Greetings. Shalom. Salam.

Jambo, Habari,

Dobriyucha,

Dajahau.

The ways to greet people around the world,

we are all part of a single species,

though we are part of different cultures and different nation states.

Today, I would like to take a high altitude, apolitical view of the Israel-Iran situation

because it affects all of us.

And of course, politics is involved.

And there are very easy social minefields that can be triggered.

I want to focus on one thing, which is the Straits of Hormuz and how much of the world's petrochemicals, oil and refined

products, travel through the straits on a daily basis. I'm doing this without notes because

in a few hours I have to leave to go visit my father, who in a surprise visit, though by the time this comes out Friday,

it will no longer be a surprise.

He is going on a glory flight.

He's 82 years old, and he was a medic in the Vietnam War in the U.S. Army.

And apparently they have a thing where they honor veterans by flying to Washington,

D.C., and they go to see war memorials and have lunch. And then they come back and there's a massive

surprise parade and lots of thousands of people at the airport with a band welcoming them and i think uh back when he was

in the war um and he told me very unpleasant stories and as left much unsaid than he actually

did tell me as a as a young boy or as a teenager.

...