We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
This is either endlessly amusing or endlessly pathetic.
Or both.
For the background, you'll want to read the only real-time evolving post I've ever written. Glenn Reynolds liked it so much he gave it a link when the madness was over.
And, of course, as the holiday shopping season advances further and further every year, and more and more people buy their presents at some "Pre-Christmas Summer Close-Out Sale", fewer and fewer people spend their money during December, the actual holiday shopping season.
As such, every year after Christmas, the major chains complain more and more about how holiday sales were "disappointing". Every year, a longer season, and a bigger disappointment.
Now, in a rational world, the retailers would recognize this terrible trend and do something to counter it. Like, oh, actually leaving the holiday shopping season for the holidays.
Despite the loud sighs and eye rolling that usually occurs when shoppers see Christmas decorations in stores parked next to an aisle of Halloween candy, shoppers are taking advantage of the layaway programs, the toy reservation schemes and early discounting as a way to soften the holiday’s blow to the household budget.
If you read my article, you'll recognize 'early discounting' as one of the innumerable, interminable reasons for the disappointing season.
But wait, you cry! That's just one silly article. Surely, the media isn't actually going to fall for such tomfoolery, are they?
New York City has been governed by liberals for generations. Surely if blue policies could produce an egalitarian utopia with a strong middle class, we would see it in New York before we would see it anywhere else. If liberals were good at running cities, people from all over the world would be coming to study New York’s public schools, marveling at the extraordinary success with which unionized teachers were transforming the lives of low income kids. Our transit system would be the envy of the world as well; awestruck visitors from benighted places like Shanghai and Tokyo would come to gaze in amazement at the speed, cleanliness and economy of the New York subways. Small business formation would be booming as the bustling economy of manufacturing start ups created opportunities in the inner cities.
Yet, somehow, this isn’t happening. It’s great mystery.
NYC thrives and is vibrant despite its government, not because it it. It's just lucky enough to be a people-magnet. A magnet for talented and/or ambitious young people from all over the world.
We were driving around blue New England yesterday. We did not see a single Obama bumper sticker or yard sign. We saw one Romney yard sign. They might vote Blue, but the thrill is gone. We even saw a number of Priuses with the factory-installed Obama stickers removed or painted over.
For years, the blogger mom who uses the pseudonym Bookwormroom (to protect her family from liberals in her very blue neighborhood) and I have exchanged emails. The topic is usually about our children, near the same ages. Our private conversations are reflected in her new e-book, "Easy Ways To Teach Kids Hard Things: The fun way to teach your children important life principles." It is only $1.99 on Amazon, so order yours here.
From Bookie's introduction to the e-book:
[I]t will share a life philosophy that I’ve applied to my parenting, one that has resulted in my having children who respect me and who frequently tell me that their friends think I’m the coolest parent around (and that’s not because I’m a pushover)....
After struggling for too many years to be the perfect parent, I gave up and settled for being a pretty darn good parent. My philosophy is that, whether I am sharing my values with my children, helping them with their school work, or generally giving them tips about navigating their way through the world, if I hew to a few basic principles, rather than following dozens, or even hundreds, of modern parenting rules, parenting is less work and more fun. Happily, once I stopped trying so hard to control every aspect of my children’s lives, and started focusing more attention on overarching principles, not only did parenting get easier, my children also became nicer people....
They will also be more self-sufficient and, with luck, have a strong moral compass and analytical abilities that enable them to deal with many of the difficult situations life places in their paths....
They’re not perfect – far from it – but I can honestly say that they are good people in the areas that count. On any issue, even if their judgment is immature, their moral instincts are spot on. My kids are also good students, which is a testament not only to their discipline and intelligence but (as they will freely concede) to the practical tips and insights I’ve given them over the years.
The foundation I’ve put in place is what informs my children’s decision-making, both practical and moral. I’ve actually put my theories into practice and seen them work.
Bookie sees the results with her kids, and I see them with mine. This works for moms and dads.
I had more good recent links on the topic, but I lost them in cyberspace. The governments of the world, and the UN, seem to be on a big censorship kick these days. While we can assume that governments love censorship to protect themselves, it seems to me that the latest excuse is fear of Muslim barbarianism.
