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.
20:19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 20:20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 20:21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." 20:22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 20:23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." 20:24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 20:25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." 20:26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 20:27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." 20:28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 20:29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." 20:30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 20:31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Peasant pheasant hunting in North Korea. They appear to be firing for effect instead of aiming to kill, which would seem to make no sense to me for the starving NoKos. Well, they do things their own Asian multicultural way, but I can see why they go hungry.
And yes, I am indeed shocked that they appear to have no controls over the use of assault weapons in an enlightened socialist country like theirs. One might have thought that they would have disarmed their happy peasants by now. As Joe Biden remarked, all you need is a 12 ga. shotgun.
OMG. He referred to the decorative function of females. What's the big deal? Wasn't part of his own political appeal his role as a Calvin Klein underwear model?
In New York, the government has its finger in every pie, and politics is full of hypocritical blue swill about helping the poor and the needy. New York has a government that wants to do what it shouldn’t do, that can’t do what it ought to do, and that has been hijacked by a criminal class of political hacks. This is what blue model decline looks like.
But it's illegal for Americans to emigrate to Mexico. Mexico does not permit immigration, but they may change their mind if they have too many jobs that Mexicans won't do.
That’s what the Left has come to: a reactionary force, determined to uphold an unjust status quo against even the slightest reform. Champions of the wealthiest segment of American society, out to screw the young. But it is hard to see a successful endgame: the entitlements simply cannot be sustained in anything like their present form. That is a mathematical proposition, not a political one.
All rifles (that includes the AR-15) were involved in fewer homicides in 2011 than blunt objects, fists and knives. 1.5X more homicides were committed with blunt objects. 2.2X more homicides were committed with fists. 5.2X more homicides were committed with knives.
Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote, The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licur Of which vertu engendred is the flour; Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne, And smale foweles maken melodye, That slepen al the nyght with open ye, So priketh hem Nature in hir corages, Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; And specially, from every shires ende Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende, The hooly blisful martir for to seke, That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
I know someone - an English major - who got his first job on Wall St. by being able to quote these first lines of the Prologue of Canterbury Tales in an interview when challenged by a partner. Here's a good Canterbury Tales site. If you read enough Chaucer, you start speaking Middle English - or really early Modern English. I took a one-semester Chaucer course in college. Great fun. We'd just go around the class and read the section out loud in the beginning of class, trying to find Chaucer's accents and rhythms. Many are not aware that Chaucer made his money importing claret from France. Writing was a hobby for this prosperous, well-educated, and well-travelled Londoner.
Government is broke, investors and businessmen are wary of the government (I don't believe this stock market, inflated by free $ and foreign $), the labor market is out of kilter, the EU is blowing up, etc. etc. The US is beginning to resemble France. Looks like a mess to me.
I'm happy to report that I am doing fine. I'm taking a date to the Blue Water Grill tonight. I made some fortunate but risky decisions. Now all I need is a good wife.
A friend emailed me a pic she took of Francis in Rome on Palm Sunday. She was proud of getting so close to him, despite being surrounded by sharp-elbowed Italians.
Sort of off topic, but how do they keep the wind from blowing off their yarmulkas if they have no hair? If they elected me Pope, I'd consider wearing a white Stetson.
Reading Buzz Bissinger's confession, My Gucci Addiction, I would have to seriously consider the Bipolar possibility were I his doctor:
In the past few years, I've bought eighty-one leather jackets. Dozens of boots and leather gloves. I've purchased pants that cost $5,000. I own a $22,000 coat. This winter I took a tour of Milan's Fashion Week (all expenses paid by Gucci, in appreciation of my many, many purchases), where I spent tens of thousands more and began to seriously grapple, once and for all, with a compulsion that could cost me more than just my life savings. My name is Buzz Bissinger. I am 58 years old, the best-selling author of 'Friday Night Lights,' father of three, husband. And I am a shopaholic.
Not everybody who does crazy things has a diagnosis, but unless Mr. Bissinger has inherited $100 million, somebody ought to try to stop him before he blows himself up. It does not sound like his wife is likely to do that.
Our friend AVI put up a comment here yesterday to the effect that Leftist forces are far more interested in undermining Western culture than they give a damn about the pawns they use.
There are very few limits to what you can do to people in the modern interpretation of democracy. A version where only majority rule is required, but where there is no longer a respect for personal negative rights – as we know them from the American Constitution.
The easiest target will always be wealthy people, or even just working people and savers who did the right thing all their lives. As the bloated welfare states begin to collapse under their irresponsible promises, their crumbling value systems and their unsustainable demographics, it will be easy to convince more than 50 percent of voters that confiscating and stealing other people's money is OK for the greater good. Boston Consulting Group calculated that 28 percent of ALL private wealth is needed to meet just existing debts – not future obligations , mind you – and the money can only come from one place… Your pockets. Beware.
A lot of things have gone wrong over the past few years, but the seeds were planted many years ago. In the form of pressure for more people having the “right” to own their properties, even if they did not fulfill the traditional mortgage criteria – hence subprime. In the form of enormous “entitlements” to not just poor, but also middle-class people in the welfare states – hence ballooning deficits and debt. In the form of a Euro, a grand, political project with no practical foundation – hence crisis after crisis, with the dominoes stretching far into the distance.
For sure, a lot of financial institutions took advantage of the hands they were dealt. They are not without guilt and responsibility for the current mess. But the real problems lie not in people trying to take advantage of whatever conditions they operate under. The real problem lies in the framework that is created by politicians, preventing free markets to deal with excesses in the way capitalism always does.
Twenty-five years ago, President Reagan, paraphrasing Education Secretary William Bennett, said: “If you serve a child a rotten hamburger in America, federal, state and local agencies will investigate you, summon you, close you down, whatever. But if you provide a child with a rotten education, nothing happens, except that you’re liable to be given more money to do it with.”
What goes on these days at an elite, expensive, private liberal arts college? It's been studied, and parents might not be too pleased by the looniness there.
Students are encouraged to "think critically" about anything that threatens the college's dogmas on diversity, multiculturalism, gender, and sustainability, etc., but, for the most part, not to think critically about those dogmas themselves. That is the problem: such contradictions go unnoticed. And they go unnoticed because at Bowdoin, and places like it, there are precious few people who can point them out.
It all reminds me of a conversation I had with a nice lady last weekend. She was talking about the oppression of Muslim women. I offered the notion that she was not being very multiculturally-tolerant in wanting to impose her Western views on Muslim culture. I asked her whether we should not respect cultural differences.
Somewhat apropos: Islam’s Latest Fatwa Permitting Rape of Non-Muslim Women. Why does Islam seem so preoccupied with the interests in rape, pedophilia, homosexuality, bestiality, religious imperialism, and killing Jews? Surely there must be other, more productive and positive things in life to focus on.
Perhaps the Bowdoin faculty could enlighten me on these points because the only aspects of it which seem to be approved on college campi are the homosexuality and the killing of Israelis.
February, March, April and May are my busiest times of the year at work. No time to think except in the shower. No time for thoughtful posts. One must make hay while the sun shines.
Piers Morgan has armed security. And I read that Jim Carrey has an armed bodyguard whenever in public. Since I am cheap and not wealthy, I have to be my own bodyguard. If armed protection is OK for the President and Piers Morgan, it's OK for me.
OMG. He referred to the decorative function of females. What's the big deal? Wasn't part of his own political appeal his role as a Calvin Klein underwear model? 
A good
Target apologizes for 
Tell youngsters the truth: 
Horowitz: 
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