Seriously, though, being shy, timid, and extremely introverted has a market value.

N, for instance, is painfully shy. He is extremely uncomfortable around human beings who are not me.

But most people have some degree of low self-esteem, so they mistake his shyness for condescension and see his long silences and averted gaze as boredom and frustration with them personally. As a result, he is great in negotiatuons with mortgage brokers, real estate agents, and used car merchants. They think he is surly and displeased, so they begin to fidget and try to please him.

I love unleashing his shyness onto people.

Here is a good article on what is happening in Ukraine.

I really like this part because it might just be true:

Ukraine had perhaps the most tragic history of any country in the 20th century.

The only thing that is inexact is the following:

Divided between a Russian-speaking eastern half and a Ukrainian-speaking (and often westward looking) westward half, Ukraine isn’t sure what it’s identity is going to be.

There is no such clear distinction into Russian-speaking and Ukrainian-speaking parts any longer. It’s been melting like snow in the past 20 years, so now in my city of Kharkov you can hear Ukrainian spoken in the streets. And you don’t get more Eastern Ukrainian than we are.

 

In case you don’t want to click the link, here is some more stuff from the funny article:

This is the age where most people are bought and sold in the marketplace, only to be told that they are free – free to choose the product of their choice.

This is hard-core comedy, people.

And this:

The Bob Dylan-sellout incident is emblematic of the triumph of neoliberalism and its religious zeal for market fundamentalism. This is what Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan had in mind when they built their alliance 30 some years ago. They wanted to buy as many Bob Dylans as they could to sell patriotism and a new form of market fascism to the world.

Priceless.

There is a number that is absent from news media accounts. Those who decided to tune out this fraudulent narrative of greatness. They can be counted too.

So what do you think, folks? Is this intentionally humorous, or. . .? Can there really be an actual human being who writes this way in earnest? I mean, my writing was derided and ridiculed for years (and rightfully so), but even in my worst moments I did not produce anything of this kind.

I need to be working on my yearly report, but instead I started reading an article about Bob Dylan somebody linked on Facebook, and now I’m laughing and beating my ahead against the desk:

What ought to shock people is the proto-fascist line: “Let Asia assemble your phone,” delivered by a Jewish American who, at one point in our history, fought for the rights of blacks, Latinos, Jews, Asians and other minorities in America with his iconic songs filled with mesmerizing poetry. Did Bob Dylan forget that Asia is the world’s largest and most populous continent filled with a multitude of diverse cultures and the home of several ancient civilizations, not to mention the home to some of the world’s top-selling automobiles, computers and internet technologies, just to name a few achievements?

I never know when something is meant to be humorous, but whether this is a parody or an earnest piece, it is hilarious. Just read it, it’s all like the quote.

A friend in Nigeria posted the following questions on Facebook:

“Is it Tax or Wine Carrying?”
“Landlord or Tenant?”
“Did you win or did she win?”
“Did you score first, or did she?”

Who can guess what all of them are asking?

There were some really great posts this week, folks. Check them out:

All it takes is to point out to a person that they said something racist for them to come out with a beautiful post on how all nostalgic references to the good old days are offensive. A beautiful, beautiful post. It takes a lot to appease my sensibilities in this area but this post did it.

Companies spy on employees in really creepy ways: “Another pioneering outfit is Sociometric Solutions, which puts sensors in name badges to discover social dynamics at work. The badges monitor how employees move around the workplace, who they talk to and in what tone of voice.”

When will neo-colonial economics end?

In a curious twist, Spain might actually end up being the least anti-Semitic of Western European nations.

A really, really great post about the connection between teaching and research.

Why people who believe that unemployed love getting unemployment benefits are idiots.

Every academic needs to read this short post and think about what it says. It’s important!

In a long article about the marriage of religious people who have 19 children and a lot of sex, I got stuck on the following: “They abstain when Michelle has her period, and also after childbirth: 80 days before sex if it’s a girl, 40 days after a boy.” Can the mathematicians and the theologians who read my blog explain this strange arithmetic to me? I’m genuinely puzzled. Does she think that giving birth to a girl is twice as sacred as giving birth to a boy? Or what?

Rebecca Schuman pokes fun at a ridiculous job listing at Ole Miss.

Why do workers refuse to unionize? This really mystifies me.

The kind of response everybody dreams to get from a student.

U of Hawaii decided to drop the pretense that student service fees actually pay for useful services and decided to charge for nothing. And then they defended this decision, saying “that’s life.”

“White American “progressives” give France a complete and total pass on all of its ongoing crimes in Africa because it provides health care to the rich white people living within her European borders. Just more evidence that white “progressives” are in reality far more racist against Black Africans than any poor crackers living in Mississippi.” The guy is right, folks. And he lives in Africa, so he knows what he’s on about.

This is the blogger to read if you are interested in knowing about global warming.

“We’re pretty much done here in the United States with the argument over whether or not an adult, gay and/or straight, should be able to marry another adult, should they both be so inclined. Oh, sure, just like a fish flopping on a dock lakeside before it takes its last gasps, there’s gonna be some thrashing around. But, unless the Supreme Court stabs that fish in the head so it’s over quicker, it’s all just a matter of time before it dies.” Very true.

“I will never understand people who go to college and don’t do the work. I do understand that just by being in a conversation that they are probably learning something. If nothing else, they are hearing names of people that they might think about reading later, when they figure out what’s at stake in life.” Yes, that’s the hope. At least, they can hear the names.

This bears repeating: “Seriously people. If someone tells you they’re struggling with low sexual desire and they mention reading a thing that said there’s “no treatment,” please tell them, “There’s no DRUG treatment, but there IS effective treatment!”

“While there is much to criticize about the regimes in oil rich Arab states, many of them have done a much better job than Black African states in using that wealth to benefit their own people.”

“No other country benefits economically as handsomely from its migrant population as Switzerland does.” Like this was ever a factor in how people vote.

 

A reader of this blog asked for more posts on the Spanish Civil War and I’m more than happy to follow this suggestion.

Here is something interesting. The Nationalist rebels against the Second Republic persecuted and prosecuted Republicans during the war and for a long time after it ended. Among the women who were punished by the Nationalists, most were around 24 years of age. And the reports of the informants that were used to condemn these women constantly employ the word “habladora” to explain why they needed to be punished.

“Habladora” means “a woman who speaks,” “a talkative woman.” These reports don’t explain what is so bad about being talkative. They are directed to readers who already know.