The following is egregiously untrue and was written by a clueless chirper:

A freelance translator has to not only translate, but also handle marketing, advertising, billing, online presence, inquiries from prospective clients, and all the administrative aspects of running a business of which I’m unaware. In comparison, a staff translator spends nearly all their time translating, and their employer’s administrative staff deal with most of the rest of that stuff. So it’s easier for the staff translator to be more productive.

People, I’ve been working as a translator for 25 years. I know crowds of people who translate. So please believe my experience: if you need a translator, only go to a freelancer who works ALONE, not at some bureau. Anybody who is not a freelance translator working alone is extremely likely to give you some crappy Google – translated joke of a text instead of an actual translation.

More often than not, all these translator bureaus or translation companies are fraudsters who run your text through Google Translator and then copy-paste it onto a fancy paper template to palm it off as original translation.

I’m deeply opposed to the gig economy but in what concerns translation, I insist: only the freelance translators are the real deal.

Did everyone see how intense Bernie was at the debate last night? In terms of intensity, that’s how I am all day long.

As my bestest friend ever observed, intensity is my central quality. Ask me if I prefer orange or grapefruit juice, and I will respond with a passion of a tsunami.

I’m thinking it’s a Jewish thing.

I believe that friendship won because you’ve got to agree that when Bernie jumped in to denounce the idiocy of the email scandal and Hillary shook his hand, this was the best moment ever.

Of course, Hillary made a better showing. Bernie was losing his wind while she remained evenly energetic. Bernie is phenomenal on inequality and climate change but he is frankly bored with other issues. Hillary, on the other hand, has a well-defined, specific position on many more issues.

Hillary was, without a doubt, the most presidential of all candidates on both sides.

Who do you think won?

First of all, who are these identical and identically unfamiliar men surrounding Hillary and Bernie? They look like bodyguards.

7:50 – what a mistake to let these boring men nobody knows drone on about their boring lives. Nobody cares! Let’s move on now to somebody who is actually relevant.

7:53 – what is this, the fucking Oscars? Do we need to get the list of everybody’s relatives?

7:55 – I had no idea Bernie had such a strong Jewish accent. That is very endearing. He looks young, vigorous, and strong. Go, Bernie! The crowd goes nuts for Bernie.

7:57 – Hillary looks radiant but what’s this shit about finding a factory worker in her genealogy to trot out?

Bernie sounds a lot angrier than Hillary. I love that but will the voters?

8:00 – Hillary makes sure to hit every constituency. Calculating, as always. I love that.

8:03 – ah, enough with the question about “socialism.” Who cares about the label? I don’t like Anderson Cooper in this debate. Sandinistas? Really? Bernie is talking about paid maternity leave. Excuse me for caring more about that than about the Sandinistas.

8:15 – Hillary delivers the first personal jab to Bernie. Bernie, in response, suggests that Hillary is shrill. We all know that he’s old-school with women.

8:23 – Bernie is ready to implement the post-nation state foreign policy. Interesting!

8:25 – Hillary’s response on her Iraq vote is the bomb. Fantastic job, Hillary!

8:34 – as I said before, Bernie’s understanding of Russia is non-existent. Just like everyone else’s. But he doesn’t manage to conceal his confusion. That’s not good.

8:49 – Bernie rules with “the people are fed up with the emails!”

Bernie and Hillary shake hands and the audience goes nuts with joy. That’s the best moment of the debate.

8:50 – wow, Hillary is GOOD. The second part of the debate rocks.

8:51 – questions about race just have to be handed to a black reporter? Jeez. What a way to tokenize a fellow.

8:56 – finally, somebody brings up the recession and points out who was to blame.

9:12 – and a guy called Carlos gets to ask the question about Hispanic immigrants? That’s just ridiculous. And offensive. Boo, CNN!

9:17 – Webb repeats THE SAME boring story about his wife? Is he not fully sober? He keeps bitching about not getting enough time to speak but when he is given an opportunity, he recites the same old boring and irrelevant story.

9:23 – Hillary stands strong on that dirty weasel Snowden. Yay to her! Bernie actually agrees Snowden is a criminal and needs to pay. Big win for reason.

9:26 – “Secretary Clinton, how will you be different from Obama?” Hillary: “Vagina, vagina, vagina!”

9:36 – Bernie just made the same argument as Trump, verbatim. That was not a good idea.

9:39 – Bernie is losing wind, unfortunately. Now he brings up Pope Francis and repeats the gaffe of the decade about “working with Russia on climate change.”

Mainstream reporters are truly special. Two minutes ago on NPR a perky gentleman informed the listeners that “Ukraine was brought to its knees by pro-Russian rebels.”

It’s sad that the so-called rebels don’t listen to NPR because they’ve been wailing to the skies, complaining about losing the war with Ukraine. I’m sure they’d be interested in hearing that a chirpy fellow in the US thinks they actually won.

Every day the NYTIMES features several photos of dead Palestinians killed in the new wave of violence in Israel. There are never any photos of dead Jews killed in that same wave of violence. We all know they exist, articles that accompany the photos mention them but they don’t make it into the photos.

In their efforts to be “inclusive” some people go completely nuts:

It’s great to see Zuckerberg finally acknowledging the many ways in which people use Facebook. When he used the platform back in August to speak publicly about the three miscarriages he and his wife experienced, it appears he understood the power of Facebook to share news and stories that aren’t exactly likable.

Not only does it turn out that a man can have a miscarriage, he is actually listed as the primary miscarrier. Gosh, some women hate themselves so much that they can’t accept the basic and obvious fact that men don’t get pregnant, don’t miscarry, don’t give birth, and don’t breastfeed. It’s like a woman can’t even avoid having her bodily functions colonized by men.

Somehow, I’m not seeing any men referring to their testicles and penis as “ours.” Like in “my wife and I have been having some pus coming out of our penis” or “my girlfriend and I like to tuck our balls snugly into the briefs.”

Women, wake up. Your reproductive organs are yours and yours alone. Just like men’s reproductive organs are only theirs.

Yes, the linked article is on a different subject but that subject is so trivial it’s offensive to my sensibilities.

I hate the word “essence” but I’m too tired to look for a better one.

This is a very important point: trauma always brings out people’s true essence. Whatever one really is always comes out when one experiences a tragic event.

We often say, “No, that’s not who she really is. She only acts this way because of the trauma.” But the truth is that this is precisely who she is, and trauma has stripped her of the usual means that masquerade her essence.

After experiencing a horrible event, we look into the mirror and finally see who we really are. For some people, the discovery is unexpectedly good. For others, a glimpse into their true self is shockingly repugnant.

I swear, I will throw up all over my home library if I read one more short story where a European protagonist loses his or her job because of the crisis and realizes how much better off people in Africa are because they are not materialistic and possess the true riches of their spirituality.

I understand that the crisis is traumatic and everybody deals with trauma in their own way. I wish, however, that people tried not to be such total pricks about it.

I’m not hugely happy with the state of medical care in North America. Doctors take on too many patients and seem preoccupied with nothing but making money. The treatment they offer is limited to prescribing pills, and their attitude to patients is too infected by conveyor-belt mentality. And it’s the same in Canada and the US, so it’s not about the state versus private system of medical care.

The only two health professionals I have met in North America who left a good impression are both from South Africa. I have no idea what it is about South Africa that makes doctors more human and capable to look you in the eye instead of being glued to their scrip pad, but that’s my experience.

Obviously, this is all strictly anecdotal but I find it curious nonetheless.