Over the past two weeks I've begun to realize that rich people only started funding chatbots once they could no longer email Jeffrey Epstein

Watching the second episode of Shrinking this season, I'm not sure I can make it through any more. It's just so emotionally intense. I'm not sure why it hits me so hard.

On the bad site, the Trumpist right is debating whether the inclusion of mandrakes in The Lion King make the depictions of the Obamas as gorillas/apes not racist because their brains are fried beyond all recognition.

if you spend any significant amount of time on X the everything app, your brain is being cooked

I wrote about the Epstein files (gift link) www.theverge.com/tech/874721/...

Compromise position: rename the Epstein files to “The Epstein files featuring Donald Trump”

Trump is always focused on the issues important to ordinary Americans.

"Moving forward, Oklahoma institutions without R1 status must offer fixed-term, renewable contracts. ... Tenured faculty members at Oklahoma’s two R1 institutions — the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University — will be subject to post-tenure review every five years."

"She's 16. It's not like she's four" are the most cursed words ever spoken in English. For once, I wish these highly paid talking heads would speak to at least one expert on criminal law and child sexuality before spouting whatever nonsense they've internalized from places like X.

Men have finally made a true sport of dick-measuring.

Times article has an incredible illustration

As a doctor, I am horrified by what I saw at the Whipple detention facility in Minneapolis. No medical protocols. No real medical care. No nurse on site when I visited. No beds. No real blankets. Extremely cold temperatures. Minimal food. These conditions are inhumane and unacceptable.

Once again, I'm begging the media to stop reporting what a politician says (eg Trump talking about using a softer hand in immigration enforcement) and focus on what they've done.

It's not a moral panic. Delusions about satanic sex abuse rings in daycares, that was a moral panic. Salem witch trials also fit the bill. Epstein is about specific known people who are either directly implicated or at least suspiciously in his orbit for one guy who really was raping kids en masse.

Someone's jelly that a different Epstein is getting all the attention.

Wait wait is that … is that how men ski

the most damaging moral panics currently are directed at immigrants and trans people. the "Haitians are eating your pets" moral panic; the "they're forcing kids to be trans" moral panic. moral panic is the signature style of the right. 1

Counter to the ongoing bleakness, this is my new favorite news story of 2026.

They are trying to make this a thing. A "moral panic" is not just public outrage at immorality. It is a concept with independent meaning and history. An essential element of it is media distortion, which Lehmann and Soave are contributing to. See Stanley Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972).

This is not "how men behave." This is Gelernter's version of Trump saying "locker room talk"— a projection of his own pathologies onto a whole gender in order to buff up his own manly-man credentials in his mind.

Portland has inflatable animals. BYU was hymns. WWE audiences shout "Fuck ICE." We all protest in our own way.

if not gestapo why gestapo shaped, etc.

It's like the DOJ lawyers redacting the Epstein files have never used find-and-replace before. It's beyond stupid to redact all instances of "ma."

I've never used the law review submission stressing spreadsheet before. So, I don't know if this is unusual. But, there are 80+ people currently on it and Google says that some features have been deactivated b/c too many people are editing it. You all need to relax. This is not healthy.

the Epstein files are really devastating because they remind me of how many girls and women miss out on professional opportunities, mentorship and careers because of how many powerful, rich and influential men only view girls and women — and interactions with them — through the lens of sex

Amend sec. 1983.

"Dungeons and Dragons is a a Satanic cult" is a moral panic "We have hard evidence that a man and his associates physically abused and raped children" is not a moral panic; it's a description of a criminal conspiracy.

New life goal just dropped

Me: I study and write about sex offenders and sex crimes for a living. As awful as the details surely are, nothing I learn about Jeffrey Epstein will shock me. .... WTAF????

TIL that Jeffrey Epstein bought Woody Allen 31 pairs of luxury boxer shorts www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/s...

Honestly, this should be something that leads to a professor’s termination. And no, piss off if you’re going to try to say he was exercising "academic freedom."

Gelenter's fellow Yale prof Amy Chua was reported to have told prospective female clerks how to improve their looks for an interview with Kavanaugh. But even she didn't mention looks in the actual rec letter.

This is insane. Under absolutely no circumstances should a prof ever discuss the physical appearance of a student in a rec letter! I can’t believe I even have to say that!

Just discovered a law review article about the constitutionality of sex offender registration requirements in the Epstein files and was relieved it wasn't one of mine. (My name only shows up because I am cited in the article).

listening a podcast featuring Barro and McArdle is the audio version of a lobotomy. you lose parts of your brain on every episode adding Douthat is just egregious

CORRECTION: This rule does not go into effect tomorrow, it goes into effect 30 days after tomorrow. My apology.

🚨HOLY CRAP. The Trump admin just took a SLEDGEHAMMER to due process, largely eliminating the Board of Immigration Appeals process and MANDATING DISMISSAL of ALL appeals (which cost $1,000 thanks to OBBBA) filed after tomorrow unless a majority of the BIA votes to hear the case.

‘One officer told me that I "had no chance of returning to Minnesota" and that "the best thing for (me] is self-deportation." … She offered me $2600 to self-deport. I refused. I wanted to talk to my attorney. They didn't tell me the judge had already ordered my release and return to Minnesota.’

Seems the kangaroo immigration courts weren't kangaroo enough already. Looks like they've received their marching orders to just assign everyone to a pro forma removal order party.

First session at every academic conference should be at a Chuck E. Cheese or Dave & Buster's; game tickets you win get redeemed for total minutes you're allowed to speak at panels

Trump's constant degradation of female reporters is unsurprising but the press corps' collective decision to treat it as background noise is actually kind of sickening

Le Tigre's "Bang! Bang!," about the shootings of Diallo and Patrick Dorismond, is, IMHO, one of the most effective songs about police violence. The song concludes by chillingly counting out all 41 bullets that were shot at Diallo as the music drops. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFml...

I like how Scholastica classifies article rejections as "discussions," as though there were something left to discuss.

Academic conferences should let me do all of the planning.

Narrarator: It did not, in fact, break either of their hearts to make women sad.

Because vaccines work on the forbidden fruit model: people only want them when the government doesn't recommend them, obvi.

I’ve been using the CIA World Factbook online since I was a little kid. What a stupid, pointless desecration.

The New York Times not linking to anyone who’s been reporting this — and then pushing it — is quite annoying! Also, my story is much more detailed and actually explains things going on, in addition to linking to three other reports from other outlets. www.lawdork.com/p/the-system...

If you want to read the transcript of the February 3 hearing where Julie Le had her "this job sucks" meltdown, now you can: drive.google.com/file/d/1FnY2...

"Confronted will real SS stormtroopers, the ridiculous wine moms in Minneapolis would fall into a dead faint, or flee in terror." His fascist desires are palpable.