Weekend Reading: The Refusing to Give Up Edition

I swear I do not intend to turn this blog into a long string of links posts with occasional rambling hodge podge posts in between. Some day soon, I hope to write some posts to prove that.

In the meantime, at least I have some links to share this week!

I don't really want to talk about the shooting in San Bernardino, except to say that I don't think we are a lost cause. I think we can reform our gun laws and our gun culture. My opinion that we need to address how easy it is to get guns in this country is not changed one iota by the fact that the perpetrators in this case seem to have been at least partially motivated by jihadism. As others have pointed out, jihadi leaders have previously urged potential followers to take advantage of our lax gun laws. Now, it seems someone has done exactly that.

I'll take that strain of thought a step further and point you to this interview with Deeyah Khan, which makes me think that the things that draw young muslim men to jihad often aren't that different from the things that lead young white men to commit mass shootings.

I'll also share this tweet:

How sad is it that mass killings of Americans are so common that we can't immediately tell if we're being attacked by ISIS or not?

— Antonio French (@AntonioFrench) December 3, 2015

So I remain convinced that we need to try to fix our gun culture, and I'll keep trying to do that. I refuse to give up.

Moving on....

As we teeter on the brink of full scale Islamophobia here in the US, maybe we can reflect on a hero of the past who had the courage to stand against ethnic hatred.

Josh Marshall says some things about the state of white America that seem really smart to me. Actually, I think this ties in to the gun culture problem and the "angry white guy" shooting people problem we have, too, but I cannot really formulate a coherent point about that yet.

David Roberts on the media and Trump is insightful, but also a bit depressing.

People are stealing and copying the content of online courses. One downside of removing the gatekeepers is that at least the gatekeepers helped stop this sort of theft. Or maybe they just made the barrier sufficiently high that there was no profit in this kind of theft?

This teacher is really inspiring.

The story of the dress that women meteorologists around the country are wearing is funny, but also a little sad. My wardrobe certainly wouldn't stand up to the scrutiny their wardrobes get.

Jennifer Weiner coins the term "Goldfinching:" when a previously critically acclaimed book becomes popular with women and is now trashed.

Ginger shared this gift guide from Caitlin Hannah a few weeks ago, and holy cow, she's right. It is great.

This looks like an interesting tumblr.

AWWWWW:

This, THIS. pic.twitter.com/A7lmt4zMey

— Amy-Marie Graves (@ObvItsAmy) December 3, 2015

Petunia was a huge fan of the garbage truck when she was a little bit younger, and I have to say, garbage men and women are the BEST about waving at little kids who are clearly fascinated by their work.

Speaking of trucks, this looks like fun:



And finally, a favor to ask of anyone who is on Facebook and willing to occasionally see my company posts: could you like the Annorlunda Books page? I have to get 25 likes before I can get a decent URL from Facebook. Thank you!