Finally, a real alternative to ‘Thoughts and Prayers’

Newly released Uvalde footage shows police “vomiting and sobbing” after entering the abattoir.

Everyone’s tired of “thoughts and prayers,” but no alternative has emerged. Until now. Sobs and Vomits.

RIP Martin Amis. If only you were around to write an essay about Barbara Stiegler.

Yachts are the symbol of the neoliberal predation of the world… We are all impregnated by [neoliberalism’s] hegemony.

Galveston County’s 2023 Jeep Festival: A FANTASTIC success!
  1. No mass shootings.
  2. 230 arrests.
  3. Hundreds of injuries.
  4. NO MASS SHOOTINGS!
  5. Thousands of drunks puking in the ocean, revving their engines, playing screamingly loud music, injuring themselves and each other, endangering an army of police, frightening and disgusting the locals.
  6. NOT ONE SINGLE MASS SHOOTING
Martin Amis has died.

Like his buddy Hitch he was charismatic, sexy, unruly, hilarious. Also intensely and sensitively literary. Here are all my Martin Amis posts.

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

Parul Sehgal on her love of Amis:

Amis’s saw-toothed sentences seized me by the scruff and carried me off for good. The insolence of the novels, the high silliness, the shame, the jokes: “After a while, marriage is a sibling relationship — marked by occasional, and rather regrettable, episodes of incest.”

A.I. Mindreading

Judge orders Rudy Giuliani to detail finances in election defamation suit – POLITICO

(Click on the link for a photo.)

See if I can steady myself here. Check hair dye. Time was I could put my penis no questions asked in those hot jeans behind me now I’m practically impotent marrying a new wife every few years for the same reason Rupert does make the world think we’re still getting it up don’t think we’re fooling anyone. Look at me miserable old hunching holding myself steady against a trash bin outside another courtroom yada same old same old. Every day I’m in court getting sued. Wonder if the statement I just made about the fascist state going after me cuz of Don was a smart move did I sound like a hippie or something fascist state fascist state don’t know. Does that black policeman on the other side know the two women I defamed are black hope not. Anyway he doesn’t look friendly look what’s come of my life. Hero 9/11 now sloppy perv just trying to get some while fourteen ex-wives, fourteen strangers, forty ex-staffers, and the federal government go after me with everything they’ve got. Fuck ’em all I’ll die and then let’s see ’em recover any of my money. Fuck ’em. I know at least Andrew will be at my deathbed forget Caroline she hates me none of my wives will show up who cares born alone die alone money goes to Andrew if there’s any left after the fascists go after my estate fuck Don I guess he’s the reason all this happened where can I hide my assets what’s the name Credit Suisse I’ll go there God I’m tired

“Terrorism must not terrorize us,” [Rushdie] continued. “Violence must not deter us. As the old Marxists used to say, La lutte continue. La lutta continua. The struggle goes on.”

Free speech martyr Salman Rushdie makes a surprise appearance at a PEN event last night. Read all about it.

‘There is no scenario in which some maladjusted creep who’s frightening children at an elementary school bus stop [by openly carrying an AR 15] should be presented as just some guy with political opinions by the local news. This is antisocial behavior that should be ridiculed, including by normal people who own guns.’

‘That this kind of weapon is a favorite of school shooters, and these are schoolchildren, only adds to the disgusting character of the events here. Carrying a gun like this in the public square is a way to constantly communicate the threat of deadly force to those around you. A gun like this exists for two purposes: to maim and kill, and to communicate the threat thereof…

 [R]ight-wingers [routinely] show up heavily armed to statehouses in an explicit communication of the threat of deadly force if they do not get their way on matters of public policy. This is not normal political expression…’

This happened in Severn, Maryland, not far from UD‘s ‘thesda.

Tennessee Proud!

 ‘From 2011 to 2020, people [dying] at the hands of firearms in Tennessee increased by 48%.’

‘Turns out, bigoted policies have consequences. That’s 2,000+ jobs that will be welcomed back with open arms to the Golden State.’

California’s governor notes Disney’s cancellation of a one billion dollar, 2,000 job Florida project.

It’s all part of Ron DeSantis’ Don’t Say ‘Stay’ policy. Good on ya, Ron, for being too arrogant to deal with Disney like an adult.

A sweet spring day…

… in UD’s garden.

‘One of the banned books is the award-winning And Tango Makes Three, a picture book depicting the true story of two male penguins at the Central Park Zoo who raised a baby penguin named Tango for whom the mother couldn’t care. The book’s challenger successfully asserted when arguing for removal that the book served an “LGBTQ agenda using penguins.”‘

Just when folks on the Escambia Florida school board thought they had solved their penguinal poofter problem, along come Penguin (the publishing house Penguin), PEN America, and a waddle of other perverts — to sue them!

“Islam forbids female circumcision.” 

This year’s Templeton Prize winner is an African woman who has made it her life’s work to destroy this scourge. Her against-all-odds life story is every bit as inspirational as you’d imagine. At age 85, she’s busy training hundreds of midwives at the hospital she founded.

Proxy War Heats Up at New College Florida

Stung by taunts from rival strongman Donald Trump about the DeSantis candidate’s recent loss in the Jacksonville mayoral race, the Florida governor, in a show of force, is reportedly readying a battery of six hypersonic KH-47M2 Kinzhal (“Dagger”) air-launched missiles for deployment Thursday at the New College alternative commencement.

The New College students’ $131,000 war chest has apparently been significantly enhanced by Bob Iger, who sources report has been reassuring close associates that every possible defensive weapon, including Patriot air defense interceptors, is being made available to the commencement. “It will certainly get bumpy on Thursday,” said one of the organizers; “but our main worry is that a desperate DeSantis will turn to nuclear weapons.”

No rest for the wicked

University Diaries mainstay, Philip Esformes, who was convicted of running the “largest single criminal health-care fraud [scheme]” in the history of the Dept of Justice (he got twenty years), and who soon after was miraculously pardoned by Donald Trump, is on UD‘s mind this morning. Everyone’s talking about the increasingly plausible claim that DT and R. Giuliani sold pardons for two million dollars apiece.

Did they? Did Esformes, a way-pious orthodox Jew (I’ve already told you how much I love shout-out-loud hypocrisy!), shell out the bucks? Can’t wait to find out.

Meanwhile, right after Esformes got sprung, the pissed off feds filed another big criminal case against him (when you’re a world-historical crook, the pickins ain’t slim) so that was maybe two million down the crapper but thanks to tens of thousands of dead and dying old people (nursing homes were Phil’s MO) Esformes has TONS of money so don’t worry.

“Drop the dud asap.”

Matthew 19:16-18.

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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