This is the Russian city of Belgorod last night:

Belgorod is located right across the border from Kharkiv, the city where I’m from. Kharkiv is the second-largest city in Ukraine, the second capital of the country, and an important historic center of Ukrainian culture. Yes, eventually, the Russians will be defeated and will crawl back home. But before that happens, they are very likely to destroy this beautiful historic city and its extraordinary architecture. In this war, the Russians are using the scorched-earth strategy: they wipe out even the tiniest, completely peaceful villages just because they can. 

The stupid loser John Schindler who blogs at the website called XXCommittee says that I’m “someone who pretends to be an American and fanatical supporter of Ukraine.” In reality, he suggests, I work for the Kremlin. There is a whole investigation conducted by one of his equally dense fans into who I am. They seem to have arrived at a conclusion that WordPress belongs to Serbia.

Poor facile freak. He writes endless screeds and countless tweets promoting Putin’s goals and then sees Kremlin agents under every piece of furniture. 

Russia’s Minister of Defense said, by the way, that Russia is prepared to “defend its interests in the Arctic with military means.” He also said that he won’t allow anybody to be militarily superior to Russia. 

Russia’s opponent in the Arctic is Canada, of course. And Canada will fold before any conflict begins. 

The question is, of course, why Russia would need the Arctic if it has enormous territories it can neither populate nor use in any way. But the point here is to antagonize as many people as possible and not to do anything about the Arctic.

Some unhinged Russian is threatening me with nuclear war on Twitter. At this point, the frequency of the usage of the expression “nuclear war” in Russia is extraordinary.

It started as a joke. The first time somebody said “Let’s just nuke those Americans” on TV, it was shocking and unexpected. And now it’s an everyday occurrence. The other day, Russians marched with enormous imitation nukes that had “This one is personally for Obama” written on them. There were ritual hangings of Obama effigies in several Russian regions.

I really hope that somebody is paying attention. The Russians are unraveling in a collective bout of extreme hysteria, and they are capable of many bad things right now. Let’s not be duped by the polls that tell us 86% of Russians support Putin. The other 14% are not opposed to Putin. They just think he’s not radical enough in his anti-Western policies. The probability of Russians rising against Putin that many brainless Western analysts are floating around is nil.

The sooner we all awaken to reality is better. People, you know me. I always look for the best even in the worst circumstances. But I’m telling you that this is going in a really bad direction. Russia is a huge country with an enormous military capacity. I don’t know what needs to happen for somebody to start paying attention.

Even if somebody in the West just started taking the Russians seriously, that would already help defuse the situation a bit.

The Guardian is a total tabloid, right? The following can’t be true:

Who would ever want to be dirty? Yet according to a recent survey carried out by a cosmetics company, this is just what “a shocking one in three” women have “admitted” to, with 33% leaving it as long as three days from wash to wash. Worse, “four out of five women don’t shower every day”. Ah yes of course: this is all about the daily shower or bath, that well-known upper-class indicator.

One more opportunity for many people to feel sorry for themselves. And the cost is small: either nor washing or fantasizing about not washing in a paroxysm of imaginary business.

Just heard people of Hispanic origin say on TV that they don’t learn Spanish because American schools teach “the Castilian version of Spanish.”

Of all the ridiculous excuses in existence, this is the silliest.

The most potent (in their opinion) argument that Putinoids advance to convince Ukrainians to stop resisting the Russian invasion is, “You think you’ll get handouts from Europe? No, you won’t! They won’t give you any money!”

The sheer desperation with which the Russians advance this argument shows that they really believe that handouts are the only thing worth fighting for. 

And while I’m on sharing links, here is a very sad update on James Robertson, the Detroiter who had to walk 21 miles to work every day because he had no car.

A short resume: charity doesn’t help address poverty. It often makes things worse because a poor person doesn’t live in a vacuum. There is a whole reality around him.

In an endless flow of pearl-clutchers who still can’t get over the existence of porn, here us a refreshingly good article about 50 Shades of Grey:

Most grownups know that fantasy doesn’t equal desire and that it doesn’t predict behavior. One of the ways we cope with the pressures and complicated decision-making of adulthood is fantasy.

Fantasy, and especially erotic fantasy, is the absolutely best way to recharge oneself with energy and, as the linked piece points out, to deal with the problems one encounters in daily life.

Good article, and the last paragraph is really strong. A good response to the puritanical paranoia that has so many people wriggling and foaming at the mouth.

“Why is the Ukrainian anthem so depressing?” the Russian asked. “It starts with ‘Ukraine isn’t dead yet.’ What’s that if not defeatist?”

“Defeatist? Depressing?” I vociferated scaring the restaurant’s patrons. “If you people would just fuck the fuck off already, we’d get a chance to come up with a more optimistic anthem! With you around, it’s already a huge achievement for Ukrainians not to be dead yet!”