Counterfeit Nation

 

To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value than the real thing. —Wikipedia

What if the reason so many of us feel like we don’t know our country any more is because it isn’t?

Portland’s 4449 to Bend and Back

 

Enjoy a cup of coffee on a Sunday morning and some railroad history. Take a trip through the Columbia River Gorge and the Deschutes River Canyon.

The Southern Pacific 4449 is a “GS-4” class of 4-8-4 “Northern” type steam locomotive. There are only two GS type locomotives that exist today. The SP 4449 is the only GS-4 locomotive left that has survived a scrap yard.

Transgender Pets?

 

If I were a veterinarian I’d give serious consideration to offering gender affirming care to pets.  I could offer an array of services that might include medical, surgical, mental health, and non-medical services for transgender and nonbinary animals.  

Do you think this might be a profitable form of veterinary practice?  Where would be the best place to locate a practice like this?  

Mind the Gap

 

The text of the Torah, describing the cherubim on the Ark, says each “man is facing his brother.” Why is this important? Because these words are first found in Genesis, and in two adjacent verses referring to the very first relationship that went wrong!

Now Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bore Cain. And she said, ‘I have acquired a man as did G-d.’ She then bore his brother Abel. (Gen 4:1-2).

‘What Is a Woman?’ Free on Twitter

 

I highly recommend watching What Is a Woman? on Twitter if you have never seen it. It’s free through the weekend. I started watching it just to stick it to the left and intended to play it in the background while I did other things, but it turned out to be really interesting, so I quit doing my work and gave it my full attention.

Matt Walsh asks good questions of both advocates and opponents of gender confusion. I didn’t feel like he was asking gotcha questions or trying to trap his opponents, although I realize he controlled the editing. He had a good variety of pro and con voices, and there are a number of funny situations when the subject of the interview is so obviously uncomfortable with Matt’s simple questions. The interviews with the Maasai tribesmen in Kenya are worth the whole show – they are very clear on the differences between men and women, and at one point they have to be bleeped as they explain it.

I was concerned there would be a lot of graphic descriptions of child mutilation, which I can’t stand, but there was only one point where I was a little uncomfortable, and even that was not bad.

Marvelous Adventure Story Recounts Forgotten 1919 Transcontinental Air Race

 

In 1903, America led the world in aviation. By 1919, the United States aviation industry lagged behind other nations. Europe began commercial airlines. In the much larger United States, aviation was seemingly limited to aerial entertainment. Americans appeared to be losing interest in it.

“The Great Air Race: Death, Glory, and the Dawn of American Aviation” by John Lancaster recounts an almost forgotten 1919 transcontinental air race. Hosted by the Army Air Service and limited to military pilots, it was billed as a demonstration of capability, not a race. It attempted to revive America’s aviation industry.

The 1919 Aircraft Reliability Race was the brainchild of Brigadier General William “Billy” Mitchell, then America’s foremost air power advocate. He was at the height of his influence. A war hero and Director of Military Aeronautics, Mitchell organized it as a readiness demonstration. Army pilots starting in New York City and San Francisco, would cross the continent to the other city and then fly back to their origin. Half would start in each city. It was not a “race,” although the competitive instincts of the participants made it one. The pilot completing the journey first would have bragging rights.

Quote of the Day: Following the Crowd

 

“The one that follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has never been.: — Albert Einstein

Being in the crowd is comfortable. It tends to be low risk. It is also usually low reward. But it seems like the safe choice. If you believe in safety, you tend to stay in the crowd. It is the zebra or gazelle that is outside the herd that gets hunted down, the bomber that falls out of the formation that gets swarmed by fighters.

Striving for Mediocrity

 

Do you remember the days when we worked hard to earn merit for our efforts and our performance? The days when we would glow with the success of producing excellence and earning the respect of others? I think that the days of “meritocracy” may be long past, and that we are finding ourselves living in a culture of mediocrity—where disappointing results are the norm–which bodes a destructive future for our society.

How did this degradation happen, particularly with our children? Some people like to point to the outcomes of the pandemic, with New York offering one example:

Schoolchildren have gotten the short end of every stick all pandemic long, from unpredictable closures and virtual learning to stressed-out teachers and a wholesale dropping of standards and accountability.

Navigating Healthcare Today

 

So one of my best friends recently had a hip replacement. A few weeks later, he developed severe pain in the hip along with redness, tenderness, and drainage from the wound incision. He thought he had a wound infection and called his surgeon’s office to see what he should do. The receptionist he spoke to told him the next available appointment was six days later. So he took it! He didn’t tell the phone operator that he needed the doctor or his assistant to call him back as soon as possible. It is hard to believe, but many people are afraid to argue with the peons paid to block access to medical care.

So he fell the night before his appointment and couldn’t get up. He crawled to his cell phone and waited while the EMTs called a locksmith to drill his door and take him to the hospital next to the doctor’s office. He had a severe joint infection and, as I write, is in surgery for removal of the hip prosthesis and replacement of a new joint.

