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.
The Democrats and their press proxies were all prepared with their talking points against the Donald Trump who sneers in their smug faces. Instead, President Trump was at his presidential best, clear, softly spoken, strategic in his sweep across the policy landscape, offering his hand to his opponents to instead think first of America instead of scoring petty points.
The Democrats in Congress looked bewildered and pantsed, sour looks on their faces in the face of programs that appeal to most Americans, not knowing what to do, their steam looking like hot air, and the media stammered its appreciation with less of but not excluding their sneers.
The American people got to see it all, to the self-created embarrassment of the Democrats.
LEONARDO DeCAPRIO's self-declared climate expertise enables him to speak on the world's environmental issues with a high-school education. He never took a college biology, chemistry, physics or climatology course, yet he knows more than most scientists. He proved that by addressing climate change before a full gathering of the UN.
SEAN PENN's quick takes on everything put him at the lofty level of an Einstein. He visited Iraq once and became an expert on that country. The same for Iran. He also became buddies with the brutal Venezuelan communist Hugo Chavez and consistently lauded that murderous thug. Now that Chavez is gone and Venezuelans are raiding dumpsters for food scraps, Penn is having a rare silent moment. Penn deserves some credit for becoming a world-affairs genius based on two years of auto mechanics classes at Santa Monica College.
This is a downer for Mardi Gras and Carnival season, the modern Saturnalias where no rules apply and reckless hedonism is in the air, but I'll post it anyway like a fuddy-duddy:
I am not sure how to define "natural" for human beings when humans are the ultimate culture-building and society-building animal. For humans, relationship-building and relationship-maintenance are complex, demanding, and sometimes seem almost impossible. Perhaps "natural," though.
Being an acceptable member of a bourgeois society and culture requires hundreds of external restraints (laws, rules, conventions, and expectations) and self-restraints (mostly against temptations and impulses and for reputation-protection). Bourgeois Westerners do not do many very "natural" things like pooping in the park, clubbing people who piss us off, grabbing genitalia when the impulse hits us, stealing people's purses, shooting a neighbor's dog to roast on the backyard grill.
As in ancient times when aristocrats and overlords lived without the constraints of the common folk and the stolid gentry, the Western world still has subcultures which are "above" - or you could call it "below" - the respectable bourgeois Judeo-Christian norms. I am thinking of the special subcultures of Hollywood, Washington, and the like where celebrity, money, and power can exist with separate rules. I am also thinking of some Fishtown subcultures, Tattooland, where there are different standards and expectations.
I must agree with Scarlett Johanssen that monogamy is not "natural" for humans although there is much variation in how libidinally- or id-driven people are. It is definitely not natural for me if some of my X-rated fantasies are evidence but, by behaving myself in many "unnatural" ways, I have managed to build a solid happy life without harming very many people, without blowing up my life, and without too much burden of guilt.
Bill Clinton and Scarlett Johanssen and all the others are free to live as they choose. Tabloid fodder is necessary to drive eyeballs. Perhaps that is why Miss Scarlett made her honest statement about her libidinal intentions. As some guy said on some site, "So I still have a chance to get it on with Scarlett?" Yes, maybe you do if you act charming and catch her in the right mood. Buy her a cocktail and act soulful and deep, wounded but brave. It might work on her and, despite talent, she is not overly bright. Seduction is natural and women like love and sex.
Women are far better at that game than men, however. Women have the power.
The only conclusion I can draw at the moment is that candidates like Le Pen and Wilders really have the wizened heads at the European Union in a panic. The lesson we can take from this is found in observing the response. Actual freedom requires a robust rebuttal and persuasive argument against real hate speech. But in the EU they can simply make your speech disappear, and the powers that be get to determine what qualifies as acceptable.
I'll confess to using protein powders. I prefer the egg white powder because it is close to flavorless. I put it in water in the blender with a banana or a bunch of frozen berries as my after work-out breakfast. Since I do not enjoy fruit very much, that's my daily fruit.
However, this is not really using the powder as a supplement. I's just using it as breakfast with 25-30 gms of protein. Otherwise, my breakfast would be just two mugs of coffee.
Most trainers tell weight-lifters to have a dose of protein after heavy lifting. It sounds logical, but nutrition is a field packed with superstition and magical thinking. Other forms of exercise do not require a shot of protein because they do not produce muscle fiber damage.
