I’m very annoyed by the insistent use of the word “teen” in reports of increased gang activity. Even conservative reporters repeat “teen, teen, teen” like crazed parrots.

🚨 WTF?!! A "teen" was OUT ON BAIL for a firearm crime…

…then went on a STABBING SPREE in Rhode Island during a teen takeover and brutally injured 3 victims because he was set free!

IT HAS TO STOP

Remove and lock up the judge!

"Now, police have 18-year-old Medina in… pic.twitter.com/4x5jK7Oe2M

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 23, 2026

The criminal in question is an adult repeat offender. In all of the videos of gang riots, most of the criminals look very adult.

Whoever invented the term “teen takeover”, with its air of playfulness supported by the use of alliteration, is a skilled propagandist. Let’s not buy into the propaganda and repeat the terminology unthinkingly. These are violent gang riots. We don’t know the age of the gangsters and we shouldn’t care anyway. If it’s not ok to mention the very obvious race of the rioters, it should definitely be out of the question to fixate on their assumed age.

Of course, I couldn’t help myself and went along and re-read Lescroart’s Guilt, the best American legal drama. And here’s what’s funny. I first read the novel sometime in 2005 when I was at the apex of my leftism. The novel stages a confrontation between the conservative and the liberal viewpoints, and even back then my sympathies were completely on the side of the conservative approach. There’s a character named Sam who is a feminist, and I despised her passionately at that first reading. I still feel exactly the same. My entire perception of the novel changed not a whit in the past 20 years.

It was always destined that I’d become a conservative, is what I’m saying.

🚨: Study shows the most unforgettable childhood memories are family vacations between ages 5 to 10. pic.twitter.com/OHvHRH8nUT

— All day Astronomy (@forallcurious) May 22, 2026

Children simply like to be with their parents. Travel is not the crucial factor here. It’s being together in an intentional way that creates the joy. It’s being together as the end goal and not a byproduct.

Of course, I’m talking about normal families which are a huge majority. I hated family vacations as a child because there was no break from the dysfunction. Thankfully for me, in the USSR husbands and wives were rarely given vacations at the same time.

People live in a different reality:

I recently did a school visit and walked into a kindergarten "indoor recess." Every single child was on an iPad. If states are going to put any policy around recess, it should be this: technology-free. https://t.co/hnMG9zCg1L

— Jennifer Weber (@DrJenniferWeber) May 21, 2026

At Klara’s school, they have two days a year when they are allowed to bring technology and use it without WiFi. Other than that, it would be scandalous if anybody even tried. Students are also not allowed on the premises unless they are dressed modestly.

These horror stories people tell about kindergartners massively on iPads don’t even sound true. How do they all have iPads? How do parents allow them to be brought to school? It all sounds invented.

People REALLY don't like being told that it's in their power to make their life better.

— Abby Libby (@abbythelibb_) May 21, 2026

In academia it’s undeniably true. I had to learn to keep mum regarding my insights into how to publish more, keep running the lab when the budget is halved, make documents accessibility-compliant within minutes and without having to attend workshops, and so on. Nobody wants to know. Or they do but they want to be able to complain about life even more. So I shut up and make compassionate noises when people go on and on about problems that have a clear solution.

I often think that academia exists as a place where people compete in the art of complaining.

The American legal system is complicated and fascinating. It is not surprising, then, that its intricacies have given rise to a vast number of legal mysteries and courtroom dramas. I love this genre and have read extensively in it. If I have to name my favorite courtroom drama, however, the choice is extremely easy. Normally, this is not the type of book that you want to reread because, once the mystery is solved, there is not much point to revisiting the book. Guilt by John Lescroart stands out because I have reread it several times even though I remember the plot in great detail. This, too, is unusual given that I erase all of the non-essential readings from my mind completely almost immediately after I finish such a book.

Guilt was published in 1998 and there is something to it, an ambience, a flavor that is so perfectly the 1990s in a way that could not possibly be recreated today. It’s like Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl but for men and about men.  At this point I know parts of it almost by heart but I still want to drop everything and go reread it. Aside from the deeply enjoyable legal intricacies, this novel introduces several different male types that are fascinating to observe. One might say that the novel is a study of different ways of being a man.

Like all of Lescroart’s novels, Guilt is set in San Francisco. This is, of course, the San Francisco of 30 years ago. Even then, though, San Francisco was way ahead down the road that we all walked since then. I don’t want to say more because I’d rather not spoil the pleasure of reading for those of you who decide to attempt this novel. I do want to reiterate that this is an outstanding representative of the courtroom drama genre.

I noticed one post with a ridiculous take on education, and now the algorithm only shows me posts from out-of-touch “public education advocates” like this one:

Standardized tests are politicized by the use of the word “not.” Now I’ve truly heard every excuse.

Jeff Bezos said the bottom half of Americans should pay zero federal income tax.

He cited a nurse in Queens making ~$75K and paying ~$12K in taxes saying “we shouldn’t be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington.” pic.twitter.com/8KSgrO5TnE

— Shay Boloor (@StockSavvyShay) May 20, 2026

Forget what Bezos said. Why does he look like that? Dude suddenly started looking like his grandpa. I’m very worried because such sudden aging isn’t a good sign.

When a child is put in the lowest reading group, they usually know it.
The name of the group doesn't fool anyone.
The Butterflies. The Robins. The Stars.
Children are very good at working out which group has the hardest books.
And they carry the information about which one…

— Kevin McLeod (@bannon1975) May 19, 2026

I deeply hate this entire mentality. I don’t care about reading groups in school. I hate the idea that we should ditch hierarchies because they hurt feelings. It’s ok for people to know that there are things they can’t do. It’s ok to be excluded. It’s ok to be aware that intellectual limitations exist. It’s ok to know that some people are a lot smarter.

Seriously, people, if you want a European vacation without a long, expensive and grueling flight, come to Quebec. We are in the Laurentides, and it’s blissful.

Here’s the view from the dry sauna that I ran into after plunging into the Nordic shower:

This is the view straight from our room:

The nature is Nordic, the environment is calm, everybody is extremely polite. It’s not hot, and you can get to a European-looking city in an hour.