Get Ready With Me: Pete Hegseth Edition

Plus a new #SpecialMilitaryOperation and a dog's grave inscription from Roman Salerno

Good Evening:

You have only 24 hours. Only 24 hours to take advantage of the Sol Invictus on Steroids Sale and get a full year of #DogShirtDaily for only $35, of which half will go to a basket of charities.

Only 24 hours left to get someone a gift subscription at the same rate.

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

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Today on #DogShirtTV, I welcomed the estimable Jody Freeman of Harvard Law School to discuss her particular framework for understanding how Trump plans to deregulate swathes of the economy. We talked about what she calls “structural deregulation,” which involves attacking regulatory power now by reducing the substantive scope and reach of regulation but by eviscerating the budgets and staffs of the agencies that carry out regulatory activities. The estimable Holly Berkley Fletcher and the estimable Eve Gaumond joined to ask questions:

Tomorrow, on #DogShirtTV, the estimable

Minna Ålander

will join to discuss undersea cable cutting in the Baltic Sea.

And on Friday, Jan. 3, we will be joined by the estimable Gary Marcus, emeritus professor at NYU and author of the new book, “Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure that AI Works for US. Marcus, I am told, in a leading advocate for what is called “neurosymbolic Artificial Intelligence.” And we may end up discussing that with him too.

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A #SpecialMilitaryOperation has been scheduled for Jan. 1. A young friend of mine named Anastasiia Panchenko has a New Year’s greeting she wants to give to the embassy staff. #LordLaser and #LadyLaser have agreed to help out. We will be out around 6:00 pm filing an episode of #ProjectWithMe. Feel free to stop by and join us.

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We Have Always Been Thus

Thanks to everyone who sent kind notes or left comments about our dog Gurgi, who died yesterday. It turns out, we are not the first to mourn a dog. The invaluable Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum—specifically Volume X, inscription number 659—contains an inscription from a gravestone found in Salerno, which reads as follows:

PORTAVI LACRIMIS MADIDVS TE NOSTRA CATELLA
QVOD FECI LVSTRIS LAETIOR ANTE TRIBVS
ERGO MIHI PATRICE IAM NON DABIS OSCVLA MILLE
NEC POTERIS COLLO GRATA CVBARE MEO
TRISTIS MARMOREA POSVI TE SEDE MERENTEM
ET IVNXI SEMPER MANIB(US) IPSE MEIS
MORIB(US) ARGVTIS HOMINEM SIMVLARE PARATAM
PERDIDIMVS QVALES HEI MIHI DELICIAS
TV DVLCIS PATRICE NOSTRAS ATTINGERE MENSAS
CONSVERAS GREMIO POSCERE BLANDA CIBOS
LAMBERE TV CALICEM LINGVA RAPIENTE SOLEBAS
QVEM TIBI SAEPE MEAE SVSTINVERE MANVS
ACCIPERE ET LASSVM CAVDA GAVDENTE FREQVENTER

EJ translates this as follows:

Wet with tears, I have carried you here, my little puppy,
Just like I carried you, more joyfully, fifteen years ago.
So now, Patrice, you will no longer give me a thousand kisses,
Nor can you stretch out on my neck, sweetheart.
I have put you to rest in the marble tomb you deserve,
And united your spirit with mine forever,
Since you were the equal of a human, with your clever ways.
Alas, we have lost such a dear darling!
Patrice, sweetie, you used to come up to my table,
To my lap, adorably demanding food.
You used to stick your tongue in my cup,
Which my hands often held out to you,
And when I was tired, you would bring me inside with your happy tail.

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Remember what I said about 24 hours?

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Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is the muskox, seen here making ice cream. Video from @larstours: