Weekend reading


A group of progressive Democrats give the administration a taste of their own medicine on secrecy and drones.

Mother Jones tells you what you need to know about the Supreme Court decision on buffer zones around abortion clinics.

In light of last week’s Supreme Court ruling limiting access to your cell phone, 4 things you need to know if the police try to search your phone.

Rebecca Traister makes a strong case that more women should join Hillary Clinton in running for president in 2016.

Why Orange is the New Black actress Uzo Aduba didn’t consider changing her Nigerian name.

Iranian women defy a ban and watch the World Cup with men. If you like that post, you’ll probably enjoy Jafar Panahi’s film Offside about young Iranian women who sneak into a stadium to watch a World Cup game.

Photos from one of the US’s longest running gay proms.

A Mormon women’s rights activist was excommunicated for advocating the ordination of women.


Weekend reading



An artist uses videos and photos to show what a drone attack on the US might look like.

“My body is wildly undisciplined and I deny myself nearly everything I desire.”

We’ve all been frustrated by inaction in Congress. A new report from the Brennan Center offers 15 executive actions President Obama can take to move justice and democracy forward.

South Carolina tries to sneak personhood into an Onion-esque stand your ground for fetuses law.

On the US’s growing “abortion-free zone.”

Getting to the top doesn’t protect women from sexual harassment or magically undo gender power dynamics: a female CEO was propositioned by a developer she contacted about hiring him at her company.

Weekend reading

VlogBrothers take on mass incarceration in the US.

How prosecutors are using rap (and not other traditionally white genres of music) as evidence to convict people of crimes.

Everything women could buy if they made as much money as men.

Why there’s not a strong rationale that undocumented immigrants should obey the laws that prohibit them from entering the US.

A project called “Not a Bug Splat” shows drone operators whom they’re killing.


Weekend reading

Artist Omer Fast raises awareness through a striking film about drone warfare, called 5,000 Feet is the Best.

A high school soccer team wore hijabs to support their Muslim teammate who was barred from playing in one.

When Fred Phelps protested Fred Rogers, of whom he said, “he was a wuss and he was an enabler of wusses.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates insightfully takes on Paul Ryan’s “inner city” comments. Mychal Denzel Smith responds to criticism of Coates’s piece and rails against respectability politics.

A homeless, mentally ill veteran “baked to death” in his cell at Rikers.

The case for open borders.


Weekend reading

What the obsession with Lena Dunham’s nudity on Girls says about views on women’s bodies.

The tragic shooting in a Florida movie theater has nothing to do with texting and everything to do with guns, men and violence.

Congress moves to make drone strike policy less transparent–in secret.

In your weekly inappropriate comparisons to slavery roundup, food stamps and starring in The Hunger Games.