“[Weiss] is 100 percent right that public trust in mainstream media has vanished, but she will only ever reproduce the failures of credulous, lazy and ignorant elite journalism that prompted rigorous people's loss of trust…that’s why she has her job.” Truth.

The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5

It’s perhaps worth noting that probably half of IG complaints in the history of IG complaints filed against USAF squadron commanders should be overturned based on the logic Senator Wicker suggests as exculpatory. I look forward to seeing those careers restored. www.politico.com/live-updates...

This weekend, I'm going to start publishing short videos on military history and related topics. First up will be a seven-part series on the history of Fort McNair, Washington D.C., where my office is located. Keep an eye out! :] www.patreon.com/posts/videos...

If you're suddenly interested in learning more about the history of the chaplain corps (or have someone in your life who might find this fascinating), I've got a great holiday gift for you (or ask at your local library): www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

Was doing some math to plan for my replacement, and I discovered that (if all goes to plan) I am exactly 404 days from terminal leave. Very strange feeling. 🤣

Money, money, money. I like this recipe with lamb rather than beef…but this is lovely and easy.

The best kind of “dad jokes,” provided you’re a bit of a bird nerd.

Must wait for nightfall to verify, but I’m confident one can now, if one we’re inclined, see our house from space.

Oh, look. A Christmas miracle. 🙄 www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/u...

Hey @boiler40.bsky.social. Package was delivered by @tyrellmayfield.bsky.social. I deserve none of your largesse…but I’m transported back to my old D&D days by the Lich King. Thank you, sir!

It’s funny to me that when we talk about civics education, we rarely talk about simple economics and one of the most important institutions in any government. This explainer is pretty darn solid. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

This is what professionals think about and wrestle with. I know not what Peter Mitchell has done otherwise, but at least his execrable essay gave us this response.

I’m in a strange place. I LOST 8+ weeks.,I’m now stressed out of my mind trying to build a course that starts on 5 Jan. But I’m excited. I get to experiment radically—curriculum, assessment, etc.—and INTEGRATE gaming heuristics across the entire course. Hell yes!

Fascinating bit of math (albeit described in an almost entirely non-mathematical way). www.scientificamerican.com/article/math...

Hehe. Love it

Lost a friend today. Hit hard for a minute, & I’ve only just realized how much it was with me all day. I suspect it will be with me in some ways forever. Smile. Hide a rainbow in every slide. Shake hands like you mean it & won’t ever let go. Say “Poop!” with humor and conviction. Love & be loved.

When @queenofthinair.bsky.social writes, I read. I’m going to have to read this again and again—ethics work is hard work, or you’re not doing it right—but it matters, so I’ll do it. www.usmcu.edu/Outreach/Mar...

This podcast, one of my favorites of the last few years, has been on a long hiatus…and then @harvilla.bsky.social canes back with a bonus banger covering a song that never fails to punch me in the gut. Lovely. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/6...

I don’t often have really hot takes, but here’s a candidate: The playing of national anthems at sporting events not involving national teams (e.g., Olympics or World Cup) is profoundly stupid, jingoistic, performative nonsense. Just. Fucking. Stop.

I just realized...I've been at this for over a year. I wonder what I'll put on the shelf in 2026? Maybe some spice from home--fiction, poetry, math, etc.? Maybe more conflict-specific stuff? Maybe more regional studies or domain-specific content? It's funny how much fun I have with this each month.

Realists: The Melian Dialogue demonstrates the logic of realism.

I get the feeling that people who should have read Thucydides did not, so they summarize him with one line from the middle of the book, and know nothing about the war and what Athens did to itself. Of course these are the clowns “reforming” PME.

This. It’s possible to be skeptical and critical without being a whack jobbing illiterate asshat bent on murdering millions. Science is about skepticism at some level, but that’s not an “I believe what I believe…cuz Google” get-out-of-jail-free card. RFK Jr: Stupid, illiterate, AND mendacious.

Another rollicking Friday night.