Powders as supplement would, I think, entail maybe twice-daily use in addition to normal balanced meals. Since I can't get on board with three normal balanced meals, I probably should do a second dose of powder protein to make sure I have enough daily protein.
Another excellent calisthenic to add to a calisthenic circuit. The guy below does it with a push-up, but the push-up piece is optional. Yes, it is high-intensity exercise, great for endurance and cardio. I guess they ought to be done as quickly as possible.
Shipping by ships, that is. I have a pal whose dad was a sea captain. Those guys certainly lead interesting, useful, and colorful lives. Long trips. Women or wives in every port.
A kid of a friend went to the US Merchant Marine Academy, which is in NYC. It is a demanding program and it is difficult to gain admission. An excellent goal for a kid who doesn't want to live in a cubicle and who is interested in mechanics, leadership, and can handle some math. Not unlike the Naval Academy, really, without the guns.
This post, From Breakbulk To The Container, will take some of your time because the amazing vintage videos will captivate. I had not realized that there were steel sailing ships at the NYC docks into the 1930s. Wonderful.
17:1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves.
17:2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.
17:3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.
17:4 Then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
17:5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!"
17:6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.
17:7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be afraid."
17:8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.
17:9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, "Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."
Box jumps (and jumping squats) are types of Calisthenics which are technically plyometric.That is to say, explosive movement. Good stuff. Ball slams are the other explosive calisthenic exercise that I do routinely. All good additions to your grueling calisthenic circuits. 20" jumps are difficult after a while.
With calis, it's all about the circuits or what I call the circus in which you are the performing animal.
Don't forget to breathe during tough calisthenics - and everything else! We find the best way to remember to breathe during exercise is to make sure to exhale and the inhale will take care of itself. Coaches and trainers should say "Exhale," not "breathe." Oxygen is very good stuff for aerobic organisms.
How the Blue Model fails. For a century, this conservative Protestant state, the "Land of Steady Habits," was a state of tough Yankee self-reliance and no faith in or expectations from government of any sort. It had no income tax until recent years (damn that Republican jerk Gov. Lowell Weicker who put in the tax and fled the state to avoid his taxes as soon as he was out of office).
Weicker swore that the state income tax would solve all the problems. It was the opposite, with deeper and deeper debt and higher and higher taxes ever since. Did I mention that, since Weicker, the state has been basically bankrupt?
Under the Blue Model, jobs have fled, manufacturing has fled, the cities are in the ICU and run by various union, ethnic, or other mobsters and predators, and the government unions control the levers of government. Catastrophe. Few remember that in the 1960s Hartford was the most desirable small city in America according to Time magazine. Now it is a dangerous (at night) shithole of degeneracy, dependency, and hugely-expensive and failing government schools.
Pubiic schools in Hartford now cost taxpayers more than fancy private schools.
All the Liberals and Lefties now want to move to red states to survive which I find grimly amusing. Of course, they bring their blue votes with them.
Without the wealth of Fairfield County which is basically a prosperous suburb of NYC, the state wouid now be one of the saddest in the nation. A thin thread of hedge fund taxes barely holds the state together because government has killed the other industries and does its best to kill small businesses. The governor is a pathetic putz, a union hack. A sad story about how the Blue Government illness can kill the goose that laid golden eggs in a lovely New England state.
We stay here despite all the mess. I think it's the same reason people stay in California despite its mess. If you can figure out how to make a living and to minimize your taxes, it's still a fine home.
Good winter food, traditionally made with an assortment of wild game if you have some around, with pork and pork sausage, pig fat and duck fat. We now know that fat is good for you, contrary to what you were told for 20 years,
You can work around the wild game issue at the supermarket.
I've made it three times, using mixes of such ingredients as wild boar, snow goose breast, wild boar sausage, duck leg confit, pheasant leg confit, etc. Never red meat, though.
This casserole is white bean-based so it is hearty and a little bland. Comfort food.
Here's the most challenging recipe I can find. If you use confit, though, no need to strip the meat off the legs - just serve the legs. You can google cassoulet recipes to find simpler ones.
It's best served in a shallow bowl with what recipes always term a "full-bodied" red. In France and in my house it's traditionally accompanied by baguette and a cheese board of very stinky cheeses. They just go well together.
Best article I've seen about illegal immigration, at the leftist The Week:
President Trump has jumpstarted an important and rancorous debate about immigration that is likely to drag on for several years. Democrats are vitally important participants in that debate. But they will be more likely to shape its outcome if they make their case on the merits instead of denying the legitimacy of having the debate in the first place.
