One Ring to Rule Them All...

Any time one's personal life manages to overlap with the ravings of our mad as a chair Secretary of Health and Human Services (RFK Jr.) is time for reflection, and as he has of late been nattering on about “wearables", an explanation is due for the decision to be so adorned.

Pictured above is just such a “wearable" known as the Oura Ring. You too can own one, I am not unique in this regard. This little chunk of titanium and silicon dutifully collects all manner of data from its wearer and through the magic of teeny-tiny Bluetooth, transmits that data on to a ubiquitous “app" that interprets the data for the wearer's obsession (and then presumably also onto Chinese data mines but that is a different essay). The selection of this particular ring, ominously black in appearance, has earned the scorn of she around whom my world revolves, requiring me to be judicious when I wear it for fear of interfering with her enjoyment of my reportedly comely hand.

No daily event is as anticipated as the morning download of information from the ring to the app and its presentation. Below is this morning's notification.

For someone whose “Love Language" is “Words of Affirmation", the immediate dopamine thrill of wee crowns in the major categories gets the day started right! What me? Earning little crowns for my performance? Why thank you! And then there is a modest paragraph of reinforcement, as if the developers KNEW their audience. The lack of a crown in the sleep category is troubling, as real-life assessment of how one feels in the morning is nowhere NEAR as satisfying as the computer assessed, data-driven summary.

DAMN! Deep sleep again. Must have been that big cappuccino right before dinner. Never mind that I felt great when I woke, rested, ready, and raring to go…THE DATA NEVER LIES. I likely could have pumped up the number had I really tried to go back to sleep, but we have guests for this holiday weekend, and the prospect of an hour of solitude before the masses descend upon the kitchen was simply too good to pass up.

There are many features not discussed here that further ensorcell the wearer, to include a nifty little feature that suggests that skipping today's exercise might be a good idea, and a body-temperature driven warning that some ague is creeping up. No fiat issued from the mouth of our drug-addled HHS Secretary was necessary to cause the purchase of this great wonder, nor do I need his loony pseudo-science to convince me of its value.

On Reading the Declaration

As is my custom on this day, this day being the Fourth of July, the opportunity to reacquaint myself with the soaring rhetoric of our founding document was enthusiastically pursued, with its completion a few minutes ago providing the wind behind this section's sails. This was a solitary act, likely to be repeated later for any and all guests in this place who wish to hear it rendered dramatically. That's how I roll. Re-reading the Declaration is not unlike other pleasurable repetitive acts (watching every episode of Game of Thrones, quinquennial readings of the Lord of the Rings) in that one encounters “Easter Eggs" not noticed earlier. Today's was this bon mot, from the Declaration's recitation of King George III's crimes:

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

Don't get me wrong. I'm no immigration zealot. The table stakes of sovereignty demand that the government control who comes and more importantly, who stays in this country. What interests me here is the fact that the Founders recognized the importance of immigration to the nation's fortunes. Obviously, the need was pronounced in 1776. But there is need today, and a good many of my fellow citizens purposefully conflate illegal entry with the beneficial movement of people to our shores. As is wise in most matters political, listening to the wisdom of our founding is advisable.

One Big Beautiful Bill

As can probably be discerned by careful reading, I am no fan of our President, and the fact that he achieved a tremendous legislative victory last week in the form of his “One Big Beautiful Bill" would ordinarily be an occasion for snark, yet none is to hand. By not paying as much attention to the news these days, I have not been as aware of whatever policy fights were underway, but our reliable news media has through its various biases provided me with cartoonish understandings of both its evils and its virtue. Here is what I have come to conclude.

First, I am utterly disappointed in the MANNER in which this bill was passed. Congress is incompetent, something that even this clownish administration recognizes, and rather than work within the system to achieve limited policy gains over time, the GOP wrapped an incredibly complex basket of goodies into one bill. I don't think this is any way to run a railroad, but for a broken system, it may be the only way to get anything done.

There are obviously good things for a paleo-conservative in the bill. I am happy that we will build more ships. I am happy to pay lower taxes. I am happy to see SOME attempt to rein in entitlement spending (Medicaid), although other entitlement spending (for instance, Social Security) is even more poorly managed. And don't tell me SS is not an entitlement, because most of you Yahoos are going to outlive your input into the system--plus interest--at which point it is flat out welfare.

I remain absolutely against raising the state income tax reduction that favors big spending Democratic states and their big spending residents, and the fact that a GOP dominated legislative branch passed this provision (in spite of zero GOP Senators in any of these states) defies understanding.

Bottom line though, is if Cheeto Jesus would just SHUT UP about tariffs, the stabilizing nature of this legislation seems a reasonable foundation for economic growth.