Seems Relevant
10:48 Saturday, 22 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 42.78°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 66% Wind: 10.87mph
Words: 30
The obscure we see eventually. The completely apparent takes a little longer.Edward R. Murrow
Spotted this in passing in the November, 1989 issue of Analog Science Fiction.
✍️ Reply by emailRADM Mark Montgomery
09:58 Saturday, 22 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 40.66°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 73% Wind: 9.89mph
Words: 162
I know Mark Montgomery. He and I served in USS BAINBRIDGE (CGN-25) around 1988-1989. He's a nuc (navy nuclear power), and I enjoyed serving with him. Super-smart and a great sense of humor. Showed up and helped me and my family move when we changed houses in Virginia Beach. Just a really nice guy. Was big on foreign relations and policy with a strong focus on Pakistan.
Mark is featured in this CNN interview. I think he's very measured and circumspect in many of his comments, while he's more direct in others. I would have been much more direct, but that's probably one of the reasons why I retired as an O-5 and he made flag rank.
But I am encouraged to see him on CNN, I think this is leading the conversation in the right direction, although not with the urgency the situation demands.
But I was surprised and delighted to see his face in this video.
✍️ Reply by emailFrickin' Apple
08:54 Saturday, 22 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 39.09°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 84% Wind: 7.78mph
Words: 686
Steve Hayman noted that yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the rollout of Apple Pay. I use it all the time, but it sometimes baffles me, and did so again this morning.
I was working on a project involving Tinderbox, but got sidetracked and turned my attention to another hobby of mine that is growing in interest as the days turn cold and gray.
Some weeks ago, I dug my working //c out of storage and brought it up to the house. It's small enough to fit in the bedroom closet without taking up too much space, and also to fit on the Husky workbench/desk here in the main living area when I want to play with it. I close the MBP and slide it up under a stand that the 27" monitor rests on. I have an HDMI interface for the //c and the monitor has an HDMI input; and I have a USB-C power connection for the //c and USB-C power from the monitor. Works great.
While Mitzi was in DC a few weeks ago, I spent my idle hours playing with the //c and browsing eBay, buying some Apple II stuff. (Including a ROM 3 IIgs, but that's a story for another time.)
Most of the time I used Apple Pay from the MBP to complete the purchase. It's convenient and you don't have to fill in a lot of shipping and billing address forms. I had no problems completing the transactions, and everything was shipped up here to Winterfell. Super, right?
Well, this morning I decided to buy some "new" hardware from Joe's Computer Museum. A storage emulator and a DVI card that can emulate Video 7 RGB signals. These will go into one of my //e's whenever I can get them out of storage. I've learned to buy now, because this stuff goes in and out of stock all the time, and you never know when it'll disappear forever.
At checkout, I used Apple Pay, and just as the transaction completed, I noticed Apple Pay had used my Florida address!
What the actual fuck?!
So I immediately sent a note to Joe, describing what happened. Hopefully that all gets sorted before he ships. Looks like it won't ship until next Saturday, so there should be plenty of time to square it away.
But then I had to dig into where that address came from.
I started out in System Settings, and looked at my Apple ID and billing and shipping. No issues there. Since it wasn't obvious where I'd find the Apple Pay settings in System Settings, I went to my iPhone and looked at my Apple Wallet. I brought up the card I used to pay the order with, which is the same card I used to pay for my eBay purchases. There's the little "..." in the upper right corner, so I touched that.
I should have screenshotted it, because it looks different now, of course. (I feel like Apple's operating systems gaslight me all the time.) Anyway, when I looked at it this morning, there was a list of several addresses, my own and those of some of my children. I touched Edit, and the little red dots with a line through them on the left side appeared.
Delete.
Delete.
Delete.
Delete.
When I closed it, there was only one shipping address, to this place.
Looking at it just now, there is no shipping address. Only a billing address.
What the actual fuck?!
What I need to start doing is recording or screenshotting every interaction I have with System Settings. I swear to God, this stuff drives me crazy.
I have no idea why Apple Pay had all those addresses in my wallet, going back to when I lived in the condo, or why the addresses of my children were in there. No idea why it selected the Florida address for this transaction, when it's been reliably using the New York address previously. It's a mystery. I didn't realize I needed a degree in iOS and Apple Pay to operate this thing.
"It just works."
Bullshit.
✍️ Reply by emailSenator Mark Kelly
08:44 Saturday, 22 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 38.68°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 85% Wind: 7.78mph
Words: 224
I have the utmost respect and admiration for Senator Mark Kelly. He was a guest on a Bulwark video yesterday evening. I commented on the "members only" one, I guess this one probably has a commercial.
Unfortunately, and this is an example of the chaotic nature of Trump, the subject is about Trump's violent rhetoric and not the moral injury being inflicted on U.S. service members participating in extra-judicial killings in the Caribbean. Had Trump not called for the execution of U.S. lawmakers, we might be talking about what precipitated the video. Instead, we're talking about Trump.
Which is pretty much what Trump wants anyway.
But here's my comment, FWIW:
I salute Senator Kelly for speaking out. The Trump administration is inflicting moral injury on American service members through these extra-judicial killings at sea. Drug interdiction is a law enforcement action, not a national security issue that calls for a lethal kinetic response, the murder of unknown, unidentified individuals at sea. I'm a retired navy O-5, graduate of the Naval Academy and recall my plebe year lecture from a navy chaplain about "moral courage." This lecture was ostensibly about the Academy's Honor Code, but it was also about My Lai, which had happened seven years before. I'm shocked that the retired community isn't speaking out more about this outrage.✍️ Reply by email
Nuremberg, November 21, 1945
15:36 Friday, 21 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 47.46°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 75% Wind: 8.16mph
Words: 16
History doesn't repeat, but it often rhymes.
