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.
Which
states are in the best and worst fiscal condition? - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/07/which-states-are-in-the-best-and-worst-fiscal-condition.html#sthash.9XV2mNk1.dpuf
I am happy to be called a redskin. Flattered. I have a lot more injun blood than Mrs. Warren, and my sis looks just like an injun squaw. My grandma, totally. I am 1/8th. Or 1/16th Iroquois. I think it's cool. We were called redskins here in New England because we used old bear fat for winter skin insulation, but that was a bit before I was born. It looked reddish. Had to kill a bear with an arrow to get that stinky stuff.
OK, those ancestors were stone-age lunatics, but so what? I tan readily in the summer sun, I like warfare, and I have good eyes for wildlife. Interesting genes to have. Mayflower Christian fanatic-types on one side, some injun blend on the other. It's no wonder that I am half crazy. Call me "Chief Bird Dog."
I think I did some good by blending that with some Irish-Italian sauce for my kids. More American mongrels.
It's difficult to grow religiously without a confessor, a director, or an intimate small group. It's difficult to explore one's own neurotic hang-ups without a therapist. It's difficult to grow in strength and endurance without a trainer or a group. You can read Bertrand Russell's book, but you can learn western philosophy better with a good prof as a human guide. In business, a mentor can be essential. And so forth. Self-protective isolation, which I term insulation, is deadly but feels safe.
A post we had earlier about placebo effect (morphine administered by a gentle nurse can be twice as pain-relieving as morphine machine-administered) showed how much the umbrella of relationship can help people by providing a human umbrella, a human container, which makes it easier to push the envelope of life. All things can be done alone, but far less effectively because that's the way humans are. Alone, we are limited, self-limited. Others with whom we are in relationship can push us, confront us, challenge us, correct us, and that helps us grow.
I like doing group therapy. It doesn't cure any mental illness, but it helps people grow in life regardless of their limits or emotional problems. AA the same.
A problem I have with the modern, bureaucratic idea of the commodification of technical medical care is that it ignores, or negates, the historical and, I believe, essential component of the personal relationship. Cookbook medical care is terrible.
The human connection provides the lift. Of course, that's why we need parents and siblings when we are kids.
Recall that it just took one fierce, unknown feminist Harvard faculty member to eject the distinguished Larry Summers from the presidency of Harvard by supposedly having a Victorian-era fainting spell.
It seems to be a tactic which works. I agree that people must push back.
A generation or two ago, many or most middle-aged people acted and looked old, stodgy, and even weary. This Youtube is good, re fitness for the over-50 set. It's not an ad for Crossfit but it does show what the middle-aged can do to keep on truckin'. I think the group experience adds something extra to it all, besides lowering the cost of the training:
NBC's dismissal of Trump, last week, was probably not a bad decision, depending on your point of view. I consider him a blowhard who does not add much meaningful dialogue to the discussion of politics. He's not a viable candidate for president. I consider his comments about Mexicans wrong and misguided. His statements point to many misguided but widely held beliefs about immigration in our country. Yes, his comments were intolerant. So what? Last I checked, that's a perfectly legal trait to have in this nation where we have freedom of speech. It may not be socially acceptable, though I will not play Thought Police and tell him he can't say these things. I know plenty of people who share his views, and just as many people who applauded his ouster from NBC on the basis of these views. I fail to see why these led to his removal, since Chris Matthews and Al Sharpton are still employed by NBC. Both of these commentators are incredibly biased, and have chosen to be intolerant or racist like Trump. It's also worth noting how they are exceedingly partisan, without facing the kind of repercussions we've seen for other partisan commentators (I guess you have to be a very special leftist to be accorded this kind of treatment).
So what can be said about Trump's removal? Not much, really. NBC has every right to employ whomever they choose. On that basis alone, Trump's dismissal isn't worth talking about. What is worth talking about are the reasons NBC used. Had they said "We do not choose to work with him anymore" or "We really just don't like his comb-over," I doubt many people would pay much attention to this tempest in a teapot. But they didn't. NBC called him out for his comments about Mexicans, citing these as the reason for the parting of ways. It's an odd reason, considering their other employees' stated views.
Done with perfect technique, the deadlift is a perfect example of why the use of major multi-joint exercises is superior to a collection of smaller exercises.
I "enjoy" the exercises which involve multiple muscle groups. Not only are they extremely stressful and fatiguing, but they seem to be more useful for life than fussing over small muscle groups. For another example, combining squats with military presses is another hell of an exercise. Also, lunges with heavy hands - and ropes. You know it's tough when your grunts turn into 4-letter words.
July is Hydrangea bloom around here. A wonderful thing.
Gardeners want their shrub and/or perennial borders to have fun blooms to look at for as long as possible, and that takes thought and planning. (May is Azaleas, June is roses, etc). Hydrangeas want more sun than is often claimed, but too much will give them daytime wilt which weakens them. As their name indicates, they like some water (but the Oakleafs don't need it). It's complicated.
Even the pros get confused about how to grow the hundreds of cultivars of the beloved Hydrangea family of flowering shrubs. Each Spring, I renew my confusion - especially when it comes to the topic of pruning the different categories. Not to mention the newer ever-blooming types.
Most nursery plants are Asian in origin (obviously with plenty of genetic engineering applied to them for blooming purposes), but the old-fashioned Arborescens group derives from the North American wild plant. My favorites are the lacecap types, but I admire them all.
