I was inspired by this blogger to contribute to a “Small Thanks” meme where people list small, easy-to-overlook things that make them happy. So here are things I’m thankful for today:

– I have an excuse to prepare a long and elaborate meal.

– I have just received the most recent season of Law & Order: SVU on DVD which will make grading a breeze.

– I have finally discovered how my pension fund works and it exceeds my wildest expectations. It’s like a Socialist dream, or something.

– N. has received a new version of his favorite video game and he’s happy. And when he’s happy, I’m happy for him.

– My niece Klubnikis is turning 3 years old on Saturday.

– Our departmental party will, for once, take place at a really good restaurant.

– I have been so productive this week that I feel justified in reading a new mystery by Peter Robinson.

– There are only 2 weeks of classes, after which I will have a semi-sabbatical until the end of August 2013.

Feel free to list your small thanks!

If you ever wondered why Gender Studies departments have turned into a huge embarrassment across North America, you can find your answer in this comment left on my blog today.

I’ve seen people leave quite a few stupid comments on the blog but this one is truly special. I even did something that I very rarely do and checked the IP address to see where this brilliant commenter came from. I won’t tell you because that’s too embarrassing.

Read it and weep, folks.

We have this beautiful thick fog today, and that makes me feel like we are finally going in the right direction. Anything is better than the endless sun we’ve had since March. I’m a night creature. The sun annoys me more than I can tell you. I mean, on the beach it has its uses but in regular life it is a pest.

It is terrifying that such horrible, guilt-tripping, manipulative parents even exist:

 

Note how the vicious animal includes the poor kid in the “we.” Instead of saying, “I’m a worthless lover and my partner tired of me but that should have no influence on your relationship with your father”, she pushes the guilt onto the completely innocent child. Now the kid will have to carry the burden of the Mommy’s sexual failures. This will certainly do wonders for the kid’s own personal life when he grows up.

So no, stupid insect, you don’t HAVE to tell this idiotic lie to your miserable child. You can learn to be a good parent and not burden the child with your sexual issues. You could even go as far as sticking your cheap resentment deep into your anal cavity and try to see that a child’s relationship with his or her father should not be put at risk because you are offended in your silly little vanity. What kind of a freakazoid punishes a little kid for having a crappy relationship with that kid’s father?

I found the postcard here but I don’t in the least identify with the OP’s compassion for this disgusting creature. Beating up on small children in revenge for the sins of others is a horrible thing to do. It’s easy because the children can’t defend themselves but it is inexcusable.

It is curious that the kid’s face is plastered over with the text of the mother’s hysteria. For this kind of mother, a child is not a person. He is not a human being who has a face and a life of his own. He is, rather, a faceless object that can be manipulated and kicked around like a senseless toy. The child is nothing but a tool used to manipulate somebody else, a baseball bat to bludgeon his father. His feelings are neither referenced nor consulted.

I look at this small child whose face is hardly visible and whom I never met in my life and I know that I would never be able to make such a cruel comment about the  boy’s father to his face. The father might be all kinds of jerk (or not, who knows?) but I wouldn’t be able to bad-mouth him to the kid. Neither would I tell the boy all I think about his mother because I can’t hurt a human being in this way. What is so shocking to me is that there are parents – I have actually met them – who don’t bat an eye-lash before heaping abuse on their own children’s other parent. Do they have no idea how hurtful and damaging such comments are? The idiot Mommy in this post-card will have a crowd of men in her life but the boy will never ever EVER have another father.

P.S. In case the tone of the post left something unclear, anybody who tries to defend this kind of parents will be eviscerated. I’m sure there are many places where you can celebrate this kind of attitude but this blog is not one of them.

The last thread on Israel and Palestine took less than 24 hours to get to anti-Semitic comments, which is surprising because I predicted it would take at least 32 hours. To provide some comic relief to all of us, here is a beautiful video demonstrating why the “this land originally belonged to X” argument is futile.

