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.
Purple pansies in a big pot - they do not mind cold nights
Planted a pack of Sugar Snap peas in the garden. Soil still cool and damp, but whatever.
Planted the 3 new dwarf hydrangeas in the front garden - they should be swell by July. A garden border is never done.
Moved some perennials around. Now is the time. A border is never done.
Planted my new hardy Chicago Fig in the back garden. Sturdy plant, hardly budded out yet. Counting on a modest crop this summer.
Put 2 new tires on my wheelbarrow - solid tires this time, from Home Depot. Got sick of the inflatable ones.
Started a tranche of Mouse Melon seeds indoors. Last year, I started them too late. Need more containers for more Mouse Melon seeds. Really do enjoy those little buggers and most people up here have never seen 'em. Need enuf seedlings to share with my gardening pals.
Limed the lawn. It works. Rule of thumb: Fertilize things before green or buds emerge cuz the roots have already started growing. I did the delightful Milorganite 3 weeks ago. Thanks, Milwaukee. I like strong grass that can take abuse. In early June I will aerate it with a rented plugger. A mess for a week, but trodden turf loves it and so do the worms. Lawn is a stupid thing, but...
I have a better idea. The median household income in the US is around $50,000- 55,000 per year. I suggest, to eliminate inequality, that in the US we tax any income over $50,000 at 100%, and mail government checks to those households under $50,000 to bring them to the mean. Much in savings will come from eliminating all welfare, housing, and government medical programs.
To further level the playing field, all savings and assets should be taken by the government for the greater good. Funds from these can be used for free diapers, condoms, medical marijuana, urgently-needed collegiate safe spaces, and PhDs in anything you want. Cuba figured it out way before I did. Did I mention free TV, cigars, and rum?
As the High Administrator of this evidence-based scientific New New New Deal, with all of the responsibilities, worries, and burdens involved, I will obviously need to expect special compensation. Fidel has how many billions in Swiss banks? Something like that would meet my needs just fine. Even a little less. Special accommodations will be necessary for sub-administrators of course.
This experimental program should begin with government employees and politicians, and proceed to journalists, academics, artists and writers, professional athletes, and to all of Hollywood before moving to the general population. It takes a village to build Utopia so many must sacrifice and continue to work as hard as they used to. For the common good.
The story of the Megillah, the Scroll of Esther, is the story of how Mordechai, the descendant of the first Jewish king of Israel, snubbed the Grand Vizier of a multicultural empire by refusing to bow to him. The obstinate Benjaminite so infuriated the Vizier that he plotted to kill all the Jews.
The smart thing to do would have been to bow to Haman. To invite him to AIPAC and let him give a pre-written speech and then give him a standing ovation. Then the important official might have been willing to help out the struggling Jews of the Second Commonwealth in Israel. Instead the narrow-minded fanatic offended Haman. And the angry Agagite decides to strangle the newly reborn Second Commonwealth of Israel and all the other Jews throughout the Persian Empire...
Addendum: After reading this essay for the third time, I hear/see the historical idea of Christians, "in the world, but not of it."The Christian sees himself as a sojourner, a Pilgrim, through time too. Empires and nations come and go.
In Sushan, the wine is plentiful, the bazaars are never closed and the empire will never fall.
There never has been a practical reason to import foreigners into the West, much less hostile, low-IQ savages from the Middle East. Whatever contributions have been made to the Belgian economy by Muslims were just blown to bits by a pair of suicide bombers. There are now rivers of blood because the leadership of Europe has been overrun by what looks increasingly like a suicide cult.
Angela Merkel, who will be remembered as one of history’s greatest monsters, is a good example to study. This piece on her from a few months ago walks you through her “evolution” from mundane Christian lady to a prominent deacon is what amounts to liberation theology, centered on the annihilation of the West as penance for generations of oppression.
... stubbornly unwilling to deal with the reality of Islam, our leaders have constructed an Islam of their very own. This triumph of willful blindness and political correctness over common sense was best illustrated by former British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith when she described terrorism as “anti-Islamic activity.” In other words, the savagery is not merely unrelated to Islam; it becomes, by dint of its being inconsistent with a “religion of peace,” contrary to Islam. This explains our government’s handwringing over “radicalization”: we are supposed to wonder why young Muslims spontaneously become violent radicals—as if there is no belief system involved.
