Granted, my understanding of the sport is extremely poor. Still, something seems quite incongruous about this development. I wonder what it is.
Not For Thee
This is quite extraordinary:
We don’t want borders to be recognized so can we have our borders recognized?
It’s really between people who understand why the above question is imbecilic and those who think it’s perfectly fine.
Housing Prices
I want to gouge my eyes out. What the bloody ef is he doing?
And I say this as a homeowner. The last thing we need is to inflate this housing bubble end more. Dude, just stop. Go move more chairs for Bibi and spread more red carpets for Putin. Even that is less humiliating than this, although it’s mega humiliating.
Empowered Immigrant Women
In October of 2023 there was a mass shooting in a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine. It was the deadliest shooting in the state’s history. People were devastated and wanted to help the victims of the terrible attack. Over 6 million dollars were donated to Lewiston-Auburn Area Response Fund, a non-profit that vowed to get the money to the survivors and the families of the victims.
But guess what?
Almost 1/3 of the money raised never went to the victims or anything remotely related to the shooting. Instead, it went to non-profits that serve… immigrants and refugees.
The organizations include Empowered Immigrant Women Unite, Generation Noor, New Mainers Public Health Initiative, the Somali Bantu Community Association and Gateway Community Services, which has been accused of misusing taxpayer funds.
Shooting victims nationwide demand Maine nonprofits return diverted donations
I must be a non-empowered immigrant woman because nobody offered me any handouts. I have to ask, though, if they are so empowered why are they leeching money off the survivors of a terrible crime?
Eggs Too White
Is this a Ukrainian thing? Not the white supremacy but mayonnaise on boiled eggs? I had that for lunch at the office yesterday and it was nirvana. Does anybody else do that, or is it a cultural thing?
I also used to do mayonnaise on boiled potatoes but now potatoes are infrequent. I also like mayonnaise on salami. And on cheese.
OK, I’ll stop now.
Mystery: Found in a Book
In a library book that hasn’t been checked out since 1997, I found this:
Can anybody decipher this missive?
Victim Prima Donnas
By the way, this stupid, nitpicky thing, Ukrainians do it, too, and it drives me up an absolute wall. For three days now they’ve been bellyaching to Jupiter and back about some dumb Netflix show titled Vladimir. The show is not about Putin. It’s based on a novel about a cheating husband. There’s nothing remotely political there. But no, it’s Russian propaganda, it’s genocidal because the main character happens to share his name with Putin.
But hey, guess what Zelensky’s name was until 15 seconds ago? A Russian-speaking Jew of my age. He was born and spent his whole life as Vladimir. It’s a popular name. My great-grandfather was Vladimir. Am I supposed to not mention him now because Putin? What the fuck?
Then there are the Baltics. And this isn’t meant to throw shade on the reader of this blog who is from a Baltic country because he’s solid and not a prima donna. But some people are getting to me. There’s a correct way to say Baltic countries and an incorrect way and somehow I always manage to step into the incorrect one and oh Lordie. And don’t refer to them as former Soviet Republics although that’s literally what they are. Here’s a fresh example from today and I’m so annoyed:
OK, I feel better now. Rant temporarily over unless I remember another victim group that’s getting on my everlasting nerves.
The Perennially Inflamed
JD Vance Has Made His Choice
By Abe Greenwald
Vice President JD Vance didn’t mention Jews or Nazis in his remarks on Holocaust Remembrance Day. The statement he released yesterday noted instead “the millions of lives lost during the Holocaust,” and “the enduring lessons of one of the darkest chapters in human history.” While these formulations seem vague and empty, they are actually very precise and loaded with meaning. Vance is sending a clear message to Tucker Carlson and his other Jew-hating friends. The message is: Don’t worry, guys. I’m with you.
And he is.
Honestly, the dude can catch no break. If he mentioned Jews, it would be “but why didn’t you mention Slavs?” And the Roma, and gays, and Catholics, and communists, and so on and on.
This nitpicky, pouty, perennially inflamed over being passed over and not having your pet grievance mentioned in every sentence is what I hated on the Left.
But guess what.
Out Loud
A fresh example of saying the thing usually concealed out loud:
After saying for years that illegal don’t vote, Democrats now acknowledge that they not only do but represent a must have. For Democrats.
You’ve got to love the simple-minded dedication of these people.
Conservative Readings: Bernard L. Kronick
A frequent criticism of conservatism is that all it does is try to preserve the achievements of yesterday’s radicals. As Ambrose Bierce put it, radicalism is the conservatism of tomorrow injected into today. In 1947, professor of Political Science Bernard Kronick addressed this criticism in an article he published in Southwestern Social Science Quarterly. I love reading Humanities scholarship from before year 1970 because it’s enormously better written than anything you can find today. Kronick, who was born in 1915 and was almost a child in intellectual terms when he published “Conservatism: A Definition”, wrote beautifully. His article is very easy to understand for anybody who is a normal, intelligent and well-read person. There’s zero jargon and a lot of love for the language.
In any case, Kronick says that yes, it’s true that today’s conservatism is yesterday’s radical progressivism. But so what? It still plays the crucial role of slowing the pace of change and making sure that we don’t careen into insane things that will end up destroying us. It is a socially useful task, Kronick says, to modify the manner in which change is introduced while accepting that it will happen eventually.
Conservatives are at a disadvantage, Kronick points out, because their position is by necessity defensive. Their achievement in slowing down change is never recognized because the accolades for introducing the changes always go to the radicals who proposed them, even though these changes could have been terrible without the staying and moderating hand of conservatives. As a result, the conservative movement feels like being nothing but a group of losers. As Kronick says:
The conservative by his very admonitions destroys the likelihood of his fears being realized. He is subsequently ridiculed for what seem to have been foolish fears.
Even when they accomplish little of a positive character, conservatives prevent immeasurable harm. For enormous chaos would result were radicals to have it entirely their own way.
This is why, Kronick reminds us, conservatism is absolutely essential when a society experiences a crisis or undergoes rapid change.
Kronick wrote at a different time and some of his ideas look quaint as one reads them in 2026. This, for example, put a sad smile on my face:
Few desire to live in a state of unceasing change. No people going about its daily business wishes to have its way greatly disturbed for light and transient causes. They desire tranquility above all.
You can hear in Kronick’s words the calm currents of an unhurried time that had not yet witnessed people falling in love with speed, change, and transgression for its own sake.
Clarissa's Blog 