I have a feeling that at the conference in Houston I won’t be going to any talks, meeting any people, or exploring the city. Instead, I will be snoring in my hotel room for 3 days straight. 

No, that’s not true. I will be so anxious about Klara that I will try to distract myself with bouts of feverish activity. 

So here is another issue to consider. Let’s say we have a department that studies another culture. Let’s say, Hispanic culture. People in other cultures often have a different way of building interpersonal communications. Hispanic people might stand closer to each other, kiss others on the cheek when they meet, touch people more, use language that sounds scandalous to Americans, etc.

In a department that’s specifically dedicated to the study of this culture, should students who have decided to dedicate their lives to the study of this culture – say, graduate students – try to understand these ways of communicating and adapt to them OR should they judge them from the point of view of their own cultural expectations and condemn the Hispanic professors as harassers and abusers? 
The discomfort that an American student or professor might feel when Hispanic professors* are being their cultural selves can be very real. Should their standards be enforced? 

I’m very interested in what people think. 

* Hispanic is just an example, of course. It can be Russian or French or Algerian, etc. 

Obama’s approval stands at 55%. People are not blind. They see that the economy is nothing like it was back in 2009. Everybody knows somebody who lost a job, a house or took a financial hit in 2008-9. And everybody is aware that today looks very different. 

Even on Ukraine  (which I know the American public doesn’t care about but I do) Obama’s strategy brought great results. It was excruciating in the process but it worked out well. When you have a toddler who is learning to walk – and Ukraine is a toddler in terms of its nationhood – you can hold him up or you can let him fall on his little tuschie a couple of times to let him learn. Ukraine now walks on its own, even if it wobbles a bit. And that’s great. 

Germany is trying to save its welfare state through legislation that bans EU citizens from coming to the country and claiming unemployment benefits. 

Of course, the measure can only work if you close the borders for EU citizens. If your constitution defines and your citizens expect a guarantee of dignified existence for everybody, you can’t have legislation that will result in hungry, ragged people roaming the streets.