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Journalist – Historian – Speaker
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!
I had a weird year in terms of writing. It started off normal, then I had a mental health crisis, then I had a professional crisis (brought on by my own harmful actions), then I continued to be in mental health crisis and I stopped writing much, then I got help, then I started writing, …
New on anti-Semitic myths and the dangers they pose. From Thomas of Monmouth to David Icke’s lizard people, there’s a long history of people making up bizarre stories about Jews. Those stories, when allowed to proliferate, get us killed. To be extremely clear, this is all dangerous nonsense. There does seem to have been a boy …
New: Restraint in schools and the death of #MaxBenson. “It shouldn’t take the death of a teenage boy to stop overuse of restraint in schools. But, given how ingrained such practices are in our educational systems, and the 120,000 kids experiencing restraint or seclusion each year, I’m worried this one death won’t be enough.”
I am just finishing edits on my sixth piece on the death penalty in the last two years for Pacific Standard. Here’s what I’ve written: First the Supreme Court established a better standard for determining whether someone was intellectually disabled (and thus protected from execution) by overturning the “Lennie” standard. Because Texas asked juries to …
Is there anyone reading this site who doesn’t read me at Facebook, Twitter, or over on Patreon? I’m considering letting the blog posts mostly go here. My latest update: Weekly Roundup: Spider-Man and Marc Lamont Hill. UPDATE – SO GLAD TO SEE Y’ALL IN THE COMMENTS! I will keep posting here.
My daily posts have mostly moved to my Patreon site. Today’s is on a dozen or so ableist job ads in higher ed, an issue I’ve been covering for years.
New Open Post: Book Review – The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi. “Fun, raunchy, convoluted, and extremely well paced. It delivers satisfying payoffs for the setups in the previous book, and has a few surprise reveals at the end.” (On Patreon, but open to all)
I interviewed Princeton Historian Kevin Kruse about the role of the historian in this era of viral lies. D: D’Souza clearly isn’t interested in facts, so what kind of effect do you think you can have? K: I’m under no illusion that I’m going to get him off Twitter. He’s got a very profitable con—I …
Horrible people in Chicago attempt to use zoning rules to stop parents trying to build a ramp for their disabled child. Their reason – ramps are too ugly. Steve Weiss, president of the Old Town Triangle Association, wrote a letter to Ald. Michele Smith (43rd), detailing his objections to the project. “I understand that the …