Group Hike, Brunch, Media Lies, Free Speech Outrage

Some people's idea of free speech is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage. – Winston Churchill

Sunday morning, 6:12 a.m., my cat and I are up on the magical bean bag with our coffee. The fireplace is churning out some heat, it's quiet here,  but that will soon change. We are hosting 20 for brunch; the menu is set; soon, I'll do my part to get the house ready for guests; it will be a banner day.

Yesterday we organized a group hike; we had all agreed to meet at Meyers Ranch Park, about 10 minutes from our home. We had 12 join us; Paul brought his three young kids, we did about a mile and a half, they were working on the trails. After that, we headed to get brunch at the Aspen Perk. A great time with some great people.

We headed home to prep some food for our brunch, played some euchre, and ran to Brooks Place Tavern for fried chicken. After that, we saw many of our friends, returned home, and watched some basketball, and I got to bed early. I got a great night of sleep; we will wind down the weekend; our guests leave tomorrow, it will be just my wife and me; I'm sad our family is leaving.

Checking in on the news, Russia is still invading Ukraine; there was a shooting in Arkansas at a car show and a shooting in Miami. If it leads, it bleeds; I'm sure there were thousands of feel-good stories, but those will never be shared. So is it possible that our world is in such turmoil is in the way the news is curated? I'm asking for a friend.

I believe we are working this week and then heading to the hot springs with a large group. I'm never sure of our schedule; my wife takes care of such things. We have some new opportunities to work on, a couple of sound fun; I'll help move the projects forward, our team will do the heavy lifting. My job these days is more of facilitation.

While at brunch yesterday, I got a request from a client that they needed a certificate of insurance sent by the end of the day. I didn't have access to the system to get it done, so I reached out to our team and, within an hour, had two documents produced so our client could do their work. We operate 24 / 7/ 365; our office hours are nonstop.

It looks like another sunny day; we will get more snow tomorrow and Tuesday. The weather on top of the mountain changes daily; you learn to lean in and accept whatever comes your way—a good analogy to life. We had about 12 mule deer stop by yesterday; our yard will be filled with magical beasts now and then; it's nice to have a local zoo outside your window.

I found the quote this morning from Churchill spot on for today's public engagement. Most claim love for free speech, but only when it aligns with their ideology. If you say something to counter, you are being a bully, using hate speech, or spreading Disinformation. I think humans are bright enough to discern the truth and what is crazy talk, and having media and tech censor actual news is a major societal problem.

The Hunter Biden Laptop is a great example. Leading up to election day, it was exposed that young Biden had left his laptop at a store. It showed some damning information about him and his father, but the media and 50 top intelligence officers claimed it was Russian Disinformation. Just yesterday, the New York Times finalized their research and proved it was his laptop, not part of a Russian campaign.

When the story broke, I thought it was very plausible that the crack head son of the candidate for the Democratic party did leave his laptop behind. I was confused about the censorship of the New York Post article exposing the treasure trove of email, but most of the public accepted the story. Interestingly the media had pushed a false narrative of Russian interference in our 2016 election. Do you think that has anything to do with the majority of people hating a population for their leader's decisions?

The house is quiet soon; it will be bustling; we have food to make, a bloody mary and mimosa bar to set up, our community is coming to our house to enjoy this day. So I hope these words find you in a particular place; I hope you live your life with curiosity and wonder. I trust you see all the gifts and opportunities present in our world and do not get caught up in the negative news cycle. There is a lot of good happening every day, but that is not the news; stop buying the idea that the world is falling apart, we live in an imperfect world, but damn, it's pretty fantastic to be alive.

Some people's idea of free speech is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage. – Winston Churchill