A midwinter thaw. Another dangerous book. Swell kindergartens

20221226

We had a quiet family Christmas yesterday. Grandma Nadia, still on the Orthodox calendar, is fasting until her Christmas. Therefore we had fish instead of meat. Salmon, actually. Eddie has perfected the tartar sauce. Simple side dishes of broccoli and rice, with a tossed salad. I made a mince pie. 

The temperature has been above freezing for a week. The forecast is that it will remain this way through the new year. This unexpected turn of events has affected a lot of war plans. Ukraine has been apparently waiting for the ground to freeze to make an attack in the South. Tanks don’t work well in mud. The Russians were probably planning to shellac our power generation systems when it got cold. They haven’t done anything for a week or so – we had power all day yesterday and only a brief outage today.

Churchill described the Marshall plan as the “Most unsordid act in history.” Historians conclude that there was a significant amount of American self-interest in helping Europe get back on its feet. The same can probably be said for Joe Biden’s help for Ukraine. Although we certainly need and appreciate the help, I am equally sure that he finds it politically popular. More than that, I have a sneaking suspicion that the grinches on the right are correct in their suspicion that some of the money flowing to Ukraine makes a round-trip back to politicians in the United States. Put another way, I wouldn’t be surprised if the administration found an urgent need to place Sam Bankman Fried in New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center.

However, profiteering and graft are part of every war ever fought. As far as I can see it is minimal here; this is a fairly clean war. It certainly has vast popular support. The ToastMaster asked at our Saturday meeting how many people in the audience had donated to either the Army or civilian relief. Every hand went up.

The biggest opportunities for wartime corruption are in procurement, which in this war is largely being handled by Ukraine’s NATO partners. Armaments makers in the West are certainly profiting from the billions being spent on defending Ukraine. The corruption in the Russian military included pocketing salaries for phantom soldiers, provisions never distributed to the soldiers and so on. While I am sure that such things took place in the Ukrainian military prior to 2014, it had fallen into such a lower state that it had to be rebuilt almost from scratch with Western advisors. I think the military is now among the cleaner of institutions in Ukraine.

I continue to write about relations between the sexes and the way in which modern thinking on the subject seems to be leading to depopulation. As is the case with so many things, uttering truths that have been historically unquestioned will get you canceled a heartbeat. I am writing that men and women are different. You can see where this is going – snowflakes please stop right here.

Looking for the latest in research on intelligence, I found that the most prominent living intelligence researcher, Richard Lynn, had a new book out entitled unambiguously “Sex Differences in Intelligence – the Developmental Theory.” He begins with the obvious. Men evolved to be hunters, warriors, builders, tool makers and such. Women evolved to be mothers, caretakers, cooks, gardeners, seamstresses and the like. These pursuits take different skills and place different demands on your mental faculties. Wonder of wonders, the sexes evolved to be different. Our modern refusal to recognize the difference may be our undoing.

I was pleased with the quality of the comments on dietary supplements. I especially liked hearing from Mark. I knew he ran a health food store, but I didn’t recall, though I should have, that dietary supplements had been such a big part of his business.

I should add a bit more information that I turned up. There is a publication, ConsumerLab.com, that analyzes dietary supplements, cosmetics and stuff like that. Although I have no interest in signing up for a limited time subscription and being bothered evermore to renew it, it appears to be the most useful publication analyzing the various offerings. I am also pleased that Oksana read what I posted here with an open mind. I think that the multilevel marketers are going to lose out. I love my wife.

That’s the news from Lake WeBeGone, where the Christmas leftovers should be on the table by now.  The good-looking woman is back from teaching music at one kindergarten and I returned with two daughters from the other one. I have a good feeling about both. Not only are they reasonably priced – $10 and $15 per girl per day – but the caretakers are intelligent women who really have their hearts in the job. Certainly better than the ones my parents employed when I was growing up, and as good as the very expensive ones at the nursery school my first family attended.

Graham