We ignore the lessons of history at our peril.
✍️ Reply by emailMurder, Inc.
08:48 Friday, 21 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 41.54°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 86% Wind: 8.75mph
Words: 70
Looks like we're finally getting some new reporting on Trump and Hegseth turning the United States Armed Forces into a mercenary outfit.
The JAG at Southern Command specifically expressed concern that strikes against people on boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, whom administration officials call “narco-terrorists,” could amount to extrajudicial killings, the six sources said, and therefore legally expose service members involved in the operations.✍️ Reply by email
Category 5 Shitstorm
07:26 Friday, 21 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 40.08°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 87% Wind: 8.41mph
Words: 191
Trump is becoming manifestly more unhinged by the day. The degree to which it may be a symptom of progressive dementia is unknown, but it seems likely.
We don't have an adequate mechanism for removing power from an incompetent president. Heather Cox Richardson covered the 25th Amendment in her most recent This Week In Politics YouTube video. (The 25th Amendment part is around the 35m mark.)
The very real risk is that at some point, and probably sooner than anyone thinks, Trump is going to exhibit extremely irrational behavior in the "exercise" (abuse) of his authority. It will be clear that something has to be done, but nobody will be willing to do it. Not Congress, not Vance, certainly not his cabinet. And even if the 25th Amendment is invoked, it leaves Trump and his die-hard dead-enders (nearly all of his cabinet), a path to try to reclaim power three weeks later.
During this chaos, every foreign actor will see an opportunity to act. Russia, China, North Korea, certain that the U.S. will be paralyzed by a power vacuum.
We are in a world of shit.
Prepare accordingly.
✍️ Reply by emailLand of the Free*
06:52 Friday, 21 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 39.63°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 88% Wind: 8.41mph
Words: 4
God Bless Mark Kelly
15:32 Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 46.54°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 59% Wind: 4.21mph
Words: 109
I'm not as plugged into the news as I once was, so this story got past me when it broke.
“There’s a real issue there of morale and a feeling like they don’t have a lot of senior leaders who are protecting them,” Ms. Slotkin said. “There’s a lot of folks in the rank and file who feel very alone.”
A lot of retired senior "leaders" who have been sitting on their hands and covering their asses. This isn't as timely as I would have preferred, but these people have more to lose than the professional talking heads who appear on the cable news channels to offer their "insight."
✍️ Reply by emailLittle Victories
07:24 Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 26.74°F Pressure: 1025hPa Humidity: 82% Wind: 4.03mph
Words: 651
It was a very sunny day yesterday, with little wind, so it was pretty comfortable working outside at 40°F.
Mitzi put my Ridgid Pro Gear System Gen 2 toolboxes up on Facebook Marketplace in the morning and we had them sold by the afternoon. Generally, anything she puts up on that service gets sold rather quickly. The slowest was the set of Makita battery chargers I didn't need (and not many other people do either, it seems). It did generate a lot of messaging, usually people asking if it included batteries.
I worry about reading comprehension.
So we went down to the storage unit to complete the transaction and to look for the Hanukah menorah, which of course was in a box at the back of the unit. But the sale of the toolboxes and that effort yielded a kind of corridor within the pile of personal possessions, which will be useful in the future.
I hadn't heard anything back from Westinghouse, because why would I? Before boxing the thing back up to return to Home Depot, I figured I'd make another attempt to start it.
Several first attempts were the same as the previous ones. No indication at all that it could start. I verified proper alignment, because I was a qualified Engineering Officer of the Watch, and followed EOSS (Engineering Operational Sequencing System), and got zilch in the way of encouraging sounds or vibrations.
On a whim, I cycled the fuel select valve back and forth between gasoline and propane several times. It wasn't so much a whim as thinking perhaps something hadn't fully engaged. There was no immediate sense that it would make any difference. Nothing clicked like it hadn't before, but it didn't cost anything to try.
So, choke out, fuel on, Run/Stop in the Run position, and pull!
It coughed!
Choke in slightly, pull again.
Nothing.
Okay, something happened.
It took several more attempts, with little coughs of encouragement from time to time; but just when I was about to give up (and had removed my jacket and begun sweating), it started.
Woo-hoo!
Quiet little thing. I hadn't anticipated success so I had nothing to plug into it to put a load on it. I went back in the garage where most of my tools are of the aforementioned Makita cordless variety. But I found the heat gun and took that outside. The cord was stiff from the cold, but I got it straightened out and plugged it into the 120vac outlet and turned it on. The generator responded as if it were under load, and the heat gun, well, heated. (Never put your hand in front of a heat gun to see if it's on. That should probably go without saying, and I'm happy to report that I didn't. But I didn't want to leave that out there in the ether without a proper offering to the safety gods.) I wilted and burned some grass with it.
Okay, progress. Now, can I replicate success?
Run/Stop to Stop, engine stops. Let it set for a few minutes.
Choke out, Run/Stop to Run and pull.
It ran.
One in the win column. Now if the power goes out and the batteries run low, I can recharge the batteries right here on the hill. Though, honestly, I'm probably going to look into using an EV charger in the village if they have power. We've had a lot of wind the past week or so and the power hasn't flickered. So I'm optimistic that between last year's snowfall, last summer's thunderstorms and the pruning effort the utility made during the summer, most of the vulnerable trees and limbs are down. There will be outages, but they will be fewer in number and thus quicker to restore, and we shouldn't see another 30-hour outage at least for this winter.
Mostly a good day, yesterday.
