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samulmschneider.bsky.social
Teaching Constitutional studies, poli sci, political theory, US history topics in Virginia. Own views & comments, these don't reflect my institutional affiliations. Husband / cat person / Madisonian / Lincolnite / Trekkie / strategy gamer / metalhead.
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Posts 16 Comments 33

Weird they're showing Swan Lake on Fox right now

submitted 9 hours ago • 212 comments

Men are too emotional to hold positions of power

submitted 9 hours ago • 5 comments

was not expecting to find a new music video for “Psycho Killer” today, starring Saoirse Ronan (!), but my goodness is that a performance designed to give the viewer a panic attack or what

submitted 11 hours ago • 4 comments

summer vacation is one of the worst things about American school calendars. Four quarters, each with two or three weeks of vacation between + more little 3 day weekends, would make everyone more sane - parents whose childcare mgmt's simplified, teachers who don't do a yr of work in 3/4 of a yr, etc.

submitted 17 hours ago • 2 comments

spending this week reviewing everything I forgot about world history and economics after almost two decades of specializing in poli sci and US history is....humbling. Making me do this is the only good thing I'll say for the National Board certification process.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

on a totally crass political note, the way the GOP messaging apparatus is fine-tuning their messages on trans people in sports and 'criminal gangs' has me pretty anxious about how they'll use that messaging in the upcoming VA state elections.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

watching Babylon 5 for the first time since I was a kid and I'm really torn between "holy shit, the bones of an exceptionally relevant 30-years-later remake are so obvious here" and "holy shit, any remake in a contemporary media and financial incentive environment would mess this up so terribly."

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

My city is yet again under a boil water advisory...problems of urban infrastructure and governance are hard to solve! Can't just fire everyone or work harder - the difficulty of accessing the financial, human, and logistical resources to do better is at the center of the whole history of problems!

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Mostly like Amtrak as a mode of travel because I'm on the East Coast, but it really is astounding how unpredictable and crappy it becomes the instant you make it south of DC. One of the best examples of "should have been a project we could accomplish in a few years, but has languished for almost 20.

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

Most of the emails I get from weaker students at the end of year are AI-generated or AI-assisted in an attempt to punch up their precision, politeness and formality as they ask for some consideration (which I will often give) as grades are finalized. But letters which don't sound like them...sigh.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Some of their other more recent albums have been very strong too, but for my money 'Polygondwanaland' and 'Flying Microtonal Banana' remain the two best King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard album. They're eclectic but coherent, distinctive but not purely experimental or psychedelic, evocative, etc.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Teaching a self-designed course in political theory & philosophy next year to a bunch of gifted high schoolers who, in their pre-course surveys, all strongly expressed a desire to hit classical texts hard. I don't know that I've ever been more intimidated by my summer prep load in my life, honestly.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

you know, the first Jurassic Park novel+film, though the science is silly, at least try to obey certain bounds of "this could happen in our reality" which later films don't. This brought on by the idea of a fully functional private cargo port on US soil in an accidental viewing of Jurassic World 2.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

slate.com/technology/2... my latest for @slate.com

submitted 13 days ago • 18 comments

@kangaroopete.bsky.social my brain has so much wasted real estate. Can I name the President of the United Federation of Planets in the 2360s (Jaresh Inyo)? Yes! Can I tell you a bit about the important Federalist preachers in 1790s (Timothy Dwight)? Yes! Can I properly place a GrubHub order? Fuck no

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

The real problem with the Supreme Court’s expected Fed carve out is not that it lacks a principle but that the real principle isn’t articulated. The reason it will carve out the Fed is functional but it won’t say that. And its jurisprudence doesn’t leave room to ventilate the functional arg.(1/8)

submitted 12 days ago • 31 comments