When I’m at work all day  or even traveling out of state, and Klara is at home with her grandparents, I’m perfectly fine. But the moment I set out for a restaurant with N for 2 hours, I flip out over how she’s doing without me. 

I’ve seen many commercials, TV shows and book’s where it’s suggested that parents should be overwrought the first time they go on a date alone without the baby, so now I’m dutifully overwrought. I hate this but it’s stronger than me.

Just watched a few episodes of the TV show Girls. This is a show for those who wonder why the US needs mass immigration. Forget walls and bans. Find a way to address the problem the show depicts, and you won’t need as many immigrants.

Just imagine the same show depicting 25-30-year-olds from, say, Nigeria, China, India and Ukraine who waste years on unpaid internships while sitting around vapidly and staring at walls and expecting their parents to finance this lifestyle. Yeah, it sounds nuts. Which is precisely why 25-30-year-olds from, say, Nigeria, China, India and Ukraine aren’t coming up with trigger warnings, victim-blamings, fat-shaming, and all the rest of it.

It would be one thing if the show depicted wounded kids from places like East St Louis who have a hard time getting their bearings after a traumatic, indigent and chaotic childhood. But the professionally, psychologically and intellectually neutered characters of this show aren’t an anomaly or trauma victims. They don’t know how to want anything because they never had to. And this turns them into blooming, healthy, well-fed invalids. 

I don’t think I’ll keep watching because it’s too heart-breaking. I’m an educator, and it hurts me to see young people so drained of life and castrated. 

I now regret that I didn’t approach the student who recited his poem at the pageant to thank him in person. I was afraid I’d break down and weep because it was really a very powerful poem. I hope he knows he’s talented. It’s a rare gift that can make strangers cry in response to the power of art.

This is one of the students who come to us from East St Louis, overcoming enormous odds and creating a whole life for themselves. It’s such a joy to see them do research, create art, travel overseas, get job interviews. 

How can anybody really think we need fewer schools like mine? It makes no sense. 

Just saw on TV somebody who was identified as “Democratic strategist” and who wrote a book titled Reversing the Apocalypse. When she started speaking, she said a bunch of very reasonable, intelligent things. But it was too late because the book’s title has already repelled everybody who is not a self-important hysteric. 

It woypd be great if “Democratic strategists” understood that the Apocalypse folks are all with them already. Now it would make sense to try to attract those who are persuadable but are kept away from the polls because they are scared of the crazy wing of the party. 

As we have seen very recently, voters react positively to the message of winning and positivity. Nobody wants to hear about the Apocalypse. 

This was a great pageant, folks. I’m not entirely sure how appropriate it is for me to watch male students do a twerking number but the contest was great. I gave the highest points to the most intense contestant who, for the talent contest, read a poem he wrote. The poem made me cry, so I had to give him the win. 

This contestant didn’t end up winning the crown, though. The win was fair because it went to the cutest boy there. People seem to be very much into physical beauty. 

The half-time show was fantastic, and I’m proud of the girls in my sorority for organizing such a great event. 

There is this student who is in everything. He is learning every language, leading every student organization, taking every course, it seems. And of course, he’s in the beauty contest, too. Because HE’S IN EVERYTHING. 

I’m deeply envious of his robust psychological health. 

And, of course, 2 out of 6 contestants turned out to be my students. And one of them failed my course last semester. Should I hold this against him?

We are supposed to be a small department, so how come I stumble across my students everywhere?

Another reason why my job is not easy is that people are completely unfamiliar with the concept of a metaphor. 

I now hate these “mommy arguments” even more than I did before I was a mommy.

But hey, there are even dumber arguments out there: “The more often people hear about free speech being used to defend NAMBLA, the less that anti-paedophiles are going to like free speech. The more often people hear about free speech being used to defend the KKK, the less anti-racists are going to like free speech.”

“Fucking in the Age of Trump.” This is simply hilarious. 

I would not welcome this sort of nomination. 

The true cost of Israel. 

A bizarre anti-Nazi trial is being held in Germany. 

The most hilarious subscription box ever. I wonder when they will launch a premium service with a flogger visiting the subscribers to give them a delightful public flogging. 

And it’s the same argument that people advance when I talk to them about unionization. The union won’t solve every problem, so why bother, they say. 

It’s a coward’s way of wriggling out of any engagement while preserving face and coming off as somebody who is so politically active that they can’t tolerate anything but absolute perfection. 

I hate it when people shit on the idea of accessible higher ed and do it in such unimaginative, dumb way:

But in 2016 Bernie Sanders made a big splash on the campaign trail with a plan to make college “free.” So Cuomo proposed and on Wednesday signed legislation to make tuition free at New York public colleges for anybody coming from a family making no more than $100,000 a year. . .

First, the law is regressive. It does nothing to help students from families earning less than $50,000 a year. Their tuition is already covered by other programs.

Second, it doesn’t make a dent in reducing the nontuition fees, like living expenses, textbooks and travel.

The law doesn’t end world hunger and put a stop to the war in Syria, so it must be horrible.

I hate this kind of idiotic argument.