Weekend Plans, Weekend Reads

Happy Memorial Day weekend! I'll be spending some time at the Decatur Arts Festival, the Atlanta Jazz Festival, and perhaps even the birthday party of The Great Speckled Bird. I will also be dedicating a few lazy hours to reading and net surfing, of course.

If you have a few minutes to catch-up on your internet reading this weekend, I seriously recommend the following posts:

1. The (Lack of) Medical Treatment Received by ICE Detainees, from The Curvature: Cara's post discusses "the terrifying, unethical and downright inhumane medical treatment of immigrants imprisoned by ICE, generally while fighting or awaiting deportation," as uncovered in this series of Washington Post articles. Cara couldn't have know when she wrote this post that it would, tragically, be made all the more timely by news that an Iowa court has sentenced 270 'illegal immigrants' to "to five months in prison for working at a meatpacking plant with false documents" before their deportation. Memorial Day weekend is a great time to ask ourselves 'is this the sort of nation we really want to be?'

2. A non-apology of the first kind, from Language Log: Our lovable grammarian friends study Hillary Clinton's remarks about her creepy allusions to the shooting of Robert F. Kennedy made during a discussion of why she does not intend to drop out of the race against Barak Obama. Let me spoil the ending for you - she might say 'I regret it,' but not in any way that actually constitutes an apology.

3. If Not for the Women, Do it for the Puppies, from Pandagon: I know, Amanda Marcotte is still in the dog-house herself, but she has a really good idea about how to deal with PETA - for every sexist ad or publicity stunt they pull, donate instead to a shelter for victims of domestic abuse - and their pets:

Abusers use any leverage they can to terrorize their victims and break their will, and will happily resort to abusing and killing pets for that end. There’s also the added incentive of using the pet as leverage to keep your victim from escaping, because she knows that fleeing without or even with the pet might result in the abuser retaliating by killing her pet. In order to make pet safety less of a barrier to women fleeing abusive homes, the Humane Society has put together a list of 170 safe haven programs, where both the victim and her pets are cared for by the shelters, using various methods.

Amanda also recommends that feminists for the ethical treatment of animals give to the Humane Society, PAWS, the ASPCA, and the Humane Association.

4. (A Sunday UPDATE): There are two articles on the front page of the New York Times right now - one about race car driver Danica Patrick, the other about soccer player Hope Solo. Both articles focus on the social issues that surround these athletes, rather than on their achievements, and I found it odd that the piece on Patrick made no mention of her ground-breaking IndyCar win last month. Still, it was refreshing to see so many female faces prominently featured in the sports section. Happy reading!

What are other people doing and reading this holiday weekend?