✍️ Reply by emailSubscribed
08:59 Wednesday, 19 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 30.31°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 84% Wind: 2.59mph
Words: 113
sI've been kind of boycotting the NY Times because of its coverage of Trump during the campaign. I can't say that I know that their coverage has improved; but it feels like there are a lot of significant events in motion where I'll want to stay informed on a timely basis. I figure that even with biased coverage, the Times is probably more, well, timely than some of the other outlets.
Plus, they've been dangling a $1 a week for a year offer in front of me.
So I've subscribed, again.
To celebrate, I'll share a good news story with you. One of the 10 articles behind the paywall that I can share.
✍️ Reply by emailA Rift In the Spacetime Continuum
07:35 Tuesday, 18 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 33.06°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 70% Wind: 5.01mph
Words: 437
I'm back here today, somewhat anxious in the knowledge that elements of the marmot are vulnerable to unexplained alterations.
But there's nothing for it, I guess. I'm not going to abandon Tinderbox. Just wish I knew what happened and how I might prevent it going forward
Anyway, Mitzi and I went out last night to play trivia and meet some of the locals. We did fairly well, except I got suckered on a "what species" question that mentioned the Trinidad Moruga scorpion. The specificity of the name should have been a clue, though it wouldn't have helped me. It's not a scorpion at all, hence not an arachnid. It's a pepper, and I wouldn't have been able to name the species for a pepper anyway. I doubled-down on that answer because I was certain it was correct, which had the effect of subtracting 20 points from our score, not merely adding zero.
But we did meet some nice people, and I gather Mitzi has negotiated our joining another team.
Weather has been pretty cold and very windy. But the power hasn't gone out, so that's nice.
We had a promising showing, followed by second showing for the same people of our place in Florida. Alas, they went with another choice.
We watched Orwell: 2+2=5 the other night. I can see why it has generally been praised, but I didn't especially enjoy it. It's very much an "artsy" presentation, and so there were elements that just flew over my head. (The many shots of just random people staring into the camera.) It's obvious we're living in an Orwellian timeline, though how much of that is due to authoritarianism and how much is due to capitalism is a question. I think it's mostly the latter, with authoritarianism coming on strong lately.
I wanted to see what reporting was taking place at the U.S. Naval Institute web site. I was disappointed to see that offer comments, and the sort of discourse that takes place there is about what you'd expect at Facebook or Twitter. I'd like to remind all the bloodthirsty types that are for the open slaughter of people they don't like at sea of the wisdom of Mack Boland:
"The only problem with killing sons of bitches who deserve it is it's so hard to know when to stop."
Just declare any group a "terrorist" and start killing them. That's where we're at.
There will be some kind of manufactured crisis to delay or cancel the 2026 mid-terms. We're headed that way.
Well, this has cheered me up. So glad I did this!
✍️ Reply by emailThat Was Interesting
18:25 Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 38.93°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 68% Wind: 4.94mph
Words: 636
Yesterday and today, I undertook a fairly comprehensive review of the marmot. For reasons that remain unclear, much of the content in the Tinderbox file has had the date and time stamps associated with the notes altered. There are two main discrepancies.
The most common is a 12-hour advance, where my morning posts have had their times changed from a.m. to p.m. When this occurs in the occasional post I that wrote in the afternoon, it pushes the date and time to the following day, which makes "On This Day in the marmot..." a bit, well, off. This affects probably the majority of the posts before early 2024.
The second most common discrepancy is a 12d 20h regression. There are hundreds of posts with this discrepancy. This makes "On This Day in the marmot..." meaningless.
There are a few discrepancies that are in neither category, but they are very limited in number. There were a few weird cases, where posts in the Tinderbox file are out of order, even considering the time discrepancies. There are whole months with one discrepancy or the other, and some months with some of each. Most of the 2024 posts I examined in an old copy of the marmot exhibited no discrepancies.
For what it's worth, the html files on the server, with one exception, all seem to exhibit no discrepancies. There was one month, I think in January or February 2024 or 2023 when I was posting without noticing that the $PublicationDates were all in the past. (I could check, but I closed the file because it's so easy to get confused with two open Tinderbox files that look identical. I discovered an error in the Archive page with links to all the posted months, and ended up correcting it in the copy of the file that I was inspecting and marking up, which ended in November of 2024. So the archive page now ends at November 2024, and I need to fix it with this copy. Sigh.)
I've forwarded the reviewed copy to Mark Bernstein hoping that he might be able to identify what mechanism could have altered these timestamps. $Created is a System Attribute, and shouldn't be able to be altered, yet they were. $Created would have been the backstop to fix all the $PublicationDate attributes exhibiting a time discrepancy, but whatever the mechanism was, it affected $Created as well.
It's very strange, and there was no clear pattern visible to me.
Anyway, I'm thinking of just changing "On This Day in the marmot..." into a "Random Blasts From the Past..."
It was exhausting looking at all of these posts, and I wonder just who the heck I think I am that I wrote all this stuff? Most of it has been written in the past few years. I should get a different hobby.
In other news, an electrician came by and installed the interlock and generator breaker into the power panel. We tested the EcoFlow Delta Pro 3 and it easily handled the mini-split and the well pump. We should be ok in an outage. If I can get the little generator working, I can recharge the batteries when they get low. It'll take a few hours to charge both the DP3 and its expansion battery, but that'll be manageable. I gather I could even run down to Watkins Glen, assuming they have power, and use the EV chargers to charge it back up.
Anyway, had the panel inspected today and it passed. Should get a letter saying it's all up to spec soon.
Hopefully back to normal tomorrow. I have a knot between my shoulders from sitting hunched over this computer for the past two days. I need to take a nice long walk. Hopefully we get a bit of sun tomorrow.
