David Sedaris on the communist health care systems of Europe (The New Yorker). Us commies.

I do not know how it feels to be a second-rate citizen by law, growing up in a liberal and progressive country, but I do know how it feels to be considered second-rate and to be treated like you are worth nothing. It still amazes me that evolved and cultured people in this day and [...]

A great nation—and optimistically speaking, any nation—is supposed to represent all its inhabitants, equally and without discrimination. It shouldn’t see a difference between people of different sexual orientations, between people of different races, between the personal beliefs of its citizens. And yet, in many countries—commonly third-world and second-world ones, but unfortunately often also in first-world [...]

It’s a quiet, boring night. While watching “Gossip Girl,” I’m trying to come up with something interesting to write about, and my mind stays completely blank. There is no sense of initiative in me today, or yesterday, or the day before that even. A creativity block? Not really, because I do have ideas for original [...]

Two months after the incident, let’s look back at the 2008 South Ossetia War, all right? A few days after the war, almost every supposed Western politician was shouting into the world that Russia would be blacklisted, forgotten, and omitted from the world loop. Yes, the worlds largest country would be erased from mankind’s consciousness, [...]

Yes. The United Nations is a great organisation, providing a diplomatic backbone to the world and all its problems. But 63 years after its foundation, the platform has become corrupt, badly organised, without any real enforcement powers, and with a reputation in shambles. Kofi Annan, the most renowned Secretary-General, a title he shares with Dag [...]