When I’m at work all day  or even traveling out of state, and Klara is at home with her grandparents, I’m perfectly fine. But the moment I set out for a restaurant with N for 2 hours, I flip out over how she’s doing without me. 

I’ve seen many commercials, TV shows and book’s where it’s suggested that parents should be overwrought the first time they go on a date alone without the baby, so now I’m dutifully overwrought. I hate this but it’s stronger than me.



Just watched a few episodes of the TV show Girls. This is a show for those who wonder why the US needs mass immigration. Forget walls and bans. Find a way to address the problem the show depicts, and you won’t need as many immigrants.

Just imagine the same show depicting 25-30-year-olds from, say, Nigeria, China, India and Ukraine who waste years on unpaid internships while sitting around vapidly and staring at walls and expecting their parents to finance this lifestyle. Yeah, it sounds nuts. Which is precisely why 25-30-year-olds from, say, Nigeria, China, India and Ukraine aren’t coming up with trigger warnings, victim-blamings, fat-shaming, and all the rest of it.

It would be one thing if the show depicted wounded kids from places like East St Louis who have a hard time getting their bearings after a traumatic, indigent and chaotic childhood. But the professionally, psychologically and intellectually neutered characters of this show aren’t an anomaly or trauma victims. They don’t know how to want anything because they never had to. And this turns them into blooming, healthy, well-fed invalids. 

I don’t think I’ll keep watching because it’s too heart-breaking. I’m an educator, and it hurts me to see young people so drained of life and castrated. 


I now regret that I didn’t approach the student who recited his poem at the pageant to thank him in person. I was afraid I’d break down and weep because it was really a very powerful poem. I hope he knows he’s talented. It’s a rare gift that can make strangers cry in response to the power of art.

This is one of the students who come to us from East St Louis, overcoming enormous odds and creating a whole life for themselves. It’s such a joy to see them do research, create art, travel overseas, get job interviews. 

How can anybody really think we need fewer schools like mine? It makes no sense. 

Democratic Strategist of the Apocalypse 

Just saw on TV somebody who was identified as “Democratic strategist” and who wrote a book titled Reversing the Apocalypse. When she started speaking, she said a bunch of very reasonable, intelligent things. But it was too late because the book’s title has already repelled everybody who is not a self-important hysteric. 

It woypd be great if “Democratic strategists” understood that the Apocalypse folks are all with them already. Now it would make sense to try to attract those who are persuadable but are kept away from the polls because they are scared of the crazy wing of the party. 

As we have seen very recently, voters react positively to the message of winning and positivity. Nobody wants to hear about the Apocalypse.