Clarissa's Blog

Either there are way more Muslims in the UK than anybody suspects, or the Britannia that ruled the waves no longer exists.

If you are constantly running low on energy, it helps to get a bunch of bright orange objects and put them in places you will catch a glimpse of them throughout the day. I use little hand towels for this purpose. Bright yellow will work, too. It’s an instant jolt of energy, better than coffee. And I really REALLY like coffee.

And if you suffer from anxiety and stress, it’s really important to spend at least 10 minutes a day staring at some greenery. Trees, bushes, whatever. If you can be outside and breathe deeply while looking at the greenery, even better.

Consent is one of the terms that have been ditched by the Left almost overnight and have been picked up by the Right.

First, it happened with “freedom of speech.” Then with “working classes.” The abandonment by the Left of consent as an important concept is very recent and quite sudden. Only a few years ago, the Left was consumed by its passion for such extremes as “affirmative consent” for any type of sexual interaction. Today, though, people on the Left are taking to the streets violently to impose men’s right to expose their genitals to women against the women’s expressly stated wishes. They are harassing gay people for merely expressing a sexual preference for their own sex. They side squarely with Big Pharma (formerly the second biggest bugaboo) and the state security apparatus / military (formerly the biggest bugaboo to the Left) against unconsenting citizens who don’t want their bodies and privacy invaded by these entities.

At this point, one has to ask, what are the organizing principles for the Left? I’m talking about the kind of principles one doesn’t ditch no matter how situationally expedient it might be. In spite of my perennial readiness to change my mind, my principles haven’t changed in pretty much forever. I’ve always been for privacy, consent, freedom of expression, and leaving gay people in peace to love whomever they want. I’ve always been deeply suspicious of Big Pharma and the state security / military apparatus. I’m always against censorship and especially against coerced speech. I’ve always been for “not the color of your skin but the content of your character.” I’ve always thought that treating people differently because of their race or ethnicity makes you a monumental dick, no matter how good you think your intentions are. I’ve always been for “my body, my choice” (and in the case of abortion for “safe, legal, and extremely rare.”) I’ve always been against exploitation of workers, irrespective of whether they were born in Ukraine, Nebraska, or San Pedro Sula. I was always against the sexualization of children and against any but the very medically necessary medicalization of children.

If the Left has now ditched even consent and bodily integrity, what’s left? It’s a serious question. What are you for that you were for 20 years ago?

Israel is stupid, too.

Klara says, “Mommy, kids at school played at what they wanted to be. A unicorn, a princess, a kitty, Elsa from Frozen. But I thought about it, and I don’t want to be anything but Klara. Because being Klara is great!”

This is getting comical:

Remember double masking? This vaccine thing is going in the same direction.

Our university is going to force all professors to get tested for COVID weekly. Unless they can demonstrate vaccination.

This is a sneaky way to force people to reveal private medical information, punish those who don’t conform, and split the workers into “clean” and “unclean” categories.

COVID positivity rates on campus have been at 0% for many months. None of this is done in response to any medical necessity. I taught in person since last August without these weekly tests. Or any tests. Nothing changed in me. But the procedure is becoming a lot more onerous.

In Spain, the ultra-left coalition of power is preparing a legislation that will allow the government to declare a state of emergency and expropriate the citizens’ property whenever it likes. The “emergency” can be medical, environmental, or pretty much anything.

The legislation will effectively cancel the freedom of expression during these emergencies, forcing the media to publish only the information mandated by the government.

The legislation also allows the government to treat the population as military conscripts. This means that during the emergency du jour you’ll have to follow orders and abdicate your will to your superiors.

The legislation gives the government the right to enter your living quarters without a warrant and remove you from there at any time.

This is a suspension of the constitution for the duration of the crisis. And once again, everything can be deemed a crisis. Remember “you will own nothing”? This is what it looks like.

In the US we are two elections away from this kind of thing. The party that created this legislation in Spain came into existence as an anti-austerity party less than a decade ago. And look what they are doing. There is no left anymore that isn’t owned by World Bank. It’s done, it’s gone. Whatever it was in 1972, today it’s this. Austerity, exploitation, oppression.

Harsh Canadian lockdowns have taken a severe toll on my sister. She keeps cooking. She cooked more for me this week than she’d done in our whole life before. I stumble into the kitchen in the morning, and she sticks a plate of freshly made pancakes and a cup of coffee into my face. And they are good, too.

I can just imagine them all sitting there in lockdown and cooking, cooking, cooking. Creepy.