For a little comic relief, here’s a true story from yesterday.

I was giving Klara her bath and lit a scented candle for her. The scent is Sicilian lemon.

“I love this candle!” Klara exclaimed. “It smells like turkey!”

“Why turkey??” I asked, not getting the connection.

Turns out that she was reacting to the smoke from a lit match I used to light the candle. The last time she smelled the smoke from a match was in November when we did a barbecue. And what kind of meat did we use?

Yep. Turkey.

Here’s another point I want to make amidst the flurry of scandalized stories about the cancellation of a Dostoyevsky course somewhere.

First of all, I’m completely and unequivocally opposed to canceling the Dostoyevsky course. It’s wrong, it’s stupid. Dostoyevsky, like few others, warned about Russian besovshina. We all need to read more Dostoyevsky, Lermontov, Chekhov, and Gogol, not less.

Are you aware, however, that these courses are extremely rare? Do you know how many departments and programs of Russian or Slavic Studies have been closed in North America in the past couple of decades? The answer is, almost all of them. Most Dostoyevsky courses won’t be cancelled because they were never offered in the first place. My university, for instance, had a Russian program. It doesn’t exist anymore, and I’m trying to revive at least a little bit of it.

I hope we all understand that the closure of almost all Russian programs across North America (I don’t know how things stand in Europe and welcome clarification) was completely ideological. So the excuse that it’s shocking now because it’s ideological but wasn’t shocking 10 years ago doesn’t fly. We are now in a situation where people who understand the Russian-speaking regions are urgently needed but they don’t exist. As a result, there are tons of utterly inane commentary from unqualified people. At my university, we are organizing a roundtable on the war in Ukraine, and none of the speakers will be actual specialists. There’s funding for speakers, etc. But the speakers don’t exist.

I hope that instead of vapid bleating about a single course – which, once again, absolutely should not be cancelled – we talk about the larger picture in which the very existence of such a course is an anomaly. It’s easy to destroy these programs bit it’s extremely hard to rebuild them. There’s simply nobody to hire anymore to teach in them, let alone to do research. And the same thing is happening with German, Italian, and French programs throughout North America. They are simply being killed off.

I have two meetings that were cancelled today because the people I was supposed to meet are sick with COVID. It’s impossible to care about COVID at this point but what’s happening? I vaguely heard something about a flareup in China, I think, or am I inventing this?

Does anybody know anything?

There are many different kinds of labs in Ukraine. All sorts of science from back in the USSR. A large country, huge territory, a population larger than Canada. Why wouldn’t there be science? And absolutely, there is US funding involved. Like it is everywhere on the planet where there’s science research. If you don’t understand why the US funds science around the world, please go tell your mommy that you have had enough screen time for today. This is an adult conversation.

It’s absolutely extremely dangerous that these labs are now in a war zone. This – and not “racism” – is why everybody is freaking out that there’s a war in Europe. Europe has all sorts of things, like nuclear reactors and science – that make war particularly dangerous to everybody, not just the invaded country.

The problem isn’t the labs. The problem is the war. Before the war, nobody heard about these labs. They weren’t an interesting topic of conversation. If you are worried about the labs or the reactors being blown up and spreading some vile shit, donate to the Ukrainian army. It’s quite literally all that stands between us and this danger.

Many people take the emotional but incorrect statements that Putin is a tyrant and a dictator seriously. They imagine some sort of a Stalinist system in Russia. But none of this is true.

As we saw earlier today, the Russian journalist who protested on national TV was fined $280. I’m guessing the fine would be higher if she disrupted a government broadcast in the US. It’s really not that big of a punishment.

None of the protesters in Russia face death. There’s no GULAG. Even Navalny (who is in jail on corruption charges) never claimed that anybody beat or tortured him. He’s tweeting up a storm daily.

The level of government coercion and restrictions on free speech in Russia is somewhere at the level of Canada during the trucker protest. Unpleasant, undemocratic, deplorable but not remotely Stalinesque. There are no firing squads, no labor camps, no mass graves – or any graves – of dissidents.

The reason so few Russians protest isn’t because they are terrorized. It’s because, at best, they have no objections. And at worst, they are very happy with what’s happening. If that sounds difficult to believe, remember what we’ve all seen in the past 2 years. Remember people massively embracing the clearly insane idea of “social distancing”? Took under a week for this particular mass psychosis to take hold. No GULAG necessary. No Papa Doc Duvalier sending his goons to terrorize anybody. Imagine what could be done in 20 years. In 30. In 40.

People like to trust authority. Not everybody but the majority does. And they especially like to trust authority when it tells them flattering things. No terror necessary.

Woe be unto me, all day I crawl around exhausted from waking up at 6 am. My eyes feel like there’s sand in them, my brain is foggy, all I want is to crawl into bed and fall asleep.

But at exactly 8 pm I get a burst of energy. I’m wide-eyed and ready to rumble all the way until 1 am.

I need to go to bed at 1 am and get up at 10. That’s the only thing that will keep me happy.

Just so you understand how the Russian army operates. Russians occupied the Chernobayevo airport near Kherson. Brought a whole batallion or whatever you call it of helicopters there. The Ukrainian artillery hit the batallion. Destroyed 42 Russian helicopters.

What did the Russians do in response? They brought more helicopters, military vehicles, and a bunch of infantry. . . to the same airport. The Ukrainian artillery blasted them to smithereens.

What did the Russians do next?

Yes, they brought more equipment and personnel to the same airport. What did the Ukrainians do? Blasted them for the third time.

The third time was today. Let’s see what happens tomorrow.

Will there be a fourth time? Because why not, right?

The professor looks exactly like the NATO. This is probably why the Russians killed him. Maybe the NATO is his father and this is a family likeness. There’s no other explanation.

The “brave Russian journalist” has been fined 30,000 roubles. Oooh, terrible suffering.

In the meantime, a Fox News cameraman has been murdered by Russians in Ukraine. So who’s the real hero?

People keep saying Ukraine is corrupt. Yes, it is. However, in Ukraine before the war the president and members of the cabinet would go on TV regularly and journalists would make beef stew out of them, attacking, criticizing, roasting them like suckling pigs over a fire pit. You wouldn’t get anything past these journalists, a real free press.

Now contrast this with Biden’s infrequent snoozefests of pressers. Look at the pathetic unanimity of US and Canadian journalism. Is that not corruption? Is what we’ve seen throughout COVID not corruption? Let’s start saying “corrupt Canada” and “corrupt US.” That would be braver than dunking on Ukraine which, absolutely, is corrupt but hardly alone in the world in terms of corruption.