I think that reading well and deeply makes you a more interesting person, gives you a language to speak with, and allows you to see things that might otherwise be missed. Deep interest in anything can do this, but some traditions are richer and wider than others.

Cars are one of those classes of consumer goods where the general improvement in standards is just really easy to see and yet the nostalgia glasses triumph again for sad old men.

Your ref. to the nuking of Japan reminds me of Truman's Potsdam speech addressing it:

We would prefer to do this with votes, because we know what horrors war brings.

We know, because our forebears cracked crowns, burned Atlanta, razed Dresden, lit two artificial suns in the skies of Japan and more.

We would prefer to vote.

"Well, Liberals seem to be pretty timid about engaging in violence. Surely, this is moral cowardice and not a genuine belief that life is sacred that, once the olive branch is taken and thrown into a fire, can turn into fiery validation."

The last time liberals were pushed too far they invented a new way to drop a sun on a city

You have to laugh, because otherwise you'd weep in vain, frustrated fury at the galling stupidity of it all.

If I may paraphrase film!Aragorn, 'Open tyranny is upon you, whether you would risk it or not.'

It has not won, but neither is it 'coming.' It is upon us, and the only question that remains is what to do about it - and how to break the inertia of those hoping it won't come just yet.

So from our perspective, are there a lot of challenges to digging out of this mess and getting our democracy running effectively again? Yes. Even if we get these guys out, they'll have broken a lot.

But they're even further away from victory. They are not inevitable, do not make them so.

We're already seeing grand juries refuse to indict and regular juries refuse to convict because of their shoddy evidence and transparent political aims. Keep doing that.

More protests are planned, another No Kings rally on October 18. Go, be present, be seen, do not let them manufacture consent.

I sometimes wonder if Pete Hegseth is ever sober enough to think that he disgraces the seat George C. Marshall once sat in and feels his souls shrivel contemplating the titanic gap between Marshall's achievements for his country and Pete Hegseth's sad embarrassment of a career and character.