Here are a few things I have learned, none of which applies to all Hydrangeas:
- Hydrangeas like water, and generally do not prefer full-day sun. At least half-day is fine, preferably in the morning. Full shade does not work.
- The pink and/or blue hydrangeas are indeed acidity-sensitive in flower color
- Planting them where they are free to attain their full size without normal pruning (other than that all deciduous shrubs, once they are established and healthy, benefit from removal of 1/4 to 1/3 of the plant down to the ground, or at least the leggy or woody stems, each year) eliminates a lot of complexity.
- Save the dang plant label in a file (best to do with any new plant)
- Hydrangeas do not like much nitrogen fertilizing: it makes them grow leaves, not blooms.
- If you trim or prune your plant wrong, or at the wrong time, you won't get any bloom. Some bloom on new growth, some on last year's growth, and some seem just to do their own thing.
Private colleges have always practiced "holistic" admissions. It basically means that they take whoever they want for whatever reason. Nothing wrong with that, it seems to me. It's their school. High test scores definitely indicate academic potential, but other qualities and talents are interesting and valuable too. The elite schools look for a "flag" amongst all of their most highly qualified applicants. They can't take them all. Money is one of the flags but there are many others.
He talks about business people, but neglects the frequency of psychopathy in politicians. I think it's more common in the latter.
Over the years, I have told some number of people that psychopathy is their problem. They are good at "feeling your pain," in all senses of the term. Empathy? Sociopaths are experts at expressing that. Manipulation. Leave a trail of self-interest and damage during their lives. Much of it is not jail-worthy. Dumb sociopaths are more likely to go to jail.
Is it a mental disorder? Not really. Just rotten people who might exploit you or hurt you, with strong, minimally-governed predatory instincts.
God puzzles me. I can see him creating a lion or a butterfly, but why such a mediocre thing as humans? Perhaps he was lonely, but he could have done better.
More and more decisions, from the music business to the sports field, are being delegated to data. But where does that leave our intuition? With stories about John Hammond. Among others, he discovered Billy Holiday, Benny Goodman, and Bob Dylan.
I can hit the windshield of a fast-moving car with a snowball, but I can't do the math of it.
..., to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated.
12:8 Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me,
12:9 but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
12:10 Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.
Ives' dad was a Civil War-era military bandleader and was practicing in the town park on the 3rd of July ... another military band, playing another patriotic song, marched through the first band ... the sound electrified little Charlie's brain, all his music tries to recapture that mystical strange eerie American song.
"Give Me Jesus - you can have all the the world, but give me Jesus."
Happy Independence Day! If you're like me, you're with your family and being independent together (h/t to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer).
If you're like me, you're probably having hot dogs and hamburgers, potato or macaroni salad, soda or beer, or other kinds of foods which were purchased at a store after being shipped from some other part of the U.S. or even another nation.
If you're like me, you probably don't spend time worrying about the details of how your food reached your table. But you may know people, as I do, who think the whole "eat local' idea will save our health and economy. We have a restaurant here which is excellent, but very expensive, and always booked. We need to make reservations several months in advance to get a table. They only serve locally grown foods (I believe it's a 50 mile radius), and it's BYOB (so I guess they're OK with bringing French wine to go with the Jersey Tomatoes).
Normally I don't go in for faddish trends, and I really don't buy the whole "local food" movement. But this is a good restaurant and just because I don't agree with it doesn't mean I'll avoid a good meal. Good food is good food. There are reasons why I don't necessarily think the local food movement is ever going to change how we live, and it certainly is not going to make our lives better.
As this video (45 minutes long - so be prepared) points out, most nations with small farms have economic problems. This doesn't intrinsically mean small farms are impoverishing those nations, but there's no doubt being a food exporter (and the U.S. is by far the largest) is an indication of economic strength through size. This video also points out the hypocrisy of our nation's politics and its 'solutions' to perceived problems. We have deemed some banks "Too Big To Fail" and willingly subsidize their moral hazard, while at the same time pointing to large agricultural firms and saying they are "Too Big To Succeed" and impose excessive regulations on them while subsidizing failing small farms. So the policy of the U.S. that we subsidize failure, and engage double standards wherever we see fit.
The Jungle is often touted as an example of what would happen if we did not support regulation of the food industry. Unfortunately, this novel was a work of fiction designed to draw attention to the plight of the working man. It was the lies of Upton Sinclair about the Chicago Packing District that stick in people's memory, however. By and large, most food businesses provided healthier foods than smaller firms. It was in their best interest to do so. One does not win new consumers by killing or injuring those you have. In fact, most of these businesses wanted regulation as a means to raise barriers to entry against their smaller competitors, and to prevent foreign foods, which had raised trade barriers, from being too competitive.
Do boys still learn to box at the local Boy's Club? Man, I hated to get hit but I liked the hitting. Do Boy's Clubs still exist? Are they even legal? Teddy Roosevelt's stories about boxing as a child are hilarious. He was determined, despite asthma, to toughen up. He did.
... a couple of SEALs came over to ask me if I was the press secretary and if they could get a photograph with me. As their buddy got his camera ready, I decided to make a little small talk.
“What made you want to become a Navy SEAL – family tradition, sense of adventure, chance to see the world, physical challenge?
“Oh no, ma’am, chicks dig it,” he said.
I then asked the second SEAL, “When you are preparing to go…wherever it is that you may be going. Do you have to take a lot of language courses?”
I worked as a carnie - 
Image from Eratosthenes' 