Female Astronaut Pushes Envelope of Equality

Lisa Maria Nowak drove 900 miles in a diaper, which, alone, would be worthy of a story. But Captain Nowak is not just any woman, she's an astronaut, a woman who has passed an exhaustive series of psychological exams and mental tests, which would make her, according to experts, the most normal woman NASA could find.

She drove from Texas to Orlando in a diaper to avoid taking bathroom breaks, sort of like a trip to the moon or something. She drove 900 miles in a diaper, skipping bathroom breaks, to confront a woman who was involved with a male astronaut she had some kind of crush on. And, oh yeah, Captain Nowak is married.

When she was arrested early this morning she was wearing a trench coat, a wig, and police found a BB gun, a mallet, a buck knife and latex gloves in her car.

This afternoon, the police filed the new charges against her, saying they had evidence that Captain Nowak intended ”to do serious bodily injury or death” to Colleen Shipman, a captain in the Air Force, because she considered Captain Shipman to be a rival in her romance with a fellow NASA astronaut, Cmdr. Bill Oefelein.


Obviously the whole story will make a wonderful television movie and book deal. Just as interest in the Runaway Bride was waning another deranged woman rises to take her place. It could be looked at as a step backwards for women, but I submit these women are liberators, kicking down the doors of behavior once reserved only for men.

Guys do crazy things like this every single day of the week. We do it at work and at sporting events; consider the "trucker bomb" or the "Stadium Pal." We'd drive all night with a loaded gun in the car just to shoot down a woodland creature or hang at a night club. At least what Nowak did she did for love, damnit! The world of excrements and weaponry might still belong to men but she has taken one small step for women, one giant leap for woman-kind.