Truck and SUV purchases are soaring. People seem to think that gas prices will never go back up.

Welcome to 2015 Link Encyclopedias! I spent a long time hanging out in airports since the year started, so I have accumulated a big collection of good links for you. Feel free to leave your links in the Comments, as usual.

I’m so envious of this person: “The garden crew arrived, cleared the garden, and were done in an hour!  Some excitement – we found a hibernating hedgehog, whose guardian angel was working overtime since it was somehow not hit by a spade (no idea how it even got in!  It has been carefully relocated to some suitable dense bushes in the parking area).” Hedgehog! She found a real hedgehog in the garden! Some people have all the luck.

Words of the year 2014.

[In Russian.] Hilarious true stories about the USSR.

I agree completely: “No one can live rationally in perpetual fear of what any random stranger might claim to be offensive, and it is beyond obscene to say, as some have, that the staff of Charlie Hebdo basically had it coming when they published those cartoons. Let me suggest a thought exercise for anyone who thinks such commentators have a point: Imagine what your life would be like if you sincerely tried never to offend anyone. Now, knowing that there is evil in the world, imagine further what would happen when an evil person gets wind of your slavery to the professed offenses of others.” I detest people who think that their permanently hurt “feelings” are my problem.

A link for those who want to help publish a volume of Russian science fiction in translation. It’s a good, worthy project.

The new Congress is such a joke. All it is doing right now is discussing abortion (yes, right, that issue which is of zero interest to the voters) at the stage of past 20 weeks. This comprises 1.5% of all abortions, but the people’s representatives are sure that this is the hugely crucial issue they need to be addressing right now. Stupid fucks.

[In Spanish.] The great Vargas Llosa on Charlie Hebdo massacre.

“Russian science is amazing. So why hasn’t it taken over the world?” Because there is no science. This is all stupid propaganda. All that Skolkovo managed to produce as a result of gynormous funding is a massively expensive copy of the Intel processor. And it doesn’t even work.

“There’s Nothing Moderate About Jeb Bush’s Position On Gay Marriage.” God, people are stupid. We should not allow the next presidential campaign to drown in debates about issues that have been resolved already. Let’s ask our future candidates how they will face the new challenges of the changing society. let’s not allow our elected officials to hide from the world in flux in the outdated debates on abortion and “definition of marriage.”

Even the ultra-conservatives recognize that “The President has been very strong on free speech lately, between these comments and his stance against North Korea’s intimidation of Sony. This stands in stark contrast to the President’s response to Benghazi, in which the federal government condemned an allegedly provocative film and arrested the filmmaker on a technical parole violation. But perhaps the President has learned something from that. This time the tone was spot on. Bravo, we say—and more, please.” Hear, hear!

On of The Nation‘s Russian darlings accuses the US of organizing the Charlie Hebdo attacks.

Carving Dostoyevsky out of Lenin. (It’s a photo but there is a small blurb in Russian as well.)

“Beth Breslaw had had enough of manslamming, and she wasn’t gonna take it anymore. Thinking that perhaps her friend’s results were skewed (surely this was an entitled-finance-dude thing and not an all-dude thing?), Breslaw decided to conduct her own experiment. Instead of automatically moving out of the way for people in her path, she would spend some time taking a more masculine approach to city living. She would stride confidently in whatever direction she chose, refusing to alter her route for anyone, male or female.” It is very sad that there isn’t a single person in this obviously unwell woman’s life to gently point her in the direction of getting help with her mental health. It’s just wrong to make such a meal out of somebody’s ill health.

“Around campus? Most universities now have speech codes, which demand that students not express ideas that will make others feel unwelcome, or embarrassed, or challenged. The student with the weakest sensibilities now has veto power over what others can say. And no one has to develop critical faculties for rebutting arguments; they can simply faint, or complain that they feel insecure.” All true. And all very annoying.

If you needed any more proof that Ian Welsh is a total sicko, please observe his gleeful fantasies about murdering “brown people”: “We spend our time killing brown people and black people and Muslims in large numbers, using paramilitary weapons domestically, and military weapons and economic warfare internationally, killing far more of them than us, then act surprised when, deeply offended, they strike back.” But wait, there is more insanity: “As for women, the biological “realists” would claim that those who can create new humans are more valuable, but whatever the reason most societies hate the idea of them being killed in war or raped far more than they dislike the idea of either of those fates happening to men.” Poor stupid freak.

George Soros is smart: “George Soros has called for $50 billion dollars of international aid in response to Ukraine’sacute financial crisis. For Soros, the case for taking drastic economic action is not only about Ukraine; it’s also an investment in the future security of the entire European project.” And he is absolutely right.

[In Russian.] Will Israel move to Ukraine?

“Activists have published scores of articles denying the existence of the “pause” (or “hiatus”). That’s politically convenient — the pause contradicts their narrative of imminent catastrophic warming and arouses doubt about the computer models that create the forecasts. But it displays an astonishing disregard for the work of climate scientists, and science — just like those on the Right they mock. Here we again we see the similar behavior of Americans on both ends of the political spectrum, obvious to all who look — except the participants themselves. It’s one of the things that gives our politics that Oz-like air of absurdity.” That’s precisely the problem: there is so much hysteria and idiocy on both sides of the global warming debate that the general public just loses all interest in the issue. This is what I’ve been saying for years.

[In Russian.] I know it’s wrong to mock people at such a time, but the French who have been idolizing Limonov should pay attention to their idol’s statement that they deserved the recent terror attacks. The rest of the quotes at the link are from famous Russians celebrating the suffering of the French people.

A landscape of salt. But go get a glass of water before looking at it.

“What I remember from my undergraduate experience was learning to read closely and interpret texts, learning to make sustained arguments, and learning how to look for interesting questions and illuminating connections. The actual content of courses has faded away.” Very true. Higher ed is not about content. You can find all the content you want on Google, for all the good it will do.

Food landscapes that almost made me throw up. Some people have very sick imaginations.

[In Russian.] Don’t forgive the Russians. Ukrainians do tend to forgive offences almost before the offences are over, so this warning is needed.

A strange true story of a missing professor.

Was 2014 the warmest year on record?

“Teaching consent does necessitate explaining to children that only they get to say who can touch their body, and that it is wrong to touch someone else’s body without asking them first. Parents can model this in a number of ways, even with very young children—for instance, by asking them if they would like to be tickled, stopping immediately if the child says to stop, refraining from forcing their child to hug or kiss relatives, and reminding the child to ask other children before hugging or touching them.” Yes! If only more people managed to understand that you can’t spend decades violating a child’s bodily boundaries and then expect the child to lead a normal, happy, healthy life.

Amy Touchette and her brilliant photography.

“Many educators (and undergraduates) complain about helicopter parents, but the Associated Press warns of a particular variety that may terrify: those who move with their children to college.” The next step would be to join “the kids” in bed on their honeymoon.

“In October in Paris, at La Traviata opera, the cast stopped mid performance when they saw a woman in a full-face veil. She happened to be a tourist from the Gulf on a visit to take in some French culture. They refused to carry on until she was removed from the theatre.” Good for them. And all of us who care about the rights of women. I’m very proud of these artists and their dedication to the great cause of feminism.

I’m less proud of Americans, though: “Vladimir Putin: The 10th Most Admired Man in America.” WTF, Americans? WTF?

“Millions of parents today think that they are smarter than the “professional educators” and the school establishment. They are dissatisfied with what the schools offer. An increasingly well-educated American populace feels more confident than ever that ordinary middle-class people can dump the help of certified experts.” Let’s dump this empty verbiage and be honest: these parents know they will not be able to inscribe themselves into the new post-nation-state and they are frustrating their children’s chances to do so because that will make them feel less lonely. There is zero difference between these cannibals of their own children and those who follow them to college. They all want to keep feasting on their children because finding another source of nourishment requires too much effort. That’s all there is to it.

I really wish I met this great flight attendant on one of my trips.

“While some obese people show no signs of heart disease, a new study suggests it’s just a matter of time before the consequences of carrying substantial, excess pounds ultimately take a toll. British researchers followed more than 2,500 men and women for 20 years, tracking their body mass indices (BMI), cholesterol counts, blood pressures, fasting glucose amounts and insulin resistance levels. Among many of the study subjects who were obese, heart disease risk factors eventually appeared, according to the study, published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.” It’s bizarre that anybody still needs to be proving these painfully obvious things, of course. One of the weirder features of consumer societies is the number of fat people who believe that their obesity carries no health-risks. They want to keep consuming extravagantly but can’t accept that this consumption comes at a price.

And the article of the week is obviously the one about Kirby Delauter. Journalists have found a hilarious way to defend freedom of speech from a busybody with offended feelings. The article deserves a Pulitzer for sure.

Somebody I know in person (actually, it’s that friend in Nigeria I mentioned the other day) is organizing the following great project:

A web-based, crowd-sourced, multimedia dictionary of Yoruba names.

This project seeks to create an online multimedia database of all Yoruba names; a place of knowledge for those who need it. People removed from their homeland can look to it and find a lost connection while those not familiar with the Yoruba culture can come there to learn about Yoruba names, spelling, etymology, meanings, stories, et al; a wiki of sorts, a free web-based multimedia repository of knowledge open to all; a dictionary; a project designed to reverse a trend and preserve a culture. 

If you want to know more about the dictionary or how you can help

PLEASE GO HERE.

A Russian – speaking blogger wrote that a religious feeling that can be hurt or offended is worthless.

I agree with this statement completely. The faith that exists on the same plane  with cartoons, movies, ads, etc is no faith at all. It’s an identity – building set of superstitions that, for primitive human beings, stands in place of a meaningful relationship between a human being and a philosophy of life, death and the meaning of existence  (aka religion).

“Don’t insult my religion,” are the words of somebody who has never even been in the same time zone with an actual religious feeling. 

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.

I was compensated for scrolling through endless yes-butting in my blogroll when I finally found something that makes every sense in the world:

“Yesterday I said that commentary of the form “You know, they really shouldn’t have said that…” is problematic. To be clear, what’s even more problematic is aiming collective blame at all Muslims. I love offensive art and I hate collective blame. I have no patience for PC scolds with their “Well, now, obviously I don’t support violence, but you really shouldn’t be offending people…” and I also have no patience for the flagrantly un-PC “Clearly we need to blame random people minding their own business” nonsense that’s getting spouted against Muslims.”

I couldn’t agree more. And once again, I feel like I might be OK with people. My faith in humanity has been restored.

It’s like there literally is nothing but yes-butting in my blogroll today:

I’m not trying to condone or justify the murders in any way. The murders were horrible, and I hope the killers are caught and brought to justice.But the reaction I am talking about there is not a reaction to human beings being killed.

I’m starting to fear that 2015 will be the year of the yes-butter.

From the same article by the same author:

Yes, it is horrible that 12 people were killed, but how many people were killed by Obama’s drones last week?

The guy has nothing whatsoever else to say in his piece aside from these yes-buts. It might seem funny until you remember that yes-butting is a sign of extreme passivity and inertia. Yes-butters need to be shamed and ridiculed until they stop poisoning the air we all breathe with the noxious fumes of their impotent whining.