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.
It is tough for me to see a fire in NYC without its having mental inks with 9/11. We watched this fire from the High Line on Sun. afternoon. It is plain inspiring to watch those firemen march in a line up the ladder to the roof. The fire rapidly got worse than my photo, got too smokey so we moved along.
...For this purpose, Clinton, working with Webster Hubbell and Vince Foster, stole hard copies of the billing records of the Rose law firm where they were partners. They erased the electronic version of these records. One set of the documents was later found in the White House, just outside Hillary’s private office, by an employee. Another set was found in Foster’s attic by his widow, some years after he committed suicide. Clinton’s time sheets (handwritten, as was the practice back in the day) were never found.
The theft of the billing records occurred on March 7, 1992. It was then that a story on Whitewater/Castle Grande by New York Times reporter Jeff Gerth “hit the wire.” That night, Rose Law Firm documents were passed to a Clinton campaign aide in the firm’s parking lot.
If we are mark’d to die, we are enow To do our country loss; and if to live The fewer men, the greater share of honour. God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more. By Jove, I am not covetous for gold, Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost; It yearns me not if men my garments wear; Such outward things dwell not in my desires. But if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive. No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England. God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour As one man more, methinks, would share from me For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more! Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, That he which hath no stomach to this fight, Let him depart; his passport shall be made And crowns for convoy put into his purse: We would not die in that man’s company That fears his fellowship to die with us. This day is call’d the feast of Crispian: He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors, And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian.’ Then he will strip his sleeve and show his scars, And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’ Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, But he’ll remember with advantages What feats he did that day: then shall our names Familiar in his mouth as household words: Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester, Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d, This story shall the good man teach his son; And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by, From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered; We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition. And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
Prof. B. explained why reds should be chilled a bit before serving, especially in the summer - assuming the bottles are not coming from your underground or temperature-controlled wine cellar. 55-62 degrees F, max. That's not "room temperature."
I think The Prof is absolutely right, but I had never thought it through. No wine tastes good at 76 degrees. Hot grape juice isn't good either. (my Dad calls wine "grape juice" even if it's '81 Petrus).
Same thing applies to old Ports, I think.
Rich folks have wine refrigerators that keep each type of wine at its own preferred temp. If you have one, surely you deserve to be more highly taxed.
People worry about honeybee populations, but for no good reason.
Honeybees (Apis mellifera) were imported to North America for agriculture: for honey and to help pollinate the European imported crops (eg apples, pears). Honeybees are superior to native bees for human purposes because their tribes are larger and tend to stay put longer. Occasionally, a honeybee group will try to go wild but they are usually tracked and caught by beekeepers. They are easy to track down and catch.
(I have spent three weeks hunting and killing - with Raid -the Carpenter bees which want to destroy my house. Big, wonderful bees and excellent pollinators but they eat your house.)
"In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to."
7:1 After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum.
7:2 A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death.
7:3 When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave.
7:4 When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy of having you do this for him,
7:5 for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us."
7:6 And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof;
7:7 therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed.
7:8 For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this,' and the slave does it."
7:9 When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith."
7:10 When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.
The experts say it takes a year of training for a middle-aged person to wake the body up and get into half-decent Beginner's shape, and two years to be "fit for life" for your age and build (ie "fit" for a regular person, not for a serious athlete, lifter, or body-builder).
By training, that means two hours/week of steadily increasing weights, one hour of heavy calisthenics, and 1 to 2 hours of interval cardio/endurance with some calisthenics. Plus fat loss if needed via a food plan. That's not maintenance, it's training.
It is a mental and physical adventure. At my one year point, I understand what the experts mean by two years. Functionally, and looking in the mirror like Narcissus, I know exactly what they are talking about. At first, I lost almost 15 lbs of blubber that I did not know I had. After 6 months, I began adding a bit of that back in muscle and sinew so my old cadaver has a different shape. Started at 172, now 162.
Thus, at one year out, I am now prepped to begin to work my hardest. Mysteriously, slowly, my brain and will have engaged my musculature and my physical determination, discovering resources I did not know that I had. A cool experience to fully engage with, and conquer, Mr. Fatigue and Mr. Give Up.
Two themes seem to dominate Commencement speeches. One is shameless self-advertising by people in government, or in related organizations supported by the taxpayers or donors, saying how nobler it is to be in "public service" than working in business or other "selfish" activities.
In other words, the message is that it is morally superior to be in organizations consuming output produced by others than to be in organizations which produce that output. Moreover, being morally one-up is where it's at...
U.S. dynamism is in the dumps: Americans are less likely to switch jobs,
move to another state, or create new companies than they were 30 years
ago (or 100 years ago). What’s going on?
... many conservatives are not quite sure whether Trump is just a more in-your-face version of current politicians or if he truly is an outlier in his vulgarity. Consider, after all, the last month in politics. Recently, news stories noted that a White House guest rapper, paroled on a pending felony charge, had his ankle bracelet go off. The White House deputy national security advisor and senior speechwriter Ben Rhodes bragged about how he more or less lied and perpetuated a con to ram through the Iran deal without Senate oversight. Former Obama speechwriters joked on television about writing the lie, “If you like your insurance, you can keep it.” Obama himself threatened to cut off federal funds to states that did not share his reinterpretation of the 1972 Title IX Amendments to include bathroom access of their choice for the transgendered. Meanwhile, the FBI weighs a federal felony indictment against Hillary Clinton, just as stories have resurfaced of Bill Clinton’s frequent and unescorted flights on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein notorious “Lolita Express.” If that is a typical month in the life of the current administration and ongoing presidential campaign, then what exactly are the norms by which we can judge Trump as a renegade? The proper critique of Trump is that he would not restore decorum to political discourse and behavior that long ago were debased.
Pretty much everybody agrees that government charity enables dependency and dysfunction. Pretty much everybody also agrees that there are numbers of people who will not or can not attain functional independence.
Despite the perverse incentives, and many unpleasant side effects (including creating a permanent underclass and supporting fatherless families), such people require basic food and shelter provided by the productive classes. It's not 1800 anymore when everybody could find something useful to do on the farm.
The problem with a guaranteed minimum income is that, if people can not manage their life adaptively, they probably can not handle money adaptively either. Every day we see how foolish people can be with unearned money.
The higher ed marketing machine has done a good job for its booming industry over the past 50 years, but it has gotten ridiculous. A college degree means nothing. Anybody who wants to can now cheat, drink, and bs their way to the piece of paper as long as they can find a way to come up with the cash.
Let's face it. If you can't or won't handle Calc. and Aristotle, you can't use it. Get a job and learn something real. And read books.
Yes, Guardian - everything is a canary in a coal mine. Fact is, the honeybee is a non-native, agricultural critter imported for beehives. Never meant to live in the northern US. Cold winters kill them.
Why 
Women 
Prof. B. explained why 
People worry about honeybee populations, but for no good reason.
The experts say it takes a year of training for a middle-aged person to wake the body up and get into half-decent Beginner's shape, and two years to be "fit for life" for your age and build (ie "fit" for a regular person, not for a serious athlete, lifter, or body-builder).
White Man's Game: