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.
1:1 The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
1:11 What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.
1:12 When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your hand? Trample my courts no more;
1:13 bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation-- I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
1:14 Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them.
1:15 When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.
1:16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil,
1:17 learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.
1:18 Come now, let us argue it out, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
1:19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;
1:20 but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
I recently had occasion to peruse homes for sale in the pleasant and prosperous suburban town of Wilton, CT.
I saw some so nasty (but costly) that Sipp would be tempted to burn them down if he could afford a match. But, to be charitable, shelter is important in the north, and it's love and not design that makes a place a home.
Those guys have devoted significant parts of their lives to trying to save me and "society" from ourselves. We are not their children, nor are they our moral and intellectual superiors. This is a deeply obnoxious and condescending mission to which the normal, healthy reaction is "Leave me the f- alone and worry about your own life, jerk. If I want your advice, I will ask for it. Which means never."
I guess these guys are looking for meaning in life, in all the wrong places. Here's an example from the insufferable Cass Sunstein who wants to save me from Coca Cola and lots of other things too.
Pardon me, but I like Coke and I like guns. You do not. So it's your loss. CS Lewis said it best:
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
All the damage done to him this week was self-inflicted. The arrows he’s taken are arrows he shot. We have in seven days witnessed his undignified and ungrateful reaction to a Gold Star family; the odd moment with the crying baby; the one-on-one interviews, which are starting to look like something he does in the grip of a compulsion, in which Mr. Trump expresses himself thoughtlessly, carelessly, on such issues as Russia, Ukraine and sexual harassment; the relitigating of his vulgar Megyn Kelly comments from a year ago; and, as his fortunes fell, his statement that he “would not be surprised” if the November election were “rigged.” Subject to an unprecedented assault by a sitting president who called him intellectually and characterologically unfit for the presidency, Mr Trump fired back—at Paul Ryan and John McCain...
...the fall campaign is not going to be about ideology or policy. It's going to be about whatever crazy things Trump says between now and Election Day.
Given where the race is headed, the most likely outcome of the election is this: Clinton wins as Americans reject Trump. But, despite a victory, she will still remain broadly unpopular and distrusted among a public that probably won't have paid much attention to her actual policy proposals.
Don't blame the press. Press hostility is assumed. Don't feed the trolls, stupid. Always think before speaking. Generally, that's a good idea in life.
Just ask Mrs. BD. If you are losing her, you are losing bad because nobody likes Hillary
Hey Donald, Got Some More Targets for You… Having insulted war heroes, firefighters and
babies, Trump may be running out of people to offend. Here are some
suggestions.
On August 1, Professor Hasia Diner of NYU and Professor Marjorie Feld of Babson College in Massachusetts took to the pages of Ha’aretz to denounce the world’s only Jewish state for being racist, colonialist, reactionary, aggressive, and – this above all – Jewish.
Many people exercise these muscles for athleticism or for appearance. Part of exercising "the core," as they say. Is it worth doing? Well, it can't hurt especially as we get older, but almost all calisthenics and heavy weights challenge those core muscles pretty well. Planks are the only core-specific things I do and I do them because I am told to.
It is near-impossible for a woman to show a six-pack, and it seems like a silly pursuit for the average guy. For one thing, it takes a body fat of roughly below 9% to uncover the divisions of the rectus abdominis assembly.
What the ordinary exerciser can achieve with exercise and proper diet is to be "cut" vertically, ie having a clear demarcation between the rectus and the obliques. I think that ought to be a plenty good-enough conditioning indicator for man or woman. It is an indicator of somewhere around 15% body fat and of decent but not extreme fitness.
At 15%, you will still sizzle nicely in the crematorium but you will not start a conflagration. At 25% you are chubby and begin to be a fire hazard.
A pal of mine who works out bragged to me that he doesn't have a lousy six-pack - he has a whole keg.
Please discuss. I have no answer. I vote for Mike Pence who I wish would slap some sense into The Donald who appears to be on some unhinged and uninformed ego trip. Politics is reality TV, but a certain kind of more serious reality TV which actually has effects on lives. I might be wrong...
He needs to know that he is a yuuuge target now. He signed up for that. Suck it up, Buttercup as Megan would say.
Not easy to tell a common Garter from a Ribbon. I've seen lots of the former, a few of the latter. The Ribbon Snakes I have seen were long and skinny, and either near small weedy ponds or sunning on brush piles.
'President Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”… Neither half of that statement expresses a relation between the citizen and his government that is worthy of the ideals of free men in a free society. “What your country can do for you” implies that the government is the patron, the citizen the ward. “What you can do for your country” assumes that the government is the master, the citizen the servant.'
