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.
I would answer No. The sex drive is strong in most people. Bill Clinton did not have a "stronger more manly sex drive" than other people; he was just a predator and exploiter. Manly men don't do that even if they want to because the key to "manly" is self-mastery, not self-indulgence or mastery of others - especially women.
Are there badly-behaved people, criminal people, boorish people, and people with poor self-control out there? Of course, as in all areas of life besides sex.
Related, THE PURGE OF THE DEVIANTS MAY GO TOO FAR. Regarding that piece, I'd remove the terms "deviants" and "pervs" that I keep hearing. Historically, rich and powerful men were free to use women as they wished to fulfill their fantasies without consequence. The Kennedys were famous for that, as were British royalty. I'd prefer to talk about decent and indecent behavior except in the cases of assault or rape, in which cases I would discuss criminality.
The "photogenic," like aesthetics in general, is socio-culturally defined. We seem to have a few categories for photos: Nature scenes, kids at play, quaint scenes, people who look interesting or attractive, and images used to document moments or things. At this point, a lot of them are cliches (sunsets, waves, babies, old men on benches, etc).
Painting is a Cropsey, Hudson River. We're looking at a photogenic photo image of a picturesque painting of people looking at picturesque scenery.
This is the best, easy, at-home calisthenics routine I have found for beginners, male or female. After a month of this routine daily, anybody would be ready to advance to a more intense calisthenic routine or, preferably, a more intense general fitness program. Still, this is not as easy as it looks. Gals, get your guy to join you in this every morning, and keep up with the gals on the video even if parts of it seem silly.
I am a believer in calisthenics for flexibility, athleticism, cardio, agility, vigor, sexuality, and mental health. A great way to roll out of bed and begin the day by getting the blood moving and to wake up the brain. (Their virtual jump rope is good but real would be better.)
If John Conyers were a Republican, Cokie and her fellow females in the press corps would have wired themselves up with spy cameras and intentionally rode the elevators with Conyers day after day, capturing every lurid moment until they had enough to run an hour long expose on Nightline.
But he isn't, so they left this predator to prey on other unsuspecting females instead.
They still don't get that Trump is smarter than the lot of them. They think that because he does not speak as they do, because his sentence structure is unlike their own, he must be stupid. They are slow learners.
The male desire to interact with, flirt with, or hit on charming females will never be eradicated no matter how hard the man-haters try. We can accept that groping and touching in the wrong context are over the top, and not effective ways to initiate a connection anyway.
As an aside, I wonder why so many of these recently-exposed skirt-chasers are so into presenting themselves nude to women. I am thinking of Weinstein, Charlie Rose, Al Gore, etc etc. Do they really think they look good naked? Or are they delusional? Not from personal experience, but it seems to me that the only guys who look great without clothing are gays. Women, on the other hand...
Secret truth: Guys wish that appealing women would hit on them. Guys complain that they have to take all the risk and do all the work in this game. Generally speaking, guys don't mind being grabbed by appealing females, but it doesn't happen in normal life much.
Can't we simply accept that male-female interactions frequently contain elements of fun with sexual overtones, and that life without that would be dreary indeed.
Not for walkers, but for those who really want to Move It With Vigor over hill and dale and and clamber over steep rocks: The Best Five Hiking Pants
I have the Pranas and the Montanes. The thing is that, for cold weather, they are easy to layer underneath. Re the Montanes, Amazon doesn't have them but Montane USA does. Their sizing is not US sizing, so check the sizing for those great water-resistant hiking/climbing pants.
Life has its vales of tears, but also its hills of delights and, very rarely, its mountaintops of joy. Sometimes I wonder whether the mandarins of my profession seek to pathologize all negative emotions.
Nobody promised you a rose garden. That was Eden. Learning to bear emotional pain, like bearing some physical pain, is part of life. It never hurts, of course, to have somebody or something accompanying you with that.
Many students are given just one lens—power. Here’s your lens, kid. Look at everything through this lens. Everything is about power. Every situation is analyzed in terms of the bad people acting to preserve their power and privilege over the good people. This is not an education. This is induction into a cult. It’s a fundamentalist religion. It’s a paranoid worldview that separates people from each other and sends them down the road to alienation, anxiety and intellectual impotence.
Perhaps it is projection. It seems to me that most Americans, at least, seek power only over their own lives to seek their own form of satisfaction as best they are able to. Meanwhile, the power-seekers seek control over poor little us who only want to be left alone and to be given nothing.
It's not a rant, but the Prof sure does unload a lot of info and insight in this short clip. "Of course you can just compare yourself to the few people who are richer than you and feel sorry for yourself, but that's pretty pathetic in my estimation"
All Americans, not only in the states most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public services they use impose burdens on our taxpayers. That’s why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens. In the budget I will present to you, we will try to do more to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes, to better identify illegal aliens in the workplace as recommended by the commission headed by former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.
