. . . has been posted here.

Here is one of the videos Ukraine released to commemorate the victory in WWII. I know everybody hates videos but I cried when I watched it. OK, I’m a little high-strung these days but still.

By the way, Israelis helped Ukrainians to film the videos. The goal is to prevent the Russians from appropriating the victory as their own, even though Russia suffered enormously less in the war than Ukraine and Belarus.

“My boss had arranged a meeting for us to visit a location that could potentially host a conference we are having. This is a big deal and she has reached out to all the heavy hitters of our fantastic metropolis to make sure that it is a relevant and informative affair. She did this herself along with many of the countless other things she does.

So here we are arriving at our destination. She parks her car and I exit the passenger side. We walk into the building and are expected to be greeted but no one is there so we have to call our contact (let’s call her Julie) to announce our arrival.

I explicitly tell the receptionist that my boss is here for her appointment. Not me. My boss.

Julie comes down the stairs and greets me first. She then begins by giving us a tour of the facilities. The entire time she’s walking and talking about the building, she’s looking at me for approval. I need to repeat that at no point did I ever contact Julia prior to this meeting. I don’t understand why she is constantly seeking my approval.

It’s at that moment that it clicked with me. She thinks I am in charge because I’m a man. This is silly. I decide to make a clear statement about our dynamic and make a little joke about how “The boss lady is the one with the wallet hahaha”. Julie’s eyes turn her attention to my boss. The rest of the meeting was fine and uneventful.”

Read the rest here.

The reaction among responsible black and white law-abiding citizens to the black thugs rioting in Baltimore was captured by Toya Graham, the black mother who smacked her son around when she found him on the streets joining the attacks on police. Even liberals in the major media applauded her efforts.

Got it? They applauded the beating of a child and saw no connection between a violent, abusive mother and the kid’s need to participate in violent activities in the streets. Because it’s very easy and comforting to deny any link between parenting and the product of said parenting. 

Fucking idiots. This reaction is obviously not related to the events in Baltimore. The infantile fools are cheering for this violent criminal because this is a way for them to relieve the anxiety they experience when attempting to explain the way their own parents treated them.

P.S. And please don’t start telling me how this is a stupid source. Yes, it’s stupid but I heard the same cheering for the abusive freakazoid on MSNBC on the day of the riot. Immaturity knows no political allegiance.

I’ve just got to reblog this from the Shakesville blog:

Has someone ever recommended something to you, or said they just know you’ll love something (a movie, or a song, or a book, or whatever), and once you actually get a look at it, you’re slightly offended that they thought you’d like it?

Yes! And do you know what it was?

The Shakesville blog!

I’m still wondering what it is that people saw in me to think I’d love it.

So I’ve got the university to pay for my conference registration at Oxford, lodgings, and meals. It’s like pulling teeth but I’m making myself stay with it by browsing pictures of Oxford online.

Now I have to book the ticket. But the main part is done, and I will be in Oxford from July 10 to July 14.

“This is weird,” a colleague said. “Oxford is in England. What does it have to do with Spain?”

We haven’t had any riddles here for a while, so let’s liven things up with a riddle. Fellow Hispanists, please abstain from answering because it’s too easy for you.

My students were presenting their research projects today, and the issue of machismo (Latin American sexism) kept coming up. So let’s see how well you understand the real macho manhood.

Which activity should a man engage in at least once in his life to prove that he is a real macho?

The answer is under the fold.

Continue reading “A Real Man: A Riddle” →

Toni Morrison published a new novel!

This is very cruel of her. It’s the end of the academic year, and now all I want is to get the book.

P.S. I have noticed that every interaction I have with human beings these days starts with an apologetic “It’s the end of the academic year.”

If anybody needed any more proof that surrogacy was about buying toys and not in the least about loving children, see this:

An Israeli Boeing-747 returned from Nepal to Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport on Tuesday afternoon, and among its 229 passengers were 15 Israeli babies, all born within the past six weeks to surrogate mothers in Nepal.

Some of the babies were with their Israeli parents and others were cared for by Israeli passengers. None of the surrogate mothers were allowed to travel.

You’ve got to be a total frigging animal to tear a 6-week-old infant from its mother’s arms.

And please, let’s not make this about Israel. Purchasing human beings is wrong irrespective of what country allows it.