Craig Smith
@craigmsmith.bsky.social
a grumpy melange of personality defects who gets paid to make people's writing better; or, failing that, to not make it appreciably worse.
Reposted by Craig Smith
This would be an unambiguous war crime even in a proper war against a real enemy’s navy.
Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 28, 2025 at 7:37 PM
This would be an unambiguous war crime even in a proper war against a real enemy’s navy.
Reposted by Craig Smith
Still reeling from the Stanford report on Brexit. Reduced GDP by up to 8% and investment by as much as 18%. The UK Treasury would have £40 billion more each year if Britain had remained in the EU. Devastating self-immolation.
The Economic Impact of Brexit
Other
siepr.stanford.edu
November 24, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Still reeling from the Stanford report on Brexit. Reduced GDP by up to 8% and investment by as much as 18%. The UK Treasury would have £40 billion more each year if Britain had remained in the EU. Devastating self-immolation.
Reposted by Craig Smith
Reposted by Craig Smith
I found this terribly sad. A young woman with her life ahead of her, and she becomes one of the last American victims of the Long War.
November 28, 2025 at 2:07 AM
I found this terribly sad. A young woman with her life ahead of her, and she becomes one of the last American victims of the Long War.
Reposted by Craig Smith
you know what, friends? fuck it. I just pitched my editor at @chronicle.com for a piece about breaking the silence on suicide in the academy. with finals coming up, I think it’s urgent. if you’re an academic who’s been suicidal & met with violent attempts to shut you down—DM me.
November 28, 2025 at 2:44 AM
you know what, friends? fuck it. I just pitched my editor at @chronicle.com for a piece about breaking the silence on suicide in the academy. with finals coming up, I think it’s urgent. if you’re an academic who’s been suicidal & met with violent attempts to shut you down—DM me.
Reposted by Craig Smith
🎶 Sing us a song, you're the piano man
Sing us a song tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody
And you've got us feelin' alright 🎶
Sing us a song tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody
And you've got us feelin' alright 🎶
November 27, 2025 at 10:17 PM
🎶 Sing us a song, you're the piano man
Sing us a song tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody
And you've got us feelin' alright 🎶
Sing us a song tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody
And you've got us feelin' alright 🎶
Reposted by Craig Smith
Thanksgiving Conversation Devolves Into Just Stating Things Dog Is Currently Doing https://theonion.com/thanksgiving-conversation-devolves-into-just-stating-th-1840069525/
November 27, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Thanksgiving Conversation Devolves Into Just Stating Things Dog Is Currently Doing https://theonion.com/thanksgiving-conversation-devolves-into-just-stating-th-1840069525/
Reposted by Craig Smith
Reposted by Craig Smith
A *huge* vaccine victory. I've been writing on this for years; Australia has seen remarkable progress in cervical cancer prevention with the HPV vaccine. I love seeing science triumph like this.
Australia recorded ZERO cases of cervical cancer in women under 25 for the first time since they started tracking the cancer in the 80s.
This is the power of vaccines.
The HPV vaccine is extremely effective at preventing cancer.
Viruses can be oncogenic. Get your vaccines and protect yourself!
This is the power of vaccines.
The HPV vaccine is extremely effective at preventing cancer.
Viruses can be oncogenic. Get your vaccines and protect yourself!
newsGP - Australia set for world-first cervical cancer elimination
Vaccination programs have played a key role, and GPs remain ‘instrumental’ in boosting screening rates to reach the 2035 target.
www1.racgp.org.au
November 27, 2025 at 6:12 PM
A *huge* vaccine victory. I've been writing on this for years; Australia has seen remarkable progress in cervical cancer prevention with the HPV vaccine. I love seeing science triumph like this.
Reposted by Craig Smith
My friend Jake (that’s Dr. Beck to you!) on the crisis in Texas universities.
