Courtenay Stallings

Bluesky's new age verification system will make you choose to either hum/mumble a few words from a Dave Matthews song (song must be from Crash or Under the Table and Dreaming) or play the opening riff to Black Sabbath's Iron Man on guitar (it's ok if you're a little off as long as it's sincere)

An opinion that makes you a fringe radical in this country is that the life of a person who is not an American citizen is not an abstraction, and is worth just as much as that of an American citizen

Crowd-sourcing the Epstein Files -- brilliant.

It’s awful — writers are so undervalued these days. In so many ways.

I know! Too many excellent people being let go in journalism. It’s so disappointing and maddening.

I think this is about the temperature but honestly it works for decades as well

Is anyone else experiencing debilitating amounts of dread?

Matt is simply the best. I owe so much of who I am as a writer and as a person to him. He’s an endlessly supportive force and his and Judith’s bookstore is a necessary and rich resource.

US/Israel: Investigate Iran School Attack as a War Crime An unlawful attack on a primary school in southern Iran before midday on February 28, 2026 that reportedly killed scores of civilians, including many children, should be investigated as a war crime, H...

New Human Rights Watch report finds that the US Israel massacre of an elementary school in southern Iran has to be investigated as a war crime. The US and Israel had sufficient information and intel to know whether it was a school or not.

www.hrw.org/news/2026/03...

Please take a moment to peruse the @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social’s and @mzspress.bsky.social’s bookstore. They have been incredible supporters of writers, including little old me and “Laura’s Ghost.” Consider supporting them and buying something from their very cool collection.

I am really sorry to hear this. I’m happy to share your incredible bookstore with others. You’ve always been a big support to other writers. I hope we can support you right back.

THREAD: I got laid off from NYMag/Vulture after 14 years. The family lost 75% of income + medical. Now mzs.press bookstore, once a side project. is do-or-die for Judith & I. I feel weird telling you this because others are doing much worse. But if you could like or share this, we'd be so grateful!

I’m so tired of bad people getting away with doing bad things.

No Help and Few Options for Travelers Stranded by Mideast Conflict

One woman who called the State Department helpline looking for help said they told her to "stop ranting and raving" and hung up on her.

Another woman said they asked her how to spell Oman.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/t...

A lot of people say AI isn't very good for the world and its outputs are routinely unreliable, but these haters fail to see how it's revolutionizing how we incinerate schoolchildren.

For years on my old blog I published the names of servicemembers who died in Iraq & Afghanistan. No other outlets were.

These are the first 4 Americans to die in the Iran War.
Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35
Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42
Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39
Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20

March 2, 2024. #twinpeaks #palmerhouse

ProPublica Sues Education Department for Withholding Records About Discrimination in Schools Under Secretary Linda McMahon, the work of the Office for Civil Rights, which aims to protect students from discrimination, is cloaked in secrecy.

NEW: ProPublica has sued the Department of Education in federal court, accusing it of withholding public records about how it’s enforcing civil rights protections for millions of U.S. students.

A dog who is running excitably towards me across some wet grass, having heard a rumour that for one week only I will do a cut, shampoo and blow dry for just £14.99.

THREAD.

A collection of excellent dogs I have met on my adventures in the British countryside.

You will find the all-important captions to the photos in the alt text.

I just learned that Ayatollah Khamenei and Ayatollah Khomenei are not the same person. Here's my plan for regime change in Iran....(1/23)

“some folks inherit star-spangled eyes
they send you down to war, Lord
And when you ask 'em, ‘How much should we give?’
they only answer, ‘More, more, more, more’
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no military son, son, Lord
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no fortunate one, one”

This is not a joke: I need someone to check for a lost stuffed animal on campus at UT-Knoxville outside Thompson-Boling. DM me for details.

YouTube video by The Blue Rose Magazine Courtenay Stallings interviews the authors of Theology, Religion, and Twin Peaks

@courtenaycal.bsky.social interviews the editors of a new book: Theology, Religion, and Twin Peaks. Check it out:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT9_...

A crazy time to NOT HAVE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS!!!

rutherford.house.gov/media/press-...

How the lack of newspapers feeds a rise in local corruption. Our study also found that digital media sites didn’t make much of a difference.

One large study found that when a major daily newspaper covering a federal judicial district disappears, corruption cases there—bribery, embezzlement, fraud—rise by more than 7%.

The researchers suggest officials feel emboldened when no one's looking.
www.cjr.org/analysis/loc...

This is Bryan. Once a week, he takes a shelter pup on a New York City adventure in his 'Adopt Me' backpack, hoping someone will fall in love. He films their big day out, and almost every dog he's featured has found a forever home.
🫶 🐕 🫶 🐶 🫶

So you get out your Fascism for Dummies book for the 15 things you do, and we tried to include as many of them as we could in the most artful way possible. How were we supposed to know that this clown car in Washington was going to basically use the same book that we used? So I don't think it's prescience so much as the sad familiarity of fascism and the karaoke menu of things that you go through to do it. You could list them from the show, or you could list them from the newspaper.

Tony Gilroy, creator of Andor, wasn’t allowed to use the word “fascism” during press junkets in 2025.

Interesting interview in The Hollywood Reporter.

www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-featur...

A lot of people, including me, were wondering how an IRB could ever approve this study.

The answer is that no IRB did. The person who “signed off” on approval from the only ethics board that reviewed it had resigned three years earlier. His signature was used without his knowledge.

Always.