OK, folks, I’ve had a really shitty month. I get rejected for publication, I get sued, my Arabic instructor quits. I need to brag a little to make myself feel better, so bear with me.
I gave a talk today at a local community together with two other speakers and I slaughtered. I was so good. People came up at the end to say they envy my students because I must be the most amazing professor they’ve ever met. I spoke about what it feels like to be a Ukrainian in the US, so it’s great that I represented in a very positive way.
This is big because I used to be a tragically shy person. I couldn’t buy clothes or a cup of coffee at a coffee shop because I was so shy. And now I entertain large groups like it’s completely normal. I refashioned myself completely to achieve this. It was an effort of willpower and doggedness. If I had always been this way, there wouldn’t be anything to brag about. Some people are naturally outgoing and entertaining. But I was a kid who stood alone in a corner during recess and went hungry because I couldn’t muster the strength to buy anything at the school cafeteria. I was a young woman who missed class because I was terrified of going outside, scared that people would think I was ugly, fat, and awkward.
This whole “be who you are” thing is rubbish. If I remained who I was, I’d still be cowering in fear of every human interaction. Don’t be who you are. Be who you need to be.
Clarissa's Blog 
A solution to the Hamas Gaza Tunnel defence
Carbon monoxide poisoning occurs when carbon monoxide builds up in the blood. When too much carbon monoxide is in the air, the body replaces the oxygen in the red blood cells with carbon monoxide. This can lead to serious tissue damage, or even death.
Carbon monoxide is gas that has no odor, taste or color. Burning fuels, including gas, wood, propane or charcoal, make carbon monoxide. Appliances and engines that aren’t well vented can cause the gas to build up to dangerous levels. A tightly enclosed space makes the buildup worse.
Anyone exposed to carbon monoxide needs to get into fresh air and seek medical care right away.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/carbon-monoxide/symptoms-causes/syc-20370642.
LikeLike
mosckerr, several days ago I read the following from an Israeli blogger I follow. He didn’t link, so the info is uncertain:
// Some claim that the United States conveyed something like this message to Israel: – We know that you have a lot of interesting things for destroying bunkers and the people in them. Of course, you don’t have any chemical “stuff”. But if you use it, it will be perceived very negatively.
LikeLike
Honestly I don’t give a hoot how foreigners “perceive” warfare. Israel does not have a population that could sustain the casualty figures that the Russians and Ukrainians have suffered in their trench warfare war.
Bottom line, tunnel negate Israeli military superiority of planes tanks and artillery. But Arabs can’t hide in tunnels that contains no air. And once out in the open those Arabs become easy pray.
Israel fights a regime change war. Hamas shall no longer rule Gaza after this war ends. But Israel need the fubar cluster fuck of the Iraq and Libyan civil wars like we need to shoot ourselves in the head with a .45. Gaza once Hamas removed shall require something else to fill the political vacuum.
This requires a population transfer of Arabs from E. Jerusalem and Samaria to Gaza. Israel made peace with the PA and the PA lost the Gaza election in 2006.
Israel has twice given the captured Sinai back to Egypt — land for peace. Only Israel deeded land for the establishment of a Palestinian state. In 2005 PM Sharon unilaterally withdrew all Jewish communities from Gaza. My moving company moved some of those families. Totally supported deeding land to establish a Palestinian City State of Gaza. Still do.
Doubling the population of Gaza to 4.5 million Arabs means that land for peace equally applies to Egypt. Egypt needs to deed some of the Sinai to enlarge the Gaza Palestinian state. Just that simple.
The Arab tunnels in Gaza more than 100 feet deep. Most bunker busting bombs penetrate about 35/40 feet tops. Ooops all the pictures the propaganda press posts on Tv – absolute bull shit fluff. Either Israel absorbs about 100,000 casualties to eradicate Hamas from its tunnel defences or Israel inject some time of gas that forces the Arabs out of those tunnels. A no brainer issue which Israel shall do. And it foreigners in other countries get their panties tied up into a knot. Simply remind them of the Dresden and Tokyo fire bombings with slaughtered in each city more than 150,000 civilians! Foreigners need to come down from their moral superiority soap boxes.
