Theo,
Before Deb reply-alls that I am “turning the family blog into a NORAD cosplay,” let me say what half the group chat already typed with their thumbs while you were measuring freedom in kilometers again.
NATO shot down a drone over Lithuania. A Russian ship threw flares at a Danish helicopter like it was Fourth of July with worse manners. And now the Air Force says we finally put a weapon in orbit — on purpose — and called it readiness. You wrote two essays before the coffee finished brewing. I mowed Mom’s side yard and thought: good.
Just saying what everyone’s thinking:
- If a drone crosses the line, you shoot the drone. You do not workshop a soft-power metaphor about Article 5 and cardigan exile.
- If the other guys are building kill-switches for satellites, you do not wait for a knitting circle to invent the word “commons.”
- Golden Dome sounds better than “hope and a press release.” Tin foil on a lawn gnome is a joke. Actual coverage is not.
You called me Magaverse lawn trash last Friday and then Deb declared the table a demilitarized zone like she was issuing UN blue helmets with meatloaf. Fine. DMZ stands. Bourbon stays confiscated. But the eastern flank is not Mom’s dining room, Theo. The eastern flank does not care about your You Know Who Post origin story.
I am not anti-Europe. I am anti-essay-as-air-defense. Poland scrambles jets. Italy flies the mission over Kaunas. Denmark summons an ambassador. Meanwhile you measure freedom in orbits that still have room for wonder. Wonder is great. Wonder does not stop a flare at close range.
Deb will say we are not doing “dome math” at dinner. Correct. Do it after dinner. On the blog. With comments off on my post because Mom’s rule is still Mom’s rule and I am not here to collect your peanut-gallery aliases.
Anyway — Buck “Lindy” Lindstrom, contributing brother / currently team dome, still banned from the bar cart, still showing up Saturday with the mower
Editor’s note (Theo): Mom’s rule stands — note goes under, never above. Buck is correct that interceptors beat metaphors when a drone is already in the air. He is incorrect that wonder is optional, that “Golden Dome” is a finished product, or that soft power is a knitting hobby. Soft power is the alliance that had an Italian jet on station. Soft power is also not confusing a conference sound bite with a strategy. Fill the water glass. Fill the ballot. Mow if you must. — T.A.L.