If you like reading and the Internet and weekends, then wow, do we have a treat in store for you.
Over at our old Wordpress digs, we regularly posted a roundup of interesting news items on Monday -- usually Tuesday, sometimes Wednesday -- so our readers could distract themselves during the work week.
No need in risking that anymore. Especially in this economy.
So for the immediate future, plan to check in here every Friday afternoon for your weekend reading material. And I wouldn't tell you what to do, but I enjoy weekend reading a lot more if I've got a cold drink, a hot plate and a clear mind.
The randomness starts here:
1. Dahlia Lithwick and Lisa T. McElroy write that just 'cuz the Supreme Court can opt not to explain its decision-making or process to the American people doesn't mean it always should. "For 203 minutes on Wednesday night Americans speculated and wondered, worried and guessed, without recourse -- waiting for a single sentence from the Supreme Court. While the court considered the petition for far longer than was typical, all while communicating nothing, even Mr. Davis's own lawyers were unclear as to why the delay had happened, what exactly the Supreme Court was debating, and when the court would decide Mr. Davis' fate."
2. With Davis' execution prompting an international outcry over the death penalty, Foreign Policy puts together a list of "the world's top executioners." The U.S. keeps some awful company.
3. This piece in Madison magazine about domestic violence tries to answer the question "Why Doesn't She Just Leave?" One woman, after being nearly killed by her ex-husband in front of their two small children, told the author "except for one couple who walked out of the courtroom upon seeing pictures of Julie's battered face, many of Orton's friends and family stood by him, and, Julie says, continue to blame her. Last April, Orton was finally sentenced to twenty-two years in prison, despite them."
4. Are you one of those "mixed" people who have occasionally had an identity crisis? Considered non-threatening to whites because they can't quite place you? Tired of the cracks: "You ain't a real (fill in ethnicity here) anyway!" We've got the fix for you. Over at GOOD magazine, Cord Jefferson offers up an entertaining rubric for identifying race using locale, time, ascribed physical features and class. White in one country, black in another...
5. The Governor of Abia State in Nigeria denies that a girl was gang raped by students of Abia State University Uturu, calling it a "satanic falsehood" ... even though there is video evidence.
6. Vassar professor Kiese Laymon muses about President Obama, "the worst of white folks," and growing up in Mississippi. "At the risk of sounding even more sentimental, President Obama might find the blueprint for achieving the impossible in places like Jackson and Forest, Mississippi where my Grandma has lived for close to 60 years. In years past, I've argued that Obama had the hardest job in the world and any criticism that fails to acknowledge this was intellectually brittle. I was wrong."
7. A grown man is going to drink his wife's breast milk and see how long it will nourish him. The answer will probably be: Not very long. Also, ew.
8. Tech journalist Jolie O'Dell is embarrassed by female-led startups about girl-stuff like babies, shopping and fashion. Feministe is embarrassed for her. Over at Forbes women lady entrepreneurs get in their own rebuttals.
9. Louie CK has been doing a walkthrough of each episode of the second season of Louie.
11. Devin Friedman of GQ spent a day following around The Bawse. Among other things, Ricky opines on Anthony Weiner, $100K watches and having a stress-free life.
12. Kobe Bryant has a $6 million offer to play in Italy.
Hope you enjoyed the gumbo.
The is a collection of links from the entire PostBourgie family, and compiled and edited by J.D. Bell.