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.
You can truly be Lord of the Manor with this pre-Medieval/Medieval estate in beautiful Umbria, not far outside the cute hilltop village of Todi. Owned by the same family for over a thousand years. It is for sale. (h/t reader)
Plenty of space for servants and house guests. Has its own olive grove. Defensive walls fully intact and ready for Islamist invasion. In fact, this place probably fended off Muslim attackers and invaders 1000 years ago. Saracens, they called them then. They came to rape, plunder, take slaves, and to colonize when possible. Every Islamist invasion in Europe ultimately failed, until today.
No information is offered re condition of plumbing, wiring, and defensive weaponry. You can have Sippican check it all out for you. He would be happy to.
People got tired of, or by, my work-out posts, so I gave it a rest until tonight.
For cardio conditioning, it's the intensity - not the time spent.
"Runnin' man is a great conditioning tool to integrate rhythm, timing, and footwork into your routine. As a double bonus there is a big decrease in impact compared to traditional jogging." Properly done, jump rope games are almost zero joint impact other than toes. Lately, I see more and more people incorporating it into their cardio routines. Often, three one-minute sets of rope mixed with some other stuff.
If you can do Running Man for longer than a minute without getting winded, let us know.
How does Running Man work? Clearly there is a moment in this fast jogging in which neither foot is on the ground - but one is not aware of that when doing it. Seems like magic. By the way, this guy is stepping a bit too high and his arms are too wide for correct technique, but he has good speed:
Many of them do, anyway. Let's face it: they do not come for the culture or the political freedom. Or for the weather.
I do not think this applies much to Muslim immigrants to the US, for some reason. The Muslim immigrants I encounter seem to jump into American bourgeois life with zeal and gratitude that can put native-born Americans to shame. Nonetheless, at the moment I am opposed to any new immigration to the US. The country is unsettled by it, and there is not enough work anyway.
Best (hypothetical) line to the students: "Understand us and understand this clearly: you have everything to learn from us; we have nothing to learn from you."
Antic, zany, madcap, anarchic, the Marx Brothers were successful first in vaudeville, then on the Broadway stage, and finally, most emphatically, in the movies. Their act resembled nothing so much as a comic strip brought to life.
The current dust-up between Trump and Cruz regarding their wives is nothing new, though the press tries hard to make it seem that way. Political wives have always been an issue, in some form. Betty Ford is known for her eponymous rehab centers, while Jimmy Carter was famous for the lust in his heart (which surely hurt Rosalyn's feelings). Nancy Reagan held seances in the White House, and was known to consult astrologers. I don't really have to repeat any stories about Hillary - there are more than enough out there to keep me busy typing all day.
But political wives and their treatment have a much lengthier history, too. Edith Wilson is often recognized as the 'first woman president' for the role she played while Wilson convalesced after his stroke. Eleanor Roosevelt was a fiery personality in her own right. Dolley Madison, of course, is remembered for saving Washington's portrait in the War of 1812, but she was also the first to decorate the White House. Few know she lived in poverty after the death of her husband.
Even further back, we have Mary Todd Lincoln, whose story is often overlooked. It's a strong likelihood she was manic depressive. But even in the 1800's she was aware of the spotlight put upon the wife of a president. She lived an unfortunate and desperate life not long after Lincoln's assassination.
Red
Carpet for Cubans Crossing US Border From Mexico Features Cash, Social
Security Cards, Food Stamps, Medicaid - See more at:
http://moonbattery.com/?p=70466#sthash.YxDWfF2P.dpuf
Rumor from my Irish barber: the difference between the spelling of whisky or whiskey correlates almost perfectly with whether the country of origin has an “e” in its name. (For purposes of this game, Scotland is considered a country.)
I’m not convinced and want to hear from the Farm! Yes, Japan spells it without an “e”. The sole major outlier in the USA we found was Maker’s Mark Whisky, trying for a more effete look.
I think it was a self-promotional lark, but it turned serious. Now what? Get out, Donald. You have had your fun. Either that, or get yourself educated. Begin with the US Constitution (that means the rules that constitute the union and the government, Donald).
Even some of Trump's strong supporters are having trouble defending his brand of crazy. Ann Coulter, one of the most incoherent, attention-grabbing people out there, has been fervently defending Trump all over the place. Yet even she is having trouble sometimes defending him.
Defending billionaire businessman Donald Trump is like constantly having to bail a teenage son from prison, author and political commentator Ann Coulter groused in a recent radio interview.
"I'm a little testy with our man right now. Our candidate is mental! Do you realize our candidate is mental?" Coulter said jokingly during a taping of an episode of the "Milo Yiannopoulos Show," which is scheduled to air in full this weekend. "It's like constantly having to bail out your 16-year-old son from prison."
We have picked Saturday, April 23 for this year's hike.
Join us if you want. We had a good time last time we did it. Met a bunch of pleasant Maggie's people. We could easily cover the length of Manhattan in one day, were it not for the darn crossing lights. Doubles the time, and interrupts the hiking rhythm.
Bring camera, good shoes. Rain or shine. It's designed to be a day-long thing but of course people can flake off whenever.
Bulldog will post details. It will be a different route this time. I hope he plans to include the full length of Central Park, and for a cool cheap place for lunch in Harlem or Washington Heights or wherever.
Emergency call to my IT consultant yesterday - "One of my machines is totally screwed. Nothing will open." Guy arrives, sits down, and in 20 seconds says "You just need a new mouse." And leaves. Sheesh. Talk about feeling stupid.
Even though most pundits and politicos have concluded that
Trump’s support is driven by anger, the truth is, it is more about fear.
Americans are terrified that their nation has hit an iceberg and is sinking.
Readers know that I am a fan of all sorts of art, from cave paintings through Renaissance to Cezanne to Thomas Cole and including Picasso whose taste, touch, experimentation, and vitality impresses me more with each passing year.
Does excellent technique equal excellent art? Is there a difference between fine art, design, decoration, and illustration? Does "art" evolve? Does the camera matter?
I tire of those questions.
Is there such a thing as talent? You betcha. I know for certain, because I have none. I envy talent - to a sinful degree.
Is the Art World full of hype and hooey? Of course. There is $ in the art biz.
I hate going to museums. Problem is, you have to, to stare at the good stuff up close.
Is "new" better? Nope.
Image is a Collins self-portrait. I would let him do a picture of me anytime he wants to.
The most important finding in psychology in the last 50 to 100 years, I would say, is the finding that everything you can measure is heritable. The heritability coefficients vary between 0.3 and 0.6, or 30 to 60 percent of the variance, under some assumptions, can be explained by the genes. It’s the largest piece of variance we can explain.
Examples of STEM classroom practices that contribute to a chilly climate are weed-out courses, courses that grade on a curve, a competitive environment, reliance on lecture as a teaching method, an individualistic culture, and comprehensive exams.
Milo Yiannopoulos: And be wrong about everything… Why is it that just because someone is old and left-wing that they’re nice? We don’t say that about right-wingers. Why do we automatically assume that just because he’s old and doddery, has white hair and he sounds like a crazy old lunatic that he’s a nice guy. Really? Is he a nice guy? No he wants Socialism in America. That’s poisonous, ugly, oppressive political philosophy that has made people suffer everywhere that it has ever been tried… Why is he a nice person? What has he ever done that proves he is a nice person?
Europe operating as a market-state without external threats and a pacified population gave the ruling class of Europe the sense that this arrangement would work long term. Then the king went crazy and flung open the doors to Muslim invaders. Initially, this was not a problem as the ruling class lives in bunkered enclaves, removed from the consequences of their polices. They have no reason to care if the train stations are carnivals and rape and assault by the dusky sons of Mohamed.
But, the people have noticed that their liberties are slowly and methodically being curtailed in the name of public safety. When you can only enjoy a traditional parade from behind barricades and armed soldiers, you’re going to start having dark thoughts about the people who caused this...
It's a good idea in theory, but few journalists have the skills to analyze the work behind the press releases they receive. To tell the truth, I do not have the skill any more to look deeply into the work behind the reports in medical journals. This makes me a skeptic.
In fact, the War Party entrenched in the nation’s capital is dedicated to economic interests and ideological perversions that guarantee perpetual war; they ensure endless waste on armaments and the inestimable death and human suffering that stems from 21st century high tech warfare and the terrorist blowback it inherently generates among those upon which the War Party inflicts its violent hegemony.
The Daoud Affair - How Western intellectuals turn themselves into the enemies of an entire class of liberal writers from Muslim backgrounds
The Western intellectuals accuse the liberal from the Muslim world of being a racist against Muslims, or an Islamophobe, or a “native informant” and a tool of imperialism. Sometimes they accuse the liberal from the Muslim world of stupidity, too, or lack of talent. This was Salman Rushdie’s experience in the years after he came out with The Satanic Verses, back in 1988, which he has described in his memoir Joseph Anton. The experience of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, originally from Somalia, offers probably the most widely discussed example after Rushdie’s. But the pattern of Western condemnation can be observed in many other cases as well, directed at liberal writers of different kinds and views—the authors of political essays, memoirs, literary criticism, journalism, and novels, from backgrounds in countries as diverse as Egypt, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Kamel Daoud’s Algerian colleague, the novelist Boualem Sansal, last year’s winner of a prize from the French Academy, has come under this kind of condemnation. And now the pattern has reemerged in regard to Daoud himself.
Stanford 
Rumor from my Irish barber: the difference between the spelling of whisky or whiskey correlates almost perfectly with whether the country of origin has an “e” in its name. (For purposes of this game, Scotland is considered a country.)
We have picked Saturday, April 23 for this year's hike.
Emergency call to my IT consultant yesterday - "One of my machines is totally screwed. Nothing will open." Guy arrives, sits down, and in 20 seconds says "You just need a new mouse." And leaves. Sheesh. Talk about feeling stupid.
The New Old Masters - 
Bison coming 'home' 