It’s Pride Month? Here Is My Pride Flag!

 

The so-called “Rainbow Flag” gets a month? Flag Day, June 14, gets one day? Memorial Day gets one day? Armistice Day gets one day? The birthday of our Beloved Nation gets one day? Here is my Pride Flag- it flies in my front yard every minute of every day, save those moments when weather forces me to protect it. It is the flag I love, even though it doesn’t get a whole month. Our Star Spangled Banner! How proud we are of thee!

Beth and Andrew speak with education innovator and author Ray Ravaglia about what lead to his founding of the Stanford Online High School back in 2007, and the challenges of using technology to create a robust online school for gifted and talented students.

Ravaglia discusses how online learning has changed over the past several decades, and especially since the Covid years. We delve into his current work at the organization, Opportunity Education, and how technology can be used in the classroom to successfully track student learning and engagement. We also talk about the pros and cons of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and ChatGPT in education.

Ray Ravaglia is the author of two books, numerous articles, and has produced over 100 online courses.

Democrats Win by Convincing People Reality Does Not Exist

 

A fascinating Rasmussen poll was cited by Powerline today (emphasis mine):

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 71% of American Adults agree with the statement that “there are two genders, male and female,” including 57% who Strongly Agree.

So a little more than half of American adults strongly agree that there are two genders – men and women.  I wonder what that poll would have looked like five years ago?  What about ten or fifteen years ago?  Those American adults would have had blank looks on their faces, and would not have understood the question.

Coaches, Politicians, News Anchors, Destruction, and Tyranny

 

Because of my kids, I’ve spent a lot of time around basketball coaches over the past 15 years or so.  Their coaches, opposing coaches, head coaches, assistant coaches, recruiting coaches, and so on.  I talk to all of them, ask about their lives, ask them what drew them to coaching, and try to understand how they make decisions.  I’ve learned a lot, as I generally do when I ask questions and then shut the heck up.  I’ve learned that you can learn something from absolutely anybody.

I’ve learned that coaching is a difficult profession.  First of all, teaching anything is hard.  Secondly, coaches make very, very little money.  Only the top few can earn a living at it, all the rest of them need other jobs to support themselves.  Which is difficult, because coaching takes an enormous amount of time – nights, weekends, holidays, and so on.  Lots of travel, which means lots of time away from family.  Plus, the pressure from the school administrators who hired you, the kids you’re trying to coach, and worst of all, their parents.

So why would anyone go into coaching?  Having spent a lot of time with a lot of coaches, I’ve reached the conclusion that there are three types of people who go into coaching:

Larry Kudlow is back! And he brings good news, among other things. The guys get his take on the dealings of this Kevin McCarthy fellow, along with predictions on forthcoming (eventually!) market corrections, and his optimistic assesment of American work, tradtions and faith.

Plus our merry trio get into the GOP primary contenders—and some other people whom we’re told are running. More importantly, they talk toy trains… Just tune in and roll with it.

Instincts Lead Us Astray

 

Leftists believe that people are not naturally inclined to be monogamous. They claim that being faithful to only one other person goes against our instincts, our desires for variety and danger … forbidden fruit, and all that.

Leftists are entirely right.

Kintsugi

 

Tarzana Joe is always profound, and I particularly like this poem that appeared today on Facebook. To save you looking it up (although you should, to see some pictures), Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by emphasizing the cracks with gold inlay. It’s not hard to realize that the piece looks better now than before it was broken… and it is a hopeful metaphor for our society.

Broken

The University of Our Lady and the Welcoming Church

 

As Catholics, we dedicate June to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. As Catholics we venerate and hold in high regard the Blessed Virgin Mary. As a so-called Catholic University, and perhaps the most well-known one worldwide, one would think the University of Notre Dame would be one to promote this great month. Well, color one shocked:

South Africa After-Action Report

 

This year Mr. Charlotte and I have had the great good fortune to do some serious ’round-the-world traveling. We have been on the road since the first week of January and will be back stateside just in time for Independence Day. Our destinations so far: Ecuador, Egypt, Fiji, New Zealand, South Korea, South Africa, Lesotho, and eSwatini (Swaziland). We just wrapped up the South Africa leg of the trip and I thought the Rico-verse might be interested in some impressions. If you just want to see some fun photos of animals, dramatic landscapes, etc., please feel free to skip to the end!

We spent nearly five weeks in South Africa, starting with a week in Cape Town, then driving east along the Garden Route (basically following along the southern coast of Africa) for several days, a few days in Addo Elephant Park, a few days in Lesotho and the Drakensberg Mountains, a couple of days in the Blyde River Canyon area (about two hours west of the central part of Kruger National Park), a week in and near Kruger, and then ended with three days in Cullinan/Pretoria/Johannesburg.

