GOODER AND HARDER, CALIFORNIA:
No one could have predicted this. https://t.co/JrdeGfLMaO
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) February 12, 2026
February 13, 2026
BUT OF COURSE:
ICE detention is voluntary. Every person in ICE detention can choose to leave immediately—indeed, the Trump administration will literally pay them thousands of dollars to do so (somehow, I don’t remember any stories about the Nazis offering Jews $2,600 to leave Auschwitz). They… pic.twitter.com/Sl9l1WCmBi
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) February 12, 2026
AS IF TWO-TIER KEIR WOULD FALL ON HIS SWORD BEFORE SHOVING EVERYBODY ELSE ON THEIRS: The man who should have been first to quit in Mandelson scandal.
RABBI MICHAEL BARCLAY: Donald Trump Negotiates Like King Solomon.
IT WAS ONCE A CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL: Why I’m Done with Notre Dame.
I retired from the University of Notre Dame at the end of 2025. More accurately, I left. After twenty years on the faculty, I could no longer do Notre Dame. So I’ve bailed, without being sure what will come next.
My leaving Notre Dame might seem unusual. I’ve only just turned sixty-five. I am active in research, publishing some of the best work of my career. I loved teaching Notre Dame undergraduates. I held a Kenan endowed chair, which provided a nice research fund. I earned an enviable salary. Almost any faculty member similarly situated would continue working five, ten, or fifteen more years.
And I was an ideal fit, the kind of academic Notre Dame should want on staff: an accomplished scholar who won awards as a classroom teacher and student mentor. Over the years, I brought in $15 million in external research grants. I was dissertation chair for the best-placed PhD graduate in Notre Dame’s history, now a full professor at Yale. I was an enthusiastic proponent of the university’s Catholic mission. I was devoted to my discipline, sociology, but also engaged ideas in philosophy, history, theology, and political theory.
But after two decades, I left. Not happily, not with a sense of fulfillment or closure, but disappointed and vexed. Why? And what might my experience reveal about the bigger picture?
When I came to Notre Dame, I believed the university was serious about its Catholic mission. I tried to make my contribution, I think with some success. But I also saw much of the institution absorbed by other interests that, in my view, were often irrelevant to or at odds with the Catholic mission. Most demoralizing was the leadership’s lack of vision and courage.
Members of the managerial class care more about their reputation within that class than about the success of what they manage.
BACKSTORY OF THAT JOBS REPORT: Yes, it’s encouraging that 172,000 new jobs were added in the economy in January, but Issues & Insights points to another equally important datapoint in the report that is hopefully even more indicative of future trends.
ROUTINELY (BOOK REVIEW): How Big Pharma gets away with murder.
ME? I JUST WISH IT WOULD SPIN THE BOOK BUSINESS OUT TO SOMEONE WHO CARES: What What Happened to Amazon, or “Don’t Put Down the Drone”. How Founders Become Day Two and Take the Company With Them.
NEWS NATION’S KATIE PAVLICH HAS BEEN REPORTING INCOMPETENCE AND CORRUPTION IN THE PIMA COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPT. BUT THAT’S UNBELIEVABLE GIVEN HOW WELL THEY’VE RUN THE LAST COUPLE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS: Report: Pima County Sheriff Pulls Stunt in Nancy Guthrie Case That Has the FBI Fuming.
IT’S A PERFECT STORM OF CABLE NEWS CONTENT: ALL TALK, ALL THE TIME, ZERO SUBSTANCE: The Nancy Guthrie Abduction Story Has Become the Willy Wonka Ferry Ride of Horror.
NOT AS SURE OF THIS AS HE IS: So much for billable hours!
IF WE’RE GOING TO LIST EVERYTHING HOLLYWOOD DOESN’T UNDERSTAND, WE’RE GOING TO NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Hollywood Doesn’t Understand Babies. How is babby formed?
I WOULD SAY THE PROBLEM IS NOT LACK OF REGULATION: But regulation by people who never did the job. There are other problems, but that one is huge. Illegal Immigrants Are Just The Tip Of The Iceberg In Trucking Industry’s Troubles.
SO ARE MOST TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED BOOKS FOR ADULTS: Books for children written for “the narrative” instead of for children.
WE DO MAKE ART. SOMETIMES DESPITE OURSELVES. BUT FOR NOW THE INSTITUTIONS TO SLOSH MONEY AROUND ARE ALL IN LEFTY HANDS. So people like us? All we have are our fans: Posts like that from creators are just the logical outgrowth of our semiannual Why Don’t Conservatives Make Art debate.
And for the Cancelled of X.
Oh, and if you are my fans/readers, this comes out on Saturday and still doesn’t have 200 pre-orders!
THIS. WE ALSO NEED A RECKONING FOR THE COVIDIOCY AND ALL OTHER INSTANCES OF ELITE OVERREACH, REALLY: At Best, a Modern-Day Version of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”.
Although the biggest reckoning for most of the science-ists is that we now doubt all the “science says.” Their power is broken. And they love power.
YES, THAT’S PART OF IT. THE OTHER PART IS NOT HAVING ALL OUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET: People frequently float the concept of an “Antarctic dry run”. But the point of going to space isn’t to go to space because we can. It’s not a vanity project. The point of going to space is that there’s valuable stuff there. I wrote a whole article about this called “The Trillionaires of Mars”.
AND FOR THE: Cancelled of X.
IGNORE THE DITSYING AND THE HEALTH STUFF (MOSTLY): This is about why we write what we write. And also the Based book sale. And the intersection of the two.
February 12, 2026
OUR TOOLS ARE PART OF US, AND VICE VERSA.
OPEN THREAD: You know what to do.
