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.
Let's face it, there's going to be a new, and most likely completely baseless, instance of Trump derangement blaring from the front pages of the New York Times and Washington Post more or less every day for at least the next three and a half years. It can be amusing to make fun of these things, but at some point the Manhattan Contrarian has to find something better to do. How about looking into recent reporting on Venezuela?
Based on a tip from a reader, I turned to interior page A4 of Monday's edition of the New York Times...
OK, but worse probably in the social sciences. Generally, it is very easy to cheat in science. Biggest problem might be that negative results are almost never published.
...power, while dangerous in anyone’s hands, is especially dangerous in the hands of people who are enticed during early adulthood into believing both that they are fit to order others about and that such commandeering of the lives of others is noble rather than nefarious.
LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP!
There are (at least) two kinds of tantrums: irrational volcanic explosions and manipulative tantrums. Spanking does not work for the former, but works for the latter. The problem is that the kids know to mainly have the latter in public places, like in supermarkets. They know what they are doing.
What works best for older kids, like college students with tantrums?
Good morning, kids. I am actually sitting here absolutely stunned and amazed at the spectacle we are witnessing. A duly elected President and his advisors are being systematically, methodically crippled by a witch hunt that has been manufactured out of whole cloth by the media. It has been so pervasive and poisonous that the media's underlings in the Democrat party, along with their willing accomplices in the GOP wing, are now openly discussing impeachment proceedings, based on nothing. Actually, less than nothing. Nothing-Lite. Remember that the standard Leftist playbook is that the veracity of the allegation is not important: it's the seriousness of the charge. When Jeff Sessions recused himself way back when, it opened the door for the Left to demand more and more concessions and put the President and his team on perpetual defense. I'm not a fan of Dick Morris at all, but he's 100% correct in his analysis that the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate, again NOTHING, does one thing: puts a taint of guilt on the President and serves to delegitimize his entire agenda, which is exactly what the Left wants, impeachment or not. And let's not forget the crickets coming from our putative side of the aisle. Call it fear or call it collusion with the Left (let's face it, PDT is an enemy to the GOP-e as much as he is to the Left), this is sabotage, or as Jeffrey Lord puts it "a high-tech lynching of an uppity president."
But let's step back for a moment...
Read it all. Of course the press wants to take Trump down. It is just a partisan thing, the sport called scalp-hunting, because Trump isn't even a conservative.
Lust, infatuation, True Love, erotic intoxication, romantic passion - call it what you will. We all know that new passion is exhilarating and agonizing too. Humans will do unwise things to taste that fruit. From a scientific standpoint, this is caused by a little devilish prankster named Cupid who gets a kick out of making people crazy.
It is obviously a normal and frequent occurrence, and it is powerful stuff. How is a bourgeois Christian person to handle it when Cupid's arrow strikes in a way which complicates life? How to break free when you have feelings for the wrong person.
We are convinced that a balanced fitness program is the best route for ordinary people who just want to stay Fit For Life, with all-round functional fitness being the goal. Some readers disagree with our view, but that's ok. We're happy to hear your opinions because fitness remains a field with more questions than answers, every body is different, and everybody is an expert.
Readers know that our idea of "balanced" entails a mix of cardio, calisthenics, and strength-building/strength-maintenance while getting into fighting shape with enough protein and neither too much nor too little fat on your bones.
Some athletes, and many exercisers, tend to focus on just one of the three categories. That is unbalanced. Pure cardio exercisers (treadmill jockeys, runners, bikers, swimmers) tend to be weak in muscle and bone. Many guys who just lift can't run or hike up hills 15 miles or negotiate a ladder drill. And so forth.
One sensible way to structure a balanced 5 day/wk program is to put a 30- min HIIT (anaerobic) cardio day after a weights day, and a 45-60 min endurance (aerobic, aka "fat-burning") cardio day for the day after the second weight day. Then fit in a calisthenics/plyometric day somewhere else. That schedule allows 48+hr recovery from the strength days because the cardio doesn't interfere with muscle recovery, while heavy calis can. That's our under-5 hr/wk fitness program. Every high school and college should offer, or require, something like that.
My high school did require weights, sprints, and calisthenic drills for everybody for an hour after lunch, followed by your daily sport afterwards. They rightly figured that adolescent boys needed it, and the coaches were like drill sergeants. Mens sana in corpore sano. I think only elite private high schools require things like that now. It's a shame because all kids should have the chance to learn about fitness routines.