Environmental Panic Over the Protection of Wetlands

 

This past week, in Sackett v. EPA, the United States Supreme Court unanimously brought to an end the nonstop siege that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) imposed on Michael and Chantell Sackett during their 19-year quest to build a single-family home on a building plot some 300 yards from Priest Lake, a navigable body of water, with a number of homes between their lot and the lake itself. The EPA asserted jurisdiction over the Sacketts’ land and threatened them with fines of over $40,000 a day. In 2012, the Supreme Court refused to allow those excessive fines to block a lawsuit but left matters in limbo by returning the case to the lower courts. In the second round of litigation, all nine justices agreed that the EPA had gone one step, if not many steps, too far. But none of them sought to explain where or why the EPA was wrong.  Instead, sharp divisions emerged in the Court on the question of just how much was too far. The key provision of the Clean Water Act (CWA) reads: “(7) The term ‘navigable waters’ means the waters of the United States, including the territorial seas,” such that a wetland, however defined, bears no similarity to the large bodies of water that are “in direct contact with the open sea.” As the justices saw the case, the key question was how best to interpret the term “adjacent,” which does not appear in the statutory definition.

So, why has the Supreme Court sharply divided over the terminological dispute of whether the word adjacent means “abutting on” or “nearby”? The answer is that this term makes its appearance only once in the statute, in Section 1344(g)(1), which authorizes the states to conduct their own permitting programs. It is from this section that Justice Alito, writing for the Court’s majority, concludes that the “statutory context” “specifies that discharges may be permitted into any waters of the United States, except for traditional navigable waters ‘including wetlands adjacent thereto,’” suggesting that at least some wetlands must necessarily qualify “as waters of the United States.”

Quote of the Day: Trust, but Verify?

 

In properly organized groups no faith is required; what is required is simply a little trust and even that only for a little while, for the sooner a man begins to verify all he hears the better it is for him. ~ G. I. Gurdjieff

It was many years before Reagan said it and in a very different context, but perhaps Reagan had read a book on Gurdjieff’s teachings? Gurdjieff was a mystic from the first half of the Twentieth Century. Like any true mystic and spiritual teacher, he wanted people to think, not follow blindly. (If you’re supposed to have faith and follow blindly, it’s probably a cult.) I could mention many ways that this could be applied today, just as it could be applied since the beginning of the world. But, I’ll leave that up to all of you.

Frontier Country

 

Starting off the month of June right… audiobook #75 is released, #76 is being recorded, and #77 is under contract.

Did you know there was a shootin’ war between Pennsylvania and Maryland before the Revolution? More than one, actually. That’s why Parliament sent over Mason and Dixon to draw the line.

Frontier Country is a study of colonial Pennsylvania politics from the standpoint of the people on the frontiers, largely from their own words. “Frontier” had a different meaning in those days. We think of a frontier as a place where adventure and expansion can take place, as in “Space: the Final Frontier.” To a colonial, a frontier was not a place you wanted to be. It was a conflict zone, a place where you needed protection and support from your colonial government or everything you worked for could be wiped out in hours…and not necessarily by Native Americans. Colonial settlers often had excellent relationships with native groups, from whom they bought land and with whom they had an active trade. It was a fragile thing, however, and outsiders from another colony could easily destroy any comity and pick up the pieces afterward. The English government was too far away and generally too disinterested to help. Colonial governments were often ineffective. Pennsylvania was unique in that the proprietors, the Penn family, had to contend with a legislature full of Quakers who didn’t want to raise militias to protect the frontiers. Settlers felt cheated; they were supposed to get protection in return for their loyalty (and taxes). A lot of these disputes didn’t get settled until the Continental Congress fixed the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Connecticut, and set up the Northwest Ordinance.

Why Is Assisted Suicide Popular?

 

Any half-wit can kill themselves. There are a myriad of ways that are pretty much instantaneous. Some are messier than others, it is true, but one does not need to be a genius to end one’s own life.

So why is there such demand (see Canada) for a medical professional to do the killing? Is there something about the blessings of the state that somehow make suicide a much more attractive life choice? Or is it the attraction of having someone else – even a stranger – helping? Do we prefer the engagement and touch of another human even at the moment of death?

Memorial Day Weekend: Civil War Dispatches from Arizona

 

Picacho Peak is located on the west side of Interstate 10 about 45 miles north of Tucson. Drivers making the trip between Phoenix and Tucson, unless they visit Picacho Peak State Park, may not realize that Union and Confederate forces fought the westernmost skirmish of the Civil War in what was then the location of an isolated Butterfield stagecoach station.

Our loneliness … [was] indescribable. We were cut off from all communication with the civilized world, in a desert and inhospitable country. Ahead of us was an enemy of whose numbers we knew little, and behind a forbidding desert … To add still more to our loneliness, as the sound of the pick and shovel were heard, was the dismal howl of the wild coyote … The graves being dug, without a word or a prayer we rolled the bodies in their blankets and laid them to rest.”