daily]