Dostoyevsky on the death of his infant daughter:
When my father died, it was a tragedy and I’m still grieving. But there was a sense of rightness about it. His death didn’t violate the natural order like my son’s did.
Forget Lindsey Glancy. It’s the Tyler Robinson trial that really worries me. I strongly believe Robinson should be pled out, even though the evidence is overwhelming, and the killer should, of course, get the death penalty.
But we have, on the one hand, morons on the left who believe that Charlie Kirk deserves to be killed, and, on the other, morons on the right who watch Candace Owens and believe that Egyptian helicopters in maroon sweatshirts mind-controlled exploding microphones.
The jury trial system will not survive the consequences of the widespread belief that all opinions are equally valid and that everybody deserves to “live his own truth.”
Comments:
You have no idea how much pressure there is to pass everybody, irrespective of what they actually learned, in health-related disciplines.
At least in the Humanities, there’s no pressure to pass anybody. I have never in my life been asked to grade on a curve, and I’m not even certain what that would entail. But in health disciplines, there’s a constant “if I raise all of the Cs to B- and all of the B- to B”, and so on.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe that news headlines are real:
Backlash as Indian oil heir made professor of sustainability by Newcastle University
Role for Anant Ambani, son of India’s richest person, who also runs a controversial mega-zoo, met with incredulity
One thing is clear: this is unsustainable.
Unfortunately, Sophie Hannah has not been able to live up to her best work for several years. The Opposite of Murder is not as disappointing as her last 4 books but it’s still a letdown. There is one interesting trick in the book that could make it worthwhile, but everything else is subpar. There is not much of a mystery because it’s glaringly obvious who committed both crimes. But that’s not the worst part.
Sophie Hannah always writes about unlikable, flawed heroines. She used to do it very well, but in this novel, she fell in love with her deeply unlikable main character and subverted the main rules of the mystery genre to accommodate that love. The genre exists around the idea that murder is wrong. Characters don’t get rewarded for cutting a person’s throat in an attempted murder or stabbing somebody to death. Even if the victim is not extremely likable, murder is still wrong. Once you suspend this convention of the genre, the genre dies. If murder is sometimes fine, then why should the readers care how it was investigated?
Writing about flawed characters can be great if you can get the readers to see past the flaws and appreciate the character’s humanity. Hannah used to be great at this, but in this novel, she fails at this task most spectacularly. Jemma, the main character, is a horrible, smug bitch. Again, you can write beautifully about horrible smug bitches, but in order to do that, you need to be aware that the readers might not share your deep admiration for this way of being.
This is a disappointing novel, and that’s all the more sad given how well Hannah used to write. I often reread her old novels because I still admire the sheer mastery she put into them.
Getting more of what I voted for:
Breaking News: At least six hospitals have struck deals with the Trump administration to stop providing gender-transition treatments to minors.
I didn’t get everything I wanted, but some is better than none.
I find out almost on a daily basis about things that the Trump administration is doing that I like. Just as often, I hear about things that Democrats propose to do that I most definitely do not like.
I’m voting down-ballot Republican in the midterms. That is the only rational choice.
In total, California taxpayers spent at least $11 billion subsidizing illegal immigrants in the last fiscal year.
Local officials were remarkably transparent. In Glendale, we spoke to a welfare officer about California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI), a state-funded alternative to Supplemental Security Income that provides monthly cash assistance to low-income noncitizens who are elderly or disabled.
“If [you are] a citizen, you cannot get CAPI,” he said. “I don’t care about legal or not. Not being [a] citizen [is the key].”…All told, a family of five in California with two illegal-alien parents, two U.S.-born children, and one illegal-alien grandparent can receive public services worth more than $100,000 per year.
And no, it’s not just crazy California that pays for it. The federal government pays for much of it. It’s explained how that happens at the link.
The biggest expenditure of the federal budget, by far, is on welfare programs. We have an exploding national debt. This drives inflation and the cost of living for everybody. This is the end of the nation-state.
Yes, Trump engages in acts of conspicuous personal corruption. That crypto coin scam was despicable and ignominious. The Russian oligarch paying for his son’s wedding was also despicable and ignominious. But Trump is trying to curtail the things described in the linked article. He’s trying to save the nation-state. It would be fantastic if we had a squeaky-clean politician with an appealing personal brand who would try to save the nation-state. But there isn’t one. The only options we have are what is described at the link versus the wildly imperfect, vulgar, and corrupt Trump.
If we were to hold a referendum asking the citizens of the country if they want taxpayer dollars to be used in the ways described at the link, is there any doubt that an overwhelming majority would say no? For decades, large majorities of voters have said that they want a reduction in immigration levels, both legal and illegal. For decades, nobody listened. Republicans and Democrats both have authorized vast increases in migration. How is that democracy? How is it democratic to ignore the sustained wishes of the population expressed repeatedly across decades? The vulgar, corrupt Trump is the first politician ever to listen to the wishes of the voters on the subject and reduce migration.
There are issues on which Trump refuses to listen to the long-term, sustained wishes of the majority of the population. One such issue is, of course, the war in Iran. He is wildly imperfect, both as a person and a political leader. But between “gives me nothing that I want and a lot of things I most certainly do not want” and “gives me some things that I desperately want but not others,” the only rational choice is the latter.
Everything in life is a trade-off, and the nature of a trade-off is such that part of it is always going to be unpleasant, or its not a trade-off. I’m traveling to Spain tomorrow, and I’m really looking forward to my trip, but in order to go there, I will have to miss both the yearly art fair and the town book fair, which I love and wait for all year long. It is not irrational of me to look at my options and choose the conference. What would be irrational is to refuse the trip and then stay home and not go to the hometown events. Voting for Democrats would be this irrational choice. They are not offering me anything that I want and instead offer a plethora of things that I most definitely do not.
Liberals want to vote for a politician who presents to them an attractive personal brand with which they want to associate. Conservatives are less neoliberalized and don’t care as much about individualities and personal branding.
Remember when the Democrats decided to run Tim Walz as VP and realized that he was very unpopular with men? What they did then looks completely insane to a conservative mind, but very reasonable to a liberal one. They started dressing him in khakis and filming him holding a hunting rifle. It never occurred to his handlers that, instead of this dress-up show, their candidate should try to offer the voter group he’s trying to attract something that this voter group wants. Because in their reality, what people need is an appealing personal brand to which they can attach themselves. They didn’t offer anything else because they don’t know how to want anything else.
Both groups looked utterly insane to each other. One was completely confused by this marketing routine, and the other couldn’t figure out why the routine was not landing.
Or take Kamala’s “joy” campaign. Liberal people did not perceive what she was doing as weird. They didn’t understand why such a positive campaign associated with a good, if anodyne, emotion was not gaining traction. In the meantime, Trump, with what is probably the most poisonous personal brand in America, was winning. What could they conclude other than that conservatives are either stupid or blind? That Kamala’s joy was completely fake didn’t matter. Marketing campaigns are always artificial, and that doesn’t bother anybody.
When I was first learning Spanish, I started hanging out with a Hispanic student who had a young child. She kept referring to her daughter as “mi negra.” My Spanish wasn’t fantastic back then, and my cultural competence was even worse. I assumed that the Argentinian woman had a black child and never thought of it again.
One day, my friend called me to say that she was going to bring her daughter to campus, and I would finally meet “la negrita.” I was befuddled when she presented to me a blue-eyed Scandinavian-blonde little girl.
That’s when I realized why her nickname for me was “la flaca”.
I decided to be fair to the Democrats and research what they’re proposing to lower gas prices. Here is what ChatGPT found for me. If you have better sources, please list them in the comments, but what the notoriously left-leaning AI engine found is this:
What do you notice in these measures? Trump is already proposing to ban diesel sales overseas and send dividends to voters. This takes care of numbers 1 and 2. Number 3 is create more bureaucracy.
Number 4 is go back to the Green New Deal.
If people are planning to vote Democrat over high gas prices, which is a very legitimate concern, can they please point out which of these measures proposed by the Democrats to address the issue makes them confident that they will manage to tackle it?
A conservative literary critic and college professor
“So… you’re answer is a or b…” I think you’re looking for “your answer is a or b,” Big Guy.…
Those are my favorite kind of books.
I really hoped you enjoy it!
I have downloaded a copy, and it’s next in line.
I strongly believe that this one novel by W.B. Maxwell is better than either of these authors. I know it…
It’s also reportedly great for hangovers. As well as the liquid from pickled cucumbers
You’ve not read Thackery? Or Kipling?
“difference between a fraud problem and an immigration problem” So… you’re answer is a or b. There should be no…
Cliff, I’ve lived a long freaking time. Probably a shade longer than I would have liked. But one thing I…
“Let’s take letting everyone in and out all wlly nilly as rather bad from an inclusion standpoint.” Immigration policy is,…
“Kapustka is, of course, pickled cabbage” Do you drink the juice from it? If you think you might be coming…
“Bad Day at Black Rock is a laughable…” Walnut, you absolutely need what Spencer Tracy gave to Ernest Borgnine in…
As my child often says, “Mommy, can I eat this cabbage with kapustka on the side?” Kapustka is, of course,…
“There is no Trump in Russia…” I can only assume you’re taking the piss with me now. But in case…
OT: The Eastern European food pyramid. https://x.com/Jpod_art/status/2113965774641484010
To continue— Immigration, mass migration, etc. Come a little closer. Let me whisper in your ear. It’s a problem. It’s…
There is no Trump in Russia. Is Russia a good nation-state? No Trump in Haiti. Is that a good one?…
This was all outweighed by one really amazing and professional male nurse who should be shown to everybody else at…
“Define what you mean…” Jeez, nothing but imperious commands and demands…again. Are we allergic to courtesy on this blog? Well,…
Jfc. Very sorry you experienced this.
Sounds like one of the many projects supported by the Soviets.
Sorry, just one more story so that people understand what I’m talking about. When my mother died and I finally…
I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the Montreal Jewish Hospital in the past year. As my mother’s illness…
Bad Day at Blackrock is a laughable, leftist wet dream in which the FDR Democrat left and Hollywood get to…
“who would you prefer to attend to you in a retirement home” All things considered, probably a Filipina… they seem…
Every Spanish government since the mid-1980s has contributed to fostering the obsession with the Civil War as a way of…
Let’s place bets on the probability of the answer being that a good nation-state lets everybody in who wants to…
“I want to bring back the GOOD nation state” Define what you mean by that. Extra challenge: Do so in…
There’s no nation-state without borders. You cannot be for nation-state + welfare and simultaneously for mass migration.
“I can’t respond to the rest…” I’m ALL FOR the nation state. I think I was pretty clear about that.…
I can’t respond to the rest of the comment because I haven’t watched the movie. As for dismantling the welfare…
“I just want to mention that I’m not the one…” So noted. And I’m not the one who chose to…
I just want to mention that I’m not the one who sexualized the content.
Okay, I can cop to condescension and possibly a smirk (also making a classic masturbatory gesture with one hand while…
LOL, I think that downvoting without explanation within a political blog is completely teats-useless, the equivalent of an empty-headed frown.…
Modern left: winning hearts and minds through condescension; replacing clarity and policy with smirking.
Brandon hasn’t been a thing for a better part of a decade. My kid was still in diapers during Brandon.…
I know you like downvotes to be accounted for, so, briefly: “suicidal empathy???” I mean, it’s almost adorable that you…
Suicidal empathy is destroying Western civilization. https://midwestchick.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/08ea50ad-c5ba-4eee-a239-66e5ed1d3e0e.png
“Spaniards are still dealing with the legacy of the Civil War” God… I wish they’d effin’ get over it…. Eastern…
