February 14th, 2025
‘It should be screamed that if you are mentally compromised guns need to be gone.’

Finally, on one obscure Facebook comment thread, UD encounters one – and so far only one – statement of the obvious. (Background here.)

Okay, further down the thread, here’s another:

If he knew of her horrible ptsd and depression why was there a gun she could get to?

Hey – getting somewhere. Here are others:

Sad the hubby knew of her mental illnesses, yet she had access to a gun.

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

Why a gun in the home?

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

 [S]aying his wife battled PTSD, post-partum depression, and general depression. Yet access to a gun was allowed! Lord!

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

Still, comments in all FB threads I’ve looked at are overwhelmingly

  1. Let God have the burden.
  2. Post-partum’s a bummer.

February 13th, 2025
‘Michael Tolbert was the first person charged under [Michigan’s] safe storage law after his 2-year-old daughter Skye McBride was critically injured after she shot herself in the face. Tolbert of Flint is accused of first-degree child abuse, lying to police and seven weapons charges, including failing to safely store his gun. He … faces up to 15 years in prison.’

Finally some states are prosecuting people for unlocked guns.

A not guilty plea was entered … on behalf of Tolbert, who also faces one count each of being a felon in possession of a firearm, being a felon in possession of ammunition, lying to a peace officer in a violent crime investigation and four counts of felony firearm.

That is, the law’s also a good way to suss out criminals.

February 12th, 2025
‘[Tranyelle] Harshman’s husband Cliff Harshman told Cowboy State Daily that his wife had been receiving treatment for severe mental health issues, including PTSD and postpartum depression.’

But hey that ain’t no reason to put the guns away.

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

[The mother’s ex-husband] said he had been fighting for full custody [of their two children] after his divorce of about four years ago.

Pity he didn’t get it. Did the mother’s current husband inform him of her severe mental health issues?

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

It’s strange to me, but maybe I’m strange… in American terms. It’s strange to me, as I monitor responses to this hideous event (via various forms of social media), that no one has remarked in any way on this madwoman’s access to guns.

I mean, start with this: Two of the children would have had at least a fighting chance if the murderer had access only to knives or rope, or had to drown them… The two babies of course had no chance at all, no matter the method; but the 7 and 9 year olds might have had time to fight back or to flee if the method had been anything other than an instantaneous and crushingly lethal bullet. We don’t yet know what kind of gun she used, but there are plenty of weapons that would just wipe out the lives of these children in milliseconds, with one shot. Bang bang get the bigger ones first (one of them is currently clinging to life), and then it’s merely a matter of infants in their beds.

The murderer’s husband was apparently out of town, and though he knew his wife to be severely mentally ill, with generalized clinical depression plus post-partum depression…

Ecoute: Can it really be that the only thing Americans have to say about this event is God rest all of their souls? I mean, that sentiment, in different forms, is pretty much it as far as commentary goes. Quite a few people write variations on I know God has a plan, but at the moment it’s extremely hard to figure out what. No one even says Suicidal/homicidal psychotics shouldn’t be around guns. They don’t even venture that far.

Think of Naomi Judd’s suicide. She had longstanding, flagrant, self-destructive, mental illness. Am I really the only person who thinks it’s shocking that she had a loaded gun in her bedroom? Why is it strange to wonder why a 15 year old mass murderer had access to the gun that enabled him to execute five members of his family?

February 9th, 2025
‘“It shouldn’t be like this,” [a New Orleans resident] told The Trace. “Nowhere in America should it be normal that you see a group of like three to four soldiers in fatigues with a long rifle on every corner of the street.”’

Ah cmon wheres yalls sense of fun.

February 9th, 2025
‘You go to sleep, and your white noise is the gunshots.’

You sleep, and the white noise is gunshots... That’s fucking poetic.

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

How I stay young!

Willie Ann, 81 … has a routine for gunshots. She reaches for her cane, tries to rush toward a carpeted floor near her bed and gently lies down on her right side, where her arthritis does not flare up. When the shooting stops, she reaches for the top of the bed and hoists herself up.

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

And remember: Always have more than one sofa.

