I follow Amanda Nelson on Instagram and she said something recently that I have not been able to get out of my head, which is that the United States has been in a “cold” civil war for many years. I think it obvious that what we are experiencing today has been simmering for a long time, perhaps since the end of the Civil War. I also think this “cold” civil war became more organized when Republicans and Newt Gingrich took over the House because Gingrich initiated the switch of the purpose of Congress from governing to “us versus them” in which compromise is not allowed. Since 1995 the battle lines between factions of the powerful have been clearly drawn, with American citizens as pawns.
I just took a walk outside. According to Accuweather, it’s 5 degrees but the RealFeel is 17 degrees thanks to the sunshine and lack of wind. With the proper clothes on it’s actually pretty nice given the sunshine.
James Madison, Federalist 51:
In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and then the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments. Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people. The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself. . . . It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part. Different interests necessarily exist in different classes of citizens. If a majority be united by a common interest, the rights of the minority will be insecure.
Finished reading: The Gales of November by John U. Bacon 📚
It is not always the case that I have a connection to a book that I read, but that is the case with “The Gales Of November” by John U. Bacon. Many people have heard about the Edmund Fitzgerald thanks to Gordon Lightfoot’s song, The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald, but I was in fifth grade in a small town in the Upper Peninsula and had seen Lake Superior many times so I’ve always felt a small connection.
Bacon does a wonderful job of providing context, like how shipping on the Great Lakes can be dangerous and a vital part of the U.S. economy. You learn about every one of the 29 men who went down to the bottom of Lake Superior on the Fitz. And for me, I learned about the taconite pellets that I remember being carried through my home town on ore cars, most likely headed to Marquette. We would gather up some of the perfectly round, marble size pellets from the train tracks and use them for slingshot ammo.
In 2014 we visited the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum on Whitefish Point, which the Fitzgerald was desperately trying to reach on that fateful day in November, 1975. Below is a picture of the bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald, it is the only item recovered and brought up from the shipwreck. The site of the wreck is considered a grave and protected by the U.S. and Canadian governments.
No other ship has gone down on the Great Lakes after the Fitzgerald, in part because of technology but largely because the pressures once put on by shipping companies toward the captains to deliver cargo on time has abated against the risk of pushing against Lake Superior when she is angry. Lake Superior is one of those few things in the world that stands up against the ego of men.
Finished reading: Field Notes for the Wilderness by Sarah Bessey 📚
My First Mechnical Keyboard
I just received my first mechanical keyboard, the Keychron C3 Pro, and this is the first blog post that I am writing with it. It is a relatively inexpensive keyboard, so a good first one to try out. This Keychron has brown switches and what comes to mind when I press them is they feel like I am pressing on rows of blocks.
I have been using the Logitech MX Keys keyboard, which has a much lower profile than this Keychron keyboard and I am starting to notice the difference in my arms. I’ve raised my chair to better position my arms and wrists over the keyboard.
I think I have to give this keyboard a period of time before making a decision about whether I like it or not. It is certainly different, but not sure whether this is a good or bad difference.
The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
For years people have been ignoring the full text to the second amendment as if there is no consequence to ignoring its purpose. In my opinion overlooking the beginning of the amendment exposes originalists for who they are, hypocrites. I think we are seeing the consequences of neglecting the idea of “well regulated” in Minneapolis right now.
Christian nation? Look at this!
“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Using Obsidian With Viwoods AI Paper Mini
Ever since I got the Viwoods AI Paper Mini I have been developing processes for using it with Obsidian, which I use for my second brain. At present I have Obsidian installed on the tablet but I do not use it for writing on the tablet. I do have Obsidian Sync running on the tablet but not syncing all of my oldest notes imported from Evernote.
Have three Papers (notebooks) that I am exporting from the tablet in to Obsidian and I am doing this in two ways. I am using a Viwoods Sync Obsidian plugin, which is currently in development, to import PNG images of the notebook pages in to Obsidian which I can then view and link to from other Obsidian notes. The plugin uses the Viwoods native .note file as input, creates PNG image files of the pages, and then creates an Obsidian note (markdown) page with the image embedded.
For the second export method I am using the AI Text Conversion function of the Viwoods Papers app to create ASCII text of my handwriting. The AI feature uses the Gemini Pro Version 3 model and I manually select one more more pages for conversion. I find the Gemini Pro does the best job of converting my handwriting. I copy the result to the clipboard, switch to Obsidian on the tablet, open the note in which I am storing the text version of the notebook and paste the text in. After the updated note syncs to my desktop computer I then edit what I pasted to correct what is usually a small number of errors.
Finally, in the correct areas of the text version of the note I insert links to the image file, created by the Viwoods Sync plugin, that is the source of the text. I can then open image side-by-side with the text with a right-click of the link and Split Pane right.
In feedback I provided to the developers of the Viwoods Sync plugin I asked if they could do OCR of the notes as part of the sync process, which they suggest might be a feature they add in the future. The issue for that part of the plugin might be the quality of the handwriting recognition.
Raspberry Pi USB Gadget
Back in 2019 I learned about and testing using a Raspberry Pi as an accessory to an iPad. The idea is useful for people who want a local Linux terminal on an iPad rather than making a remote connection to one on a server. People who use terminal apps like vi or emacs and developer tools are the ones who find this the most useful.
The process involves connecting a Raspberry Pi to an iPad via USB-C cable, and software on the Raspberry Pi make the USB-C connection function like an ethernet network connection. You get an IP address that you can use to login to the Pi using SSH, at which point then have access to all the tools available in the Raspberry Pi OS. If a VNC Server is running on the Pi you can even get a desktop connect using a VNC Viewer.
The instructions for setting this all up,, in which is called USB Gadget Mode, are not daunting but take a little bit of work. Today I learned that the functionality for USB Gadget Mode is now available directly in the Raspberry PI OS.
We watched Star Fleet Academy last night, which started slow in the first episode and got better in the second. Most likely because they have to build so much backstory. What I find amusing is that the show is set in San Francisco thousands of years in the future and the Golden Gate Bridge still stands in all its glory, and incredible feat of engineering if you ask me.
I wonder, is all the posturing about Greenland really about data centers for AI? What is the benefit of such a conquest to the wealthy class and how does Trump profit from it?
Ted Gioia, 25 Propositions About The New Romanticism:
The dominant system today is built on analysis. And it’s worth remembering that the root meaning of analysis is the reduction of things into parts. Holistic thinking, in contrast, is always inherently Romantic. You can also call this visionary thinking.
Productively Retired
I am less than a month in to my retirement and I am still feeling my way around. One thing I am noticing about myself are changes in some of my interests online. Over the years, like many people in tech, I have had an interest in productivity apps, particularly ones built around processes like Getting Things Done or PARA. Inevitably that leads me to installing an app or two and checking them out. Over the years I have tried so many todo apps!
Now that I am retired I think that my definition of productivity is not consistent with how most people on the Internet define it. Right now I am thinking retirement is less about getting things done and more about the best ways to spend my time, and none of the apps I’ve seen has this focus.
It is another bitterly cold day here, so much so that I really don’t want to go outside, which impedes my walking plan. I walk several times a day, primarily after eating, as a key tool for managing glucose. On days like today I take those walks on the treadmill, but that does not come with the benefits of being outdoors.
We Know The Problem
I think unrestrained capitalism is what is destroying the United States. One way is by corporate ownership of “the press,” often referred to as the “fourth estate” for its role in the U.S. as enshrined by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, because the capitalistic profit motive overrides reporting. We are seeing how threats made by the U.S. government toward the corporations that own “the press” results in either non-existent or bad reporting.
A Supreme Court that fulfills its responsibility for preventing tyranny would rule that threats made by the government to the press and their owners violates the First Amendment, but unfortunately our current Supreme Court sees its role as preserving/establishing the unitive executive theory as its prime directive.
Capitalism is also behind the money in PACS and lobbying resulting in Congress only representing a minority that provides its members with money. The corrosion of Congress is the ultimate problem because its law making role will ultimately need to be made to correct our current state, and those laws would work against politician’s self interests. What I think needs to happen is the classification of large financial donations, which would have to be defined, as the emoluments they are and not an act of free speech.
The Constitution has two emoluments clauses because the founders knew that quid pro quo was bad for democracy. Quid pro quo is the reason why Congress in reality only represents a minority of the United States and not the citizens as intended.
A society of no restraints, which is what we are becoming, is not a free society because vices become virtues. The greed that drives one for more and more wealth and power is seen by too many as the virtue of a successful American, but that greed expressed in our unrestrained capitalism leads to a zero sum game. Zero sum games cannot be won when democracy, freedom for all, is the prime directive. Democracy and unrestrained capitalism cannot co-exist.
It’s not often that the weather radio in our bedroom has an alert during winter but we heard one this morning for snow squall warning with white out conditions. Windy.com is indicating 22 mph winds which Accuweather is saying makes the real feel at 0 degrees.
This morning I watched this interview of James Talarico by Ezra Klein, and it was interesting enough to me that I did not fast forward through it. I think the most valuable information came toward the end when James talked about working with a Republican colleague on legislation because it had two valuable lessons.
First, form relationships with people you disagree with, particularly such people with whom you have to work with. Relationships take time to find common bonds and love to the point at which even though you have disagreements the bond, the love, is more important.
Second is humility, which is a willingness to admit that you might be wrong and be willing to change your mind. I find this second point so important because it is literally foundational to the teaching of Jesus.
It is so easy to hate the other that you do not know and with whom you are not in relationship, and progress is not possible without being willing to be vulnerable to admit you are wrong and publicly learn that lesson.
I agree with James that the path from where we are today in the United States to something better is the path of Jesus, which is counter to the norm of civilization as it existed in the time of Jesus and prevails today. What the world tells us is normal is the idol of power and that the only path to peace is through power. Power, like all idols, is made equivalent to God.
The path of Jesus leads to the cross. It is the exact opposite of power, and instead of an idol his path of self-emptying takes us to what is real and that is love.
“Heritage Americans: ‘You’re less American than I am because my ancestors built this country.’ Also Heritage Americans: ‘Don’t blame me for slavery or segregation. I’m not responsible for what my ancestors did,’” – Avik Roy.
Source: https://intellectualoid.com/2026/01/16/friday-1-16-26/
I was taught to not be a hypocrite, the implication being such a person cannot be trusted because you don’t know their true values. My childhood friend once told me what he dislikes the most is hypocrisy. I think we all at one time or another are a hypocrite, but the real problem is not recognizing it as a problem enough to be embarrassed by. In fact, it seems as though most people today have so little self-awareness that they can’t be embarrassed.
In his essay today Om Malik shared this quote from psychologist Rollo May, observing 1950s America:
The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity.
Malik says May diagnosed this when McCarthyism was literally hunting down anyone who thought differently. The subject of Malik’s post was technology platforms, but I think in reality the quote is most applicable to where we are in the United States today. Supremacy does not seek peaceful co-existence, which is the alleged premise of the founding of the U.S., but rather conformity and compliance to a hierachial world view of winners and losers.