{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1", "title": "milk and honey", "icon": "https://avatars.micro.blog/avatars/2025/13/11913.jpg", "home_page_url": "https://orangejeep.org/", "feed_url": "https://orangejeep.org/feed.json", "items": [ { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/03/05/last-chance-at-reconciliation-joshua/", "content_html": "

Last Chance at Reconciliation | Joshua Mehigan

\n

He’s certain where he’s headed it’s too late.
\nWest Broadway glitters in a mist of rain
\nthat amber cones of light elucidate.
\nHe’s certain. Where he’s headed, it’s too late
\nto stop for flowers, dry off, or get things straight:
\na story, his misshapen hat, his brain.
\nHe’s certain where he’s headed. It’s too late.
\nWest Broadway glitters in a mist of rain.

\n

N.B. An example of a “triolet,” a form that’s not much in vogue these days (if ever). But I think this is an excellent, sad poem. I especially appreciate how the repeated first line changes meaning simply through varying punctuation.

\n", "date_published": "2026-03-05T12:47:16-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/03/05/last-chance-at-reconciliation-joshua/", "tags": ["poetry"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/03/03/lessons-not-learned-part-robert/", "content_html": "

Lessons Not Learned, Part 2

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Robert Pape, University of Chicago:

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\n

Iran is not a palace dictatorship resting on a handful of men. It is a state of roughly 92 million people, with governing institutions embedded across society…. Roughly one in eight Iranians works for the state or in state-linked institutions. The regime’s authority is threaded through provincial administrations, economic networks, and local security structures. Removing several dozen senior leaders — even highly placed ones — touches only a small fraction of that governing apparatus. It does not dismantle the structure; it activates it.

\n
\n", "date_published": "2026-03-03T16:10:16-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/03/03/lessons-not-learned-part-robert/", "tags": ["citizenship"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/03/02/lessons-not-learned-there-are/", "content_html": "

Lessons Not Learned

\n

There are moral and legal cases against Trump’s Iran attacks. But a purely practical one is that heavy bombing doesn’t drive the other side to surrender, as history has shown again and again: The Blitz, “bombing North Vietnam back to the Stone Age,” Shock and Awe in Iraq …

\n", "date_published": "2026-03-02T19:31:13-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/03/02/lessons-not-learned-there-are/", "tags": ["citizenship"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/02/18/ash-wednesday-poem-sabbaths-wendell/", "content_html": "

Ash Wednesday Poem

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Sabbaths 1979 | Wendell Berry

\n
\n

V

\n

How many have relinquished
\nBreath, in grief or rage,
\nThe victor and the vanquished
\nNamed on the bitter page

\n

Alike, or indifferently
\nForgot–all that they did
\nUndone entirely.
\nThe dust they stirred has hid

\n

Their faces and their works,
\nHas settled, and lies still.
\nNobody rests or shirks
\nWho must turn in time’s mill.

\n

They wind the turns of the mill
\nIn house and field and town;
\nAs grist is ground to meal
\nThe grinders are ground down.

\n
\n", "date_published": "2026-02-18T15:22:03-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/02/18/ash-wednesday-poem-sabbaths-wendell/", "tags": ["poetry","faith"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/02/16/first/", "content_html": "

First!

\n\"Auto-generated\n", "date_published": "2026-02-16T19:19:39-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/02/16/first/", "tags": ["garden"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/02/14/222429/", "content_html": "

Maitre

\n

There are good arguments that Chapters 4 and 5 of P. G. Wodehouse’s Leave It to Psmith are the pinacle of English literature. For an extra treat, try the audiobook read by Jonathan Cecil.

\n\"Auto-generated\n", "date_published": "2026-02-14T22:24:29-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/02/14/222429/", "tags": ["books"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/02/10/i-dont-want-to-be/", "title": "“I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.”", "content_html": "

Letters from children held in detention by the United States government in Dilley, Texas.

\n\"A\n", "date_published": "2026-02-10T08:44:01-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/02/10/i-dont-want-to-be/", "tags": ["family","citizenship"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/02/10/welcome-morning-by-anne-sexton/", "title": "Welcome Morning | Anne Sexton", "content_html": "

