Phil Klay
@philklay.bsky.social
Author of Redeployment, Missionaries, and Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War. Teaches at Fairfield University MFA.
“Beyond the human toll—more than 80 individuals have been killed without due process over three months—and the risk that the strikes are a prelude to a direct U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, they signal a broader threat to security at home and abroad.“
November 26, 2025 at 2:56 PM
“Beyond the human toll—more than 80 individuals have been killed without due process over three months—and the risk that the strikes are a prelude to a direct U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, they signal a broader threat to security at home and abroad.“
Something deeply moving about Lincoln making Thanksgiving a national holiday in the midst of the Civil War because we may “expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom” and “God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”
November 25, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Something deeply moving about Lincoln making Thanksgiving a national holiday in the midst of the Civil War because we may “expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom” and “God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”
“Here’s a wonderful thing for kids. Let’s attack it to get accolades from the biggest morons in our base.”
www.npr.org/2025/11/25/n...
www.npr.org/2025/11/25/n...
November 25, 2025 at 1:37 PM
“Here’s a wonderful thing for kids. Let’s attack it to get accolades from the biggest morons in our base.”
www.npr.org/2025/11/25/n...
www.npr.org/2025/11/25/n...
In which @philipchristman.bsky.social makes a compelling aesthetic objection to libertarianism
November 24, 2025 at 1:08 PM
In which @philipchristman.bsky.social makes a compelling aesthetic objection to libertarianism
On “modern so-called incomprehensible poetry”:
“it's like it's something you have to understand with something other than intelligence, or your mind,”
“it's like it's something you have to understand with something other than intelligence, or your mind,”
November 22, 2025 at 3:46 PM
On “modern so-called incomprehensible poetry”:
“it's like it's something you have to understand with something other than intelligence, or your mind,”
“it's like it's something you have to understand with something other than intelligence, or your mind,”
“…all religions and faith say, or try to say, something about that, and they all do say it but in different ways, they're like languages, I say, and actually they all say only the tiniest little bit about realities, yes, as I've so often said myself, just think if all the colours had names…”
November 22, 2025 at 3:07 PM
“…all religions and faith say, or try to say, something about that, and they all do say it but in different ways, they're like languages, I say, and actually they all say only the tiniest little bit about realities, yes, as I've so often said myself, just think if all the colours had names…”
Profiles in courage
November 21, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Profiles in courage
“You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow.“
November 21, 2025 at 1:57 AM
“You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow.“
I met my translator. He didn't know a single word of Czech. "How did you translate it?" I asked. "With my heart," he said.
—Kundera’s adventures in translation
—Kundera’s adventures in translation
November 20, 2025 at 12:34 PM
I met my translator. He didn't know a single word of Czech. "How did you translate it?" I asked. "With my heart," he said.
—Kundera’s adventures in translation
—Kundera’s adventures in translation
Graham Greene to Salman Rushdie after the publication of The Satanic Verses:
"Rush-die! Come and sit here and tell me how you managed to make so much trouble! I never made nearly as much trouble as that!'"
"Rush-die! Come and sit here and tell me how you managed to make so much trouble! I never made nearly as much trouble as that!'"
November 17, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Graham Greene to Salman Rushdie after the publication of The Satanic Verses:
"Rush-die! Come and sit here and tell me how you managed to make so much trouble! I never made nearly as much trouble as that!'"
"Rush-die! Come and sit here and tell me how you managed to make so much trouble! I never made nearly as much trouble as that!'"
Pope John Paul II: "You always make one step forward and one step back."
Milosz: "Can one write religious poetry in any other way today?"
Milosz: "Can one write religious poetry in any other way today?"
November 17, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Pope John Paul II: "You always make one step forward and one step back."
Milosz: "Can one write religious poetry in any other way today?"
Milosz: "Can one write religious poetry in any other way today?"
"I don't have any desire to live on a planet that has no heroes, and no angels, and no saints, and no art.”
—Patti Smith to William S Burroughs
—Patti Smith to William S Burroughs
November 15, 2025 at 11:43 PM
"I don't have any desire to live on a planet that has no heroes, and no angels, and no saints, and no art.”
—Patti Smith to William S Burroughs
—Patti Smith to William S Burroughs
I’d never seen this Nietzsche photo before. Quite something.
November 14, 2025 at 8:36 PM
I’d never seen this Nietzsche photo before. Quite something.
“For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”
—Hosea
—Hosea
November 13, 2025 at 2:17 AM
“For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”
—Hosea
—Hosea
‘Is there a name for the period between a person’s fatal diagnosis and their death? There should be. This time by its nature cannot possess the qualities that constitute “ordinary” time’
Peter Catapano on editing Oliver Sacks in his last days
pghrev.com/the-afterliv...
Peter Catapano on editing Oliver Sacks in his last days
pghrev.com/the-afterliv...
October 30, 2025 at 8:50 PM
‘Is there a name for the period between a person’s fatal diagnosis and their death? There should be. This time by its nature cannot possess the qualities that constitute “ordinary” time’
Peter Catapano on editing Oliver Sacks in his last days
pghrev.com/the-afterliv...
Peter Catapano on editing Oliver Sacks in his last days
pghrev.com/the-afterliv...
“I didn’t think the inner life was everything, but I saw its power.”
TOMORROW I’m in conversation with the great Joan Silber about the craft of writing and about her phenomenal new novel MERCY.
events.fairfield.edu/event/inspir...
TOMORROW I’m in conversation with the great Joan Silber about the craft of writing and about her phenomenal new novel MERCY.
events.fairfield.edu/event/inspir...
October 27, 2025 at 4:33 PM
“I didn’t think the inner life was everything, but I saw its power.”
TOMORROW I’m in conversation with the great Joan Silber about the craft of writing and about her phenomenal new novel MERCY.
events.fairfield.edu/event/inspir...
TOMORROW I’m in conversation with the great Joan Silber about the craft of writing and about her phenomenal new novel MERCY.
events.fairfield.edu/event/inspir...
Today I learned that the “A time to cast stones” line from Ecclesiastes is about ejaculation
October 23, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Today I learned that the “A time to cast stones” line from Ecclesiastes is about ejaculation
“The daily newspapers then fill one with wonder and awe: is it possible? is it happening? And of course with sickness and despair. The fixes, the scandals, the insanities, the treacheries, the idiocies, the lies, the pieties, the noise…”
—Philip Roth, 1961
—Philip Roth, 1961
October 22, 2025 at 7:49 PM
“The daily newspapers then fill one with wonder and awe: is it possible? is it happening? And of course with sickness and despair. The fixes, the scandals, the insanities, the treacheries, the idiocies, the lies, the pieties, the noise…”
—Philip Roth, 1961
—Philip Roth, 1961
Does calling them “the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere” mean that we’ll pursue wasteful, destructive and stupid policies going after them?
October 20, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Does calling them “the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere” mean that we’ll pursue wasteful, destructive and stupid policies going after them?
Whenever there’s a completely absurd claim about how well Israel has treated civilians (as in this Noah Rothman National Review article), it’s always laundered through John Spencer, the urban warfare expert who told Ukrainians they should fight Russian tanks with paintball guns.
October 15, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Whenever there’s a completely absurd claim about how well Israel has treated civilians (as in this Noah Rothman National Review article), it’s always laundered through John Spencer, the urban warfare expert who told Ukrainians they should fight Russian tanks with paintball guns.
“that light, yes, it's most often connected to something bad, to pain, and suffering, I might say, if that's not too big a word…and the person who buys the painting is also given some of the light, and the suffering too, the despair, the pain that's in the light, I think”
Fosse, Septology
Fosse, Septology
October 14, 2025 at 11:15 PM
“that light, yes, it's most often connected to something bad, to pain, and suffering, I might say, if that's not too big a word…and the person who buys the painting is also given some of the light, and the suffering too, the despair, the pain that's in the light, I think”
Fosse, Septology
Fosse, Septology
“ICE has set up checkpoints outside my street most mornings – pulling people out of cars usually around 7am. They have repeatedly showed up to a Catholic elementary school and another school down the block from me…”
www.newstatesman.com/internationa...
www.newstatesman.com/internationa...
October 13, 2025 at 4:28 PM
“ICE has set up checkpoints outside my street most mornings – pulling people out of cars usually around 7am. They have repeatedly showed up to a Catholic elementary school and another school down the block from me…”
www.newstatesman.com/internationa...
www.newstatesman.com/internationa...
At Chuck E. Cheese, explaining to my kids that when I was young, before American children’s entertainment went soft, Chuck wasn’t a friendly mouse, he was a cigar smoking rat from New Jersey.
October 13, 2025 at 4:08 PM
At Chuck E. Cheese, explaining to my kids that when I was young, before American children’s entertainment went soft, Chuck wasn’t a friendly mouse, he was a cigar smoking rat from New Jersey.
Apparently providing aid to foreign countries benefits America. Now, if only we had an agency for that sort of thing…
October 10, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Apparently providing aid to foreign countries benefits America. Now, if only we had an agency for that sort of thing…
Hahahahaha…nice try, AI
October 9, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Hahahahaha…nice try, AI