Russian Duma Condemns

The Chair of the Russian Parliament charged a committee with creating a statement that will condemn the annexation of East Germany by West Germany.

If there is a more ridiculous organization in the world than the Russian Duma, I have no idea what it is.

A propos Chait’s PC Essay

Everybody is discussing Jonathan Chait’s essay. I read it and have only the following to say: the guy is intellectually impotent to a disturbing degree.

He has a really great collection of interesting anecdotes, yet he can’t even construct a semi-convincing narrative on their basis. His extreme laziness pushes him to string the anecdotes together with the help of the tired old “virtuous Republicans” versus “evil Democrats” binary. That’s been done a bizillion times already and it doesn’t get more exciting with every new repetition.
There is a definite problem with brainless idiots who feel perpetually sulky and aggrieved. This problem is not in any way linked to the aggrieved idiots’ pathetic excuses for political opinions. The world is more complex than the conservative / liberal division. And if Chait stopped sulking for two minutes, he might have figured that out.

U of Michigan Rules!

A link in a link in a link in a link (seriously) let me to this brilliant column by a very talented student at the University of Michigan:

As I walked, I slipped on a patch of wet leaves lining the steps of the Hatcher, and I fell forward headfirst onto the steps of the library. If it hadn’t been for the left hand that I thrust out right before my fall, I would have ended up just another statistic in the war on colored people. As it were, a white cis-gendered hetero upper-class man came down the steps just as I was falling. He looked at me with that white man’s burden face that I see too often on this racialized campus.

The guy is seriously gifted. I laughed until I almost hurt myself. OK, I’ve got to go reread the piece because it’s too good only to be read once.

Pleasantly Plump Ladies

A group of pleasantly plump ladies at the gym is eyeing N with voracious interest.

Hey, pleasantly plump ladies! You’re pleasantly plump, you’ll have no trouble finding somebody in time for St. Valentine’s. But this gentleman has already been found by a pleasantly plump lady who’s not going anywhere.

Snow and Melodrama

First, New Yorkers were filling my blogroll with endless melodrama because there was going to be snow.

Now, New Yorkers are filling my blogroll with endless melodrama because there was no snow.

Everybody makes fun of the Brits for supposedly obsessing about weather but it doesn’t look like Brits are half as drama – queenish about it as New Yorkers.

When I was in Montréal 3 weeks ago, we a had an ice-storm that knocked out electricity in half the city. It was -38C (38 degrees below freezing) and there was a huge snowstorm. Montréalers, however, comported themselves with supreme indifference to the weather.

You’d say that’s because Montréalers are used to snow. But that’s not true. That’s just how things are: some people encounter tragedy and battle their way through. And other people experience the tiniest of setbacks and choose to fall apart.

Putinoid Greece

So how does everybody feel about the Putinoid freak show Syriza winning in Greece?

As Russians would say, Greeks have degenerated to the point of enjoying sexual intercourse with mice.

Tree Change Dolls

Have you heard of Sonia Singh from Tasmania and her project Tree Change Dolls?

She takes the butt-ugly and scary Bratz dolls and makes them beautiful:

image

Check it out, it’s a great project and the artist is very talented.

Internship Rules

My sister is offering an internship at her company. The internship is not going to be one of those unpaid ones for two reasons:

1. Exploiting labor is wrong  (she’s my sister, eh?)

2. She doesn’t need workers who are so easy in their circumstances that they can afford unpaid internships. Spoiled people don’t make for good employees.

Moral of the story: running a successful business is not predicated on being a jerk.

Monday Link Encyclopedia

Sheriffs against a Google app. I won’t repeat my bit about the erosion of governmental services because of new technologies because everything is crystal clear as it is.

Here is a really great, hilarious article making fun of some idiot called Jonah Goldberg.

Here is an article whose author is actually trying to be sympathetic towards Ukraine: “With Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists on the offensive ever since Ukrainian security forces gave up the symbolically important Donetsk airport late last week. . .” As you can see, every word here is a Putinoid lie. The author, however, is entirely unaware of serving as a Putinbot.

A very weird map of how the US population is spread.

“Clarissa Repaired”: a post whose title made me feel very weird.

[In Russian.] Chechens are dancing on the ruins of the Donetsk airport.

[In Russian.] Russian news agencies are announcing that Putin managed to prevent World War III.

A public reconciliation between VS Naipaul and Paul Theroux.

The only democracy in the Middle East is looking a bit peakéd.

A GOP lawmaker wants to put an end to marriage.

In Illinois, school districts are informing parents that a new law may mean that school officials can demand social media passwords of students. . . And if a student refuses to cooperate, the district could press criminal charges.” Yeah, let’s put a bunch of 10-year-olds in jail. That will definitely be a huge help.

France has a curious bestseller list: “Zemmour’s “French Suicide” was just toppled as the top best-seller in France by Michel Houellebecq’s latest novel, “Submission,” whose central theme is also the suicide of France.”

And here is an article on the new controversial book by Houellebecq.

It is beyond bizarre what some people see as “good parenting practices.” And then these same people dedicate a lifetime to busily gulping down anti-depressants.

A really good article on the sexual causes of men’s angry outbursts.

Horrible things perpetrated by ISIS. Read and and look at the photos before chirping about how “this is not our problem.”

A new policy has come down (and whether or not all of it is the federal government or the college remains somewhat unclear).  Any instance of sexual violence regarding a Del Mar faculty, staff or student, must be reported–whether it happened on campus or not.” This is completely ridiculous and just wrong.

Five-year-old misses friend’s birthday party and gets invoice for £15.95 The parents of Alex Nash have been sent an invoice for failing to attend the birthday party and threatened with legal action if they do not pay.”

The dating auction.

The folks who are into apocalyptic thinking will love this infographic.

I’m very disappointed with Amazon: “Today, the massively successful (struggling and unfocused) ecommerce giant Amazon announced that legendary filmmaker (alleged pedophile) Woody Allen will write and direct a television series for the company’s wildly popular (only if included within free trials) streaming service Prime Instant Video.” Vomit, vomit, vomit.

Beautiful glowing mushrooms!

He kept talking about what “women” want and what “women” are looking for, and treating romance as some sort of code he needed to crack and solve.” And the loser will keep doing it, in complete loneliness, for decades to come.

Professional depressives are learning to make money from their depression.

After this great review, I’m interested in reading a sci-fi book.

In the meanwhile, Feministing keeps drowning in triviality.

Pope Francis is such a weirdo. For Catholics who are about to blow a fuse: the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church is a disgusting piece of criminal slime.

France’s irreligious tradition.

The “tubularization” of society – cigarettes, tin cans, soda bottles, lipstick – marked a radical shift in human experience.”

Schools around the country are giving students tablets, laptops, and other devices in an effort to take education beyond the textbook. Obama’s Student Data Privacy Act is meant to ensure that the companies selling new technologies to schools aren’t using them to collect information about those students.” Maybe all of this crap should be kept out of the classroom in the first place.

The EU governments got together on January 11th to condemn the attack on Charlie Hebdo.  However, they concluded that the best response is to curtail freespeech, ramp up propaganda, increase surveillance on citizens, and place a ban on the types of things Charlie Hebdo published.” Of course, this will all be done in the name of sensitivity, so yay!

[Russian.] Putin announced that he will start releasing the Ukrainian hostages and POWs in return for sanctions against Russia being removed.

And the title of the most stupid post of the month goes to this idiotic excretion by my favorite facile fool of the moment.