Derek Larsen

Dad, Husband, Oregonian, Structural Engineer, Oregon State Beaver fan and Alumni,, Enjoys fishing and outdoor pursuits, cooking and baking

[Michael Shermer @michaelshermer]

This is as good a tribute to the U.S. of A. as you will see today. The GOAT of comedy becomes the American Flag:

[Derek Larsen @DerekLarsen7]

@ElonIsACis @DrewPavlou Yep, today of all days, you have to be historically accurate and nothing short of that will do. Doesn't matter that where Mumdami was born (& most places in the world at the time of our founding) is 100 times worse than America at its worst. We are only gonna concentrate on that!

[Derek Larsen @DerekLarsen7]

@glukianoff Thank you for this!

[Greg Lukianoff @glukianoff]

I’ve always found people who bristle at “American exceptionalism” kind of… weird. Not because I lack self-awareness — I’ve spent my career cataloging every way this country fails to live up to its own rules. But that’s exactly why I love it so damn much. We built a system designed to be shamed by its own founding documents, and it still delivered one of the most spectacular, world-altering runs in human history. A genuine force for human flourishing.

I also found the argument against American exceptionalism to be historically illiterate. Here’s a sample of what we were first at:

• The first large-scale democratic republic in human history — not a city-state, not a monarchy with a parliament bolted on, but a bold continental experiment in self-rule, popular sovereignty, and ordered liberty.

• A written Constitution (1789) with separation of powers and checks & balances — still the oldest national constitution in force anywhere.

• The Bill of Rights (1791): the first time a nation wrote “the government cannot touch these” into supreme law and actually meant it. A dare the world copied — from later rights charters to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

• Public land-grant universities and mass higher education (Morrill Act), opening college to ordinary people no aristocracy would have let near the gates. (but don’t get me started about what happened after we started. Massively federally funding it.)

• Kitty Hawk, 1903 — first controlled powered flight.

• The Moon, 1969 — still the only ones who’ve been there.

• The world’s largest economy since ~1890, powering unprecedented prosperity through grit and genius.

• The assembly line, skyscraper, transistor, personal computer, ARPANET — the backbone of the modern world.

• Telephone, phonograph, GPS — connecting and powering daily life.

• Surgical anesthesia, polio vaccine — saving and transforming millions of lives.

• Jazz, blues, rock ‘n’ roll — brand new American art forms that conquered the globe.

• Hollywood’s dreams, blue jeans, bourbon, and a culture so open a kid like me could devour sushi, burritos, stuffed cabbage, and tabouli in the same week and rightfully think of it all as American.

That’s the part that fills me with genuine love and pride: not just the power or the wins, but the appetite for freedom, creativity, and reinvention. The audacity to say “We the People” and keep trying to live up to it.

What do you love most about this truly exceptional country? 🇺🇸

[Alyssa Leader @alittleleader]

My husband said “so Travis Kelce got to pick one thing….” 💀😭

[Yiatin Chu @ycinnewyork]

🇺🇸 My family arrived in New York City in April 1976, fifty years ago, during our country's bicentennial celebration. I sang "America the Beautiful" and recited the Pledge of Allegiance before I was fluent in English. We became naturalized citizens as soon as we were eligible. This country, with its generous people and the world's enviable civil rights, provided us with the opportunity to build a safe, comfortable, and happy life. I am grateful to call the United States of America my home. Happy 250th, America!🇺🇸

[carø 3/3 @jjkdday]

los jugadores de cabo verde estaban esperando que messi termine de dar notas para sacarse fotos con el 🥹🥹

[Derek Larsen @DerekLarsen7]

@ParanoidPol So dislike Mamdani intensely but stop with the backward desk shit already. It is a two sided desk with functional drawers on each side. You sound like a rube pushing that inane part of the speech.

[Michael Elgort @just_whatever]

Oh, I have a prime example. This is from October 8, 2023 in New York. 1 day after the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. They were happily celebrating and gloating. The one in the clip openly mocked people who were mourning the dead

So no, “global sympathy” is a myth

[Give A Shit About Nature @giveashitnature]

Your porch light is killing more pollinators than almost any other factor. The fix is a $6 bulb.

Standard white LED lights pull in moths, beetles, and fireflies all night. They circle until they die or get eaten by the spider that figured out months ago that building a web next to your light was a good hunting spot.

Light pollution is one of the top three drivers of insect decline globally, and most of it comes from lights exactly like the one on your porch.

Swap it for a warm amber bulb, between 1800K and 2200K. Insects can't see those wavelengths as well and mostly ignore it. Your neighbors won't notice the difference, but the moths will.

Put it on a motion sensor while you're at it and save a few bucks. You're asleep anyway.

[Derek Larsen @DerekLarsen7]

@CathyYoung63 Not a fan of the man, mostly because of his anti-israel opinions. So that probably plays into what I hear when I listen to him.

[Derek Larsen @DerekLarsen7]

@CathyYoung63 I think it is focused a little too much on faults for this birthday . . . Kind of stole Obama's More Perfect Union theme for his speech. Basically implies the true Americans are the immigrants that just got here and not the racist white honkies that terrorize them.

[Erick Erickson @EWErickson]

“And what about our sins? Slavery was the original sin, and I won’t sand it down. The founders knew it. Jefferson knew it, and he owned slaves — the hypocrisy was staring right at them, and they kept kicking the can down the road. But here is what a poisoned telling of our history leaves out: the New England colonies began rejecting slavery before England itself did. And when the reckoning finally came, hundreds of thousands of men died on battlefields to make other men free. “As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,” read the original lyrics of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. That’s propitiation. One man suffers so others go free. A nation that will bleed that much to right its own wrong is not an evil nation. It is a great one, straining toward becoming a more perfect one. We had a black president. We had a black vice president. Our Secretary of State is the son of Cuban refugees. Anyone telling you the story that nothing here ever gets better is selling you something.”

https://t.co/x00baUJNoo

[US Holocaust Museum @HolocaustMuseum]

The people in these caskets survived the Holocaust—only to be killed by an antisemitic mob just over a year later. In July 1946, a group of civilians, police officers, and soldiers murdered at least 42 Jews and wounded dozens more in Kielce, Poland.

[Lord Bebo @MyLordBebo]

🇷🇺‼️🚨 BEHIND THE SCENES: The Russian skyscraper climbers argue like a normal couple … lol

Kinda funny seeing them argue about photos like most couples do … except it’s on top of a skyscraper.

[Han Shawnity 🇺🇸 @HanShawnity]

It's crazy to think that just 80 years after we literally nuked their cities, Japan is one of our closest friends and is commemorating our Independence Day with a fireworks show, while Palestinians are still mad that their great great grandparents had to move a few miles after losing a war they started and now need to murder as many people as possible for the rest of time.

[Eddy Elfenbein @EddyElfenbein]

"King George is a total loser and nobody likes him. He's completely crazy and a failure. Crazy George. That's his name now. Crazy George." - Thomas Jefferson, first draft

[Fascinating @fasc1nate]

Two men led a team of 80 people, spent 5 years collecting 1.2 million golden orb spiders, milked them for their silk, and created the rarest textile on Earth: A golden silk cape.

The coolest photos ever taken: https://t.co/Pgcn2bknZu

[Sarah Longwell @SarahLongwell25]

To understand R’s narrative capabilities versus D’s narrative capabilities, look no further than R’s ability to make Hunter Biden into a full blown “Biden crime family” scandal vs D’s inability to focus relentlessly on Trump & Co’s mind-bending corruption. Everyone should post their favorite insane Trump grift to celebrate the 4th.