Hey, check this out. This stunning piece was made by a Ukrainian artist:

Here is another view:

The work of art is titled “Love.”

It’s really fucking profound.

After this election cycle, politicians will finally understand that running for Congress, drumming up support and donors, serving as governor, trying to come up with a semblance of policy is all a huge waste of time.

Instead, an aspiring politician should simply get on a reality TV show. Then viewers will have no trouble memorizing the politician’s name.

So I started reading Greg Grandin’s Kissinger’s Shadow and I already wish I hadn’t. I know this fellow from his book on Latin America and I shouldn’t have expected anything good from him.

There’s nothing ideological in the reason why I’m frustrated with Grandin’s new book. The problem I have is with his writing. It’s so sloppy, careless, and disrespectful of the reader that I keep getting angry.

For instance, Grandin has this obnoxious habit of making a statement and following it with a column and a quote. One, of course, assumes that the quote will support the statement. But it turns out, almost always, that the quote and the statement are not related to each other. Here is an example from page 1:

Nixon suggested that he had invaded Cambodia not just in response to a foreign threat but to domestic disorder: “It is not our power but our will and character that is being tested tonight.”

I have no idea whether Nixon suggested that or not but there’s no way for me to find out from this quote. Besides, the quote is weak. I’m guessing there was much stronger stuff in Nixon’s statement but Grandin seems to pluck out whatever sentence he glances upon first because he’s too lazy to look any further.

The author’s disrespect for his readers can also be seen in ridiculous statements like this one:

This book, though, focuses not on Kissinger’s outsized personality but rather on the outsized role he had in creating the world we live in today, which accepts endless war as a matter of course.

I don’t believe Grandin is ignorant and honestly thinks that the concept of war as a natural state of humanity was invented by Kissinger. But he thinks readers are dummies who will unthinkingly swallow whatever swill he pushes in their faces.

It’s not a good sign when a book annoys you so much before page 11.

As I’ve been saying only for a bizillion years, there is no Israel Lobby:

And because the deal stands, one hoary old myth should fall: that of the “Israel Lobby”, and its supposed secret, malign control over the U.S. government. The Israeli state and major U.S. pro-Israel organizations were foursquare against the deal. Yet, not only did they not defeat it, but they couldn’t even get a bill of rejection to the President’s desk.

The only useful thing about the myth is that it masked just how much Israel is a project of the US. But to believe that there is an actual influence that some sort of an Israel Lobby can have on the US politics, one has got to be all shades of dense.

At last, Steph revealed the reason he had brought them there. He had a joint. “Where’d you get it?” Wingnut asked in a hushed whisper.

How horribly scandalous that something like this should appear in a novel, right? It’s because of the intolerable scandalousness of these and similar lines that the novel containing them was banned by New Zealand’s Film and Literature Board. It is the first novel to be banned in the country in 22 years.

Now the tender sensibilities of New Zealanders will not be wounded by such traumatizing books. 

Read more here.

I always suspected that the reason most Dem men are so passionate about Bernie is that he’s not a woman. Every time I try to ask such men why they choose Bernie over Hillary, they have nothing to respond other than some vague sounds about insiders, outsiders, Washington elites, etc.

The worst kind of sexism is that of people who are convinced they could never be sexist.

I don’t want to go down the road of trigger warnings but the following is heavy, especially so early in the morning. I’ll put it under the fold so that those who want to avoid unpleasant stuff before breakfast can do so.

Continue reading “Learned Helplessness” →

Just compare Hillary’s well-informed and logical position on Russia with Bernie’s gushy, ignorant BS.

You think a presidential candidate who confuses Kurds and Quds is an idiot? Well, it’s not like he’s alone in his profound contempt for anything but his own, dearly beloved navel.

In an effort to prove that I’m competitive on the good wives market, I decided to make a dish of Georgian cuisine that N loves. It’s Georgia as in country, obviously, and even though I’m not a huge fan of their food, Georgians have been fantastic in their support of Ukraine and deserve to be recognized for that.

Don’t worry, though, there’s no tabacky in tabacky chicken, and there’s no chicken either. The recipe calls for small, young birds, and the creatures sold under the name of chicken around here are huge fat hens that won’t work for this recipe. So I got a few Cornish hens instead.

The first step is to split the hen in the middle on one side, so that it looks kind of splayed, like this:

Then you have to melt some butter (yes, good wife titles are rarely arrived at by way of green salads) and mix in salt, some crushed garlic, a bit of paprika, and any herbs you happen to like:

Then you baste each little hen with the concoction and let the birds rest for 30-40 minutes:

Now we will need a roasting pan with a smooth, non-ribbed bottom. It’s crucial that the bottom have no ribbing:

Now we pack the hens into the pan. If they don’t fit, it’s OK to put them belly to belly in pairs. Then we add some water to the pan. The hens should never be immersed but the water should cover the bottom of the pan fully. And now, the most important thing. We take a big pan with a very clean bottom, fill it with cold tap water, and place it on top of our tabacky chicken:

Now we put the whole contraption on slow fire and go do something else. The water in both pans will slowly heat and eventually begin to evaporate. A delicious jelly will form under the tabacky chicken and as a result a crust will appear. It’s important to turn the hens over a couple of times while the water in the bottom pan is slowly evaporating.

Tabacky chicken should only be served with fresh raw tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, sweet peppers, a buncj of parsley, and a bottle of red wine:

Delicious!

P.S. Forgot to mention that the whole point of all these efforts is that the meat practically slips off the bone and is very tender. I always make a lot because it tastes even better once you let it sit for one or two days.

Finally, the Congress is ready to take some steps to recognize that rape is a serious crime with the Safe Campus Act. But pseudo-feminists are opposing this legislation because for all their talk of caring about victims, they are dedicated to trivializing rape at every turn.

Hiring for personality versus hiring for skills: which strategy will win?

Why it makes sense to bring Syrian refugees to the US.

Nothing is scarier than the cynicism of spoiled overfed first-world brats who want to deny the rest of the world the comforts they enjoy.

And here is yet another confused young woman who mistakes personal insecurities for feminism.

[Russian] Little Israel in Ukraine.

Puerto Ricans want Spain to take them back.

A couple of creepy fellows roll out the tired old canard about the urgent need women have to settle for creepy fellows and stop looking for love.