Loup-Loup, the wolf dog, chasing random horses on a ranch outside Butte Montana.

NOTE: The promised second parts of both the school and the jails series (The School that LAUSD Tried to Kill and LA’s Killer Jails) will appear later this week—once we’ve all….you know….watched fireworks.

UPDATE: But really, what business do we have celebrating July 4th without making a social justice comment or two???? This down home statement of patriotism and passion is brought to you via the always stupendous Merle Haggard (with an enthusiastic chapeau tip to music-savvy commenter reg for pointing it out.) The sentiments expressed below do not, by the way, in any way suggest isolationism. They are posted with the understanding that all of us who make our homes on this fragile and interdependent blue planet are in it together, and that we need to act as though we belong to each other.