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.
Well, it looks like Bird Dog's having a good time taking a few days off to finally catch the riveting last and final season of 'All My Children'.
I couldn't believe Melissa turned out to be Harry's long-lost sister from his mother's fifth marriage to her second cousin on her father's side! This whole thing is just tearing my emotions apart!
Finally! After all the money we've thrown into the Defense Department, it's nice to see them actually doing a little defense for once, rather than all that 'offensive defense' they're always doing overseas. As this 'comfort blanket' eventually covers and protects the entire nation against attacks from British, French and North Korean missile attacks, we can all sleep more soundly knowing that our 'big brother' is watching over us.
In international news, those clever Israelis pulled another fast one as they snuck a spy (or 'bird' in Mideast lingo) into Turkey and then got him back out on a legal technicality when he obviously should have been put up against a wall and shot for the spy he is.
You'd think Turkish officials would have at least worked out a prisoner exchange.
In late night television news, there's an interesting article on Jay Leno's impending retirement here. As you might have seen, he's come out with a number of Obama zingers in the past few months — quite a change from the past — so maybe the author's onto something when he says:
I will not be surprised if he pops up in some way in late-night television — possibly on Fox.
While there have certainly been the occasional big band orchestras that played together into their dotage, none of them ever pranced madly about the stage to the adulation of millions of screaming fans around the world while actually in said dotage.
In yet more good news, the movement to turn northern Colorado into the 51st state is making headway:
More than four dozen people showed up Thursday at the first public meeting to discuss a proposal to form a 51st state. Nearly all of them said they support secession.
More than four dozen! When you see this kind of groundswell support, you know you're getting in touch with the people's true wants and needs.
And those kooky kids in Hollywood are at it again. First Hitler, then Chavéz, then...
Every time Hollywood lets costs get completely out of hand, something comes along to save it. In the early 1980s it was videotapes, in the 1990s it was the DVD market. Now it’s China, but unlike the home-video market, China makes specific political demands on films. If “WWZ” is any indication, simply removing negative implications about China isn’t enough: The studios have to go out of their way to paint China in a flattering light.
Well, at least this means we won't be hearing any more of those tired "Jews are running Hollywood" stories.
In Dire Global Warming (DGW) news, I'm sure you've seen this terrible truth spread across the news sites recently:
I tracked down a handful of sites that had the article and left this in the comments:
Boy, I'll say! Every time I see one of those fake global warming articles, it makes my blood boil!
So I'm living proof the article is spot on in its analysis.
Lastly, I'm going to end on some really horrific news, figuring that the rest of your day will be much rosier after reading it since emotionally there won't be anywhere to go but back up.
Given what a splendid job California-bashing sites like Maggie's Farm have done in indoctrinating its readers into believing everyone in CA is a drooling, frothing-at-the-mouth liberal and that you pray nightly for the Big One to come along and drop the whole thing into the ocean, it will come as a severe shock to learn that California might actually have some value after all:
If California were to disappear, what would the American diet be like?
Expensive and grainy. California produces a sizable majority of many American fruits, vegetables, and nuts: 99 percent of artichokes, 99 percent of walnuts, 97 percent of kiwis, 97 percent of plums, 95 percent of celery, 95 percent of garlic, 89 percent of cauliflower, 71 percent of spinach, and 69 percent of carrots (and the list goes on and on).
As cruel and horrific as this news is, I figured you'd rather hear it from me than see it splashed across some left-wing site as further proof of the right wing propaganda machine failing once again in its daunting task. Last week they lost the Bible, food stamps and Planned Parenthood — and now this.
But Bird Dog will be back tomorrow and I'm sure these horror stories will end.
While helping my brother clean out my parents' garage, going through shelves of tools, boxes of drill bits, old hinges, misc loose nails and screws, washers, screw-drivers, hand-drills, boxes of what-nots, etc, along with more garden tools than you can imagine even existed, I came across this old cedar cigar box full of mixed nails.
