Happy Friday, Liberty Ladies!
We’ve been all over the place lately, but we’re thrilled to be back and sharing some of this week’s highlights with you.
In what seems to be the most relevant (and unwanted) piece of news this week, the nation is bracing itself against the threat of Ebola. While the majority of the related news is unfortunate on all fronts, Breitbart released a piece this morning that includes a video of Ebola patient Nina Pham looking well. The Huffington Post also provided a mercifully brief video with commentary regarding President Obama’s reactions to Ebola, the political angles being worked on both ends, and Shepard Smith’s approach to the topic.
In our routine efforts to keep up with news on all ends of the philosophical spectrum, we’re including this piece from Feministing.com. A feminist video game critic was forced to cancel a planned lecture at Utah State University this week due to a frightening and anonymous murder threat. While we’re both unfamiliar with the video games her lecture meant to criticize, we lament the missed opportunity of intellectual diversity and discourse the event could have brought to Utah State’s campus. It is crucial to hear the ideas of those who disagree with you, even if it’s only to fine-tune your own arguments. Instead of being resentful, attend those lectures from people you vehemently disagree with – how will you ever understand why you believe what you believe, if you never expose yourself to different ideas?
We haven’t seen “Gone Girl” yet, but we both read the book and we couldn’t put it down. The New Yorker suggests that the movie offers some interesting insight on perfection, illusion, and marriage – definitely worth a read if you’ve seen the movie!
This week, the Daily Beast published some thought-provoking material on celebrity-branded feminism and whether it adds to or detracts from the authentic feminist cause on the whole. Despite our personal grievances with the modern feminist cause, we found the work to be pretty interesting considering that ‘feminism’ has become a pop culture buzzword lately.
Young Conservatives posted some video footage featuring students who were protesting the Free Speech Zones at their schools (by handing out free U.S. Constitutions) being threatened with punishment by school officials. We’re not going to bore you with our tirade against the irony of free speech zones (today!) but the story is an oft-repeated episode and worth revisiting.
Elite Daily recently issued an article we LOVED, encouraging millennials to explore the possibilities of entrepreneurialism and to reach for their own definition of success. We found the whole thing to be pretty empowering and definitely worth taking a look at.
Meanwhile, back on our respective campuses, we’ve been chilling like villains and doing the things that normal college students do, like drowning in midterms and papers. We recently had the opportunity to visit the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara, and were both (literally) moved to tears by President Reagan’s modest lifestyle and his devotion to his family. We’ll leave you guys with some awesome inspiration for Halloween nails, (We’ve tried to do this on our own. It doesn’t work. Seriously unless you’re an art major, go seek professional help.) and with wishes for a fabulous weekend!
Best,
Lauren and Sam
