I hate writing about the terrible things that happen to women, or I suppose it is more accurate to say I hate how I feel obligated to write about the terrible things that happen to women. I feel this obligation because terrible things have happened to me and because for too long I stayed silent. I was scared and ashamed and humiliated. My silence only amplified these feelings, the self-loathing, the isolation. If speaking about violence against women makes other women feel less alone, I am going to use my voice. And still. I hate writing about the terrible things that happen to women. I hate the inescapable feeling that writing about such issues accomplishes so very little. I hate the exhaustion I feel when I see yet another news story about a woman who has suffered at the hands of a man. I hate the guilt I feel because I am exhausted. Exhaustion is such a luxury.
Here is an extremely long piece of writing on the Mann Gulch fire, always one of the best things to read extremely long pieces of writing about.
Death comes for us all anyway, do not let the Italians deprive you of small joys. Also, do not let Russians deprive you of the less-obvious joys of sitting on cold park benches.
Anna North talks to a bunch of people (including our own Mindy Hung) about their stress reads.
On how Teach for America is evolving in response to its critics.
On the NFL’s tax-exempt status.
Well, I guess we all need a horrible hobby that flies in the face of stats on racial bias and cost and the periodic yanking of the innocent off death row:
But that doesn’t mean there’s no one to argue for capital punishment. Blume and Dieter both start their short list of death-penalty champions with the same person: a scholar named Kent Scheidegger, the top lawyer at the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a small think tank in Sacramento, California. For nearly 30 years, Scheidegger has dedicated his professional life to defending the death penalty. And he’s often the go-to wonk for his side of the debate. When California’s death penalty was ruled unconstitutional in July, it was Scheidegger who provided outlets from The New York Times to the Los Angeles Times to NPR with their sole quote decrying the judge’s decision. Page back through years of similar coverage, and his name pops up again and again. “I think even for supporters of the death penalty, if you had them rank what they care about the most, it wouldn’t be high on their list,” Blume argues. In that respect, he says, Scheidegger is “a lone wolf.”
Lo, the Booker shortlist!
They found one of Franklin’s ships (no evidence yet of supernatural polar-bear-like monsters.) Now, please listen to Stan Rogers sing “Northwest Passage”:
