The system with very low flat-rate income tax and sky-high tariffs on everything imported (i.e. everything) already exists. It was introduced by somebody whose name ends in -utin.

As a follow-up to the Not OK post, I want to share a story. I took a course in American Modernism as an undergrad. The readings were amazing. I still can recite the entire reading list 16 years later, it was that good. We had 86 people in the course (which is huge for a literature classroom) because when you say “modernism” people start running towards you like eager bulls in Pamplona. The TAs were amazing, the small group discussions were perfect. 

But the course was a bust because of the professor’s truly atrocious English. It wasn’t just English lit, it was modernism. You’ve got to be able to express yourself with some elegance. This prof, though, had such an incomprehensible accent and such poor spoken vocabulary that most of his lectures were useless. The point is not who hired him and why – he might have been a brilliant researcher with a perfect written English. What I wonder is why nobody in his life – or in the life of the woman with the speech impediment or the fat dance instructor – cared enough about them to tell them that their choice of profession was bad.

I cannot boast a wide circle of acquaintances but I did have people in my life who cared enough to tell me that my writing in English sucked and who took the trouble of finding a way to deliver that message without hurting my feelings. And when I improved my writing style and still couldn’t get published, I had somebody who cared enough to explain why that was.

Is it really caring if you are setting a person up for failure and ridicule simply because you don’t want the unpleasantness of being honest? Self-awareness is the most elusive skill of all, and if people who care don’t mention things to us, we will simply never know.

An article in the NYTimes suggests that Democrats adopt the strategies of the extraordinarily successful Tea Party to resist Trump:

It’s the Tea Party inverted: locally driven advocacy built on inclusion, fairness and respect.

It would be great to see powerful local organizing efforts on the part of Dem voters. But I don’t believe it will happen because “inclusion, fairness and respect” mean that participants will start policing each other’s speech patterns and publishing angry screeds about their comrades’ failure to be fully inclusive.

There is a lot of sexual repression at Facebook whose employees see sex in the weirdest places. 

Yes, I’m linking to Cosmopolitan but I can’t resist this piece about a bunch of truly pathetic idiots. 

“Trump called the generals who he met with “beautiful,” and alleged they made “Tom Cruise look like dirt.” I know what we need! A beauty contest for US generals. They prance around in speedos, and everybody votes by Twitter. And the ones who get few votes are fired by Trump on TV for not being pretty enough. 

Anthony Bourdain is great.

Just in case you need any more proof that when the media quote studies they are very likely to pervert the results to suit some dumb agenda. 

2016 porn stats are out!

Between 1996 and 2012, a 10 percent reduction in state appropriations was associated with a 12 percent increase in international undergraduate enrollment at public research universities. ‘Cause somebody has got to pay for it. And then we will hear widespread moaning as to why everybody in good jobs is Chinese and how we need a wall on the border with China. 

A smart rabbi from California on Trump’s victory. 

Yes, Heidegger was actively antisemitic. 

A belated but great post on Christmas. 

From In the World Interior of Capital: Towards a Philosophical Theory of Globalization by Peter Sloterdijk:

One of the most notable side effects of the current para-philosophical wave is the proliferation of unverified statements that no longer stop at the borders of nation-states. Pirated copies of cluelessness circulate freely in the whole world.

Pirated copies of cluelessness is a brilliant way to characterize the media space, for instance. Or Facebook “news.”

Klara has known how to say “Mama” for months. But just like with the action of holding her own bottle, she saw no reason to apply this skill. When her somewhat older cousin came to visit, though, she noticed that he was saying “Mama”, realized it was trendy to do that, and now is saying it all the time. 

It’s incredible how fast kids learn from each other. 

It’s not OK to say aloud that a candidate for the position of Full Professor (tenured) of Spanish literature speaks Spanish at the level that would merit her a C in an Intermediate Spanish course.

It’s not OK to say aloud that an aspiring professor of foreign languages has a really bad speech impediment that makes everything she says entirely incomprehensible.

It’s not OK to say aloud that at the age of 65 is too old to start a tenure-track Assistant Professor position.

It’s not OK to say aloud that a candidate for the position of an instructor of dance has a bad limp that will prevent her from teaching the course she is hired to do.

It’s not OK to say aloud that another candidate for the position of an instructor of dance weighs 300 lbs and will be even worse at the job than the one with a limp.

It’s not OK to say aloud that a student should save time and money and drop a course he has no chance of passing because of his non-existent Spanish.

It’s laudable that people are trying not to be mean but we have long ago sacrificed sanity to the pursuit of this fake, dishonest kindness that, in reality, is nothing but self-serving indifference. In order to spare ourselves a couple of embarrassing or tense moments, we create untenable situations where many people suffer. But they can’t say it aloud, so it’s OK.

Why are people so eager to debase themselves, fling themselves like used rugs at the feet of somebody who has artistic genius? Theodore Dreiser, one of the greatest American writers, was an irredeemably nasty human being. Petty, whiny, self-pitying, antisemitic, plagiarizing, dishonest, incapable of a tiniest gesture of kindness or loyalty, he abused every friend and repaid every favor with meanness. He wasn’t a grand evildoer. Just a petty little bastard.

But women and men let him walk all over them long before he had any money because the temptation of standing close to greatness was impossible to overcome. Fear of death makes people desperate to appear even just as a footnote in the life of somebody who will not be instantly forgotten. 

Swanberg wrote a great biography of Dreiser back in the 1960s. The biography is almost as long as Dreiser’s interminable novels but it never bores. I had no idea, for instance, that Dreiser was not into reading and wrote with atrocious spelling mistakes  (your for you’re and to for too). It’s incredible how great works of literature spill out of somebody who is superficial, dumb, ignorant and very boring as a human being.

Happy New Year 2017 to you, my wonderful friends! May your life this year resemble Bernie’s speeches in its passion and sincerity. And may it resemble in its dignity and courage Hillary’s concession letter. May it be the year when you win.

On Christmas Klara learned to say “Mama.” Now she crawls after  me and chants, “Mama, mama, mama!”

On New Year’s eve, she learned to say “Baba” (it’s the Russian version of Nana). And it’s a meaningful Baba because she addressed it to her grandma when she saw her on Skype. 

And the Russian grandma finally noticed that she has a granddaughter. She sent Klara $1,500. Just the money, nothing else. Russians.