Gratitude

For the Fourth we went to the "biggest little parade" in Token Creek. They had about 17 "floats" and a street dance afterwards. The rain held off until the parade ended, but the dripped probably didn't damped spirits much. The Token Creek tradition is for water fights between the float riders and the spectators. And between spectators.

In the pre-game water fights, one family had equipped their youngsters with heart-shaped backpack water bladders connected to small squirters. I wish they'd had those when I was young. We made do with what few unbroken water pistols there were--the seams always cracked--and syringe bodies.

The littlest girl in the group—perhaps 5 years old—was short enough that she kept getting squirted in the face in the melee. She would wince, almost cry, grit her teeth, grin, and squirt back.

I took a brief hike down Portage to see the rest of the short parade route, find out how long were the food lines, and learn where the portajohns were. I saw nobody I knew, but I got more attention than I expected. After I rejoined the family I realized that I was pretty much the only man present with a button down shirt and long pants. Everybody else was dressed for a splash in the heat.

Before the parade began someone sang the Star Spangled Banner, of course, followed by a recording of "Proud to be an American."

I wondered, not for the first time, if that's the right framing. I'm proud of the ugly kludge bookcases I made so many decades ago. They fit the purpose and have for many family moves. They're something I did.

I'm grateful to be American. I'm grateful to be a man (and I trust my wife is grateful to be a woman). I'm proud to have helped in several experiments, and grateful for the chance. I'm grateful for our children.

As for the larger American project, I have not served in office or in the military, though I have done some teaching (and paid my taxes and looked for the least objectionable candidates and helped with a friend's unsuccessful campaign). I've tried to live and teach Christian values and the courtesies of the culture. I'm not sure those are enough to give me the right to be proud of my contribution. I suspect gratitude is safer for the soul.

The Fourth as seen by Neptunus

I wasn't introduced to his work until after he died. His meditations on the celebration.

Declaration of Independence, still applicable?

Today is the 250'th anniversary of one of the most important documents in the West.

Some of the text is timeless: "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights" and so on. Those apply.

But there's more. I rarely pay attention to the list of facts "submitted to a candid world." Quite a few were specific to the occasion, and aren't so timeless.

How well does the recitation of injuries map into a modern situation?

Just for the fun of it, suppose we pick the PoV of citizens of random small EU country other than Belgium, and for George III read the EU establishment. And take the worst-case/worst-face for the local situation, whether it is completely justified or not. Are there parallels for the old complaints in the new situation?

• He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. I don't know the details well enough to guess.
• He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. I don't know the details well enough to guess. There's no pool of land to draw from in Europe, so there's no exact parallel.
• He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. I don't know the details well enough to guess.
• He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. There are other ways of "fatiguing them into compliance;" e.g. lawsuits and judicial rulings.
• He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. Over-ridden, yes. Very much so.
• He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. I don't know that details well enough to guess at what might be comparable to this.
• He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. Just the opposite – importing large quantities of foreigners without regard for whether they integrate well into the existing society, and making the current citizens reponsible for their care.
• He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. Over-riding local legislatures and judiciaries, certainly.
• He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. When agreement with the masters is a criteria for appointment...
• He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. I think we can all find examples there and here.
• He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. Not so much. Ignoring the necessity for a military, yes.
• He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. Not so much. Which, given European history, is refreshing.
• He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: This sounds very much like EU.
• For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: The current version would be quartering large bodies of foreigners among us.
• For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: This seems to be a problem, if reports are to believed.
• For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: Not sure this applies. It might, but I don't know the regulatory details.
• For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: The individual countries impose their own taxes. Regulations, though...
• For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: The UK famously decided to remove this right from many cases.
• For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences "Transportation" isn't a current punishment, but "pretended offences" such as mean tweets seem to be treated like "careless speech" in wartime.
• For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: I don't know of a parallel.
• For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: As noted above, this seems parallel to EU
• For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. Not strictly parallel; the individual legislatures exist.
• He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. Maybe the no-go zones?
• He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. No obvious parallel.
• He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. For mercenaries put colonists and it might apply.
• He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. No obvious parallel.
• He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. Not Indians exactly, no.
• In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. I don't know the details well enough to find a parallel to this.

With some revisions it might apply. But "mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."

