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.
Oysters have to be farmed to meet market demand. I am part of that market. They are easy to farm, but slow-growing compared to chickens. I find the West Coast oysters to be insipid, and oysters grown south of Chesapeake Bay flavorless, too large, and disgusting. Oyster gourmet.
I am becoming indifferent too. The world is full of evil people, always has been. Why is that my problem? Why should I get upset by these ignorant raghead lunatics? They have been there for a long time, killing eachother. It's what they do - their culture.
We have a "Physical Phitness" diary going on here lately. That's good. We all compete with Father Time, but he wins 100% of the races. How does he do it? Greater endurance, to demonstrate that endurance is a good goal.
I often write about dietary and nutritional issues here, trying to debunk the fads, but I think anything people do to keep moving with vigor in all stages of life improves the quality and functionality of life. Physical and mental challenges, constantly.
All kinds of resistance exercises are excellent for the regular sedentary Western person to maintain posture, balance, function, bone density, and muscle mass. The challenge is that middle-aged people develop aches and pains, reminding us that Nature and maybe God never intended us to live much beyond our prime breeding ages. But, there is a need for a few wise elders. Why not be one?
What exercise cannot do, unless you are hiking the Appalachian Trail (we did it as a between-jobs extended sabbatical, before kids - Georgia to Katahdin. A crazy 5-month honeymoon of bliss, bonding, and exertion. Youthful woodland passion from hill to dale, from state to state. God saw us. Then hubbie's "garden leave" ended, we started new jobs, I got an office, life returned, and kids came. I think we created our first one towards the end of that hike and we later nicknamed him "Trail," - short for Trail Mix) is get rid of fat. Only diet can do that.
When people have young kids, they rightly neglect their own well-being. Nature demands that. After that chapter, you either rise or fall.
These are averages for average-fit people, not what might be desired. Average sizes, not lifters and hard exercisers (for ages 30-60). These rough numbers are with reps, however many one can handle (1-10):
Average fit male can bench press his weight. Average fit female can bench around 80-90 lbs. Average fit male can deadlift 1.25 his body weight Average fit female can deadlift 90-120 lbs. Average fit male can do 8-10 pull-ups Average fit female can do 1 pull-up
I think daily pot-smoking is a poor choice of lifestyle especially if you want a clear head. However, poor choice of lifestyle is not a crime. I enjoy a taste of weed once in a while, usually on a boat on a calm, clear day with a couple of Pacificos. Sometimes on a hiking climb in the glorious White Mountains of New Hampshire, or on a trout stream anywhere. It's difficult to relax anywhere, but one must put in that extra effort to relax sometimes if only to get along with others cheerfully.
Water balloons are bombs, and water hoses are flame-throwers. Dangerous out there if you have a psychotic imagination. Life is more fun without psychosis.
The point is that the left doesn’t kowtow to Islam because they actually love Islam, but rather because they hate our own culture. They have been steeped in a narrative about how American and Western culture is racist and “imperialist,” and they’ve been trained to see anyone with a dark complexion and a non-Western origin as the victim of our crimes. When they see criticism of Islam, or deliberate attempts to defy Islam, they filter it through that narrative. They see it as: there go those bigoted right-wing Christians, demeaning dark-skinned foreigners again. So they reflexively oppose it.
For finish coats on refinished or freshly done wood, Sippican recommends this stuff. It's what he used as a finish for his furniture: Deft clear finish.
I always listen to him. As an old-timey Yankee traditionalist, I figgered he'd go for for waxes or oils which I prefer on my gunstocks, but he likes a couple of coats of that Deft stuff, sprayed or brushed. I will not use polyurethane on furniture as my religion forbids it but that's not polyurethane. It's a lacquer.
I am still contemplating how to finish one of our old oak rustic, wide-board family dining tables which I sanded, steel-wooled, and stained. Why do that? Drink and other stains, and 90 years of grime, food, wax, dust, and dead mouse excretions. And rustic enough that I could not screw it up badly. Would never dare touch fine furniture. Maybe I'll use the Dreft Deft.
I am completely opposed to any death taxes. The income has already been taxed.
Why tax the dead? Well, it was because the turn of the century (last century) Progressives hated the wealthy families. Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, etc. appeared to hate the wealthy because their influence, like that of churches and large businesses, competed with government - as they should wish to compete. Government is not God. Over the years, many families have fallen victims to that tax other than those who are slick enough to dodge it.
My view is that I want all families to be free to be as wealthy and independent as they chose to be, and to be free to accumulate whatever they want to for their futures. Farm, flower shops, whatever. It means a lot to people. In America, wealth is never the most important thing in life but everybody cares about their family and their families' futures. You can call it love, not greed.
It's an exaggeration. They do well in state and local elections. For national elections, I feel they need to inject a larger dose of good old American Libertarian ideas and rhetoric.
Sometimes I imagine that they are afraid to win the WH, Senate, and Congress at once. That never bothered their opposition with their messianic aspirations. I do not aspire to utopia, just personal freedom from government, as much as is reasonable. Trans-fats? Are you kidding me?
Obama
— You’re a bad person to do the best for your kids. Me? You’re kidding,
right? - See more at:
http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=56832#sthash.4YhFG9Qo.dpuf
A friend sent this pic from Colorado yesterday. He was visiting Denver to see family, heard some slopes were open, rented some skis and boots and skied in his jeans. Arapahoe Basin.
Cosmology has been on a long, hot streak, racking up one imaginative and scientific triumph after another. Is it over?
We might be trapped in this snow globe of photons forever. The expansion of the Universe is pulling light away from us at a furious pace. And even if it weren’t, not everything that exists can be observed. There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in our philosophies. There always will be. Science has limits. One day, we might feel ourselves pressing up against those limits, and at that point, it might be necessary to retreat into the realm of ideas. It might be necessary to ‘dispense with the starry heavens’, as Plato suggested. It might be necessary to settle for untestable theories. But not yet. Not when we have just begun to build telescopes. Not when we have just awakened into this cosmos, as from a dream.
Procession
Honoring Virgin Mary Considered “Provocation,” Attacked by Moslems in
Italy - See more at:
http://moonbattery.com/?p=58511#sthash.9uxYlOp1.dpuf
... it's not unusual to hear statements like those from The Lancet editor Richard Horton that "Much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue." He continued: "Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness."
Pvt. Joe Bowers: Every time Metsler says, "Lead, follow, or get out of the way," I get out of the way.
Sgt. Keller: Yeah, when he says that, you're not supposed to choose "get out of the way." It's supposed to embarrass you into leading - or at least following.
A wife comes home late one night, arriving early from being out of town and quietly opens the door to her bedroom. From under the blanket she sees four legs instead of two. She reaches for a baseball bat and starts hitting the blanket as hard as she can.
Once she's done, she goes to the kitchen to have a drink. As she enters, she sees her husband there, reading Maggie's Farm.
"Hi, Darling", he says, "Your parents have come to visit us, so I let them stay in our bedroom."
The origins of human beings 
For finish coats on refinished or freshly done wood, Sippican recommends this stuff. It's what he used as a finish for his furniture: 
Woodcock Chicks
In a spa town in the Swiss Alps, you'll find snow-capped mountains, chocolate, goats...