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.
Paranoids, grievance-collectors, and excuse-seekers cannot be too alert to the microaggressions and micro- acts of disrespect which occur all day long on the oppressive, hostile American college campi. Microaggression is an epidemic oppression, and microaggressors must be brought to justice. I'd include the nanoaggressors too because they are the sneakiest.
Remember, micro may mean teeny-weeny or invisible, but so is Ebola.
Kowing how our students are selected, I should not have been surprised when I discovered how they treat their educational windfall once they get here. A few weeks into every semester, I face a lecture hall that is half-empty, despite the fact that I am repeatedly voted a Harvard Yearbook Favorite Professor, that the lectures are not video-recorded, and that they are the only source of certain material that will be on the exam. I don’t take it personally; it’s common knowledge that Harvard students stay away from lectures in droves, burning a fifty-dollar bill from their parents’ wallets every time they do. Obviously they’re not slackers; the reason is that they are crazy-busy. Since they’re not punching a clock at Safeway or picking up kids at day-care, what could they be doing that is more important than learning in class? The answer is that they are consumed by the same kinds of extracurricular activities that got them here in the first place.
... anyone who believes ISIS is a non-trivial threat to ordinary Americans at home, at work, or at play would be frightened of their shadows. Indeed, if the danger ISIS presents to the sovereignty and people of the United States satisfies a threshold to justify war, then we should not tarry in attacking Russia, China, North Korea, Pakistan, Iran, Cuba, the Mexican drug cartels, or otherwise. Moreover, even if we destroyed ISIS, the dynamics behind its creation would remain to create a new variety, just as ISIS has eclipsed Al Qaeda: namely, utterly dysfunctional and tyrannical Arab governments ruling over artificial nations whose boundaries were drawn by a handful of donnish European diplomats a century ago with ulterior motives.
All that we have to do is to send two Mujahedin to the farthest point East to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qa’ida in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human economic and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note other than some benefits to their private companies… So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.
It's a tar baby, Mr. President. There are no good guys. Let's just help protect the Kurds from genocide.
The MSM really does think of its consumers as children, minds of tabla
rasa to be molded into a leftwing worldview, objectivity and facts be
damned.
America is running out of jobs. It's time for a universal basic income. The politics of a guaranteed income get a lot easier when you acknowledge that the U.S. is no longer the land of opportunity
Nice. Like retirement, rockin' on the porch sippin beer and smokin legal weed.
Not that we ever closed, but it's just time for our biennial request that you let your friends, enemies, neighbors, colleagues, relatives, etc. know about our eclectic, somewhat Libertarian and old-style Yankee-minded, often surprising and occasionally informative middlebrow cozy boutique website.
Word of mouth, so to speak, is our only marketing. We do this for you! And for fun. A growing readership is our only reward...thus far, anyway. Still waiting for that $1 million past-due check from Dunkin Donuts to pay off my Ferrari loan. "It's in the mail." Sheesh, they still make me pay for coffee.
A note to lurkers: Don't be shy. We enjoy comments, however ornery or cranky. Flattery? Man, we do love it when we get it.
A note to curious readers: No, we are not all in jail (yet)
A note to other bloggers/website maestros: We do like links, but we will not beg - other than this. When people find us, they tend to like us. Or not. We are working on the Chinese markets! Global! However, China has blocked our site. Timid wimps with an army, but we do tend towards the anti-authoritarian. That's The American Way.
The European Union is one of the noblest political experiments in human history, but its future looks increasingly precarious.
WTH? A noble empire, I guess? They have created a structure which is so elitist, so condescending, so remote, so clueless, and so all-powerful that I don't know why anybody would up with it put. Time for rebellion before the EU gets its own army. They should take lessons from what happened in the USA to the member states - crushed by the feds.
Because it doesn't have to work in competitive industries, the clerisy favors regulations, land-use rules and environmental restrictions that make things worse for businesses — especially the small "yeoman" businesses that traditionally sustained much of the middle class — thus further hollowing out the middle of the income distribution. But the lower classes, sustained by government handouts and by rhetoric from the clerisy, provide enough votes to keep the machine running, at least for a while.
Not all Muslims are terrorists but substantially all terrorists are Muslims and until people are permitted to say that without the hypocrisy and irony of being labeled dangerous themselves, we will not be safe.
As I mentioned, we emptied the peach tree just in time to keep the possums from eating them all.
Some were ripe (the peaches, not the possums), some still hard, and some over-ripe with moldy or mealy spots. The ripe ones are for eating today. The semi-hard ones go on the table in the sun. The hard ones, and the marred or half-bad ones, are for chutney. Some had a worm but I cut them out along with the bad spots. Worms do not eat much, and I don't bother spraying.
This year, I am making some of it with light brown sugar, slivered red onions, cider vinegar, roughly-chopped jalapenos (lots - 5 of them in that pot), roughly-chopped fresh ginger so you can bite into a piece (lots), a big box of golden raisins, a little salt. I use recipes as rough suggestions. For hot peppers, I always triple whatever they say.
Best not to overcook a chutney (or it will taste homogeneous and gooey like Major Grey's), and best to use it fresh. I'll freeze the excess - no need to can it. Too much trouble, and comes out tasting less fresh. Go easy on the vinegar, and add more if needed because peaches produce a lot of liquid themselves especially if they are near-ripe or over-ripe.
Peach Chutney - good with fish, steak, chicken, pork, or on a ham or turkey sammich. Google it and find a wide variety of recipes.
Below is a pic of a slightly-cooked one with a light honey sauce and a splash of vinegar, and a little chopped cilantro - some restaurants will make it like that, fresh every couple of days, as a fancy condiment for sole or chicken:
The federal snack rules take effect this year for school districts across the country that participate in the federal free and reduced lunch program. They restrict snack foods sold at schools to those with at least 50 percent whole grain, with low sugar, fat and sodium content. Each snack must also come in under 200 calories, according to the news site.
"If you don't want my peaches, don't shake my tree." That's a line from one of the versions of Blind Lemon Jefferson's perfect song from 1927 - "Matchbox Blues." I don't think Albert King used those lines in this version with Stevie Ray, though. I could listen to Albert all day long.
Our peaches up here in Yankeeland begin to ripen right about now. I get a good crop from this tree every other year, but this is the second great year in a row. I see peach pies in my near future, and maybe a year's worth of canned peach chutney. Also, a good supply of fresh peach chutney, which is better than canned: takes about 15 minutes to make. Photo is from this afternoon:
Interestingly to me, it's similar to how I dress today, and I was not even alive in 1948.
In 1948, college students believed that they were adults. Many had already been to war and were glad to get into sharp civvies and maybe meet a horny gal at a college tea.
Viking 'ring fortress' discovered in Denmark - Historians believe distinctive geometric fortresses may have been built by Sweyn Forkbeard as a military training camp from which to launch his invasion of England
First the climate-research establishment denied that a pause existed, noting that if there was a pause, it would invalidate their theories. Now they say there is a pause (or “hiatus”), but that it doesn’t after all invalidate their theories.
On domestic policy, liberals see history as a story of progress from tiny government to ever-larger government — though never stating exactly how far that movement should go.
For Queen and Country- Nigel Farage and UKIP want the British Isles in the hands of the people, not Brussels.
Parliament still has much sway, of course, but in a broad sense Farage is not wrong. Because of its membership in the European Union, the United Kingdom’s immigration policy, energy policy, and justice system are all ultimately subject to Brussels. If, for instance, Britons want to close the nation’s borders to potential Islamic jihadists with passports from other EU countries, they will have to withdraw from the European Union. It is, insists Farage, that simple.
The issue is especially interesting to me as it relates to states' rights and state sovereignty in the US.
Related, Who Lost Britain? 14 Culprits - The nation that gave us the Magna Carta and
originated core principles of freedom, individual rights, and
representative government faces a future of chaos, warfare in the
streets, and civil war.
Revisiting 
The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious 
Warming update: Shocking’ 
Grouch: 
As I mentioned, we emptied the peach tree just in time to keep the possums from eating them all.
Search continues for mountain lion 
Your 
Viking 'ring fortress' discovered in Denmark