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.
From the standpoint of the State, if you are not producing tax dollars on their tax farm then you are a liability and a burden. In my view, government involvement with, and control over, important personal things like education and medical care is a dangerous road.
I occasionally write about food superstitions and various peoples' clinging to their various notions of "healthy food." It is all cultural, of course. In America, we have the food obsessionals and the indifferent gourmands, but most are overweight and all will die. Contra most religions (including the Christian Mass), there is no food magic or magic food. Exceptions to that statement might be foie gras and ice cream.
The act of ingestion is embroidered with so much cultural meaning that, for most people, its roots in spare, brutal survival are entirely hidden. Even for people in extreme poverty, for whom survival is a more immediate concern, the cultural meanings of food remain critical. Wealthy or poor, we eat to celebrate, we eat to mourn, we eat because it’s mealtime, we eat as a way to bond with others, we eat for entertainment and pleasure. It is not a coincidence that the survival function of food is buried beneath all of this—who wants to think about staving off death each time they tuck into a bowl of cereal? Forgetting about death is the entire point of food culture.
When it comes to food, Becker said that humans “quickly saw beyond mere physical nourishment,” and that the desire for more life—not just delaying death today, but clearing the bar of mortality entirely—grew into an obsession with transforming the self into a perfected object that might achieve a sort of immorality. Diet culture and its variations, such as clean eating, are cultural structures we have built to attempt to transcend our animality.
Sanders is ignorant about real life. New businesses do not make money. They hope to. Reminds me of Hillary's famous "We can't worry about every undercapitalized business in America."
The American Climbing the Ranks of ISIS - John Georgelas was a military brat, a drug enthusiast, a precocious underachiever born in Texas. Now he is a prominent figure within the Islamic State. Here’s the story of his long and troubling journey.
Our realtor friend in Wellfleet is constantly tempting us with items. But we are smart: We rent on vacations and we are not rich. Who really wants more property maintenance when you could be reading, fishing, sailing, hiking, kayaking, or swimming? Who wants more drudgery?
The old Bookstore on the edge of Main St. is for sale. Not the Bookstore Restaurant, the old bookstore. Being a short walk to "downtown" is very desirable these days. A real bookstore in that tiny village is absurd, with tourists basically 2 months/yr. It's a house. Built 1830. Asking $648,000.
Is The Donald half-nuts? I sort-of think so. It's why he was elected. Overturn tables, rattle cages, slash and burn, etc.
I think I figgered it all out. His mom, Mary Ann Macleod, was a penniless immigrant from the Isle of Lewis, outside Stornaway. Lots of wild and crazy Clan Macleods up there - or used to be before most of them sensibly emigrated to America where the living is easy.
Trump's mom worked as domestic help in NYC before marrying Fred Trump, the real estate developer of German extraction.
As I understand it, the Hebrides islanders are like high-octane Highlanders. They had to be, to fight to survive the elements, the sea, the Danes, rival clans, and the Brits. Women as tough and stubborn as the men. A semi-civilized, fighting, reckless, ignorant, defiant breed.
Conan the Barbarian was modeled after highland Celtic warriors. Barbarians. America was fed up with its elite overlords who always knew better than us, the great unwashed.
There is a lot of college marketing going on. At some point, colleges realized that they were an industry with a large social and entertainment component.
Parsi’s cynical histrionics, like the incessant cries over a nonexistent “Muslim ban,” are symptoms of a larger problem with the left’s reaction to Donald Trump, who indeed poses a genuine menace to both this country and the world. Consider: In the months following his upset presidential victory late last year, three white men screaming Trump’s name assaulted a young Muslim woman on the Manhattan 6 train and tried to rip off her hijab, a black church in Mississippi was firebombed with “Vote Trump” spray-painted on its brick wall, a Jewish family fled Lancaster County in Pennsylvania after receiving threats for exempting their child from an elementary school Christmas pageant, and just last week an elderly Iraqi woman died awaiting medical treatment because she was barred from entering the United States due to Trump’s executive order.
Fortunately, none of these things actually happened...
What if time has passed the Left by? What if its future is the past? The frightening question must be faced. One solution says Harris, is for the Left to completely rearchitecture itself, starting with an abanonment of the proletariat by accepting that traditional work no longer exists. Having left the greasy workplace it should become instead a lifestyle party.
... I was bemused as I thought back to those halcyon male chauvinist days of the 1960’s and 70’s when I, along with virtually all American males, were berated because, per the feminists, we supposedly only viewed women as the sum of their bodily parts. It now appears, based on the words of that pillar of intellectual prowess Ashley Judd and others, that women are, in fact, the sum of their bodily parts. By the way ladies, congratulations: you have, in public, far exceeded whatever you think the banter regarding women is in the privacy of male locker rooms. So now what is the sequel to grab attention, as so much time remains in the Trump presidency? There aren’t many options remaining beyond an endless cavalcade of public nudity as these so-called feminist groups have pretty much plumbed the depths of verbal depravity. But the nation will be watching and waiting for the curtain to rise on the next act of the Feminist Follies.
A problem is that many of these people seem to lack the physical and personality charms which appeal to men, so I suspect that nudity is not a good political tactic. If men want to connect with harsh, cranky, or manly women who lack feminine charm, they can just link up with guys and get the real deal. Nobody cares nowadays.
Photo is the Maggie's Farm professional Tractor Traction Tester. Equal wages.
We consider planks to be a basic in the calisthenic component of a fitness program. While many planks are really isometric, I'll put them under the calisthenic umbrella along with more active planks like Mountain Climbers and Burpees.
Regular elbow or straight-arm planks are good uses of "rest" periods between weight-lifting, too. Planks are not really cosmetic, for creating visible 6-packs. You will never do that. They are core-strengtheners, which means torso. A sturdy torso is one's core.
I probably do 8-10 30-60-second planks of various types weekly, usually as part of supersets. Not much, but it fills the time. I do plenty of other calis that make demands on core, but all exercise stresses the core because...it's the core.
While I voted for Trump, I always suspected that he was a closet NY lefty. He is not. He is neither lefty nor righty, but a common-sense pragmatist with big balls and, while he acts thin-skinned, in many ways he is fearless and just doesn't care. Interesting character, for whom a political career is only secondary.
That was quite a game last night, wasn't it? Commenter at Gateway:
The Falcons plan to file a lawsuit saying the Patriots may have had the highest score but Atlanta should be declared the winner since they rushed for the most yards.
Gwynnie's photo from yesterday. Buried in snow today 
Is The Donald half-nuts? I sort-of think so. It's why he was elected. Overturn tables, rattle cages, slash and burn, etc.
An Eagle
From 
Study: 
Today's real headline: 
