Be who you are
and say what you feel,
because those who mind
don’t matter and those
who matter don’t mind.

If you, like me, are feeling lately depressed and distressed by the fundamental attack on Americanism, memes like this demonstrate that Americanism is going to be damned hard to kill. Although freedom is awfully fragile, the key benefit of the 200-year experiment in constitutionally-secured individual liberty is that has demonstrated that it can be done. Rule by tyrants, warlords, kings, potentates, oligarchs, self-proclaimed theocracies, and an over-class is not inevitable or avoidable. A people can (with proper boundaries and attitudes) self-rule to broadly shared benefit. And key to that is “saying your piece” and “giving people a piece of your mind” without being canceled.

There is a muscle memory in a large swath of America that doesn’t get visibly riled very often. And as someone observed that I cannot now recall, clearly quote, or attribute: The Progressives in charge realize that a backlash is coming and they are pushing as hard as they can to install gains in the next 700 days to preserve as much power and control as they can manage. Or, as Tucker has observed: If you treat people as extremists, that’s what they will become.

Progressives “don’t matter.” So for G-d’s sake (and America’s) don’t let them silence you.

In “1984,” George Orwell feared that Big Brother would use fear and force to gain control of society. In “Brave New World,” Aldous Huxley feared that force would not be necessary, and that government could gain control of the population by doing everything for them. The people wouldn’t think that they were oppressed, because they had lost interest in thinking for themselves. As Neil Postman put it in his foreword to “Amusing Ourselves to Death” (emphasis mine):

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

For decades, the American left has been using Huxley’s “Brave New World” not as a form of literature, but rather as an instruction manual for gaining control of a previously free society. And it has been working just as well as Huxley feared. This is why every Democrat since FDR has fought against means-testing for Social Security – they want us all on the take. Just let government take care of everything. As George W. Bush said, “When someone is hurting, government has to act.” Once government takes responsibility for all our troubles, then we no longer need to take responsibility for ourselves. Which is nice. But Mr. Huxley knows where all this is going. And now that Democrats control the White House, Congress, and our elections, we’re starting to find out. Why are we just finding this out now? Because we didn’t listen to Mr. Huxley, who wrote “Brave New World” 90 years ago, in 1931.

The Democrat tactic of militarizing our Capitol is, in my view, a mistake. Huxley’s strategy of coddling the population into willing submission only works if they’re not scared. Huxley used Soma (a sort of relaxing sedative drug that the government handed out for free in “Brave New World”) to get everyone to relax and go with the flow. In today’s world, they would drink, take Prozac, watch Netflix, and play video games. And they would gradually lose interest in fighting the creeping oppression, which if they just relax, they won’t even notice anyway.

This only works if everyone thinks everything is ok. If something spooks them, and people start paying attention, then you move from “Brave New World” to “1984.” And nobody wants that. Not even the power-hungry leftists in charge. It’s so much easier if everyone just goes along, amusing themselves to death. Don’t do anything to give anyone the impression that the government is not their friend.

Razor wire and armed troops surrounding the Capitol gives the distinct impression that the government is not our friend.

I presume that Democrats have surrounded the Capitol with razor wire and troops to give the impression that Republicans are a dangerous threat to our society. At least, I think that’s why they’re engaging in this absurd theater.

But I really think it’s a mistake.

If the American people start to suspect something is wrong, that perhaps our government is not on our side – if the American people start to think like that, then all the Prozac and Netflix in the world won’t adequately sedate them.

Perhaps. Unless we’re so far gone, that we no longer care who’s in charge of us, as long as it’s not us. We may have reached that point. I don’t like the razor wire around the Capitol, but I would like another stimulus check, please. You’re banning authors from Clarence Thomas to Dr. Seuss? Yeah, well, just cancel my student debt and we’ll call it even. Maybe we’ve already lost the ability to think, and to care. I’m rewatching all six seasons of Bosch right now.

But again, I think the Democrats are making a tactical error by presenting such an overtly hostile front to those that they are trying to reassure into compliance. Why create conflict, when your Soma strategy was working so well?

When I see the razor wire and the troops around the Capitol, my first thought is not that the Democrats are hostile – my first thought is that the Democrats are incompetent. This is a mistake.

Or, maybe, I just hope it’s a mistake.

What do you think?

Truth be told, I have had no connections to Baltimore, Maryland since my ancestors landed there in 1703. (Although the city wasn’t officially founded until 1729, the initial settlement was established in 1661.) Eventually, those ancestors chose to move westward; at least as far as Ohio.

As I was growing up, it seemed that many of my sports heroes were located in Baltimore (Johnny U. and Raymond Berry for the Colts; Brooks Robinson and Boog Powell for the Orioles). Still, I knew very little about the City. That being said, I don’t think I’m interested in learning much more.

Perhaps Baltimore is a microcosm of American cities; perhaps it’s a trendsetter, I’m not sure. All I can be certain of is that it has become a sick joke and that its elected officials resemble failed comedians.

Probably, the most famous was the former mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake who achieved notoriety for her statement during the riots of 2015, “…We also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well, and we work very hard to keep that balance..” (Of course, the citizens of Baltimore shouldn’t have expected much more since her predecessor, Sheila Dixon, had been convicted of embezzlement.) Blake’s successor, Catherine Pugh, wasn’t exactly a resounding success; she couldn’t even finish out her term and is, at this moment, sitting out her three-year prison term for tax evasion.

Of course, the mayor’s office isn’t the only entity that has been affected by corruption and incompetence. The City’s District Attorney, Marilyn Mosby, seems to have a knack for losing high-profile cases. (For example, her overcharging of the 6 police officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray resulted in the complete acquittal of all of them.) As of late, Mosby has come under fire for her frequent travel on the taxpayer’s dime (23 trips in 2018 and 2019 to such locales as Germany, Portugal, and Kenya). Curiously, she has set up a travel agency (Mahogany Elite Enterprises LLC.) with the stated purpose of “…helping underserved black families who don’t usually have the opportunity to travel outside of urban cities, so they can vacation at various destinations throughout the world at discount prices.”

I suppose we shouldn’t be too surprised at corruption in city governments; it’s become almost commonplace. However, what does disturb me (and should disturb all of us) is how this corruption and incompetence has found its way into the school systems; especially in the Baltimore City Schools. Although Baltimore pays its administrators more than anywhere else in the nation, its schools are among the worst. In one year, 13 public schools had zero students proficient in math. Nine out of ten black males could not read at grade level. A 2021 report reveals that, throughout the entire district, the schools have an average math proficiency score of 18% and a reading proficiency score of 17%.

However, mere statistics do not tell the entire story. I recently read a story about a senior at one of those schools who had failed all but three classes (over four years) and still graduated in the top half of his class with a GPA of 0.13 (no word on what the GPA of the valedictorian might have been). Of course, that might have been due to the fact that he had been late or absent 272 days over his first three years in high school (but that’s just a hunch).

A reason for this somewhat inadequate performance (along with that of the other students) was readily explained by an ad hoc group called “Baltimore City Votes”. According to the group, wait for it; the real reason is systemic racism. And, the only solution for the situation is (unsurprisingly) “more funding”.

Perhaps some of us who do not reside in Baltimore believe that their situation does not affect us. However, this would be a mistake. A couple of weeks ago I read in our statewide newspaper (The Columbus Dispatch) an editorial titled, “Importance of learning Black history means it should never be optional”. The article had been written by Andrea K. McDaniels, The Baltimore Sun’s deputy editorial page editor. One memorable blurb from her piece read, “So when critics of the 1619 Project (named for the year African slaves arrived in the Colony of Virginia) say it is inaccurate and promotes divisiveness, they are mistaken. It tells the truth – and not what people want the truth to be.”

That editorial said a number of things to me but the most important thing was that “I’m not as concerned about the students in my city who can’t read or do math as much as I am about shoving a bastardized piece of history down the throats of every young student in the entire country.” For the self-appointed elites of our country (especially in the news media), a society of dullards is no big problem; after all, they’re more easily controlled.

Seeing all that is going on in Baltimore, I thought back to my ancestors and what they believed; “hard work is the key to success”, “work before play”, and “rational thinking”. Then reality set in; those are exactly the attributes that are today ridiculed as “white constructs”. To my chagrin, it appears that I have been a “white supremacist” from the moment my ancestors arrived in this country over three hundred years ago.

There was a novel written back in 1948 titled Cry the Beloved Country. As I recall, it was about South Africa but, as far as I’m concerned, that title is especially appropriate for what this country is becoming.

Under single-party rule, the internecine battles are generally more interesting than their debates with their opposition. Partially because corruption is so easy and rampant under single-party rule. But also because, with no meaningful opposition, the ruling party can do whatever it wants. So under these circumstances, you really find out who these people are and what motivates them.

This presents a problem for the modern Democratic Party since it has no obvious ideological underpinnings. It’s not based on Marxism, or Socialism, or Communism, or Libertarianism, or any other over-riding political philosophy. The only reason the Democratic Party has to exist is simply the acquisition of power. And the people who are attracted to that, the ones who end up in charge when Democrats gain power, struggle with their lack of ethical guidance and their tendency to abuse the power they just gained. Or worse, they don’t struggle with it – they revel in it, given the chance. Once they control the White House, Congress, and our electoral process, you get “Democrats gone wild.” There are no brakes.

Symptomatic of the left’s lack of intellectual framework is the nature of their public intellectuals and other thinkers and writers. The right has Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Bill Buckley, and so on and so forth. The left has Bill Maher, Charlamagne Tha God, Don Lemon, and so on and so forth. There was a fascinating exchange between two leftist thinkers yesterday. In a discussion about whether Andrew Cuomo needs to resign, Bill Maher stated that he did not need an investigation to prove Cuomo’s guilt of sexual harassment, and that “… it’s always on a case-by-case basis …” and that “… I believe these women completely …” Charlamagne Tha God, who apparently differs from Mr. Maher in that he is capable of independent thought, had a different take on the matter:

Mr. God told Maher that it’s “kinda hard” to ask Cuomo to resign when “you voted for Joe Biden.”

He explained, “If you weren’t more upset with Joe Biden, who had more serious allegations–“

“No, he didn’t!” Maher exclaimed.

“Yeah, he was accused of actual rape,” Charlamagne said.

“No, he wasn’t,” Maher doubled down.

“What are you talking about?!” Charlamagne gasped.

“Are you talking about the hallway incident?” Maher asked.

“Tara Reade!” Charlamagne responded.

Please read the whole article. It’s fascinating. It’s hard for me to know who to root for, here. And apparently, Democrats aren’t sure, either. Understandably.

Another Democrat presidential hopeful in another one-party state, California’s Gov. Newsom, is probably watching all this with interest. He was a Democrat hero just a few months ago. And now his own party is trying to destroy him, too. Why? Hard to say. But it doesn’t matter.

But my point is that the infighting between power-hungry media mongers with no underlying ethical structure is going to make the next four years very, very odd. Just in the first month of the Biden administration, we have:

• Shut down construction of the border wall, which was there to keep illegal immigrants out. While using razor wire and thousands of armed military troops around the US Capitol, to keep Americans out. Why? Hard to say. But it doesn’t matter.
• No apparent plan to combat our enemies overseas, like China, Iran, North Korea, etc. While aggressively attacking Mr. Potato Head, Dr. Seuss, and sci-fi actresses. Why? Hard to say. But it doesn’t matter.
• The governor of New York State earns an Emmy for his news conferences about his COVID policies, which killed thousands of people. He remains a media darling and is widely considered presidential material. And now, the Democrats are attempting to destroy him. Why? Hard to say. But it doesn’t matter.
• Shut down the construction of a pipeline that America had promised to help build. So now, instead of transporting petroleum through an underground pipeline, we’ll be using trucks, trains, and tanker ships – all of which result in major spills from time to time. How does this help the environment? Hard to say. But it doesn’t matter.

I could go on and on, and you probably could too.

But this is only the beginning. With people like this in charge, it’s just hard to say what’s coming next. Joe Biden is famous for two things: Being not terribly intelligent and being spectacularly corrupt. Kamala Harris is famous for one thing: She will do anything – absolutely anything – for power. According to Willie Brown. And Mr. Brown’s wife. What have Mr. Biden and Mrs. Harris accomplished in their lives? What talents do they bring to their new jobs? Hard to say. But it doesn’t matter.