Welcome Morning

\n
There is joy\nin all:\nin the hair I brush each morning,\nin the Cannon towel, newly washed,\nthat I rub my body with each morning,\nin the chapel of eggs I cook\neach morning,\nin the outcry from the kettle\nthat heats my coffee\neach morning,\nin the spoon and the chair\nthat cry \"hello there, Anne\"\neach morning,\nin the godhead of the table\nthat I set my silver, plate, cup upon\neach morning.\n\nAll this is God,\nright here in my pea-green house\neach morning\nand I mean,\nthough often forget,\nto give thanks,\nto faint down by the kitchen table\nin a prayer of rejoicing\nas the holy birds at the kitchen window\npeck into their marriage of seeds.\n\nSo while I think of it,\nlet me paint a thank-you on my palm\nfor this God, this laughter of the morning,\nlest it go unspoken.\n\nThe Joy that isn't shared, I've heard,\ndies young.\n
\n", "date_published": "2026-02-10T07:52:44-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/02/10/welcome-morning-by-anne-sexton/", "tags": ["poetry","breakfast","faith"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/02/08/choices-michael-wear-the-dispatch/", "content_html": "

Choices

\n

Michael Wear, The Dispatch, February 8, 2026,

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\n

This last decade of American politics cannot become the new standard. If it does, few of our institutions will survive… This is the danger, of course. That everything will orient around this man [Trump]. That he will succeed in making everything subject to his interests and his whims. He’s willing to do it with God, and he’s certainly willing to do it with the country. Our nation’s choice about whether to elect him is in the past, but the choice we have to make about whether we will become like him is ongoing.

\n
\n", "date_published": "2026-02-08T13:43:02-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/02/08/choices-michael-wear-the-dispatch/", "tags": ["citizenship"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/02/05/wild-and-domesticated-as-for/", "content_html": "

Wild and Domesticated

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\n

As for “wild,” I now think the word is misused. The longer I have lived and worked here among the noncommercial creatures of the woods and fields, the less I have been able to conceive of them as “wild.” They plainly are going about their own domestic lives, finding or making shelter, gathering food, minding their health, raising their young, always well-adapted to their places. They are far better at domesticity than we industrial humans are. It became clear to me also that they think of us as wild, and that they are right. We are the ones who are undomesticated, barbarous, unrestrained, disorderly, extravagant, and out of control. They are our natural teachers, and we have learned too little from them. The woods itself, conventionally thought of as “wild,” in fact is thought of and used as home by the creatures who are domesticated within it.

\n
\n

Wendell Berry, This Day - Sabbath Poems, 1972 - 2012 - Introduction

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-05T14:36:12-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/02/05/wild-and-domesticated-as-for/", "tags": ["ideas"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/02/04/clasp-hands-onehundred-thirtythree-years/", "content_html": "

Clasp Hands

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One-hundred thirty-three years ago today, my dear grandmother was born. In 10 days, we’ll celebrate our dear granddaughter’s first birthday. The blessings roll down the generations.

\n
\n

… we clasp the hands of those who go before us, and the hands of those who come after us … – Wendell Berry (h/t @jabel)

\n
\n", "date_published": "2026-02-04T08:28:11-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/02/04/clasp-hands-onehundred-thirtythree-years/", "tags": ["family","faith"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/02/03/what-a-goal-coys/", "content_html": "

What a Goal, Dominic Solanke!

\n\"Auto-generated\n

COYS!

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-03T19:52:14-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/02/03/what-a-goal-coys/", "tags": ["thfc"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/02/01/from-david-brooks-farewell-nytimes/", "content_html": "

From David Brooks' Farewell NYTimes Column

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\n

If you want to jump in on the side of humanization, join the Great Conversation. This is the tradition of debate that stretches back millenniums, encompassing theology, philosophy, psychology, history, literature, music, the study of global civilizations and the arts. This conversation is a collective attempt to find a workable balance amid the eternal dialectics of the human condition — the tension between autonomy and belonging, equality and achievement, freedom and order, diversity and cohesion, security and exploration, tenderness and strength, intellect and passion. The Great Conversation never ends, because there is no permanent solution to these tensions, just a temporary resting place that works in this or that circumstance. Within the conversation, each participant learns something about how to think, how to feel, what to love, how to live up to his or her social role.

\n
\n", "date_published": "2026-02-01T08:01:59-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/02/01/from-david-brooks-farewell-nytimes/", "tags": ["ideas","citizenship","faith"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/01/30/hebrews-let-brotherly-love-continue/", "content_html": "

Hebrews 13

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\n

Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated …

\n
\n", "date_published": "2026-01-30T19:21:42-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/01/30/hebrews-let-brotherly-love-continue/", "tags": ["citizenship","faith"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/01/25/a-good-piece-by-ezra/", "content_html": "

A good piece by Ezra Klein.

\n
\n

The world is built on relationships, not leverage, and relationships are built on reciprocity and respect. It is not Trump’s genius to recognize America’s unused strength; it is his blindness to see that our strength was a function of our restraint.

\n
\n", "date_published": "2026-01-25T08:26:08-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/01/25/a-good-piece-by-ezra/", "tags": ["ideas","citizenship"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/01/25/with-congress-in-a-coma/", "content_html": "

WIth Congress in a coma,

\n

Other institutions – non-profits and for-profits alike – must call out ICE and Trump. This article about clergy (and others) pressuring airlines is an example.

