Politics
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Same-Sex Marriage Roundup
To almost no one’s surprise, last night North Carolina became the 31st state to ban same-sex marriage. This is the second time North Carolina has done this–the first time was just a state law; this one was a Constitutional amendment.…
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This Is Ridiculous
Harriet, the Poetry Foundation blog, reports that poet Joshua Clover and 11 students at UC Davis are potentially facing a $1 million fine and up to 11 years each in prison. Their crime? Peaceful protest. A petition is circulating which…
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The Knotted Line
Check out this interactive laboratory that allows you to explore “the historical relationship between freedom and confinement in the geographic areas of the United States.” The Knotted Line reveals miniatures paintings of 50 historical moments from 1495-2025, while posing the…
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May Day Update
I grew up in the Deep South in the 70’s and 80’s, where unions were limited in number and power by Orwellian-named “right-to-work” laws, so I thought May Day involved kids with streamers dancing around a pole. Not that I…
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THE WEEK IN GREED #5: The Willy Loman Vote
A few weeks ago I was in an airport and I did that dumb thing I so often do in airports, which is to retrieve a stray section of USA Today out of a fancy airport trashcan.
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“Stray Dogs”
At n+1, Rafael Gumucio writes from within the Chilean student protests, recalling the rebellions of his generation–which grew up under the military regime–as he details the “hunger for equality” that characterizes current movements in Chile and beyond. “Over the six…
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Just Friends
In recent months, we’ve had a couple top-notch essays about both the power and addictiveness of friendship. This weekend, at The New York Times,William Deresiewicz took up the topic, focusing on friendship “between the sexes.” Deresiewicz touches on the “surprisingly…
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THE WEEK IN GREED #4: Risk-Free Ratfucking
Dirty tricks work in politics because it is human nature to see the worst of ourselves in others, particularly in those we feel are more powerful than we are.
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Throwaways on the Radio
Listen in as Rumpus contributor Melissa Chadburn reads from her excellent essay “The Throwaways” on American Public Media’s Marketplace. “If we are saying “I value you” when we pay our taxes, what are the people and corporations who don’t pay…
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Do-It-Yourself Healthcare
Sara Benincasa (who we recently interviewed) assembled a handy “Healthcare Guide for People Who Don’t Want Healthcare,” complete with insurance-free cures for migraines, menstrual cramps, and gout.
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“What It’s Like to be a Problem”
At The Nation, Melissa Harris-Perry breaks down the wider political context surrounding the Trayvon Martin killing, outlining the historical and contemporary reality in which it is “acceptable to presume the guilt” of black bodies. “Liberal democracy—based on commitment to individual…