What time is it? Link time!

Social Justice

  * [Hire more women today](http://observer.com/2015/12/why-women-need-affirmative-action-now/) -- Freddie deBoer, who is often a major league derpotron, offers an excellent analysis of issues of sexism in the workplace, describing both the structural issues and how to address them.
  * [Pentagon says women can now serve in front-line ground combat positions](http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/12/03/458319524/pentagon-will-allow-women-in-frontline-ground-combat-positions) -- I wouldn't call myself a big military supporter, but moves toward gender equality in this space are important, too. It's about time the military abandoned its sexist policies toward women in combat, especially since they had, in practice, long been ignored in many parts of the service. Making it official is an important step forward.
  * [Should abortion be "rare"?](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fran-moreland-johns/should-abortion-be-rare_b_5581399.html) -- An argument for why the old saw that abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare" enables anti-choice rhetoric through the insistence that it should be "rare."
  * [Open letter to Aziz Ansari and other anti-black people of color](http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/2015/11/open-letter-to-aziz-ansari-and-other-anti-black-people-of-color/) -- Short version: people of color need solidarity, not throwing each other under the bus, especially not for the sake of a cheap joke.

San Bernardino Shooting

  * [Couple tied to San Bernardino massacre seemed to be living the "American Dream"](http://graphics.latimes.com/san-bernardino-shooting/) -- Sometimes you really just don't know who your neighbors are.
  * [Couple kept tight lid on plans for San Bernardino shooting](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/us/san-bernardino-shooting-syed-rizwan-farook.html?_r=1) -- Following on from the above, it seems no one really had any idea the couple behind the shooting were planning anything like this.
  * [What the hell just happened on MSNBC and CNN?](http://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2015/12/what-the-hell-just-happened-on-msnbc/418893/) -- The two news agencies were bafflingly allowed into the apartment where the shooters lived, and broadcast personally identifiable information live, on national television. Is this what the obsession with constant scoops has reduced journalism to?

“War on Terror” and Islamophobia

  * [Syria vote: Cameron and Corbyn clash over air strikes](http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-34980504) -- The British Parliament went through the odd ritual of discussing the horrors of war and the seriousness of military intervention, then happily went along with approving... more war. OK then! Disgustingly, Prime Minister David Cameron also suggested that anyone who opposed air strikes was a "terrorist sympathizer."
  * [It's not just Trump: Islamophobia in America is spiraling out of control](http://www.vox.com/2015/12/1/9822452/muslim-islamophobia-trump) -- Indeed, lately I find myself shocked at the kind of language being used against Muslims. Rhetoric that was once considered fringe extremism is now espoused by prominent public figures and supported by a frightening amount of the American public. This should trouble us all.

Film

  * [Why _Creed_ is the greatest underdog movie since _Rocky_](http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/why-creed-is-the-greatest-underdog-movie-since-rocky-20151201) -- I haven't seen _Creed_ yet, but this analysis makes me want to.
  * [The importance of stakes in blockbuster movies](http://www.drunkmonkeys.us/film/2015/11/23/film-the-importance-of-stakes-in-blockbuster-movies) -- My friend Don wrote this sharp exploration of why films constantly trying to one-up each other in terms of dramatic stakes is damaging filmmaking.

Technology

  * [The Black Stack](http://www.e-flux.com/journal/the-black-stack/) -- A dense, somewhat impenetrably analysis of the technological megastructure we are currently developing and how it might affect the future course of human history.
  * [Jimmy Wales is not an Internet billionaire](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/magazine/jimmy-wales-is-not-an-internet-billionaire.html?_r=0) -- One might think that being the man behind (and public face of) Wikipedia and the for-profit Wikia service would bring significant wealth, but it turns out Wales' net worth is around $1 million: respectable, but nowhere near rich by Silicon Valley standards.

Healthcare

  * [PPO plans drastically reduced in HealthCare.gov's 2016 lineup](http://www.expressnews.com/business/health-care/article/PPO-plans-drastically-reduced-in-6601150.php) -- I could have stuck this one under Politics, but it fits here, too. Essentially, due to some funding and administrative shenanigans, many PPO plans offered on the federal exchange for 2015 are not being offered for 2016 because they've turned out to be massively unprofitable. With the government unwilling to make up the shortfall, insurers were left with little choice but to stop offering the plans, dramatically reducing options for people seeking insurance on the exchange.

Economics

  * [Not in school, not working: millions of young people worldwide are disengaged](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2015/05/27/not-in-school-not-working-millions-of-young-people-worldwide-are-disengaged/) -- A concerning development for both the present and future. High youth unemployment rates spell trouble for an entire generation of workers.

Politics

  * [7 reasons why Trump will win](https://medium.com/soapbox-dc/7-reasons-why-trump-will-win-be76b33de2df#.967700qez) -- The title is a bit misleading: the author is suggesting Trump will win the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries. He actually stands a good chance of doing so. But the nomination? Could go either way. General election? Absolutely not. His unfavorability ratings put him at a loss to _any_ Democratic candidate on offer.

Culture

  * [Using German to express our weirdest fears](http://www.thelocal.de/20151113/italian-ex-pats-german-language-laboratory) -- An Italian living in Germany undertakes a yearlong project to invent German words to describe various fears and problems, with hilarious and amusing results.