Nicole Guenther Discenza

@ndiscenza1.bsky.social

1.7K followers 380 following 3K posts

Medievalist who loves reading, especially science fiction & fantasy. I don't speak for my employer or anyone else.
she/hers

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Philosophy 31%

History 28%

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Nicole Guenther Discenza @ndiscenza1.bsky.social · Jun 1

Remember alt text, folks!
And if you're like me and sometimes forget, go to your Settings, find Accessibility, and have Bluesky remind you!

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Nicole Guenther Discenza @ndiscenza1.bsky.social · 8h

I remember a stretch after my Dad died that I would wake up in the morning and remember that he was gone, and it was really hard. It did get better, but it took a while.

In the meantime (((hugs)))

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Steve Peers, Rosemary A. Joyce , and 1 more Anna O. Law, Steve Peers, Rosemary A. Joyce, Nicole Guenther Discenza

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 9h

more confirmation that lurking clearly behind this idea of the “heritage american” is a straightforward contempt for the actual history and tradition of this country, such that vermeule has to hallucinate a framework to justify his desire to jettison the clear meaning of the 14th amendment

Paolo Sandro @paolosandro.bsky.social · 15h

I had missed this latest delirium by Adrian Vermeule on birthright citizenship

'Common law?! NAH, it's the Roman law of adoption that should govern the interpretation of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution!'

thenewdigest.substack.com/p/immigratio...

What I suggest is different. Although broadly in the spirit of Aquinas’ two-or-three generations test insofar as it emphasizes the duties rather than the rights of immigrants who becomes citizens, it is derived not from theological principles but from a civil-law analogy — an analogy to the Roman law of adoption. After all, inclusion within “our posterity” may ordinarily arise not only through natural descent, but through legal adoption. In brief, I suggest that the legal immigrant should understand himself as an adopted son of a natural and concretely existing family, the American family, and this brings with it particular duties of filial piety and reverence for that particular family and for its thick heritage and traditions. Our laws as made, interpreted and applied should reflect that understanding as well.

Because it is an analogy, not an identity, what I propose is not a set of legal rules to be directly mapped from Roman law into the American legal system. Rather it is a suggestion that the Roman law of adoption rested on a set of discernible principles of legal justice and political morality that represent the spirit of the laws bearing on immigration and citizenship in America — a time-honored mode of legal interpretation here, albeit not an originalist mode. Such principles should affect the interpretation of actually existing legal texts, rules, and doctrines; they should be understood as the soul of our law of citizenship. Needless to say, this does not answer or even purport to speak to all questions bearing on immigration. I do not speak here, for example, to the enforcement of the immigration laws against illegal immigrants, or to prospective questions of policy about exactly how much legal immigration, if any, there should be, and from where. All I address is the question what principles of legal justice and political duty apply, under existing law, to the immigrant who is already here legally. To that end I suggest a conceptual model for understanding the role and obligations of that immigrant — what justice classically understood requires of him.

Reposted by Nicole Guenther Discenza

Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 12h

For a moment, I was so furious I couldn’t see straight.

Dean Martin himself was the son of an immigrant.
Dean Martin was born Dino Paul Crochetti, the son of Gaetano Alfonso Crocetti, who was from Abruzzo.
www.patheos.com/blogs/steelm...

On Dean Martin, Stephen Miller, And White Supremacism

For a moment, I was so furious I couldn't see straight. Dean Martin himself was the son of an immigrant.

www.patheos.com

Reposted by Nicole Guenther Discenza

University of Illinois Press @illinoispress.bsky.social · 12h

Britt Mize ( @tamu.bsky.social ) dives into the translation of Beowulf in the 1830s, the first fertile decade of Beowulf's translation history in Journal of English and Germanic Philology 124.4 on @projectmuse.bsky.social
cc: @ndiscenza1.bsky.social
muse.jhu.edu/pub/34/artic...

Cover of Journal of English and Germanic Philology (JEGP), Volume 124, Number 4
Brown, red, and white background with medieval illustration of a man and an intricate floral border on the left, featuring the Table of Contents.