During drive-by shootings, neighbors wedge themselves between sofas.

February 7th, 2025
‘Orange police went to the club and found blood and spent shell casings near the door, which was closed and locked.’

Not only did no one at a New Haven area abattoir report a bloody shooting there to the police; even the owners are refusing to talk to authorities.

UD is aware that she needs to adjust her brain cells — Guns are everywhere and shootings boringly routine. Why report them. Why be surprised when no one reports them.

February 6th, 2025
‘They attracted law enforcement attention because Youngblut and Bauckholt were reported wearing tactical-style gear and openly carrying firearms, which is legal in Vermont but unusual.’

Charlie Manson 2.0 continues to stalk the land, showing off the mortarial/sartorial splendor you can achieve in Vermont.

February 4th, 2025
Mass shooting in Sweden…

… at an adult education school. At least ten dead.

February 3rd, 2025
Clearing the air, American-style

Judy Lee was smoking in [her Florida] living room and [her son] Michael Lee, who has asthma, began spraying Febreze.

Judy Lee pulled out a handgun and started firing at her son. Michael Lee ran into his bedroom, grabbed his own gun, and returned fire.

February 1st, 2025
‘He told officers he found the firearm while conducting a “perimeter check” around the school, the complaint says, which was not true.’

Parents who produce gun-bearing eleven year olds; school principals who lie about armed attacks on elementary school children: The USA has quite the perfect storm, yes? The principal’s original version was all about what a big strong man he is, the hero of his own myth… ie, he found the gun on one of his regular security sweeps. But no – A babe brought it from home and shot at a classmate, but the gun failed to go off. The almost-killed student told her teacher, who took the gun to the big strong man. The teacher was supposed to report the gun to the police, but look at that. Although one of her students was practically killed, she didn’t.

Neither did the principal, who handed down NO discipline against the shooter (I guess in order to protect his big strong man story) but did eventually show up at police headquarters with the gun and with his lie.

He doesn’t work at the school anymore, and the shooter (who bragged he’ll bring another gun and do it again) has been expelled. UD does wonder what other public school now has charge of this person; she also wonders why she’s not reading about his gunny parents and their liability.

Think it’s a one-off? Silly you.

January 29th, 2025
The Spirit of America!

Three naughty lads from the heartland headed out to Ohio’s Jungle Jim’s — a supermegasuperstore— and stole “candy, cookies and ice cream,” the scamps. Well, the boys in blue caught up with them, wouldn’t you know, and out popped Devin’s gun magazine! And not only that! Devin’s face got all red when they found a Glock in his jacket! Haha!

January 28th, 2025
‘We filed a protest of a renewal of their [liquor] license [years ago] and we have yet to hear back from TABC on that…’

The Amarillo police have tried to get the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to shut down the abattoir where the latest mass shooting in America took place, but TABC’s too drunk to do anything. Or too rich from abattoir bribes. Keep the killing coming!

January 27th, 2025
Humongously crime-ridden Amarillo does it again.

You wouldn’t want to impose any serious closing hours on your bars in a city where every drunk fucker has five guns; better to wait until two AM when everyone’s maximally drunk and concentrated in a chaotic nightclub with other violent people in order to insure a mass shooting.

This keeps happening in our gunniest, stupidest, bloodiest, cities – the late-night lounge loaded with bullets; the hours of bar-boosted boozing; bad behavior that finally gets you thrown out and makes you vengeful blahblahblah. Absolutely by the book. Absolutely happens every weekend somewhere in the states.

Cities with a flicker of brain activity have begun imposing relatively early closing hours on their abattoirs, but apparently Amarillo prides itself on its status as one of America’s most dangerous cities.

January 23rd, 2025
“I think as people are getting ready for the day, it’s so commonplace to grab your cellphone, your keys, your wallet and your firearm.”

Shit Shower Shave Sig Sauer

January 22nd, 2025
“Bowling for Columbine” for the …

… Andrew Humiston era.

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

From the obituary of Andrew’s father:

Mark is survived by his son Andrew.

Who shot Mark four times at point blank range.

« Previous PageNext 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

Archives

Categories