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.
Guy Asking Question of Chelsea Clinton (Who Really Ought to Be
Helping Her Deathly Ill Mother Through Her Period of Crisis) but First
Apologizes for Being a Man
Please do not tell me that you can lose fat by exercise alone. It doesn't happen. Exercise is great, but not for fat loss although many people find that strenuous exercise reduces appetite.
She has never accomplished anything in life. She has held positions, but that's not the same thing as accomplishment. That is resume-building.
She got into Yale Law (gee, a real ordeal) and met Bill there. She got a job with the Watergate Commission, but got fired for being dishonest. She failed the bar exam in DC. Smartest woman in the world. She went to Arkansas with Bill, passed the Ark. bar, got jobs through Bill's political connections and made money via shady deals. When Bill was Pres, she screwed up everything she touched but managed to parlay her Bill connection to a NY Senator gig (being from Illinois and Arkansas but going where the $s are). She got to be a marquee-name Senator but did little there. She had some books ghost-written. Then she got Sec of State as a booby prize for losing to but endorsing Obama, and screwed up all of their major decisions there (Russia, Libya, Syria, Iran, Egypt). In the meantime, she devoted herself to making a magnificent fortune, because she and Bill love money and hobnobbing with the rich. On top of it all, she and Bill have a farcical marriage. They do not live together. Theirs is a political (and financial) alliance because he owes her.
To you Feminists, what would she be doing in life without Bill? Or without an adoring press (for being a Lefty female)? Surely she wonders that too. Famous for being famous.
This is not an ad for Trump, just putting things in perspective. If you are a Lefty, you will hold your nose and vote for her regardless. Obama had zero accomplishments too but he had some charm and youth.
Just for fun, to whom did Bill confess, a few years ago, that "Hillary gets more pussy than I do"? A trivia quiz. BTW, I do not care whether HRC is gay. Lots of people say Obama used to be gay in his Chicago days hence his "Bathhouse Barry" nickname. But so what? It's been a good gig for Mrs. O.
What kind of people are these administrators? Surely Yale Univ. has thousands of smart, normal students even if the admin consists of castrati. Are they all intimidated into silence while these circuses occur? Or too busy studying to have time for nonsense?
"If you find anything in this letter suggestive of unreasoned thinking or judgment, and if it offends or otherwise upsets you, you can report the author to the Bias Response authorities at the University of Vermont."
Hillary's health has little to do with the election in my view, but I am curious about what this movement is which alarmed the press. Any ideas? A tic, a movement disorder, an odd startle reflex?
Pic is my medicine ball on our driveway on Cape Cod
When we leave town, we remain very "active" people, as they say of the middle-aged who are not flabby couch potatoes. We swim, kayak, hike, climb hills and all that, but that is just being "active" and alive. It's not "exercise". Exercise means high stress, high intensity.
In 5 days without stressful exercise, a fit adult begins to lose strength and endurance to a measurable degree. A non-fit adult deteriorates more slowly because there is less to lose.
Hotels and ships all have fairly decent gyms in them, but when you go somewhere quiet with no gym I think 45-60 minutes of early morning calisthenics is the best way to begin an active day. Calis are great for outdoors, even if it's raining, sleeting, snowing, or storming. More fun outdoors.
So, for our beach house "vacations" with the whole family and my in-laws, and all of our sisters and our cousins and our aunts, Mrs. BD and I have a pre-breakfast cali program to prevent any backsliding.
(My sibs, who join us on the Cape with us with their kids, do an early morning biathlon, alternating days between a 16-mile run + a one-mile swim, and a 40-mile bike and a one-mile pond swim. They race each other. They are such strong swimmers that the last time I competed with them in that I came close to drowning. Not exaggerating. They would never have noticed if I sank because I was so far behind the rest of them. Years ago I swam a mile daily but have not done so for many years. Some of my kids will join my sibs, but I will do my Cali program routines mostly on the empty beach or driveway and I could care less whether I look stupid.)
