A very important post about abuse. I wish as many people as possible read it and gave themselves permission to grieve the abuse they experienced.

The Nordic gender equality paradox.

Top ten reasons not to vote for Trump. For me, number 10 is enough but the rest are good, too.

The obscenely wealthy descend on Cuba because it’s currently trending as a delicious slumming spot.

It’s not manufacturing Americans miss, it’s unions.

I’d love a Kindle Oasis but that’s too crazy an indulgence.

Let’s do justice to allegory.

Trump’s shenanigans in Russia.

My Klara seems absolutely fascinated by books and newspapers. If I hold a page in front of her, she can stare at it in fascination for as long as my arm holds out. And these are not children’s books, mind you. These are my books. They have no pictures or colorful fonts, just words.

I so hope she becomes a reader like me. Many people are readers but few are readers like me. I read like other people breathe. When I can’t read, I need at least to touch books or to have them around me.

I don’t know anybody who is this kind of reader, and it would be so great to share this with Klara. Obviously, I won’t try to make her get into it if it’s not her thing. But it will be cool if it is.

Russians, of course, have immediately announced that Ukraine’s Eurovision win was organized by the CIA with the specific purpose of hurting Russia. This is actually being discussed in the Russian parliament because there is nothing at all pathetic about fixating on a pop music contest in a country in the grip of a major economic crisis.

The sense of grievance that can be derived from Ukraine’s win will sustain Russians for months. It’s been a while since they had a chance to flaunt their supposed persecution by the CIA.

Yes, it sounds ridiculous that anybody would believe that the CIA will rig singing contests to spite Russia. But it was just as ridiculous to say that the CIA organized the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine. And yet, there was not a major publication and barely a person in the US who failed to buy this lie. For over a year, literally everybody I met eagerly rolled out the “CIA-sponsored coup in Ukraine”, seemingly unaware that the expression had been invented in the Kremlin.

It is always, always important to take a moment and ask oneself, “What if this is not about me?” whenever one hears of events happening in other countries. Or one will continue to be easily manipulated into seeing CIA coups in everything.