Answers to FAQs about the Maggie's recommendations are below the fold -
The retired general said he can live with Trump's inexperience, as everyone lacks experience when they start a new job. However, he said he's more focused on Trump's "seeming lack of humility in the face of obvious inexperience."
"Here is a president who seems to go into these encounters with, frankly, an unjustified self-confidence in the ability of his person to make these things come out right," said Hayden. "He throws away, pushes to the side, and doesn't pay attention to what the institutions of the government have set up for him to be successful."
... wait a minute! Isn't the President specifically allowed to reveal classified information to other countries if he wants to? Indeed, isn't that the very essence of being given the authority (by the Constitution!) to conduct the foreign policy of the United States? Of course the President has that authority! I would have said that the whole idea behind collecting classified information in the first place is to assist the President in conducting the foreign policy of the United States in whatever manner as he may see fit in his discretion. And, while Russia and the U.S. may be geopolitical rivals on many subjects, the two countries certainly share an interest in preventing having their aircraft blown up by ISIS terrorists. (Recall that an ISIS bomb blew up a Russian aircraft over Egypt back in December 2015.) Why wouldn't the President and senior Russian officials discuss this subject when they have one of their infrequent chances to meet? And why wouldn't they share information to help each other prevent future attacks?
So what is it about this story that makes it news at all, let alone front page news?
Hermann Rorschach worked on an interesting experiment: provide people with an ambiguous stimulus (an image) and find out whether their take on it reveals anything useful about them.
Well, of course it does. In fact, everybody's take on everything and anything reveals things about who they are. All of life can be viewed as a projective experiment but Dr. Rorschach thought that perhaps a standardized ambiguous stimulus might be clinically useful.
I think his hypothesis was correct, but only in the right hands. The challenge is in the interpretation of the responses to projective tests.
Are projective "tests" useful? I think they can be interesting, but not necessary.
This is not the first time Berkeley administrators have lost control of the campus. The supposed irony that the home of the legendary 1960s Free Speech Movement has become inhospitable to the speech of anyone who departs from campus orthodoxy has become a commonplace observation in recent weeks. But this perception has the matter backwards. The seeds of today's stifling campus conformism trace back directly to that misunderstood episode. Far from being an example of true campus openness, the Free Speech Movement was a key inflection point on the way to the ruin of our universities. The one common denominator then and now is the ineptitude and pusillanimity of college administrators and the capitulation of faculties to the demands of radicalized students.
Dying towns are indeed due to labor needs and labor markets, but I do not see any positive role for government in that. Negative role? Certainly. It's easy to tax businesses away. Some towns have to shrink into villages and hamlets, while other places far away become boom towns. It was forever thus.
When a town loses its tax base, it is done as a place. Ghost town, EBT-land, tattooland, boarded-up-land, meth and heroin-land. It does come to that. I have seen those towns, and so has Charles Murray. Eventually, the only decent jobs are government jobs, and then they go away too. Feudalism was good for villages and the serfs always had work.
Major urban centers, worldwide, continue to be the places with economic opportunity and cultural vitality. Rural life isn't the romantic fantasy that some imagine, unless it's a rustic second home getaway.
How ya gonna keep them down on the farm, after they've seen Paree?
Our Sportsmen’s club held our Take A Vet Fishing event Saturday. This marks our seventh year in a row of hosting the group. In spite of the threat of rain, around 45 vets showed up for a morning of fishing in our stocked pond (over 100 trout caught), as well as lunch.
Take A Vet fishing was formed about ten years ago as a program of a local Congregational Church. The first year we hosted these folks, we were afraid no one would show up – about 20 did. It’s grown since then and this year’s event attendance was held down only by the weather.
So here’s my plea, Mr. President: Make it easier for others to keep the faith. You’ll accomplish much more and many more Americans will be proud to stand with you.
Our leader Bulldog planned a West Side route this year, from the fountain at Lincoln Center (where they filmed some scenes in West Side Story when it was rubble) to the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire just east of Washington Square in Greenwich Village - with more interesting detours and zig-zags to sites than I can report or remember. He reported briefly here.
