DrAnnD

Asking "why this book?" won't fix Texas. It was never about any one book.

Censorship is about control of ideas, information, and possible worlds. It's about power.

SB12 and SB13 were crafted by the Texas GOP to make it easy for ideologues to remove ideas they don't like from public school.

This site needs a break. Post 3 good things, none of which are the cessation of a negative.
1. Dogs
2. Petrichor
3. The meditative making of a cup of coffee

Grammarly Is Facing a Class Action Lawsuit Over Its AI ‘Expert Review’ Feature The feature, which Grammarly shut down Wednesday, presented editing suggestions as if they came from established authors and academics—without their consent.

I'm suing Grammarly over its paid AI feature that presented editing suggestions as if they came from me - and many other writers and journalists - without consent.

State law requires consent before someone's name can be used for commercial purposes.

www.wired.com/story/gramma...

Haven't been to Target since. Not missing it. Not going back.

New Braunfels ISD bans 600+ books, ages up 800+ titles using AI & overly-restrictive selection criteria. Lonesome Dove, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Guinness World Records & The Three Musketeers among hundreds of books removed from school library collections.

As of February 2026, New Braunfels ISD has permanently removed more than 600 books from its high schools in response to Senate Bill 13. Additionally, over 800 books have been removed from district middle schools and aged up to the high schools.

www.txftrp.org/new_braunfel...

"Anyway, censorship is for weak losers and bigots."

C'mon, Alberta. The US has been trying this censorship thing for, like, 5 years and we're not any better or cooler for it.

So apparently grammarly stole my fuckin identity

We’ve submitted hundreds of PIRs & what we're finding isn't surprising. We repeatedly warned the TX legislature that these laws would cause significant harm. But we're never not astounded at the stupidity of what's being removed from libraries. We'll be sharing our findings over the coming months.

Cover image of E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web over a screenshot from a report from United ISD in Laredo showing the book has been removed from the district due to the new book-banning law SB13.

At @txfreedomread.bsky.social, we’ve undertaken a massive project (with the help of some incredible volunteers) sending public info requests to school districts to see how new laws are affecting what books are available in Texas schools. Y’all, it’s a lot. Follow us for some upcoming bombshells.

Time-Wasting, Truth-Wasting Exercises | Los Angeles Review of Books Samuel Cohen’s anthology on book banning diagnoses a recent swell in censorship that’s problematic for more reasons than you’d think.

Wrote about @samcohen.bsky.social’s book banning volume for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social. The volume invites us to consider why books matter—and it shows the many ways they’re under attack, even here in progressive NYC.

lareviewofbooks.org/article/bann...

The internet, on scientists: They're secretive gatekeepers, they hoard esoterica/the truth, they don't want anyone in their ivory tower little clubs

Actual scientists: LOOK, WE FOUND A 300 MILLION YEAR OLD FOSSILIZED CLOACCAL IMPRESSION AND THE VENT IS HORIZONTAL! PLZ READ MY 67-PAGE PAPER ABOUT IT

“And it’s gonna be interesting to see how long ‘sure all models are buckets of statistics but ours can be sad and will soon be god’ can actually last in a market that’s increasingly looking for some financial returns.”

Texas can open up a whole bunch of wells and the state economy could take off like a rocket. High oil prices make it worth drilling out west.

Unless Corpus, a city of just over 300k, runs out of water. Then the whole state, and a lot of other folks who like petro products, are screwed.

Corpus Christi careens toward water catastrophe City officials expect to reach a “water emergency” within months and run out of water next year. That would halt jet fuel deliveries to Texas airports, hike gas prices and trigger a local economic dis...

After 30 years of the Texas GOP screaming about wasteful government spending and not investing the more-than-adequate money in the state's budget in infrastructure, things are just fine. Right?

Important point is that teenage boys can be taught and can learn to be better. genAI/LLMs, not so much.

If I can’t unionize Claude then it’s not conscious, next question

Community responds to help and protest 95 book challenges filed by fired substitute teacher The Twin Falls School District leadership said the system is not designed to handle over a hundred challenges at once, but the district will follow its policy — with a slew of volunteers.

My take away from this story: Not only do the majority of people want open & accessible libraries, many people will also put in the work to make it happen

There’s so much to love in this thread.

Nope, def not. Though a lot of advocacy over a decade has shifted the norms. Those masters and aren’t enough. I served in the cmtte to update evals that don’t ever go anywhere either. People’s experience is better now than mine was, but the system is the same.

As one of the White ladies in my dept, I started asking these questions before I got tenure. The answers were, of course, disappointing, but I kept asking. And now push back hard when P&T conversations veer into that territory around student evals, now that I’m in the room. Try to put in the work.

I do a version of this with my future teachers: "So, what assumptions would you make about a student who said that to you, their teacher? Where do you think their question is coming from?"

The definition on these tiny icons is amazing. So impressive. So beautiful.

It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber Yellow poster with image of children playing on an earth-shaped jungle gym.

It’s just so fucking simple & true. This poster was a staple of my childhood & hung in my 3rd-grade classroom. “Serious people” are not supposed to make arguments this simple, I guess. 🙃

Write for me and my friends! We're cool and this volume will be ah-mazing.

Pitch your research, pitch your story, share widely.

I do not like this gen AI
I do not like what it implies
I do not want it in my art
I do not think it makes you smart
I do not want it in my games
I do not like its goals and aims
I do not want it in my books
I do not like the way it looks
I do not like it, I don't care
I do not want it anywhere

We’re Also Sick of the Question “Will Texas Turn Blue?” Yet Here We Go Again. In some ways, we’ve been here before. In others, this is uncharted territory. Here’s what last night’s primary results could mean for November.

Hey, are you following Texas politics but don't live in Texas?

Consider Texas Monthly instead of whatever thing the NYTimes published this morning. Or the Texas Tribune. Or any of the Hearst papers (Austin, San Antonio, Houston).

Listen to actual Texans on this one, please.

a large screen shows a man 's face and says ingsoc ALT: a large screen shows a man 's face and says ingsoc

So... A friend was supposed to give a PURELY SCIENTIFIC talk at NIH within the next couple of weeks and it was cancelled because of a "new process" where all speakers/talks have to be CLEARED BY A POLITICAL APPOINTEE.

The Texas Tribune The Texas Tribune covers politics and a range of policy issues that affect all Texans. Those topics include public and higher education, health and human services, demographics and voting rights, immi...

I’ve been in Texas 20+ years. My mom grew up here.

Please, y’all, stop listening to anyone about Texas politics who hasn’t been here at least that long.

Tree trunk looking up a very tall line from the bottom. Grey-brown bark, branches and green needles very far away up.

A white pine at my folks. No idea how old but it takes 3 adults to give it a hug. Definitely pondering it today.

Image of the 4 new statewide banned books in Utah: The Carnival at Bray by Jessie Ann Foley The Handmaid's Tale: The Graphic Novel by Margaret Atwood Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold Breathless by Jennifer Niven

As you may have heard, Utah banned 4 more books statewide.

Keep reading and talking about these books.
And join us tomorrow at Elevate Utah and Better Utah's Action Fair at 6 p.m. at Church & State to learn how you can help us fight back against book bans.