… the stars shone in their watches, and were glad;
he called them, and they said, ‘Here we are!’
They shone with gladness for him who made them.
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“Here we are!" -
Tarragon flowers 
Who knew tarragon flowers? Not I.
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With its lovely patience Fall is. It always comes round, with its lovely patience. If in the beginning it’s restless, at the end it’s resigned, complete in its waiting, complete in the utter correctness of what it has to tell us. Which is that we’re transitory.
Joy Wiilliams, via Austin Kleon
Mono no aware
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Guns and Militias Jill Lepore’s article in The Atlantic on originalism (it’s not great) got me thinking about the 2nd Amendment. The plain words suggest that your right to keep and bear arms is conditional on your being a member of a well-regulated militia. Query: can the state regulate a militia?
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Ted Cruz, Civil Libertarian? OK. Good, Ted. Dallas Morning News: “Ted Cruz says FCC chair sounded like a mafia boss in threats against ABC over Jimmy Kimmel”.
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Something great (and awful) from Austin Kleon He quotes Wyndham Lewis, who said times like these, when “the world is too much with us,” is like living in a moronic inferno. That’s a phrase to remember.
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Goes Both Ways Last week, I posted about the country’s need to recommit to the truth in the face of MAGA’s “reality TV” theory of governance. As Catoggio points out, the left is not so great at the truth, either.
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Happy Birthday to Me 
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Not a New Idea, But … “Reality TV” doesn’t care about reality, but about presenting a version of life that the viewer can believe is true. Likewise, our Reality TV President cares little for truth, but only for what he can convince “viewers” to be true. And, as with Reality TV, the viewers go along, even if they know it’s not real, because Trump’s lies scratch an itch – for entertainment, catharsis, confirmation of biases, etc.
To get out of this mess, we must recommit to truth.
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