Weekend link-oh-rama

Some stories and notes I ran across that I found interesting:

** A lot of good points here: The Reaction to Rob Ford's Cancer Proves We Don't Take Addiction Seriously

It's almost as if that nasty business of the media running roughshod -- downright bullying -- a man suffering from a mental illness never happened. Journalists never hounded him at the rehabilitation facility. Or coerced other patients into revealing intimate details of his treatment. Or wrote features about the clinic founder's own history with the law.

Now that he's dealing with a physical disease, on the other hand, it's real. Let's give the man some privacy, our noble journalism vanguards suddenly declare.

** Speaking of old rock, in a post below ... I went to this ceremony and the site near Hill City is pretty cool. I'd recommend it for anybody looking for a quick afternoon jaunt. Might even learn something: Once doomed, Gold Mountain Mine mill frame now an attraction

Seven years after the mill frame was declared dead, officials Tuesday morning celebrated the opening of the Gold Mountain Mine Interpretive Trail. The sunny September morning allowed visitors to walk the trail around the mine and read interpretive signs explaining both the history of gold fever in the Black Hills and the process for gold mining it. 

The trail ends next to the preserved mill frame and a partially intact boiler unit that supplied steam power for workers at the mine.

** Minneapolis author Louise Erdrich wins a big award I'd never heard of and 25 grand. From the Star-Trib:

Her novel "The Round House" was the 2012 winner of the National Book Award; "Plague of Doves" was a Pulitzer finalist in 2009, and "Love Medicine," her debut novel, won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1984.

** I like to think that for every Adrian Peterson and Ray Rice in the NFL, there are more like this: Ex-Raven quites NFL to give kidney to brother

"Man, when that thing came out I felt like somebody threw me a small football," he said.

** Here's an in-depth look at the NFL's security apparatus, basically run like the FBI by former agents. It makes me wonder how much crap gets covered up, glossed over and never sees the light: Elaborate security network is supposed to protect league from trouble

** From the Federalist: Global warming was worth it, and if we had to, we'd do it again