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.
Human nature stays constant as the material world continually transforms. People are not pawns of history or pilgrims skipping up some radiant celestial arc. Sometimes the people, ideas, and movements of the twenty-first century prove better, and sometimes far worse, than those of the past—and they will likewise again when framed against the future.
All it took for Hungarian cowherds to add to their stewpot was ground chili pepper - Paprika. Thus it was just plain stew until the Spanish brought peppers to Europe from the New World in the early 1500s.
The best-organized and rational program I have seen is the New Atkins.
If you want to look good, have maximum vigor, and save your joints, back, and heart, it's a good tough program which will shrink your belly, your stomach, and your appetite.
Once you reach your target, the plan focuses on maintenance. Not easy in a world of temptation.
They are physiologically correct in general, and especially in noting the trivial effect of exercise on fat loss. Exercise is for strength and vitality for white-collar and otherwise sedentary people, but not for fat loss. Lose fat, exercise better, get stronger, feel better, and fight aging.
Medically, each pound of spare adipose tissue over-stresses your heart, and your knees and hips. Not good. Also, strong and thin is good for sex.
If you just don't care, that's fine too. It's a free country. Very few have the self-discipline needed to do hard things persistently and obviously many people do not care very much about how they look or feel.
I have no problem with overweight people. I just assume that other things are more important to them than physical fitness, and they are right about that. It is not for everybody.
2:1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
2:2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
2:3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.
2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
2:5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
2:6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
2:7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
2:8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?
2:9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
2:10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
2:11 Cretans and Arabs--in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power."
2:12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?"
2:13 But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
2:14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.
2:15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning.
2:16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
2:17 'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
2:18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
2:19 And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
2:20 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.
2:21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'
In an act of determined denial, Washington Republicans and conservatives continue to see and describe Mr. Trump’s nomination as the triumph of a celebrity in a culture that worships celebrity, the victory of a vulgarian in a vulgar age, the living excrescence of our shallow values and lowered standards. Also, he’s tapped into the public’s rage.
He is all of those things. But he is more, and Washington is determined to ignore the more. He understood, either intuitively or after study, that the Republican base was changing or open to change, and would expand if the party changed some policies. He declared those policies changed. And he won. ..
I do not think Trump is a vulgarian. I think he plays one on TV. It is his shtick. He is a shock to the system, to same-old same-old in both parties. He will be elected decisively. The primary voters knew what they were doing.
Style, appearance, dress, and physique clearly vary across subcultures and geography in the US and the Western World, and certainly in the rest of the world.
When people look good, they feel good. Chicken and egg. Codes of personal presentation are useful even if we do not like the codes other groups use. In my somewhat hoity-toity set, being athletic and preppily-proper at all times (except at the gym) is standard, regardless of age. There is a similar expectation, or a higher one, in the American Southland.
I recently began estate work for a new client. She said she was 78. I had to ask her to prove it, because I have seen lots of 45 year-olds who looked far worse than she did and I do not mean at WalMart. I should say, she looked great, elegant, sexy. She skis all winter, golfs and plays tennis all summer, lifts weights, does her own gardening in Vermont and in Connecticut, has two volunteer community projects, plays bridge twice a week, hikes - and has availed herself of a bit of face and neck work in New York. Not enough to notice until she told me her age. A proud lady, I think.
How important do you think it is to look good when in public? Is it about signaling, or class-consciousness, work expectations, or just plain dignity? Or is letting yourself go to pot at some point ok with you?
Everybody has known for decades about the Clinton faux marriage. There is no marriage. She has her own house in DC, and she has Huma. BTW, is Huma raising her kid or is Wiener doing it? Strange people, the whole lot.
Overwhelming medical consensus is that Chronic Lyme Disease does not exist - unless Lyme goes untreated. It is easily treated, once diagnosed.
Nonetheless, many still cling to the idea of Chronic Lyme. Few physicians buy into this, but if they do, I will consider it quackery until I see convincing data.
As with the anti-Vac brigade, some people can not be persuaded by facts.
My excellent fitness trainer told me that it takes 2 years to pass from the beginner phase of weights, regardless of age. That has nothing to do with amount of weight moved; it's just about getting the forms down right, ramping up past the beginner's need for any machine training, and getting to the point of effectively pushing the envelope of your innate abilities - whatever they are - past the initial "waking up" phase.
The antique fitness recommendations of simply running, jogging, walking, rowing, swimming, spinning, etc. have long gone the way of the low-fat diet. Well, the low-fat diet was totally wrong, but low-resistance cardio (only if intervals) does still have a place in the Fitness Triad of Resistance, Cardio, and Calisthenics.
As an ectomorph with a runner's build, I will never bench at the levels of the shorter, muscled guys with short arms. No problem with that. I just want to maintain and improve fitness and not be, or look like, a weak, lazy schlub. That's why I did 45 pull-ups this morning (ok, jumpers), and 5 sets of deadlifts with increasing weight each time. It feels quite good when you stop.
Barbell squats kill me, or will. Matchstick legs and no ass, he says. I ask him to please wait until I finish my coffee to insult my God-given physique: I am easily offended and may need to retire to my Safe Space at the local pub.
Mrs. BD is a more sturdily-built mesomorph. She enjoys the weights part of her program more than I do, but she can't do barbell squats (iffy knees). She does deadlifts, snatches (which I can not do due to one bum shoulder), pull-ups, dumbell rows, bench press, curls, press-downs, pull-downs, overhead presses, and plain squats. Interestingly, doing weights has done a lot of good for her knee issues, just as the trainer predicted.
Rule of Thumb: Make everything a bit harder each week and aim for the goal of condensing everything in the efficient multi-muscle group basic exercises. Takes a while to get there, maybe a year. If middle-aged or +, one 3-6 set of each resistance exercises/week is enough.
Photo above:Your editor last week, after one year of resistance training. Think I should cut my steroid dose a bit yet? Truth is that no middle-aged guy with 5-6 hrs to spend on fitness including only 2 hrs of weights in that will bulk up very much. Mainly weight-redistribution will occur. That, plus energy and vitality. Any gut disappears even if you like beer.
Photo below:Mrs. BD after one year of the Fitness Triad plus Atkins diet. Keep it up!
Dung Beetles 
All it took for Hungarian cowherds to add to their stewpot was ground chili pepper - Paprika. Thus it was just plain stew until the Spanish brought peppers to Europe from the New World in the early 1500s.
The best-organized and rational program I have seen is 
Acts 2:1-21
On the occasion of what would have been her 100th birthday,
First Evidence of Humans in North America Found Off Florida, New Study Says. 
My excellent fitness trainer told me that it takes 2 years to pass from the beginner phase of weights, regardless of age. That has nothing to do with amount of weight moved; it's just about getting the forms down right, ramping up past the beginner's need for any machine training, and getting to the point of effectively pushing the envelope of your innate abilities - whatever they are - past the initial "waking up" phase.