Travel Hack

I have a great travel hack courtesy of my sister.

Bring your favorite tea bags everywhere you go. Mine are the German fennel and anise or the Spanish manzanilla con anís. For some reason, I’m really into anise.

Tea bags mean you don’t have to waste money on bottled water, you can turn any snack into a meal with a hot cuppa, and it always feels homey and comfortable.

Long Game

Remember how we all collectively #MeTooted about whorish starlets and bad dates?

Nobody is #MeTooting about this:

The purpose to all leftist fads is revealed long after they are mainstreamed. Land acknowledgements are a way to take property from people. #MeToo was created to redefine sexual violence to deny justice to actual victims. Leftists play the long game while we bicker over inanities, accuse each other of being the bad guys, or defend leftist lunacy from each other.

Movie in Your Head

I’m 37, talking to my 8 year old. I found out she sits and reads at recess.  I have a look of absolute disgust on my face. I balled out at recess. NEVER sat and read, that would be punishment.

I asked “Why not go play with your friends? Why not play soccer or go on the park?”

She said “when I read,  I can make a movie in my head.”

I just realized, I don’t know how to read.

This is so beautiful.

Reading is a healthy, socially valued form of hallucinating. It’s interesting that a hallucination that occurs when you interact with a product of someone else’s brain is healthy and wonderful. Yet a hallucination that happens without such an interaction can be a sign of schizophrenia.

The same thing is healthy when it creates a channel between you and the world and unhealthy when it connects you with more of you.

An excess of self produces monstrosity.

The Same Place

Is that the place of complete domination of all cultural institutions, the judiciary, academia, the corporate world, and the media?

Because OK, these terms are acceptable. If conservatives can end up in a place where we can gather in large groups and hold events without fearing that our speakers will be murdered, I’m happy to end up in that place.

Yesterday, AAUP published a tweet saying that conservatives have no place in academia because we are all fascists. I’d like to end up in a place where that’s not a normal thing for an association of university professors to say. People on the right keep pretending that leftism suffered some huge cultural defeat as a result of its mistakes but I’m still waiting for even a smidgen of evidence.

The Nature That Won’t Heal

Nature is healing but Nature isn’t.

It’s October of 3025 but Nature Review Psychology has lost all touch with human psychology and isn’t noticing that this particular fad has faded away.

Grandma Lora

Update: Russians murdered Grandma Lora and her goats. They chased her down the street with drones and left her lying in a pool of blood next to her animals. I won’t post the pictures but they can be easily found online.

Human safari by Russians is daily reality in Ukraine. Once again, please observe how none of this is mentioned by the people who wailed to the skies about a Russian soldier hunted by a Ukrainian drone. Be vigilant about your sources and avoid slop and manipulative propaganda.

Vacation Pics

I took this from the top of the Faro de Moncloa:

What is Faro de Moncloa? It’s this:

OK, I promise no more vacation pics. I know everybody hates them.

I have another trip coming up, this time to Milwaukee. I will use it to resign from my position on the executive board of my association. That will feel good. Besides, Milwaukee has got to be nice, right? Cheeses and all.

I also have good news to communicate:

The Algorithm of Desire

Oh, poor innocent child. It doesn’t work like that at all. Not the teensy wee bit.

The suggestions are all good.  I recommend following them. But desire can’t be subjected to an algorithm. Good girls get dumped for bad girls all the time.

Spain’s Life Expectancy

Everybody says that Spain’s life expectancy is higher than that of the US. The explanation is usually the food, and yes, the food is of a much higher quality. But there is another factor.

I’m walking everywhere in Spain. From the campus of the Complutense, I walked to the Almudena Cathedral. From there, I’ll walk back to Tetuán. Those who know Madrid will confirm that this is a fair amount of walking. Everywhere I go, I see elderly people walking. And I mean very elderly. Alone, in pairs, in groups. I’ve never in my life seen so many very old people walking. Many walk very slowly or use canes. But they walk outside. Fresh air, exercise, direct sunshine, new impressions. You need to stay sharp to avoid other pedestrians and traffic. This has got to have an effect on health and mental acuity.

But yes, the victuals are high quality. Here’s the traditional hake in green sauce.

The vegetable on top is some sort of squash. Low in carbs, light, delicious.

I don’t like Spanish cuisine and prefer that they serve fish that has been fussed with as little as possible.

The Dream of a Neoliberal Woman

The dream of a neoliberal woman is not to work. And not to get married or have children. The dream is to stay in bed all day, scrolling social media and ordering food from Doordash. There are several bestselling novels in Spain right now that express the deep hatred of neoliberal subjects towards work.

It’s funny how this plays out. Work, in the sense of a stable, reliable source of income, is retreating. And people are enacting the perennial game of every jilted lover who says, “well, I didn’t like you that much anyway.” They convince themselves that it’s their choice (that magical neoliberal word), that it’s better this way. It feels empowering (another neoliberal term). It feels like you are in control.