Ramblings -- May 17, 2023

Locator: 44666B.

Random thoughts / ramblings this a.m. until things "get going."

Weather: an incredibly beautiful / perfect day for biking. Short bike-ride to Starbucks this a.m. I'm averaging once a week, maybe (Starbucks). Riding every day now. Meanwhile, elsewhere, from Bloomberg:

Headphones: for the time-being, not sure how long it will last, I no longer wear headphones or ear pods. Will minimize my time on YouTube videos; Hulu; etc. No specific reason, just tired of headphones for now.

Los Angeles: much of my adult life revolves around Los Angeles county, including the four years I lived, studied, and married there (lived in LA but married in Las Vegas). LA is incredible. 

Bullet train: update.

Automobiles: I was off by a year. I thought we would new record June, 2022. I was off by almost a whole year. From Liz Ann Sonders --

Lego: two new sets arriving soon --

• set #76252, Batman Shadow Box; this one is going to be huge
• arrives June 8, 2023
• 3,981 pieces
• $399.99
• set #42157, John Deere 948L-II Skidder; this one is going to be huge
• arrives August 1, 2023
• 1,492 pieces
• $199.99

Lego: discount? 

I've never seen this before. Set #10291. Forty percent off. Sold out. At Amazon, the price is not easily seen, but appears to be $79.57, though Amazon says other options as low at $69.39. Interestingly, it is not listed as a set that was scheduled to be retired in 2023.

Lego: backorder

• the incredible nice-looking Ford Mustang
• pickup truck
• bookshop
• assembly square

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The Blog

Updates

May 18, 2023: with regard to the Atlantic article on On Liberty (discussed below) I was very, very unhappy with the writer's thesis / conclusion. He, too, decides it would be better if he could make end-of-life decisions for me. Another faux liberal. 

Original Post

I have lived and breathed "the blog" since 2009, though its first iteration existed from from 2007 to 2009. 

My original intent: to simply understand the Bakken.

That intent has evolved: to leave a journal of sorts to my grandchildren. 

If I were to recommend one article to read today it would bee from the Atlantic, June, 2023, "The Canadian Way of Death: the nation legalized assisted suicide -- and exposed the limits of liberalism," by David Brooks, pp. 84 - 95, though a few of those pages are advertisements. I've read the first two pages, twice, but have not finished the article. The first two pages "stopped me in my tracks," as they say. I had to stop reading, and reflect on the whole issue of assisted suicide. 

I do not know where the author is headed -- even with the "hint" provided by the "title" to the essay. 

The Canadian experiment: from initial consideration of assisted suicide to execution of the existing laws, which, I assume, will also evolve over time. 

The essay starts out with a look back to John Stuart Mill and his book On Liberty, "one of the founding documents of our liberal world."

Now, first things first, "research" On Life. I don't recall having ever read it or even parts of it. If that's true, that's a sad commentary on my reading program. 

So, we take a break.

Wow, wow, wow, the first two pages of the David Brooks essay was the perfect background to John Stuart Mill and On Liberty. 

I'll have to ask my very wonderfully liberal-minded granddaughter if she has read On Liberty, and if not, to refer her to this link: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34901/34901-h/34901-h.htm. Wow.

I just ordered it from Amazon. It will be here Friday (today is Wednesday) for less than the price of coffee and croissant at Starbucks. 

The essay is juxtaposed with the much, much longer lead article on what I call "Putin's War" -- the Russian-Ukraine war. The article: "Counteroffensive," by Anne Applebaum and Jeffrey Goldberg. The article, with photos, drawings and ads take up sixteen pages of the magazine.