✍️ Reply by emailAnother Glitch In The Matrix
07:00 Wednesday, 12 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 31.8°F Pressure: 1007hPa Humidity: 74% Wind: 13.87mph
Words: 607
Not very often, but from time to time I encounter some strange behaviors in Tinderbox. I've been wresting with one yesterday and today. It may have been going on for some time, but I haven't done a more thorough investigation for reasons that I'll explain in a moment.
I added the On This Day in the marmot feature some time ago. Well, I can tell you exactly, I think. Looking at the Created attribute for the Agent that collects posts written on this day over the years shows that it was created on 1 January 2025. I like the feature because it reminds me of things, and sometimes serves as a bit of inspiration.
The Agent that creates On This Day looks at the PublicationDate attribute, and gathers all the notes (posts) written on that particular day regardless of the year. Publication Date is a User attribute, so I can edit it at any time. Sometimes I'll begin a post on one day, but not finish I until the next. Seldom happens, but if it does I change the PublicationDate so the post gets properly sorted in the monthly archive container.
I have to look at On This Day every day, because a few years ago I floundered around in the marmot and changed some of the export settings, which results in posts appearing with no paragraph breaks and no markup. You may have seen one of those, but probably not because no one has ever mentioned such a thing to me.
Yesterday I looked at what On This Day had collected, and there was a Thanksgiving post. That seemed weird. Further investigation revealed that a number of posts had had their PublicationDate attributes changed. So I exposed their Created dates in the Displayed Attributes portion of the post. Those too were changed and matched the PublicationDate changes.
What's odd about that is Created is a System Attribute, and short of going into the XML of the document itself, not able to be changed.
So I looked at the archived page for November 2023 and saw the posts and permalinks (created from PublicationDate) were all in the correct chronological order. The Thanksgiving post appeared on 23 November 2023, as expected.
Normally, I would rely on Created as the canonical date and time the note was created, but here was evidence that it had been altered for a number of notes in November 2023, and I cannot fathom how such a change might have occurred.
Today's On This Day showed similar corruption, with the difference between actual date and time of publication and what the Tinderbox file was showing being one week and five hours for at least the posts written on 12 November 2023. A quick glance at the some upcoming posts shows a different offset. (Edit: The delta may not have been one week and five hours. I'd been editing PublicationDate and may have made a typo. This time stuff really messes with my head anyway.)
So far, it seems that this hiccup only appears in the November 2023 archive, but I'm alerted to it now. I may have missed it before, and On This Day is an ephemeral page, it's not archived, so previous glitches went unnoticed.
Update: Don't know why I didn't check the other posts, but this corruption appears in other years as well. Everywhere? I guess I need to see if there's anywhere it doesn't appear.
Sigh.
It's not a difficult problem to correct, but I can't automate it. I have to view the canonical dates recorded in the published web pages, and then correct them in the Tinderbox file.
Oy! 🤬
✍️ Reply by emailToday's "On This Day in the marmot'
09:29 Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 26.65°F Pressure: 1007hPa Humidity: 82% Wind: 16.58mph
Words: 15
The "On This Day" pages are ephemeral.
But today's is worth a look, I think.
✍️ Reply by emailVeterans Day
08:59 Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 26.42°F Pressure: 1007hPa Humidity: 84% Wind: 16.58mph
Words: 427
Got an email this morning from The U.S. Naval Institute:
Two hundred fifty years ago, a handful of determined patriots took to the sea to create and defend a fledgling nation. From those earliest days of wooden ships with smooth bore cannons to the age of atomic power, guided missiles, and the dawn of cyber warfare, veterans of our sea services have endured the hardships of service in distant seas and on hostile shores. They sacrificed precious time away from families and friends that many citizens take for granted. From Tripoli to Midway, from Inchon to the Persian Gulf, those who served have faced the dangers of the sea and the violence of the enemy to keep us free and preserve the values that make our nation great. It is because of their devotion to duty, their quiet professionalism, and their willingness to do what must be done that we sleep better at night knowing they are on watch. As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our naval services, may we look to our veterans not only with gratitude but with our own resolve—to preserve the peace they fought to secure, and to carry their example forward for the next 250 years.
[There's a para break between that last sentence and the preceding text, but I don't know how to preserve that in the block quote.]
Let me just say that I wanted to vomit when I read this.
"...those who served have faced the dangers of the sea and the violence of the enemy to keep us free and preserve the values that make our nation great."
"The values that make our nation great."
What values would those be?
The ones we're ignoring today? The ones we're not upholding? Defending?
The President of the United States is using the armed forces to violate the law, and the U.S. Naval Institute is silent.
In an example of irony as the fifth fundamental force of the universe, the home page of the U.S.N.I. claims "The home of influential debate since 1873." Really?
Homelessness is worse than I knew.
"Dare to read, think, speak, and write"
Unless you're the "institute" itself. Then I guess it's "Keep your head down and your mouth shut, or you'll lose your lease!"
Too much of a sacrifice?
The men and women of our armed forces are being made into criminals, and the veterans who ought to be speaking out against this obscenity are silent.
It's bullshit. Cowardice.
You don't stop serving when you take off your uniform.
✍️ Reply by emailTest Post
11:29 Monday, 10 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 28.99°F Pressure: 1010hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 10.31mphWords: 63
Tinderbox is now up to version 11, and I'd written all my AppleScripts using tell application "Tinderbox 10"...
Rather than update them to say "Tinderbox 11", I changed them to use application id "Cere", which remains constant over changes to the app name and version number.
This is just a test to make sure it works.
And it does.
The beat goes on...
