Christmas Eve Links!

* My article about Battle: Los Angeles is finally up at Democratic Communiqué: “I’d Rather Be in Afghanistan”: Antinomies of Battle: Los Angeles. It’s part of a special issue on “Media, Technology, and the Culture of Militarism: Watching, Playing and Resisting the War Society.”

* John McAdams’s lawyer has made public his letter to the Marquette administration protesting his suspension.

* A horrid, horrifying story of an organized campaign to harass a random Brandeis undergraduate for her tweets.

* UIUC Report Condemns Dismissal of Steven Salaita. I said this on Twitter, but “It was wrong to arbitrarily break the rules then to fire Salaita, but we should arbitrarily break the rules now to reconsider his hiring” is a bullshit conclusion. Either he was hired or he wasn’t.

* Santa’s magic, children’s wisdom, and inequality.

* Are Parents Obliged to Pay for College?

* Today’s police killing non-indictment comes to us form Houston, Texas.

* Former Buffalo Police officer Cariol Horne in a battle to get her pension. She was fired for trying to stop a fellow officer she says was abusing a suspect.

* In the face of the NYPD, it’s not just that New York City’s leaders are spineless. They’re frightened, which is far more dangerous.

* When White Men Love Black Women on TV.

* Fast-Food Consumption Linked to Lower Test Score Gains in 8th Graders.

* The numbers are shocking: In the United States, according to the GED Testing Service, 401,388 people earned a GED in 2012, and about 540,000 in 2013. This year, according to the latest numbers obtained by Scene, only about 55,000 have passed nationally. That is a 90-percent drop off from last year.

* Creditonormativity: Asserts that participation in the credit system of finance is the norm and is therefore the only and expected financial orientation. This orientation is then used to legitimate participation in a range of otherwise exclusionary social exchanges and relations. A creditonormative society is compulsory and involves the alignment of body, mind, and wallet with the biopolitical governance of financialization.

* Against the idea of bystander intervention as a solution to rape culture.

* Do #BlackLivesMatter In Academia?

* Giuliani’s claim is an outlandish distortion of what Obama actually said. We rate this Pants on Fire.

* An oral history of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

* On sneaking a lesbian relationship past the censors in an anime in 2014.

* We have created a public education system designed to assess our students and teachers on measures we perpetually keep just out of reach, so that the most successful students, teachers, and schools have nothing to worry about while the least successful among us must worry constantly about whether we’re smart or not, under review or not, employed or not — worth something or not. We demand that the people we fail define self-worth as judged by us. Other kinds of literacy (or even last year’s literacy) simply need not apply.

* Seeing this part of my family always introduces me to new Christian alternative media I’ve never heard of before. This time it was Bibleman and the “Unwind Dystology,” a sort of pro-life Divergent.

* Meanwhile, from the annals of my very serious research.

* Coming to Terms With My Father’s Racism.

* Panspermia in the 19th century.

* The arc of history is long, but The Interview will play in 200 theaters this Christmas after all.

* And I thought this was supposed to be Christmas: Ohio homeowner told to take down his zombie nativity scene.

The Deserving Poor

Congress Ponders Adding GED Requirement to Unemployment Benefits.

Is a GED More Valuable Than a PhD?

Is a GED more valuable than a PhD? “In an economy where everyone is overqualified, having an advanced degree is virtually worthless.” Tell me about it. (Thanks, Erica!)