It’s very refreshing to see people who actually know what they are talking about:

Though huge numbers of Russians (75 percent) claim to be Orthodox, only a tiny number of them (four percent) actually go to church. Of those who claim Orthodoxy as their religion, 30 percent don’t even believe in God.

Judging by the glee with which the denizens of the Russian Empire destroyed churches and murdered priests back in 1917 and in the first decades of the USSR, there wasn’t much religiosity in those regions even before the Revolution. And in the century that passed since then, people have lost all interest or need in practicing the extremely demanding and complex Orthodox Christianity.

The other day, I spoke to this missionary preacher fellow from Iowa who had spent some time in Russia and who tried to convince me that Russian people were massively religious. When I told him it was not true, he accused me of badmouthing Russians to make Ukrainians look better. As happy as I always am to badmouth Russians, I had to explain that there was zero difference in terms of religiousness between Ukrainians and Russians, and I consider this to be a great thing.

So who has heard or read Hillary Clinton’s New York speech? I have and was quite surprised at the heavy dose of populism she has injected into her talking points since her 2008 campaign. See the following, for instance:

While many of you are working multiple jobs to make ends meet, you see the top 25 hedge fund managers making more than all of America’s kindergarten teachers combined. And, often paying a lower tax rate.

I’m not a fan of this kind of empty rhetoric (to put it very mildly) but I know that the statement will resonate with the more simple-minded among us.

The part of the speech that I did like was the very careful recognition that the economic problems of today are caused by the erosion of the nation-state:

Advances in technology and the rise of global trade have created whole new areas of economic activity and opened new markets for our exports, but they have also displaced jobs and undercut wages for millions of Americans.

This is, of course, a lot more careful than what Bill Clinton is allowing himself to say. But he’s not running for president, so he can afford do be more explicit. Nobody who is hoping to have a career in politics can afford to break to the voting public the news that there is no way we are going back to the times when Hillary’s grandfather went to work “in the same Scranton lace mill every day for 50 years.”

The following part was also useful:

Now, we can blame historic forces beyond our control for some of this, but the choices we’ve made as a nation, leaders and citizens alike, have also played a big role.

The plan is clear: recognize the erosion of the nation-state and make efforts to retain some of its power to provide for the welfare of the citizens. And the best part of the speech, I believe, was the following:

Now, there may be some new voices in the presidential Republican choir, but they’re all singing the same old song…

A song called “Yesterday.”

It’s true. There is absolutely nothing in the past that can help us move into an entirely new state form that is taking shape today.

And, of course, I was extremely pleased by the psychoanalytic part of the speech:

Research tells us how much early learning in the first five years of life can impact lifelong success. In fact, 80 percent of the brain is developed by age three.

This is really cool. We cannot move towards the future successfully if we retain the antediluvian ideas of the pre-industrial revolution times.

Hillary is not a charismatic leader (nobody in US politics is, and that’s a huge blessing) but she’s doing all she can to present as at least a little bit charismatic. She will never manage to go as far down that road as Obama but she’s doing a lot with what she has.

A buddy of mine from grad school back at McGill University (located in Canada, by the way, which is crucial to the story) is expecting a baby. He and his wife are in their forties, so they are doing a panel of genetic tests in the early stage of pregnancy for obvious reasons.

Of course, they are doing the tests at a private clinic and paying a huge sum of money for them because the tests are time-sensitive, again, for obvious reasons.

After they had the tests done, they were told they’d have to wait for several weeks for the results. For obvious reasons, one prefers to get the results of these tests as early as possible.

But the clinic explains that the tests can only be conducted in. . . California. So the blood and saliva sample my buddy and his wife submitted are being shipped all the way from Montreal to California and back. This means that the samples will be stuck at the customs, for obvious reasons.

What is not immediately obvious is why California is the closest place where tests can be conducted. 

So how does everybody feel about the
Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal?

Do we try to retain the nation-state to some degree or do we kick it right in the shins?

Fascinating stuff.

First, the university e-mail system has been messed with to the point where it’s been rendered completely useless. And now the library system is down for “maintenance” until Monday.

What is this, a university for people who don’t work on weekends and in summers? 

 

Apparently, there are still people who find this shocking:

So a Rupert Murdoch rag claims that Edward Snowden gave the Russians his whole archive which endangered a bunch of MI6 agents.

Well, duh. Or did anybody really believe that Putin is keeping Snowden in expensive toys and flashy strippers for free?

And here is another funny quote on the subject:

It is not clear whether Russia and China stole Snowden’s data, or whether he voluntarily handed over his secret documents in order to remain at liberty in Hong Kong and Moscow.

Of course, it’s cute that people can still be so rosy-cheeked and naive. But at the same time, it’s also kind of scary.

The country of Georgia is experiencing some really bad rains that are causing quite a bit of damage. The rains have helped several animals to escape from the zoo in Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi. 

In the photo, you can see Georgians try to steer a hippo back towards the zoo.

 

It all looks very cute but there are 6 lions, 5 tigers, 13 wolves and several more hippos wandering around the city. And the wolves are getting very upset about the situation.

If you think that conservatives are the only ones who are throwing hissy fits over tenure, think again. Here is somebody from the opposite end of the political spectrum trying to pleasure Scott Walker orally in a very dedicated manner:

Why not strip away protections professors have in their jobs, if I don’t have the same ones in mine?

If I can get fired for mouthing off to my boss why shouldn’t P. Louis Scholarly? If I can get fired for looking at my boss funny, for coming in five minutes late, for telling a customer to get bent, for being nearby while my boss has a bad day, why shouldn’t the very fine taxpayers of the state of Wisconsin and every other state be able to fire educators who are tasked with teaching the public? Why shouldn’t they be able to shitcan F. Poncey Publishable, if they don’t like the way he talks back?

It is useless to explain to somebody who is frothing at the mouth like this that tenure doesn’t protect people but the product they create.

Of course, people who have failed at life so massively and have not managed to make themselves valued as professionals at such an advanced age cannot be expected to have the intellectual wherewithal to get the difference. They want to be protected from life by mysterious external forces and fail to understand that the only real protection we can count on comes from the store of intellectual, professional, and psychological capital we have accumulated in the course of our lives. 

OK, people, as the election cycle is starting off, let get one thing clear once and for all.

I support Hillary Clinton in this election. Well, actually, I support Bernie Sanders but he has no chance in hell, so I support Hillary. Putin wants Bush to win and is terrified of Hillary winning. And you all know how much I want to see Putin thwarted. So because of this – and every other – reason I support Hillary.

Having said that, I have to issue a fair warning that I will be as critical as I feel like of Hillary and of her campaign. If that will be too traumatizing for you to face, please go away now. Before you do leave, let me tell you that getting emotionally attached to public figures to the extent where it hurts your feelings to see them criticized is a result of childhood traumas that your therapist can help you address. And until you address them, good luck kicking that smoking habit, losing weight, vanquishing the fear of public speaking, getting your finances in order, or figuring out your personal life.

So remember the manipulative fellow with kids and his girlfriend from our “Relationships” series? The jerk dumped her, and in a very nasty way, too. The little weasel did all he could to keep sucking out as much feeling of self-importance from the situation:

We had brunch Thurs morning, drove in a leisurely fashion to a nearby city, had a pleasant afternoon indoors before a delicious dinner and a fantastic outdoor concert.  Yesterday, we made our way back here, with a stop at a picturesque location and, serendipitously, lunch with one of my friends; we had dinner last night with my sister, brother-in-law and niece.  Then, since we were borrowing a friend’s convertible for the evening, we drove around afterward in a sweet ride, enjoying the evening.

And then he apologized to me for not being able to be the person I wanted him to be. The end.

Of course, after this sort of “apology” begins, one should just get up and leave immediately and never have any contact with the person again for the simple reason that the tit of human kindness should at least be contingent on the person actually wanting to be with you. That’s not what happened, though:

Doesn’t matter what I want, of course.  It’s never a negotiation.  We talked and he listened, but it wasn’t as if he was going to change his mind. I could feel him pulling away these last few weeks in subtle little ways and, once again, I was right.

Friends.  We’re good friends.  That’s what he wants.  Of course.  Because I’m a fucking good friend. He wants to talk to me every now and then, get together for dinner when I’m in town to visit Cool Friend, because we’re friends.  And I should call him later, he says – probably because he does care that he’s hurt me and he somehow thinks that will make things better.

The guy is just a total gift of God to humanity (I say sarcastically, for those who are not taking too well to the current heat wave.) He must have been stomped on many times by women in order to get so nasty and needy.

I’m very very sorry that this blogger is suffering because I’ve been reading her a lot and have grown somewhat emotionally attached. She is obviously a fantastic person and does not deserve all this suffering. I know exactly what it feels like to find yourself in the same damn romantic situation for the bizillionth time and not to have any clue as to why your relationships always end in the exact same pathetic way.

Tragically, this woman’s situation will not improve until she realizes that Mr. Jerkwad is not asking her to call “because he does care that he’s hurt me.” All he wants is to keep feeding off her attachment and her pain. But she, of course, will call and feed the loser some more and then there will be another jerk to nourish, and so on.

This is very frustrating.

Knowing how to be loved is just as much of a skill as loving.Some people just never get an opportunity to acquire that skill or to realize that this is what they are missing:

And I try to understand and I do.  But I still hurt.  And I wonder why I can’t have what I want, why it seems that I am always aching for something I can’t have, why I’m never enough for any man.

This is all very sad.