In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today!

Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is "embarrassed and humiliated" over lane closures on the George Washington Bridge last September, which "appear to have been designed to punish a local Democratic mayor who declined to back Christie's re-election" and thwarted emergency responders. Christie has fired one of his top aides, deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly, who sent an email authorizing the closing, and he claims no previous knowledge, which Michael Tomasky thinks is bullshit. Relatedly, this story has brought out the fat-haters, because criticizing Christie for being an unethical, bullying jerk using facts is apparently too much work.

[Content Note: Discussion of gender policing] Kole starts "an 'on the ground' conversation about social construction of what it means to be a man or a woman outside of academia and within community" with a great post.

[CN: Misogyny] Meryl Streep, self-proclaimed "rabid man-eating feminist," calls out Walt Disney's sexism in a speech honoring Emma Thompson.

[CN: Gun violence] Former Congress member Gabby Giffords goes sky-diving to mark her three-year anniversary of surviving being shot.

Wow: "The first female law firm in Saudi Arabia launched last week, founded by the first Saudi female lawyer Bayan Mahmoud Al-Zahran. Saudi Arabia issued law licenses to Al-Zahran and three other female lawyers in October 2013, the first time the country issued such licenses to female law graduates. Al-Zahran told Arab News that her law firm's objective will be to fight for Saudi women's rights and to get women's cases heard in court. 'I believe women lawyers can contribute a lot to the legal system,' she said. 'This law firm will make a difference in the history of court cases and female disputes in the Kingdom.'"

Graphs by MIT Students Show the Enormously Intrusive Nature of Metadata. Whoa.

[CN: Antisemitism; violence] Mein Kampf has become an ebook bestseller. 1. Gross. 2. What is up with that? I hardly believe it's just a sudden upsurge in curious amateur historians. I am reminded of the recent findings that there's been an uptick in antisemitism in Europe, and I am inclined to take this news very seriously.