1) Turns out Independence isn’t just for dead white guys. Today is opening day for Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman, the personal-story stuffed six-hour documentary by Jennifer Fox. Flying explores Fox’s life and those of women around the world: prostitutes, activists, friends, and filmmakers. Need more encouragement? A story in the Times calls it “part personal memoir, feminist manifesto and diagnosis of the state of Global Woman” and the tough-critic semitics over at HEEB are hosting a screening on Friday.

2) Speaking of dead, white, and women, few get more attention than young, pretty ones who get killed. Indignant essays asking why have become commonplace, but ABC News has done one better. A feature on their Law & Justice page tells the stories of nineteen people murdered the same day as cable news sweetheart Jessie Davis. They include a baby, a grandmother, an aspiring ballet dancer—and even a pregnant caucasian.

3) Since we all know the 4th is less about independence (or, um, murder) than about copious cow consumption, I direct you to the best thing on the internet: the Black Widow Bakery’s Meat Cake, and the resultant community meat cake photo gallery. God bless America!