Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
‘Far from being ‘sacred’, as some have claimed, freedom of speech is always contingent.’ Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP In times of crisis, those who would like us to keep just one idea in our heads at any one time are quick to the megaphones. By framing events in Manichean terms – dark versus light; good versus…
Today, in the wake of the Paris’ tragedy, some journalists, here and there, also on Gawker, try to understand what this very “different” newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, actually is. And yes, I say “is” because the newspaper itself is not dead and will be published normally next Wednesday and the weeks after that, despite the slaughter…
During his show in Canada on Thursday night, Bill Cosby reportedly told a woman in the crowd to “be careful about drinking around me.” According to tweets from Richard Warnica, Cosby’s performance at Budweiser Gardens in London, Ontario took a pretty fucked up turn when a woman got up to get a drink and Cosby…
I feel your pain, bitter, lonely, nerdy guys. I really do. It sounds corny to say it like that, but I don’t know how to say it and be believed. I know that because, having experienced this emotion from the inside for most of my life, I sure as hell resisted believing it when I…
The acclaimed graphic artist and journalist Joe Sacco on the limits of satire – and what it means if Muslims don’t find it funny Joe Sacco: On Satire – a response to the Charlie Hebdo attacks | World news | The Guardian.
Police mobilize during a hostage situation at a kosher supermarket on January 9, 2015 in Paris, France. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) Two days after heavily-armed gunmen killed 12 people at the Paris offices of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, two gunmen took hostages at a kosher supermarket in a Paris, killing at least four people. Police killed…
Murder is wrong, and the murder of journalists cuts especially close to the bone for anyone in the industry. So I certainly sympathize with Jonathan Chait’s impulse to offer a full-throated defense of publishing blasphemous anti-Muslim cartoons as a positive good. “The right to blaspheme religion is one of the most elemental exercises of political…
After only a couple of months in the adult industry, 21-year-old Lebanese-American Mia Khalifa took the crown for most-searched-for star on PornHub from the legendary Lisa Ann of “Nailin’ Paylin” fame. It was a surprise win for the newcomer, who took to Instagram to humbly celebrate with a blushing emoji and caption reading, “nothing but…
Why the death of Ahmed Merabet, one of the police officers who was killed in Wednesday’s Charlie Hebdo attack, is a vital part of the story in France. Antonio Bronic/Reuters/The Atlantic For a number of reasons, the death of Ahmed Merabet should provide a way to understand Wednesday’s horrific shooting in Paris. Merabet, one of…
close shareTools The journalists at Charlie Hebdo are now rightly being celebrated as martyrs on behalf of freedom of expression, but let’s face it: If they had tried to publish their satirical newspaper on any American university campus over the last two decades it wouldn’t have lasted 30 seconds. Student and faculty groups would have…