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.
I received a bit of pushback yesterday from my post on wars but I am not changing my view yet. Looking for fights is neither Conservative nor patriotic. Bellicosity is just foolish and weak.
Look at it this way: From Russia's standpoint, NATO (ie mainly the US) seems like a threat. a threat in their backyard. I feel NATO is an obsolete remnant of the Cold War. Leave it. There is no Soviet Union. The Ukraine, historically part of Russia, is of no national interest for the US. Major powers want their spheres of influence and power, and tend to be a little paranoid and bullying. Russia and China included. Yes, it all seems stupid in the modern world where economics rule. However, those are not America's issues. They do not wish to invade the US, for heaven's sake.
Except for Israel, the Middle East is a God-forsaken s-hole. Despite 9-11, I refuse to be intimidated by those backward lunatics. This is their extended Dark Ages, and nobody can pull them out of that. Bush's and Hillary's wars and interventions were wrong, in retrospect. In the ME, whatever you do is wrong. What could be more obvious? Nuke ISIS, but there will be another one popping up a week later. Evil perseveres.
Life sucks for many people on the planet, but we can't fix that. We are not God and we often make well-intentioned mistakes. We must count our blessings.
Contrary views welcome, as always. No Thought Police here but personal insults are not arguments and good manners are always appreciated.
Where do all of these spineless candy-ass university administrators come from? Are they as immature and babyish as the students, or are they just afraid of the Stalinist Thought Police? This is refreshing:
Depending on how you define it, "American interests" deserving of military force or threats thereof can be construed to involve everywhere on earth. However, we have just elected a guy with far less warlike or quasi-imperialist tendencies than the John Boltons, the Bushies, the Neocons, and Hillary. That's good. Governments often look for enemies for their own purposes.
Just because countries like pathetic Russia or growing but still adolescent China want to play geopolitics does not make them enemies or even adversaries. America today has no credible enemies but, as always there are plenty of bad actors and nasty talkers in the world. There always are and always will be.
The world is not America's sandbox. In my view, Europe can take care of itself. NATO is obsolete. If China wants to be a tough guy in south Asia, it's fine with me. It's not critical to the US. The middle east will be a mess for another 100 years unless the Ottoman Empire is restored. Of course America should be militarily competent - Always Be Prepared.
After a few days in Sevilla we hopped the high-speed north to Cordoba - once a Roman city - to spend a couple of days there. Unlike Seville, Cordoba is a normal city which happens to have a couple of must-see attractions - mainly the Mosque - the Mesquita, which has an amazing history.
Largest (ex-) mosque in the Western world. Can not capture its magnificence with a camera:
More Cordoba pics and comments, with food, below the fold -
Trump does have a chance to do some of this if it is the priority.
For all the awfulness associated with Trump, his election stemmed from a disinclination among Americans to accept their place in the new technocratic order. Trump is best praised for some of the enemies he has made—movie stars and hierarchs of the environmental left, the racial grievance industry, the high-tech oligarchs, the bureaucracy and a university system that serves largely as a giant re-education camp. Not surprisingly, those enemies are having a collective fit about his victory.
All this about the popular vote is nonsense. Clearly, if the rule of the game were popular vote instead of electoral college, national election campaigns would be planned entirely differently.
As it is now, candidates must appeal to broad sectors of the country and to a broad geography instead of just to the largest urban areas. The electoral college, like the Senate, gives some importance to states with differing interests or without large urban centers. That was part of the deal. Our republic was designed with many systems to prevent majorities from overpowering the rest.
Annual re-post for Thanksgiving: The potato is a native American food, as American as turkey. Good for your soul. I suspect my Indian ancestors made their holiday mash with Moose or Elk milk and cream. This is my Mom's delicious Thanksgiving and Christmas recipe:
4 lbs. Yukon Gold potatoes, or whatever you like 8 ounces sour cream 1 stick butter 2 ounces chopped fresh chives (one bunch) 1/2 cup heavy cream Salt and pepper
1. Boil potatoes (peeled or unpeeled - I prefer peeled) in water till they're tender (when you can stick a fork in and it comes right out). 2. Drain and let the steam evaporate off, then cut them up. 3. Mix in the ingredients and cut or mash to preferred consistency. (I prefer them casually mashed and lumpy - but I do understand that the Irish expect them to be creamy, and that a single lump is the shameful sign of an incompetent wife.) 4. Season with salt and pepper. 5. Put in serving pan/plate and lightly brown in oven.
Serve, if you must, with a side of steak, roast beef, turkey, pork chops, lamb chops, or roast chicken, and daintily drizzle a reduced jus of the meat on top of your potato piece de resistance.
The fact is that everything you liberals wanted to do, except rebuild America’s bathrooms to suit a more transgendered sensibility, is done -- and it probably could have been done without all the intellectual terrorism inspired by Karl and Fritz and Max and Ted and Herb, scaring the pants off the victims and silencing the bourgeoisie. So you can take your street armies and your racist BLMs and La Razas and your segregated dorms, your “Studies” degrees, your “mostly peaceful protests,” and demobilize the activists and tell them to go get a job.
The Spanish version of Cappuccino, or of Cafe au Lait. A good shot of espresso with same shot of scalded milk. Good with or without sugar. Like the others, it's a morning drink but I will have it anytime to perk up. That, or a Coke.
I found we have a milk-scalder in the pantry. Never used it. One of my many cafe con leches in Spain 2 weeks ago, this one in Cordoba:
... a deeper dive suggests that actually, in the end, she (Clinton) does stand for something, and that's government intervention in every single problem that exists, anywhere. It may not seem like policy played a role in this election, but I suspect in the end that's like saying that water plays no role in fish behavior. It was always in the background.
Clinton's campaign pushed out several policy memos and briefs, and what they all had in common is that they called for federal involvement in every single solution, with very few exceptions. She is known for being an interventionist in foreign policy, supporting military action in Syria and Libya and elsewhere. If she thought any particular outcome was a good idea, she wanted to a federal law to make it happen or a government subsidy or grant to push it along.
The idea that government, especially federal government, is supposed to solve our problems is a sickness. In America as I see it, government's first job is to do no harm. Its second job is to get out of the way so people can solve their own problems.
The pretensions of the imperial presidency are going to haunt Democrats for the immediate future, but they’ll quickly rediscover their belief in limits on the executive. While they’re rediscovering old virtues, they might take a moment to lament Senator Harry Reid’s weakening of the filibuster, an ancient protection of minority interests in the less democratic house of our national legislature. They might also lament Senator Reid’s attempt to gut the First Amendment in order to permit the federal government — which in January will be under the management of Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and — incredibly enough — President Donald Trump — to regulate political speech, deciding who can speak, about what and when, and on what terms. Perhaps they’ll thank those wicked “conservative” justices on the Supreme Court for saving basic political-speech rights. If they are smart, they will rediscover federalism, too, and the peacemaking potential of a school of thought that says in a diverse nation of 320 million souls, there is no reason that life in rural Idaho must be lived in exactly the same way as it is in Brooklyn or Santa Monica. As Charles C. W. Cooke pointed out, the same people who until ten minutes ago denounced federalism — which they mischaracterize as the doctrine of “states’ rights” — as an instrument for the suppression of African Americans are now embracing secession, which, in the American context at least, has a little bit of its own racial baggage.
Yes, Mr. Moon sure is big and bright tonight. Supermoon. Mrs. BD called it the Trump Moon because it is big and fat, a glitzy show-off of a moon. She voted for Trump anyway.
"Membership in my gym is only by invitation after an initial evaluation and interview. You can be 92 years old, or you can be an Olympic lifter. Our sole criterion is that you must be dedicated about improving yourself, because our goal will be to make you physically quite uncomfortable, and more dissatisfied with yourself than you were when you arrived. If you are fat or weak, we will not tell you that you are fine the way you are, because it would not be true."
Business loves open borders. It keeps labor abundant and cheap. An immigrant from Mexico will work cheap, but that guy will get food stamps, housing, medical care - all sorts of benefits by which the taxpayer is essentially subsidizing their low wages. So low wages are not really cheap except for the employer. Dems love open borders - they believe it means more Dem voters. Do open borders take American jobs? Of course, regardless of the arguments of both lib and conservative pundits. They either take jobs, or they take government assistance.Many Repubs want more open borders for the supposed economic benefit. Trump wants immigration policies that work for American employees.
Trump wants tough international trade. Business wants free trade. Why? Often, imports are cheaper (whether labor or products). However, at the point of sale, such imports are not cheap. They are whatever the market will bear, of course. The benefit to the consumer is greatly overestimated. Generally speaking, Dems, Repubs, and business like free trade. Trump wants tough trade deals and tariffs if they can help American workers.
Elections are too important because government has too much power. Presdential elections are too important because the presidency is reaching towards imperial power.
21:5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said,
21:6 "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down."
21:7 They asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?"
21:8 And he said, "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is near!' Do not go after them.
21:9 "When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately."
21:10 Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom;
21:11 there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.
21:12 "But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.
21:13 This will give you an opportunity to testify.
21:14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance;
21:15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.
21:16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.
21:17 You will be hated by all because of my name.
This is what I'll get for the Thanksgiving wine this year.
We had a fine dinner on Saturday with friends at a Portuguese place.
I believe I discovered the tastiest affordable red wine at that restaurant: Ramon Bilbao Riserva. Yes, a Spanish Rioja - and in a Portuguese restaurant. I can't use those fancy wine words (except rich and earthy for this one), so just try it if you are one of those millions always looking for delicious wine that tastes like a $60 bottle but costs $16.
My nice wine shop says they will get some for me, and that they have had enough requests for it that they may decide to carry it.
Wikileaks reminded us that the (Dem) party is run by rich, snobbish, and often ethically bankrupt grandees. In John Podesta’s world, it’s normal and acceptable for Democratic apparatchiks to talk about their stock portfolios and name-drop the Hamptons, while making cruel asides about “needy” Latinos, medieval Catholics, and African-Americans with silly names—who are nonetheless expected to keep them in power. Such paradoxes are not sustainable. Nor is the liberal nexus of colluding journalists, compromised lobbyists, narcissistic Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, family dynasties, and Clintonian get-rich ethics.
The old blue-collar middle class was bewildered by the leftwing social agenda in which gay marriage, women in combat units, and transgendered restrooms went from possible to mandatory party positions in an eye blink. In a party in which “white privilege” was pro forma disparagement, those who were both white and without it grew furious that the elites with such privilege massaged the allegation to provide cover for their own entitlement.4:00 PM 11/12/2016
Why Is
Leon Russell, 