Well done

L, and might I add, MAO. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

No mention of the CDC shooting. No mention of burning down the PA governor's home. No mention the Colorado school shooter apparently expressed neo-Nazi views. They included Luigi as getting "leftist" support when his support was bipartisan b/c every american has been screwed by health insurance

My employer New York Public Radio just announced that it is offering @onthemedia.bsky.social, @radiolab.bsky.social, and other programs to at-risk public radio stations for free! More info: current.org/2025/09/wnyc...

Take a break from the madness. Come out for a free talk, free book (while supplies last!), and book signing with Blair Braverman. Lincoln Center, NYC. In person, insights, inspiration. And adorable sled dogs tales.

Trump is doing diplomacy in the right way….

Are these our only choices?

“Countless Democrats are barnstorming the country and the media, stressing the need to broaden their party’s appeal and reach voters where they are,” Marc Novicoff writes. “But they have yet to prove that they’re willing to do what it takes”:

My @commonweal.bsky.social review of Mark Massa SJ’s Catholic Fundamentalism book gets at some of the issues raised by Dolan’s recent comments: www.commonwealmagazine.org/rober-cathol...

There is no world in which it is normal for the president to publicly call upon his attorney general to hurry up and prosecute his political foes. It’s like the Watergate tapes but posted on social media. Let’s get a grip on what’s happening here.

Greg is one of the worst offenders blurring the lines between state censorship and “cancel culture,” which has contributed substantially to what the state censors have achieved.

Dana Carvey parodied George HW Bush on SNL — “Nah, wouldn’t be prudent” — the President called him up and they became friends. . Daryl Hammond imitated Clinton through his Presidency, including savage stuff during his sex scandal. Clinton invited him to do a “dueling Presidents” gag.

The right is doing woke the right way Ezra Klein

So much brutal violence to the English language to avoid simply writing "Trump is doing yet more authoritarianism."

The Republican reaction to Kirk’s murder has been a campaign of state repression that ends with Trumpist toadies deciding what Americans are allowed to think, do and say. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

And yes, I am going to keep shitting on Ezra Klein until one of us is dead, and depending on fate and cosmology, probably after that. It’s Ezra’s obligation to work to find common ground with me.

“Jimmy Kimmel wasn’t doing politics right.” —Ezra Klein

c.1984

NEW FINDINGS: 79% of Americans say it's good for the US to accept international students 70% of Republicans say the US should be able to cancel visas of students who criticize US foreign policy www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

Patel is completely unhinged

If Pope Leo has not canonized Charlie Kirk by April 20th we will prosecute. by Pam Bondi

Community note on X

This morning, 9/11.

My feed is almost entirely people condemning violence and telling others not to celebrate this.

Macron's new prime minister thought of becoming a Benedictine monk early in life, still returns to the great monastery at Solesmes once a year. In France, the Catholic past is never dead... Sébastien Lecornu, un premier ministre qui a songé à devenir moine - www.la-croix.com/religion/seb...

Whether it’s Republicans raping children or Democrats blocking the confirmation of Robert Bork, both sides have betrayed the basic principles of American society.

Weiss has one very specific skill of great value to the oligarch class— peddling reactionary authoritarianism to the disaffected middle class in a way that gets labeled as “common sense critical thinking.”

It is once again time to remember how Bari Weiss compared herself to Galileo from on stage at a conference for hedge fund billionaires

Summarily killing a boat full of suspected illegal migrants rather than summarily killing a boat full of suspected drug dealers lowers the approval rate with the American populace from maybe 35% to 25%.

I think I have followed @dieworkwear.bsky.social enough to feel confident in suggesting this tailoring is unbecoming and what on earth were they thinking.

I feel like in the 1980’s/90’s this would be a major plot point in a Tom Clancy novel, and the operation would be carried out as an off-book, illegal black op, with various characters trying to cover it up lest they face congressional hearings. Now the President just announces it.

We use recent survey data to propose how the secular transition unfolds www.nature.com/articles/s41... but the general secular transition model is from David Voas here www.seculartransition.org Voas argues that a transition "is a permanent large-scale change. It is not cyclical or recurring."

New study "How is science discussed on Bluesky?": arxiv.org/pdf/2507.18840 🧪 Consistent with the study's findings, I'm getting A LOT more engagement here than on X about my new co-authored paper: "The three stages of religious decline around the world" www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bishop DiMarzio: United States citizens are not accustomed to seeing ICE agents and U.S. Army personnel engaged in massive deportation efforts. Somehow, this seems to be un-American and reminds us of the brutal tactics of authoritarian regimes. www.thebostonpilot.com/article.php?...

The pontiff has thoughts about your prayers: "Pope Leo calls for stop to ‘the pandemic of arms’ after Minnesota Catholic school shooting" www.americamagazine.org/vatican-disp...

Nice to see a worthy notable win the day on Bluesky.

“Pray as if everything depends on God; act as if everything depends on you.” Saint Ignatius of Loyola or Saint Augustine of Hippo, depending on your preferences. Or various rabbinic sources more or less.

the obligatory second tweet after "monitoring and praying" to show you are very concerned. then maybe a third tweet before going back to talking about how some restaurant changed its logo or an M&M no longer wears sexy boots

Need more parish feast day content on this site

Another review of the TCW book, another dollop of awful prose. www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

If you have young people in your life, resistance is discussing decolonization, women's suffrage, the civil rights movement, the ADA, gay marriage. Show them how long this has gone on. Explain how we could make America great--for everyone. Hope for the future starts with being honest about our past.

How to write a lede in these times: "Texas Republicans approved a new, aggressively gerrymandered congressional map early Saturday morning, moving forward with a power grab pushed by President Donald Trump." Informative headline, too. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

Okay I guess I can see why this new logo is controversial

I'll have a blog post soon about our new article "The three stages of religious decline around the world." www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪 Meanwhile, do you have any questions about our research? We argue there's a similar pattern of secularization unfolding at different times around the world.

It’s important to see that Trump didn’t have to push these people too hard to become fully fascist thugs.

A Shaker revival! Numbers surge by 50 percent in just a year -- great story by @npr.org www.npr.org/2025/08/19/n...