It is a memorable tune. I think this cute tune was written by the deplorable Pete Seeger, here done by Dulcimer Dave.
Be brave. Even sturdy people have to summon up some courage sometimes to do what has to be done. Be bold and try a cardio/calisthenics class at your local torture center gym. It's much more varied, relentless, and challenging than whatever you might do on your own. A good thing about cardio/calis, unlike weight training, is that they need no recovery period, except maybe a catnap.
Let's face it. Some people are high energy, some low. Low-energy, though, is remediable even if over age 50. It takes courage to go the first time. After that, you get to know all the nice people, get the idea of the routines, and it becomes a kind of terrible painful fun. There is no expectation that you can do everything that is demanded by the Boss. He says "Give me 30 slap push-ups." So you do fifteen with your dance partner. I have a great partner for the pairing exercises with a maybe-60 year-old gal with the most brilliant smile in the world. Beware, Mrs. BD. Well, you just do your best, sweat up a storm, learn some humility, and limp out of the place after 50 or 60 mins, all pumped up and ready for a quick nap before you begin your day. Most people are still lolling in bed so you get to feel morally and spiritually superior.
As I have said, we have athletes in their 20s, and a bunch of men and women in their late 60s, and everything in between. Some are heavy, some are perfect. It's friendly with an upbeat feeling, but there is little time to talk because you can never catch your breath. Still I do my best with wise-ass commentary as you might expect from me.
OK, so we were outside for 20 minutes at 29 degrees (F) for the warm-up in the parking lot. Shorts and t-shirts. We warmed up quick with sprints, jogs, jump rope, before we went indoors. Wonderful to work up a warm-up sweat in below-freezing weather. To make it more fun, we tossed little beach footballs around during it all.
Anything beats sitting. Get-up-and-go has to be practiced and nurtured, like everything else. Just three of those cardio/calis sessions a week would do anybody a lot of good for energy, balance and agility, and general joie de vivre, even though it's not what our serious fitness recommendations are. It's not about strength as much as about preventing deterioration, decay, and laziness. Good for your sex life too. Let's not forget that detail.
1:15 I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason
1:16 I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.
1:17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him,
1:18 so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints,
1:19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.
1:20 God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
1:21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.
1:22 And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church,
1:23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
At Maggie's we tend to recommend Christmas gifts like activities and trips rather than material things that moth and rust do corrupt. Of course, if you have a kid that needs something like a computer or a hat, boots, and gloves, I suppose you have to do that but, in general, it seems that very few Americans need any more stuff.
A good stocking-stuffer: The Alltrails Pro app.It's half-price right now, $14 for a year's membership.
We always do two turkeys, one on the grill over a wood and charcoal fire, and one stuffed and in the oven. We make sure there is an overabundance of TG food so those who want to have a next-day mini Thanksgiving at home can have one.
Since stuffing is what a TG meal is really all about, I made three varieties this year. I cheated and did it the easy way with those Pepperidge Farm unseasoned croutons. Immoral I know but, dammit, it's supposed to be fun, not work.
So I made three pans of stuffings - one giblet with the livers, one sausage, and one fruit. The fruity one was most popular, I think. I used half of it to stuff the oven bird.
I soaked a bag of quartered dried apricots and a box of currants in white wine for a few hours (had no Bourbon which is recommended, and some raisins would have been good too), chopped up about 2 cups of walnuts. Sauteed a big onion and some celery (some apple chunks would have been good also). Had a lot of chopped fresh parsley, and threw it all into the aluminum pan with the croutons with 2 cups of fresh cranberries.
Then lots of ground pepper, and a tsp each of ground clove, cinnamon, and ginger. Added three eggs. Toss and mix with hands, then add enough warm turkey or chicken broth (with half or a whole stick of melted butter) to make it a little soggy, and toss again.
You might like it. I think I'll do this again for Christmas instead of our usual standing pork rib roast.
Photo is my grilled turkey. Most of the black is the bacon I covered it with. I filled the cavity with all the beer, chicken broth, and honey it could hold, and put the rest in the pan. Had to add more beer as it cooked. Lots of liquid keeps it from drying out. Does bacon go with turkey? Duh. The sauce in that pan was dynamite. I don't know why I bother with a dull oven-baked turkey.
DEMOCRAT NEWS NETWORK: CNN Fails To Report These 24 Democrat Sex Scandals. All of the Democrat sex scandals that CNN has failed to report on have made news in 2017, with 19 of the 24 making news within the last month.
Photos: Above, Romanian bread lines under socialism, below, Romanians line up for new iPhone, Via 
A Madness
Photo of a SF bus from my California buddy 
We always do two turkeys, one on the grill over a wood and charcoal fire, and one stuffed and in the oven. We make sure there is an overabundance of TG food so those who want to have a next-day mini Thanksgiving at home can have one.
How Does Costco 