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.
There is pretty much always a MSM effort to save us from one evil Nazi fascist stupid Republican or another, but this year has been over the top. They are blatantly and uinashamedly partisan, and will likely remain so. Hillary will be as insulated from criticism as Obama has been.
To make this election even more bizarre is the way the press has ignored the biggest story in political history since Watergate. The Wikileaks stuff is explosive. It is what political reporters used to pray for, back when we had political reporters. The stuff in those e-mails is the sort of stuff that used to end careers and bring down governments. Despite the caterwauling from the stray moonbat, the media has ignored the story, preferring to spend all their time talking about the Trump bimbo hoax.
We drove down from the Dolomiti and the Alps to Verona, which is immediately south of the foothills. Straight shot on the Autostrada (#22). Nice little Renaissance town. We stayed in the Old City (an old Roman city on the bend of the Aldige River) instead of venturing out into the modern city (pop. 275,000). Tourists hang around the old city, but plenty of Italians come into the old city for fun and shopping.
Verona is a charming old town, walkably-manageable in size although we did get a little lost walking out to see St. Zeno. Getting lost is not a bad thing because you see things. It is a bitch to drive into, though, once you get off the highway. Cops keep yelling at you for going the wrong way. Gotta laugh.
The Passagiata in Verona is wonderful, between 5 and 8 pm. It's a town of lovely women of all ages, and the Italian men look great with their fitted shirts and tailoring. We tourist men, not so great. All the kids in strollers and backpacks look good, and the women look feminine. Lots of real blondes in northern Italia.
In my view, all women and all men ought to try to look their best, in public at least. Being over 40 or 50 doesn't mean that you are dead. I just have no talent for style. I shoulda brought my red trousers with me.
Dinner is around 8-8:30, and afterwards the young and/or single people, looking good, fill the narrow streets and piazzas - I call them pizzas - and bars with laughter and flirtation. A jolly scene. Women hold hands, men kiss. Everybody drinks and smokes.
La dolce vita.
Lots more pics below the fold - Mrs. BD thought our lady readers might enjoy the clothing shops -
I go every 3 yrs when my doc gets pissed at me for not coming in. I hate it. I do like him, though and I understand that he needs some money to keep me on his roster.
Today’s Orange County: Not Right Wing—and Kinda Hip - Immigrants
have dramatically altered the California county that was a birthplace
of conservatism. But two things haven’t changed: perfect weather, and
the beach.
An October surprise timed to maximally hurt the Republican candidate is no surprise at all. It is so predictable that the term “October surprise” has become commonplace.
It is no news, either, that the MSM tries to elect the Democrat. No news at all.
The Clintons are attracted to corruption the way that flies are drawn to offal. The media can spot no flies on Hillary. Its fact checkers excuse every scandal. They even invent a positive spin for a fly landing on her. The ordinary fly visiting Hillary may hold no special meaning. But flies are notoriously attracted to rotting things. And no political figures in this country are as rotten to the core as the Clintons.
Women used to be praised as a civilizing influence on men, bringing the responsibilities of love and loyalty to marriage and children. Hillary has spent her adult life enabling the most irresponsible men on the block, thereby setting an example for a whole generation of Millennials, who have now created a pickup scene that is surprisingly depressing. Millennials seem to get that they could stay home to watch fantasy porn on the web instead of being with real human beings. Fantasies are more hygienic, and they never disappoint. "Can I pick you up?" is inevitably followed by "Where will I drop you off?"
I have no idea what Alt-Right refers to. It's a new term but I do not know who it describes. I can't even tell whether it is derogatory or not. Z-man discussed Science and the Alt-Right.
"Science" is an odd word. I guess it applies to knowledge obtained through the scientific method. I do not fetishize it because I am a natural skeptic - and because I know that science is done by human beings with egos and a need for income. Hence Most Scientific Findings Are Wrong or Useless.
Yale's David Gelernter is in the Maggie's Pantheon for many reasons (especially his books), but how he is able to keep his finger on the pulse of regular, non-elite Americans from the leafy, ivy-clad Lefty wards of New Haven, CT, is beyond me:
I’ll vote for Mr. Trump—grimly. But there is no alternative, no shadow of a responsible alternative.
Mr. Trump’s candidacy is a message from the voters. He is the empty gin bottle they have chosen to toss through the window. The message begins with the fact that voters hear what the leaders and pundits don’t: the profound contempt for America and Americans that Mrs. Clinton and President Obama share and their frightening lack of emotional connection to this nation and its people.
Read the whole thing. I feel like Gelernter knows me. No more posts from me about this election. I am moving on to greener pastures.
If you were to add up the number of killings by people in pursuit of what they think are moral aims, whether it’s personal vengeance, implementing justice, or hastening a utopia or messianic age, the body count would surely be higher than the victims of amoral predation and exploitation.
That’s why pure moralism does more harm than good, and why a legitimate moral concern with human welfare must work together with a scientific drive to understand the causes of wrongdoing. If, as moralists, our responsibility is to reduce suffering and enhance flourishing, then the most powerful way to do that is through analytic engagement: moral philosophy, reasoned jurisprudence, legal scholarship, and the sciences of human nature. When we can say what makes us tick, we can rearrange our environments in ways that inhibit aggression and enhance empathy, compassion and reason.
Busted pipe, flooded basement last May. We have three 1/2 rooms down there: a bedroom with good windows and bath, a pantry, and two storage rooms (one for tools and hunting and boating stuff, and one for general saved stuff). Mostly finished rooms. Allstate sent their teams over for a couple of months and it's all better than it was before. We never had to lift a finger. Now we have a water-warning system. Thanks, Allstate.
The new pantry (minus the old second fridge which had to be cut up to get out of there. Can't live without a Sawzall.):
Neoteny refers to the persistence of juvenile traits, or the retardation of development. For example, it has been speculated that the domestic dog was bred (genetically engineered, as it were) as a neotenous wolf - one whose brain never matures and retains a puppy-like, submissive and thus a trainable, pliable, and friendly mentality. (All domesticated dogs were bred from the wolf, from the Chihuahua to the Huskie.)
Similarly, Stephen Jay Gould speculated that humans may be neotenous chimpanzees. On a bad day, I am quite certain that I am one. Desmond Morris wrote about it.
In fact, the human brain, face, and body demonstrate numerous neotenous traits, the lack of heavy body hair being the most obvious.
The grey matter of the human brain, in particular, shows retarded development even when compared with other apes and primates. Gene Expressions shows the data. (The transcriptome which is referred to is the messenger RNA (mRNA) which, in a timed manner, transcribes the messages from the DNA to make things happen. It's a miracle that it works.)
It is fun to speculate about what the neoteny of the human brain might imply for human development, socialization, learning, and psychology - but it's all speculation. As I have said, the human brain is an ongoing experiment.
"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."
There are many sorts of depression. Some are mostly situational (eg loss or failure), some are mostly chemical (eg Bipolar Depression), some are mostly psychological (eg a big blow to a fragile ego, or self-contempt either deserved or undeserved), etc, etc. Many or most, it seems to me, are mixtures.
In my view, most people with a depression need some sort of psychological intervention or help, and many benefit from medicine unless the medicine completely sweeps things under the rug that ought to be addressed. Depression is a non-specific phenomenon, like pain. It is, in fact, mental pain. Sometimes, mental agony.
Interesting article about Ketamine ("Special K" as it is sold in nightclubs). If it's one more tool in the toolkit, great.
A lot is packed into this seemingly simple blues song. 1964. I can tell you what it's about, but not now. You can start with the image of a mail train if you know what they looked like. When Bob was young, they were around in Duluth if not in Hibbing.
Never look for good character in politicians. They indeed are our inferiors in most cases. The Citizen is King. Mrs. BD makes a distinction between 2 sorts of Presidential Sins. A Venial Presidential Sin is hitting too hard on females. Mortal Presidential Sins are lying to investigators, secret emails, uranium to Russia, creating instability in the world, etc.
The old Hospital of St. Katherine Brewery, with a delightful beergarden on the bank of the Danube in pleasant Regensburg. Like many beer joints in Bavaria, they make their brews on premises and throw out the unused after one week.
Regensburg, interestingly, marked the northermost outpost of the Roman Empire. Augustus visited there, and I hope he had some brew.
You stroll over the c. 1100 stone bridge to get to the Spital brewery and beer garden. The lad and I went over the bridge a couple of years ago and hoisted a couple of their fresh brews. I never should have had their Bock, delicious as it was. The steins are large, of course.
We recommend that town for classic German food and drink, many medieval remnants, and some old Roman walls and stuff. Not a touristy town like Salzburg, just a fine small Bavarian city where you can walk everywhere.
Why this post? Cuz I was drinking my protein shake out of a Spital stein I picked up there. Yes, I paid a euro or two for it, as a souvenir. It says SPITAL...Regensburg...Seit 1225. That's an old brewery.
Of course they are. They might be bad literature, but lyrics are lyrics, and lyrics are poetry. Probably music lyrics came first, though, like chants with drumming or something. The Iliad was music lyrics, or at least a story set to music. The Psalms are songs for which the music has been lost. "Psalm" = Song.
Yes, the press collusion is the biggest story of this election cycle. Article is sickening. Meanwhile decades ago, Donald Trump was nuts about pretty girls...
The Standard Poodle was bred in Germany in the 1600s as the Pudelhund for duck and upland hunting. They are retrievers, and some lines (such as mine) are pointers also.
Later, the French adopted them and turned them into status symbols with crazy haircuts. They bred them for style and ignored the hunt aspect. Several poodle breeders have been breeding the hunting and retrieving talent back into poodle lines. Our breeder does that.
In 1942, the Poodle was one of 32 breeds officially classified as war dogs by the Army.
Poodles are smarter than humans.
Poodles have hair, not fur (which is why they are hypoallergenic and why they need haircuts). They love to swim, but do not enjoy being cold and wet at the same time. No insulation.
Pic is a Red (aka Apricot) Standard Poodle with a "Pet Cut," aka "Puppy Cut." That's the haircut I like in a poodle. With that cut, they are the cuddliest pups in the world. We give ours a full-body crew cut for summertime.
Roll On Bob
Image via 
Harvard’s New Diversity Veto:
There are 
A few poodle facts: