In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2015 is to be awarded to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011." Okay! I don't know enough about that to have any insightful commentary about it! Except that it's definitely been a mixed bag for women. (Isn't it always?)

[Content Note: War] Welp: "The US is to end its efforts to train new Syrian rebel forces and says it will shift to providing equipment and weapons to existing forces. Its $500m programme was heavily criticised after it emerged that US-trained rebels had handed vehicles and ammunition over to extremists. It emerged last month that only four or five of the fighters were in Syria. The Pentagon says help will now be provided to 'a select group of vetted leaders and their units.'" Um, why wasn't help being provided to a select group of vetted leaders in the first place?

OMFG: "This Document Reveals Why the House of Representatives Is in Complete Chaos." Spoiler Alert: It's because they are indecent assholes who want to wage class warfare instead of actually doing anything to help vulnerable people in this country!

Here's another terrific headline, care of the WaPo, on the same subject: "The GOP sinks deeper into chaos. Can it still function as a party?" Terrific party you've got there!

[CN: War on agency] Meanwhile: "The U.S. House voted Wednesday to create a select committee to investigate abortion practices and fetal tissue donation, a move that Democrats say is a politically motivated attack on Planned Parenthood." Priorities! The GOP has definitely got them!

[CN: Holocaust reference; guns] Good grief, this fucking guy: "Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson has waded deeper into a row over gun control by claiming that Jewish people in Nazi Germany might have been able to prevent the Holocaust if they had been armed. ...'I think the likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his goals would have been greatly diminished if the people had been armed … I'm telling you that there is a reason that these dictatorial people take the guns first.'" I don't even know where to begin with this mess.

[CN: Carcerality; deportation] Hillary Clinton was met by a protest yesterday while she was "presenting an award to chef Jose Andres at the annual Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute gala in Washington... Holding up a sign that read 'Hillary for immigrants in prisons,' Juan Carlos Ramos of the advocacy organization United We Dream Action stood near the stage, yelling at Clinton as she spoke over him. Ramos was protesting Clinton accepting donations from corporations that run private prisons. ...'It is time to drop the prison money and stand with our community—you can't have it both ways.'" Good point!

We keep asking the entertainment industry for original material about women, so this is welcome news, although the premise doesn't sound great: "Wendy Davis made national headlines in 2013 for filibustering anti-abortion legislation in the Texas Senate. Now the former Democratic state senator is poised for more national attention as the inspiration for a dramedy series in development at NBC. Written by Jennifer Cecil, the untitled project centers on a female Democratic senator who, after losing the Texas governor's race, gets her world turned upside down. In the vein of The Good Wife, while she pieces her pride back together, she goes to work in the law firm of her best friend—a black male Republican—and discovers that with no political future to protect, she can unshackle her inner badass."

[CN: Racism] John Boyega, who stars in the upcoming Star Wars film, continues to deliver awesome pushback to racist trolls: "I'm in the movie, what are you going to do about it?" I really wish he didn't have to navigate this shit at all, but his responses have been so great.

[CN: Video autoplays at link] And finally! Here is just a mesmerizing video of a boxer and emu running in circles around a tree together. The cutest friends!