LikeLike
The barbaric slaughter of 1400 Israelis and over 250 hostages, this abomination carried out by NOT Hamas alone but by all Palestinian political organizations including the PA. The time has come to remove the Palestinian pricks poking the Israeli nation, by a forced population transfer of PA Arab populations from E. Jerusalem and Samaria to Gaza – the Israeli established Palestinian state from 2005 to present.
Only Israel has deeded land for the establishment of a Palestinian State. Land for Peace applies equally to Arab countries, not just to Israel. Israel has deed land, Gaza, for an Independent Palestinian State. Time that Arab countries stop their Palestine Occupied Territories political rhetoric propaganda and deed land in the Sinai to enlarge the borders of Gaza for the Arabs removed from E. Jerusalem and Samaria to live as free citizens in their own Palestinian country, a member of the community of nations in the Middle East.
LikeLike
Once again I see the same comment in different threads, and I ban.
LikeLike
Arabs bemoan the Nakba. They love to bitch about the “Illegal Occupied Territories”, “the lands Israel stole from Palestinians”. So easy for propaganda to denouce Israel for “War Crimes” etc. But at the end of the day: only Israel has deeded land for the establishment of a Palestinian State. The 2005 unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. Actions speak louder than Word/Noise. Notice that Egypt refuses to permit Arab refugees to flee from Gaza to the Sinai???
LikeLike
Once again, stop posting identical comments in different threads.
LikeLike
LikeLike
Look, in order for this to work well, you need to have created a problem for yourself in the first place (or have had it caused by adverse experiences, etc.). I need to have an IQ 20 points higher than I have and be good at math.
LikeLike
It’s great that you have absolutely no personality flaws, have achieved the heights of moral perfection, become a stellar athlete, a religious scholar, and dominated every musical instrument in existence. That’s very good for you. The rest of us here aren’t that accomplished, so we are still trying to do our best.
LikeLike
Very powerful Clarissa! You did it!
LikeLike
Sued??
LikeLike
It’s crazy stuff at work. People are unraveling. There’s about a 90% chance the administration will make a wrong choice and I’ll be left with a bunch of angry, demotivated faculty on my hands.
LikeLike
The barbaric slaughter of 1400 Israelis and over 250 hostages, this abomination carried out by NOT Hamas alone but by all Palestinian political organizations including the PA. The time has come to remove the Palestinian pricks poking the Israeli nation, by a forced population transfer of PA Arab populations from E. Jerusalem and Samaria to Gaza – the Israeli established Palestinian state from 2005 to present.
Only Israel has deeded land for the establishment of a Palestinian State. Land for Peace applies equally to Arab countries, not just to Israel. Israel has deed land, Gaza, for an Independent Palestinian State. Time that Arab countries stop their Palestine Occupied Territories political rhetoric propaganda and deed land in the Sinai to enlarge the borders of Gaza for the Arabs removed from E. Jerusalem and Samaria to live as free citizens in their own Palestinian country, a member of the community of nations in the Middle East.
LikeLike
It is a shame you got sued, and I hope the rejection is an opportunity to take the piece, polish it and let it shine elsewhere.
“This whole “be who you are” thing is rubbish. If I remained who I was, I’d still be cowering in fear of every human interaction. Don’t be who you are. Be who you need to be.”
Going to take this one to the young men and women I know. Thank you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We exist in this weird mentality where it’s perfectly fine to reshape your body with the most invasive and bizarre medical interventions but it’s not OK to try to reshape your mentality or habits. We see bodies as endlessly malleable but personalities as set in stone. This makes no sense at all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It makes no sense because it’s not true. There’s a huge self-help industry in this country, which is all about reshaping one’s mentality and habits.
LikeLike
How neoliberal of you.
LikeLike
I’m scoring mostly 1 on my own quiz, so duh. 🙂
LikeLike