John Dryden was the literary giant of his time. He influenced many, especially Pope, and knew Marvell and Milton. Never read any Dryden - just one of countless holes in my education.
The fragment goes like this:
Oh that my Pow'r to Saving were confin’d: Why am I forc’d, like Heav’n, against my mind, To make Examples of another Kind? Must I at length the Sword of Justice draw? Oh curst Effects of necessary Law! How ill my Fear they by my Mercy scan, Beware the Fury of a Patient Man.
Lots of Dryden fragments and quotes here to get a sense of his clear, forceful style. He liked heroic couplets.
While Mrs. BD and I are planning all of our Spring and early summer weekend day hikes from the Hudson Highlands, to the Berkshires, to the White Mountains, the Bulldog and I are working on a plan for the Third Annual Maggie's Farm Urban Hike.
Hiking amongst rocks and trees is fine, but there is far more stuff to look at in the city.
It will be Manhattan again because we have not tramped every inch of the wonder-filled olde island yet. We have fun with New Yorkers on these hikes, but the out-of-towners get the best intro to the real city on foot on ten-mile hikes through all sorts of neighborhoods. People from all over have joined us in the past - very nice Maggie's friends. Good fun for all, if a bit hectic.
Our last hike went from the Lower East Side to Grant's Tomb, and included most of the length of Central Park. It was about a 12-mile hike.
When we're done, maybe Brooklyn next. Who knows? To me, Brooklyn beyond Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights, the BAM, and Junior's, is a mysterious foreign country. Oh, also Peter Luger's - everybody's favorite old-time steakhouse. Cobble Hill used to be so mobbed-up that nobody ever locked their car there. Now, I don't know. Probably all hipsters now. Did you know that if Brooklyn were still a separate city, it would be the 4th largest city in the USA?
For tentative plans (no date set), we're thinking Chinatown west to Tribeca, then uptown thru the West Village (which I love as does everybody), maybe the High Line, then uptown past Clement Moore's church (Chelsea was the name of his family farm and his family owned all of what is now known as Chelsea), maybe as far up as possible. I'd love to get to Hamilton's farmhouse in Hamilton Heights. Probably would take too long unless on horseback. (He used to commute from his law offices downtown to his farmhouse, up Broadway on horseback, on weekends.)
I wonder if we could get to the Cloisters. Likely not. It's not the crow's fly distance, it's the zigzags and the stoplights and the food and the bathroom stops.
Many medical treatments do not work, or do not provide the benefits desired. This is not because of deliberate quackery. It is more because of convention and the slowness of medical practice to change. Furthermore, marginal study results frequently have validity, but so marginally that there is no important clinical use. Try explaining that in court.
One example might be the treatment of borderline hypertension, which is dubious but in the US if a doc doesn't address it he'd be looked at askance because the current consensus is to treat. Next year, it might be the opposite. Another example is coronary artery stents.
Often one needs or desires knowledge and skills which do not lead to a degree but which extend your abilities and skills and, thus, your value and employability. The best source I am aware of is the NYU School of Professional Studies.Many of their courses are online.
It's practical education. I am all for it. Many things can be learned on the job, but it never hurts to know the stuff in advance and, after all, you have to be able to say something worthwhile in a job interview. Many or most of their courses are available online and are not expensive.
If you want deranged men in sundresses in your daughter's bathroom, raise your hand. And while we're on the topic, Mr. Cuomo, do your daughters want to see your penis in your bathroom? Maybe they do...I don't know. Girls are curious critters.
How the Blue Model fails. For a century, this conservative Protestant state, the "Land of Steady Habits," was a state of tough Yankee self-reliance and no faith in or expectations from government of any sort. It had no income tax until recent years (damn that Republican jerk Gov. Lowell Weicker who put in the tax and fled the state to avoid his taxes as soon as he was out of office).
Good winter food, traditionally made with an assortment of wild game if you have some around, with pork and pork sausage, pig fat and duck fat. We now know that fat is good for you, contrary to what you were told for 20 years,
I hunted down a misquote ("Beware the wrath of patient men") that was quoted in
While Mrs. BD and I are planning all of our Spring and early summer weekend day hikes from the Hudson Highlands, to the Berkshires, to the White Mountains, the Bulldog and I are working on a plan for the Third Annual Maggie's Farm Urban Hike.
New York has always been home to