Author: Clarissa

Oligarchy Destroys Ballet

~ Clarissa ~ 5 Comments

The absolute degradation of the famous Russian ballet is shocking. Two ballerinas of the Bolshoi Theater perform the same dance. One is from back in the Soviet times, dancing beautifully at the age of 43. The second is 27 and is dancing today. She’s clearly a pathetic hack. How did she end up as the Bolshoi prima, then?

It’s simple. Her father is one of Putin’s cronies.

You don’t have to be a ballet connoisseur (I’m not) to see the difference:

Yes, the geriatric looking one is actually 15 years younger.

Engineering Children

~ Clarissa ~ 20 Comments

This is a horrible idea that needs to be outlawed. Strangely, the opponents of eugenics are cheering on this abomination.

Once this practice becomes widespread, it will be easy to deny healthcare to people born normally  on the basis that it’s their parents’ fault for not engineering away any possible illness pre-birth.

That people even consider such a possibility shows how badly their brains have been eaten by hubris and consumerism. Banning every mishap and unpleasantness from life is impossible. Attempts to do so, to reverse the very nature of human experience will have terrible consequence.

They Are Doing It

~ Clarissa ~ 7 Comments

How come she’s adult enough to have a husband but not adult enough to see something so obvious?

Speaking of understanding social cues, what does it mean when a man and a woman have an intensely and weirdly emotional reaction to each other? Call Sherlock, there’s a mystery afoot.

No, not really, because it always means the same thing.

Easy Marks

~ Clarissa ~ 7 Comments

Our regulations specify that faculty members should be given time to express their opinions about budget cuts and layoffs. Administration always comes up with tricks to eat into that time so that it’s wasted and people don’t get to speak. The funny thing about this primitive strategy is that it keeps working.

Yesterday, for example, we had 45 minutes allocated to people representing three programs that are being eliminated. Fifteen minutes each. The Dean started the meeting saying that he wanted to make just one little comment about the terrible suffering of trans people at the hands of the Trump administration.

And guess what?

Everybody bought into it. Everybody. For the next 30 minutes, people ranted and raved about federal politics.

In the last 15 minutes, I made my statement, asked my questions, and received useful information. The other two programs didn’t get to speak about their issues at all. They had swallowed the bait and used their precious time to rant about illegal migrants in Guantanamo.

You can’t help trans people or Guantanamo convicts by prattling about them at a work meeting. But you can help your colleagues and your program. Or you can be tricked into gushing out your energy and sacrificing your time.

While everybody yelled excitedly about Trump’s policies, I wrote down a plan for the next segment of the chapter I’m working on. As a result, my 45 minutes were extremely productive. I got to work on my research project and wheedled out of the Dean some useful points to give to my union rep who is helping me write a response to the administration.

This is what I keep saying about being emotionally undisciplined. Our administrators go to business workshops where they learn to use these tricks. These mechanisms are created to work on gushy, twitchy victims who have no idea how easy they make it to exploit them.

And it’s not only at work. This happens everywhere. People jump up at down on cue, giving in to every attempt to milk them for emotion.

Coincidences

~ Clarissa ~ 9 Comments

I’m sure it’s a complete coincidence that the only two departments scheduled for elimination are chaired by the only two people who, constantly and consistently, oppose DEI measures.

Also, not a department but a program in Music is being eliminated. It must be an equal coincidence that it is directed by the strongest defender of labor rights on campus.

The three of us are the loudest opponents of the administration at the university. It’s impossible to persecute us individually because one is an immigrant, another a Muslim, and the third a lesbian. So our positions are made redundant.

Again, a total coincidence.

The Second Constitution

~ Clarissa ~ 2 Comments

In the meantime, Colorado is trying to push through the following bill:

Section 2 provides that, when making child custody decisions and determining the best interests of a child for purposes of parenting time, a court shall consider deadnaming, misgendering, or threatening to publish material related to an individual’s gender-affirming health-care services as types of coercive control. A court shall consider reports of coercive control when determining the allocation of parental responsibilities in accordance with the best interests of the child.

Sections 8 and 9 define deadnaming and misgendering as discriminatory acts in the “Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act”, and prohibit these discriminatory acts in places of public accommodation.

Please think back about everything I said regarding the “second constitution” created by the Civil Rights legislation and how it erases the protections offered by the actual constitution. According to this new legislation, citizens will be stripped of their freedom of speech protections. Calling Julie “Julie” and referring to her as “she” will become a Civil Rights violation. This opens absolutely anybody to being persecuted on Civil Rights violations.

There is absolutely no way to avoid these situations cropping up and mushrooming unless the second constitution is abolished. We have no constitutional rights at all if something as simple as saying “he” can make us legally liable.

Freedom Is Near

~ Clarissa ~ Leave a comment

I still have one year left as department Chair but I’m being deposed and the department is being merged with English. I’m supposed to fight to save the department, and I am but the anticipatory joy of no longer being Chair after June 30 is intoxicating. Not having to care about anybody else’s enrollments except for my own would be wonderful. Or anybody else’s problems of any kind.

I’m trying to make myself so odious to the administration that they will welcome me stepping down as Chair prematurely even if the department is preserved. As everybody here on the blog understands, antagonizing the administration is one of my biggest skills in life.

Murdered Children in Literature

~ Clarissa ~ 26 Comments

Once you notice how much of contemporary literature depicts people murdering their children, you can’t unsee it.

This whole way of life we have stumbled into is deeply barren. It can’t create anything. This is what the murders of children in today’s literature symbolize.

True Discipline

~ Clarissa ~ 5 Comments

Four meetings today. All big and emotional. Two of them I led. In one I stood up to the administration in front of the accreditation commission.

In addition, four one-on-one conversations with people who are afraid they’ll lose their jobs. Which, as you can imagine, is very draining.

An angry confrontation with a former colleague who thinks I’m somehow to blame in this debacle. (Obviously, I was not the angry party in the interaction).

Also, two meetings with students on unrelated issues.

I also made fresh blini at 5:50 am of which I myself can’t eat even one.

And.

In the midst of all that.

I got some really good writing done for my book.

That’s what I call discipline.

Urgent Measures

~ Clarissa ~ 10 Comments

I’m so glad we’ve solved all the serious problems and can now pout about “unfair” ticket prices.

Probably, we’ll hear about “paying their fair share” next.