Opinions, art, debate
We are in the stage of parenting where we segue very seamlessly from “You are making split pea soup, Mommy??? You know that I hate split pea soup!!!! If you loved me you’d never make split pea soup!!! I do not feel loved in this family!!!! My life is not fun any more!” into “Mommy, can I have a fourth bowl of split pea soup because it’s my favorite soup?”
It is excellent soup, by the way.
This is an excellent idea:
I don’t know who can possibly think it’s a bad idea and why. I especially don’t understand people who agree that Russia is an enormous threat to world peace and hates the US but are opposed to this security move. For years, they were repeating that we need to do something about Russia. Finally, Russia is being kicked in the teeth, and they are still unhappy.
Alaska was acquired, and it turned out great. I’m not seeing any downside at all to acquiring Greenland. People are being defeatist for no reason.
I also have to mention that the post-WW2 world order fell apart in 2014. People who are hand-wringing about it in 2026, like they only just noticed, sound either clueless and dishonest. Russians are sending drones to one European airport after another. It is conducting aggressive sabotage in most European countries. The authorities of those countries know that, say it openly and… do absolutely nothing. Europe has been funding Putin’s war against itself with oil and gas purchases for 12 years. This is the Europe to which we are supposed to leave our security. Nah, thanks, doesn’t look great.
Only an absolute moron refuses to see that Russia is preparing to do to the US what it’s been doing to Europe. Testing the waters first and then being more and more aggressive is the strategy. If there’s a plan in place to prevent it other than the Greenland Purchase, let’s hear it. There was over a decade to unveil it.
It’s very annoying that everybody has a long-term strategy except the West. We are supposed to be sitting there, feeling guilty for existing and not developing a plan at all.
No, not all women are prostitutes. Become worthy of sex? Lady, are you mental? What if he loses his job, becomes sick, becomes disabled? You’ll drop him? In that case, it should go both ways. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, unwell, have a bad hair day, he should feel free to sleep with other women?
What a pathetic, impoverished reality such people inhabit. She must have never felt any actual physical desire or loved anybody.
Our saga regarding the department secretary is unfolding. The Dean decided to do something nice for me and assigned me a secretary he poached from elsewhere. And I’m supposed to be getting her for 5 days a week instead of 3 like the current secretary. I’m sure he’s trying to be nice but, dude, I was looking for a couple of months of freedom to go to the bloody toilet without having to announce where I’m going to anybody.
This move deprives English and PoliSci to benefit me because those departments are led by sweet, quiet women while mine is led by me who makes the most atrocious stink about everything. I didn’t save French )whose director got hired and is getting promoted this year thanks to me) by sighing sadly in the corner.
There is great irony in all of this.
I tried Grok for the first time yesterday and, yes, it’s enormously better than ChatGPT or Copilot. I don’t mean anything ideological. In terms of basic practicality, it’s better.
My only question for AI is: what are the current bestsellers / new releases / upcoming releases in Spain / Mexico / Chile, etc. Not translations but originals, literary fiction only. ChatGPT failed this task most dramatically every time I asked. It kept giving me endless translations of Coleen Hoover and insisted that it’s just not possible to isolate the Spanish-language originals. It invented non-existent books. It was such a hassle that I gave up.
Grok, on the other hand, provided great lists of exactly what I asked and avoided adding mountains of unnecessary explanations. It took me 5 minutes to find a new book by a Colombian writer that I’m already loving. I also asked it a couple of vocabulary questions, and also received great, clear answers with zero ideology. The results are better organized visually. The tone is a lot less obnoxious.
Great job, Elon Musk. This shit actually works.
There are now incels, crunchy moms, yoga pant moms, lookmaxxers, groypers, personal growth entrepreneurs, vision coaches, trans flag activists, MRAs, BLMers, and “decolonize everything” leftists everywhere. It’s extraordinary. You find them in Guatemala, Germany, Spain, Ukraine, Chile, Russia. Countries can be at war with each other but they have all these American-style groups, speaking in calques from English. They don’t try to create their own language, rituals, memes, and grievances. No, the point is to follow the American example without departing an inch from the model.
True dominance is being able to impose your culture on everyone without even trying.
Can anybody tell her that this business idea isn’t new? And that it’s considered the oldest profession in human history?
I had two public appearances today, in different parts of town. The second one was scheduled back to back with a stupid meeting on campus and involved me bringing several heavy props to illustrate my performance. The pay is excellent and I love the audience, so I couldn’t say no.
In the midst of all this and it being the first week of class, one thing I didn’t do was prepare for the stupid meeting. The degree to which I didn’t prepare was at the level of an F minus student. I run in 15 minutes late and everybody is in the midst of flinging the most egregious accusations at each other.
“Your tenure isn’t even real! Your department rejected your tenure case. The Dean had to ram it through because everybody knows you are litigious!”
“Yeah? Like we don’t know that you have fewer publications than your own graduate student!”
“At least, I have a graduate student!”
At this point, everybody turns to me, who is the chair of the bloody subcommittee and somebody says, “Professor, what do you think about policy 1RtGH-33/2? We need your take because we are getting very bogged down in these personal accusations.”
Of course, I never heard of this policy and had not the slightest idea it even existed. I tried to wing it which went pathetically badly. People stared at me in shock but then the fake tenure guy started screaming insults again so that was a good distraction.
Tomorrow is looking equally crazy. We have a department party. And I have two farewell parties, all on one day. And I’m teaching. So yeah, fun.
In the years I’ve lived in this town (since 2009), I’ve made 5 friends. Is that too few? Is it an abnormally low number at my age? I don’t mean acquaintances. I have many of those. I mean actual friends. People who’ve seen me cry. People who call me to drive them to the doctor’s for a bad diagnosis. Real friends. People who call to ask how my mom’s second round of immunotherapy that she started yesterday went or to share that they had a fight with the husband or a falling out with a sister.
Out of those five, two moved out of state. One more told me yesterday she’s also moving out of state. And I don’t mean across the river to Missouri kind of out of state. I mean, New Jersey, Florida, and Baltimore.
One more friend became politically radicalized and doesn’t want to be friends anymore.
So what I’m saying is that you, people, are my friends. Nobody knows me as well as you do aside from my husband, sister and one remaining friend.
One thing these conservative thinkers I’m reading have in common is that they write beautifully. I love Zygmunt Bauman but his writing is not enjoyable. In contrast, it took me a week to get through a 13-page article by Oakeshott because it was so well-written that I wanted to stop and savor it.
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