Tenure Committees Are Too Tolerant of Mediocrity chronicle.com/article/tenure…

FIRE is deeply troubled by @UNC’s decision to condemn satire and announce an investigation into protected student expression. The @dailytarheel, which is editorially and financially independent from the university, published satirical April Fool’s articles with headlines like “Trump Orders Alcohol Law Enforcement in Chapel Hill Replaced with ICE Agents” and “UNC Brings Back DEI-For Whites.” After calls for takedowns from student groups and the student body president, the paper took the articles down and its editor-in-chief apologized. Hill After Hours, a separate registered student group, also posted and deleted a TikTok sketch satirizing a stereotypical white student walking through an area of campus where predominantly students of color have historically lived. In response, Senior Vice Provost James Orr issued a university statement condemning the satirical content and announced the university was investigating Hill After Hours. That is not the role of a public university. Students and student journalists do not lose their First Amendment rights because their speech is offensive, unpopular, or badly received. Critics are free to answer with more speech. UNC is not free to answer it with condemnation and investigation. UNC-Chapel Hill’s response also raises serious concerns under North Carolina law, which requires UNC System institutions to remain neutral on “the political controversies of the day.” A university cannot claim neutrality while taking an official side against protected student expression. UNC-Chapel Hill must retract its statement and end the investigation. Offense is not license to police protected expression.

Dear Transplants & Developers: These trees emit a foul odor to attract flies, their primary pollinators. Do not plant these stankin’ a$$ things in North Carolina. The proper way to deal with the Bradford Pear is not to plant them. It’s to chop them down and burn them with fire. Thank you, The Locals

It’s a legendary holiday for Alabama fans worldwide. Happy 2nd & 26 for those who celebrate! Best/first game ‘date’ with my gf (now my wife of almost 7 years). BOL members sharing memories: ➡️on3.com/boards/threads/happy… What’s yours?

This game is putting the foot in football.

From our August Issue: Interpersonal Relationships, Bipartisanship, and January 6th by JAMES M. CURRY and JASON M. ROBERTS. cambridge.org/core/journals/…

Loving that @AndyStaples talked Jason Isbell during today’s show. #outfit

‘Bama made me switch to bourbon

Alabama football takes down Tennessee | Roll 'Bama Roll rollbamaroll.com/alabama-cri…

SMOKE EM IF YOU GOT EM

"It's haunted. It's absolutely haunted," Nick Saban on Jordan-Hare Stadium.

In the last few years we've seen: - The plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer - The Storming of the Capitol and pipe bombs left at the RNC and DNC - The break-in to kidnap Nancy Pelosi and the brutal on Paul Pelosi - Multiple assassination attempts against Trump - The assassination of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and the shooting of on State Senator John Hoffman and his wife - Luigi Mangione's assassination of Brian Thompson - The assassination of Charlie Kirk Political violence is contagious. It is spreading. It is not confined to one side or belief system. It should terrify us all. The foundation of a free society is the ability to participate in it without fear of violence. Political violence is always an attack against us all. You have to be so blind not to see that.

This Alabama team is soft in a way I can't ever remember seeing under Saban. Just a pitiful performance after all the offseason hype billowing out of Tuscaloosa.

Read it now! "Getting what you pay for: Resource allocations and legislative success" by @emilyommundsen (@OleMiss). 🔗 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/…

Are you, or do you know, a recent or soon-to-be college grad who's interested in research and deep dives on Congress? @bindersab and I are hiring an RA to start this summer.

Happy 2nd and 26 to all who celebrate

Well, this is exciting forthcoming news from @TonyMadonna5 and Michael Lynch! Sept 2025. Hopefully Tony will give us the big cover reveal soon! press.umich.edu/Books/B/Brok…

I wrote something for @TheFP about the Politico “scandal” and what it tells us about our current information reality. Thanks @bariweiss for the offer - always fun to turn Twitter ideas into commentary on this moment. thefp.com/p/the-internet-mob…

I have news for you - we aren’t taking over Gaza. But the media and the chattering class will focus on it for a few days and Trump will have succeeded in distracting everyone from the real story - the billionaires seizing government to steal from regular people.

The folks obsessively posting about egg prices for the past few years have gone strangely quiet just as egg prices hit an all-time high.