This is political correctness on steroids, and it has dangerous policy implications.
One minor problem with it: she omits the power of religious conversion and religious fervor.
Another "minor" problem with it: She mostly neglects the destructive aspects of people, as if "normal" people had no destructive, wicked, or evil impulses. They do. Unleashed, the dark side can be a terrible thing. That is not news, and Jihadism offers many rationales for behavior that Western Civ. finds abhorrent today. These people did not buy into the historical arc of Western Civ. and perhaps never will.
One major problem with it: Many behaviors and choices of youth can be explained in similar terms so I see nothing specific to joining Jihad here. Similar motives could turn a suburban kid into a stoner Grateful Dead groupie.
The problem is that you can psychologize anything - after the fact. That is not a weakness of Psychology, but, instead, a statement about the complexity of human nature and human cultures.
The single family home was an artifact of the blue model world. Before World War II, it was common for many generations of a family to live together. Before social security, grandparents didn’t have the money for independent living; children and grandchildren were a safety net. Often, extended families would live together, sharing chores, cooperating with child care and other activities.
But postwar suburbia changed all that: each nuclear family was supposed to be an island unto itself, and zoning laws in many American cities and towns changed to make illegal the kind of multi-family living that had once been the norm.
Where I grew up as a young lad in suburbia, a little old lady ran a candy shop out of her parlor. A gunsmith had his shop in his garage. At the farm, of course, everybody ran their business out of their places: farms, farm stands, blacksmiths, tractor repairs, etc. Farms were often multi-generational. And yes, in town, families lived over the store. It worked.
In cities, mixed zoning is a wonderful thing. Commercial on the first and/or second floors and residential above.
Good advice I got (when young) about bar fights is to use elbow to the head or torso, not fist. Far more power, less injury to self. Generally speaking, avoiding bar fights is easier though.
Congrats to New York for finally allowing MMA. Here's Holly:
Trump knows psychology. He knows facts don’t matter. He knows people are irrational. So while his opponents are losing sleep trying to memorize the names of foreign leaders – in case someone asks – Trump knows that is a waste of time. No one ever voted for a president based on his or her ability to name heads of state. People vote based on emotion. Period.
He told the BBC: ‘We're in a situation where we have to fight back. ‘The centre has become flabby and unwilling to take people on. We concede far too much.
‘There's this idea that you're part of an elite if you think in terms of respectful tolerance towards other people. It's ridiculous.’
The vast demographic experiment of the West–importing largely unskilled immigrants from an essentially hostile culture–has failed and cannot be undone. Europe is now paying the deadly price. There have been mass murders by Muslim extremists in Madrid, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Brussels and Toulouse.
I had to get halfway through the piece tor realize that she is talking about kids in college. Forget about "not prepared for college." These kids are not "college material." Sure they can be graded, as "unacceptable."
We too-easily forget that 50% of people have below-average IQs.
The problem actually first surfaced very early in the history of the republic. The occasion was the War of 1812, in many ways an adjunct conflict to what may be considered the first “world war”: the struggle against Napoleon and the pernicious ideals of the French Revolution. It was the crying manpower need of the British Royal Navy in that protracted conflict -- which led to the British boarding American merchant vessels and impressing American sailors into naval service on the grounds that anyone born an English subject would always be one -- that precipitated the war. However, most of the major actions of the war took place along the frontier between the U.S. and Canada...
I receive emails each week making suggestions for weekend activities. Sometimes they are interesting, most times not. This week, a suggestion to visit certain dive bars before they become Pret-a-Mangers. Not a bad idea.
