So, what do you think?

Friday, July 3, 2026. It's Freya's day . . . Moderate Southerlies bring another hot, humid day to Green Country today. Real temperatures are forecasted to be a bit lower than yesterday, while the afternoon index is to be again in the low 100's. A break is forecast for Sunday with a 50/50 chance for rain.

The fear of age loosens its hold the moment you stop trying to outrun it and embrace the work you were put here to do.

The Civil War battle of Gettysburg ended on this day in 1863. It was the bloodiest battle of the war, but marked the turning point for the Union.

America at 250. – Nathan Gardels and Nicolas Berggruen, Noēma, 7.2.26

There’s no invisible hand guiding our democracy into the future. There are only fallible people. When an order is unlawful, do you keep faith with the Constitution, or with the man? In our 250-year history, most Americans were never confronted with this question. Until now. The week of its 250th, what's the real state of American democracy? – Miles Taylor, A Warning in Marble, Defiance, 7.2.26

Former CIA Director John Brennan is taking on Trump's DOJ. – Joyce Vance, in Civil Discourse.

Today is the birthdate of playwright Tom Stoppard, born in 1937 Zlín, Czechoslovakia. He is the Academy Award laureate for Shakespeare in Love. My fave: Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

Another Czechoslovakian writer, Franz Kafka was born on this day in 1883 Prague.

Tom Cruise is 64 today. One of cinema’s most consistently bankable and artistically versatile stars, he was born in 1962 Syracuse, New York.

And, the originator of general semantics, scientist/philosopher Alfred Korzybski was born in 1879, Warsaw, Poland. He was a pioneer in the study and refinement of ways of using and reacting to language.

It’s impossible to not care what people think. If you truly didn’t care what anyone thought or felt… you’d be a psychopath. Caring is the engine behind empathy, compassion, friendship—every meaningful relationship we have. Don’t waste your energy trying to win over petty, selfish people. Instead, find better people. And if you really want to stop giving a—, find something more important than approval. Ask yourself: What’s worth being ridiculed for in your life? Because your answer to that question matters more than anyone’s opinion ever will. – Mark Manson, Breakthrough, 7.2.26