Tater Tate and Allen Mundy by John Hartford Lyrics

Bluegrass music playin' in the park

Bluegrass music pickin' way past dark

Bluegrass music it don't butt in

Don't need an amp, and don't plug in

Bluegrass music that's where it's at

Hey let's hear it for Lester Flatt

Joe Sturd and Pete Rowen

Mack Wiseman and Melvin Goin

Stoney Cooper and Earl Sneed

Bluegrass Music is what we need

It is a Tater Tate and Allen Mundy

Earl Scruggs and Junior Husky

Bill Monroe and Betty Fischer

Don and Earl and Curly Cifer

Norman Ford and Douglas Dillard

Patsy Clemin, Jay and Jesse

JD Crow and Little Lord Fletcher

Francis Gray and Big Joe Green

Jackie Felton Don Mckuen

Doctor At--- and Doctor Harris, 

Sam Bush and Johnny Barton

Curly Fox and Curtis Brown

Roy Ossen Howdy Forseth

Charley Monroe and the Lewis Family

Eddie Hill The Louven Brothers

Carter Ralph and the Stanley Brothers

Uncle Josh and the Brewster Brothers

Bobby Sudder and the Osborne Brothers

Rudy John and the Frewer 

Grandpa Jones and ---

Curt Magee and Eddie Awkuff

Bobby Sloan and Charlie Waller

Lonnie Pierce and Allen Shelton

Dale Slate and Jim Buchanan

Little Roy and Lightning Chance

Monroe Fields and Ronnie Reno

Clarence White and Candy Baker

Roger Bush and Buddy Edmonds

Uncle Dave and Byron Burle

Gene Goforth Bad Burton

Ron Russel Randy Scruggs

Gordon Terry and Doc Watson

George Croon and Loyd Loren

Don, Brown and Carl Storey

Chuck Taylor and Mitch Dean

Mike Belford Stoner Haven

Nate Bray and Raymond Fairchild

Dave Hollen Roy Husky

Bill, Kieth and Jim Roony

Del McCrory David Christman

Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice,

Ronny Stullman Ever Lilly

Billy Ray and Wilma Lee

Would they uncancel the Chicks?

When some of the MAGA finally realize the abyssal depth of their leader's moral dicrepitude, and decide they don't like having been lied to, I wonder if they can go back 20 years, decide they didn't like being lied to by George W. Bush and rethink their misplaced disgust at the Dixie Chicks calling him out on it.

It takes courage to speak truth to power. 

It takes courage to admit you were wrong to yourself.

It takes courage to admit you were wrong to the world.

It takes a lot of courage to admit you believed in someone who was so obviously full of bullshit, like realizing you're the last person in middle school who believes in Santa Claus. You want to be cool, and pretend you didn't once you realize you got what everybody else had already figured out. No one wants to appear gullible. But what's the alternative? Continue to pretend to believe? Make up a conspiracy theory?

It takes moral contortionism to keep trying to defend the overt corruption and ethical trainwreck that is DJT.

It takes cowardice to know it in your heart his level of depravity and remain silent.

The World Needs Smart People and Good Leaders

 There's a lot of news about the future of the work with all the AI talk. One thing is for sure, at least for the next generation or two. The world is still going to need some really smart people, savvy about life and fluent with technology and AI. Another thing that's been made painfully clear -- we need people with a moral compass, people who understand service.

It's not necessary to go to college to really challenge your brain, but the thing about college is that many people are there to get smarter and to learn deeply in a subject they want, so they environment makes it easier to nerd out. It's a good place to expose yourself to a mindset of strong work ethic for true understanding, if that's what you want. (Yes, college is also populated by people who are there because they think their parents want them to, or to "get a good job", but you don't have to let that stop you -- just hang out with the ones who are trying to get smart.) But maybe the bigger reason most of us need college is because the structure and organization, along with the monetary "skin in the game" of tuition supports those of us with less discipline to follow through and actually learn. 

With the advent of AI, it's going to take a conscious effort on the part of the student and the college to provide the your brain with all the intense exercise it needs to reach your optimum smartness. Remember, being smart is the product of knowledge, processing, and intelligence. We don't always have a lot of control over our natural intelligence, but we can take what we have, feed it a lot of knowledge, and work it out until it gets as smart as possible. (That's how those of us with a little less intelligence can become smarter than those with more.)

And I'll say one final thing. You can be smart, but if your emotional intelligence and spiritual development are stuck at a 7th grade level, like some of our current administration, you can see the incredible damage it can cause. The power (and technical acumen) needed to change things can be used for good or evil. WE NEED MORE GOOD! 

Math Lessons - Just the Population to Death Ratios.

Using 9/11s as our reference, since Americans of my age can fully recall the magnitude of what that meant. And after October 7, it was a comparison mentioned frequently in the press.

In 9/11, 2,977 people were killed. America's population at the time was around 290 Million people. So the ratio of Americans to those killed was 96,500, or around 100,000 Americans for each person who was killed. Let's use 100,000 for general comparison purposes.

October 7th killed 1,200 according to the US Department of State. Israel's population is around 9.5 million. The ration of Israelis to those killed was 7,916. Let's say 8,000 Israelis for each person who was killed. Compared to 9/11, by this measure, it was 12.5 times worse. It was like 12.5 9/11s.

Since the Israeli offensive began, 40,000+ Palestinians have died in Gaza. The population of Gaza is around 780,000. The ration of Gazans to those killed is 19.5. I'll round it to 20 Palestinians for each person who was killed. Compared to 9/11, by this measure, it was 5,000 times worse. Compared to the October 7th, it was 400 times worse. If even half of those were combatants (most likely way less than half were actually combatants), it was still 2,500 9/11s or 200 October 7th's.

The numbers are close enough. They're just numbers. There are other factors that are important. 

American Civil War: Population of America vs Casualties: 31,000,000 / 620,000 casualties is 50.

Anti-Virus Software Update Fuckin' Microsoft and McAfee.

 The race against bad guys in software is so frustrating! Everybody KNOWS how much pain it causes to the individual, the organization, and to the whole damn world. How does Microsoft let another company (McAfee) make a buck by expiring my OS software protection and needing me to re-up a subscription for monitoring and preventing malware?! I mean, you want me to be loyal and paying for this OS ecosystem, how can you allow yourself to be vulnerable like that?

One of my greatest incentives to go in with Chromebooks when they came out was the lower threat of virus bullshit. I have no memory of any malware issues with any of the Chrome ecosystem products I've used over the years, and I know that's no guarantee of future freedom from fuckery, but one thing is for sure. That is a huge factor in my business choices. I remember it also being a major decision point when deciding between Apple and PC. 

Microsoft, fix this with some of your hundreds of billions of cash. Invest it in doubling your cybersecurity force for the basic platform and stop making a third-party interrupt my attention by having to decide whether I need them to help you keep your OS safe! Am I the only one who finds this amazingly short-sighted and obtuse? Microsoft, your future is in the balance (as it always has been). Why not bring that important consideration into your asset column instead of "scary liability." Stop making me want to dump you!

What's with this goddamn foot?

 Thursday just after lunch, my foot started hurting just upfoot of my index toe, mostly on the top. It felt at first like the bones just got out of whack, like a tendon got slipped over to the wrong side. It got progressively worse as the day went on until I was limping. Tender to the touch on the top, it hurt now, even when I wasn't walking on it. I was sure it was a hairline fracture in one of my metatarsals. My upcoming trips were going to be tough. Googling it let me know I'd probably have to wear a boot or special shoe, and would need to give it rest, and it could take six to twelve weeks to heal. Crud, I was hoping to be hyperambulatory in the Bay Area and later in Japan over the next 4 or more weeks, and was counting on riding my bike to work over the rest of summer school, keep off any more weight gain for all the good reasons. By the time I hobbled to bed, I figured I'd go to urgent care right after work tomorrow (Friday), and get started on taking care of it, and be lame for my trips. When I got up, it was the same -- my morning ablutions were slow and I filled 5 dixie cups of water and put them in the freezer anticipating having to ice the area in the upcoming days and weeks. I drove to work, and my slow painful walk to the bathroom before the first bell was slow. Would the students notice my condition? By the end of first period (of four), it seemed to be getting better? By third period, I wasn't really limping anymore, and though I could still feel it, it was clearly improving. And now, tonight at 10pm, it's normal. I can still register a sensation when I clamp down on the area with my fingers, but no, it stopped hurting. From being certain I'd be having to take ibuprofen and ice to get to sleep to being a hundred percent. What the hell?

We Deserve the World We Get (Climate Version)

 When we evolved on earth, with its climate and biomes, we were one with it (and still are). It was dispassionate which is another way of saying it is harsh and bloody. Everyone lived a life of serenity and terror, toil and joy, triumph and death, birth and pain.  And lately, like within the last few millennium, the same is true for a lot of us in a lot of ways. A select (not fortunate) few are spared much of the trauma and drama because of the economy of scale and specialized economies afforded by money and trade. But still, around the world, and for all time, much of humanity still struggles to survive, and often doesn't. 

Although to tools exist to give all of humanity a lot less toil and a lot more joy, we don't think it's that important that we share it with those without the tools. 

It's ironic that we have put the human habitability of the planet at risk just in time to develop the tools to put it back into the realm of sustained future habitability if we choose to. Ironically those tools we used to threaten us are the same ones we've become so enamored with that we can't give them up to save the species. I guess the part that feels unfair is the people who make all the decisions for the world will suffer the least as they sentence the lot of us to a Mad Max future. It only feels unfair because we choose to value peaceful comfort instead of feral excitement.

Can people ever choose what to value or are shackled to the defaults of their historical lot and upbringing? Tearing our situation down to the basic reality, we're animals with no moral mandate -- merely the biologically engrained urge to survive (which looks really weird in a modern, 21st Century abundant economy). And, (so interestingly!) our biological development also gave us this overactive cerebral cortex which give (some of) us the ability to transcend these urges if we so choose. Or if we're so inclined by personality and cognitive ability and personal preference, to transcend them internally.

This world we bequeath to our progeny is going to be rife with a lot of change. Some of the affluent will surf through it until they die, some will be brutally tossed around in the tumult, and some will drown. Our habit is to lament dangerous and damaging elements in life instead of preparing for them and dealing with them.