the Trump administration is reportedly planning to raid Spanish-speaking churches over the Advent and Christmas season thisweekinworcester.com/exclusive-tr...

as the UNSC approves Trump's Gaza peace plan, I wonder if Middle East studies experts who dismissed it will update their takes. Yes, Netanyahu is still playing both sides but this is a significant move forward, due in part to Arab state support www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/w...

textbook rep came by recently, and I had to explain why I don't use a textbook for intro to IR- I put it gently as they don't fit w/ how i teach it, but really they aren't accurate. #academicsky

in my 1st book I found that designations of states as terror sponsors had no correlation w/ their actual CT performance. Purely political. I suspect domestic "designations" (really prioritizations) are similarly content-free. www.cambridge.org/core/books/i...

more arrests of clergy by the Trump administration, and continued silence by religious freedom activists. I suspect some don't see this type of faith as worth protecting--they've said as much to me--but others seem to think they can do more by working w/ Trump. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

I just went to search for the Killers' first album (Hot Fuss) in Spotify and typed "Hot mess." I'm getting my millennial nostalgia confused.

Typical Google search in 2025: Into Google: [YOUR SEARCH TERM] Google: Here are the results for [UNRELATED SEARCH TERM]. Did you want to show results for [YOUR SEARCH TERM] instead?

as someone at a school w/o a poli sci PhD I agree. Although I think this study does point to an issue in terms of what is being taught and how--if the same small set of schools produce most future PhDs, what does that say about intellectual diversity in the field? #academicsky

I feel like the Onion has kind of gone the route of the Babylon Bee. It's no longer really a satire site, it makes jokes that the in-crowd--in this case progressives--likes, but they're not funny.

Our analysis shows why his victory is no model for Democrats elsewhere

I'm struggling to see how this would even be a question. What is her standing to sue over this? abcnews.go.com/Politics/sup...

assigning this in my IR class today on NGOs, and it argues some of the apparent importance of NGOs was an artifact of the 90s. I wonder how much of IR--namely its liberal & constructivist variants--is the same www.foreignaffairs.com/world/end-ag...

does anyone else feel guilty when the textbook reps come by? I'm always polite and chat with them for a bit, but I just don't like the textbooks for my intro course #academicsky

interesting, but I wonder if the media now assumes it's the norm. As the author notes, this is a minority religious group. But they command most media attention. All we hear from are evangelicals, ex-vangelicals. No editor wants to publish the views of mainline Protestants.

I like to read reviews of albums I'm listening to as I write. Today it's Beck. And it's frustrating how dismissive critics were of so many of his albums that weren't Sea Change pts 3 and 4. I'll die on the hill of The Information being his best album, despite what critics say.

ICE has detained an Episcopal priest in Texas. As someone who used to catalogue religious freedom violations for the Pew Research Center this would definitely count. religionnews.com/2025/11/02/e...

submitted a R&R that was a few paragraphs, touching on the main things Ito be revised. Maybe the reason the peer review process doesn't work is that too many write pages and pages, so it never gets done. Do you really need to point out every typo, every tiny issue with the graphics? #academicsky

re-upping my @duckofminerva.bsky.social piece in response to Trump designating Nigeria a CPC over killing of Christians. As I said, this is a real issue, but we're not seeing clear enough analysis of what's going on, lacking real follow-through. duckofminerva.substack.com/p/bill-maher...

Why does every piece of post-apocalyptic media nowadays have to have a scene with a polygamous cult? I guess they think it's edgy and deep but it's becoming a cliche

I'm trying to start a tradition of my Department dressing up for Halloween. We'll see how it goes #academicsky

re-upping- this expert seems to think Trump's cuts to health aid won't be as bad as we all thought. I was going to assign it in my intro class, but would like some context as it's not my area of expertise

I feel like ChatGPT will never really be useful for me as long as it's so friendly. It doesn't feel human.

any foreign aid experts listen to this interview? Would love to hear some reactions carnegieendowment.org/podcasts/the...

Not sure if there's a miniatures community on here, but I've been playing Star Wars Legion, which involves building and painting the minis. I'm pretty proud of this one.

Paper on religion and IR Reviewers: Why are you writing on religion? Why not [other belief system]? Does anyone really take religious beliefs seriously? I don't, none of my friends do Paper on [insert any liberal belief system] Reviewers: nice, cool, can't wait to see it in print #academicsky

10 year old: you know nothing is really certain in life 7 year old: not even flowers!?!