And these are the people in charge of the most powerful country the world has ever seen. So what will they do? Hard to say. What will they not do? That’s really hard to say.

Imagine being a lifelong Democrat voter, watching all this. I would think it would have to be disconcerting. Or at least, I really hope it is.

Because if a lifelong Democrat voter looks at all this and thinks, “Yep – this is what I’ve been hoping for…” then we have more serious problems than we think.

Mr. Maher, Mr. God, and millions of other Democrats are already struggling with how to handle this new reality. And when things are too strange for them, it certainly going to be very strange for the rest of us.

This would be fun to watch, if it was Greece or something. But the stability of the world depends largely on us – the most powerful country in the world. Everyone looks to us for security, stability, and predictability.

God help them.

Not Mr. God. But the real God.

God help them. And God help us.

Things are getting strange. We’ve been a one-party state for only six weeks, and things are getting really, really strange.

And you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet…

Place your bets: Will newly maskless (i.e. “Neanderthal”) states like Texas and Mississippi experience a surge in COVID-19 cases? Or will cases continue to decline into summer just like the rest of the country and the world? The real problem is that Texas, Mississippi, and Florida jeopardize the establishment plan (a) to take credit for ending the pandemic when it recedes largely on its own, chased by the vaccinations while (b) simultaneously asserting eternal authority such that “normal” activity can only be done from now on subject to revocable permission depending on the discovery/invention of new dangers. If cases in Texas and Mississippi don’t surge, it could threaten the plan.

We can’t drop the fear narrative too early. Saint Anthony Fauci increases the threshold for herd immunity every week–a clear indication that he is not ready to relinquish his role or inadvertently help Neanderthals roll back any newly invented governmental powers. He has gone from 60-70% to 80-90% as the threshold. If you graph it, and project forward, at this rate he will define herd immunity as a minimum of 106.5% sometime in May.

Experts were allegedly surprised last month that SARs-Cov-2/COVID 19/WuFlu case counts dropped in India. Similarly, the failure of Floridians to die in larger numbers has continued to stump top journalists. And stumping himself, renowned expert Dr. Osterholm (author of Minnesota’s COVID-19 response and top Biden WuFlu adviser) predicted a sustained 6-14 week surge in cases at the same moment the rate of new infections in Minnesota was actually declining and about two weeks before infection incidence peaked across the entire upper midwestern US.

In stark contrast, your post author modestly points out (witnesses can be produced who will confirm) that I correctly predicted two weeks and three weeks in advance the COVID case peak day in a dozen US states each prediction correct within 24-48 hours. That is because, apparently unlike leading” experts,” I believe in science, epidemiology, and math but mostly because I can read a graph. Apparently, most journalists and their favorite experts start with the assumption that this disease should increases unchecked and any declines can only be attributable to NPIs (non-pharmaceutical interventions) implemented by enlightened governments. Hence, their constant surprise and bafflement in response to actual trends and events.

Here are some facts to help you decide whether to reach out to Las Vegas and/or your favorite UK bookmakers if they open the books for COVID counts in dissident jurisdictions:

• Contrary to “experts” last spring, COVID-19 did do its thing in Gompertz-like curves like every other respiratory epidemic. That means, the numbers initially take off but the rate of increase soon declines because the bug runs out of prime hosts\clusters and optimal conditions. This has resulted in curves that strongly tend to have similar slopes on either side of the peak. This is true in part because:
  • COVID-19 is seasonal See this and also this. Factors like sunlight, temperature, humidity, and even seasonal changes in human behavior and biochemistry strongly influence optimal conditions for the spread which in turn helps to explain why:
  • COVID-19 has distinctive regional patterns. NY, NJ and MA had identical curves and all first peaked exactly on April 27. MD, PA, DE and VA peaked at the same time about two weeks later and have shared with nearly identical curves throughout. The whole southern tier of the US and Mexico all shared a peak period at the end of July and beginning of August with similar, lower, flatter case curves than those in the northeast US states in March and April. The central US regional groupings had common peaks in mid-November or early December.
• COVID-19 has probably infected more than half of the US population by now (29 million reported positives multiplied by six at the low end of CDC estimates of actual infections) and like other COVID variants, that boosts long-lasting T-cell resistance.
• Every state in the US has had waves in either the spring/summer and/or during normal flu season. Texas and Mississippi both first peaked in mid to late July. So, when these same optimal seasonal conditions for those two states roll around again in 3-4 months, more than half of their populations will have newly acquired T and B-cell immunity in addition to specific antibodies plus the number vaccinated by then. COVID has no shot at an encore.
• Contrary to claims and wishes of ardent mask-mandate defenders, there is no jurisdiction in the United States in which one can point to the graphs of case incidence and mask use/mandate implementation and find a correlation reflected in the case numbers. I have been told that masks work but even if in wide use that we should not expect that benefit to show up in the actual aggregate numbers of infections (a position that does not sound very mathy or sciency somehow). Therefore, lifting such a mandate should not be expected to influence case numbers either.

