Journalist – Historian – Speaker
In May 2013, I had a bunch of half-formed and un-sold essay drafts in a folder on my computer, and I decided to make a blog as a place to dump them, even if no one read it. I had only published 5 or 6 essays at that point and had no idea what I …
Trump likes to compare ISIS to medieval times. Here’s a transcript of the latest debate, and some video. COOPER: You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that? TRUMP: No, I didn’t say that at all. I don’t think you understood what was — this was locker room talk. I’m not proud …
Two years ago, I wrote a CNN piece about talking to very young children about genocide and imperialism, in the wake of Columbus Day. I wanted to be accurate but also not to terrify my young daughter. Today she’s 7. I don’t think I have to be as circumspect around the genocide. Still holding off on …
This story is so awful that I can’t quite process it exists. A child with a hearing aid and lisp was a frequent target of bullying in school in San Antonio. Then his classmates set him on fire. UPDATE: The other children are saying it was an accident. Please exercise care if you go read …
In Colorado, a woman and her disabled daughter were escorted from a Trump rally for their own safety. The story is not written well in terms of explaining what actually happened, but if you watch the video (there’s adequate captioning), the story is clear. Basically, an “undecided” Colorado voter – Jennifer Mau – went with …
Matt Reed, a writer at Insider Higher Ed and a community college Dean, wrote a blog post on “Free Community College,” asking whether it’s worth going free if that means hiring LOTS more adjuncts. If free college required a dramatically higher adjunct percentage, should we do it? Yes, that’s a loaded question. It assumes that the …
Today and tomorrow I am doing workshops at Northwestern (both campuses on subsequent days) on work/life integration for academics and people who work for institutions of higher education. You can see the flyer here. “In this talk, David will draw from his work in disability rights and propose a new way to think about integrating …
Ryan Turk, then 14, gets free lunches at his Virginia school. One day, he forgot to grab milk, so went back to grab a 65 cent carton. The School Resource Officer assigned to the lunchroom accused of him of stealing and Turk, alas, did not instantly comply with the SROs orders. He might have talked …
Charles Huth, a Captain in the Kansas City PD, has written an outstanding essay taking apart two metaphors commonly employed by police trainers: The “warrior” and the “sheep/sheepdog/wolf” metaphor. Not only is he on point when it comes to the analysis itself and what it says about modern policing, but I was also struck that …
.@timkaine met campaign volunteer Mike Phillips today in FL. He has spinal muscular atrophy. Kaine choked up reading the letter he wrote him pic.twitter.com/vWKtHn0a9g — Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) September 26, 2016 As folks know, I’ve been writing a lot about the Clinton campaign’s robust engagement with disability rights. Hillary Clinton has run the most progressive, …