Oof, what a week. Even The Good is all silver linings in big, dark clouds. Here’s to a better week next time!
Don’t forget that next week we will be treated to a THREE-DAY blogging extravaganza from Chicago playwright and producer Rory Leahy. Tune in Tuesday!
The Good
Gabrielle Giffords is being moved to a rehab hospital. Best wishes for her recovery. (More on the shooting here.)
The Supreme Court doesn’t want to listen to anti-gay activists who want to overturn DC’s gay marriage law. I’m pleasantly surprised.
A clear breakdown of what’s been going on in Tunisia for the past couple weeks (although it is a bit old so the last few days aren’t on there).
A teenager in New England lays out the many reasons her high school’s “No Touching” policy isn’t just stupid, but dangerous. Good for her!
The Bad
The Scott sisters are finally being freed, but not because their clearly wrongful conviction is being overturned; no, Republican Governor Barbour (who will run for president in 2012) just indefinitely suspended their sentences. Oh and he required one sister donate a kidney to the other sister in order for them to be released, which violates organ transplant law. Nordette Adams has a wonderful article on how bittersweet the Scott sisters’ release is.
So all those homes that the banks are still insisting on foreclosing on? They’re not doing anything with them. They’re boarding them up and walking away. We could have people in homes and working out different payment plans or we could evict thousands of families and get cash for banks now; we knew this already, but to see evidence that the banks aren’t even trying to turn those around, that the possibility of those houses becoming homes in the future is just discarded, is infuriating. The article also points out that of course poorer, majority black neighborhoods are experiencing these walkaways at a far higher rate than other neighborhoods. (Thanks to Mike for the link.)
The Vatican explicitly told Irish Catholic bishops not to report all child abuse cases to the police. I imagine it must be really hard to remain part of a church that so clearly and consistently does not have your own children’s best interests at heart. (And keep in mind this memo was from 1997, when the soon-to-be-sainted and generally beloved John Paul II was in charge.)
We joke about the days the machines will rule us, but good grief this is a terrifying article on how the militarized machines really are becoming more populous and less controllable. Here’s a short round-up of the scariest quotes.
The Silly
Some corrections of misattributed or forgotten quotes — surprise! A lot of women said famous things but they aren’t famous for saying them. Not on this list is my favorite misattributed quote, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways,” which is not Shakespeare as so many suppose, but rather from a sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
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