So, my bet is that (a) Texas and Mississippi will not experience a resurgence of COVID and certainly not anywhere near the rates at the same times as last year and (b) the reported infection incidence rate will be vanishingly small and the same as the other states in their same COVID regional pattern (GA and FL across to AZ and CA).

Now to the next bet: What will be the exact date on which the Biden Administration will claim all credit and declare victory over ending COVID-19? 

[ My earlier take on Fauci/Cuomo taking credit: ]

This series keeps coming back to the same themes. This one falls under this:

“[A] significant and growing portion of the American population is losing the virtues required to be functioning members of a free society.” – Charles Murray in Coming Apart (Page 289), 2012

I guess this should be call this the Dr. Seuss edition.

Honestly, I thought we had hit peak un-seriousness as a society in about May 2016 when the sane among us had to pretend to take a discussion about mass societal confusion regarding which bathroom to use as worthy of intellectual debate in America (an era also fittingly known as peak Obama-ism). Little did I know, we would pick up right where we left off after a four and a half year temper-tantrum by the left and mostly-left (i.e. fake right). The new peak in our sights: Theodor Seuss Geisel.

Instapundit hit on it (at least) twice yesterday. First:

The Cancellation Of Dr. Seuss Should Disturb You, Because You’re Next. “America is entering its very own Mao-like Cultural Revolution. The iconoclasm of the left’s culture war isn’t a side effect, it’s the point.”

and second:

This isn’t normal or reasonable and don’t let them gaslight you into thinking it is. This is warped and un-American and the people pushing it should be ashamed.

The meat of the first link really goes to a piece at The Federalist: The Cancellation Of Dr. Seuss Should Disturb You, Because You’re Next. Read the whole thing…here are some teasers:

But context and nuance don’t factor into the inexorable logic of the woke left, which flattens and refashions the past into a weapon for the culture wars of the present. What’s important to understand is that this isn’t simply about banning six Dr. Seuss books. All of Geisel’s work is, in the judgment of left-wing academia, an exercise in “White supremacy, paternalism, conformity, and assimilation.” It might be easy for conservatives to laugh that off as nonsense, but they shouldn’t, because this isn’t really even about Geisel. …

… The left’s war on the past, on long-dead authors like Geisel, isn’t really about the past, it’s about the future. It’s about who gets to rule, and under what terms.

There’s a predictable pattern to what we’re seeing now. It’s predictable because it has happened before in much the same way it’s happening now. …

…

So much for statues and books. At some point, the left will come for actual people, because the ideology of revolution demands that dissent—and therefore dissidents—be silenced, by force if necessary. …

So forget about Dr. Seuss. Forget about the statues and the books. Those things are just the beginning. It could easily get much worse. The woke revolutionaries of the left can’t be bargained with or appeased. They believe this is a zero-sum game, that one side will win and one side will lose. And they’re right.

(Another one worthy of a hardcopy for the files.)

The momentum is again pushing in this intellectually unserious direction and the elected ruling troika of Biden-Schumer-Pelosi (as well as their supports and enablers) are either in favor of or blind to the completely predictable ends that are now appearing on the horizon. This momentum clearly carries the will of those who now lack “the virtues required to be functioning members of a free society.”

