I started writing this ten minutes before the official announcement was made, because of course Darren Wilson’s not getting indicted. It’s bullshit, it has EVERYTHING to do with the value of black lives in America and the weird hero worship we afford police officers and our acceptance of state-sponsored violence. And white supremacy. It wasn’t a trial, he wasn’t found not guilty of anything, they aren’t even bothering to ask the next set of questions.
Also, CNN needs to fire Don Lemon, he’s an idiot. No wonder people have given up on television news.
Blaming social media for getting everyone riled up, though, that’s a classy move one might not have anticipated. Bob McCulloch could not possibly have radiated more contempt and disinterest.
It’s a tragedy, and a crime. Please use the comments to share responses that you found meaningful. We’ll be gathering some more sources later today.
Cracking down on corruption in the international adoption marketplace:
But no matter what the Embassy believed it had found, for the most part, it almost always had to approve the adoption visas anyway; the standard for proving fraud was almost impossibly high. As one official wrote: “That’s not to say that fraudulent or unethical acts on the part of an ASP [adoption service provider] should be ignored. It’s just that where the adjudication is concerned, there are very narrow grounds under which it can affect the outcome.” As Trish Maskew, now Chief of the State Department’s Adoption Division, explained in her 2005 article “Child Trafficking and International Adoption, “Short of a confession, it is hard to fathom what kind of direct evidence the USCIS Officer in Charge could possibly unearth to support the charge of child buying.” (I have explained more about this here.)
Through October, 45 people had been killed by law enforcement officers in Utah since 2010, accounting for 15 percent of all homicides during that period.
A Salt Lake Tribune review of nearly 300 homicides, using media reports, state crime statistics, medical-examiner records and court records, shows that use of force by police is the second-most common circumstance under which Utahns kill each other, surpassed only by intimate partner violence.
On “Sybil” and its legacy.
Jia did a remarkable interview with one of the women hung out to dry by UVA, which is hard to read, obviously, but is also really powerful and important:
Let me ask you another question, which I want to preface by saying I understand, personally and well, that there’s a massive difference between drunk or even blackout sex and rape. But, some people really fear the potential gray area—they fear that some girls will think “regrettable” and cry assault.
I find that idea very out of step with reality, but it’s worth asking: how did you know the difference? How did you know when you woke up that you hadn’t consented? That it wasn’t just, you got drunk and had sex?
Because I couldn’t take a breath without hearing those guys joke about fucking my dead body. I knew very deep down that something horrific had happened. I knew I had not had the chance to make the choice. I did not want to fuck that guy. I did not in any way want to give him access to my body.
I know, when I’ve had drunk sex—vague memories, unclear situations—that I was an active participant. People would tell me the morning after, “You said this, you did this,” and I’d be like, “Sure, that sounds like me.”
There is a difference between having drunk sex and having someone penetrate you when you are lying there, basically unconscious. The thing is, I had a previous experience. I’d been raped in high school. I had gotten really drunk, and my friends dropped me off at my house and put me in bed. This person broke into my house and had sex with my unconscious body.
Thanksgiving: not always the best day to show up to volunteer at a shelter for the first time. Call first, see if they’ll be stuck making busy work for you.
David Carr on being one of Bill Cosby’s media enablers:
I was one of those who looked away. Having read the Philadelphia magazine story when it came out, I knew when the editors of the airline magazine called that they would have no interest in pursuing those allegations in a short interview in a magazine meant to occupy fliers.
My job as a journalist was to turn that assignment down. If I was not going to do the work to tell the truth about the guy, I should not have let him prattle on about his new book at the time.
But I did not turn it down. I did the interview and took the money.
a really long new interview with joni mitchell (in which she does the i’m-not-a-feminist thing while citing things which are in no way about not being a feminist and also says other gross stuff bc your heroes ALWAYS WILL, thanks guys, thanks for that) but she also is very perceptive in other ways here:
Q: Two other songs on this box set—Not To Blame and No Apologies—also sound like they could have been written yesterday. They touch on the current discussion of sexual abuse and violence against women.
A: You know I did an interview with a CBC commentator. I exorcised the house after this guy left. I smudged it and opened all the windows. Now it comes out that he has been fired from CBC. People kept saying, “What a great interviewer.” I didn’t think so. After about the 20th one, I said, “What did you think was great about it?” That he couldn’t knock me over? They would look stunned when I said that. To me, his behaviour was overtly hostile.
FIST PUMP.
This is a very beautiful little story about geese and also dads.
This is how unbelievably segregated #Ferguson really is http://t.co/MbNC6qXx2Z pic.twitter.com/G1TxAudAeg
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) November 24, 2014
