October 15th, 2026
Good.

Shooting your whole family to death with malice aforethought gets you a ticket to adult court.

************

UD can squeeze out maybe a drop of pity that the killer ended up with nutty stupid defense lawyers who appear to believe that if your parents are fervent fundamentalist Christians you get to get away with slaughtering them and the kids.

“He was taught about the illuminati that it was real, that 9/11 was a conspiracy and he believed it,” defense attorney Amy Parker said. “His parents told him the government and social system would collapse and so the kids had go-bags packed to move to Idaho at a moment’s notice to be prepared to rise up against a tyrannical government and protect the family.”

Idaho go-bags! Where’s my gun??

October 12th, 2026
‘[I]rony … adheres in the fact that [Hegseth] wants to punish an Islamic religious extremist by doing something that will link the United States of America arm-in-arm with what are almost surely the two most extremist theocratic Islamic regimes in the world.’

Lots of people note the essential barbarism of the public execution thing; see George Will and others. Christopher Hitchens made much, as he prepared to watch an execution in that state, of Missouri’s slogan: Show Me. Show Me!

I was assailed by a powerful sensation of voyeuristic indecency. There was something camp and wrong and over-rehearsed about it—the result of an ill-considered attempt to impose primness and decorum on something obscene…  I feel permanently degraded and somewhat unmanned by the small part I played, as a complicit spectator, in the dank and dingy little ritual that was enacted in that prison cellar in Missouri. 

Me, I’m reminded of Shamima Begum’s explanation for having left England and joined ISIS: It was watching ISIS videos of prisoners being beheaded that really got her going.

October 8th, 2026
‘Auditors found widespread teacher-credential problems, a 51-to-1 student-teacher ratio and a graduation rate of just 2.8% in 2023-24, compared with 86.4% statewide.’

Plus they’re a nest of thieves.

And your problem is…?

September 30th, 2026
‘Eric Schmitt is a dolt. This isn’t really news. He was a drooling idiot as Missouri’s attorney general where he proved incapable of contending with the plain text of a statute and succeeded mostly in wasting taxpayer resources pursuing a facially frivolous challenge to void Joe Biden’s electoral votes. He’s since taken his talents to Capitol Hill where he’s been a dangerous, irresponsible malignancy as a senator.’

Give Jack Smith Schmitt, Schmitt, Schmitt. Don’t quit, Schmitt. Keep it up.

These very public proceedings reveal the moral degeneracy of MAGA politicians — on view most recently (remember?) as plagiarist Rand Paul tormented Anthony Fauci.

I only have the stomach to link to what the freaky guy from Louisiana said to Smith during the proceedings.

Sane, rational witnesses like Fauci and Smith create a striking contrast between drooling idiots and serious adults, and it’s there for all of us to see. Look carefully. Don’t look away. And for fuck sake, vote in the upcoming elections.

September 17th, 2026
Sleaze Factor…

… at Chapel Hill beyond belief.

*************************

“I’m hoping this will be the start of a conversation amongst the board members of how we can remain competitive in athletics, but not, in the long run, at the expense of the academic mission.”

LOLOLOLOL

September 15th, 2026
‘[Jon] Rosenthal, [Bo] French’s Democratic opponent, also criticized the post, writing on X: “I spent 25 years as an oil and gas engineer. Bo French spent Sunday morning sorting our [University of Texas football] student section by skin color.”

Bo On Skid Row.

**************

Plunging, that is.

August 6th, 2026
Fauci found in contempt.

Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and a former constitutional law professor, said that Mr. Paul had already tainted a prosecution by asserting he wanted to see Dr. Fauci in prison, while at the same time trying to force him to testify.

“I do have some sense of the ethics of a legislative investigation,” Mr. Raskin said. “It just would never occur to me to go around saying a witness should be in prison and then try to prevent them from invoking their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination over the very matter I’m claiming is criminal.”

*************

Ugh.

July 31st, 2026
‘The selection process drew scrutiny because Mr. Hawkins held no advanced college degrees and became eligible [for a university presidency] only after the board of trustees lowered the position’s educational requirements.’

Anything for a friend of the governor! A Florida college prez only has a BS from Akron, but anyway it’s Florida whaddaya expect.

However, his resentment of his appropriately credentialed faculty is such that when he heard an English prof there teaches short stories that … I dunno, lack Baptist content? he up and tossed her out on the spot! ON THE SPOT. Satan get thee hence.

Well his petulant little moment caught the eye of FIRE and the NYT and all, and now you got you a big ol lawsuit…

July 31st, 2026
‘[Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez] cited Frontex figures showing that Italy recorded more irregular entries than Spain between 2021 and 2026 and called for “a strong and united European Union.”’

Yeah, he’s pissed that, in the wake of the Ceuta disaster, Italy has suspended its Schengen open borders agreement with Spain. But listen. It’s optics, ain’t it? The whole world has been riveted, for the last twenty-four hours, to scenes of thousands of young men (only young men) surging into Spain from Morocco cuz Spain can’t control its borders. One can know that more “irregulars” enter Italy than enter Spain; but here one can see the intrusion – into Spain – so so graphically.

The overwhelmed police; the inevitable armed forces. 72 dead in the chaos. A massive embarrassment for Spain. A massive gift to Trump and Co.

July 29th, 2026
‘Herbert J. Rapp and Tibor Borsos worked primarily with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), while Anthony Fauci collaborated with them during his early research training and career development at the NIH.’

AI tells you this if you search FAUCI HERBERT RAPP. Herbert Rapp was UD’s father, and I can imagine him staring wide-eyed at his eminent colleague being publicly destroyed by Trump/Paul.

