• RIP, Ted Olsen

    Executive power is important, and we respect it. But it has to be done the right way. It has to be done in an orderly fashion so that citizens can understand what is being done and people whose lives have depended on a governmental policy aren’t swept away arbitrarily and capriciously.

    A principled and gifted lawyer and public servant. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.


  • Set the Wayback Machine, Sherman

    Say, kids! Remember that old holiday, I think it was called Thanksgiving? It was a personal favorite. So extraordinary to observe a national day of gratitude. Of course, Capitalismmas (i.e., not Christmas) erased that tired old giving-thanks day long ago.


  • Snake on Wheels


  • Laura Olin

    [I keep coming back to] the fundamental text that is “Why must we go on?” / “Because there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.”

    Is all this cringe? Undoubtedly; but I think we’ve entered a time that requires deep earnestness.


  • True in every era; yet, it’s a smack in the face

    … the narrative on which many of us grew up no longer applies.

    – Joan Didion - (h/t @ayjay)


  • …well, we’ll live right on…

    From my friend, Dan Wilson:

    … whatever the outcome… “well, we will live right on.” We will all go about doing what we do, get the kids off to school, go to work, do the laundry, and go about our lives. And that is as it should be because the greatest impact on our world does not come out of Washington anyway. It never has. Ultimately, it comes from each of us and how we live out our ordinary lives, our good deeds, humility, loving our neighbor, and loving God.


  • My Kind of Guys

    I really love this pic from The Anonymous Project


  • Boredom and the Struggle

    Jonah Goldberg:

    I think Fukuyama was right about liberal democratic capitalism being the answer to the questions mooted by Marx, Hegel, Hitler, Tocqueville, and everyone else. And he was right about the problems created by liberalism’s victory. The solution to those problems is not to overthrow liberalism, but to restore the ecosystems of meaning that sustain it.


  • Francine Winham, Photographer

    Great images and an interesting story. (Though the overwrought prose isn’t my cup of tea.)

    Bassist John Lamb, photo by Francine Wiman

    Bassist John Lamb


  • Enshittifacator-in-Chief

    I was talking today with Megan, who’s serving as a poll worker, and I lost it when I thought of how Trump – solely for selfish, vicious purposes – has cast doubt on the honesty of U.S. elections. Liar. There’s no evidence of any significant fraud. Traitor.


  • Cocktail Club

    Tuxedo Cocktail #2.

    Approved.


  • Jonah Goldberg on certain political types

    He … [thought] the hand of the state needed simply to impose efficiencies the political process was too dumb, lazy, or corrupt to impose. He wanted a libertarian monarch or national CEO of sorts to cut through the red tape and the political dysfunction.

    Nothing in my experience or learning suggests that God (or nature, for that matter) cares much about efficiency.


  • “Let Phil sing!” - RIP Phil Lesh

    … his lack of experience allowed him to rethink the role of the bass in rock music, drawing inspiration from the harmonics found in works he loved by Bach and the jazz bassist Charles Mingus. NYTimes, 25 Oct 2024

    Box of Rain


  • The military may have to make decisions

    … the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical left lunatics… it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military…


  • Seconds, anyone?

    Auto-generated description: A group of sheep gather around a billboard featuring a wolf in a suit with the caption I AM GOING TO EAT YOU, while one sheep comments, He tells it like it is.

    Paul Noth in The New Yorker. H/T @austinkleon.com


  • Milestone

    It’s a big day in a boy’s life when he gets his very own Medicare card.


  • Texas Harvest

    It never seems like it in August, but there are upsides to gardening in a hot state.

    a bowl of yellow-orange cherry tomatoes

    Sun Gold cherry tomatoes


  • Urgh

    Possible book plate for ““Ex Libris Jim Rain”; I like it, but I’m creeped out that it’s AI generated from a prompt I gave. (Esp. because my daughter is an illustrator. What does this bode for her?)


  • Ya' Got Me

    I’ve become convinced that this election isn’t really about Harris and Trump. But I haven’t figured out what, exactly, it is about. (I mean, I know what it’s about for Trump, but I don’t know about Trump voters. Or the country.)


  • What Makes a Good Citizen?

    Charles M. Schulz (Peanuts creator):

    Sometimes it is the very people who cry out the loudest in favor of getting back to what they call “American Virtues” who lack this faith in our country. I believe that our greatest strength lies always in the protection of our smallest minorities.

    H/T Kottke


  • What’s the Problem?

    Kevin Williamson:

    … you might conclude that this country has a leadership problem. But it doesn’t. This country has a citizenship problem.


  • I Love Astertide

    Purple aster flowers
  • Morning Has Broken

    Auto-generated description: A sky filled with scattered clouds at dusk or dawn

    (That’s Jupiter, I think.)


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