It was so good! Thank you @seldo.com!

Which is to say a functional democracy can’t just give the people what they want. It has to call people, in their capacity as citizens, to be their better selves and want decent things. And maybe there’s an unseemly whiff of aristocracy around that, but it looks like maybe it’s not optional.

Look, at some level you cannot have a functioning democracy where both parties presuppose an electorate of selfish, ignorant louts and compete to offer them the best array of goodies, which is more or less what “focus on kitchen table issues” means. You have to activate some kind of civic impulse.

You know how Justice Brandeis said sunlight is the best disinfectant, meaning that transparency discourages misconduct? That’s just not true anymore now that our public discourse is infected with spotlight-seeking scum. I’m sad about it!

Yep! Also flying to be at his bedside, and cremating his remains, both of those things had big carbon footprints. Human existence uses up the environment, we all have to make choices about what’s important to us.

I had never written an obit when suddenly I had to write my dad’s. ChatGPT helped me get over the terror of a blank page, then I rewrote to make it personal. And I think it turned out ok! AI writing is fine as a starting point, but not a final draft. www.legacy.com/us/obituarie...

I was just about to forward this to you! It triggered a high pitch screaming noise inside my brain!😱

I was also shocked and proud! I just set up a recurring donation in honor of James Madison class of 1771. He woulda been proud, too.

Is it St Swithun’s day already? encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn...

Nick and June have matching Beastie Boys t-shirts, and sometimes they listen to Sabotage together while playing Mario Kart.

Tapping your partner into the ring is always such a relief and also sometimes a blow to the ego.