This is Maria Ángeles,  one of 18 women who have been arrested so far in Spain on their way to joining ISIS. At the age of 22, Maria Ángeles lived with her mother and two siblings, worked at a hotel, listened to heavy metal, and was into the Goth style of clothing.

Then she met 3 guys from ISIS online, and they promised her that if she put on a niqab and joined them in ISIS, she’d gain complete freedom and the best life a woman could have, which is only offered by Sharia to good, moral wives and no other kind of woman. So Maria Ángeles found a niqab, hurried to the airport, and was apprehended waiting for an airplane with a Spanish-language Koran in her hand. Obviously, Maria Ángeles does not speak Arabic and knows nothing about the Koran or Islam but the fairy-tales she was told by her online ISIS buddies.

At this time, it has been confirmed that at least 50 European women have successfully reached ISIS and installed themselves there in a position of wives / sex slaves. One can only hope that they did find the “complete frredom” they were so desperate to encounter.

The Russian media are issuing triumphant reports that Obama’s veto of the military budget is a way to spite Ukraine (which was slated to get assistance in the budget) and signal support for Russia.

Ukrainians are baffled and are responding, “Hey, we are not nearly this important to Obama” but the exulting Russians are not listening.

As I said, all the poor buggers ever wanted is to get some love from Obama.

Forget New England Fall. Look what we’ve got.

Turns out that the man who murdered a teacher and a student with a sword at a school in Sweden was motivated by hatred of immigrants. The news of the attack was all over the media, yet I had to hunt down the revelation about the killer’s motive in a tiny little piece printed in a very small script deep inside the NYTIMES.

Ukrainian media are reporting that a human rights activist and her daughter were gang raped at a Syrian refugee camp. Apparently, this is not the same activist who was gang raped at a French camp back in September. It’s impossible to figure out whether it’s true.

I wonder if we are ever going to get any reporting on the events that deviate from the saccharine “Europeans and refugees joyfully embrace each other at the train station amidst gifts and flowers” which is all we are seeing in lieu of reporting today.

I will never stopped being amazed that, in the year of our lord Jesus Jones two thousand and fifteen, there are still adult human men who refuse to talk to me if my husband is present.

This is something that I do all the time, but I had no idea it might bug people. If I’m interacting with a married couple, I will address myself to the woman. Even if my business is with the man, I will do everything to include the woman. And I also expect any woman who wants to address my husband in my presence to do this through me.

Obviously, I’m not talking about a dynamic among close friends. This is what I do around strangers and distant acquaintances. I’d see it as very disrespectful if a woman talked to my husband like I wasn’t there. Does anybody else feel this way?

Yesterday’s Benghazi hearing was a huge gift that the Republicans gave to Hillary. If voters had the time or the patience to watch the whole thing, she’d have the election in her pocket already. But even the highlights were great.

The part where Clinton was questioned about her companionship at night was simply priceless.

I just talked on Skype to friends from Argentina, and it’s shocking how similar things are in Russia and Argentina. Obviously, Argentina has no capacity to invade anybody or go bomb Syria (which is something of everybody’s favorite pastime these days), but Kirchner’s friendship with Putin is rubbing off and Argentina is gradually turning into as much of the continent’s joke as Venezuela.

My friends are saying that Argentina uses the same idiotic policies of “supporting the national manufacturers” that only lead to enormous corruption and force people to buy US goods at 200%-500% of the price. Corruption is out of control, the economy is in the toilet, elections are shamelessly falsified, and the people are zombified into supporting the madness by grandiose proclamations and a few crumbs from the table of the Kirchnerite oligarchy.

Just like we saw back in the times of the USSR, rot that originates in Russia is infecting the world.

The hetero (and non-hetero, but, let’s face it, mostly hetero) sex on offer to young women is not of very high quality, for reasons having to do with youthful ineptitude and tenderness of hearts, sure, but also the fact that the game remains rigged.

Absolutely true but with one correction. Not just for women but for women and men. And one more important clarification: this is a very peculiarly American problem.

The article’s author should look at the issue she is examining through a cultural lens, not a gender one.

Ukrainians are trying to pass a judiciary reform law that will result in firing all of the country’s 9,000 judges. This is amazing news since the post-Soviet judiciary is incredibly corrupt. Every judiciary decision has a fixed price, and people simply buy verdicts. It has been very easy to jail anybody you don’t happen to like if you had enough money to cover the costs.

The goal now is to get rid of the entire corrupt system and bring in a new generation of judges who have not been infected by the corruption of the 1980s and 1990s or, at least, will not want to meet with the fate of their predecessors.

Today, Ukraine is doing what the FSU countries failed to do after 1991. After the collapse of the USSR, the Soviet system was preserved in every area of life. Today in Ukraine, the USSR might finally be ready to die.

I was interviewed by a French journalist about the US elections today. Great interview, good questions, but I am so losing my Russian-speaking immigrant community membership card after it comes out. Because I was very honest and did not mince words on the subject of my feelings about the community.

It’s good I visited the Russian restaurant in DC before the interview or I might be poisoned there for being such a traitor.