The Crowhill Journal

My “science and technology” high school had the latest cool gadgets — for the 70s, that is. For driver’s ed, we had simulators with their own steering wheel, turning signals, gas pedal, and brake. Everything we did could be reviewed (and maybe recorded) by the instructor in the back of the room.

Unfortunately, the visual part was not responsive. It was just a movie, so nothing we did changed anything on the screen.

One day, the movie had us creeping closer and closer to the car in front of us. I applied the brake. As we got closer and closer, I knew what was coming, so I stomped on the brake.

A couple seconds later, the car in front stopped, the car we were “in” crashed into it, and the instructor said, “You’re all dead.”

I said, “Not me. I’ve been braking for the last two miles.”

It was a completely unfair test. The movie put us in a no-win situation, and then we were judged for not getting out of it.

That’s the way I feel about Ukraine.

We’ve been poking and threatening Russia for decades now. We’ve been inviting more and more states into NATO, pushing NATO’s borders closer and closer to Russia. Russia has warned repeatedly that they can not allow this.

It’s not a big surprise that Russia invaded Ukraine. But somehow we — the U.S. taxpayer — are on the hook to pay for it. (I also worry whether we’re replenishing our supplies of all that hardware we’ve send to Ukraine.)

I’m not saying Russia was right to invade Ukraine, or to conduct the war the way they have. Near as I can tell (if I can believe the reports), Russia has been exceptionally brutal and has attacked civilians. That’s wrong, and there should be consequences. But there are levels to “consequences.”

There are lots of conflicts in the world, and we can’t get involved simply because bad things are happening. We should only get involved when it’s in our interest to get involved, and that’s a debatable question — not only in terms of yes or no, but also in terms of how much.

Saying we shouldn’t be so committed to Ukraine is no more “pro Putin” than saying we shouldn’t get involved in the conflicts in Mexico is “pro cartel,” or saying we shouldn’t be fighting in the South China Sea is “pro communist” — and it’s simply idiotic to make such a claim. You can be against Putin, against the cartels, and against the Chicoms and still believe it’s not in our best interests to get in a particular fight, or to question to what degree we should get involved.

This is especially true when our provocations helped to start the whole thing!

How much have we given to Ukraine? It’s something like $112 billion. What if we took half that money to hire more border agents and judges to deal with the mess on the border? Or what if we took half that money and invested it in better naval weapons so we don’t fall behind the Chinese? Or what if we used it to fix our railroads and bridges?

“Oh, but there are people dying in Ukraine.”

Yes, and that’s awful. But that in itself doesn’t determine how involved we should be.

I was curious about an element of Lutheran theology and decided to ask ChatGPT about it. I was surprised at the generally good quality of its answers, but even more surprised that when I called it out on an error, it admitted the error and corrected its reply.

I enjoy DailyWire podcasts and listen to them regularly. The content is great, but their technology has a few problems.

The publicly available (free) version teases an additional 30 minutes that’s only available to DailyWire+ members. That’s a smart business model, which in my world is called a freemium.

You can listen to the free version through your regular podcast player, or you can get the DailyWire+ app and listen to the full version.

Unfortunately, the DailyWire+ app is not a good podcast player. (1) You can’t download the episodes. You have to stream them. (2) If you only listen to half of it, and come back later, it doesn’t remember where you left off. (Unless, I think, you leave the app on the whole time.)

I usually choose to download the free version to my podcast player. Streaming doesn’t work well for me, especially on long drives where cell coverage can be spotty.

At the end of the free version, they say “come on over to the member’s block,” but … that doesn’t work. If I listen to an episode on Podcast Addict, then go to the DailyWire+ app, there’s no good way to pick up the show at that point.

So here’s some free advice to DailyWire tech people.

1. Allow users to download podcasts in the DailyWire app.
2. Keep track of where people are in the podcast, so when they come back they can start at the same place.
3. Provide a simple way to skip right to the member portion for people who have already listened to the free portion.

Just saw an ad for an electric lawn mower. I know it saves the world and all that, but there’s one simple problem.

When your gas mower is out of gasoline, you add some gas and you’re good to go. It takes about a minute.

If your electric lawn mower is out of juice, you have to charge a battery for several hours.

This is the main problem with electric whatevers. Before they will catch on, they need a quick recharge option.