Kam Shapiro
@kamshapiro.bsky.social
“In this world… sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers.” - Melville
December 27, 2025 at 6:49 AM
“In this world… sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers.” - Melville
The walk to campus at the end of the Fall semester.
December 5, 2025 at 1:03 AM
The walk to campus at the end of the Fall semester.
Reposted by Kam Shapiro
an amazing personal, political & courageous op ed. Gift link. I note this: “The price of admission to Trump’s America is aggressive compliance” - it resonates with prior observations I’ve made re compliance with the sex/gender binary, which now requires steroids, hormones or surgery for straights
Opinion | I Look at This Country and I See a Stranger
www.nytimes.com
September 21, 2025 at 12:02 PM
an amazing personal, political & courageous op ed. Gift link. I note this: “The price of admission to Trump’s America is aggressive compliance” - it resonates with prior observations I’ve made re compliance with the sex/gender binary, which now requires steroids, hormones or surgery for straights
I remember someone being interviewed on the radio in 1995 saying it’s not a matter of if but when it happens here. At the time I thought, that’s right. Did I lose that conviction somehow? I continue to be dismayed. Perhaps that’s not entirely an indictment, because it means I haven’t lost all hope.
September 18, 2025 at 1:11 AM
I remember someone being interviewed on the radio in 1995 saying it’s not a matter of if but when it happens here. At the time I thought, that’s right. Did I lose that conviction somehow? I continue to be dismayed. Perhaps that’s not entirely an indictment, because it means I haven’t lost all hope.
The trail to campus on the first day of the Fall semester.
August 18, 2025 at 4:02 PM
The trail to campus on the first day of the Fall semester.
A state department plan to increase human misery. One of many, I know, but somehow burning contraceptives stands out:
www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
US-funded contraceptives for poor nations to be burned in France, sources say
U.S.-funded contraceptives worth nearly $10 million are being sent to France from Belgium to be incinerated, after Washington rejected offers from the United Nations and family planning organisations to buy or ship the supplies to poor nations, two sources told Reuters.
www.reuters.com
July 28, 2025 at 7:06 PM
A state department plan to increase human misery. One of many, I know, but somehow burning contraceptives stands out:
www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
“The world, it seems, is witnessing an experiment: An attempt to indefinitely maintain Gaza’s population below the famine threshold while turning food into a weapon of war.” - ICG
Speaking of impactful semantic distinctions: When does an observer become a witness, and what follows?
Speaking of impactful semantic distinctions: When does an observer become a witness, and what follows?
June 8, 2025 at 5:55 PM
“The world, it seems, is witnessing an experiment: An attempt to indefinitely maintain Gaza’s population below the famine threshold while turning food into a weapon of war.” - ICG
Speaking of impactful semantic distinctions: When does an observer become a witness, and what follows?
Speaking of impactful semantic distinctions: When does an observer become a witness, and what follows?
NY Times Online front page headline on the federal deployment of national guard troops to quell political protest in L.A. alongside one on the auction of “Ferris Bueller’s Vest.”
Like equating political protest with “rebellion.” Conspiring equivocations that normalize the exception.
Like equating political protest with “rebellion.” Conspiring equivocations that normalize the exception.
June 8, 2025 at 5:25 PM
NY Times Online front page headline on the federal deployment of national guard troops to quell political protest in L.A. alongside one on the auction of “Ferris Bueller’s Vest.”
Like equating political protest with “rebellion.” Conspiring equivocations that normalize the exception.
Like equating political protest with “rebellion.” Conspiring equivocations that normalize the exception.
The path to campus on the last day of the Spring semester.
April 30, 2025 at 10:02 PM
The path to campus on the last day of the Spring semester.
I’d like to think bond yields are telling a story about the rule of law, not just tariffs. Looking for support anywhere. If wishes were horses?
April 11, 2025 at 6:38 PM
I’d like to think bond yields are telling a story about the rule of law, not just tariffs. Looking for support anywhere. If wishes were horses?
Small but unmistakable signs of life.
March 24, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Small but unmistakable signs of life.
Schadenfreude directed at starving children seems bizarre, but it makes more sense, in a sick sort of way, if you imagine it as (mis)directed at more privileged types presumed to cherish them. Very human.
March 23, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Schadenfreude directed at starving children seems bizarre, but it makes more sense, in a sick sort of way, if you imagine it as (mis)directed at more privileged types presumed to cherish them. Very human.
