Back home, it’s 62°F.

+17°C.

I’m so glad I left, even if for a little while. It’s impossible to live in such a stupid climate. It’s an eternal summer, such rot!

Put me right off wanting to go back home. It’s just a bit above freezing here, which is about 20 degrees over my optimal temperature but at least there’s a bit of snow.

On social media, regular Russians celebrate the news of the two-day-old Ukrainian infant who died in yesterday’s air strike with such unmarred joy, you’d think they just won the World Cup.

There’s nothing that could ever possess me to celebrate the death of a newborn, and I can’t figure out how they got themselves to be like this. This isn’t one or two creeps. It’s a massive, public outpouring of joy.

Why hasn’t Ukraine won the war yet, people might ask?

The problem is that Ukraine isn’t allowed to retaliate against Russia. Russia masses enormous numbers of missiles next to the Ukrainian border, and Ukraine isn’t allowed to take out the missile depots to prevent a strike. Ukraine is receiving foreign aid (and we are extremely thankful) under the condition that no Russian will suffer on the Russian territory and no Russian military object, depot, train station, etc will be hit by Ukraine. No matter what happens, Russia should not suffer. This is the condition of continuing foreign aid.

So we have to sit here and watch Russians bring hundreds of missiles to the border, aim them, and shoot them at maternity wards. A newborn boy died as a result of just such a strike yesterday. This can continue pretty much forever because why shouldn’t it? Russians aren’t experiencing any negative consequences from the war. Why would they stop? If you could engage in something that brought you great pleasure and no negative consequences, would you stop?

OK, you’ll ask, but why is there a prohibition on doing any damage to Russia?

Because in spite of the talk about “regime change”, the Western plan is to preserve the Russian regime exactly as it was before February 24, 2022. “Regime change” is an expression only used by stupid people. Like “gender-fluid.” Like “America’s proxy war against Russia.” Russia has been babied, coaxed, cajoled, and pandered to in an extraordinary way since 1991, and more than ever throughout 2022. Zero bombs have dropped on Russia during the war. Zero Russian towns were destroyed. Zero Russian civilians were inconvenienced, let alone hurt.

Words are so much more powerful than reality. People find a turn of phrase they can easily memorize and gladly sacrifice their capacity to observe reality on the altar of being able to repeat this beloved phrase. This is equally true for the “systemic racism” and “proxy war” crowds.

Terrible news from Ukraine again. Russians delivered missile strikes all over the country, aiming at hospitals, residential buildings, and power stations. Ukrainians are rising to the challenge, acting heroically and engaging in feats of resilience and strength.

In the US in the meantime, there’s yet another spat over who misgendered whom.

Wars will never end because comfort and opulence don’t bring out the greatness of the human beings. They bring out pettiness, poutiness, and performative fragility. Wars, on the other hand, bring out heroicism and unbreakability.

We keep talking about “world peace,” but what would we do with it? Argue endlessly over who’s the biggest victim?