*************

Background.

July 25th, 2026
People like to say things like “A stunning fall from grace” …

… But weawy???

Now that richly variegated criminal Tom Goldstein has been sent where he belongs – jail, for six years – prepare for What a fall was there! commentary from similarly highly credentialed elites here in the Bethesda/Chevy Chase world UD and Goldstein share. Shared.

But ain’t no kind of fall when you were already trash. Far as I can make out, the dude was always a greedy little shit with no discernible morality — the sort of person who must have enjoyed, as much as Bernie Madoff did, the knowledge that he was ripping off the world while tooling around in one of his Bentleys.

He made clear enough that exceptional people like himself were not subject to laws.

Read his list of crimes and try telling me that I should get all Shakespeare-tragic-like about a garden variety sociopath.

July 19th, 2026
Learning How to Argue from Trump

‘So on the question of [multiple sexes] being “settled science,” as the AAA said at the time, there was a survey in 2022, published in the journal Forensic Anthropology, that asked forensic anthropologists about this question, and 42 percent of them said they agree that sex is binary, and 56 percent disagreed that it’s binary. So that ratio would seem to indicate that, in the field, the question hadn’t actually been settled, and I was wondering how you explain that.

I don’t believe in opinion research… I just don’t trust opinion polling.’

*******************

Rational deliberation from the prez of the American Anthropological Association.

July 16th, 2026
What a difference a day makes! / 274,000 little dollars. / Makes us all hoot and holler / Cuz you gave them to Ken!

SING IT

***************

Ken’s campaign looked all grody

The AG was all wet

Then Ken told big Cody

He’d deliver the threat

*****************

Yes what a difference Cody’s bucks made

Cody just forked ‘em over

Ken’s campaign got an upgrade

Now he’s living in clover

*****************

It’s heaven when you

Find a shakedown on your menu

What a difference a day makes

And the difference is TTU

June 30th, 2026
‘The small principality is widely regarded as one of the safest places in the world, including through its extensive surveillance network composed of thousands of CCTV cameras covering most public spaces.’

Creepy panopticon Monaco, financial crime capital, has managed to eke out three murders or almost-murders in the last few decades, all involving high-level corruption and/or un max d’argent. The latest is a bomb attack on a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch right at his doorstep.

June 28th, 2026
As if anyone is surprised.

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/news/2026/06/26/confederate-flag-displayed-at-n-c–exhibit-at-america-s-state-fair

’. A symbol that the state itself never chose, attached to its flag without permission, displayed at an event meant to celebrate American unity…’

Next Page »

UD REVIEWED

Dr. Bernard Carroll, known as the "conscience of psychiatry," contributed to various blogs, including Margaret Soltan's University Diaries, for which he sometimes wrote limericks under the name Adam.
New York Times

George Washington University English professor Margaret Soltan writes a blog called University Diaries, in which she decries the Twilight Zone-ish state our holy land’s institutes of higher ed find themselves in these days.
The Electron Pencil

It’s [UD's] intellectual honesty that makes her blog required reading.
Professor Mondo

There's always something delightful and thought intriguing to be found at Margaret Soltan's no-holds-barred, firebrand tinged blog about university life.
AcademicPub

You can get your RDA of academic liars, cheats, and greedy frauds at University Diaries. All disciplines, plus athletics.
truffula, commenting at Historiann

Margaret Soltan at University Diaries blogs superbly and tirelessly about [university sports] corruption.
Dagblog

University Diaries. Hosted by Margaret Soltan, professor of English at George Washington University. Boy is she pissed — mostly about athletics and funding, the usual scandals — but also about distance learning and diploma mills. She likes poems too. And she sings.
Dissent: The Blog

[UD belittles] Mrs. Palin's degree in communications from the University of Idaho...
The Wall Street Journal

Professor Margaret Soltan, blogging at University Diaries... provide[s] an important voice that challenges the status quo.
Lee Skallerup Bessette, Inside Higher Education

[University Diaries offers] the kind of attention to detail in the use of language that makes reading worthwhile.
Sean Dorrance Kelly, Harvard University

Margaret Soltan's ire is a national treasure.
Roland Greene, Stanford University

The irrepressibly to-the-point Margaret Soltan...
Carlat Psychiatry Blog

Margaret Soltan, whose blog lords it over the rest of ours like a benevolent tyrant...
Perplexed with Narrow Passages

Margaret Soltan is no fan of college sports and her diatribes on the subject can be condescending and annoying. But she makes a good point here...
Outside the Beltway

From Margaret Soltan's excellent coverage of the Bernard Madoff scandal comes this tip...
Money Law

University Diaries offers a long-running, focused, and extremely effective critique of the university as we know it.
Anthony Grafton, American Historical Association

The inimitable Margaret Soltan is, as usual, worth reading. ...
Medical Humanities Blog

I awake this morning to find that the excellent Margaret Soltan has linked here and thereby singlehandedly given [this blog] its heaviest traffic...
Ducks and Drakes

As Margaret Soltan, one of the best academic bloggers, points out, pressure is mounting ...
The Bitch Girls

Many of us bloggers worry that we don’t post enough to keep people’s interest: Margaret Soltan posts every day, and I more or less thought she was the gold standard.
Tenured Radical

University Diaries by Margaret Soltan is one of the best windows onto US university life that I know.
Mary Beard, A Don's Life

[University Diaries offers] a broad sense of what's going on in education today, framed by a passionate and knowledgeable reporter.
More magazine, Canada

If deity were an elected office, I would quit my job to get her on the ballot.
Notes of a Neophyte

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