Reposted by Christopher Wright, Michael Zimmer, John Hogan , and 1 more Christopher Wright, Michael Zimmer, John Hogan, Nicole Guenther Discenza

Reposted by Mark A. Lemley, Brendan Nyhan, Mark D. White , and 6 more Mark A. Lemley, Brendan Nyhan, Mark D. White, Eric Goldman, Melissa R. Michelson, Rebecca Tushnet, Tom Griffin, Nicole Guenther Discenza, David Darmofal

Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com · 13h

Can someone please respond to Stephen Miller with this message from Frank Sinatra?

Reposted by Nicole Guenther Discenza

Mary Pezzulo @marypezzulo.bsky.social · 14h

DEAN MARTIN'S MOM AND DAD WERE IMMIGRANTS!!!! I'm just going to keep saying it. I'm so angry. Dino Paul Crochetti went to the Grant School by Little Italy in Steubenville. He went to church at St. Anthony's. He got a nose job and changed his name to Dean Martin and got rich. HE'S NOT A WASP.

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 14h

Some people will commit human rights violations rather than just go to therapy

Jeff Yang @originalsp.in · 15h

Dean Martin, born Dino Paul Crocetti, son of Italian immigrant Gaetano Crocetti

Frank Sinatra, son of Italian immigrants Antonino Sinatra and Natalina Garavanta

Merry Christmas to everyone except Stephen Miller and his enablers and handlers

Stephen Miller • @St... • 13m Ø
Watched the Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra Family Christmas with my kids.
Imagine watching that and thinking America needed infinity migrants from the third world.

Nicole Guenther Discenza @ndiscenza1.bsky.social · 17h

A calculated harassment campaign cost a faculty member her job, and the faculty appeals panel had no power.
Politicians & administrators are killing cademic freedom—the right and responsibility of faculty to use their professional knowledge and judgment in teaching, research, and service.

Texas Tribune @texastribune.org · 2d

Texas A&M University will not reinstate a lecturer who was fired after a video of her teaching about gender identity in a children’s literature class went viral, despite a faculty appeals panel unanimously concluding that her dismissal was not justified.

Texas A&M won’t reinstate fired lecturer despite findings

A vice chancellor upheld the firing of Melissa McCoul, seen in a viral video being confronted by a student on her gender identity teachings, saying the termination was done with “good cause.”

www.texastribune.org

Nicole Guenther Discenza @ndiscenza1.bsky.social · 17h

Kidnapping AND petty theft

LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 @longtimehistory.bsky.social · 1d

ICE detain father shopping on Christmas Eve—then steal his family's groceries.

Then 3 agents divvy up his paid for food—taking what they want for themselves.

"Can I just get the wife's number to call and let her know?" woman asks.

"No, guess he should've complied," agent says.

Yakima, Washington

Nicole Guenther Discenza @ndiscenza1.bsky.social · 17h

I read it in high school and found it tedious, and then I was simply amazed when I finally reread it and found it the opposite.

Nicole Guenther Discenza @ndiscenza1.bsky.social · 17h

discussing, so I let it go and put the class conversation back on track.

I have more stories.

The alliance between Catholic conservatives and other evangelicals has ALWAYS been partial and temporary. Many conservative evangelicals think we Catholics are damned, but we're a means to an end.

Nicole Guenther Discenza @ndiscenza1.bsky.social · 17h

Also, Hillsdale faculty was just about half Catholic at the time, though the student body was far more Protestant.
I had a student say in class that Catholics thought they earned salvation by good works, but good works were worth *nothing*.
This was a complete digression from the lit we were

Nicole Guenther Discenza @ndiscenza1.bsky.social · 17h

he always went and always felt welcome.
The month it was at our church, one other pastor came. That pastor was our next door neighbor, as it happens.
Not one other Christian pastor came.
Our pastor never went again.

Nicole Guenther Discenza @ndiscenza1.bsky.social · 17h

I lived in Hillsdale for three years while I taught at Hillsdale College (series of long stories, not for now). Our Catholic pastor joined an ecumenical group of pastors; he was the only Catholic and there were a few dozen pastors. They let him in!
Every month, they met at a different church, and

Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 1d

Damn, I found a “Catholics aren’t Christians because they worship Mary” in the wild! I thought those only lived in message boards and Utah.

Reposted by Nicole Guenther Discenza

Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 1d

Damn, I found a “Catholics aren’t Christians because they worship Mary” in the wild! I thought those only lived in message boards and Utah.

Reposted by Nicole Guenther Discenza

Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 1d

Something seriously wrong with Republicans

@Sen_ChrisGarten on X: When you find out the North Pole is trying to bring more bureaucratic overreach & unfunded mandates down the chimney disguised as "Christmas cheer." Not on my watch. We The People run Indiana, not the bureaucrats.

Take it back to the North Pole big guy. Merry Christmas, Hoosiers! 🇺🇸🎅🏻🥊
25 Dec 25

Reposted by Anne Applebaum, Anna O. Law, Gavin A. Schmidt , and 21 more Anne Applebaum, Anna O. Law, Gavin A. Schmidt, Rosemary A. Joyce, David Rothschild, American Library Association, Daniel W. Drezner, Rebecca Tushnet, Aaron Sojourner, Michael Zimmer, Jacob T. Levy, Scott A. Imberman, Samantha Brennan, Michael D. McDonald, Ann Bartow, Sam Kamin, Olivier Mannoni, Nicole Guenther Discenza, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Aidan O’Sullivan, Jeannette Sutton, Virginia Sapiro, Jesse R. Lasky

LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 @longtimehistory.bsky.social · 1d

Nicole Guenther Discenza @ndiscenza1.bsky.social · 1d

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

Nicole Guenther Discenza @ndiscenza1.bsky.social · 1d

(((hugs)))

I can feel the motion of the river.

Reposted by Nicole Guenther Discenza

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 2d

Here it is: www.lawdork.com/p/breaking-f...

Breaking: Federal judge in Pittsburgh blocks DOJ's invasive trans care subpoena

The latest loss for DOJ, regarding the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's patients, also brings news that DOJ has started scaling back its requests following its many losses.

www.lawdork.com

Texas Tribune @texastribune.org · 2d

Texas A&M won’t reinstate fired lecturer despite findings

A vice chancellor upheld the firing of Melissa McCoul, seen in a viral video being confronted by a student on her gender identity teachings, saying the termination was done with “good cause.”

www.texastribune.org

Reposted by Rosemary A. Joyce, McKenzie Wark, Nicole Guenther Discenza

Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 2d

No one says to legit business owners, "hey I see there's an underground market selling toxic knock-offs of your product: how will you incorporate the toxic product AND protect your customers against its harms?" But apparently it's fine to make this suggestion to educators with respect to AI.

Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Gerald Friedman, Kent Johnson , and 2 more Kim L. Scheppele, Gerald Friedman, Kent Johnson, Olivier Mannoni, Nicole Guenther Discenza

Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com · 2d

The DOJ is lying when it says they *just now* received Epstein files from the Southern District of New York.

Nicole Guenther Discenza @ndiscenza1.bsky.social · 2d

Also: glass and china can shatter in your hand just as badly as they shatter on the floor, but the floor doesn't have to go to the ER.
Since a friend's permanent injury reflexively catching a teacup, I have been trying to train myself NOT to catch things I drop doing dishes (still working on it).

❄️mari-lwyd odent❄️ @oldenoughtosay.com · 2d

As many of us begin Christmas meal prep, allow me to share the advice that my ER nurse sister puts in the chat every year:

A dropped knife has no handle. Jump away. Let it fall. You can pick it up and wash it.

Nicole Guenther Discenza @ndiscenza1.bsky.social · 2d

Read @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social on why and how to resist AI:
www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...

Four Frictions: or, How to Resist AI in Education - Public Books

We are calling for resistance to the AI industry’s ongoing capture of higher education.

www.publicbooks.org

Nicole Guenther Discenza @ndiscenza1.bsky.social · 2d

Just reading your recap and commentary has brought me joy.

Reposted by Nicole Guenther Discenza

❄️mari-lwyd odent❄️ @oldenoughtosay.com · 2d

Nicole Guenther Discenza @ndiscenza1.bsky.social · 2d

My main high school English teacher said, "You have a mind like a steel trap."
I reveled in this for many years.
These days, I say: "I used to have a mind like a steel trap. Now it's more of a colander."