How Putin purchases Western celebrities and gets them to pleasure him for a modest price. Among the especially diligent of Putin’s whores are: Sharon Stone, Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, Chris Noth, Sophia Loren, Steven Seagal, Andrea Bocelli, Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen, and others.

Rolling Stone’s new campaign consists of militating for a wife abuser. What a stupid worthless rag.

New research challenges the idea that willpower – a.k.a masochism – is a “limited resource.”  It’s a mystery why anybody could have thought that masochism was in short supply.

Wouldn’t you agree that people who seriously use the expression “dead white men” in 2015 are total dunces?

“When participating in a seminar presented by the National Endowment for the Humanities on the Philosophy of Math (an area of study that I admit, was new to me), one of my fellow participants presented the question of “what is the middle number?” After some discussion, it was decided that the middle number was zero, as any negative number was offset exactly by a positive number equally far from zero.” I wonder how old people at the seminar were. Because I was taught this by grade 3, and my schools were the worst on the planet.

The dictionary of obscure sorrows.

Dear Black People: Stop Being So Forgiving.

And for those who want the update in the saga of a clingy woman and a divorced jerk, here it is.

The first flight of abortion drone.

Putin’s plot to get Texas to secede.

“People who have an unresolved relationship with a parent often think: there must have been some moment of connection, some moment where we had it, and if I comb through my past I’m going to find that moment of connection, where he really saw who I am. And sometimes there is none.” Yes. It’s best to give up hope as soon as possible.

I have no idea why these crowds of idiots first force themselves into a profession they do not love and then persecute everybody with their moaning about how they can’t get themselves employed.

And in a similar vein, doctoral dissertation in the form of a graphic novel. I actually know somebody who did something similar. He’s obviously unemployed right now.

People living in tiny rooms in Tokyo.

Sexorship at Northwestern?

“I also used to belong to marginalized communities and they did everything they damn could to convince people they couldn’t leave. Being told or heavily implied at “You are broken in this way and you can never fit in/change” (in regards to disability) was common once one got past all of the empowerment rtherotic. Or constant hyping of how scary and terrifying other communities are, which has the lovely side effect of making people essentially oppress themselves. Reading things from my supposed “in-group” almost always seems to upset me or make me feel more oppressed than I am.”

“Only one in four students who place into noncredit remedial courses will earn a degree within eight years of enrolling. Last year, Florida’s legislature came up with the solution: allow students to skip remedial classes if they want to. A year later, the astonishing results are in: Enrollment in remedial courses is down, and failure rates are up.”

  “One of the many reasons that it is hard to take anything McCain says on Ukraine seriously is that he has been a reliable advocate for launching aggressive wars against other states when he thinks it appropriate.” It’s hard if you are three. If you are older than that, distinguishing between different situations is not such a huge burden.

Russians crack down on . . . yoga. The pseudo – religious paranoia continues.

The horrifying suffering of Rohingya people.

I hate Uber and wish it every misfortune but it’s also hard to support the protesting French cab drivers. If these were cab drivers in any other place in the world, I’d be in their side. But I’ve heard so many horror stories about the  cruel and nasty cabbies in France that I can’t get over it. Which doesn’t mean Uber doesn’t suck dick, of course.

In the meanwhile, here is a link from a neoliberal economist who believes that Uber ratings

could make such services useful for upward mobility, and it might make their credentials competitive with those of some lower-tier colleges and universities.

These people are such clowns.

It’s really pathetic how for so many people a revolutionary attitude to gender is all about repeating idiotic and offensive stereotypes:

I myself have no outward indicators that I’m feminine. . . Inside, though, the feminine elements are rampant. Like Miles said in his well-composed Twitter rant, I think small animals are cute. Also I’m emotional, intuitive, boy-crazy, fickle.

What a stupid piece of garbage this weird person is. I’m getting honestly tired seeing one dick with a prick after another tell me how I’m not a woman because I don’t correspond to his collection of ridiculous stereotypes.

This worthless ass-wipe will never even begin to imagine what it means to be discriminated in the workplace because of the assumption that having a uterus makes you “emotional, intuitive, boy-crazy, and fickle”, so he can convince himself that he knows all about women since he’s memorized that women are “submissive” by nature.

It’s like one can never get far enough from some guy who wants to lecture one on how to be a “proper” woman.

Every single person who wants to use the free Wi-Fi at one of Russia’s 505 McDonald’s eateries will have to provide his or her passport number.

This is, obviously, not a requirement of McDonald’s. This is Russia’s new law: nobody can go online without providing passport identification for every second of online time. This is done in order to combat the only remaining opposition to Putin’s regime, the online dissidence.

For the first time in over a year, Russians have encountered a greater object of rage than Ukraine. The legalization of gay marriage in the US has the Russian media contort with impotent anger.

Many people in Russia are convinced that the SCOTUS decision to legalize gay marriage is just a ploy aimed at weakening Russia’s (non-existent) traditional values and religion. Apocalyptic descriptions of evil Americans coming over and forcing good, traditional, religious Russians to gay – marry abound.

I’ve got to say, I find the whole spectacle very enjoyable.

In Spain, gay marriage has been legal for 10 years, and only 1,72 % of all marriages are same-sex.

This is not about every gay person necessarily wanting to marry. It’s about being considered as valid a human being as everybody else.

So you know how Russia has imposed sanctions on the EU in response to the Western sanctions, right? For instance, the Russian government has prohibited the import of Parmesan cheese (among many, many other things) into Russia.

Of course, people in Russia still want to eat Parmesan. So Russian companies started making Parmesan of their own, which is obviously not real Parmesan. Since they can’t make it taste anything like the real thing, Russians make it look the part, even going as far as decorating the product with the colors of the Italian flag:

 

Pathetic, yes, but it’s one of a million tiny indignities the people of Russia are suffering as payment for their imperialistic hubris.

This is not the end of the story, though. Russians went to Expo Milano 2015 and. . . put their fake Parmesan proudly on display there. Italians are obviously unhappy about the whole thing and Russia looks totally idiotic once again.

Sometimes, when we tell ourselves a story many times, we end up believing it. Russians have been repeating like unhinged parrots that their fake goods (called “import substitutions” in Russia) are a source of pride, and eventually they forgot that not everybody is equally into this narrative.

So how do you feel about David Sweat? (The escaped prisoner). Do you want him to be caught?

Of course, I’m happy about the gay marriage ruling. But there is also a sense of nostalgia that accompanies the joy. Is this the very last social justice movement?

The politics if activism and mass movements is going out on a high note. But it still is going out.

Not only have there been two very pleasing SCOTUS decisions but also Putin called Obama to moan and whine about the sanctions. And who doesn’t enjoy seeing Putin grovel?