America 2021: Into the abyss…

(See also Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5, Volume 6, Volume 7, Volume 8, and Volume 9)

(See also Midnight in the Republic, A Dystopian Interlude)

I’m starting with an apology. Ninety-nine percent of the time I sit down to write something, the end turns out quite differently than my original intent. So if I stray a bit by the end, I blame it on too much Hugo-esque romanticist tangent. What I mean to express is my heartfelt gratitude for being part of the Ricochet community. It truly is a special group that is defined not by some platitude-riddled mission statement, an out-of-touch, heavy-handed cabal, nor an elitist clique demanding oaths of servitude. It is shaped and conditioned by its members. And the founders, editors, contributors, and moderators keep us ever striving for the best we can offer each other, and I am in awe at how the bar keeps rising.

Today the news media environment is unimaginative and condescending. The condensed national network news shows spend 30 seconds on a few breaking stories (a full minute if it’s on Republican voters and QAnon). They’re the Thin Oreos of news: Sure it’s called an Oreo, but without the good stuff in the middle, is it even worth it? They might as well run a ticker across the screen and save the money they pay their teleprompter readers who are so serious, so articulate, so unrelatable. Cable news is just as bad but in a whole different way. Most of it is the same stories from a decade ago, just with more gray hair. The hosts use their platforms to throw grenades at other news shows, pundits, or politicians. The ‘debates’ are either struggle sessions or yelling matches that leave viewers feeling like a kid watching his divorced parents fight.

But Ricochet is different. Posts come from people across the country and throughout the world. People with different perspectives and backgrounds that foster rich, smart, informed debates that might not come to any solid conclusion, but leave one feeling the investment was worth the time. They inform, they entertain, they inspire. On any given day, no matter what has happened in the world, I am always surprised by the treasures I find from fellow members, both in the posts, and the comments that follow. Rarely is there the brief flash of rudeness, usually a byproduct of the passionate voices represented here. Ricochet is the model for intelligent, thoughtful, civil discourse that seems to be badly lacking in today’s attention-deficit, hyperactive, politicized society.

When I was introduced to Ricochet by one of the editors, it was as if I was given the key to the Secret Garden. And I could help tend the grounds! It was a priceless gift for someone who spent a lifetime being on the outside looking in. I was the poor kid in hand-me-downs with her hot little forehead pressed against the window. I spent my formative years a bookish introvert who dedicated her time to school and sports. Friendships beyond my family were non-existent, and it mostly persists today. Growing up, it taught me self-reliance and I developed a fierce independence, but it left a cavernous hole that personal relationships should fill. My long-suffering husband should be eligible for sainthood by now, being my only partner to ride the rollercoaster of ups and downs. At Ricochet, no one seemed to care that I was Quasimodo. There are no pariahs, no diktat, and no allegiance to this ideology or that. The boundaries are limited only by the interests and opinions and thoughts of the community, which are extended each and every day.

I very nearly gave up recently. My mind seems to be a soft target for personal anguish and dejection. The details don’t matter – they hardly ever do – but every setback cancels the gains by twofold. I’m very used to rejection. I think anyone who hasn’t gone through failure isn’t trying hard enough at life. But lately the no’s piled up higher than I could see past. Every rejection was a confirmation that I was an unwanted soul. I believed God had picked me for his amusement: To lead me on by dangling a few morsels of hope, only to watch me trip and fall flat on my back. He was Lucy with the football, and I was the pathetic Charlie Brown. I wondered if the pain was worth the process. But in the darkest time, even the faintest light can reveal a path out of the desolation. I was given that light by someone who has the wisdom, insight, and grace to understand that to write is to be. And this may be my chance to fulfill a purpose – probably not to change anyone’s mind, or be an earth-shaker, or cross any ‘important’ person’s radar, but to give back to a group that has given me so much.

In closing, I want to express my deepest, most sincere appreciation for my fellow members, the contributors, editors, moderators, and the technicians who keep the site running. I’m thankful for the men and women who keep making this place one of constant enrichment – through posts, stories, podcasts, conversations and debates, and friendships. I’m grateful for the people here – Founders on down – who continue to make political and cultural challenges fun and interesting instead of life-or-death perpetual wars. Because where else can I go to get the latest Saturday Night Old-Time Radio Show, hear an interview with a thought-provoking author, hear about the latest chicken-coop adoption, and get the latest from the anarchy in Seattle? It’s all here, and sometimes it works in mysterious ways.

“In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer