Is-it-only-Wednesday roundup

The horrified journalists who cover Boko Haram and Syria.

It's hard to stomach the torture committed by the prior Tunisian regime.

Sometimes someone who lost everything, needs a drink.

Can you stand another no-to-nuclear-domino-theory piece? Because it's really important. While we're on the topic, check out this piece on the limits of a nuclear umbrella.

Amal Clooney, role model.

Women suffer professionally when they're limited by fear of innuendo.

Window-dressing rape scenes are sloppy story-telling.

Every writer has her own canon (or, specific books are hardly markers of literacy).

The universality of the hero's journey still holds in every way.

So proud of Alexandria's star boxer.

The farm-to-table concept has jumped the shark. I've said it before (always): there are good reasons to support local farming, but environmental locavorism is misguided--and a red herring. Whatever the provenance of that cow, it took a lot of water, among other things.

Speaking of sometime-red-herrings: oversimplifying GMOs in either direction doesn't serve the discourse.

I love Ana Marie Cox's (and Kevin Drum's) thoughts on cats:

On the internet, where everything is suspect, cats—while sneaky—are above suspicion. The internet is virtual. Cats are real. The internet is about debate. Cats are undebatable.
As Kevin himself pointed out back in 2004, the cats are the medium, not the message:

"I'd just blogged a whole bunch of stuff about what was wrong with the world," Mr. Drum said. "And I turned around and I looked out the window, and there was one of my cats, just plonked out, looking like nothing was wrong with the world at all."

It reminds me a bit of what the executive director of a homeless shelter said on Saturday at a volunteer reception. He read from Mr. Rogers Talks with Parents:

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.

Especially in light of the links at the beginning of this post, I think it's good for all of us to remember to look for the helpers.