I’m not watching the Republican primary debate but I heard Chris Christie referred to one of the opponents as “the guy who sounds like ChatGPT”. Does anybody know whom he meant? It had to be DeSantis, right?

Identity, as we shall see, is something peculiar to liberalism; it is the mutilated corpse of civilization. What distinguishes a civilization state is its ability to provide an overarching framework for social and political life and therefore a viable or plausible alternative to the liberalism of the West.

https://www.noemamag.com/the-return-of-civilizations/

A very good article.

Sometimes it’s better to admit defeat.

I’ve been working on a book project for years, and it’s a dud. I should have known it’s a dud because I wrote two other books while keeping it on the back burner. This should have told me that I’m not excited about it. It’s a drag.

The reason the book didn’t work out is because I mishandled it from the start. For a reason I can’t fully explain, I decided to chuck everything I know about working on long-term projects and do the exact opposite.

What works for me is to have a book plan, with chapter names, tiles of books I’ll analyze in each and the main idea of each chapter. Then I write one chapter, finish it, revise the main idea based on what I found. Write another chapter, finish, and revise the first chapter and the main idea. And so on. That works.

But for the poor, innocent dud, I abandoned the policy of targeted strikes and went with the carpet-bombing technique, writing several chapters at once, not knowing how many there will be, being unable to define the scope, and getting hopelessly bogged down.

The result is a confusing, directionless, repetitive mess.

Sometimes, concession is whatevs, whatevs, so I’m officially conceding defeat and starting a completely new project titled Neoliberal Love. I already did the complete book plan today.

The failure of the poor dud is due 100% to my hubris and disorganization. I thought I was too cool for school and could just wing it without the humility and the discipline that a large project requires. With the Ukrainian book, I felt humbled by my language difficulties, followed the rules, and everything worked.

“Daddy’s most favorite thing to do in life,” says Klara pensively, “is play with me. His second favorite thing to do is feed me.”

The funny thing is that she’s not at all wrong.

OK, that’s unexpected:

Does anybody have any idea why? I read the whole thread and I still don’t get it. What else are they doing at this age?

N would tell me severely that he was concentrating on his studies but he’s a) unusual and b) terrified of being dragged into the Russian army if he weren’t in college. What’s everybody else’s excuse?

So.

The new Cormoran Strike has dropped. And it’s about a woke religious cult.

I mean.

This is going to be good.

It’s not the physical paralysis that bothers me. It’s the mental one. No fresh ideas, no interesting solutions. Trudeau is physically young and fit but he’s just as outdated intellectually.

Here’s an example of SAT analogies:

1. DRIP : GUSH
CRY : LAUGH
CURL : ROLL
STREAM : TRIBUTARY
DENT : DESTROY
BEND : ANGLE

2. WALK : LEGS
GLEAM : EYES
CHEW : MOUTH
DRESS : HEM
COVER : BOOK
GRIND : NOSE

3. ENFRANCHISE : SLAVERY
EQUATION : MATHEMATICS
LIBERATE : CONFINE
BONDAGE : SUBJUGATION
APPEASEMENT : UNREASONABLE
ANATOMY : PHYSIOLOGY

4. UNION JACK : VEXILLOLOGY
TOAD : ORNITHOLOGY
TURTLE : MICROBIOLOGY
GYMNOSPERMS : BOTANY
FRIEND : HOME ECONOMICS
ALGAE : ZOOLOGY

I love this kind of exercise with a fiery passion. It’s sad that it’s gone, and it’s sad that the whole concept of the SATs is fading away.

I don’t want to be all conspiracy theory girl but sometimes one just wonders.

Zelensky went to Canada, and Justin Trudeau handed him the worst PR defeat of the century. It’s beyond humiliating, and I want to think there’s no intent behind it but even for the mega incompetent Trudeau this is too much.

So Zelensky is in the Canadian Parliament, right? Suddenly, it’s announced, “And now let’s honor a Ukrainian hero of World War II who’s 98 years old and living here in Canada!” Of course, it’s a World War II hero, so everybody is happy and applauds.

But then guess what? It turns out that the old dude did fight heroically in WWII. A small detail, though. He fought on Hitler’s side. “The hero” was part of the infamous Waffen SS “Galizien” consisting of Ukrainians who supported Hitler. There were very few of those bastards. Every nation has its baddies, and these are ours. They are constantly thrown in our faces when, for example, nobody wants to mention the Russians who fought for Hitler under the leadership of General Vlasov. And nobody drags out any Russian Nazis (past or present) when Russian dignitaries visit (or used to).

“Ukrainians are all Nazis” is our blood libel. It’s like asking Netanyahu on a state visit if he enjoyed the Christian baby he ate for breakfast. It’s like decorating the room with swastikas for Olaf Scholz’s visit. It’s hard to find another nation that suffered from Hitler more than Ukraine but we have to be not only insulted but currently genocided for our utterly imaginary Nazism.

And then comes Trudeau and confirms everything that Russian propaganda has been saying about Ukraine. The squeals of delight coming from Russia and from every useful moron it bought itself here in the US are deafening. “Ukrainian Nazis! We told you!”

Trudeau, as always, blamed somebody else, took no responsibility, and waved away questions in a manner that the propagandists found mega useful. I know he’s a loser who’s so incompetent he probably has 5 people helping him pee in the morning. He can mess up anything. Still, there are so few of these Ukrainian Hitler collaborators and so many Ukrainians who fought against Hitler (even though they are all dying of old age now) that one wonders how easy it is to make such a mistake.

We were all so happy when Zelensky went to Canada. Ukrainian Canadians were all touched to tears, and there are many of us. But that’s how Trudeau treats one of the largest historical communities in Canada. He spits at us during one of our harshest times in history, and then he wouldn’t even apologize normally to put an end to rumors.

It’s an absolute disgrace but Trudeau won’t pay. Ukrainians will.

Learn how to troll from Toronto police:

Of course, they are trolling. Have you ever met any police if you are taking this seriously?