The university administration proposed to address the budget cuts by raising the instructors’ work load from 4 to 5 courses per semester without raising their pay in any way.

One of the instructors responded that a greater amount of money could be saved by docking the pay of everybody who makes over $120,000 per year by 5%. For those who are not familiar with public education in the US, these are people who do absolutely nothing of any value at a university.

Of course, I’m in complete agreement with the instructor. I hope the instructors (and their union) stand strong and united in this fight.

In other news, I’m being invited to Oxford (to speak at a conference) but we are in anew round of the eternal budget cuts and the Dean’s Office told us we should not broach the subject of scholarly travel while it isn’t clear what is going to happen with the budget. I have no hope that it will ever be clear what is going to happen with the budget but I really want to go to Oxford. I’m going to win $700 in a “Good Driver” contest (have I mentioned the contest?) in June, so that money can go towards paying for the trip. 

I hope Oxford doesn’t disappoint like London did in 2012.

The Russian government is calling on the country’s citizens to eat less in support of Putin. 

But that’s not the saddest part.

The saddest part is that the Russians are happy to oblige. 

I’m really embarrassed that I share a language and a culture with these sad fucks.

I read two articles in a row with the eternal wailing of “Why, oh why are we friends with the nasty Saudis?” and then went and filled up the tank for half of what I used to pay back in the Fall. Strangely, there are no bloggers bemoaning the cheapness of gas. But what’s even more bizarre than the idiocy of these moaners is that I’d be in a position to notice the price of  gas.

Still, let’s not exaggerate the extent of my sophistication. Gas stations still cause me a lot if confusion. First, the pump I chose ran out of gas. At 11 am. Has anybody heard anything like that? I never considered this possibility, so I kept trying to milk the poor empty pump with relentless dedication until the attendant interfered and wrestled the hose out of my hands.

In the end, I got out of there reeking of gas even though I have finally learned to treat the pump with the care of a person diffusing a bomb.

Isn’t it curious that people who find it easy to see the connection between the Saudis and the price of gas, as well as among a million other things, are usually the ones who see a mundane task like filling up the tank as a serious challenge.

The most hilarious thing is that the debate whether Russia has anything to do with what’s happening in the South – East of Ukraine rages on.

A Russian newscast shows a Russian soldier, dressed in the uniform of the Russian army and armed with Russian military – issue weaponry standing in the midst of ruins in Donetsk and discussing “the civil war in Ukraine.” And it doesn’t occur to anybody in Russia to ask what a Russian soldier is doing in the midst of an alleged civil war.

I decided a while ago to check out of these debates because people who are still not convinced that Russia is waging a war on Ukraine will not be convinced no matter what. Many Ukrainians believe that if we try very hard, provide even more incontrovertible evidence, then we will finally be believed. But this isn’t about lack of proof. It’s about a cynical attempt to make the suffering of the victims even greater while draining their energy.

And while I’m on it, here is another idiot who keeps popping up in my blogroll:

According to a new World Bank report [ht: sm], on inequality in South Asia, among the United States, Bangladesh, India, and Vietnam, the probability of moving out of poverty within a generation (from 2005 to 2010) was highest in Vietnam.

Just to put a point on it: upward mobility from poverty was the same in the United States and Bangladesh.

The freak forgets to mention, however, that the US poverty is a tad different from poverty in Bangladesh. 

There is nothing that annoys me more than the way some pseudo-progressives brandish about the word “Bangladesh” whenever they need to feel sorry for themselves. I have no idea why, but it’s always Bangladesh they evoke when they want to make some excruciatingly stupid point about how hugely miserable they are. Not Myanmar, not Laos, not Vietnam, but always Bangladesh. Since the folks who keep prattling about Bangladesh know nothing about any of these countries, I’m guessing they choose the one whose name has the greatest number of syllables. A longer word makes them feel smarter and gives some weight to their idiotic statements. “See? Ban-gla-desh! It’s a long word I have mastered, so I must definitely know what I’m talking about!”

