Somebody I know in person (actually, it’s that friend in Nigeria I mentioned the other day) is organizing the following great project:

A web-based, crowd-sourced, multimedia dictionary of Yoruba names.

This project seeks to create an online multimedia database of all Yoruba names; a place of knowledge for those who need it. People removed from their homeland can look to it and find a lost connection while those not familiar with the Yoruba culture can come there to learn about Yoruba names, spelling, etymology, meanings, stories, et al; a wiki of sorts, a free web-based multimedia repository of knowledge open to all; a dictionary; a project designed to reverse a trend and preserve a culture. 

If you want to know more about the dictionary or how you can help

PLEASE GO HERE.

A Russian – speaking blogger wrote that a religious feeling that can be hurt or offended is worthless.

I agree with this statement completely. The faith that exists on the same plane  with cartoons, movies, ads, etc is no faith at all. It’s an identity – building set of superstitions that, for primitive human beings, stands in place of a meaningful relationship between a human being and a philosophy of life, death and the meaning of existence  (aka religion).

“Don’t insult my religion,” are the words of somebody who has never even been in the same time zone with an actual religious feeling. 

There is a scary number of people in Russia saying that what happened to the French victims of terror attacks this week was “punishment from God.”

Even according to the inflated stats of the Russian Orthodox Church, only 2% of Russians even practice this religion. Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya, who has also been saying this shit,  understands Islam like I understand Japanese.

It’s beyond annoying to see the loyal, atheist Communists of yesterday start running around all of a sudden, waving crucifixes and blabbing about God’s punishments.

Freaks.

To the people who keep asking why I care more about the slaughter of Charlie Hebdo cartoonists than other, even more massive tragedies, I’ve got this to say.

It is impossible to have equally intense reactions to everything. The human psyche can’t deal. It has to be selective about what it takes in and allows one to grieve over.

I have a much more intense reaction to my niece bumping her knee than to the horrible accident in Michigan. This doesn’t mean that I’m cruel or don’t consider the lives of people in Michigan valuable. It is normal to care more about what we know better. I never plan to go back to Ukraine, yet I care deeply about the events there for the simple reason that  I understand them.

The brain invests energy into learning about things and then values these things because the knowledge came at a cost. I care passionately about Spain but have zero interest in what happens in the neighboring Portugal. The only difference between the countries (to me) is that I expended effort to learn about one of them.

I find it tiresome that people keep assigning sinister motives to the most normal things in the world. “Ooh, you care more about the few killed in Paris than the thousands dead in Iraq. Islamophobe! Racist!” This is just bizarre given that there is a much simpler reason: I grew up with French books, fairy-tales, TV shows, and French – Russian dictionaries. I’ve never been to Paris but I know half of the street names there. The very first childhood crush I had was on a French actor. I know the French literature better than most French. Plus, I’m a journalist who writes controversial things online. Plus, I’m Jewish. Yes, it’s a total shock I care. 

In a phone call to a French radio station, Sharif Kouashi maintained that he was in Yemen with AQAP bigwig Anwar al-Awlaqi, who, he said, “funded” him.

I wonder why I had to be subjected to all those weepy articles about the sainted Anwar al-Awlaqi who supposedly never hurt a fly before being cruelly mowed down by Obama’s drone? The were mile-long pieces on this about a year ago written in the tone of “the meanie Obama killed Santa al-Awlaqi and now I won’t get my Christmas gifts.”

I’m having the worst possible luck on this trip. I spent the night, listening to polite robotic recordings tell me, “Dear valued customer, your flight has been canceled. Please stay on the line.”

From 2 to 5 am, I was trying to get myself on a plane  -any plane – out of here. And after I finally booked a new ticket and settled down to sleep for a couple of hours, polite robotic voices kept calling me to tell me to stay on the line because of some glitch. (Seriously, these were not voices in my head but real phone calls. I think.)

I’m now at the airport, trying to avoid telling the customs officer that my name is Dear Valued Customer.

If you are a reader of this blog who spent time with me in Montréal, thank you for interspersing this trip from hell with good moments.

I’m exhausted and can’t wait to get home.

I was compensated for scrolling through endless yes-butting in my blogroll when I finally found something that makes every sense in the world:

“Yesterday I said that commentary of the form “You know, they really shouldn’t have said that…” is problematic. To be clear, what’s even more problematic is aiming collective blame at all Muslims. I love offensive art and I hate collective blame. I have no patience for PC scolds with their “Well, now, obviously I don’t support violence, but you really shouldn’t be offending people…” and I also have no patience for the flagrantly un-PC “Clearly we need to blame random people minding their own business” nonsense that’s getting spouted against Muslims.”

I couldn’t agree more. And once again, I feel like I might be OK with people. My faith in humanity has been restored.

It’s like there literally is nothing but yes-butting in my blogroll today:

I’m not trying to condone or justify the murders in any way. The murders were horrible, and I hope the killers are caught and brought to justice.But the reaction I am talking about there is not a reaction to human beings being killed.

I’m starting to fear that 2015 will be the year of the yes-butter.

From the same article by the same author:

Yes, it is horrible that 12 people were killed, but how many people were killed by Obama’s drones last week?

The guy has nothing whatsoever else to say in his piece aside from these yes-buts. It might seem funny until you remember that yes-butting is a sign of extreme passivity and inertia. Yes-butters need to be shamed and ridiculed until they stop poisoning the air we all breathe with the noxious fumes of their impotent whining.

Here are some examples of yes – butting. This weird creature is yes-butting the idea of free community colleges to death:

I want to believe, I surely do, but I just have yet to find a free lunch. From what I have pieced together today, it seems that the President’s proposal is more of a trick to drive more control to Washington.

And this is a Charlie Hebdo yes-butter:

All of these things are far more serious than the Charlie Hebdo attack.  (Moral Moment disclaimer: yes, they were horrible and inexcusable.)

And another community college yes-butter:

Obama wants to provide free tuition at community colleges, a proposal that could benefit

as many as 9 million students, according to a White House outline of the plan released Thursday.But there’s one big caveat in the

proposal

These loser don’t do anything, don’t achieve anything. They just sit there like stupid pieces of uncollected trash, badmouthing those who do work, try, and achieve.

Sometimes people annoy me to an extraordinary degree. Just as Obama announced the truly phenomenal plan of offering free community college education to all Americans, everybody and their uncle started yes – butting the idea to death.

If before it steps back for good the state decides to do one last thing for the people to prepare them for the new state form, how can this possibly be a bad thing? A massive effort to educate those who are likely to be left behind by the new order is exactly what we need. It is crucial that we all get behind this plan and make sure it is carried out as soon as possible.

Time is running out. This needs to start happening now. I think I have written enough on the collapse of the nation-state to make it clear why education is the only thing that can mitigate the effects of the transformation for the people.