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Weekly Roundup, October 11, 2015

As he put it, “I’ve heard stories of people put that put their friends on [their insurance plan],” Jones said. “I think that we need to ensure that the state taxpayers are only funding married people and their dependents.” Well, then.

What I’m Reading

My friend and comrade Mariame Kaba, wrote this, about working toward abolition, and it’s really worth reading and posting widely.

Another friend and comrade Erez Jesse Schwartz is just got to Jerusalem on a five-month program, and he wrote this, “Arabs Shall You Pursue: A Report Back from a New Resident of Jerusalem.”

You might have heard of the US funding aid for Syrian refugees through a Kickstarter. This Salon piece by Ben Norton rips that to shreds.

If you thought crowdfunding for refugee aid was bad, here’s a piece about how police will use pink handcuffs to promote breast cancer awareness.

And speaking of police, attacking them might soon be considered hate crimes.

Against Equality and I have been warning about how marriage will soon become a requirement, erasing all other possible types of relationships. Following a national trend, a Michigan Senator wants to put an end to mere domestic partners claiming healthcare benefits. As he put it, “I’ve heard stories of people put that put their friends on [their insurance plan],” Jones said. “I think that we need to ensure that the state taxpayers are only funding married people and their dependents.” Well, then.

More news on the privatisation front: Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel is planning to privatise HIV/AIDS primary care clinics in the city.

Nat Raha wrote this about Trans liberalism.

Raven-Symoné said she won’t hire anyone with overtly Black names. Ebony’s Jamilah Lemieux wrote this about the incident.

Noah Berlatksy wrote this, about why the “Kunduz Hospital Bombing Is a Feature, Not a Bug, of War.”

Card catalogues are on their way out, according to Smithsonian magazine (my historian and anthropologist friends disagree, though, given how much of their research is still housed in older archives).

I got my copy of The Feminist Utopia Project.

Matthew Shepard was killed on October 6, 1998, and his death spawned a national hate crime legislation which several queers, including Against Equality, have long criticised.  Kay Whitlock and Michael Bronski wrote Considering Hate:  Violence, Goodness, and Justice in American Culture and Politics.

From the Archives

Speaking of Matthew Shepard, here’s my review of Stephen Jimenez’s controversial book on the case, The Book of Matt: The Truth about the Murder of Matthew Shepard.

While reading the Smithsonian piece about card catalogues, I came across this fascinating 2013 piece about a “lost” Russian family.

The Bilerico Project has been acquired by Q.Project, and I’ve been going through the archives and collecting the material I wrote there. Expect to see some of the older pieces resurface now and then.  Here’s one about Tanita Tikaram, from when I filled in for Alex Blaze as the music-wallah.

I’m still in the process of figuring out a new schedule in my writing, which continues vigorously if not in the more immediately seen pieces of the recent past. John Cale’s “Fear Is a Man’s Best Friend” somehow seems apt here.

And in case you missed it, here’s last week’s roundup.

Image source.