Sam Ulmschneider
@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.
I'd like to read a good history of folk music, esp post-1960s resurgence. I haven't much clue what the underlying dynamics are that roots/folk spaces, which culturally ought to be right leaning by most rights, are rarely home to the UKIP/Trump types as much as they are to granola-acceptance types.
November 25, 2025 at 3:40 AM
I'd like to read a good history of folk music, esp post-1960s resurgence. I haven't much clue what the underlying dynamics are that roots/folk spaces, which culturally ought to be right leaning by most rights, are rarely home to the UKIP/Trump types as much as they are to granola-acceptance types.
I figure Ken Burns has one, maybe two big documentary series in him before he fully retires. What do you think they should be? My votes include Football, Hip-Hop, World War 1, Reconstruction (though Skip Gates did this one well), Iraq/Afghanistan, 19th Century Expansionism.
November 24, 2025 at 11:46 PM
I figure Ken Burns has one, maybe two big documentary series in him before he fully retires. What do you think they should be? My votes include Football, Hip-Hop, World War 1, Reconstruction (though Skip Gates did this one well), Iraq/Afghanistan, 19th Century Expansionism.
before COVID I used to re-read Moby Dick, which I used to call my favorite book, once every couple of years and I'll admit I haven't since like....2017 maybe? I need to read it again but also need some fellow adults to talk it out with, which is harder and harder to find these days.
November 22, 2025 at 1:24 AM
before COVID I used to re-read Moby Dick, which I used to call my favorite book, once every couple of years and I'll admit I haven't since like....2017 maybe? I need to read it again but also need some fellow adults to talk it out with, which is harder and harder to find these days.
Reposted by Sam Ulmschneider
I don't mean this in an "I told you so" way, but it was very obvious to me that the Mamdani/Trump meeting would go the way it did, because Mamdani is ascendant, popular, powerful and charismatic, all things that Trump wants to glom on to. Trump has no principles; it's not like he has converted.
November 21, 2025 at 11:44 PM
I don't mean this in an "I told you so" way, but it was very obvious to me that the Mamdani/Trump meeting would go the way it did, because Mamdani is ascendant, popular, powerful and charismatic, all things that Trump wants to glom on to. Trump has no principles; it's not like he has converted.
I love that they got Paul Giamatti to be John Adams in the Ken Burns American Revolution. It's a small and shallow thing, but it is a touch which enhances the larger and more deeply important elements.
November 21, 2025 at 11:55 PM
I love that they got Paul Giamatti to be John Adams in the Ken Burns American Revolution. It's a small and shallow thing, but it is a touch which enhances the larger and more deeply important elements.
Teaching has costs and problems aplenty, but at least I know that every time I go in and all the hours of work are aimed at providing a social good to others directly and primarily rather than making some CEO or stock picker richer.
November 21, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Teaching has costs and problems aplenty, but at least I know that every time I go in and all the hours of work are aimed at providing a social good to others directly and primarily rather than making some CEO or stock picker richer.
The man who taught me this, a man who was my teacher in high school and my mentor in becoming a teacher as an adult, died this week. That fact is occupying an enormous amount of psychological terrain right now, and it's proving oddly hard to navigate around.
The most important teacher in my life told me I needed to have a fire in the belly. I think about that a lot because it means many things from many angles and for many purposes, but no matter how I'm refracting, applying, or analyzing that statement it remains true and important and powerful.
What’s the most significant advice you received from a teacher?
I had a Geology prof who always said “have strong opinions, loosely held”
Be passionate, assess alternatives with conviction, take sides. But don’t fall so in love with your opinions that you can’t change them with better data.
I had a Geology prof who always said “have strong opinions, loosely held”
Be passionate, assess alternatives with conviction, take sides. But don’t fall so in love with your opinions that you can’t change them with better data.
November 21, 2025 at 2:27 AM
The man who taught me this, a man who was my teacher in high school and my mentor in becoming a teacher as an adult, died this week. That fact is occupying an enormous amount of psychological terrain right now, and it's proving oddly hard to navigate around.
Rousseauvian ; Rousseauan ; Rousseauean - which do you prefer for "applying or having to do with the ideals of JJR"? I've always thought the first was the correct one but I have no real coherent reason justifying that preference.
November 21, 2025 at 2:19 AM
Rousseauvian ; Rousseauan ; Rousseauean - which do you prefer for "applying or having to do with the ideals of JJR"? I've always thought the first was the correct one but I have no real coherent reason justifying that preference.
The most important teacher in my life told me I needed to have a fire in the belly. I think about that a lot because it means many things from many angles and for many purposes, but no matter how I'm refracting, applying, or analyzing that statement it remains true and important and powerful.
What’s the most significant advice you received from a teacher?
I had a Geology prof who always said “have strong opinions, loosely held”
Be passionate, assess alternatives with conviction, take sides. But don’t fall so in love with your opinions that you can’t change them with better data.
I had a Geology prof who always said “have strong opinions, loosely held”
Be passionate, assess alternatives with conviction, take sides. But don’t fall so in love with your opinions that you can’t change them with better data.
November 21, 2025 at 1:34 AM
The most important teacher in my life told me I needed to have a fire in the belly. I think about that a lot because it means many things from many angles and for many purposes, but no matter how I'm refracting, applying, or analyzing that statement it remains true and important and powerful.
I am once again reminded that when it was good (which was....half the time?) the Battlestar Galactica reboot was really, really, really good.
November 21, 2025 at 1:28 AM
I am once again reminded that when it was good (which was....half the time?) the Battlestar Galactica reboot was really, really, really good.
Really enjoying teaching a political theory class this year, but there are some texts I wish I was spending time with that I had to leave behind which I intend to bring in next time, especially Spirit of the Laws and Democracy In America.
November 21, 2025 at 1:22 AM
Really enjoying teaching a political theory class this year, but there are some texts I wish I was spending time with that I had to leave behind which I intend to bring in next time, especially Spirit of the Laws and Democracy In America.
I'd love your ideas, Bluesky! Three the things I struggle w most in this class are (1) How to integrate sports history with other pop culture topics (2) How to bring more diversity, esp gender diversity, to my topics+selections (3) Integrating globalization - wanted to find room for anime, couldn't.
Suggestions wanted! High school means I have to ask for book purchases before December. Here's my plan for History of 20th Century US Popular Culture (taught as an elective to high achieving juniors and seniors). I'd love suggestions for how to spend a book/DVD budget in addition to what's here:
November 20, 2025 at 3:46 PM
I'd love your ideas, Bluesky! Three the things I struggle w most in this class are (1) How to integrate sports history with other pop culture topics (2) How to bring more diversity, esp gender diversity, to my topics+selections (3) Integrating globalization - wanted to find room for anime, couldn't.
I can't think for very long about abuses in elite academia, like Summers, without getting incandescent and incoherent. A lot is personal and particular, and then it generalizes out to how it harms others, often much more directly it does me. Rare topic I can't have civil or coherent thoughts about.
November 20, 2025 at 3:46 AM
I can't think for very long about abuses in elite academia, like Summers, without getting incandescent and incoherent. A lot is personal and particular, and then it generalizes out to how it harms others, often much more directly it does me. Rare topic I can't have civil or coherent thoughts about.
Three the things I struggle w most in this class are (1) How to integrate sports history with other pop culture topics (2) How to bring more diversity, esp gender diversity, to my topics and selections (3) Integrating globalization - for example, I wanted to find room for Akira and anime, couldn't.
Suggestions wanted! High school means I have to ask for book purchases before December. Here's my plan for History of 20th Century US Popular Culture (taught as an elective to high achieving juniors and seniors). I'd love suggestions for how to spend a book/DVD budget in addition to what's here:
November 20, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Three the things I struggle w most in this class are (1) How to integrate sports history with other pop culture topics (2) How to bring more diversity, esp gender diversity, to my topics and selections (3) Integrating globalization - for example, I wanted to find room for Akira and anime, couldn't.
Reposted by Sam Ulmschneider
My most extreme policy position on college admissions is that if you want to be really serious about admissions equity and preserving rigor, you just use some form of school adjusted GPA and standardized test scores and then lottery admit from all applicants above that threshold.
November 20, 2025 at 1:08 AM
My most extreme policy position on college admissions is that if you want to be really serious about admissions equity and preserving rigor, you just use some form of school adjusted GPA and standardized test scores and then lottery admit from all applicants above that threshold.
Suggestions wanted! High school means I have to ask for book purchases before December. Here's my plan for History of 20th Century US Popular Culture (taught as an elective to high achieving juniors and seniors). I'd love suggestions for how to spend a book/DVD budget in addition to what's here:
November 20, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Suggestions wanted! High school means I have to ask for book purchases before December. Here's my plan for History of 20th Century US Popular Culture (taught as an elective to high achieving juniors and seniors). I'd love suggestions for how to spend a book/DVD budget in addition to what's here:
Which Shakespeare play do you think offers the most useful and trenchant connections to political theory &philosophy, such that a student seminar reading it could productively apply many different lenses to it (republicanism, Machiavelli, utilitarianism, contract thinkers, virtue ethics, etc)?
November 19, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Which Shakespeare play do you think offers the most useful and trenchant connections to political theory &philosophy, such that a student seminar reading it could productively apply many different lenses to it (republicanism, Machiavelli, utilitarianism, contract thinkers, virtue ethics, etc)?
Reposted by Sam Ulmschneider
If the president can just raise taxes and spend money without Congressional approval, the constitution is null and void.
BREAKING: Deputy White House Chief of Staff James Blair said the administration is eyeing ways to give millions of Americans $2,000 dividend checks from tariff revenue without congressional approval, per Bloomberg.
November 19, 2025 at 3:11 AM
If the president can just raise taxes and spend money without Congressional approval, the constitution is null and void.
Reposted by Sam Ulmschneider
If the President can impose his own taxes and use the proceeds to spend on his own projects, all without Congress, we have a dictatorship not a constitutional republic.
BREAKING: Deputy White House Chief of Staff James Blair said the administration is eyeing ways to give millions of Americans $2,000 dividend checks from tariff revenue without congressional approval, per Bloomberg.
November 19, 2025 at 2:46 AM
If the President can impose his own taxes and use the proceeds to spend on his own projects, all without Congress, we have a dictatorship not a constitutional republic.
I set a goal of showing two episodes of Star Trek or another sci-fi show per quarter for my political philosophy and theory class and I think I'm actually going to manage it somehow, living the dream of dorky teacher life here.
November 19, 2025 at 2:18 AM
I set a goal of showing two episodes of Star Trek or another sci-fi show per quarter for my political philosophy and theory class and I think I'm actually going to manage it somehow, living the dream of dorky teacher life here.
Whoever decided an emoji-react functionality with its own separate notifications tab just for emojis needed to be integrated into Outlook deserves a special exception carved into the 8th Amendment just for their punishment
November 19, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Whoever decided an emoji-react functionality with its own separate notifications tab just for emojis needed to be integrated into Outlook deserves a special exception carved into the 8th Amendment just for their punishment
Genuinely like a lot of rap, but listen to it less these days than I did in my 20s and early 30s because I find it increasingly hard to have it on w/o actually concentrating on the wordplay and flow - and if I'm grading or running or writing emails, my brain can't do both as easily as other genres.
November 18, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Genuinely like a lot of rap, but listen to it less these days than I did in my 20s and early 30s because I find it increasingly hard to have it on w/o actually concentrating on the wordplay and flow - and if I'm grading or running or writing emails, my brain can't do both as easily as other genres.
The most enduring lesson of the last decade of politics for me is that the day to day storyline will always, without fail, find a way to get Stupider and more insular and even more Weird (pejorative) even as the broader policy impacts and political fundamentals march on largely unaffected.
November 18, 2025 at 3:11 AM
The most enduring lesson of the last decade of politics for me is that the day to day storyline will always, without fail, find a way to get Stupider and more insular and even more Weird (pejorative) even as the broader policy impacts and political fundamentals march on largely unaffected.
Reposted by Sam Ulmschneider
can bad prose be sexually transmitted
November 18, 2025 at 2:02 AM
can bad prose be sexually transmitted
Reading Rousseau with my students and man does he still hit hard. How much does this still feel like a (maybe too hot) critique of the 21st century rat race: "Civilised man, on the other hand, is always moving, sweating, toiling and racking his brains to find still more laborious occupations... 1/3
November 17, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Reading Rousseau with my students and man does he still hit hard. How much does this still feel like a (maybe too hot) critique of the 21st century rat race: "Civilised man, on the other hand, is always moving, sweating, toiling and racking his brains to find still more laborious occupations... 1/3