✍️ Reply by emailWinter Is Coming
06:48 Monday, 10 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 28.35°F Pressure: 1010hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 8.16mphWords: 207
Yeah, well, maybe it's here. 27.5°F out there right now. Should start going up soon. Won't be a significant accumulation, happily. But it is kind of a semi-welcome change of scenery.
The mini-split is keeping up, the house is about 66°F but the thermostat on the mini-split is set for 69° and it's blowing warm air. We keep the door to the bathroom closed because it seems that the vent fan is just a chimney that lets any warm air rise up and out of the house. I discovered that while Mitzi was in DC. If we keep both the bedroom door and the bathroom door closed, the mini-split heats the house just fine.
At night we draw all the shades and close the curtains on the sliding glass doors. That also seems to help.
I need to look into a spring-loaded vent damper of some kind, such that when the exhaust fan is on it'll allow air to escape, but when it's off it doesn't. I'm pretty sure something like that must exist, I'm not very sure it'll be an easy install.
The beat that can be counted is not the beat, but it goes on all the time.
✍️ Reply by emailAction
10:25 Sunday, 9 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 39.6°F Pressure: 1010hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 1.99mph
Words: 27
I'm giving some money to a local food bank here in Hector. But the opportunity to give some money to another worthwhile cause may be found here.
✍️ Reply by emailMoral Cowardice
09:41 Sunday, 9 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 38.71°F Pressure: 1010hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 1.99mph
Words: 665
This is an interesting post that relates both to the failures of our institutions to defend the values they supposedly promote and uphold, and to the questions addressed by knowing.
The post refers to an "internal arbiter," which evaluates a moral choice by ranking the relationship the choice poses to various identities an individual inhabits. Later, the author worries that many Trumpist individuals lack an internal arbiter.
Korsgaard begins with a description of the individual. She says we adult humans are reflective creatures. We are able to examine our behavior and evaluate it against standards we choose.
"Reflection," is another term for introspection. And I would add that we evaluate our behavior against standards that we may not have chosen, but were rather instilled in us. Standards we have adopted unconsciously, or learned from examples, often the wrong examples.
Introspection is a difficult process, and it can lead to confusion, the problem of "infinite regression." I think that introspection is very uncomfortable for many people, and rather than work with the discomfort, they seek external stimulation, distraction, which our culture provides in excess.
Therapy can be a kind of guided or assisted introspection. The "what" questions can help an individual stay on track when wrestling with uncomfortable questions that relate to one's identity and one's "goodness." And boy does this country need therapy.
… [W]e require reasons for action, a conception of the right and the good. To act from such a conception is in turn to have a practical conception of your identity, a conception under which you value yourself and find your life to be worth living and your actions to be worth undertaking. That conception is normative for you and in certain cases it can obligate you, for if you do not allow yourself to be governed by any conception of your identity then you will have no reason to act and to live. P. 122.
This was an important point, so much so that it's quoted from Korsgaard in the post. I would differ a bit in the assertion that "we require reasons for action." We don't. Much of our behavior is habituated. There may have been a reason once, but it may be forgotten and may not even be relevant to the "reason" for the requirement for action in the moment. Much of what you read on social media is habituated. Stimulus and response. Reactive, not reflective.
But the important point in the quotation is that "it can obligate you," if you embrace a concept of your identity that makes your life worth living and your actions worth undertaking. But we see, over and over again, people ignoring those obligations. Seemingly happy to embrace a lower conceptual identity that doesn't obligate them to act.
That is the conflict here between one's identity as a Christian, and one's identity as a Trumpist. Or the conflict between one's identity as a commissioned officer, or a formerly commissioned officer, and the consequences of speaking out against the leadership of the armed forces.
The "core values" of the United States Navy are honor, courage and commitment, and nowhere do we observe those core values animating the choices and actions of the officers and sailors on active duty, or the veterans who value their identity and their prior service in uniform.
"It's just a job." This nonsense about "core values," is just so much window dressing. Marketing. Bullshit.
We're just mercenaries. You give me a paycheck, I'll kill anybody you want as long as you're the "commander-in-chief."
Except for ADM Holsey, who made a choice for a reason. Whose choice has upheld the Navy's core values, even though it comes with consequences. I'd welcome more from ADM Holsey, in terms of speaking out. But actions can speak as well.
You can't claim to be a Christian, or claim to be an officer in the United States Navy if you aren't compelled to act when faced with a moral choice.
You're just a coward.
✍️ Reply by emailKnowing
Current Wx: Temp: 37.09°F Pressure: 1012hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 1.05mphWords: 679
We had an interesting discussion in the Tinderbox meetup yesterday. I'm afraid I spoke too much, but it's not a shy group so someone could have spoken up and made their views and opinions known.
The topic was "Atomic Notes," and it was about a process for note-taking. Our guest was the gentleman who wrote, The Complete Guide to Atomic Note-Taking, a topic I responded to back in October.
Clearly I'm something of a skeptic, but I think we had a worthwhile conversation yesterday. Of course, I've been doing some background processing, or "unconscious reflection," because I woke up wanting to return to the subject today.
It's still a big hairy problem, and it's difficult to know where to grab onto it first, because wherever you begin will shape where you end up.
He uses syllogisms as examples. Major premise, minor premise, conclusion. One of the examples was, if I recall correctly:\
The best dog is the most intelligent dog.
German Shepards are the most intelligent dogs.
German Shepards are the best dogs.
I challenged the major premise, as it is not a fact, it's an assertion, which may have been chosen, consciously or unconsciously, to lead to a desired conclusion. (He owns a German Shepard.)
He replied something to the effect that if you begin challenging parts of the major premise, then you end up in the problem of "infinite recursion," and you end up getting nowhere. At least, that's what I think I recall.
What occurred to me this morning (or during the night sometime), is that "infinite recursion" is perhaps another way of looking at "contingency." The "best" dog is contingent on an individual's idea what makes one dog "better" than another. (I suspect this is also another Western idea, categorizing and ranking things according to their "goodness.")
Good, better, best. Never let it rest, until your good is better and your better is best.
One of the lessons from Nagarjuna's The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way is that everything is contingent. Facts, ideas, beliefs, concepts, crackpot theories do not exist in isolation. They are not "atomic." They are contingent.
I commented at one point that his process seemed very Western, and I think that was some part of my mind nagging at me about contingency, and it just wasn't surfacing at that moment. I'm getting old.
I suspect that Godel's incompleteness theorem is a manifestation of contingency. It's been a couple of decades since I read about Godel, and I think I've just gotten to that chapter in the book I'm reading. (Had to go look for it, because I couldn't recall the title. Yeesh. It's The Engines of Logic, by Martin Davis. I'm still in Hilbert, but I put the manual for Crush, Crumble and Chomp! on top of it on the nightstand and, "out of sight, out of mind.")
But this all points back to at least Leibniz and his calculus ratiocinator, a symbolic logic that could be exercised through algebraic means to lead to "true" conclusions, or "the truth." This is a very Western belief that reality may be reduced to "true" and "atomic" elements that may be known. Newton's determinism, give me the position at time zero and the acceleration and I can predict where a body will be at any moment in the future. Or in the past.
That seems powerful, and if there's one thing we're enamored with in the West, it is power. (And wealth, which are probably the same things, especially given the contingent nature of each.)
There's also the comfort of certainty. Certainty is a kind of "knowing," and "knowledge is power."
I think all this fascination with note-taking and "personal knowledge management," is a manifestation of the anxiety we feel in a world that feels increasing "out of control."
Anyway, it was a worthwhile distraction from the sadness that overtakes me when I think about the failure of our institutions.
Life is meaningless.
We bring meaning to life.
And when we fail to do so, then it is all just meaningless.
✍️ Reply by emailRed Sky at Night
09:35 Saturday, 8 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 45.68°F Pressure: 1011hPa Humidity: 78% Wind: 10.87mphWords: 325
Sunset the day my son and daughter-in-law departed. The weather was semi-cooperative while they were here. Very windy, some rain, but mostly cloudy and cold.
Watkins Glen State Park is closed for the season, which we learned when we went there to hike the gorge. We switched to Taughannock Falls because that remains open. My grandson seemed to enjoy the hike, and I know his parents did.
Yesterday I tried to start the Westinghouse generator I bought from Home Depot. Fail. Pretty sure I did everything right, it just won't start. I should probably just return it, but I tried reaching to Westinghouse support first. They'll get back to me whenever they get back to me, I guess.
Of course, I bought this device after watching people on YouTube setting one up and starting it on the second or third pull, and that's straight from the box. Very disappointing.
We've killed some more people at sea. Hegseth's getting his body count. His "lethality" high.
I've learned that "institution" is mostly a meaningless word used by groups of people who wish to collect money and aggrandize themselves. But the values and beliefs they supposedly uphold are in fact just meaningless adornments they use to puff themselves up. Whenever it's time to put any of that at risk to defend those values or beliefs, well, that's not their "mission."
I'll keep that in mind whenever they ask me for money.
I admire the people in Chicago documenting and bearing witness to the cruelty and brutality of the masked men terrorizing the city. I take comfort in the fact that it really seems to be getting under their skin. These aren't people who are members of an "institution." They're just Americans who can tell the difference between right and wrong and are will to do something about it. Risk arrest, or getting their car rammed, or both.
Unlike the boards and officers of America's "institutions."
✍️ Reply by emailDeep Breath
10:59 Tuesday, 4 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 51.19°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 51% Wind: 16.73mph
Words: 340
I'm checking in though I really don't have the time. I've got family inbound and more stuff to do, but this is what happens when this stuff grabs hold of me.
For the moment, I'm metaphorically taking some deep breaths. As a contractor, one of the active duty LDO commanders I worked with said, "I admire your passion. You're very passionate."
He was being polite, because I can get rather, um, assertive when I think I'm right, and when I believe it's important. Which isn't necessarily a positive character trait.
I'm taking a pause here, because I don't want to just give up. Well, I kind of do, because it just feels so frustrating. Nauseating.
Someone suggested that I write a piece for a publication that deals with naval affairs. I rejected that idea, and still reject it, because this is not a matter for polite debate.
This is a crime in progress.
Treating it as something we can "discuss," in measured, academic tones normalizes it. Dignifies it.
I can't do that, and I can't understand why more people aren't screaming about it.
And there's something else, and that's ADM Holsey. We don't know why he laid his stars on the table. We can speculate, and I think we can be pretty confident about why he did.
And when the story is eventually told, I hope America honors him in a way befitting his service and his sacrifice.
ADM Holsey is an honorable man. He has kept faith with the men and women under his command, in ways that so many others are failing to.
There are moments in each individual's life when the choices we make leave an indelible mark on our character.
It is crushing to me to witness how many are failing to meet the moment. Failing to honor the trust that our men and women in uniform place in us. To employ their service honorably. Meaningfully. In good faith.
This is a profoundly sad moment in the history of our country, and the United States Navy.
✍️ Reply by emailBloomberg
10:27 Monday, 3 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 53.85°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 62% Wind: 13.04mph
Words: 37
I learned that ADM Stavridis has written about the events in the Caribbean. Unfortunately, it's behind the Bloomberg paywall, so I don't know what he wrote. I gather it said nothing about the legality of the operations.
✍️ Reply by emailImposter Syndrome
09:47 Monday, 3 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 51.67°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 64% Wind: 13.04mph
Words: 299
It doesn't happen very often, but sometimes when I post something that matters a great deal to me, I get kind of nauseous and tired. I feel like, "Who do I think I am that I can write stuff like this?"
But I can't not write it.
It sucks.
Of course, I could be coming down with something too. Got a really bad case of the chills last night.
But, yeah, ugh.
This is stuff that I think I should be reading, from people like Jim Stavridis. He lives in Ponte Vedra, where we just moved from. He was Brigade Commander when I was a plebe. The guy writes like, all the time. And he's on CNN or PBS a lot too. That's the kind of guy who should be writing the stuff I just posted.
An admiral. Someone successful. Who had a huge job, great responsibility.
But, you know, crickets...
Maybe that's what makes you successful? Knowing when to keep your mouth shut?
No shade on Adm Stav. A good man.
Could be better, maybe.
But a good man.
Anyway, in between waves of nausea (Why? I'm risking nothing here. And why am I blogging about this? Maybe because I'm alone and Mitzi's not here, so I'm talking to the marmot.), I read this.
You should read it too, if you care about what we're doing in the Caribbean.
There are a lot of arguments on the practical merits about why what we're doing is wrong, not just the moral ones. Like, why not capture and interrogate these individuals and gather intelligence about their operations. But I think we just want to kill people. Hegseth's fetish for lethality. Man needs a body count or he doesn't feel like he's doing his job.
Anyway, I gotta go throw up.
✍️ Reply by emailMeeting a Moment
06:47 Monday, 3 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 43.18°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 75% Wind: 8.84mph
Words: 1174
Sometimes, it's just so hard to know how to get started on one of these posts. And I'm not the kind of person who will go back and do a lot of editing. So bear with me a bit.
Our society, our civilization, the larger elements of our cultural mythos, the pieces that provide context to the narrative account we construct of our time and the events that touch us are abstractions. They aren't physically real, they exist only in our minds.
So we have to construct things, artifacts, to keep them in our minds. To make them relevant to our lives.
To make them real.
One of those abstractions is the idea of "the rule of law." To reify this abstraction, we write laws, create codes, courts, processes and positions. The "justice system." These are the artifacts that make "the rule of law," real. And there are institutions that aid in that effort.
Institutions are organizations that may not be intrinsically part of the system that reifies the abstraction, but serve to embrace, promote and preserve the valuable elements of the abstraction in our minds. To offer us an important point of reference, a lens through which to view events of the day and how they align, or do not align, with the abstractions we have adopted to form our society, our culture or our civilization.
Institutions can be established for nearly any human activity. The American Film Institute is an example. The values and ideas that they promote don't have to be especially profound. They can be specific, of relevance only to a segment of society.
Professions may be regarded as institutions. They have standards, qualifications, responsibilities, authority, and, most importantly, accountability. Professional associations often serve the institution, keeping its value in the public mind. They also often serve a more pedestrian purpose, advancing the economic interests of members of the profession. But many of them have important, loftier aims, often to promote public trust in the institution.
"The press," is called an institution. It serves a public role, one that we at one time regarded as important. Perhaps we still do. "Journalism," can be regarded as a profession, though they have less rigorous standards that are not universally accepted or adopted. And "accountability," is often a hit-or-miss affair. Trust is a problem.
The armed forces are an institution. "A Profession of Arms," is a document that, in part, summarizes the values and ideals that inform and shape the role of the institution. (I urge you to click on that link and read the document. I'm not certain it will remain there long.)
Values. The Profession of Arms demands its members live by the values described in the "City on the Hill" metaphor. We must provide an example to the world that cannot be diminished by hardships and challenges. This example is based upon the words and intent of the US Constitution that each of us takes a personal oath to support and defend. Our oath demands each of us display moral courage and always do what is right, regardless of the cost. [Emphasis mine.] We are all volunteers in our willingness to serve and to place others' needs above our own. As shared values, our calling cards are Duty, Honor, Courage, Integrity, and Selfless Service. Commitment to the rule of law is integral to our values which provide the moral and ethical fabric of our profession.
Much of what is taking place in our country is without recent precedent, and we often hear about the failure of "institutions," to meet the moment.
I suspect that much of that failure is due to decay. Inertia.
I think the people who are in positions of authority within institutions are preoccupied by process. The banal, grinding day-to-day. They have lost sight of the role of the institution. It's meaning. Their duty.
Fundamentally, that role is to uphold the values of the institution. And when those values are under attack, or debased, their role, their duty, is to defend those values in the public arena.
Again from "A Profession of Arms,"
Our profession is defined by our values, ethics, standards, code of conduct, skills, and attributes. [Emphasis original.]
What is taking place in the Caribbean with respect to vessels out of Venezuela is wrong. You don't need to be a lawyer to know that it's wrong. You don't have to give the benefit of the doubt to an administration that has repeatedly demonstrated its contempt for the rule of law, and the values and ideals that have defined the American experiment.
It has fallen to us, the citizens of this nation and the veterans who have served it faithfully, with honor, to rouse the individuals in positions of authority, people who have been granted the privilege of temporary custody of the institution they serve to see their duty clearly, and to rise to it.
The "call to action," is to speak out. To articulate boldly and confidently that what is happening is wrong, that it must stop and that the American people will support the members of the armed forces who refuse to obey unlawful orders.
I am "no one of consequence." I have no connections, no relationships with people in high places.
