Just One Thing: Memorial Day thoughts (2 interesting articles and a poem)
First, by Joe Nocera writing for The Free Press: America Still Has Heroes | The Free Press (thefp.com)
Second, by the Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan: Teach Your Children to Love America - WSJ
Third, a poem by ADM William McRaven (Ret)...I don't have quite as positive a take on it as he does even though he was right about the future for the Afghan people: A Poem by William H. McRaven: 'Departing Afghanistan' - The Atlantic
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One More Thing: America's drift from subtlety is making society boring
I don’t know why I was thinking of this over the holiday weekend, but here goes: We live in a world with less and less subtlety and, frankly, that’s boring. It’s boring to read the f-word in articles and hear the s-word from TV pundits even if they’re just quoting one of our increasingly boring presidential candidates. We live in a world where all the lights have to be blindingly bright or off, as if dimmers were never invented. By the way, that was a metaphor…I didn’t literally mean lights. It used to be that the left thought that if you disagreed with them you weren’t just wrong, but bad. Now the right things that way too. The Venn diagram of political discourse is increasingly two separate circles moving further apart. It appeals to tribal instincts, but it’s actually boring.
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I'm a moron (tree-trimming edition)
Because I’m a moron, when I was cutting lots of branches off of trees at the house that we bought – trees that hadn’t been looked after at all – I stepped on a large branch not seeing that there was a 2-3 inch sharp spike from a small broken branch and it went right through the bottom of my show and into my foot.
It doesn’t hurt massively at this point, but still I need to avoid walking and standing more than necessary for at least a few more days.
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Today's Guest
Jason is a law enforcement officer in the Denver Metro area. We'll talk about my recent comments wondering aloud why we as a society tolerate traffic enforcement that seems so much more about taking our money than improving safety.
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Liberty Vittert's resume is truly fascinating, with degrees from MIT and one of the world's top cooking schools (Le Cordon Bleu in Paris). She's a PhD professor of the Practice of Data Science at the business school at Washington University in St Louis.
Olin Business School | Liberty Vittert (wustl.edu)
We'll discuss this recent op-ed of hers about how AI girlfriends are wrecking dating: AI girlfriends are ruining an entire generation of men (thehill.com)
More on the same topic here:
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Other Stuff
An ugly day in the Israel-Hamas war: US laments 'devastating' Rafah strike, urges Israel to better protect civilians | The Times of Israel
We're still in the fog of war but at the moment it seems somewhat likely that the strike was in fact precisely targeted but that extremely hot shrapnel from the explosion caused a fire in a nearby civilian refugee tent camp, resulting in the deaths of at least a few dozen innocents.
Scary stuff: Israeli, Egyptian forces exchange fire, Egyptian soldier killed - The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)
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RIP, NBA great Bill Walton: Dan Shaughnessy on Bill Walton: Boston was lucky to have him (bostonglobe.com)
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A good story about bad management: Here's what really killed Red Lobster - Fast Company
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This path for Iran must be stopped but Biden is the wrong guy for the job. When even the Europeans are being tougher than you, you know you're not doing enough: IAEA Announces That Tehran Has Increased its Enriched Uranium Supply - The Foreign Desk | by Lisa Daftari (foreigndesknews.com)
Exclusive | U.S. Opposes European Plan to Censure Iran Over Nuclear Work - WSJ
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Hard to not see this as witness tampering: Biden visits daughter-in-law's home ahead of her expected testimony in Hunter Biden trial | Fox News
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This kind of moral clarity is appropriate and necessary: BORIS JOHNSON: It would be insane for Britain to ban arms sales to Israel. The sooner we denounce the idea, the better | Daily Mail Online
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Can the retailers force producers to cut wholesale prices? If so, can wholesalers and manufacturers lower their own costs? If so, how? Can they cut wages? Historically, that's close to impossible: Major retailers are offering summer deals to entice inflation-weary shoppers (denverpost.com)
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Nerd out with me a bit: Why Julius Caesar's Year of Confusion was the longest year in history (bbc.com)
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Closing arguments today: Trump hush money trial: Closing arguments, jury instructions and maybe a verdict? | AP News
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I love the first one in particular: 6 Under-rat-ed Facts About Rats | Interesting Facts
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I appreciate Trump's sentiment, but the first thing he must do is uphold the Constitution. Free speech rights apply to everyone, even non-citizens. BUT, breaking the law as part of protests or material support of a terrorist organization (which is not the same as just yelling insane anti-Israel stuff) should certainly be a basis for invalidating a student visa and deporting the student.
Trump told donors he will crush pro-Palestinian protests, deport demonstrators (msn.com)
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No idea if he did this but just to avoid the collective brain damage, I suppose I'm glad he's not here anymore: Commanders kicker Brandon McManus accused of sexual assault in civil lawsuit (kdvr.com)
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The Palestinians have made clear for decades that they don't want a two-state solution. All of the gullible liberals who keep calling for one are playing into the hands of terrorists. We Jews understand that when people say they want us dead, they want us gone, believe them.
Inside the Terrorist-Connected Michigan Conference Where Rashida Tlaib Spoke - Algemeiner.com
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Today's Videos
I have no idea if this is true, but I hope so
Nerdy and excellent