Charles Mathewes
@ctmathewes.bsky.social
I teach religion & ethics @ UVa I'm mostly here to find books & articles I don't yet know about Sometimes also interested in opinions, but not as often as many of you seem to believe
Win by ~1%. Third candidate: 4%. A classic plurality-voting pathology: small splinter groups can be decisive. Every primary should use a consensus-building procedure like approval voting or ranked choice.
Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-North Carolina) said he was dropping his reelection bid after the House Ethics Committee recommended censuring him in a report that detailed “persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct” toward two young female staffers.
Rep. Chuck Edwards drops reelection bid following House censure recommendation
An Ethics Committee report detailed “persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct” by the North Carolina Republican toward two young female staffers.
washingtonpost.com
The Universal Council of Chucks is not in favor of this Chuck
The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 2d agoThe House Ethics Committee recommended that the chamber censure Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-North Carolina) for what it characterized in a report released Monday as “persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct” toward two young female staffers.
The House Ethics Committee recommended that the chamber censure Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-North Carolina) for what it characterized in a report released Monday as “persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct” toward two young female staffers.
House panel seeks censure of Rep. Chuck Edwards over conduct toward female staff
Attorneys for the North Carolina Republican, who has denied wrongdoing, accused the Ethics Committee of reaching a rushed judgment and called its recommendation “extraordinarily harsh.”
washingtonpost.com
From a Fox Poll out 7/31: Talarico-Paxton is the marquee race down here but check out the dead heat btw Abbott and Hinojosa for governor. This contest isn't even on the radar for the national Dems, AFAIK. She's has $3m cash on hand--Abbott has *$67m*. Some more highlights from the poll... /1
I have to remember that almost everything on social media is un serious and posted by people who do not genuinely expect it or themselves to be taken seriously, because they have no idea what it would be to be “taken seriously”
Unless they are parents or have been marked by a major existential event such as a war, 24-year-olds should not be understood to be full adults. Part of the problem w/ AI today circles around this fact.https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/business/situational-awareness-leopold-aschenbrenner.html?
Leopold Aschenbrenner Built a Hot A.I. Hedge Fund. Then it Melted Down.
Situational Awareness, led by a 24-year-old, exploded onto the artificial intelligence scene — and then nose-dived.
nytimes.com
Strange that this would drop on a Friday afternoon
The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 5d agoBreaking news: Federal prosecutors moved to drop a criminal charge filed against a former Olympian who had been accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool, suggesting that the damage was instead due to a rushed installation.
As usual, anyone who self-describes as “cynical” can be better described as “credulous”
Liberal Currents@liberalcurrents.com · 5d ago"Their actions ensured that they struggled to achieve sympathetic media coverage outside of a few left-wing outlets, struggled to attract material or legal support (the ACLU, for instance, refused to touch the case), and failed to achieve positive virality in the larger culture."
DOGE really did a number on our intelligence. www.reuters.com/world/africa...
US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference
A U.S. government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a State Department presentation at a global conference taking place in Brazil this week, causing a stir among attendees who took screen...
reuters.com
Ooh this could be good; YP's "Everlasting Empire" was terrific
Princeton University Press@princetonupress.bsky.social · last wk.In China’s Aristocratic Age, Yuri Pines offers a new history of the Springs-and-Autumns period, China’s longest experiment with polycentrism. Out now (25 August UK/EU pub). Click here to read a free preview: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... #History #China
Was looking into language range this past year, right now we seem to have around 7000 languages still, but disappearing rapidly
Yale Classics Library@yaleclassicslib.bsky.social · last wk.Study uncovers lost ‘golden age’ of languages news.yale.edu/2026/07/23/s... New study by @damianblasi.bsky.social, Claire Bowen @yale.edu. et al @science.org The rise and fall of language diversity through the Holocene www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
How many times can we say “sorry” until the word loses its meaning? Jon Elster explores the moral landscape of "overapologizing" for distant historical harms, arguing these gestures are often both metaphysically absurd and potentially dangerous. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/a...
I did not expect that Pokémon would overlap with the Merovingians in any way but here we are
“Halfway hero.” An interesting idea. Is McClay suggesting we no longer know what it means to be truly committed to the bit? Like Achilles? Or Antigone? Or Abraham? www.nytimes.com/2026/07/26/o...?
Opinion | ‘The Odyssey’ Gives Us the Hero We Deserve
Christopher Nolan’s Odysseus is a halfway hero: he wrestles with the problems he creates. That makes him a perfect figure for our modern moment.
nytimes.com
Shame on the cabal of top scientists who mocked me and other dissidents for challenging their sordid Covid origins cover-up. It is now beyond doubt that they betrayed both humanity and science - and there should be retribution. My MoS column mol.im/a/16005037
Scientists mocked my Covid leak theory but I was right: IAN BIRRELL
Like many others, I was struck by the strange 'coincidence' that Covid erupted in the city with a secretive lab containing the world's biggest repository of bat coronaviruses.
mol.im
De ciuitate Dei, Confessiones, Ennarationes in Psalmos
◥◤Kriston Capps 250@kristoncapps.bsky.social · 3mo agoDC, Maryland, Virginia
Breaking News: Democrats are hoping to move past Graham Platner's scandal-plagued campaign as they look to unseat Susan Collins. In Jackson, they chose a nominee with a similar economic populist message as Platner.
Democrats in Maine formally nominate Troy Jackson as their new candidate for U.S. Senate
Democrats are hoping to move past Graham Platner's scandal-plagued campaign as they look to unseat Susan Collins. In Jackson, they chose a nominee with a similar economic populist message as Platner.
n.pr
🚩 My 2010 PhD thesis is ‘70% AI’ I ran my 2010 PhD thesis through an AI detector. It flagged 70% as AI, then tried to sell me a ‘humanise’ fix. Either I am a time traveller, or these tools do not work. Link to my thesis in the comments to try yourself. #AIDetection #HigherEd 🧪 #AI
The OG
London Review of Books@lrb.co.uk · last mo.‘For some, his continual self-criticism is the admirable outworking of a genuine humility; for others, the overwrought self-doubt of a brilliant thinker slides too easily into unattractive introspection.’ Christopher Kelly on St Augustine. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