\n", "date_published": "2026-01-25T07:57:24-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/01/25/with-congress-in-a-coma/", "tags": ["citizenship"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/01/23/lets-all-get-behind-these/", "content_html": "

Let’s all get behind these operations

\n\"Auto-generated\n", "date_published": "2026-01-23T19:01:50-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/01/23/lets-all-get-behind-these/" }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/01/20/bored-with-peace-and-order/", "content_html": "

Bored with Peace and Order

\n
\n

For Kolnai, however, what attracted the young to fascism was not so much any real practical concern, nor any really coherent philosophy. It was, rather, a kind of boredom with the peace and orderliness of liberal times. Distinctly lacking in liberal societies is the kind of enmity, battle, conflict, and esprit de corps that a conquering master-nation can provide.

\n
\n

– Nathan Beacon, “How Not to Be a Fascist: How one Hungarian philosopher resisted the Nazis through ‘civilization.’"

\n

Sounds a bit like ICE thugs, eh?

\n", "date_published": "2026-01-20T11:10:45-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/01/20/bored-with-peace-and-order/", "tags": ["ideas","citizenship"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/01/19/deserves-more-love-celery-is/", "content_html": "

Deserves more love.

\n

Celery is criminally underrated.

\n", "date_published": "2026-01-19T13:23:53-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/01/19/deserves-more-love-celery-is/" }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/01/19/tiger-by-farid-khan-trans/", "content_html": "

“Tiger” | Farid Khan, trans. by Tuhin Bhowal

\n

I’m hopeful that
\nto save its own species,
\nthe tiger will become a poet,
\nthe way dinosaurs became lizards,
\nAnd the poet, occasionally, a tiger

\n", "date_published": "2026-01-19T08:16:47-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/01/19/tiger-by-farid-khan-trans/", "tags": ["poetry","ideas","citizenship"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/01/17/more-from-goldberg-my-only/", "content_html": "

More from Goldberg

\n
\n

My only point is that no one benefits from a political, never mind, a policy debate, between Team Jackass and Team Thug fueled by a flood of voyeuristic videos. This spectacle feels to me like a metaphor in miniature of American politics generally. … Everyone plays to the crowds for attention and funding. Nobody wants to hammer shut the windows and do the work of the American people.

\n
\n

Right. Our politics are so juvenile. (Hence, the now almost mandatory dropping of f-bombs.)

\n

Where did all the grown-ups go?

\n", "date_published": "2026-01-17T11:34:17-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/01/17/more-from-goldberg-my-only/", "tags": ["citizenship"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/01/15/this-has-got-to-be/", "content_html": "

This has got to be one of the most cruelly ironic headlines I’ve ever seen:

\n\n", "date_published": "2026-01-15T19:51:12-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/01/15/this-has-got-to-be/", "tags": ["citizenship"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/01/15/ein-volk-etc-jonah-goldberg/", "content_html": "

Ein Volk, etc.

\n

Jonah Goldberg:

\n
\n

Remember how after 9/11 Katha Pollitt told her 13-year-old daughter she couldn’t fly the American flag, because “the flag stands for jingoism and vengeance and war”? Pollitt was wrong. But this administration is making her seem less so.

\n

By hijacking the language of patriotism for this nationalistic, statist, militaristic horseshit, the right is picking up the baton of the left by signaling to millions of Americans that America’s heritage—and the people who talk about it—are precisely the kinds of people who see the American flag the same way she did.

\n
\n", "date_published": "2026-01-15T09:38:15-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/01/15/ein-volk-etc-jonah-goldberg/", "tags": ["ideas","citizenship"] }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/01/07/we-must-take-to-the/", "content_html": "

We must take to the streets

\n

The lies spewing from Kristi Noem’s mouth about the bullshit “weaponization” of the murdered Minneapolis woman’s vehicle demand a mass response by the citizens of this country. Watch the video. Lies. Lies. Lies.

\n", "date_published": "2026-01-07T18:33:54-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/01/07/we-must-take-to-the/" }, { "id": "http://JimRain.micro.blog/2026/01/04/go-right-ahead-mr-chairman/", "content_html": "

Go Right Ahead, Mr. Chairman

\n

Tom Friedman in the NYTimes makes an excellent point: Trump’s toppling of Maduro provides Xi another precedent for invading Taiwan.

\n", "date_published": "2026-01-04T08:03:47-06:00", "url": "https://orangejeep.org/2026/01/04/go-right-ahead-mr-chairman/", "tags": ["ideas","citizenship"] } ] }