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Daily Bafflements
August 26, 2014
• Uber and Lyft are on a “lobbying blitz” to fight safety and insurance regulations, says Valleywag. • In case you missed it, the British Embassy celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Brits burning the White House with a cake, sparklers, a day at the pool, ...

Laurie Penny Speaks the Unspeakable
August 25, 2014
The title of British writer and feminist Laurie Penny’s forthcoming book Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies and Revolution is somewhat curious. Surely nothing is truly unspeakable these days, provided that it attracts clicks and revenue: the market doesn’t much care what ...

Daily Bafflements
August 25, 2014
• Burning Man is now just another tech conference, says Re/code, which is why they’re sending someone to go cover it this year. Lol. (Via Quartz.) • Today in Advice from Billionaires: according to “Koch 101,” a Q&A in the Kansas City Star, the Koch ...

Banana Republics and Bad Apples Abroad
August 22, 2014
Last month, quietly overshadowed by a summer of celebrity deaths and violent instability in the Middle East, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit against the American produce company Chiquita. Filed on behalf of over 4,000 Colombians, the suit alleged that ...

Daily Bafflements
August 22, 2014
• We talk a lot about the First Amendment and how the Obama administration is threatening press freedom in the United States, but it’s also worth noting that journalists can often be entitled assholes. Reporting the news is an important job, but doesn’t ...

Battered Women Behind Bars: True Stories on Stage
August 21, 2014
“Abuse is a generic term, it doesn’t mean anything,” the parole board commissioner says. “Be specific.” Helen Broker sits in handcuffs at the hearing and prepares to defend herself. Her husband had violently abused her throughout their marriage, until one day, acting ...

Daily Bafflements
August 21, 2014
• According to reports of the ongoing trial of Virginia’s ex-governor Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen, both of whom face charges of public corruption, “The defense painted Ms. McDonnell as a vitamin-obsessed ‘nutbag.'” • Former Obama operatives ...

We Do Actually Know What’s the Matter with Kansas
August 20, 2014
A decade ago, coastal voters and the political and media elite were banging their heads on their desks with bafflement, wondering why so many Americans were voting against their economic interests. Wasn’t the Democratic Party supposed to be the party for the little guy, and ...

Daily Bafflements
August 20, 2014
• While the beginning of the school year has been postponed in Ferguson, Missouri because of ongoing protests there, classes are cancelled today and until further notice in Millville, Pennsylvania because all the teachers have gone on strike. According to WNEP-16, the ...

Redlining and Reckoning in Ferguson
August 19, 2014
As I write this, it’s been about three months since the publication of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Atlantic cover story about reparations. That’s not a very long time relative to the span of a human life, but it’s significantly longer than the average lifespan for most Internet ...

Reality TV Workers and Walkouts
August 19, 2014
Last week, the postproduction crew of the reality television show Survivor walked off the job and formed picket lines outside the production company’s Santa Barbara headquarters. The editors and producers had requested contract negotiations with Mark Burnett’s Island Post ...

Daily Bafflements
August 19, 2014
• Dust off your monocle and top hat, New York City’s Metropolitan Opera and two of its unions (representing its orchestra and chorus) have finally come to a deal. • Today in Advice from Billionaires: If you want to make it rich, see where this billionaire ...