From Lincoln Center to transport home, I clocked 13.8 miles, with sore quads. My sis, who just had a hip replacement after a running accident, handled it all and is eager for the next hike. It's just far more interesting than her usual country hiking, with so much to look at and to talk about. Golly, as a country boy I do love this crazy city and any out-of-towners who hike with us come to feel the same way.
Before I post a few random street pics, two free ads: first, Artichoke Pizza. After going into Moore's ancient Chelsea church, we strolled through Chelsea Market (good fun, lots of food and stuff) and headed up a block to their location on 10th Ave. in Chelsea. Best New York pizza I have found - ever. Thin pizza, oily and slightly burnt the way I like it. Many cool beers on tap. Fast, rough NYC-style service: you had better know exactly what you want when you're up. Perfect for a cool drizzly day.
The cupcake ad is for Magnolia Bakery on Bleecker St. Perfect cupcakes. Stupid to resist cuz life is short and you do not get there every day.
Marianne would have liked this post. From Lincoln Center, we headed downtown on Broadway thru Columbus Circle, noting the huge new "pencil" high-rises going up on Central park South -
How often do you hear people say "I never lost 8 of the pounds I put on with my first kid" ? Clearly women do not need to be menopausal or post-menopausal to gain weight. Just look around at all the fat American women.
I think it matters in life to stay trim and strong, whether pre- or post-menopausal. You can be more athletic, agile, energetic, sexy, cheerful, and able to avoid many of the physical consequences of being overweight from plantar fasciitis and arthritis to breast cancer.
Plus it makes life more fun and you can wear better clothes. Except for those blessed with the right genes (physical and psychological), most people have to take deliberate responsibility for their level of fitness and, in the modern world of sedentary ease and carb abundance, it can be a challenge if you have an impulsive rather than obsessive-compulsive personality.
Is getting fat partly a socio-cultural phenomenon? Of course, but that's a more complicated subject than I wish to take on on Mother's Day. What about the middle-aged men making themselves pudgy? That's another sad topic too, but I believe that it is part of the duty of a wife to keep her man fit for life even if she "lets herself go". An obvious risk in that, though...
Post-menopausal women do have a greater chance of gaining weight even if they have been fit and shapely beforehand. It should not be used as an excuse, but the changes in sex hormones do alter fat storage and, seemingly, metabolic rate. Why nature designed it that way is a mystery, but nature has little need for post-menopausal females. Society needs them, but Mother Nature does not.
Generally speaking, post-menopausal women need far fewer carbs and less food in general than in youth almost entirely regardless of activity level. Another change is that the physical distribution of fat (from excess carb intake) changes in unhealthy and unattractive ways (unattractive in our culture, anyway).
As with lobsters, for conservation purposes it is better to eat the small ones and release the big ones. Laws are often irrational. Small sea critters have poor survival rates anyway, but the big breeders matter for the future.
Rational and effective conservation law would be to keep the small ones and throw back the big ones.
Let's just go along with the culture even if some of these days are commercial inventions to sell stuff. After all, moms do deserve special attention.
So thanks to my Mom (photo) for producing me, thanks to my mother-in-law for producing my wife, and thanks to my daughter-in-law for producing two rambunctious little baby boys.
14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.
14:2 In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
14:4 And you know the way to the place where I am going."
14:5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?"
14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
14:7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."
14:8 Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied."
14:9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
14:11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.
14:12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
14:13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
He bought the house at 94 MacDougal St in the West Village but celeb-sniffers got the best of him. He was young, didn't realize that he was as famous as he was, a "prophet for a generation." He loved NYC the most but fled to privacy in Malibu and promptly set about proving that he wasn't any prophet. Then his wife dumped him and he crashed.
We know he still skulks around the Village alone and anonymously in a hoodie, when he's on tour in the area. Few people recognize the strange old little guy ducking into music joints and pubs. I would.
Manhattan Contrarian informs me that the interior of Dylan's old block contains a large private garden. Must be nice in there.
A book by John Hawkins: 
Hermann Rorschach worked on an interesting experiment: provide people with an ambiguous stimulus (an image) and find out whether their take on it reveals anything useful about them.
How often do you hear people say "I never lost 8 of the pounds I put on with my first kid" ? Clearly women do not need to be menopausal or post-menopausal to gain weight. Just look around at all the fat American women.
Let's just go along with the culture even if some of these days are commercial inventions to sell stuff. After all, moms do deserve special attention.