July 10

Cloudy with a bit of rain today so no gardening. And no cleaning up the shed. I probably won't get back to that til the end of the coming week. The weather channel predicted about five days strait with cool temps and rain. I tried to do some swing but that didn't go well. I thought I remembered how to thread my machine. I didn't. I hadn't used it since last fall when I made our last several masks. Worse I couldn't find the user's manual. I have no idea where I put it though I know it has to be in that What-not room. I did go on line and found a printable manual so I printed off another copy. The experience did make me aware that I really need to go through my files and get them thinned and rearranged. I probably won't get back to the machine til the end of the week. 

We have been watching the flight of the Virgin Galactic system with Richard Branson on board along with a couple other people who are not professional astronauts. It has been very interesting and, thankfully, completely successful. I guess next week Jeff Bezos will go up with his own system. I hope that goes as well. It is interesting that we have three individuals who have the wherewithal to fund the development of space vehicles which might lead to the commercialization of near space travel.

David Kaiser has a good piece this morning that reflects many of my own thoughts about the use of history (or misuse of history). What Kaiser describes as "wokeness" was described as "presentism" when I was a history student (undergraduate and graduate). Basically, that involves the application of present day moral values to people and societies of the past. His criticisms of The NY Times op ed are right on point. It is one thing to reassess the ranking of former presidents on the basis of their total record and the effects of their deeds is legitimate. However, to do so because of a few actions or words that go against our current moral or ethical standards is fallacious. I remember students at Princeton demonstrating to get Woodrow Wilson's name off one of the buildings. It didn't matter that he was a President of the U.S. or president of Princeton. It didn't matter what his other accomplishments might have been. What mattered to them was his views, widely shared in the society of the time, that blacks were inferior to whites and deserved a low status in society. We  shouldn't judge the past by its failure to meet our present day standards.