Obviously, the people who keep using Bangladesh to stand for “the most horrible place on Earth where everything is horrible and now let’s all feel sorry for me because of how horrible Bangladesh is” have never been to Bangladesh and will not be able to find it on a map on the first try. They haven’t read a single book by a Bangladeshi author and have no Bangladeshi friends. Yet they love to make use of the word “Bangladesh” to make points and win arguments. Curiously, the same people love to denounce colonialism with a passion and quote Edward Said like he’s their Jesus. They all agree that Orientalism is bad, yet see no problem with using “Bangladesh” as a rhetorical device.

If you read the stinky Putinoid “Naked Capitalism” website with any other goal but that of making fun of these cheap freakazoids, then please go away from my blog and don’t soil this website with your presence.

I have no idea who recommended that I place this garbage dump of a website on my blogroll but this person did me no favors. I already knew that there was a bunch of pathetic Western pseudo-Lefties who loved placing their lying tongues deep into Putin’s anal cavity. No reminders were needed of their pervasiveness. I work in academia. I see these Putinoid losers every day. They come up to me on regular occasions and mumble, with their wimpy half-smiles, “But Putin is a good guy, right?”

If anybody wasn’t convinced that the Republican Congress doesn’t want to do anything about abortion except for talking about it, here is proof.

Obviously, there was no “women’s revolt” in the Congress. It’s all just a show. And we’ll keep witnessing the show for the next 8 years.

We all know what the anti-abortion hysteria (with its outgrowth, the insane 39-week law) has done to me. But I’m still convinced that this outburst of abortion talk is a very clumsy ploy aimed at distracting us from what is really going on. Let’s not allow ourselves to be dragged into this insanity.

For 242 days, Russians tried to wrestle the Donetsk Airport away from a handful of Ukrainian fighters. Many of the best Russian special ops soldiers were killed in the effort. Many Chechens were killed.

The Donetsk Airport became a symbol of Ukraine ‘ s heroic resistance in the face of a much more powerful and numerous enemy force.

Finally, the Russians realized that they weren’t going to achieve the feat they’d been promising the avid TV viewers back in Russia and capture the airport. So in a fit of blind fury, they destroyed it.

Here is what the Donetsk Airport looks like now:

This is what it looked like before:

And this:

So much senseless destruction, so much death.

But at least the Russian TV viewers are happy because tonight’s shows will be especially fun to watch. The destruction of the airport is being massively celebrated right now in Russia. Now they have really shown the evil Americans who’s boss!

Reader Stille asked a very important question as to what the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is at this point.

I believe that underneath all of the empty sloganeering aimed at people who like to hear familiar and comforting sounds all of the time, there is a single yet crucial distinction:

Republicans believe that if you’ve got to cut a dog’s tail off, it’s better to do it in a single clean cut instead of dragging out the painful process indefinitely. They want to roll back the nation-state ‘ s caring government* now and let the post-nation – state sweep in immediately.

Democrats, on the other hand, believe that the transformation will be painful and there is still time to soften the blow.
This contrast can be easily observed in Obama’s extremely proactive SOTU last night and the Republican insistence on tinkering with the boring issue of abortion in the newly Republican congress. The Congress chose to concentrate on this matter precisely because it’s so irrelevant to the voters. The downside of the caring government was always its obsessive need to control and legislate morality. It is no longer possible for a government to do that, and the Republican Congress is reminding us (not consciously, of course) what we will be gaining when we let the nation-state go.

It’s time to stop clinging to our old party allegiances** and reevaluate them in view of the new reality. Do you believe that the transition away from the nation-state should be softened? Or do you believe that it makes no sense to drag the process out?

I obviously believe that it should be softened as much as possible.

* As we have learned in our discussions of the nation-state, such a caring government is both a wonderful and a horrible thing.

** An incapacity to let go of old systems of belief and change one’s mind is a symptom of intellectual caducity.