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.
Squats are a bitch of an exercise, demanding of many muscle groups. That's how you know that you need them. Maybe you can walk all day, but your legs are weak, Jack.
My lower body is great for endurance, terrible for strength. I have been doing barbell squats for a year, but have started doing box squats for a change of pace, and to see if I can go any lower on my plain barbell squats. Box squats give you a brief break from tension, but demand the thrust from total rest.
The U.S. government has just passed a new law called: "The affordable boat act" declaring that every citizen MUST purchase a new boat, by April 2014. These "affordable" boats will cost an average of $54,000-$155,000 each. This does not include taxes, trailers, towing fees, licensing and registration fees, fuel, docking and storage fees, maintenance or repair costs.
This law has been passed, because until now, typically only wealthy and financially responsible people have been able to purchase boats. This new laws ensures that every American can now have a "affordable" boat of their own, because everyone is "entitled" to a new boat. If you purchase your boat before the end of the year, you will receive 4 "free" life jackets; not including monthly usage fees.
In order to make sure everyone purchases an affordable boat, the costs of owning a boat will increase on average of 250-400% per year. This way, wealthy people will pay more for something that other people don't want or can't afford to maintain. But to be fair, people who cant afford to maintain their boat will be regularly fined and children (under the age of 26) can use their parents boats to party on until they turn 27; then must purchase their own boat.
If you already have a boat, you can keep yours (just kidding; no you can't). If you don't want or don't need a boat, you are required to buy one anyhow. If you refuse to buy one or cant afford one, you will be regularly fined $800 until you purchase one or face imprisonment.
Failure to use the boat will also result in fines. People living in the desert; ghettos; inner cities or areas with no access to lakes are not exempt. Age, motion sickness, experience, knowledge nor lack of desire are acceptable excuses for not using your boat.
A government review board (that doesn't know the difference between the port, starboard or stern of a boat) will decide everything, including; when, where, how often and for what purposes you can use your boat along with how many people can ride your boat and determine if one is too old or healthy enough to be able to use their boat. They will also decide if your boat has out lived its usefulness or if you must purchase specific accessories,(like a $500 compass) or a newer and more expensive boat.
Those that can afford yachts will be required to do so...its only fair. The government will also decide the name for each boat. Failure to comply with these rules will result in fines and possible imprisonment.
Government officials are exempt from this new law. If they want a boat, they and their families can obtain boats free, at the expense of tax payers. Unions, bankers and mega companies with large political affiliations ($$$) are also exempt.
According to estimates and reports, the $2 million to $5 million event held in Rhinebeck, NY included:
$750,000 for catering, according to Brides magazine deputy editor Sally Kilbridge
$11,000 for the cake, which is reportedly gluten-free
$250,000 worth of jewelry for the bride
$109,000 for the tables and crockery for around 400 to 500 invitees
$600,000 in air-conditioned tents, complete with glass walls
$200,000 in extra security, paid for by the Clintons
$15,000 in high-class toilets, according to online gossip site TMZ
$500,000 in flowers arranged by Jeff Leatham, who’s worked with Madonna and other celebrities
Wine as a party favor from Clinton Vineyards (which has no relation to the presidential family)
A Federal Aviation Administration-enforced no-fly zone from 3 p.m.
Saturday to 3:30 a.m. Sunday over Rhinebeck, the small New York town
that includes Astor Courts, a picturesque mansion that’s hosting the
event and overlooks the Hudson River.
Is he any sort of thinker? Neither candidate is a thinker. One's ignorant and one is pure schemer. These are entirely normal political characteristics.
Spain is a great place to look at Moorish architecture. Sometimes it is referred to as Islamic, but Moorish is more accurate. The horseshoe arch, for example, was borrowed from the Christianized Visigoths who ran the various Spanish kingdoms before the Moslem Moors successfully invaded Iberia in the 700s.
Even after Christian kings had their long reconquista, but while Granada was the last Muslim outpost (until 1492), Moorish architects and craftsmen were in demand throughout the Iberian peninsula because the style was so popular. That post-Reconquista style is referred to as Mudejar, which often combined Moorish with some Gothic and Renaissance styles.
My pic of a courtyard in the Alcazar in Seville is Mudejar. In Moorish architecture, it was usual to use scavenged old Roman columns for their new buildings.
Is it possible that Mrs. Bill Clinton just isn't too bright? Her reckless greed is no secret, her poor judgment is widely acknowledged, but what about ordinary brains? If you recall, she could not pass the DC bar exam.
h/t to Kevin Williamson's piece on government as the nation's cheesemonger. Crazy that those tons of cheddar will end of up dumpsters when so many would be happy to buy it at a cheap price..
Ross Coggins composed "The Development Set" in 1976. Nothing has changed.
Excuse me, friends, I must catch my jet I’m off to join the Development Set; My bags are packed, and I’ve had all my shots I have traveller’s checks and pills for the trots!
