March 5

Nice and sunny today. I don't think the temperatures dropped far below 40F last night so the snow is rapidly disappearing even from the shaded north sides of buildings.

I have seen a good bit of incredulous anger on the news over the latest revelations of children and young people employed illegally in dangerous jobs. I mean "illegally" in both the sense of being against the law for Americans below specified ages and in the sense that the youngsters are illegal aliens who were supposed to be under the care and supervision of the immigration authorities. I don't understand the incredulous attitude. After all there are politicians arguing for a massive loosening, if not a complete rescinding, of child labor laws. Commentators often talk about the current political civil war where half of the combatants (largely Republicans) are trying to take us back to the 1950s (not a time I remember fondly) but I think they are actually trying to take us back to the 1930s or earlier when the everyone was on their own and any assistance was minimal and grudging.

The Turkish-Syrian earthquake has receded from the new cycle. The final death toll won't be known for a long time but is already over 50K. That definitely beats the 1939 earthquake. Every now and then a story comes out about political dissatisfaction and unrest in Turkiye. And the northern area of Syria has been a contested place in a civil war that hasn't concluded.

David Kaiser has a post today which centers on the words in Washington's Farewell Address we have forgotten (or which were never taught us in our history classes.)We are frequently reminded (especially by America First's and other isolationists) of Washington's cautions against foreign entanglements. However, other warnings are as relevant today. That to exist as a nation we need both unity and freedom, and that factions (parties) are a threat to the nation. Right now we have partisans who are more loyal to their party than they are to a nation united in freedom. They evidently are all freedom for them but not for others.

Someone at the New York Times asked a question often overlooked in the debate over the origin of COVID. Does it really matter if it came from a lab accident, or an unexpected transfer of a virus from animals to humans? For most of us I don't think it does matter. What does concern us is how we deal with and, to date, I don't think we have dealt with it very well.