I consider myself a mini news junkie. I’d like to start a weekly rundown of the big news (and sometimes entertainment) stories that seemed to pop up a lot this week. Feel free to comment and add your own. *disclaimer-I always have a cocktail with Mad Men- that will be my excuse for any inaccuracies in reporting. Feel free to correct me if my facts are wrong. Or debatable. I love a good respectful debate! This week’s picks are listed in no particular order:
-Paula Deen. If you ever wondered what watching someone’s career going up in flames looks like, it’s probably close to this.
Basically, she’s being sued by an ex-employee and she admitted in a deposition to “of course” using the N-word. Oh, and romanticizing the antebellum period and wanting to hire African-Americans to dress and act like slaves for a dinner party.
-There was a big Supreme Court ruling this week that no one is really talking about because, well, it’s complex and doesn’t fit easily into a soundbite. But it’s a big freaking deal (“The decision is catastrophic for the antitrust laws, as well as for civil rights, consumer rights, and many other statutory rights.” )Thank you SCOTUS and American Express for looking out for consumers and small businesses. Goodbye anti-trust laws. You can read pretty decent explanations here and here.
-The House of Representatives passed a pointless (unless the point was to further alienate and offend women) ban on abortions after 20 weeks. Pointless, because it will never pass the Senate and would be vetoed by the president if it ever even got that far. Also, because only 1.1% of abortions occur after 20 weeks. And when they do, it’s usually not for funsies. You can read more here.
-Then we had Serena Williams, who recently said during a Rolling Stone interview that the Steubenville rape victim was “lucky” and that “It could have been much worse” also, “maybe she wasn’t a virgin” as if that mattered. Cue the public apology. Not like we really cared what you thought anyway, but trainwrecks are hard not to watch.
-I don’t recall when the NSA spying story broke and the days are slipping by me, but it’s been all over the news about the government accessing our phone records, watching us in the bathroom, eavesdropping on our pillowtalk. We always suspected it, now we know it. And now Snowden is on a trip around the world, trying to find some country that will give him asylum. This will be a movie, just wait.
-NSA related tinfoil bonus- Michael Hastings, the investigative reporter who did the expose on General McChrystal a couple years ago that led to his resignation, died unexpectedly in a car crash this week. He claimed he was being investigated by the FBI and had a big story he was working on.
-Kim and Kanye named their baby North West.
-The Mad Men season finale was tonight. I am still processing, but holy crap, was that good tv. *spoiler alert* There’s been a lot of talk about who was going to die. I suspected all along that maybe it would just be the death of Donald Draper, the persona. Maybe I was onto something. It’s also interesting to see Don sandwiched between his daughter, very much like himself-both now suspended & having issues with alcohol, coming from “a broken home” and Peggy, his protege-sitting in his chair, signaling her continued rise from secretary to Don 2.0. Sally begins to parallel Don in his personal life and Peggy in his work life. It’s sad to see the season end, but I’m excited for Dexter to start next weekend….
Fortunate Femme 