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.
"America doesn’t trust you anymore. That’s the truth... and that’s not one party, that’s both" raged former Senator Tom Coburn during a hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs this week. As Free Beacon reports, Coburn, making his first appearance before the Senate since his farewell speech when he retired in late 2014, pleaded with Congress to take action to reform government, quoting de Tocqueville, that an ever more centralized control reduces its citizenry "to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."
What if most people are happy to be sheep with a government-shepherd?
It is true that if you jog a mile three times/wk for a month you can add another mile the next month, and so on until you hit your limit (or the limit of available time). That's fine, but far from efficient endurance training.
It's good to see that the media is finally catching up with what exercise physiologists have known for decades: Mild-moderate aerobic cardiorespiratory/cardiovascular ("Cardio") exercising does not lead to much improvement (but it's better than sitting):
At the ordinary gym, you will see many people diligently, virtuously, monotonously, putting in their 45-60 minutes on treadmills, bikes, ellipticals, rowers. You will see joggers doing the same outdoors. They will not lose weight by doing that, they will not get stronger doing that, and it can only benefit (and then, only slightly) a damaged heart in cardiac rehab.
The American Heart Association doesn't tell you that. It's not their narrative. They are still telling people to avoid fats, so that tells you how out of touch they are.
This will surely be the most entertaining election in US history, and probably the most pointless, too. After all, Hillary wants to use government to make Government Great Again. And Trump promises to use government to make America Great Again.
With Springtime finally upon us up here, the skis are put away and the hiking boots come out.
When people get out of town, they want and need to get off the sofa and hiking in the woods and mountains. Here are a few ideas for tougher, and easier, hikes:
We were just there...so I was surprised to see this in my NY Historical Society feed today. Grant's Tomb dedicated on April 27, 1897. Our Urban Hike had some relatively good timing.
Squats are among the Big Five or Big Six essential multi-muscle strength conditioning exercises. Contrary to what this lady implies, it's not for "toning." It's for functional strength and general endurance (but I guess it can cure Saggy Butt Syndrome too).
I found that I had to work up to barbell squats by using the leg press machine, doing plain squats, and doing goblet squats or heavy ball squats. Now I can do barbell squats. I did 5 sets of 6-10 this morning of increasing weights, and man do I feel it.
Her form is perfect. Get that butt back, chest out, head up, and go low. Perhaps lower than she goes if you can. This gal is strong and fit:
“In one year,” wrote Warren Meyer in 2015, “I literally spent more personal time on compliance with a single regulatory issue -- implementing increasingly detailed and draconian procedures so I could prove to the State of California that my employees were not working over their 30-minute lunch breaks -- than I did thinking about expanding the business or getting new contracts.”
It's been a while since we posted this sort of graph (this from The Fable of a Stable Climate). Facts do not necessarily calm the hysterical, but all you can do is to try.
(Americans) want to believe that every young person is equally educable and that we can solve social inequalities by ensuring that nearly all children complete high school and go on to earn college degrees. Reality says otherwise, however. Kids vary enormously in ability, which means that the right kind and extent of education varies tremendously. And instead of trying to put more students through college, we should recognize that we already have far too many there.
...
Throughout our whole educational system, we are “asking too much from those at the bottom, asking the wrong things from those in the middle, and asking too little from those at the top,” he maintains. From kindergarten to college and from the smartest students to the dullest, our education system underperforms.
All of New York City - not just Manhattan - is a patchwork of neighborhoods. If somebody asks you where you live, you name a neighborhood, not a street. The neighborhoods, with their mostly fuzzy edges, are distinctive in character and more like towns with invisible boundaries.
During this Maggie's Hike on the past Saturday I figure we explored, or at least passed through, these Manhattan neighborhoods: Lower East Side and Alphabet City, the East Village, Gramercy Park, Murray Hill, a bit of Midtown, a slice of the Upper East Side, most of Central Park, the Upper West Side, and Morningside Heights to the edge of Harlem. Not bad for a day's stroll.
That was 12 miles in all and 7 hours total, including pit stops, lunch break, visits into some places of interest, etc. Heck, Advil works!
Pic above is not our starting DD on Delancey St. - that pic is on Houston St.
Our team included friends, relatives, friends of Maggie's (new friends) from all over.
We also had with us celebrities like Stuart of Had Enough Therapy, Francis of Manhattan Contrarian, Dave of Assistant Village Idiot, Donald Trump and Bob Dylan - Fine fellows all and engaging, entertaining companions. Delighted to meet them.
Pic documentary below the fold to see what you missed -
"What the elites now consider normal and standard seems, to a growing minority of Americans, aberrant and unhinged — and they are looking for a remedy, even if it is mostly rhetorical and chimerical."
I think of it as physician-eased dying, and I see no important moral issues in the topic at all. Anesthesia and analgesia are among the handful of categories of mercies which modern medicine has to offer and to deny the comfort these tools can offer terminal patients seems sadistic and immoral to me.
I read this short piece, Death and the Psychiatrist, and do not feel that it was worth publishing (or linking, except as an example of a weak essay). Of course, I saw plenty of dying during my medical training. There are many ways to die, but the worst one is to die in agony and terror. Nobody needs that.
It seems common enough these days to see terminally-ill patients tortured by heroic medical efforts. I hate to hear about this. Physicians, of all people, should know when to let go even if families do not. Hope is not a plan.
When your 104-lb body is packed with cancer and wracked with pain, would you chose one more round of chemotherapy, or hospice care where you would be gently eased out of it all, floating on a sea of morphine?
The only thing I would do differently would be to permit sustainable hunting, and build a rustic hunting lodge or two. Rustic enough to deter people looking for comfort.
Eagles 
HII is High Intensity Interval Training.
How Facebook Reached A Blowout Quarter 
My current favorite. Give it a try.
Photo: Why does this compassionate German gal hold a sign in English? 
