Nowhere am I as happy as in Florida.

But a mystery I’ve never been able to resolve is why one of my eyes looks smaller than the other in every picture. Is this normal? Is it smaller by nature? I’m weirded out by my own eye.

I’m reading a new novel by the Argentinean writer who specializes in the gated communities for the rich called countries. And it’s funny because she goes on and on for pages, describing a reality that is alien to most Argentineans but very normal here in the US.

There is no garbage in the streets! Cables are hidden undeground to preserve the beauty of the landscape! Houses in the same parts of the neighborhood are built in the same aesthetic! Houses located in cul-de-sacs aren’t cheaper than the rest. To the contrary, they are more expensive because people associate them with greater peace and quiet and not with an increased danger of a home invasion. There are no home invasions at all in the country! People feel completely safe!

The writing is very good but I already fell asleep twice because I know all this. I live in a neighborhood like that.

The goal of so many of the developments we are seeing – the lockdowns, the climate panic, the CRT, the BLM, the cancel culture, the destruction of our energy independence, the inflation, “the racial reckoning”, etc – is to turn us into Argentina. Only a small number of people will be able to live in such neighborhoods. They will exist as small islands of good living in a sea of violence, desperate poverty, anger, addiction, and hopelessness. The dwellers of the gated communities will live in constant fear of joining the angry, miserable, dysfunctional crowds outside of the country.

We are pissing away something really great to make half a dozen already rich guys even richer. It’s profoundly stupid.