I have my conscience and my keyboard, and all I can do is offer my thoughts and words into the ether, and hope they find purchase in minds that matter. People who can make a difference. People who can reach out to the men and women in positions of authority who are feeling the strain of these extraordinary times and bolster their courage. Remind of them of their duty, their obligation, and the privilege they have to make meaning in their lives, and make meaning real to the men and women serving in these institutions. To defend their honor, and to prevent their moral injury.
It is a rare moment in history, when something you do or say can make so much of a difference.
It's an opportunity to "meet the moment." To make meaning in your life. To serve the values and ideals, which is they have any real meaning must move us to action.
I write here and most of the time, it's just bits of personal ephemera. Passing the time. "The only blog that really cares about Dave Rogers."
But sometimes I feel like it matters. Or wish that it did.
I think I have maybe a couple of dozen regular readers. There's an email link at the bottom of this post, I'd welcome your thoughts.
If you believe that what I've offered here has some value, I ask that you share it. If you're someone who knows someone who can make a difference, please reach out to them in any way you think is appropriate.
I do have one contact, a classmate, a person in what is perhaps a minor institution who I can reach out to, and I will do so.
All we can do is our best.
Let's hope we all do.
✍️ Reply by emailChallenges
Current Wx: Temp: 47.59°F Pressure: 1026hPa Humidity: 75% Wind: 4.92mphWords: 301
I spoke to Mitzi this morning after posting here. I got rather emotional talking to her about what's going on in the Caribbean. She said I should go for a walk.
It's a beautiful day, so I did.
My achilles is finally beginning to heal. Well, it's nearly healed now. I have some minor stiffness and discomfort in it right now, but the last time I did this walk, well, I didn't do it again until today.
This is the view at the bottom of South Hill Road. The top of the road in this picture turns left and continues uphill. In total, 362 feet of elevation gain over a mile. That's probably nothing to you youngsters, but I got my heart rate up to 163, 4:55 in Zone 5 (>150 bpm). Saw some deer and a chipmunk.
And it's just beautiful here.
Did the trick.
But here's a profile in courage. SOUTHCOM was, and probably still is, headquartered at Naval Station Mayport. I'd been in that headquarters many times. I wish ADM Holsey would be a little more outspoken about why he chose to resign, er, I mean, retire. But I respect his decision, and it shows leadership where so much of it is sorely lacking.
I watched Brooks and Capehart on YouTube. I go back and forth on David Brooks, but here is an example of his stunning blindness, or naivety.
After just saying, only a couple of minutes before, that "What we're doing to those ships coming out of Venezuela is an atrocity."
Who does he think is committing that atrocity?
I'm disappointed that we haven't heard more from ADM McRaven, from ADM Stavridis.
It's an uphill climb, and it's going to get my heart rate up, but it's the only way to get to higher ground.
✍️ Reply by emailA Worthwhile Conversation
06:35 Sunday, 2 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 37.18°F Pressure: 1025hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 3.22mph
Words: 182
It's hard, for me anyway, to kind of "come down," from a state of arousal (Get your mind out of the gutter.) like the one that compelled me to write the preceding post, and the email I wrote to a classmate before that.
I feel as though I need to do more, like start drafting the letter to the president of the Naval Institute, also a classmate. But it's also exhausting. This doesn't happen as often anymore, probably because of age, but my mind races. Also probably because of that arousal.
So I looked for something to distract me for a moment, and I watched the cold open for last night's SNL. I laughed, but it also made me kind of nauseous. I can't laugh at Trump.
Now I'm feeling somewhat sick, and I needed something to take my mind off of that.
So I watched this conversation between Jon Stewart and David Remnick. And I laughed. And I nodded. And I shouted, "Yes!" (Because that's what old men do. We shout at screens. And clouds.)
So I commend it to you.
✍️ Reply by emailIf I Could Turn Back Time
05:25 Sunday, 2 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 38.08°F Pressure: 1025hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 3.27mph
Words: 409
Thought I woke up early today, but I was on time.
In the Navy, I learned that early is on time and on time is late.
I'm afraid I'm late for something else.
The President of the United States is turning the men and women of the United States Navy, serving in ships and aircraft in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific around Central America, into murderers. Assassins. Hired muscle.
This has been gnawing at me, and I've been reluctant to grapple with it. Partly because it's hideous. I never in my life expected that something like this would happen in my country. It's hard to accept. It's hard to know what to do, how to start.
But I know that I have to do something for the men and women serving our country. I'm sure they're being told that the President is the commander in chief of the armed forces, and that the Supreme Court has essentially said that he is unaccountable to the law for his actions in that capacity.
The Supreme Court has not weighed the legal jeopardy faced by active duty personnel subject to the orders of the president.
No uniformed member of the armed forces of the United States is bound by oath to obey an unlawful order. But that places them in an untenable position. Forward deployed, they have limited or no access to legal counsel. They are likely being given some guidance by staff Judge Advocates (Navy lawyers) that what they are doing is somehow considered lawful.
That's advice, it's not a fact until a court makes it so. At best, it's a fig leaf. An expediency.
We are compromising the honor and integrity of the men and women who have taken an oath to serve this country. We are using them in despicable ways. We are staining their immortal souls.
We have a duty and an obligation to speak up for them, as their capacity to speak for themselves is limited, constrained.
They are forward deployed. They can't go home at night and speak to their spouse, their minister, their attorney. They have to decide in the moment to obey an order that they may not be certain is lawful. It's an impossible situation.
We need to speak up. To stop this.
Perhaps there is some legal rationale that can make what looks very much like extra-judicial killing something "lawful." Something honorable.
But I doubt it.
We owe it to them.
✍️ Reply by email