There may be nothing earth-shattering or even novel in Butler’s speculation about the thrill of being freed from ethical boundaries, the excitement many get from a leader who lies without compunction. It may also be clear that commercial culture has long encouraged disinhibition. Still, not wrong.
March 15, 2025 at 5:04 PM
There may be nothing earth-shattering or even novel in Butler’s speculation about the thrill of being freed from ethical boundaries, the excitement many get from a leader who lies without compunction. It may also be clear that commercial culture has long encouraged disinhibition. Still, not wrong.
Ag secretary proposes to block “restrictive state laws” like CA Prop 12 as part of the Fed response to high egg prices. Prop 12 would place some limits on the density of animal confinement. Some way to respond to a pandemic. Anti-anti-cruelty, and unsubtle misdirection.
February 26, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Ag secretary proposes to block “restrictive state laws” like CA Prop 12 as part of the Fed response to high egg prices. Prop 12 would place some limits on the density of animal confinement. Some way to respond to a pandemic. Anti-anti-cruelty, and unsubtle misdirection.
Watching Steve Bannon in conversation with Douthat rail against the techno-feudalists and their apartheid transhumanism (all his terms). If you could excise the theocratic nationalism without killing the populist patient. I think of Tom Watson in Aziz Rana’s chapter on populism. Or maybe..?
January 31, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Watching Steve Bannon in conversation with Douthat rail against the techno-feudalists and their apartheid transhumanism (all his terms). If you could excise the theocratic nationalism without killing the populist patient. I think of Tom Watson in Aziz Rana’s chapter on populism. Or maybe..?
“Not too interesting.” Maybe not for him. I am left brimming with ruth.
January 21, 2025 at 11:30 PM
“Not too interesting.” Maybe not for him. I am left brimming with ruth.
The walk to campus on the first day of the spring semester.
January 14, 2025 at 2:14 AM
The walk to campus on the first day of the spring semester.
Another win at the margins, bringing them a little closer: SCOTUS declines to intervene in Sunoco LP v City of Honolulu. The board of water supply suing over contributions to climate change. State bureaucracy as a possible world-historic hero. So
much to appreciate.
much to appreciate.
January 14, 2025 at 1:30 AM
Another win at the margins, bringing them a little closer: SCOTUS declines to intervene in Sunoco LP v City of Honolulu. The board of water supply suing over contributions to climate change. State bureaucracy as a possible world-historic hero. So
much to appreciate.
much to appreciate.
Trudier Harris’s *Bigger* is a learned and informative study. How could the editors let it be framed by the naive premise “to let Bigger speak for himself”? Totally unnecessary.
December 20, 2024 at 5:59 PM
Trudier Harris’s *Bigger* is a learned and informative study. How could the editors let it be framed by the naive premise “to let Bigger speak for himself”? Totally unnecessary.
Today’s Held v. Montana ruling is a symbolic win. With the current congress and Supreme Court that may seem meaningless, but perhaps a symbol can be a seed. We can credit the plaintiffs for their resolve now, and possibly more later.
December 19, 2024 at 4:44 PM
Today’s Held v. Montana ruling is a symbolic win. With the current congress and Supreme Court that may seem meaningless, but perhaps a symbol can be a seed. We can credit the plaintiffs for their resolve now, and possibly more later.
It can be hard to distinguish despair from spiteful nihilism in reactions to the incoming administration. Both involve inaction.
December 19, 2024 at 12:36 AM
It can be hard to distinguish despair from spiteful nihilism in reactions to the incoming administration. Both involve inaction.
To confuse dislike for buzzwords with dislike for diversity, equity, and inclusion. A confusion variously suffered and leveraged.
December 4, 2024 at 4:56 PM
To confuse dislike for buzzwords with dislike for diversity, equity, and inclusion. A confusion variously suffered and leveraged.
The walk to campus as Fall comes to a close.
November 21, 2024 at 3:51 PM
The walk to campus as Fall comes to a close.
Teaching this week about the termination of Chevron deference and came across this gem: "the concept of ambiguity has always evaded meaningful definition." - John Roberts, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo
November 20, 2024 at 5:32 PM
Teaching this week about the termination of Chevron deference and came across this gem: "the concept of ambiguity has always evaded meaningful definition." - John Roberts, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo