Something is wrong with my blogroll. Instead of feeding me news and blogging ideas, it put me into a vile mood today. Within 20 minutes, I read posts that:

1. Used the expression “unborn babies.” I had no idea there were still idiots who used this ridiculous expression. It is even more shocking that they somehow managed to worm their way into my blogroll.

2. Informed their paltry number of readers (among which I somehow ended up) that Reagan caused the collapse of the Soviet Union. People have every right not to be interested in other cultures. It would be nice, though, if they at least tried to keep their woeful ignorance to themselves. Do I need to read this kind of rubbish first thing in the morning?

3. Gleefully quoted some stupid starlet who said that men should have no opinions on how their own weddings are organized.

I’m fine with my blogroll offering me something stupid every once in a while. Such a string of idiocies, however, is too much. So now I will be cleaning out my blogroll.

I like to have a very populated blogroll, which is why I’m now inviting everybody who wants me to follow their blogs to leave links in the Comment section.

In the spirit of full disclosure: I read almost everything the bloggers I follow publish (I’m an insanely fast reader). I don’t comment often, though. And I very rarely leave more than one comment to any given thread. However, I’m likely to promote interesting posts on my Sunday Link Encyclopedia and most of those links get a great number of visitors.

I read in English, Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian, French, Portuguese, Catalan. I can do Italian, too, if the blog is really worth it.

So feel free to leave links to your blogs. If there is somebody else’s blog that you want me to follow, leave the link, too. Just remember that I want no undead corpses, stupidities about Eastern Europe, and starlet inanities. I also have quite a few of “women as perennial victims of everything” blogs in my blogroll already, so I’m not looking to add to that collection.

I’m very interested in blogs by intelligent, rational Conservatives because my blogroll has a heavy Leftist bent and I find that limiting. I also love blogs that have to do with advertisement and psychology. The best kind of blog, however, is what I call “a personality blog.” This means a blog that is written by somebody who has a fascinating personality which makes their every post worth reading.

Look at what has been bringing people to the blog:

Forget about Putin’s Botox for the moment. Can you explain to me what the last search on the list is all about? Why are there two people who are interested in getting a jerk to like them?

In any case, since crowds (of two) are clamoring for an answer, here goes: the way to get “the jerk” to like you is to stop seeing him (or her) as a jerk and start seeing her (or him) as a human being.

Many years ago, my feminist awakening began when I heard one of the first public feminists in Russia say on television, “Women, please remember that men are people, too.” That was a novel thought and it has really enriched my life. So irrespective of who this jerk you want to like you is, remember that he or she is a person, too.

From a final exam: “Women in Franco’s Spain lived like royalty: they stayed at home, cooked, cleaned, etc.”

I guess this student and I are seeing different kinds of royalty on TV. How often do you think Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II does the dishes? I have a sneaking suspicion she does them even less often than I do.

“What Latin American countries need to resolve their problems it to elect one person who would rule over all Latin American countries at once and who’d be benevolent.”

“Only one country has been able to trick the IMF and give it the taste of its own medicine, and that was Russia. It’s a shame Russia is not in Latin America!”

“Racism is huge in Latin America today because of what happened with Hitler and the Jews.”

“The main problem in Latin America today is that they don’t have a fantastic president like Obama. He saved our country from another depression. Just think what he could do for Latin America.”

“Franco wanted women to wear non-Modernist clothes that showed a lot.”

“To solve its problems, Latin America should encourage individualism. Once this is done, poverty will decrease and the economy will thrive.”

“There is a magnificent gap between the poor and the rich in Latin American countries.”

“What Latin America needs to solve its economic problems is more corporations!”

“The IMF works hard to decrease poverty in Latin America and to make Latin people and people throughout the world wealthy.” [To my Latin American readers: please believe that I did not teach this. I’m from Ukraine, which makes my attitude to the IMF violently negative.]

“Galeano says that the US exploits Latin America. That just isn’t true. The US helps them a lot. For example, people in the US adopt babies from orphanages all over the world. And how about all of the help we provided to Iraq and Afghanistan.”

It’s 8:40 am and I kind of feel like having that drink already. Fifty-nine more exams to go.

N. always promised me that when he got a high-paying job, he would take me to a very good restaurant with the first paycheck. That paycheck is coming the day after tomorrow, people, and I need a good restaurant in St. Louis.

And by good I mean expensive. I deserve to be taken to the place for stinking rich folks for how good I’ve been during the harsh times of N.’s unemployment. He agrees and leaves the choice of restaurant entirely to me, as long as it isn’t Ethiopian. For some reason, he dislikes Ethiopian food, which I don’t understand.

I also hate noise, so it needs to be a quiet, romantic place. I’m too old to be around drunk adolescents or amidst huge boisterous crowds.

If anybody has any suggestions, I will be eternally grateful. Where do you go in St. Louis where you have some (somebody else’s) money to burn?