It’s 82 inches with leaf, 70 without. Chairs included in the price.

Don’t mind me, folks, it’s my way of taking notes.

Starting yesterday, Russian soldiers and members of Russian special forces present in the territory of Ukraine stopped concealing their identities and are now stating directly to anybody who cares to ask that they belong to the Russian military. Putin also admitted publicly for the first time that his troops were in the Crimea before the referendum and were crucial in making the referendum happen. A couple of weeks ago, he vehemently denied this but yesterday dropped the pretense.

So why the sudden change?

The reason why Russian troops no longer consider it necessary to hide who they are is that their presence in Ukraine has been accepted and approved by the United States.

The reason why Putin no longer considers it necessary to lie about invading the Crimea before the referendum is that his actions in Ukraine have been accepted and approved by the United States.

Yesterday, Ukraine was forced to sign the Geneva agreement according to which Ukrainians will disarm and cease all efforts to defend themselves in their own territory. Russia promises nothing and is guaranteed by this agreement the right to mess in the affairs of Ukraine as it sees fit. The agreement forces Ukraine to initiate a process of rearranging its territory in a way that will lead to an easier annexation of the Southeast of Ukraine by Russia. Russia undertakes to supervise this process lest it doesn’t facilitate further invasion as well as it should.

This agreement is nothing but a way for the US to save face. Of course, many Ukrainians will not disarm. They have been beaten, attacked, persecuted and assaulted by Russian troops in the streets of their own cities. If you were invaded by a foreign army, would you give up your gun (baseball bat, hunting rifle, knife, etc.) as a gesture of good will towards the invaders without getting anything in return? Obviously not.

And after Ukrainians refuse to relinquish their weapons, Russians will exclaim triumphantly, “Look, they broke the agreements! Our presence is sorely needed!” and the US will say, “Yes, Ukrainians broke the agreements, we can’t be expected to defend people who can’t even respect diplomacy.”

I know I only have very intelligent readers who won’t ask, “But why then did Ukrainians sign these agreements if they are so disadvantageous to them?” The idea of Ukraine fighting a war against Russia and NATO at the same time is understandably not very appealing to Ukraine. And if somebody experiences the need to ask why Ukrainians agreed to this, maybe that person could start by asking the Poles why they “agreed” to be part of the Soviet bloc or why Germans “agreed” for Berlin to be partitioned.

American foreign policy has led to a series of humiliating defeats in the recent stand-off with Russia. Yesterday, the US agreed to hand over Ukraine for Russia to colonize, rob and torture, as long as President Putin, in his infinite kindness and magnanimity, will allow Americans to pretend that they still have some influence in the region.

The entrance into modernity is a painful and traumatic business for everybody. Two world wars and endless local conflicts have been fought over it. Russia is going into a tailspin right now because a neighbor who is entering into modernity faster than Russia is prepared to do freaks the whole country out. And before you condemn the stupid, terrified Russians, tell me where your country was in 1914 and 1939. I’m guessing it was either in the exact same place or about to get there.

The US was always much better at modernity than everybody else. Anti-colonial struggle, Constitution, separation of church and state, participatory democracy, individualism, capitalism, industrialization, women’s rights, workers’ rights, sexual revolution, mass culture, technology, education, science – it was always ahead, always rushing head on into modernity, the very modernity that everybody else feared so much. The US fought its big anti-modernity vs pro-modernity war back in the 1860s and, as a result, wasn’t that interested, that emotionally involved and passionately invested in the two world wars. Why worry and fret if the decision to become modern was made long before others started to awaken to the inescapable push of modernity?

And then something happened. It was as if by the end of the XXth century the country had reached the limit of its capacity to tolerate modernity and got scared of its own comfort with it. Great efforts started to be made to roll back all of the great advances achieved since the XVIIIth century. Modernity’s greatest project – and its greatest success – seems to be giving up on it.

Of course, it’s all useless. Time can’t be turned backwards, and just like every effort the world has seen of stopping modernity’s triumph, this one will fail, too. It’s up to us whether the price we pay for this resistance is as high as what others paid for it.

Nurse: I will need to remove your IV.

Me: I already removed it.

Nurse: What do you mean?

Me: I took it out. Off. Removed it.

Nurse: I don’t understand.

Me: Here it is. See? I removed it.

Nurse: Are you on something?

Me: You asked me 4 times already. No, I’m not on any medication.

Nurse: But how did you manage to take out the IV then?

Me (tired, hungry, and getting impatient): I’m sorry, I don’t see the connection.

Nurse: This must have been so painful!!!

This tells me that every time I was doing the “rate your pain on the scale of 1 to 10” thing I was not making myself understood.

A performance of an aria from the opera “Ruslan and Lyudmila” was cancelled in Moscow because it contains the lines, “Dnieper is wide and Kiev is far away.”

As one Russian commenter joked, now it makes sense to outlaw the famous Winnie the Pooh cartoon because the rabbit in the cartoon looks very much like Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, and the whole scene where Winnie the Pooh (who obviously symbolizes Russia’s Prime Minister Medvedev because of Medvedev’s last name) visits the rabbit and eats all his food is very unpatriotic towards Russia.

So the Russian bandits in Ukraine finally realized that they will not manage to recruit Ukraine’s Jews to their side. Now the have dropped the pretense of wanting to “defend” Jews from Ukrainian nationalists and started showing their true anti-Semitic colors.

As the Jews in Donetsk were leaving the synagogue, they were given leaflets, telling them that all Jews needed to register and list all their property. The explanation given was that this was the result of the Jews supporting the Ukrainian nationalists.

My father just reminded me of this story when I told him I was waiting for a cab. I’m not sure if I told it here before, but repetition is the mother of learning, as we say.

Back in New Haven I once called the cab company to request a cab.

“Is it OK if the driver is black?” the lady at the cab company asked.

One more thing, have you heard about Snowden’s participation in Putin’s most recent fake tele-interview with “regular” citizens?

Here is an article about that. Please read and comment. I have to say, I’m kind of appalled. I haven’t watched this tele-interview but I’ve seen the previous ones and I can assure you that they are entirely barf-worthy. Is Snowden being forced to participate in this kind of thing?

While I’m out of commission and on my way to the ER, please enjoy the most ridiculous article I have read all week. The gist of the article is that while posting photos of yourself online (selfies) is empowering and feminist, posting photos of your bookshelves (bookshelfies) is elitist and wrong.

I like taking selfies and posting them on this blog, but I don’t do that to feel “empowered” (I don’t even really know what “empowering” is supposed to mean.) I do it because it’s fun and my readers seem to like being able to put a face to a bunch of endless rants. I also don’t get what’s so elitist about having books. According to the linked article:

Owning large quantities of books, being familiar with them, frequently referring to them, working in an industry where books are valued, these are all markers of upper middle class status, reflecting education, purchasing power, and social privilege.

The statement is too ridiculous and offensive for me to analyze in detail, especially now that I’m not feeling well. But I knew my readers would enjoy this completely idiotic piece and would have fun with it.

You can also find two interesting responses to the linked piece here.