But I do agree that we are hardwired to fear those who aren’t like us. My childhood experience is an example.

Agreement or disagreement with your first sentence constitutes a core difference between “liberals” and “conservatives.”

As a child who started high school the year the Civil Rights Bill was passed, I observed that the attitudes of many of my rural New England classmates about blacks were not as different from those of my Oklahoma grandmother as one might have thought. Which led me to believe that “us versus not us,” with regard to white versus black, was to be found in varying degrees in both North and South,

I also observed that “us versus not us” attitudes were not confined to white versus black. They extended to religion–my racially enlightened father had a certain dislike towards Roman Catholic practices and doctrines– but he also had Jewish friends. As a result, I once had a negative attitude towards a classmate for his serving as an altar boy. Fortunately, I kept my opinion to myself, and also changed my mind. I am reminded of the Italian-surnamed classmate, who served as a scapegoat for many, who got called a “wop” by another classmate, who also had an Italian surname. Oh well…..

I found myself on both sides of the rural not-as-educated/studious versus the less rural-more educated/studious divide between the two towns who sent students to the regional high school I attended.

One example of the inherent nature of “us-versus-not-us” was from a week in a hotel in South America, during my time off. The toddler son of the hotel manager started crying when he saw me from 20 feet away. I looked different– my eyeglasses were probably the big reason. After a week, he was comfortable in my presence. After he saw that his mother was comfortable with me, he changed his attitude.

Whereas many liberals believe that we inherently love each other–that prejudice/dislike has to be taught. South Pacific, anyone?

We can learn to love, even if love isn’t inherent. I am reminded of the principal of a high poverty, 98% minority school where I once taught and previously substituted. A reporter asked her what she thought about getting more black teachers in the school so that black students could more identify with their teachers and thus learn more. The principal’s reply—she was black—was that the content of the vessel was more important than the color of the vessel.

–Niketas Choniates

True. Native American tribes comprised deeply different cultures from ours, often quite savage in our terms, and the Commanches were some of the most savage.

I make no excuses.

However the Parker story also includes that of Cynthia Ann Parker, who had a more benign fate from that of her cousin Rachel. Cynthia Ann was only 8 years-old and was integrated deeply into her tribal family.

She found favor with the tribal chief who adopted her as a replacement for his dead daughter. She was named Naduah and she became pure Commanche.

When she matured, she married a prominent warrior and had a son, who became Quanah Parker, the last chief of the Commanches. He fought the whites bitterly, then later on the basis of a peyote vision, arranged for the Commanches to find peace with whites. Quanah Parker even became a friend of Teddy Roosevelt.

This IMO is one of the great stories of American West.

Cynthia Ann was taken back into white society. She hated it. She stole a horse every time she could and tried to return to her Commanches.

Life is strange.

Claude – how much does it cost to build a heated salt water pool?

Here’s a comprehensive breakdown of building a heated saltwater pool:
Basic Pool Construction (40′ x 20′ pool):

Excavation and grading: $3,000-7,000
Concrete shell/gunite: $25,000-40,000
Plumbing: $3,000-5,000
Electrical work: $2,500-4,000
Basic pool equipment (pumps, filters): $2,500-5,000

Saltwater Specific Components:

Salt chlorination system: $500-2,500
Initial salt: $200-400
Additional plumbing modifications: $500-1,000

Heating System:

Heater options:

Gas heater: $2,000-4,000
Heat pump: $2,500-5,000
Solar heating: $3,000-7,000

Installation: $1,000-2,000

Essential Additions:

Pool deck/patio: $6,000-12,000
Safety fencing: $1,500-4,000
Basic lighting: $700-1,500
Pool cover: $1,500-3,000

Optional Features:

Automation system: $2,000-4,000
Enhanced lighting: $1,000-3,000
Water features: $2,000-10,000
Tile and coping upgrades: $3,000-10,000

Total Cost Range:

Basic heated saltwater pool: $50,000-75,000
Mid-range with some upgrades: $75,000-100,000
Luxury installation with premium features: $100,000-150,000+

This was an indoor pool, so the cost of the building. Then:

The total first-year cost could range from $5,000-15,000 depending on your choices and local prices. The annual operating cost typically ranges from $2,000-5,000, varying significantly based on…

Mean ole’ Musk is going to force those poor dogs outta their weekly swims!?!

How D.O.G.E has fun, leaping and splashing. Such joy, that.

Foreign aid, even when legitimate (unlike the funding by USAID of outright graft and political influence), is not a fence.
Military forces are a fence.
The only ones taking that down were the Democrats.
I hope that President Trump can replace it before we all find out why it was there.

There are always people telling you that your enemies would not be your enemies if you just learned about them. There are always people who are your enemies, and aren’t at war with you, until they suddenly are.

A substantial fraction of the civil and humane Japanese you met in the 1950s were the same people as the ones who were brutes and killers in the 1940s. It wasn’t your education that made them different, it was their defeat at our hands. (Ask some Japanese-born Koreans what they experience from civil and humane Japanese.)

You said you’d found a book on Indians and their culture that made you an admirer of their way of life? Then that book left out a lot about what they were really like. They’re not much like that now, I grant you, but it’s not because we got educated about them.

I was a child during WWII. Every movie I saw depicted the Japanese as brutes and killers. That was ingrained in my mind. Yet, in the 1950s when I spent time in Japan as a deployed sailor, I was shocked to find that the Japanese I encountered were quite civil and humane. And today, the Japanese ate our best ally in the Pacific, whereas during WWII we were allied with the Chinese. The conditions make a difference.

But I do agree that we are hardwired to fear those who aren’t like us. My childhood experience is an example.