Maggie's Farm

They sent us a packing list for our upcoming hiking expedition in the Outer Hebrides, between Scotland and Iceland, where it is chilly with some rain almost daily in June. Wilderness Scotland.  Hiking poles? You betcha. It's rocky hills and marshy dells for 6-7 hour daily marches. If the daily reward is a little whiskey, I am game.

Mrs. BD has a thing about remote islands. Always has. And I am a pretty good sport even though generally I am more content working than traveling: Happy wife, happy life.

Few people live out there anymore. Those with any sense came to America generations ago. So did Trump's mother, who was a poor girl from Stornoway 

Markets are communication systems 

The Biggest Lie in Fitness - And the Truth About Building Muscle and Losing Fat

Despite the left’s best efforts, the Dakota Access Pipeline is now delivering oil

 Desired for their labor, rejected as neighbors. Farmworkers in California face hostile communities

Paris: Trump Blocks First of Obama's 'Three Authoritarianisms'

 The Left’s Unhinged Freakout over Trump’s Paris Accord Withdrawal:

 Celebrities who still haven’t learned that their endorsement of anyone or anything usually yields the opposite of the intended effect also weighed in on Trump’s move. Hollywood’s most prolific climate celeb — the bed-hopping, jet-setting, yacht-cruising Leo DiCaprio — said he hoped Trump would make the “moral” decision to stay in Paris, then tweeted shortly after the president’s announcement that “today, our planet suffered.” Unhinged showgirl Bette Midler tweeted that Trump’s exit gave “BigOil a windfall” and that “there has never in US history been such a destructive megalomaniac in the WH. Thank you to US press and other numbskulls who put him there.”

Mark Ruffalo, known more for his environmental activism than for his marginal acting, tweeted that if Trump left Paris, the president would “have the death of whole nations on his hands. People will be looking to the USA for retribution for what they loose [sic].” Actress Alyssa Milano, who is approximately 0 for 432 on helping political candidates win, tweeted: “Oh my God, you really are a monster. @realDonaldTrump.” But the topper could go to George Takei of Star Trek fame, who tweeted: “Trump is having us pull out of the Paris Climate Accord. Too bad someone didn’t tell his father that he shoulda pulled out too.”''

The Mao-lings on campus 

 Yale prof: Trump’s ‘mental impairment’ a ‘state of emergency’

The shrink needs medicating 

Campus insanity will get worse before it gets better

 The Dumb Politics of Elite Condescension

Charles Murray: 9 Facts You Might Not Know - He has done a lot more than just write 'The Bell Curve.'

Girl stuns America's Got Talent judges with her mind-boggling singing ventriloquism.

 Third Detection of Gravitational Waves Confirmed

 To defend a higher minimum wage, San Fran looks at… banning robots

 Madison, Wisconsin, might become the next town to subsidize godawful sculptures.

 For first time, physician practice owners are not the majority

That means they are not working for you 

 The Era of the Drama Queens: Every Crisis Is a Triumph

Cross-cultural sex differences in activities 

Transgender Athlete With a Mustache Wins First Place at High School Girl’s Track and Field Championship

 The paper fires its public editor for resisting the Resistance.

 Offered Assisted Suicide in Place of Treatment

Just like Europe 

 A Graduate’s Perspective: Thought Police Are Undermining Higher Education

 In one graph, why the #ParisAgreement is useless

 Here's What Federal Regulations Cost Your Family This Year

 CUNY's Curious Defense of Linda Sarsour

 Here's a List of Everyone & Everything Hillary Has Blamed for Her Loss

 Why Do the Young Reject Capitalism?

Because they know neither history nor econ 

 Was Obama administration illegal spying worse than Watergate?

 Bringing manufacturing jobs back to America turns out to be complicated

"... nothing the liberals have done since last November’s humiliation has sought to expand the Democrats’ constricted base to include us normals.

VDH:  If German haughtiness works on a dependent Europe, it certainly does not always impress a wary America.

 The Left’s Unilateral Suicide Pact - After the Manchester bombing, liberals once again avoid the obvious—that Islamic terror in the West is an immigration problem.

 Palestinian wave of violence marked by increased female role

Must be viewed as work for women and children. Funny about that. Must be a cultural thing.

Via Samizdata:

 Post-Brexit Britain will no longer be bound by an EU Code of Conduct that seeks to police the online speech of over 500 million citizens and ban ‘illegal online hate speech’. Or an EU law that encourages the criminalisation of ‘insult’. Or a proposed EU law that undermines fundamental freedoms by purging Europe of every last shred of supposed ‘discrimination’ […] There is just one, small problem: when it comes to censorship and the quashing of civil liberties, the UK doesn’t need any encouragement from the EU, or anybody else.

– Paul Coleman

Besides being assigned grueling trips, daily links, editing posts, and other responsibilities like a day job , I have been assigned this whole fitness/conditioning research task. Working for Maggie is a tough job and the pay sucks.

Now Maggie has assigned me to try out some of my new gym's 6 am athleticism classes. Despite being in much better shape and stronger than I was 2 years ago, this turned out to be a serious challenge. One hour of mixed calisthenics with NO RESTING. The no resting to catch your breath was the killer.  Also, I hit the wall with the number of Burpees with push-ups and jumps. The hour included 50 total mixed sorts of burpees, and at some point I could no longer get my knees up under me. Failure. I was not the only one having a little trouble with that, but almost the only one. I struggled with all of the sit-ups too. Proof that I am not yet as fit as I need to be - it was a good test. My only ego-supporting thought was that lots of middle-aged guys would have a very tough time completing this class at all.

There were about 40 people in the class, a third men - regular guys, not lifters. All except one guy had some grey-hairs and one was a fit 75 year-old who beat me in one of the 300-meter rows. The gals aged about 35-65, all very gung-ho. Not all were svelte but they were strong and agile women who certainly exercised often, probably almost daily. Horrible thumping music but I understand why. The trainer wanted us to exercise to the beat but I could not keep that pace most of the time. All weights were 5-10 lb dumbells - no heavies but it was the reps that got you.

Details below the fold -