Clarissa's Blog

I hear so much about vaccination that when somebody emailed to say he’s going on vacation for a week, I thought he said he was going on vaccination and stared dumbly at the screen.

I definitely need a vacation from all this talk about vaccination.

Quebec is starting door-to-door visits to the unvaccinated. I wonder if the police will be involved.

In 2014, on the eve of Russia’s original (this century) invasion of Ukraine, the support for Ukraine joining the NATO was in single digits. Obviously, it increased as a result of the invasion.

Hence, saying that Russia invaded Ukraine to prevent it from joining the NATO is stupid.

Putin uses the existence of the NATO as an excuse to invade. Where NATO doesn’t exist, he invades anyway (see Central Africa, Syria, etc). The appetite for invasion exists independently from the NATO. If the NATO disbands today (which I support), that would have no impact on Russia’s desire to invade Ukraine, Georgia, African countries, etc.

The idea that Russia invades XYZ because he’s worried that the NATO will come close to Russia’s borders was concocted in the 1990s in the US. It was ludicrous then and it remains so today.

Every year I say “this is golden age of television,” and it only gets better. We are watching the last season of Better Call Saul, and it’s perfect.

We also watched You, which is aimed at woke millennials. We are non-woke Genexers, and it’s fun to ridicule the younger generation.

Before that, we did Longmire, and it’s less recent but deeply enjoyable.

Fellow fans, feel free to make yourselves known.

Also, on the subject of kids’ movies, I’m starting to get annoyed by the deluge of movies where the kid protagonist only has one parent and it’s not explained in any way what happened to the other one.

Folks, did you hear that the original Law & Order, the one with Sam Waterston, is coming back for a new season after a 12 year break? The premiere is 2/24.

“Mommy, in the movie that we watched, why did all the ponies live in fear? Why were they always so afraid?”

Imagine the inhuman effort of not going on a rant about COVIDiocy in response.

When she grows up, she’ll ask me, “was I already born during the COVID pandemic? Why don’t I remember it?” This will be a huge victory for me. I didn’t let this craziness cloud her childhood, and this makes me proud.

It’s not about masks or indoor activities. It’s about whether the parents live in fear. That’s what causes the greatest harm, and it’s up to all of us to avoid it.

A quote from Rod Dreher’s blog:

A reason that Schindler gets, but many WEIRD Americans don’t: the religious nationalism angle. Russians see Ukraine as the cradle of Russian Orthodoxy. Russia dates its Christianity to the year 988, when Prince Vladimir, the ruler of Kievan Rus, accepted baptism. I cannot think of an analogy from American history, including American religious history, that can convey to American observers the emotional, psychological, and spiritual importance of Ukraine to Russians.

The religious part is bunkum because according to the Russian Orthodox Church, 2% (two) of Russians actually practice the Orthodox faith. Orthodoxy (or Christianity in general) was always a barely tolerated implant, which is why it was shed so gleefully and violently during the 1917 revolution. Post-Soviet countries are deeply irreligious.

However, the point about the deep emotional and psychological importance of Ukraine to Russians is spot-on. It’s an obsessive, intense fixation that goes beyond all reason and any practical considerations. To understand it, think about the liberals’ fixation on Trump. They hate him but they seem to have no identity without him. He’s their organizing principle. They can’t let him go, can’t relinquish their deep emotional attachment to him because without him, they don’t know who they are.

Many of us have had the disconcerting experience of talking to a leftist friend about something innocent and utterly unrelated to Trump when his eyes suddenly glaze over and he starts ranting about Trump. It’s like that with Russians and Ukraine. Happened to me many times.

“Hey, I thought we had at least a few of those frozen pancakes but I’m not finding any. I’m going to go buy some.”

“OK. Wait, though! Do you really think Ukraine benefited from gaining independence in 1991? Do you REALLY believe it?”

Yes, I do but what was it about frozen pancakes that brought on this wave of introspection about the Ukrainian independence?

“Look, the weather is beautiful. Want to go out for a stroll?”

“I don’t know! I keep thinking about how horrible Trump is. How can you go on walks and enjoy life like nothing happened?”

An article appeared in the NYTimes about Ana Iris Simón’s novel Feria. Does anybody still subscribe and can send me the text? It’s for my research.

Thank you!

Oy yoy oy. Ay yay yay, my friends. This is a smashing, extraordinary, heart-stopping, brilliant book. This is real literature. This Farrell guy writes with the precision of Chekhov and the profoundness of Dostoyevsky. Of course, he also had to go and die in a stupid fishing accident in 1979 at the age of 44. I don’t even want to think what else he could have created had he lived because his was a once-in-a-generation talent. What a terrible loss.

The novel is set during the Indian Mutiny, and it’s an ode to the British culture and a story about how a horrible calamity brings out of people. . . absolutely nothing whatsoever. People stay exactly who they are, and that’s both terrible and wonderful.

Farrell’s sense of humor is truly British. His characters are as memorable as Dickens’s and his dialogues flow like Jane Austen’s. I don’t know why he isn’t better known because if the UK produced a better writer since Farrell died, I have no idea who it could be.

It’s so so good omigod please just read it already I can’t even omigod it’s impossibly wonderful.

I can’t believe the existence of something this perfect has been concealed from me until now.

Ghosting is code for “I want all people except for myself to be easily discardable and willing to be used and thrown away.”

“I’m a special cookie and you are less valuable than a Kleenex” is the default neoliberal worldview. If you’ve been following the West Elm Caleb drama, this way of thinking is in full view. The abandoned damsels who pride themselves on going through guys like a smoker in a windy street goes through matches are incensed that a guy copy-pasted playlists and messages he sent to a large cohort of female dates.

It’s normal and healthy to see oneself as special, precious, and deserving of the best. Where the system breaks down is where people become incapable of noticing that everybody else feels just as special and unique.