I love dive bars. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and my stepfather spent time at Mick's Tavern, the local gas station, garage and tavern. Total dive. At Syracuse, we had the student bar, Jabberwocky, which hosted many big name bands before they were names. That was before my time. The Jab also had Oldies Night on Wednesday nights, and Happy Hour on Friday. It wasn't technically a dive bar, but it could qualify. The drinking age was raised to 21 the year I left, and it closed. The real dive bar we used to frequent was Doug's Place, somewhere down near Carrier Circle. Real blue-collar stuff. We'd meet some alumni who lived in the area from time to time. It's where I learned to love dive bars. Pool, dimly lit, cheap glasses of beer, the only 'mixed' drink available was a Boilermaker. Always a few local factory guys in there. Doug's Place is long gone, too. I did hear 'Doug', whoever he is, opened a fish fry somewhere nearby.
When I moved to Queens in the 80's, my roommate was a local who introduced me to My Lady's, a tavern for which I played softball and drank quarter glasses of beer on Thursday nights. I got to know the bartender, a giant of a man, but the classic example of a huge teddy bear. My girlfriend's family came one night to watch college hoops with me and dubbed it The Bucket of Blood because, well, that's pretty much what it reminded you of. The final night it was open was 1991, and early on it was a great party. I heard the rest was very good, too. I guess I had an early start on the evening...
When we lived in Hoboken, Louise & Jerry's was our end-of-the-evening final stop. Louise, a widow in a housecoat, was always behind the bar. When God Bless America played on the jukebox, you had to stop what you were doing and sing with Louise. If she didn't like your look, she stopped you as you walked in, and demanded you leave. She once gave my wife the stinkeye for ordering club soda. When I told her, quietly, that she was pregnant with our first child, Louise smiled and gave us all a round of drinks (but kept the secret). Louise & Jerry's is still open, but I heard it's upscale now.
Recently, I stopped in at the Canyon Club, in Williams, AZ. One of the finest dive bars I've ever experienced. A real honky-tonk. Loved every second, loved the people. Which is important. A good dive bar has friendlies, it doesn't attract surly or violent types. You can have a curmudgeon or two, but people have to want to have a good time.
Some dives are iconic, and unlikely to go away. McSorley's is one. Out where I live, there aren't many dive bars left unless you're willing to take a chance. We used to have the Blue Collar Bar, but that got bought by a high-end group and was transformed into a "dive" bar. It retained the dive nature, but served high end cuisine. Excellent food, but ruined the ambiance. It closed after four or five years. Dive bars, I believe, have short lives.
There is still one place near me, the Garwood Rest, which my buddies and I will gather in to play darts (American Darts - with the wooden shafts and we're playing baseball, not 301, 501 or Cricket) and watch football or baseball once very month. It qualifies as a dive, but it's higher end than any other one I've been in. Here are some more. I'm familiar with the Raccoon Lodge, The Smith, and Hogs and Heifers, though all from 20-30 years ago. When you find a good dive bar, it's a thing to revel in.
Steyn: So "British Muslims Fear Repercussions Over Tomorrow's Train Bombing" is now joined by "Belgian Cabinet Minister Says Tomorrow's Train Bombing Is All Our Fault".
Terrorism is an effective tactic around the world because it allows small groups of people to spread hysteria with relatively little manpower, and because it is impossible to prevent entirely, even in a police state. Where a devoted terrorist group exists, it is nearly inevitable its members will eventually succeed to some degree. But in Belgium, jihadists found a society that was unusually susceptible, and exploited it to bloody effect.
"In small town America, politics has never been a great way to get rich, but it has been a great way to avoid poverty."
It works just fine and quietly as long as the press leaves you alone. From The Clinton Crime Family.
In Washington,the two big scandals were sex and money. Bill was raping interns again and Hillary was selling national secrets for campaign cash. People forget about the Chinese money, the satellite deal and missile technology scandal. They even had that sap Al Gore out shaking down Buddhist monks for cash. On their way out the door they tried stealing the White House furniture.
This e-mail scandal looks a lot like an influence peddling scandal.
I agree entirely with the post, but it is "old news" now and voters will generally prefer their crook over some sleaze on the other team. The Clinton charity makes Wounded Warriors look like pikers, amateurs.
Role models are rare in the political game and most good folks avoid it as a necessary evil.
In Newly Created Life-Form,
Mizzou Is Now Forcing Undergrads
Toon via Lucianne 
Female Researcher: