Do you, folks, understand all the fuss around sexting?

“OMG, these photos will ruin the teenagers’ lives forever!”

The photos will only have an impact on their lives because prudes like these get crerpily excited over a bunch of boring amateur naked photos. Otherwise, their impact would be nil.

In Colorado, idiots want to arrest kids for sending out naked pictures of themselves. Apparently, being arrested will be very helpful in getting them to not have their lives ruined. Let’s save them from the devil of their own nakedness!

Writing introductions sucks. I’m mostly finished with the body of the book, and now it’s time to do the most important part, which is obviously the intro. I know exactly what I need to say, I have a very detailed plan, all the sources that I will quote, everything. Still, the work progresses at a painfully slow pace. If I’m lucky I manage to squeeze out 300 words a day (there is a lot of cutting involved in the process.)

I know that there are people who submit book proposals before having the entire book done but I can’t do that. For logistical reasons, I need to have the whole thing done by January 15 at the latest. And, of course, there are the 3 articles that have been accepted and that are awaiting revision that also have to be done before that date.

But there is a reward at the end of this crazy marathon. Once everything is submitted, I will have a real vacation where I will do nothing but lie in bed, watch Dr Phil, and read stupid mystery novels.

What just might keep me from voting for Clinton is this: Her most recent and most prominent public position was secretary of state. And her biggest accomplishment in that office was helping to persuade President Obama to intervene militarily in Libya to oust Moammar Gadhafi. It was easily the dumbest foreign policy decision of Obama’s presidency, plunging yet another Middle Eastern nation into anarchy. As one would expect, life in Libya today is markedly worse than it was under Gadhafi’s tyranny: Food and electricity are scarce, the economy is at a standstill, crime and violence are rampant, and the nation has become a major migration route for refugees from North Africa to Europe.

People just slaughter me with their idiocy sometimes. First they whelp, “Arab spring! Yip-dee-do!” like stuck chickens and run around, telling everybody that finally the time has come when “everything will be good and nothing will be bad.” Then, the moment reality shows that their childish fantasies are stupid and unreasonable, they find a Parent Figure who can be blamed for the collapse of their Peter Pan-inspired hopes and begin to throw tantrums in that figure’s direction. 

Of course, these passionate revolutionaries want change, they want to inhabit a different world, but they want that world to be created by somebody else and in a way that doesn’t disturb their favorite pastime of sitting in comfortable armchairs, stuffing their faces with food and moaning about how others are not doing a good enough job of making their fantasies come true.

Everybody is making fun of the bratty Yale students but the author of the linked piece is no different. He is looking to be adopted by somebody big and powerful and freaks out when reality fails to provide him with this cosmic Mommy he seeks.

International Energy Agency says that the price of petrol will go up to $80 per barrel from today’s price of  $47 by 2020. This is not good news. If Putin manages to stick it out till then (and why wouldn’t he?), then after oil prices shoot back up, we’ll never get a chance to get rid of him.

As I said, I’m not well-informed as to what’s been happening at the University of Missouri, so can anybody tell me if the following list of demands is for real:

Number four is especially cute but the rest are also lots of fun. What students are seeking is an explosive bureaucratization of campus life that will require even more resources being diverted from academics to maintaining a bunch of useless paper-pushers on campus.

As I keep saying, things don’t happen unless people want them. We cut programs, stuff crazy numbers of students into each classroom, defund research, exploit adjuncts in order to pour the money into hiring armies of paper pushers who create strategic plans, calculate retention rates, and increase awareness. And we do all this because that what everybody – save for a few grumpy folks like me – wants.

My university has finally – finally! – decided to get rid of 13 of our own such awareness-raising, strategic plan-writing bureaucrats. And who do you think is opposed to the measure? Professors, of course. How come the university has money to pay for travel to research conferences, they ask, when 13 of these entirely useless secretaries are being let go? 

I know everybody hates long quotes but bear with me just this one time because the thing is priceless. This is from an exchange between a Yale students and the unfortunate prof who found himself in the midst of a debate about having a debate about Halloween costumes:

“In your position as master,” one student says, “it is your job to create a place of comfort and home for the students who live in Silliman. You have not done that. By sending out that email, that goes against your position as master. Do you understand that?!”

“No,” he said, “I don’t agree with that.”

The student explodes, “Then why the fuck did you accept the position?! Who the fuck hired you?! You should step down! If that is what you think about being a master you should step down! It is not about creating an intellectual space! It is not! Do you understand that? It’s about creating a home here. You are not doing that!”

The student says very directly that the protesters don’t want to be taught. They want to be adopted.

I believe that people are grievously misinterpreting what is taking place here. This is not even remotely about anything political or related to social justice, freedom of speech or anything of the kind. These are unloved kids from bad families who are lashing out against any adult who refuses to adopt them and be their substitute Mommy or Daddy. They will go through life trying to attach themselves in the role of a child to every teacher, boss, romantic partner, friend, etc. And they will freak out every time they feel that teacher, boss, partner and friend are not engaging with them in a way that a loving mother does with an infant.

It’s crucial not to confuse psychological problems of individuals with politics even when individuals in question are incapable of seeing that distinction.

Charlie Hebdo committed an act of sacrilege against Putin. Putin is freaking out like the idiot that he is.

“And by the way, fuck everything forever for THIS being the stuff that takes Carson down. He doesn’t know what the debt ceiling is, he thinks Jesus is genuinely hanging out with him on weekends, and he has no idea what he’d do if somebody set off a nuke in downtown Memphis, but sure, he made up a story about high school this one time UNCLEAN UNCLEAN.” Hear, hear! This blows my mind, too.

Job applicants who indicated on their resumes they were cancer survivors and wore a hat that read “cancer survivor” when applying for a job are less likely to get hired. This is supposed to mean something sinister but, honestly, would you hire someone who wore a hat that read “completely healthy” and indicated on their resume that they never had as much as a common cold? These people sound like weirdos and not because of cancer.

The death of identity. By the way, have you heard of the woman who thought she was a blind person in a seeing person’s body and poured cleaning liquid into her eyes to make herself blind.

[Spanish] Brazilian officials are so eager to seem welcoming and inclusive that they celebrate jihadi immigrants for bringing progress to Brazil.

[Russian] In Ukraine a bureaucrat got so scared of criminal investigation of corrupt officials that she confessed to her crimes before anybody even asked.

A Turkish professor is being prosecuted for an exam question.

BLM activists are supporting a Palestinian woman who is threatened with deportation.

And another heartwarming story has to do with teaching literature and prison officers.

The worst free market higher ed idea ever. Seriously, EVER.

Rape in the US military. The title of the article is idiotic but the issue it discusses is very important.

There are so many extremely stupid people in the world. Here is one cheerful chirper torturing a pained parallel between the US and the Soviet Brezhnev era.

Texas homeschoolers refuse to teach their children anything because Jesus is coming.

Turns out that my working style is that of a Russian(-speaking) mathematician.

The Israeli government has made an initial request for its annual U.S. defense package to increase by as much as $5 billion when its current aid package, worth an average $3 billion a year, expires in 2017, U.S. congressional sources said, this last Wednesday. I’m just appalled, to be honest.

When I read or listen to the accounts of Russians who volunteered to go fight in Ukraine, the word they use most often is “a loan.” They aren’t motivated by hatred of Ukrainians or by propaganda as much as by the need to repay a loan that they have taken out or want to take out.

Of course, the instinctive dislike of Ukrainians and the justifications provided by propaganda help but they are not the central motivating factor for these volunteers.

It’s so sad that these idiots would go kill people simply because they want to buy some crap they can’t afford.

Yesterday I showed solidarity with Hispanic people by not watching SNL where Trump appeared.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have never watched an episode of SNL in my life but it’s good to know that, for once, my not watching it had a political purpose.

There are so many spoiled rich brats at Yale that it’s scary.

If you go to the link, you’ll see an overwrought article by a bored rich kid who’s getting all self-righteous about Halloween costumes that culturally appropriate. Apparently, there is a huge drama going on at Yale around not even any actual costumes but, rather, an imaginary possibility that somebody might fantasize about wearing some culturally appropriating costumes.

At my current university, we have a significant African-American student population. And I can promise you that if I came to my students with a question about culturally appropriating Halloween costumes, they’d look at me with the compassion reserved for dotty old ladies with very sheltered lives.

All of my students work. Often, they work more than one job. Many have children. Others have young siblings or ailing relatives who depend on them. They would never have the leisure to traipse around campus moaning about how an article about an article (sic!) about Halloween costumes makes them feel unsafe, hurt and traumatized to the point of not being able to eat.

Sadly, all that anybody ever hears about in terms of what is happening on campuses are these pampered drama queens and their imaginary suffering. They are a tiny minority, though. Most of the people on campuses in this country have no time, energy or interest to invest into frittering their lives on this manufactured drama. Most of us are busy doing actual work and addressing real problems.