"Because they are"

Anecdotal Evidence again.

"without gratitude ... life will become an existential shopping spree that no product satisfies"

And the granddaughter and the steam engine -- I resemble that...

If I thought of this, so has someone else

How many shipping containers would 600 of this mix of drones fit in?

We've plenty of space in the country where you could buy land and build a barn to keep satellites from seeing anything out of the ordinary, well within range of air bases. Assembling enough people to manage the rapid unpacking and launches without having an informer in the group might be a problem, depending on the group doing the attacking.

Just destroying the aircraft on a few bases would be painfully expensive, though not crippling.

And there are plenty of infrastructure targets too, some fairly fragile. I gather there's redundancy for a lot of our capacity: if California is a bit messed up we've still got Texas and Louisiana. Still, oceans around us don't protect as well as they used to, unless we search everything coming in.

Overton Window

From anglican.ca: "Pastoral Liturgies at the Time of Death in Contexts of Medically Assisted Dying" Authorised for Trial Use, Evaluation and Feedback where permitted by the Ordinary by the Council of General Synod, June 2026

Many of the conversations around what constitutes a good death seek to enshrine dignity of the dying person as the highest value. Very often, the understanding of dignity is tied to one’s autonomy in agency – being able to think, act, and make decisions on one’s own. Human dignity, however, rests in our being created by a loving God. It is not something to be tied to a question of worth to be determined according to standards that place autonomy as the highest value of dignity. God has given us dignity and worth as part of who we are as God’s creatures. Our agency in health care decisions is, furthermore, something that we need to entrust to God in our discernment. We do not make decisions alone, but in the presence of God.

Some Anglicans have had profound experiences in which a death by MAiD has been accompanied by faithful prayer and strong pastoral care. Other Anglicans hold that MAiD does not offer any moral good, and may indeed be against God's wishes for humanity. Many of us share concerns about the potentials for abuse of the practice through coercion or in the fragilities of a health care system that is in crisis. All of us in Canada, especially clergy and other pastoral care ministers, are likely at some point in our ministries, to be met with a request for pastoral care and prayer by someone who has opted for a medically assisted death.

Our intention is to help the church’s ministers to respond pastorally to the needs before them. It is not our intent to enter into the ethical arguments regarding MAiD, nor to provide a moral argument for or against MAiD.(1)

... (1) The General Synod has produced several resources since the legalization of medically assisted dying. In Sure and Certain Hope, 2017, presented a pastoral response with some pastoral and prayer resources, upholding the duty of pastoral care, and also holding up some key theological principles of caution with respect to MAiD. Faith Seeking Understanding: Medical Assistance in Dying: Reflections by Canadian Anglicans, 2024, gathered up over forty reflections from theological, pastoral and ethical perspectives by Canadian Anglicans, representing a wide collection of experiences and positions on the ethics of MAiD.

Yikes. True, the intro says "Human dignity, ... is not something to be tied to a question of worth to be determined according to standards that place autonomy as the highest value of dignity." And the 2017 document is " holding up some key theological principles of caution with respect to MAiD". But the 2024 document is "representing a wide collection of experiences and positions." It sounds like they don't know how to say no and stick to it.

"To some following some Dioceses’ guidance or their own consciences, it will be important to walk the challenging path in choosing and adapting prayers in this resource that do not imply that the procedure, the medical assistance in dying itself, and the decision to employ MAiD, are not being given God’s blessing." I read that as meaning that they foresee priests sometimes giving a blessing to the procedure and the decision, or picking prayers that imply that (which seems dishonest if they don't). Perhaps they mis-spoke.

They consider the possibility of having "Confession and Absolution" as part of the liturgy.

At Lambeth in 1930 the Anglicans "affirmed the permissibility of birth control for married couples who felt a moral obligation to forgo both ‘parenthood’ and ‘complete abstinence’". Shortly after, many other denominations jumped on the bandwagon, and uncounted couples decided that they met the criteria, and the Overton window shifted.

I hope that isn't going to be the case here.

FWIW, a Liturgy on the Day of an Execution doesn't seem to quite fit.

Clickers

The wildlife refuge was demonstrating a couple of hawks, one of which wasn't entirely thrilled with being indoors out of her cage. But they'd been trained (injuries meant they'd never be released to the wild again), and she settled down. The trainer clicked a clicker on her belt when the bird calmed down.

Why a clicker?

I asked. Because different trainers had different voices. They wanted a consistent sound to indicate "Good job", and they settled on clickers.

The trainer still used words "Good bird," but that was probably for her and our benefit. The clicker was for the birds.

Repairs

This story showed up yesterday: "Psychology says fathers who fix broken things instead of replacing them are not being cheap: Why repairing objects becomes their way of protecting memories, purpose and family"

It talks about being useful, sense of purpose, protection, and so on.

What came to my mind immediately was that not just people and pets, but the things we bring into the family become our responsibility. It isn't just a matter of memories associated with that old clock. It's part of our lives now, and we owe a certain care to the things we own.

We tend to look down on people who don't care for their things, don't we?

Some of us even feel a little obligation to care for the commons too.

Log Jam

I had not heard of this before: a centuries-long log jam in the Red and Atchafalya rivers. That wikipedia article's history goes back to 2021 -- yes, I wondered if this was fake. "The removal of the massive log jams hastened the capture of the Mississippi River's waters in lower Louisiana by the Atchafalaya River,"

Curiosity from Genesis

In Israel's last declarations to his sons Simeon and Levi are condemned for their anger and violence and told that they will be dispersed, albeit in the family. And the Simeon tribe seems not to have had a clear territory separable from that of Judah. The Levite tribe was, of course, scattered through the whole of Israel.

I don't see "founder effect" -- the subsequent trajectories of the two tribes was quite different despite Israel's joint curse. But it's a curious note.

Lessons for newcomers

What would you want to insist that prospective immigrants to your country learn?

An obvious first choice is "the language." We don't have an official language, though we should. If you are to be part of the society and not in an isolated huddle, you need to speak English.

Another obvious body of knowledge is the history and general culture, and the basics of how the economy and government work, and what is expected of citizens--and what is expected of guests. Immigrants who learn these things from American movies are in for surprises.

Our local cultures do not all assume the same courtesies, but we should try to assemble a set, with explanations ("How are you?" is not requesting your medical history, give up your bus seat to someone infirm, etc). Now that I think of it, quite a few of our citizens never learned some of these...

How to arrange this is another problem. But for the moment just think about what you want an immigrant to know (and practice as needed) to be able to fit in.

Instructions on how to thrive (e.g. ignore the ubiquitous advertisements and save your money) may overlap with this curriculum somewhat.

A student coming for college will probably be associating with an unrepresentative group of people, and not see or understand what happens in the background to provide his education. Best be explicit upfront about what is acceptable and what is not.

I suspect that I'd get very different answers to this from painters at the union hall and from the HR staff at Target.

Niche dominations

An interesting exploration of ethnic domination of niche economic sectors, or, how to develop a jati.

How do some ethnicities wind up taking over (e.g.) hotel management? Aporia discusses the hows and the side effects--not all of them are benign. One is that a number of low-status jobs are no longer available as entry level jobs to youth of other ethnicities--nail salon employment is nearly locked down in LA.

Saving face

One point I didn't make in my thoughts on negotiations with Iran was that if the IRGC was going to save face, we would have to lose face.

Ask a Grandpa

Possible youth group addition: A table for private questions.

Linen armor

Oldest Daughter spotted these attempts to solve an old mystery: how was linen armor made and made useful?

Unraveling the linothorax mystery or how linen armor came to dominate our lives. A short summary. "The only way we were ultimately able to cut the laminated linen slab was with an electric saw equipped with a blade for cutting metal. At least this confirmed our suspicion that linen armor would have been extremely tough. We also found out that linen stiffened with rabbit glue strikes dogs as in irresistibly tasty rabbit-flavored chew toy, and that our Labrador retriever should not be left alone with our research project."

linothorax for sale Authentic? Who knows. Do you make it with layers of linen boiled with salt to harden it, or glued together into a hard lump?

More linothorax at UW Green Bay. Yes, he was wearing the armor when they shot the arrow at it. A video of the same: linothorax .

A linothorax won't stop "a determined spear thrust", but does pretty well at shedding arrows.

Thank you! I don't think I'll be trying my hand at it, but ...