Awesome dovetail with what I am immersed in teaching right now! I am teaching Native Son and The Poisonwood Bible, and the kids are (mostly) digging them. We just came off of Oedipus and Beowulf and these are much more accessible for them, and we're having some good conversations!

I miss Shir, too! I cut the stamps off the box you sent me to send to my stepson, who's Jewish, and was FASCINATED by the fact that I got a box from Israel and I'm NOT EVEN JEWISH! Crazy!!

OK, back to work.

One of the ironies of American history is that Jefferson doomed his own vision of a loose confederation of states inhabited by sturdy yeoman farmers by being unable to pass up one of the great bargains of all time: the Louisiana Purchase. When more land is owned by the government than all the states combined, you end up with a strong central government whether you want it or not.

While the Pilgrims and Puritans were escaping a state-run religion, they promptly established a theocracy that as intolerant as the one they left, and that was certainly part of the thinking behind freedom of religion. The men behind the revolution were a motley crew of Deists, atheists, Unitarians and freethinkers who would be appalled at the notion of this being established as a Christian nation. As Jefferson said, "it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

I am of the opinion that all I need to know about American history may be found in this article: [link]

Right? Andrew Jackson = BAMF.

As Jefferson said, "it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

I've never heard that quote, Ginger. That's fantastic.

Right? Andrew Jackson = BAMF.

My dad's birthday present last year was a biography of Andrew Jackson, with a printout of that article inside the front cover.

I love how smart you all are.

This is why I love studying. It makes sense of the world, and makes the world so much richer with meaning.

This is why I love Shir.

Ginger, thanks for the coop link! I will use to make my garden grow.

I would not want Andrew Jackson as my president now, but it's certainly fun to look back and say "Our president was a badsass!"

I finally got off my ass and left the house after the after-brunch-coma. And I bought a sodastream!! Wheeeeee!! Unexpectedly, it came with samples of a whole bunch of the flavors (it didn't say that on the outside!) so I'm very excited to try them all.

Thing I would've/should've done, but didn't: Go sign up at the gym I want to go to. Oddly, they are open long hours, but have a fingerprint verification to get in, and so there's only admin people there M-Sat. Planned for tomorrow.

And I bought a sodastream!! Wheeeeee!! Unexpectedly, it came with samples of a whole bunch of the flavors (it didn't say that on the outside!) so I'm very excited to try them all.

If you like their flavors, let me know and I will bring you the ones I got with mine next time we end up hanging out.

Also !!!!!! fizzy water.