The Development Set is bright and noble Our thoughts are deep and our vision global; Although we move with the better classes Our thoughts are always with the masses.
In Sheraton Hotels in scattered nations We damn multi-national corporations; injustice seems easy to protest In such seething hotbeds of social rest.
We discuss malnutrition over steaks And plan hunger talks during coffee breaks. Whether Asian floods or African drought, We face each issue with open mouth.
We bring in consultants whose circumlocution Raises difficulties for every solution — Thus guaranteeing continued good eating By showing the need for another meeting.
The language of the Development Set Stretches the English alphabet; We use swell words like “epigenetic” “Micro”, “macro”, and “logarithmetic”
It pleasures us to be esoteric — It’s so intellectually atmospheric! And although establishments may be unmoved, Our vocabularies are much improved.
When the talk gets deep and you’re feeling numb, You can keep your shame to a minimum: To show that you, too, are intelligent Smugly ask, “Is it really development?”
Or say, “That’s fine in practice, but don’t you see: It doesn’t work out in theory!” A few may find this incomprehensible, But most will admire you as deep and sensible.
Development set homes are extremely chic, Full of carvings, curios, and draped with batik. Eye-level photographs subtly assure That your host is at home with the great and the poor.
Enough of these verses – on with the mission! Our task is as broad as the human condition! Just pray god the biblical promise is true: The poor ye shall always have with you.
I don't know how Z would categorize me politically. On paper, though, pretty much pure bubble-dweller from birth, and thoroughly elite and privileged even if it doesn't always feel like it. However, lots of reality snuck through my bubble because I wanted it. Part Dirt, part Cloud. Most of the time I have some dirt under my fingernails. I ended up sort-of Goldwater-Reagan-ish.
Politically, I expect little good to come from government and only hope that they do minimal harm. In that, usually disappointed. I have little-to-no respect for politicians, and can not understand political fandom any more than I can related to sports fandom. I have no operational concept of social Progress. I am not a Trump supporter, whatever that means, but I'll vote for him. I will vote for him because I think he would do less harm than his opponent. In the end, that consideration sweeps aside most other considerations.
Am I a Swamp Thing? I do love swamps and marshes...but I live in a pleasant neighborhood and I visit interesting places.
By the time he began to publish in the 1890s, academic economics was in the throes of a counter-revolution sponsored by large landholders, bankers and monopolists denying that there was any such thing as unearned income. The new post-classical mainstream accepted existing property rights and privileges as a “given.” In contrast to Veblen’s argument that the economy was all about organizing predatory schemes, this approach culminated in Milton Friedman’s Chicago School defense the pro-rentier argument: “There is no such thing as a free lunch.”
This blunt denial rejected the preceding three centuries of classical value and price theory, along with its policy conclusions promoting taxation of land and other natural endowments, and financial reform. Dropped from view was rentier overhead in the form of predatory and unproductive forms of wealth seeking. The post-classical mainstream treats all income as “earned,” including that of rentiers. Lacking the classical concepts of unproductive labor, credit or investment, today’s textbooks describe income as a reward for one’s contribution to production, and wealth is being “saved up” as a result of someone’s productive investment effort, not as an unearned or predatory free lunch...
ObamaCare’s Chickens Come Home to Roost - Democrats, anticipating rage over huge premium increases scheduled for 2017, are already trying to blame Republicans
It was a convention of Moorish design to decorate the heck out of walls, with maybe 5-6' of colorful geometric ceramic tiles from the floor, then rising to the ceiling with intricate carved-looking walls which often have some Koranic verses in them.
This from the Alcazar in Seville:
I learned three things about Moorish upper-wall treatment:
- This is not stone. It is marble plaster. - This is not carved. It is made with molds while the plaster was soft. - These walls, now white, were generally painted originally so it must have been jewel-like. It reminds me that Greek statues and columns, and even the statues of saints etc. on the outside of Gothic cathedrals, were also painted.
This is my pic of a plaster wall in the palace in the Alhambra.
Final LA Times electoral vote projection:
Stockman:
Tacky, nouveau riche wedding.
Clinton Foundation Is The ‘Largest Unprosecuted Charity Fraud Ever’
Nobody doubts that
The Clinton Foundation’s $20 million off-the-books mystery
What plagues Clinton in the final days: The Chicago Way
Klavan: Why I'll Vote for Donald Trump
Donald Trump: America's Junkyard Dog
Douthat sounds like he'll go with Hillary
Harvard Prof: “Riot in the Streets” to Block “Sociopath” Trump
I guess he prefers the other Sociopath
Is Donald Trump a conventional thinker?
Is he any sort of thinker? Neither candidate is a thinker. One's ignorant and one is pure schemer. These are entirely normal political characteristics.
The question is why do they hate Trump and his voters so intensely?