Muslims deeply offend my Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist friends daily. Let them, as long as it is just hateful and crazy words. Good manners cannot be made illegal: we'd all end up in trouble for talking with food in our mouths.
Governments always make an excuse to exert control and power over their citizens. For their own good, of course.
The challenge to American education is to provide a useful education to the large number of Americans who are unlikely to benefit from a college education or from high school courses aimed at preparing students for college. The need is for a different curriculum and for a greater investment in these children’s preschool environment. We should recognize that we have different populations with different schooling needs and that curricula and teaching methods should be revised accordingly.
"Investment in the preschool environment"? What does that mean? It's been proven many times that Head Start accomplishes nothing other than to employ expensive babysitters on the taxpayers' dime.
I'm not sure whether I agree with all of the judge's thoughts, but definitely with some of them. It reminds me of those hospital ratings that came out a few years ago. NYC's Memorial Sloan-Kettering came out at the bottom. Too much morbidity and mortality. Of course, it is the world's pre-eminent cancer center for research and care.
Do they "care" at Sloan-Kettering? They sure do. Wonderful people, doing God's work. I know. They have world expert teams for every kind of cancer.
It's still Fall Planting Season in the temperate zone. Most of these laurels will not thrive above Zone 7 unless in a shaltered location.
Lots of plants are called "laurel" without being real members of the Lauraceae family. Bay Laurel and Avocado are true laurels.
Our eastern Mountain Laurel, the state plant of CT which grows in dense, impenetrable 20' high thickets on our hills, is not a true laurel. Neither are the Cherry Laurels, which are (strangely) in the family Rosaceae, genus Prunus - same genus as roses, apples, and cherries. (Seems anything can get called "laurel" if it has glossy oval evergreen leaves.)
The Cherry Laurels (Prunus laurocerasus) appear in several forms, subspecies, or cultivars in the US, and few are native to the US. Here are a few of them. I like them for the lush, tropical evergreen appearance, and the birds like them for winter cover and for spring nesting.
Like hybrid Rhodadendrons, Zone 6 is pushing their limit unless they are sheltered, next to a warm building, or near salt water. The southern US is really a better place for them, but I like experimenting. Although they are considered semi-shade or filtered light plants, up here they seem to enjoy plenty of sun.
I have three varieties: the big, upright, fast-growing "Skip" Laurels ('Schipkaensis') which make a great tall (10-15' hedge), a few small hedges of Otto Luyken English Laurel, and a couple of handsome Portuguese Laurels, a compact, slow-growing rounded type with nice red stems. The latter two were produced by Monrovia.
Wonderful plants, all things considered, and a much better bet than trying to make the very picky Mountain Laurel and hybrid Rhodys happy in this neck of the woods. Mountain Laurel, like Blueberry, only grows well where it feels like growing. If they don't like the conditions, they just die, slowly.
Photos: Above: small row of Otto Luykens in from the of the wall, and some tall Skips behind. Left: A Portuguese Laurel, about 5' high.
My pic of a Congregational church carriage shed, just north of Hanover, New Hampshire. You'd be assigned a pew, and horse-and buggy shelter, by seniority. This was at a time when Congo services went on for several hours, at the least. Needed to protect horse, and buggy or wagon, from the northern elements.
In their desperation to avoid responsibility for the Benghazi debacle, Obama and Biden have pointed fingers in two directions: at the intelligence community for reporting incorrectly that the incident was a protest over a YouTube video clip, and at the State Department for not providing adequate security for the Ambassador.
Romney's Bain Capital, the object of constant Democratic denigration, invested private money in the following companies:
• AMC Entertainment • Burger King • Burlington Coat Factory • Clear Channel Communications • Dominos Pizza • Dunk n' Donuts • Guitar Centers • The Sports Authority • Staples • Toys "R" US • Warner Music Group
By all accounts, the main issue in this presidential race is jobs and their creation. One can only imagine the aggregate employment created by these companies. Once again, the key phrase here is "private money."
President Obama, playing businessman with your money, invested in:
• Solyndra • Ener 1 • Beacon Power • Abound Solar • Amonix Solar • Spectra Watt • Eastern Energy
All of these companies have two things in common: they were, coincidently, all contributors to Obama's campaign, and eventually all went bankrupt.
10:17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
10:18 Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.
10:19 You know the commandments: 'You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.'"
10:20 He said to him, "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth."
10:21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
10:22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
10:23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!"
10:24 And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
10:25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."
10:26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another, "Then who can be saved?"
10:27 Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible."
10:28 Peter began to say to him, "Look, we have left everything and followed you."
10:29 Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news,
10:30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age--houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions--and in the age to come eternal life.
10:31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first."
The Tiger Swallowtail of the Eastern US is dimorphic. This is a dark female on wild daisies.
She will not live very long. Except for our migratory, Milkweed-loving Monarch butterflies, most do not live very long in their winged form. Much more life as caterpillars and pupae. The brief task of the winged form is to produce eggs, then die. Short, sweet, and lovely.
I’ve spent my whole life hating the Cardinals. If I were to find an actual cardinal in the forest, twittering with happiness in the dappled sunlight, and I could get it to fly gently into my hand, I would squeeze it until I heard all its little bones break like tiny little twigs.
Power breeds paranoia and every group jealously hoards its privileges fearful that they will be taken away. The more these groups demand their rights, the more certain it is that they are already abusing the rights of others. When they call for freedom, they mean power. When they call for equality, they mean privilege. When they denounce hate, they justify their own hate. When they complain about the culture of bigotry, they are expressing how much they hate others.
Pie in the Sky, properly known as The Preacher and the Slave, is a parody credited to Joe Hill in 1911, and was published in the Industrial Worker's Little Red Songbook. (The tune is In the Sweet Bye and Bye.) The socialist-revoutionary Wobblies were big on songs. Brief entry on Joe Hill's life here- songs from an interesting piece of American history, when a Socialist revolution seemed near.
Long-haired preachers come out every night, Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right; But when asked how 'bout something to eat They will answer with voices so sweet:
CHORUS: You will eat, bye and bye, In that glorious land above the sky; Work and pray, live on hay, You'll get pie in the sky when you die.
The starvation army they play, They sing and they clap and they pray 'Till they get all your coin on the drum Then they'll tell you when you're on the bum:
Holy Rollers and jumpers come out, They holler, they jump and they shout. Give your money to Jesus they say, He will cure all diseases today.
If you fight hard for children and wife -- Try to get something good in this life -- You're a sinner and bad man, they tell, When you die you will sure go to hell.
Workingmen of all countries, unite, Side by side we for freedom will fight; When the world and its wealth we have gained To the grafters we'll sing this refrain:
FINAL CHORUS: You will eat, bye and bye, When you've learned how to cook and to fry. Chop some wood, 'twill do you good, And you'll eat in the sweet bye and bye.
The Band with Dylan's hymn (live, 1970). So many of these good guys are dead now. Danko, Manuel, Levon. God knows where the incredibly talented Garth is today with his Lowrey organ and his sax.
Yesterday morning at about 7AM, to the west was a perfect double rainbow. My photo cut off the bottom due to trees. Here's someone else's photo. Look above the lower rainbow and you can faintly see the second one. I only recall seeing a very few rainbows as good as this one.
"Joe, are Iranian nukes really such a hilarious topic?"
"Joe, I am a fellow American citizen trying to talk with you and, as such, I expect as much respectful behavior as I offer you. In fact, as a fellow citizen, I'd expect you to at least listen to my opinion before giggling like a girl."
Harry Potter star Emma Watson is the favourite celebrity bait for cyber criminals trying to lure internet users, it has emerged. Internet security firm McAfee said today that the English actress is the 'most dangerous' celebrity to search for online.
That's because many sites use Miss Watson to trick users into downloading malicious software or to steal personal information. When searching for the 22-year-old, there's a one-in-eight chance of landing on a malicious site.
I'd add that the odds increase exponentially when the words "nude" or "topless" are included.
Dangerous!
Others on the top ten list include Jessica Biel, Eva Mendes, Selena Gomez, Halle Berry, Megan Fox, Salma Hayek, Sofia Vergara and Cameron Diaz, so kudos to the bandits for exhibiting exquisite taste. On the other hand, I've already initiated a law suit against them because Mila Kunis, my latest fave, was left off such a prestigious list.
Nearly two-thirds of search results on Bing were found to have links that spread malware or spam, compared to 30 percent for Google, said Sophos Security in a recent study.
"Search engine poisoning," as it's called, affects all search engines; it might turn up the link you see first, or high up in results, for example, when you search for a popular celeb like Jessica Biel or Justin Bieber. Clicking on the link can take you to a spam site or, worse, one filled with malware aimed at infecting your computer.
And remember the cold, hard truth in all of this; that you don't deserve one tiny shred of sympathy should you get infected and not be able to immediately remedy the situation. And this cold, hard truth is because:
1. With free programs such as Windows Restore at the ready, which make a great big 'image file' of your entire system, you would normally just fire up the boot-up disc, load last week's image file and you're back in business within minutes.
and...
2. You shouldn't have been infected in the first place. A careful investigation after the fact will reveal that the free anti-malware program being used wasn't protecting the browser in real-time, allowing the infection to sneak through. This is known as you get what you pay for. It's a lesson that should have been learned long ago.
While Windows Restore does an adequate job, I prefer a commercial backup program called True Image. More info on both programs here. For an anti-malware program with real-time browser protection, I use ZoneAlarm.
As a small side note, image file backup programs aren't just for catastrophes. The other day I was curious if the Chrome browser had made any improvements since I last tried it a year ago, so I first made a backup file of the system, installed Chrome, played around with it for a while, was aghast that absolutely none of its major shortcomings had been addressed — then restored the original system via the backup file and it was as if the whole sordid event had never taken place. No muss, no fuss, no extra clutter of files on the system clogging things up.
You don’t win a nationally televised debate by being rude and obnoxious. You don’t win by interrupting your opponent time after time after time or by being a blowhard. You don’t win with facial expressions, especially smirks or fake laughs, or by pretending to be utterly exasperated with what your opponent is saying.
Also, read Bruce's post from last night.
RNC instant ad:
Ryan's main job was to establish serious credibility. Seems like he accomplished that. Seems like Biden acted like a drunk in a bar even if he won or tied on points scored. Bad optics, not gentlemanly or dignified.
Driving through the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, en route to grouse and Woodcock hunting in northern Maine on the Quebec border. Great fun and a great work-out.
Go Go Hi Ho! We must grab life while we still have it, with both hands. Plenty of time to rest, watch TV, and surf the internet in the grave, in hell, or in heaven, as the case may be. This life was not given to us to be a waiting room.
Quick reaction around the networks and websites: Both Biden and Ryan scored some good points. Biden's sneers and constant interruptions were a turn-off, disrespectful in the extreme, to those who value courtesy in personal communications. The CNN tracking of men and women Independents throughout the debate found women favoring Ryan over Biden. That's a reversal from the past leaning of women toward Obama (now, Obama and Romney are about even in the polls with women). Biden's condescending attitude came through as consistent with Obama's. That's a negative for those tired of being talked down to by those whose promises and self-regard are hollow.
Biden may have encouraged his base by his boorishness, and Ryan may have not met his base's expectations of being tougher on Biden's assertions -- even when wrong as to facts. But, for many Independents the comparison comes down to Ryan's civility Vs Biden's rudeness. That's an important atmospheric. -- See the Twitter negative reactions to Biden's rudeness from reporters across the political spectrum. -- Allahpundit has a wrap-up headline quip: "Angry old man yells at Paul Ryan for 90 minutes". -- CNN instapoll gives the nod to Ryan.
Thanks for InstaPundit link. This Comment from an InstaPundit reader on target: “The Joker vs. Robin.”
Image stolen from PowerLine. Jackass split screen:
My prediction: Biden's rudeness and jokes about him will predominate conversations, and maybe even break through to legacy media reporting, over the coming days.
The instant polls: CNBC had it Ryan 56%-36%, CBS Biden 50%-31%, CNN Ryan 48%-44%, AP Ryan 51%-43%. Not nearly as one-sided as the instant responses to the first presidential debate in Denver. My sense: Biden pumped up partisan Democrats, but failed to win over the voters who are taking a serious look at Romney at a point when he is up in national polls.
*Yet Another In An Endless String Of
Companies 
How Do Vultures 
Pie in the Sky, properly known as 
Excellent t-shirt is h/t the excellent 