I know where that box of nails came from. That came from my grandfather's garage. My Mom's Dad. He kept all categories of little things in cigar boxes. He smoked in his office in town of course, but outdoors too, even while scything hay or on horseback, but stuck with cigarettes indoors so as not to offend the womenfolk. Pall Malls. Still delicious cigarettes.
So what about L. Osterweis? Well, he made cigars in New Haven, CT, with "South American" (Cuban probably) filler and Connecticut wrappers. Cigar people know that Connecticut still grows the best wrapper tobacco in the world.
The Osterweis company sold off their assets in 1954. From this Yale snippet, it seems that the Osterweis family did pretty well in the tobacco biz for a couple of generations. Even sent a kid or two to Yale.
Photo of Semipalmated Sandpipers from Being a sandpiper - Animals have thoughts, feelings and personality. Why have we taken so long to catch up with animal consciousness?
It's the time of year when my family's food interests turn to mollusks and crustaceans. It seems to be in their blood.
Oysters preferably on the half-shell, and cherrystones only on the half-shell. About that red seafood sauce with horseradish, for shrimp and clams and oysters etc - it is vulgar, overpowering stuff, but we love it anyway. It is the American wasabi.
Crabs: up north, we prefer them in their moulting soft-shell form, lightly sauteed in olive oil, butter, parsley, a touch of garlic, and white wine: three per person - it's the frugal way to eat the magnificent east coast Blue Crab because you eat the whole darn thing, shell, feathers and all - a perfect combination of crunch and succulence. I know how you pick at them on the Chesapeake - and that is damn good, but too much work.
Lobsters: We eat them as a gala treat but not too often as it is easy to grow tired of them. Always buy the big ones - one 6 lb. lobster has double the meat of six one-lb. lobsters (which are mostly shell). If they have the big ones, get the biggest and let them steam 'em for you. The story that the big ones are tougher than the babies is pure myth and an evil lie - the only tough lobster is a live one without the rubber bands. Plus the big guys are as dramatic on the table as a Thanksgiving turkey or a crown roast of lamb. Oh, did I mention that you never boil a lobster - you steam them. Boiling them washes half of their favor out of them. Toss the shells in the freezer, afterwards, and use them in your next fish stock.
Clam chowder - you have to have your own family recipe, but red clam chowder is disgusting.
Steamers? The best. Just use a few cups of water, and keep the clams above the water. Don't overcook 'em, or they will get too chewy. And do not dip them in butter - it overpowers their salt-marshy goodness. Best part? That broth. When you drink that hot broth out of a heavy mug you feel like you are reuniting with Mother Ocean - and you are. Left-over broth? To the freezer, for fish stock, along with steamer clam shells, fish heads and bones, lobster shells, etc. Wow.
And a simple oyster stew with heavy cream and paprika is nirvana - you must use large oysters, and never overcook them - just until they warm up and the edges begin to curl. The Oyster Bar (since 1913) makes the best oyster stew in the world in their custom-made, 100 year-old oyster stew steaming machines. Worth a trip to NYC and Grand Central Station just to sample their world-wide oysters - and that simple, heavenly stew. Poor-Boys and fried oysters? They aren't a bad thing at all, but only with those southern, less subtle oysters which come shelled in a container. The kind we use for oyster stuffing for the Thanksgiving turkey.
And what is the finest oyster in the world? That's right, the ethereal Wellfleet Oyster, bathed in the fresh water from the Herring River. But don't try to cook him - it's a crime to do so, or should be. But we have done it - shame on us. Oysters Rockefeller from Wellfleet oysters.