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
Professor: Texas used to have universities
Former Texas Tech professor takes issue with the actions of Texas universities to restrict what topics can be discussed. Doing so makes them something other...
www.dallasnews.com
November 27, 2025 at 7:57 PM
My friend Jake (that’s Dr. Beck to you!) on the crisis in Texas universities.
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
Reposted by Craig Smith
We're gonna need a truth and reconciliation commission and Nuremberg style trials to reckon with all of this evil, and any Dem candidate for office who shies away from a full reckoning in the name of "moving forward as a nation" can get well and truly fucked
I feel much safer today knowing that we deported a Babson College student back to a country where she hasn't lived since childhood.
She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.
She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.
A Babson College student wanted to surprise her family for Thanksgiving. She was deported instead. - The Boston Globe
Any Lucia Lopez Belloza was at Logan to catch a flight to Texas when immigration authorities detained her as she was about to board the plane.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 27, 2025 at 4:29 PM
We're gonna need a truth and reconciliation commission and Nuremberg style trials to reckon with all of this evil, and any Dem candidate for office who shies away from a full reckoning in the name of "moving forward as a nation" can get well and truly fucked
Reposted by Craig Smith
Right-wingers throw the term "civilizational suicide" around a lot
Well, cratering your economy by cutting your world-historically trade dependent country off from international circuits in pursuit of a mirage of Merry England, causing ppl to flee for a better life elsewhere, seems a textbook case
Well, cratering your economy by cutting your world-historically trade dependent country off from international circuits in pursuit of a mirage of Merry England, causing ppl to flee for a better life elsewhere, seems a textbook case
YOU WANTED NET IMMIGRATION TO COME DOWN! THIS IS WHAT THAT LOOKS LIKE!
November 27, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Right-wingers throw the term "civilizational suicide" around a lot
Well, cratering your economy by cutting your world-historically trade dependent country off from international circuits in pursuit of a mirage of Merry England, causing ppl to flee for a better life elsewhere, seems a textbook case
Well, cratering your economy by cutting your world-historically trade dependent country off from international circuits in pursuit of a mirage of Merry England, causing ppl to flee for a better life elsewhere, seems a textbook case
Reposted by Craig Smith
If one Afghan nationalist shooter means all Afghan nationalists are evil, wait until I tell you about white male shooters.
November 27, 2025 at 11:04 AM
If one Afghan nationalist shooter means all Afghan nationalists are evil, wait until I tell you about white male shooters.
Reposted by Craig Smith
It's Chinese Don Quixote in 1930s Shanghai! What happens when a gullible dupe reads too much kungfu fiction and decides he can save the nation? The Pidgin Warrior by Zhang Tianyi is what happens. I was lucky enough to translate it.
bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
The Pidgin Warrior
Check out The Pidgin Warrior - <p>In the 1930s, wartime Shanghai is a cosmopolitan metropolis where conmen and dance-hall girls mingle with refugees streaming in from the occupied areas.<br /> <br /> ...
bookshop.org
November 27, 2025 at 1:58 PM
It's Chinese Don Quixote in 1930s Shanghai! What happens when a gullible dupe reads too much kungfu fiction and decides he can save the nation? The Pidgin Warrior by Zhang Tianyi is what happens. I was lucky enough to translate it.
bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
Reposted by Craig Smith
"One guy, it doesn't matter who, swears there's a poll out there that says people want to be invaded." What kind of sourcing is this lol
November 27, 2025 at 1:56 PM
"One guy, it doesn't matter who, swears there's a poll out there that says people want to be invaded." What kind of sourcing is this lol
Reposted by Craig Smith
I wrote an essay for @bostonreview.bsky.social about what I learned about close reading when I taught at West Virginia University
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
The Claims of Close Reading - Boston Review
Literary studies have been starved by austerity, but their core methodology remains radical.
www.bostonreview.net
November 26, 2025 at 3:14 PM
I wrote an essay for @bostonreview.bsky.social about what I learned about close reading when I taught at West Virginia University
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
Reposted by Craig Smith
People will die, and are currently dying, because RFK was granted one of the most powerful megaphones in the country. Two people who could have thrown barriers in front of his climb decided not to; there's a sex scandal here but it is not the biggest scandal.
November 26, 2025 at 11:30 PM
People will die, and are currently dying, because RFK was granted one of the most powerful megaphones in the country. Two people who could have thrown barriers in front of his climb decided not to; there's a sex scandal here but it is not the biggest scandal.
Reposted by Craig Smith
An 18yo US citizen, surrounded by eight masked, armed agents of the state, taken into custody, not read his rights, not offered a chance to contact a lawyer, proof of citizenship ignored, handcuffed so tightly he later required medical attention.
Profoundly, profoundly anti-American shit.
Profoundly, profoundly anti-American shit.
ICE Detained an 18-Year-Old U.S. Citizen. This Is His Story.
YouTube video by The Hometown Holler
youtu.be
November 26, 2025 at 10:00 PM
An 18yo US citizen, surrounded by eight masked, armed agents of the state, taken into custody, not read his rights, not offered a chance to contact a lawyer, proof of citizenship ignored, handcuffed so tightly he later required medical attention.
Profoundly, profoundly anti-American shit.
Profoundly, profoundly anti-American shit.
Reposted by Craig Smith
This is completely unconscionable. How any major media outlet could hire such a person (for the clicks!) is mind boggling.
Hey, congratulations to all of Olivia Nuzzi’s horny media critic defenders. Heckuva job!
November 26, 2025 at 10:37 PM
This is completely unconscionable. How any major media outlet could hire such a person (for the clicks!) is mind boggling.
Reposted by Craig Smith
So this happened in Oslo yesterday. Four articulated buses got stuck in a roundabout.
November 25, 2025 at 8:23 AM
So this happened in Oslo yesterday. Four articulated buses got stuck in a roundabout.
Reposted by Craig Smith
This is the type of hater energy that will fuel us in the years ahead.
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
November 26, 2025 at 1:42 PM
This is the type of hater energy that will fuel us in the years ahead.
Reposted by Craig Smith
Book piracy is so specifically weird to me. We have whole buildings where you walk in and get books for free. And if they don't have what you want, often they will find it for you. And libraries help authors. And libraries build communities.
We already made books a common good, no piracy needed.
We already made books a common good, no piracy needed.
I see some book piracy discourse, and, to make a positive argument in favor of buying books, your marginal ability to influence what books get published and support the careers of writers you like is massive compared to most other forms of media.
November 25, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Book piracy is so specifically weird to me. We have whole buildings where you walk in and get books for free. And if they don't have what you want, often they will find it for you. And libraries help authors. And libraries build communities.
We already made books a common good, no piracy needed.
We already made books a common good, no piracy needed.
Reposted by Craig Smith
I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.
I see some book piracy discourse, and, to make a positive argument in favor of buying books, your marginal ability to influence what books get published and support the careers of writers you like is massive compared to most other forms of media.
November 25, 2025 at 11:07 PM
I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.
Reposted by Craig Smith
I think Pecan Pie is one of those things that is divisive now because it’s just a blob of sugar with nuts on it but to someone 150 years ago who ate shoes it was probably like having 12 orgasms at once
November 25, 2025 at 10:54 PM
I think Pecan Pie is one of those things that is divisive now because it’s just a blob of sugar with nuts on it but to someone 150 years ago who ate shoes it was probably like having 12 orgasms at once
Reposted by Craig Smith
An affront to so many things, but fundamentally to the idea that human progress is in any way inevitable. Even the most obvious gains, even the most morally clear public goods, must be fought for and preserved.
A third Kentucky infant has died from whooping cough (also known as pertussis) this year as the state faces its largest spike in cases since 2012. Cases are only expected to continue to rise, highlighting the importance of widespread immunization. Learn more: publications.aap.org/aapnews/news...
November 25, 2025 at 9:32 PM
An affront to so many things, but fundamentally to the idea that human progress is in any way inevitable. Even the most obvious gains, even the most morally clear public goods, must be fought for and preserved.