This is maintenance, not building. Also relevant: Unlike weight lifting, calis need no recovery days. All we bring are jump ropes, 10-lb. weights, leg bands, and a medicine ball. Obviously, no medicine ball or weights on airplanes. We do a varied circuit of things like this but never the same item two days in a row. Just keep pushing it until the time is up:
Jumping squats Lunges with weights 20-30 -second wind sprints and 30-second jogs Jump rope Medicine ball slams, and playing hard side-catch with the ball Jumping jacks Squats with overhead weight lifts Burpees and Mountain Climbers Planks Push-ups (or inclined push-ups) Various walks with leg bands High-rep arm lifts with the wts: forward, side, overhead, curls
Your body can only process about 10 gms of protein per hour. More than that goes to poo and pee. Multiple small meals, for you exercisers and especially lifters.
Debunking The Income Inequality Fallacy - In 'Equal is Unfair,' authors Yaron Brook and Don Watkins cut through the dishonesty of the debate over income inequality and extol the virtue of individual effort.
Guardian: Does the left have a future? All over the west, the left is in crisis. It cannot find answers to three urgent problems: the disruptive force of globalisation, the rise of populist nationalism, and the decline of traditional work.
Farming is a big industry today, thriving on government handouts. Thus the citizen pays twice for food: once in taxes and once in the store. Why is Big Ag insulated from supply and demand (I know - politics). Must be nice to be an industry for which supply and demand do not exist. Nice, but degrading.
Middle Eastern Muslims are not all jihadists. Are they sympathizers? I don't know. Many, for sure. The jihadist movement is a death cult with an outsized impact on the rest of the world. Their random terror acts are designed to produce disruption, reaction, and to build enthusiasm for their movement. It works, it magnifies them and politically stirs the West into forfeiting freedoms for security, which is a terrible thing.
9-11 was not Pearl Harbor, but the world would be a more pleasant place if these ardent Muslims dedicated themselves to more constructive secular pursuits rather than killing Westerners, Jews, and eachother. Theirs is a mission and a holy purpose, and many people want their life to mean something dramatic. Furthermore, killing and blowing things up is so easy that anybody can do it. Checking out, in a blaze of glory.
Theirs is not a Western culture. It has different cultural premises and assumptions, and, like cockroaches in a building, they will never be eliminated. All I want is to keep them out of my life and to let them wreak havoc, if they must, in their own habitat. Israel can take care of itself very well.
Islamophobia? I'll confess to a mild case of that due to reading the news. It might not be fair, but I am human with healthy tribal instincts. They have managed to make themselves my bogeymen and I do not like to ride airplanes with them.
Several thousand were killed on that day in 2001 — the anniversary of the Ottoman defeat at the Gates of Vienna. This was a comparatively small number, by modern standards. The rich symbolism of this Islamist operation was lost on the West, which no longer cares for history or legend. A brilliant assault of “asymmetric warfare,” it fulfilled all of its objectives. The torch has since been passed from the more moderate al-Qaeda to the more fanatic Daesh, and will be passed again in due course. Osama bin-Laden personally lost face by being hunted down and killed like a rat, but his vision of a restored Islamic Caliphate survives him. It inspires still the young in heart and mind.
51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
51:2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
51:3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
51:4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
51:5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
51:6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
51:8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
51:9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
Hillary! descends to a Trumpian level with name-calling and insults just as Trump begins to (tries to) behave in a more dignified way. As the man says,
There is a bracing purity about this.
Clinton made the comments before introducing Barbra Streisand at an LGBT fundraiser in downtown New York. According to average ticket prices and attendance figures provided by the campaign, Clinton raised around $6 million at the fundraiser, at which some attendees paid $50,00
She must have been trying to tell the attendees that they were the good people in contrast to the great unwashed who think trannies are strange. How is Trump a racist? He has integrated everything he touched, including his fancy golf clubs. He has no problem with gays or anybody else unless they attack him. Those smears will not stick. Many regular folks like the guy's style although I do not. Even Bill Clinton likes him.
The Common Snapping Turtle of the Eastern and Central US is indeed common wherever there is mud and water.
Their eyes are like jewels.
Unless you do a lot of pond fishing, these large turtles are most often seen on land, searching for egg sites or seeking a new habitat. Leave them alone.
Uber debuts
Italian immigrants: 
Hillary's health has little to do with the election in my view, but I am curious about what this movement is which alarmed the press. Any ideas? A tic, a movement disorder, an odd startle reflex?
Photo via 
Finocchio (Fennel) grows wild all over Sicily. In late summer to fall, it has its yellow blooms by the roadsides. A delicious flavor, raw or cooked.
Exciting 
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