Wines for these splendid delicacies from the sea? Champaigne is my first choice, and a Viognier is my second choice. Third choice - a French Chablis. Chardonnay with shellfish? No, no, no: try it and find out - they do not mix. Red wine with seafood? Certainly, if you feel like it. Who cares? Red surely is good with fish. I, for one, will not eat salt-water fish with white wine, but shellfish - for certain. Champagne with steamers? Very cool; very refined. Many prefer beer, though. (Steamers are the East Coast Buffalo Chicken Wings - only better.)
Image: a favorite Cape Cod salt marsh in Wellfleet, MA, full of steamer clams. You can fill a wire basket in 20 minutes, and come home hcovered with the black gooey happy marsh mud, looking something like this:
1:2 Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
1:12 I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem,
1:13 applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with.
1:14 I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.
2:18 I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to those who come after me
2:19 --and who knows whether they will be wise or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.
2:20 So I turned and gave my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labors under the sun,
2:21 because sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.
2:22 What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun?
2:23 For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity.
It seems to make me feel better to post and write about death and house clean-out, so I will. I guess it's a slice of life up here in Yankeeland.
Here's a small stack of the number of books I retrieved from Dad's bookshelves. This might keep me busy until Thanksgiving or Christmas. I read Landscape and Memory once, when it first came out, but it wouldn't hurt me to read it again.
I have always wanted to read Wilson's Prelude, but it never fell into my hands. His classic. Dad loved Edmund Wilson. I'm not sure yet how much I need to know about Turner.
Does the name 'John McCain' mean anything to you guys? It rings a bell but I just can't place it. Wasn't he Sarah Palin's long-lost step-dad? Anyway, he's one of those Congresscritters and he's decided it would be best if we stopped using dollar bills and started using dollar coins, instead.
And it appears he's got his thumb on the pulse of the nation:
If this all sounds vaguely familiar, this the third time in recent years that some Congresscritter has gotten this particular hair up his ass. It'll hopefully end in the same resounding defeat the first two measures did. As far as I know, they actually did start printing the first time, but the indoctrination program support never materialized.
Below is my original article during the first go-'round.
I might also note that I solved the problem.
The Valued Maggie's Readership™ would expect no less.
Because of the media, we tend to focus on Congress as the people spending all of our hard-earned tax doubloons, and we tend to forget that there are scads of government agencies out there wasting money by the crateful.
Literally, in this case.
This is the new U.S. dollar coin:
If you would be so kind, our government would like you to use these new dollar coins instead of dollar bills.
Yes, you read that right.
And would you like to know just why you're going to do this?
To save the planet.
To continue sinking into the deep abyss of eternal madness, please...
One of the most refreshing summer drinks ever invented.
Take a highball glass or large water glass filled with ice cubes, then fill halfway with lemonade, then sweetened iced tea to fill so it looks a bit layered. Slice of lemon. Straw. That's it.
Add some gin or vodka and it's a Dirty Arnold Palmer, but it really isn't necessary.
I'll open with a statement which is derived from the post I recently made regarding Libertarian thought. I believe if athletes want to use drugs or steroids, the choice is theirs to decide if using them will help them improve.
I know this is a controversial position, but if someone wants to use a product which may well cause cancer, shrink genitalia, or otherwise harm them, why should we stop them?
However, I don't support breaking rules. Rules in sports help focus players on developing talent rather than using technology to short-circuit the system. Golf is well known for its use of guidelines to introduce new products, and recently made a rule change limiting putters. I have used products in golf that can help me reduce my slice, and hit balls which fly further than those allowed on the tour. But the USGA limits what technology can be used by professionals because technology can trump talent.
I don't know how to play the violin, so the technology which makes a Stradivarius a great violin won't make me a better violinist. But if Stradivarius provided a tool which moved my fingers to their proper positions and moved my bow across the strings in proper fashion, I could suddenly compete with Itzhak Perlman and barely take a class!
In my post honoring Gwyneth Paltrow, World's Most Beautiful Woman, I included pictures of some other famous women for comparison.
A commenter called the following a "hag":
He also called this a "hag":
Well, in the latest exciting news from the Hag Front, I'm pleased to announce we have a new entry in this most select of fields:
What's beyond scrumptious?
Her name is Camilla Belle. Or, as I prefer to call her, "The future Mrs. Dr. Mercury". She's appeared in about twenty films, although the only one I recognized on the list was Steven Seagal's 'The Patriot'.
That's about as adorable as it gets without actually being illegal. Even back then,she had that elusive it.
Her Wikipedia page is here, her IMDb page is here. I'd never heard of her until she popped up in some slideshow I was watching.
If you're trying to reduce the incidence of rape of military women, importing a bunch of gays sounds like just the ticket! And that, friends, isculture change.
In the 'Scratching Head' department, we have this:
So, just to get this straight, the winner gets death?
By the way, speaking of your probably-eminent death, in case you've been worried about that MERS virus that's sweeping the globe and is about a week away from stopping by your neighborhood, these two articles should clear things right up:
And Glenn Reynolds of PJ Media has shed a little light on the subject of armed domestic drones and how we should view them.
“The FBI does not use (unmanned aerial vehicles) to conduct ‘bulk’ surveillance or to conduct general surveillance not related to an investigation or assessment,” Kelly wrote.
Hmm.
I think we can safely infer that "Hmm" to mean he doesn't really trust their word.
Uh, buddy, if those scientists had the slightest idea of the names we usually call them, they'd fall to their knees in gratitude for only being called boffins.
Finally, turning to the horrific side of life, a drawbridge wouldn't open the other day, stranding drivers for, as the article states, "almost 45 minutes." When this kind of horror strikes an innocent populace, you can just bet that heads will roll.
And look how they zero right in on the exact problem:
Engineers now know why it happened. The weather affected the electronics.
"Circuit breaker, relay switches, wires are all effected by the elements,
moisture, heat, vibration, barometric pressure," says Virginia Department of
Transportation bridge engineer Nick Roper.
And you think, gosh, if only there was some kind of modern science, like maybe the kind of advanced technology we'll have when we finally put a man on the moon some day, that could be used to prevent such tragedies in the future.
I hear that new-fangled "insulated wire" looks promising. And that new "silicone sealant" isn't being called "the wonder glue of the 70's" for no reason.
The Lightning is a yellow Fork From Tables in the sky By inadvertent fingers dropt The awful Cutlery Of mansions never quite disclosed And never quite concealed The Apparatus of the Dark To ignorance revealed.
While in process of cleaning out my parents' house, we discovered where Dad had stashed the shotguns. This nice surprise, among other well-used field guns, had been one of my Grandpa's.
It's not as if I needed more shotguns, but this is a 16 ga., which is a good thing.
You know what this is. Remington built this one. It's a fairly heavy SOB. I don't think I have used it since I was 15.
The bore is clean as a whistle. I will clean 'er up and use it again for both sentimental and practical reasons.
There are some teams which, for one reason or another can't get out of the way of themselves. I happen to root for these teams, and they come from Philadelphia.
Before I get an email from Doc complaining "oh geez, another sports post," I'll allay his fears and assure him this is about racism.
The Philadelphia Eagles, in the midst of rebuilding a franchise that had been successful for the past decade, lost one of their key players. A Wide Receiver, Jeremy Maclin, blew out his ACL and was lost for the season.
What do you do? Turn to the next guy, of course, who showed flashes of talent, but hadn't broken out yet. Riley Cooper hadn't been nearly as successful, but could potentially fill this huge gap.
Based on the video, it's hard to tell why he used it. However, he has said that a black security guard didn't allow him to go backstage, and that was the word he chose while reacting.
There are no good reasons to use it. But it is used somewhat regularly by rappers and athletes (I've heard it used in the gym locker room by young black men), and even once by a commentator. It seems to be a term of endearment, at times, though I'm too far removed to give it context.
Certainly, there seems to be a fine line between using the word itself, and adding an "A" to the end of it.
Some comedians have taken this view to task (video is terrible and audio hard to hear, but it's part of a sketch that aired on Comedy Central's "Tosh.0").
At least some of his teammates have stepped up, and Michael Vick even rejected his brother's words. Apparently, he knows a little bit about forgiveness.
This is not a word which should ever be used in any form, with an "A" or not. If people want issues like this to go away, the word has to be avoided by all, including those who use it in friendly or familiar manner. In the meantime, mistakes are going to happen. Overcoming ignorance takes time, effort, and a willingness to forgive and provide support. After all, from my perspective, freedom of speech means you have the freedom to be offended from time to time. Of course, it's better to avoid offending people whenever possible.
After all, sometimes ignorance causes us to take action that is misguided and needs to be remedied.
In 1999, a white D.C. official was forced to resign for using a word that sounded like a racial slur. David Howard used the word "niggardly" during a meeting, which a black staffer mistook for an epithet. Webster's Tenth Edition Dictionary defines "niggardly" as "grudgingly mean about spending or granting."
Lots of folks think bluefish are barely edible, but they are fit for a king when cooked the day they are caught, full of rich juicy fishy goodness. Mix in a bowl: mayonnaise, lots of chopped fresh ginger, some soy sauce, some salt and pepper, and chopped scallions. Coat both sides of the bluefish filets, then throw on the grill.
The secret to cooking many fish on the grill is to put a layer of aluminum foil on top of the grill, then cut a bunch of slits in the foil with a knife - it allows you to turn it without crumbling. Don't overcook - just 'til it flakes. Sprinkle with more chopped scallions when done on the flesh side, and serve with potato salad and green salad, crusty bread, martinis and champagne, and go to sleep happy, fulfilled, and thankful for God's bounty.
I've been using this recipe ever since I found it in John Hersey's 1987 bestseller "Blues" - a very fine and delightful book about fishing on the Islands - and about Life, of course. They might have it in that good bookstore on the main drag in Nantucket, but I'd be surprised. Anyway, they should.
The Bluefish is the favorite fast-food snack of the giant 500-1500 lb. Bluefin Tuna - a fish which I find inedibly dry and dull except as sushi. However, if you can find "toro" - the fatty belly meat of the Bluefin, which only can be found where Bluefin are regularly caught in Montauk, Cape Cod, and the Islands, season it with salt and pepper and throw that on the grill and it beats the best Kansas steak by a mile.
Ask your fish store up there to save you some. Be careful and use low coals, because it will flame up and burn far more than a steak. The Japanese pay through the nose for it, which is why we can't find toro at our local fishmongers. They ice it and put it on a plane to Japan, and probably eat it raw, which is a shame and a waste because good Yankee smoke and flame reveal its deeper character. Indeed, as with people.
A tip from a reader - you can do swordfish belly meat too - never tried it but it makes good sense.
I particularly liked the Ascension Island story. Many eco-terrorists focus on the 'damage' humans do to their environment, and claim human intervention is always and everywhere dangerous and deadly.
I also happen to agree with the story about trade. It's surprising to me, after all these years and so many mercantilist failures, that mercantilism is still preached.
First off, in case you missed it a few weeks ago, here's the seriously hilarious screw-up by an Oakland TV station after the Asiana crash. The info actually came from an intern at the NTSB, so the station never questioned it and, simply because it went right on the air, no one ever actually pronounced the names out loud beforehand.
Other than that, as the saying goes, the story was accurate.
The Asians broke a sacred trust last week. We notice that there's a million and one special interest groups constantly lobbying for gays, blacks, Jews, women, American Indians, and any other 'victim group' worth its weight in grievance.
But not Asians.
There's no 'Asian Caucus' in Congress. There's no 'Asian Pride Month' or 'Asian Anti-Defamation League' or 'Asian Feminist Lobby'. Asians simply aren't into that whole 'offended', 'insensitive', routine the other groups are.
On Monday, Asiana Airlines confirmed that it will seek legal recourse against Oakland’s KTVU after the station used ethnically and racially insensitive—and inaccurate—“names” to identify the crew aboard Flight 214
“Those names were not only wrong, but so grossly offensive that it’s hard for us at the Asian American Journalists Association to fathom how those names made it on the broadcast.”
While the apologies may have been accepted by some, many feel the damage has already been inflicted, as demonstrated by Asiana’s plans to file suit against KTVU to “strongly respond to its racially discriminatory report,” according to an airline spokesperson.
As I noted in Meaningless Words, the word 'racist' is about the most misused and meaningless word in the language today. In this case, Koreans aren't any more of a 'race' — at least according to the definition we've been using for the past 10,000 years — than Scots and Irishmen are.
But the real joke here is that the fake names are Chinese in derivation, not Korean. So shouldn't it be the Chinese suing the TV station?
As it turned out, they axed the suit a day later. But what we note is just how the race-grievance leftie sites phrased it:
Hey, at least Politico didn't use the word 'racist' in the headline, right? Maybe they understand. Or, maybe not:
Asiana Airlines has decided not to sue a local TV station over a broadcast in which the station falsely reported racist and offensive names for the pilots in the the airline’s crash landing in San Francisco, according to reports Wednesday.
They were fake Chinese names. Seriously, that's pretty funny. The real icing on the cake would be to find out the NTSB intern was Japanese.
From the first article, it did get one thing partially right:
Members of AAJA also called for “caution” in coverage of the Asian community and Asian culture, pointing out several reports that suggest that “a defect in Korean culture” contributed to the crash—something the group says there is no proof of.
It took about nine video clips and a thousand words of text but I managed to confirm that in Culture in the Cockpit. The part they got right is that this isn't a Korean problem.
It's an Asian problem.
As I noted in the piece, there have been a number of Japanese and Chinese flights where "not willing to speak up" was a BIG DEAL by the time the dust settled.
Literally, in some cases.
On a grander scale, this is also a humanistic problem, and one magnified in countries that have a tradition of Air Force jocks going into the airline industry such as Columbia, Egypt and Russia, but Asia is where the "don't question authority" mindset is particularly ingrained.
Mishaum Point is a tiny gated community (almost entirely a summer community) in the village of Dartmouth, MA, with its own little neighborhood yacht club. The point is a narrow peninsula sticking out into Buzzard's Bay. Most of the houses have property running down to the bay.
It's a pleasant day sail out to Cuttyhunk and the Elizabeth Islands for a picnic or an overnighter at anchor.
Most of the houses there were built in the '40s, it seems, but some more since then.
I liked the one in the picture. It's for sale. Asking $1.3 million, which seems like a very good deal to me. I could happily live there year-round - but there is no work nearby.
A reader provided a snippet of this the other day. A longer quote, from the 1889 Brit political essay entitled "Socialism and Legislation" in The Westminster Review, Vol 125.
First, then, let us see how he would bestow increased powers and new functions upon municipal and other local authorities, with the view of increasing the enjoyment and raising the morals of the people. He points to the fact, as we have seen, that these authorities have already given to the people parks and art galleries and museums out of the pockets of the wealthy. Why, we may well ask, are they to stop there?
Personally, we may care very little for fossils and may care a great deal for Shakespeare and the opera bouffe. It is a considerable check upon my indulgence in these intellectual pastimes that I have to pay for them out of my own pocket; but why, we should like to know, should the man who wants to look at fossils, or some modern genre picture, be gratified at the public expense, while another has to pay for his seat in the theatre? If the persons who have the levying of the taxes are not to pay them, but are to benefit by the money when it is paid, we see no limit to the amount of recreation and enjoyment which may be provided by means of taxation for the poor of this country—except the bottom of the purse of the rich man. No doubt we all desire to see the lives of the poor enhanced in the way Mr. Chamberlain indicates, and no one desires it more than the poor man himself, and we can understand that having amusement provided at the public cost is a taste which grows by what it feeds on.
It is said that a man who had been shipwrecked, who had lived upon the hardest of boots and shoes and upon a very exposed raft, for we do not know how many weeks, and who was ultimately rescued, was brought to London, and introduced to some feeling journalist who, when he had got his story out of the man, asked him if he could do anything for him. Whereupon the man, who had nothing in the world, for he had, as we said earlier, eaten his boots, asked for “an order for the play.” We expect to hear a good many more demands made, following Mr. Chamberlain’s lead, for recreation at the expense of the rich. That the national resources which are necessary “to put the poor to work” should be frittered away in attempting to raise by indulgence, by amusement, by recreation, the lives of those whose first necessity is discipline, is, we think, a very questionable proposal.
That a statesman, with a due sense of his responsibility, should so far mislead the people by promises which can only, in the long run, lead to disappointment, is a bad sign of our times. Surely he must know that if the people once taste the sweets of plunder, if they begin to enjoy the unearned increment, there will be larger demands made, and that the only end to those demands will be the end of that useful milk-cow, the capitalist class. Having recreation at the expense of another can only be a temporary, a very temporary, expedient. In the first place the wealth of this country is not, by any means, so great as to enable the whole of the inhabitants to enjoy life in the way suggested, and even if it were, a time would very soon come when the person who supplied the recreation would have no more to “pay the piper” with, and then, we fear, the dancing must cease, or go on without music. But will it last even so long?
An American candidate said “Capital is sensitive; it shrinks from the very appearance of danger.” We think that it is shrinking in this country, and if capital goes beyond the seas, if it is taken to other and safer countries, we shall have the poor of this country dancing to quite other tunes than those which are being composed by their over-sanguine guides for their delectation. We shall have the poor of this country condemned to misery and starvation. They themselves cannot see this, but it behoves those who would constitute themselves the leaders of the people to take heed lest they mislead them into such ” sloughs of despond.”
It is appalling. Appalling, dangerous, and destructive to the lives and futures of Americans both young and old. Or do they really know better, and is this tripe just boob bait for the press and the low-information voter?
When I was first asked to write for Maggie's, I promised Doc Mercury I would outline my thoughts on Libertarianism and why I switched from the Republican Party. He was curious why I thought it was a preferred political stance.In light of the current Rand Paul/Chris Christie 'debate', and my own procrastination, now is as good a time as any to post my opinion.
We choose political views based on our perception of human nature.If you believe humans act primarily in their own self-interest, Libertarianism might be for you.You shouldn’t consider it if you feel you can tell others what to do, or if you think the state knows better and should tell them how to live.For me, it was a question of consistency and honesty with myself.All political views have limited degrees of consistency, and we often rationalize specific situations which seem to compromise our essential principles.This even happens with Libertarians, though I believe it occurs to a lesser degree than most political parties.
Well, let's start off on an upbeat note:
Speaking of history, we have this little phenomenon occurring for the first time in 10,000 years of human endeavor:
It's the time of year when my family's food interests turn to mollusks and crustaceans. It seems to be in their blood. 
One of the most refreshing summer drinks ever invented.
Now here's a real jaw-dropper: 
By the way, speaking of your probably-eminent death, in case you've been worried about that MERS virus that's sweeping the globe and is about a week away from stopping by your neighborhood, these two articles should clear things right up:
The Lightning is a Yellow Fork
While in process of cleaning out my parents' house, we discovered where Dad had stashed the shotguns. This nice surprise, among other well-used field guns, had been one of my Grandpa's. 
Re-posted - 
Mishaum Point is a tiny gated community (almost entirely a summer community) in the village of Dartmouth, MA, with its own little neighborhood yacht club. The point is a narrow peninsula sticking out into 
