There is a scary number of people in Russia saying that what happened to the French victims of terror attacks this week was “punishment from God.”

Even according to the inflated stats of the Russian Orthodox Church, only 2% of Russians even practice this religion. Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya, who has also been saying this shit,  understands Islam like I understand Japanese.

It’s beyond annoying to see the loyal, atheist Communists of yesterday start running around all of a sudden, waving crucifixes and blabbing about God’s punishments.

Freaks.

To the people who keep asking why I care more about the slaughter of Charlie Hebdo cartoonists than other, even more massive tragedies, I’ve got this to say.

It is impossible to have equally intense reactions to everything. The human psyche can’t deal. It has to be selective about what it takes in and allows one to grieve over.

I have a much more intense reaction to my niece bumping her knee than to the horrible accident in Michigan. This doesn’t mean that I’m cruel or don’t consider the lives of people in Michigan valuable. It is normal to care more about what we know better. I never plan to go back to Ukraine, yet I care deeply about the events there for the simple reason that  I understand them.

The brain invests energy into learning about things and then values these things because the knowledge came at a cost. I care passionately about Spain but have zero interest in what happens in the neighboring Portugal. The only difference between the countries (to me) is that I expended effort to learn about one of them.

I find it tiresome that people keep assigning sinister motives to the most normal things in the world. “Ooh, you care more about the few killed in Paris than the thousands dead in Iraq. Islamophobe! Racist!” This is just bizarre given that there is a much simpler reason: I grew up with French books, fairy-tales, TV shows, and French – Russian dictionaries. I’ve never been to Paris but I know half of the street names there. The very first childhood crush I had was on a French actor. I know the French literature better than most French. Plus, I’m a journalist who writes controversial things online. Plus, I’m Jewish. Yes, it’s a total shock I care. 

In a phone call to a French radio station, Sharif Kouashi maintained that he was in Yemen with AQAP bigwig Anwar al-Awlaqi, who, he said, “funded” him.

I wonder why I had to be subjected to all those weepy articles about the sainted Anwar al-Awlaqi who supposedly never hurt a fly before being cruelly mowed down by Obama’s drone? The were mile-long pieces on this about a year ago written in the tone of “the meanie Obama killed Santa al-Awlaqi and now I won’t get my Christmas gifts.”

I’m having the worst possible luck on this trip. I spent the night, listening to polite robotic recordings tell me, “Dear valued customer, your flight has been canceled. Please stay on the line.”

From 2 to 5 am, I was trying to get myself on a plane  -any plane – out of here. And after I finally booked a new ticket and settled down to sleep for a couple of hours, polite robotic voices kept calling me to tell me to stay on the line because of some glitch. (Seriously, these were not voices in my head but real phone calls. I think.)

I’m now at the airport, trying to avoid telling the customs officer that my name is Dear Valued Customer.

If you are a reader of this blog who spent time with me in Montréal, thank you for interspersing this trip from hell with good moments.

I’m exhausted and can’t wait to get home.