I accidentally saw the trailer for Leprechaun as a kid and it terrified me. I'm finally watching it and it's kind of ridiculous. Although Jennifer Aniston is of course great.

my most controversial @duckofminerva.bsky.social piece was one in which I explained why the Houthis aren't noble anti-imperial forces for the Western Left to cheer. People were furious. Well this group has now gotten into the habit of kidnapping UN aid workers www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/h...

Two years ago I attended the SSSR conference in Salt Lake City. This was the filming site of one of my favorite movies, Carnival of Souls, so I went to see a few of the locations that still exist. That was my brief mustache period.

my new @duckofminerva.bsky.social post on the muted reaction to the Gaza ceasefire and what this says about our understandings of peace, and our ability to debate these issues

this to me is the issue with all of Bigelow's movies. She makes great thrillers, but they're presented as realistic takes on security issues. But they actually misrepresent them. Here's what i wrote on her earlier work in @duckofminerva.bsky.social www.duckofminerva.com/2013/01/what...

good discussion. I'm proud to be part of a church that refused to take part in this program, due to--in the words of our Presiding Bishop--"one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, [receiving] preferential treatment over many others" www.episcopalchurch.org/publicaffair...

what in the AI is this

as usual those most loudly proclaiming the Bible don't understand it. Revelation 19: Jesus is "King of kings" John 18: "My kingdom is not of this world" Isaiah 9: "His name shall be called...Prince of Peace" all Roy did was hear "King" in a Bible reading and ran with it

How do I get Facebook to stop showing me ads about "losing your dad bod?" I mean, besides the obvious

re: Bolton, obviously this is lawfare by the Trump admin. But libertarians have also been warning for awhile that w/ expansive federal laws basically anyone can be indicted for anything if the gov't wants it. Hopefully one takeaway is to address that.

this Halloween season I am attempting for the fifth time to make it through Phantasm.

just returned from this great @mybisa.bsky.social @isanet.bsky.social workshop. @jaklocek.bsky.social organized a group of up-and-coming scholars working on religion and peacebuilding for a great discussion. Be on the lookout for write-ups and more coming out of it.

I'm anxious about an upcoming trip away from my kids, so I watched Archer for comfort. The episode was about getting trapped in an elevator (one of phobias). I skipped it, and the next was about Lana leaving her baby and being anxious. I skipped, and the next was about their plane getting shot down

the Psalm from our lectionary this Sunday (set Bible readings that cycle through the year)

Manchester was the first terror attack against Jews on British soil in three decades. Yet sadly it did not come as a surprise

last year I got a letter from a middle schooler-they had a class project on college to inspire them. They asked if I could send a UVM shirt and admissions materials. Not sure why they wrote to me, but feeling nice I did it. Just got the exact same letter from the same school #academicsky

horrific attack on a UK synagogue on Yom Kippur, 2 dead. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

my University hired a travel service to do things that we used to do ourselves with an added fee. And today I found out that when I book a trip for multiple people, unless I pay more *on top of* that added fee we are put on different reservations. Who makes these deals? #academicsky

this is why current attempts to isolate and shame Israel won't have the effect people think. Much better approach is to build coalitions with Israelis who are unhappy with Netanyahu, as I've argued. duckofminerva.substack.com/p/will-recog...

I mostly have my chronic #migraine under control, except for periods where I'm stuck in an attack, and now is one of those periods. Even though I know I'll get out of it, it does weigh on you-you wonder if you'll ever be able to function normally again

I was talking with a Middle East studies expert after Trump was elected, and said that his desire to be a deal-maker may override his base's support for Netanyahu's Israel. The expert basically laughed, bc Trump is apparently too beholden to US evangelicals. I kind of think I was right.

my new post on the @duckofminerva.bsky.social. I looked at IR scholarship on state recognition to see if it tells us anything about whether the wave of Palestine recognitions will have an effect.

a student brought in some apples for me today (it's apple picking season in VT). I feel like a real teacher. #academicsky

UVM Political Science was excited to host @sarahemclaugh.bsky.social of FIRE to discuss authoritarianism in higher education (based on her new book). I failed in my hosting duties and didn't get a picture of her in action but she took a nice pic of our Dewey Lounge www.press.jhu.edu/books/author...