Just a reminder that we still need to show the fascists that we are human, and we’re not going away. Pride isn’t just a party! It’s for liberation: www.npr.org/2025/06/28/n...

OMG, Chicago, you never change. Habemus Papam! apnews.com/article/pope...

Let me please take a second to explain why this is a very bad policy, and to add something as a bioethicist that most of the media coverage has not talked about yet: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/u... 1/

The eve of the papal conclave is as good a time as any to point out that it was only fairly recently (1917) that a cardinal in the Catholic Church was required to be ordained and therefore also male. Prior to this point, cardinals only needed to be active in the sacramental life of the church… 1/

Well done, good and faithful servant.

I love Luke’s version of the resurrection proclamation n because, among other reasons, it reminds men that they should BELIEVE WOMEN

During the reading of the passion according to Luke at mass tonight, when the reader portraying the soldier said of the recently-crucified Jesus, “Surely this man was innocent,” in my mind I heard, “Sorry, administrative error.”

Greer: “As the ‘I didn’t think he would do this’ chorus continues to grow, I can’t help but think what many really mean is, ‘I didn’t think he would do this to people like me.’” www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/o...

Every unjust social hierarchy from the modern period onward (race, gender, class, sexuality, ability, etc.) relies for its justification on the idea that the categorization of humanity into two or more groups is based on differences that are natural, biological, genetic, and/or intended by God.

The most serious Nazi shit in this extremely Nazi shit executive order may be the idea, just slipped in there, that one of the "divisive narratives that distort our shared history" is that "race is not a biological reality but a social construct." www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

You know, I’ve seen a lot of opinions lately in #VeryImportantNewspapers, the general gist of which is that US professors in higher education are out of touch with the American public, presumably because they hold certain views about immigration, transgender people, public health, and so on… 1/

My Jesuit university, and our university president, made it into mainstream higher ed news, in a good way: www.insidehighered.com/news/institu...

Because I know that time is always time And place is always and only place And what is actual is actual only for one time And only for one place I rejoice that things are as they are and I renounce the blessed face And renounce the voice Because I cannot hope to turn again 1/

This morning at mass, Fr. Mike Ryan read as his homily most of the letter that Pope Francis recently wrote to the U.S. Catholic bishops, in which he opposes mass deportation and calls on them to advocate for the human rights of migrants and refugees. www.vatican.va/content/fran... 1/2

It’s just wild to me that Pope Francis has become the de facto moral leader of the world who stands up for justice, compassion, democracy, etc., despite technically being a monarch. His articulation of the Catholic social tradition is the most viable ideological contender with capitalism.

We are not going away – not any of us, not ever. That man and his legions of loyal authoritarians will not erase our history. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Voted in a local Seattle election tonight. Ballot featured a propositions about how to fund social housing and levy renewals for public school funding. I locked eyes with some of the other last-minute folks at the ballot dropbox. Slackers, all of us, but we did it. It felt sacred.

The always amazing Judith Butler www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I listened to the poet recite this poem at a reading last night. Absolutely stunning and germane to the present political crisis: poets.org/poem/be-self...

do i roll my eyes at a lot of DEI stuff? yeah, i wrote a whole essay about why i thought it was bullshit back in 2020. but trump et al aren’t saying, “corporate DEI policies mainly exist to protect corporate interests from discrimination lawsuits.” they’re saying “get the blacks out”

Taylor, you’ve got to get yourself a new boyfriend, and that’s all I’ve got to say about that.

And now this! contrarian.substack.com/p/musks-stat...

Last fall, I began class sessions in my undergraduate courses with a contemplative practice. Usually it involved reading a poem and sitting in silence for several minutes. This winter, I’ve started incorporating specific techniques into our practice so that they can regain a sense of agency. 1/

What this long and detailed NYT piece calmly calls an “extraordinary flexing of power by a private individual” is in fact a blatantly unconstitutional usurpation of Congress’s Article I powers and delegation of the President’s Article II duties. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/u...

A better headline would be: “Could undocumented persons living in the US, and US citizens suspected of being undocumented, be deported and sent to a torture facility in El Salvador?” www.bbc.com/news/article...

An unelected private citizen is entering government buildings unimpeded and accessing highly sensitive data about millions of people. Why is no one calling the police and saying “a crime is currently in progress; please arrest him ASAP”? #DOGE

The GOP sees this cruelty as necessary to facilitate the money grab that is coming. They are withholding federal funds authorized by Congress to pay for tax cuts for billionaires later. Vought as head of OMB will ensure this happens. They are stealing from every American taxpayer, straight up.

An interesting thing about the Christianity currently providing ideological support for the GOP and the fictional Christianities found in Butler’s Parable series and Atwood’s Handmaid‘s Tale series is that Christ is conspicuously missing from all of them.

Here’s why Catholic universities need to frame DEI as an integral aspect of their Catholic mission, identity, and values, particularly the commitment to justice. It’s the only way we would win any legal challenge brought against us. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/o...

Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde to Trump: "I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender people in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives ... and the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals"

Hardly an original take, but: He’s a mob boss. A mob boss has taken over the Republican Party and is currently running the federal government. That’s what the pardoning of all of these convicted criminals, the January 6 insurrectionists, was about. They are his goons.

January 14, 2025