Friday, November 17, 2017

Weekend Reading: The Incrementally Better Edition

My runny nose and cough are a notch or two better today... but still not good enough for me to actually go get any real exercise. So no rollerblading today. I'm running out of Fridays before I head back to a regular job and lose the option of the Friday afternoon rollerblade for good. I am hoping I'll be able to get out for a rollerblade on December 1, which will be my last chance. Fingers crossed!

Anyway, how about some links?

Here are the promo ones:

I'm running a GoodReads giveaway for The Burning! Head over there and enter.

The first installment of Inbox Stories will come out on Monday. Sign up for the paid edition (just $5/year!) or the free edition now to get the inaugural newsletter. I've already put it together, and am rather pleased with how it came out.

Now, on to the other links:

Alexandra Petri is her usual scathingly funny self on the hypocrisy of the people calling for Al Franken's ouster but shrugging off any consequences for Roy Moore or Donald Trump.

For what it's worth, I'd like to see the results of an ethics investigation into Franken, and find out if this is a pattern of behavior that continued into his days as a politician. Beyond that, I don't know what should happen. I guess it depends on what we find out. If he is forced to resign, I am OK with that. I just don't know yet if I think that is the only acceptable outcome. And yes, if he were accused of something like Roy Moore is, I'd be damn sure he needed to resign.

I am absolutely NOT on board with the idea that the only politician who should suffer any consequences for this is Franken, who has admitted his bad behavior and apologized, while the likes of Roy Moore and Donald Trump—who have clearly done things worse than what Franken did—brazen it out. That would set up a horrifying situation where the way to ride out past misbehavior coming to light is to lie and torment the people you hurt all over again. We have to find a better answer.

And I am NOT on board with one standard for Democrats, because their voters care, and another standard for Republicans, because apparently a sizable number of their voters think a child molester is preferable to a Democrat. We have to find a way to apply consequences without regard to political party, and I'll be damned if I know how we do that given the "I'd rather vote for a child molester than a Democrat" dynamic.

Lili Loufbourow on the Myth of the Male Bumbler, and how all of these men facing consequences for their past sexual harassment and assaults knew that what they were doing was wrong. You can tell because they tried to hide it.

Jessica Valenti on the fact that 30 year old men don't "date" teenage girls. They abuse them.

Since I shared that Politico article about Trump voters in Johnstown, I want to share this article about progressives in Johnstown, and the fact that there were plenty of Trump voters in nearby wealthy areas.

A big, sincere thank you to whoever did this service:




Podcast recommendation of the week: Ana-Marie Cox at With Friends Like These talks to Rebecca Traister about the misconduct of Bill Clinton and how Hillary responded... and it is really, really great. I was "there" for all of this, but hearing Traister (who is younger than me!) contextualize it really helped me understand it better.

Also, a big, belated EFF YOU to all of my male classmates who responded to the Anita Hill hearings by making crass jokes and making me and the handful of other women in your chemistry classes choose between calling you on that and being labeled a humorless bitch and sort of cringe laughing along. I cringe laughed with you but those stupid crass jokes did damage and I only truly sorted through that a couple of years ago.

And a thank you to the male classmates who didn't make those jokes and helped change the topic. I appreciated it then and I remember who you were even now.

Here are some happier things:

Applying the "I cut, you choose" method produces an algorithm that can fairly divide up a state even with partisan actors doing the dividing.

This article about the "Shalane Flanagan effect" offers a model for women supporting each other to reach great heights.

Moana is going to get a Hawaiian language version! (There is already a Maori version.)

Ed Yong's article on New Zealand and its war on rats  is very good. (If you are ever in Wellington, make sure you go to Zealandia. It is really cool.)

This is a cool:



So is this:


BUNNIES!




Happy weekend, everyone! 

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