Remiss have I been, as ever, I’m making sure the people for whom I care know that I do. I think maybe I’m just a bad person. @queenofthinair.bsky.social & @tyrellmayfield.bsky.social… “Splash, over.” #GreatPostcardWar2025 #GPW25

This episode is “old,” but it is lovely…and it hits two of my hobbies—birds and board games. If it had included beer, battlefields, math, and poetry…I might have exploded. BL: Wingspan is a delightful game.

Fun was had.

A solid 10 Nov deep cut.

Welcome to the DoD, where we SYSTEMATICALLY underinvest in IT (in ways that would get a real CIO in the real world fired). These chipmunks pushed a mandatory update, and I’m now LITERALLY mission fail, when I’m the shutdown single point of failure for a fuck load, with no tech support. FUUUUUUCK!

Right now, I want just one thing in life. I want use of the phrase “laser focused” to be made a felony.

“Can you be a true bird-watcher if your main source of joy is not, you know, the birds?…The audience of Listers is made to understand the tragedy of many of these men and women who look and act like birders but whose primary love is no longer the birds themselves…” Part of why I don’t keep a list.

Sunday night is for football and “Carcassonne of the South Seas.”

I only watched 4 of the 5 @mls.bsky.social playoff games today, but in those the @proreferees.bsky.social representatives were universally not up to the challenge. THEY. ARE. NOT. GOOD. ENOUGH. Their incompetence and inconsistency leads to problems they’re not competent to manage.

Fun. It can’t be worse than this.

What do you do when you leave work at 2130 (after 14 hrs), can’t go home, have to “camp out” for work tomorrow (so you can do it again), and your brain is fried? Tonight, I watch old episodes of @wilwheaton.net’s TableTop. m.youtube.com/watch?v=DpsQ...

I love @99pi.org’s podcast and @romanmars.bsky.social, and I’m glad they’re telling this story, but it reminds me of Stephen Bloom’s “Postville.” podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/9...

The thing I struggle with, the thing with which I’ve struggled my entire life, is whether I matter. m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPGB...

I haven’t done the math to know if this is definitionally hyperinflation…but it isn’t good. Charts show Argentine peso to US dollar exchange rate. Fiscal and monetary policy so janky it outruns the 2025 US dollar this way is an epic self-own.

Ok…I’m stealing this thread and sharing (with attribution) with every student and advisor where I teach.

Look at these clowns, celebrating past glory. Since @dcunitedofficial.bsky.social let Olsen go in 2020, here are some other numbers: 5x seasons 4x head coaches 4x GMs 2x wooden spoons 0x playoff appearances ~120 DIFFERENT players The GM, head coach, and players are not the problem. #SellTheTeam

Looking forward to cracking open this new arrival from @iantb.bsky.social.

“What Would I Do Without This World Faceless Incurious” Samuel Beckett www.best-poems.net/samuel_becke...

A thought for journalists (looking at you, @nytimes.com): If one source says it’s raining, & another source says it isn’t, you don’t report both uncritically. YOU GO THE HELL OUTSIDE & report how the assertions correspond to the evidence. You’re reporters for fuck sake, not stenographers!

It’s a matter of information. If the rule is to always include the serial comma, its absence conveys information. We get more clarity. God knows we could use a little clarity.

“They are the most curious creature of all. Hyper-focused. Single-minded. Intense. Devoted. Often single. They speak in reverent tones and hushed whispers and can walk with preternatural silence across a bed of leaves…” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I’m a birder. I came to this thing, not quite an obsession (except when it is), relatively late in life. There are classic works that capture and communicate what this is. Now, I have a new one. This is good. So. Fucking. Good. m.youtube.com/watch?v=zl-w...

I would normally suggest that the @chargers.bsky.social are dead to me, but we don’t celebrate the misfortunes of the dead. When I was young, I hoped for the Raiders and Cowboys to lose, and I prayed for a Chargers win. Today, I hope for and celebrate anything ill that befalls the Chargers.

Walking home from the office tonight & carrying a wire hanger. (Don’t ask.). This hanger is from a German dry cleaner, I’ve had it (& its compatriot) for YEARS, & it’s an example of Germans doing the simple things SO WELL. Strange that a HANGER tells you everything you need to know.