Just Rod

Cynical Christ-follower. Retired teacher. Assessment specialist. Libertarian conservative. Tesla fan. HHGGTG/LOTR.

[Just Rod @DustoftheRabbi]

Appreciate what you have while you have it. Let it go and move on when it is time. Be thankful for memories made and lessons learned. Embrace the possibilities of change and watch for new opportunities.

[Justin Skycak @justinskycak]

You cannot be creative at a high level unless you are robotic at a low level.

[Wholesome Side of 𝕏 @itsme_urstruly]

Forget the ice cream truck. I want a coffee truck that cruises through neighborhoods every morning, playing a little jingle so everyone knows their caffeine has arrived.

[The Rabbit Hole @TheRabbitHole]

One approach is to take an existing pie and cut it until there are enough tiny pieces for everyone.

Another approach is to let people cook so there are more pies to go around.

[Wholesome Side of 𝕏 @itsme_urstruly]

may you always be the type of person who points out cows in a field, watches bees on flowers and gets excited when the moon looks extra big.

[Habeas Corpus Linguistics @HabCorpLinguist]

Someone should invent a version of Outlook that can search for emails and find them.

[Whole Mars Catalog @wholemars]

American AI3 owners watching Koreans get FSD 14 Lite

[Big Tom Callahan🇺🇸 @CallahanAutoCo]

BRAKING NEWS: I just got off the phone with Mitch McConnell and he agreed to buy 500,000 Brake Pads on behalf of the Great State of Kentucky!

[alexlindsay @alexlindsay]

If you want to understand American optimism…

We celebrate the date that we declared independence, not the date that we achieved it.

[Tesla @Tesla]

Teslas are the most American-made cars

🇺🇸 Happy 250th birthday, America 🇺🇸

[Just Rod @DustoftheRabbi]

People who can’t celebrate America’s 250th Independence Day without bringing up every past injustice or wrong in its history must be a lot of fun in relationships. Let it go, child. 🇺🇸

[Cybertruck @cybertruck]

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[Insurrection Barbie @DefiyantlyFree]

In September of 1814, America was once again in trouble.

The young republic was only thirty-eight years old. The War of 1812 had gone badly. British troops had marched into Washington, burned the Capitol, set the White House ablaze, and now turned their sights toward Baltimore. If Fort McHenry fell, the harbor would be open, the city would likely follow, and another devastating blow would be dealt to the fragile nation.

Amid this uncertainty, a young American lawyer named Francis Scott Key sailed under a flag of truce to the British fleet. He had come to negotiate the release of a friend, a physician the British had captured.

He succeeded.

The British agreed to free the doctor.

But there was a catch.

Because Key and his companions had seen too much of the British fleet and learned too much about its plans, they were not allowed to return to shore. Instead, they were detained aboard a ship in the harbor and forced to watch the coming battle from behind enemy lines.

On the morning of September 13, the bombardment began.

For the next twenty-five hours, British warships unleashed somewhere between 1,500 and 1,800 bombs and rockets upon Fort McHenry. These were the “bombs bursting in air” and the “rockets’ red glare” of the song—not poetic embellishments, but terrible realities.

Key stood on the deck through the endless day and the long, terrifying night. Every explosion lit the darkness for a fleeting instant before the smoke swallowed everything again. Somewhere beyond that wall of fire stood the fort. Somewhere beyond it flew an American flag if it still flew at all.

He could not see.

He could only listen.

As long as the guns continued firing, there was reason to hope. The British would not waste ammunition on a fort that had already surrendered.

Then, just before dawn…

The guns fell silent.

For the first time all night, there was only stillness.

It was the most frightening sound of all.

Had the fort finally fallen? Had the defenders surrendered? Had the flag been torn down in the darkness while no one could see?

There was nothing to do but wait.

As the first light of September 14 slowly pushed back the smoke, Francis Scott Key strained his eyes toward the distant fort.

Then he saw it. Not a British flag.

The American flag. Still there. Still flying.

That flag was no ordinary banner. Months earlier, the fort’s commander had commissioned a Baltimore flagmaker, Mary Pickersgill, to sew a flag so enormous “that the British would have no difficulty seeing it from a distance.” It measured roughly thirty by forty-two feet, carried fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, and was so large it had to be assembled on the floor of a brewery because no ordinary room could contain it.

That was the Star-Spangled Banner.

The very flag Key saw through the morning mist.

The very flag that still survives today in the Smithsonian.

Overcome by what he had witnessed, Key reached into his pocket, pulled out an envelope, and began writing. The words came from a heart that had spent an entire night fearing his country might disappear with the dawn.

He first titled the poem Defence of Fort M’Henry.

Within days it was printed and circulating throughout the country. Before long, people began singing it to a melody they already knew—an old British tune called “To Anacreon in Heaven,” originally written for a London social club. There is something beautifully ironic in that: America’s most beloved patriotic song borrowed the melody of the very nation it had just survived. It also explains why the anthem is so notoriously difficult to sing. It was never written for ordinary voices gathered in stadiums or school assemblies.

The song spread quickly and became one of America’s favorite patriotic hymns, but it would wait more than a century before receiving official recognition. Not until 1931 did Congress declare “The Star-Spangled Banner” the national anthem of the United States.

[Just Rod @DustoftheRabbi]

Happy 250th, America! Have a great and safe 4th of July! 🇺🇸🎆🎇🎊🎉

[The Redheaded libertarian @TRHLofficial]

Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is a better basis for a system of government than career politicians, PAC money, and the CIA.

[National Park Service @NatlParkService]

You know it’s hot when you go outside and it’s hot.

[La Sagrada Família @sagradafamilia]

Inside the upper arm of the Cross of the tower of Jesus Christ hangs the sculpture of the Lamb of God. 🙌

[David Hoffman @TrustlessState]

If USA beats you in the World Cup

That country has to call it Soccer until the next World Cup

New rule I just made up

[Just Rod @DustoftheRabbi]

Tesla FSD 14 Lite can’t come soon enough for HW3.

12.6.4 has been great, but…