If you think about it, you will realize that the same kind of video can be made for any territory on this planet, except maybe the South Pole.

From a student’s essay:

The Magi, or the Three Kings, are the Spanish version of the Santa Claus.

I’m reading this essay while discussing in an earlier thread of this blog whether it’s surprising that my students don’t know that the Jews who live in Israel today are “the same Jews” that appear in the Bible.

P.S. OK, there is more on the Magi in the essay:

The only difference between the Magi and Santa Claus is that Santa Claus comes before Christmas and the Magi after Christmas.

The student apparently has no idea of any special relationship between the Magi and Christmas.

The last weeks of the semester are so overwhelming that I started talking to my work email.

“Ah, here you go again,” I say to it reproachfully whenever it starts beeping hysterically, announcing a fresh barrage of messages I need to answer. “This is just plain mean on your part.”

“Beep, beep,” the mailbox responds cheerfully.

“Seriously, buddy, just quit doing this,” I say. “I just spent two hours showering you with attention.”

“Beep, beep, beep,” the mailbox continues unapologetically.

“Please, just have mercy on me!” I beg. “I need at least an hour to myself.

The mailbox is quiet.

“Thank you for understanding,” I say.

“Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep!” it laughs, triumphant.

A nuclear power is waging an endless war on a tiny area that wants to gain its freedom from the big and powerful neighbor. There is a forced and cruel displacement of people from the lands they have inhabited forever, a genocide. The nuclear power is using anti-Muslim sentiments to consolidate the persecution of the people who fight for independence. The inhabitants of the small area are using terrorism to defend their right to independence, bringing their acts of terror into the very heart of the powerful conqueror. The appalling poverty plagues the people who have almost lost all hope for having a state of their own. The land has been destroyed by endless war.

Of course, you must have realized by now that I’m talking about Russia and Chechnya, right?

As the recent flare-up of the conflict between Israel and Palestine intensifies, everybody is plastering their Facebook pages, blogs, and Twitter feeds with (often quite disturbing) photos and cartoons that reference the conflict. Friendships crumble as people take objection to the way their acquaintances portray what is happening. Articles on the subject abound. People snap at each other at work and at home as pressures rise and everybody’s opinion becomes more passionately entrenched.

As I observe what is going on, I keep wondering why this specific conflict provokes such intense feelings. There are many similar conflicts taking place in other parts of the world but nobody seems to care, or at least not nearly as much. Whenever I mention the word “Chechnya”, I see people’s eyes glaze over with boredom. Yet any reference to Israel makes everybody sit up and pay attention.

Could anybody explain why this is happening? Why do you personally care more about Israel and Palestine than about Russia and Chechnya?

David Bellamy has been reading my blog for a very long time. He is a mathematician who is in love with his profession and who exemplifies everything that is good about academia.

I absolutely adore David Bellamy because he is a wonderful person, a true intellectual with a voracious thirst for knowledge, a progressive, a wonderful father, and a great teacher. He is also an exemplary blog reader. David sends me links to interesting articles I can use to blog about on a regular basis. He is also a great lover of the English language, which is a quality I admire a lot. I’m kind of scary, so people are shy about pointing out my typos and linguistic gaffes, but David Bellamy values linguistic purity more than passing vanities. I think this is a great thing. True friends are the ones who are not afraid to point out your mistakes, and not the ones who condescend to you by pretending you are perfect.

David Bellamy read my blog when almost nobody knew it existed and has not abandoned it over the years. Thank you, my dear friend, I appreciate this more than I can say.

I reminded him that Smith lives in Arkansas, not Bethesda. “We pay five dollars for a loaf of Black Russian bread at Whole Foods. I’m thinking a cheap loaf of bread in Arkansas is like seventy cents.”

After this one sentence, I immediately forgave the linked blogger for nasty comments about my university, a.k.a. the best place in the universe. Black Russian bread is, indeed, phenomenal. Of course, black Lithuanian bread is even better.

P.S. The linked post is not about the Russian bread but something a lot more important. I highly recommend.