Craig Smith

You don’t have to sell cake to a gay couple getting married but you *do* have to sell pierogis to an Epstein Island Trump-defending troll, it’s in the constitution

Amazon review of Pride and Prejudice, left by carlton p morgan on 30 July 2010: "Just a bunch of people going to each other's houses"

Happy 15th anniversary of the peak achievement of literary criticism, to all who celebrate

This is unfortunate:
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/u...
I wrote to the president of Harvard. I hope other faculty will speak their conscience, even if it means more struggle ahead.

I pledge that I will not provide any service to Columbia University. I will not speak at conferences held at or organized by Columbia. I will not publish with Columbia publications or provide peer reviews for them. I will not provide outside tenure evaluations for Columbia departments. I will not contribute in any way to the institution until everyone who is responsible for this week’s shameful decision has resigned, retired, or been fired, and until Columbia repudiates their catastrophic choice.

I wonder if the Columbia leadership realizes (or cares) how much blowback there might be from *within* the academy.

This post, from a Cornell Law professor, is worth reading:

3d.laboratorium.net/2025-07-25-c...

This is very bad. Although entirely predictable. Once more the humanities are being cut back to prop up STEM and, increasingly, AI investment (including at the expense of bench science). In the past, cuts to humanities were promoted on two separate logic streams that do not hold true: /1

book cover photograph of Dan Pelzer in front of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, "What Dan Read 1962-2025"

Dan Pelzer's handwritten book list, first page: 1962

Final page of Dan Pelzer's book list from 2025. Photo of Dan (man in glasses, polo shirt, and holding a bottle of "Danhattan"

“Nobody loved the library more than Dan.”

A meticulous list kept by Dan Pelzer from 1962-2025, cataloging all the books he borrowed and read from the Columbus Metropolitan Library, shared by his daughter.

I could not could not love this more.

Dan's book list (all 109 pages) at what-dan-read.com

Our political media is simply not equipped to handle a situation where the voters were unambiguously wrong in a way which morally implicates the electorate.

The Administration Wants Military Women to Know Their Place Pete Hegseth seems to be on a mission to erase women from the top ranks of the U.S. armed forces.

"At this point, women have been cleared out of all of the military’s top jobs."
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Sorry Superman ain't flying around, randomly putting brown people in swamp prisons. That must be hard for you. Thoughts and prayers and whatnot.

This is correct. Any candidate cynically “triangulating” on trans kids is a non-starter, and now is the time to say so. There’s still so much time to advance candidates that DON’T suck.

Screenshot of the first image but the "alt text" taggy button thingy that hovers over the image obscures part of the caption so instead it reads, "(chuckles) I am hung"

The crop over on mastodon is 🤌🏽

Fuck it, they killed him live.

I'm sorry, nine HUNDRED former DOJ lawyers all signed this letter opposing Emil Bove's nomination to be an appellate federal judge?

900?!

Oxford Handbook of American and British Women Philosophers in the Nineteenth Century cover

Weighing in at 827 pages and 2 1/4 inches, our Oxford Handbook of American and British Women Philosophers in the 19th Century is HERE! Huge thanks to @oupphilosophy.bsky.social and our 50+ authors. Restoring women to the philosophical canon is a matter of justice, but it is also better scholarship!

Sending this to everyone who tells me “students are going to use it no matter what.”

Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans break with Trump on Epstein House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson that he supported the release of the Epstein files days after Trump’s Justice Department said the matter was effectivel...

How do you publish this headline *after* the GOP blocks a measure demanding the Epstein files be released?

thinking about the dems who said we can't abolish ICE as the Department of Education gets wiped off the map

No rats, but measles as far as the eye can see

We have three branches of government: the executive, the yes men, and the people who never say no

Biya was President before Thriller

generally, exuding poses no problem for that guy.

sadly, for him, what he exudes is kinda stank

"total" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, but I agree

He's at the Lloyd Braun phase of serenity, now.

People who feel bad for JD Vance’s kids as family gets booed at Disneyland. I get it, but better those kids know now what their father is about. Other kids are watching their parents get shipped off to gulags.

very interesting thing just happened: EWR had a complete ground stop due to “thunderstorms” despite no storms in a 200 mile radius. The only flight to leave from EWR in that window? Air Force One.

sure looks like Donald Trump just shut down EWR for 4 hours so he could watch a soccer game!

is he dead yet

I wrote about some brave people, thread below for some quotes, here's the full piece: newrepublic.com/article/1975...

Homeland Security has all but stopped investigating child exploitation and human trafficking cases in order to shift resources to abducting nannies.

Gallup has new polling on immigration. Topline findings:
-Americans hate Trump's immigration policy (35% approve, 62% disapprove)
-Share who say immigration is a "good thing" for the country just hit an all-time high (79%)

news.gallup.com/poll/692522/...