"...when we see that most jobs today go to folks with a college degree, it means the employer is, probably knowingly, hiring someone with the ability—and performance prospects—of yesterday’s high-school grad."
It's almost family reunion time again for us. We travel as much as we can afford, or more, but the Cape always calls us home.
Year after year, very little changes in Wellfleet, Massachusetts except the steady erosion from the sea which will eventually eliminate the whole thing. As a glacial moraine, it was never meant to last forever.
One of my life goals is to make sure my kids, and my kid's kids, absorb the salt air, piney fragrance, and cool salt water into their souls as I have done all of my life. A precious inheritance for them.
That is bad: there goes the neighborhood? Or time to buy before you can't because rich jerks may arrive. At present, it's a sort-of secret, unfashionable Subaru-type place. Bernie bumper stickers, and locals with beater pickups with NRA stickers and Grateful Dead stickers. A share of very quiet old Boston families, profs, writers, artists, architects, NY shrinks - and lots of regular people like us. You know what I mean.
Lots of random pics of just some of the things we love. Not mentioning all of the seafood, on which we feed constantly out there,
For example, water lilies in bloom on a Wellfleet/Truro "pond." Pic from my kayak.
Lotsa pics below the fold, with some useful info mixed in...
Apparently there are no wolf subspecies in the Americas. Those thought to be subspecies are just Wolf-Coyote hybrids, of which the Red Wolf is one. Nevertheless, your tax dollars are going towards not only protecting them, but actually breeding them as if they were a precious endangered species when they are just mutts.
Government tends to be an idiot.
Generally speaking, I am in favor of wolves getting back to their old haunts in the Northeast where there are no sheep herds anyway. They will kill the coyotes and coydogs and bring the deer and moose populations into balance. Wolves do not kill people unless you leave a baby alone in the woods. People kill people, mostly, so stay away from them at all times.
I often mistype Marital as Martial. Freudian typos? It's an impossible job, but sometimes highly gratifying and always interesting. I enjoy doing it when I get a chance to. Generally speaking, as a therapist you fly by the seat of your pants but it's never dull. I have even done couples therapy with gay guys. Never a dull moment.
Haven't you heard? Top 10 lists are so 2010. Why, no one that doesn't eat their vegetables by scooping up mashed potatoes with a butter knife and smooshing them in the peas refers to TOP TEN lists any longer. It's just not done by our class of people, dear. We're busy, important people who don't have time to peruse ten entries on any topic. If we wanted a decalogue, we'd hire Moses and a headstone company. We live in a Snapchat society. Keep it under a half a dozen, will ya?
In order to get in the spirit of the exercise, we've come up with a sort of test pattern of TOP FIVE lists. Don't strain yourself reading them all at once. I tried, and my lips got really tired. My advice is to dip into this treasure trove of minutiae over a period of days. When you're all done, you'll have bulked-up reading muscles and can move on to reading the comment sections on the daily crop reports from the USDA. It's bracing stuff.
So without further ado, here's our TOP FIVE LIST OF TOP FIVE LISTS:
This is dedicated to all the people promising to leave the country if Donald Trump wins the election. It also works for all the preppers that are promising to leave the country if Donald Trump loses. It's also handy for Libertarians who promise to leave the country whether Donald Trump wins or loses.
It's against the law in Georgia to use foul language in front of a dead body in a funeral home? People in Georgia must know a different class of people than I do. There's no other reason to attend a wake in my social set.
Hmm. I didn't see clerk at the Quik-E-Mart on there. On the plus side, it's an infographic, which is great for people who think a TOP FIVE list is a workout.
I'm really dull, so I just bought 1,100 Neon Tetras and dumped them into a goldfish bowl. It saves a lot of time, because there's only room for 17 tablespoons of water, making it much easier to clean.
Bucket lists are things you're supposed to do before you die, aren't they? Well, my list only has one item on it. I want to move to Georgia so no one can tell me what they think of me after I croak.
If you're dissatisfied with our selection of TOP FIVE lists, suggest one in the comments. Remember, six or more is right out!
An 
Being overweight 
Your abdominal muscles may be hidden under some blubber, but they are there. 
The 
Is he a genius, a lunatic, or an idiot?
Not easy to tell a common Garter from a 
'Tacky' clothes and 'high society' weddings 
How archaeologists 
Haven't you heard? Top 10 lists are so 2010. Why, no one that doesn't eat their vegetables by scooping up mashed potatoes with a butter knife and smooshing them in the peas refers to TOP TEN lists any longer. It's just not done by our class of people, dear. We're busy, important people who don't have time to peruse ten entries on any topic. If we wanted a decalogue, we'd hire Moses and a headstone company. We live in a Snapchat society. Keep it under a half a dozen, will ya?