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.
As we'd suspect, the shootings in Texas are being politicized by the anti-gun groups. It seems I can't turn around without some anti-gun nut calling for more laws, if not outright elimination of guns. As if that would actually stop these events. Of course, none of these people have called for elimination of autos or trucks, particularly after last week's events in NYC.
What we hear is 'but that was only 8 people killed by a truck while there were 58 in Vegas and 26 in Texas' as if scale is somehow meaningful. Frankly, I'm less concerned about numbers, and more concerned about means, motive and outcome. The assumption is that the means is a desire to use a weapon, so being concerned with autos is silly since few people use them as weapons. There is a massive flaw in this concept. Two flaws, really. First, they are used as weapons (Nice and London are just 2 recent examples, and ISIS has called for them to be used more...but I should add Charlottesville to the list) often enough to be of concern. Second, whether they are used as weapons or not, autos kill far more people every year than guns, and people aren't even trying. Imagine how the numbers would rise if they were. By any comparative measure, it's not even close. WE MUST BAN AUTOS AND TRUCKS!!
It's a class thing, not a policy thing. They would blackball Trump at their clubs, and so would I. But I prefer him as Pres to Hillary. I did not vote for somebody to be my friend.
Ten of Bird Dog's pals did the long loop (orange up, yellow down) on Storm King Mountain on Saturday. Actually, it wasn't the longest route which we would have preferred, but we missed the turn to make it 4 hrs. Would have been 12 people, but two spouses were under the weather. Perfect weather, high 40s to low-50s. Colder up top. There is some rock scrambling, just enough stair-climbing stretches when you can't catch your breath, and all of the trails are rocky but there are magnificent views of the Hudson River up top. It's just north of West Point, and we ran into some cadets doing a point-to-point over the mountains with 60-lb packs. Nice kids.
The route up that we took might be rated a 5/10 of 3/5 in some American systems, a 2-3/9 in the European system - but all rating systems vary and all are lousy. Descriptions are better. This hike quite manageable if not crippled or frail. Hiking poles definitely came in handy but our rule is always bring poles and especially if carrying a pack. We brought a drone and did some drone group pics from the top, and some drone panoramic views. We did it in 3 1/2 hours, but we didn't really stop for snacks or rests. Stopped only to fly the drone a couple of times, which is so cool to play with.
We saw migrating Broad Wing Hawks, a Merlin, an immature Bald Eagle (maybe a Golden - no binocs), and of course some migrating Turkey Vultures.
We finished up at Prima Pizza in Cornwall for great pizza and beer. Great choice. Try it.
Here's one of our team, perhaps familiar to our NYC Maggie's Urban Death Marches.
23:1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 23:2 "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; 23:3 therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. 23:4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. 23:5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. 23:6 They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, 23:7 and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. 23:8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. 23:9 And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father--the one in heaven. 23:10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. 23:11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 23:12 All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.
On a chilly evening in early March 1507, high in the Apennine Mountains of northern Italy, a group of cultivated gentlemen and ladies sit around the fire in the audience chamber of the Duchess of Urbino discussing the qualities of the perfect courtier.
Such is the setting of one of the most celebrated books of the Italian Renaissance, The Book of the Courtier (Il libro del cortegiano) by Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529), which was an international best-seller for a century after its first publication in 1528. The author, a minor nobleman from Mantua, was a humanistically-educated diplomat who served at the courts of northern Italy for most of his life, ending his career in Spain as Pope Clement VII’s nuncio to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V...
So sensitive to offended students, aren't they? As we keep trying to point out to the academic so-called grownups, these kids are manipulating you. And, as with 3 year-olds, the more you give in, the more they want.
Read shows that none of us knows enough to plan the creative actions and decisions of others.
We recall that American Indians had traded clam shells from Long Island (NY) for obsidian from the Dakotas. Free trade. I once saw that somebody tracked the pre-Columbian Indian trade routes across the Americas. I can't find it now.
" My family tree begins with what in fact is a tree, a cedar of straight grain that grows in Northern California and Oregon...."
It's dominating the news these days, and rightly so.
With humans, for whom it is natural to live within cultural/religious contexts, questions about "natural" are always fraught. However, I will claim that sexual abuse by women and men, but more by men because of dominance hierarchies, is part of the animal side of human nature like violence, etc. Human nature contains much unpleasantness.
There are errors in Freud's Civilization and It's Discontents, but he got the big picture right. Living a bourgeois civilized life is challenging for humanoid animals and, depending on the culture, demands some sorts of instinctual restraints or constraints, at least on regular folks. The elites get away with more, and the poor folks often end up in jail.
Claiming that something is "natural" does not claim any moral valence. However, even in a Christian culture like medieval Europe the knights and nobles pretty much had access to any female who took his fancy (and vice versa, in the fancy courts of Europe - if a princess summons you to her boudoir, No is not an answer). Today in American, females teachers are routinely called on the carpet for seducing their high school students (which is not very difficult to do). For many women, "star-f-ing" is a diverting hobby, so it works both ways.
One of the perquisites of wealth, power, dominance, or celebrity is access to sexual adventure without consequences. In our culture, we consider some of it immoral and some of it illegal. Other cultures have very different rules about sexual behavior.
My point is simply that, in our society, there is and has been far more sexual libertinism, rape, and abuse at all levels of society (but perhaps most at the lowest and highest) than people like to admit or confess. Until they are caught. The unleashed sex drive is a powerful force and in people who don't care much, power, money, lust, and indifference to law or societal codes can let animal spirits loose. Attila the Hun is said to have fathered 10,000 children, which is why most Europeans claim him as an ancestor. 10,000 were not consensual, I am certain. But I wasn't there.
An engaging random session about human history, climate change, Ice Ages, etc. Just advance past the ads for cashews. Carlson does make the point that atmospheric CO2 is now at the bottom of the scale. He is fun to listen to.
Most experienced trainers will tell you that it takes that long for a middle-aged-to-older person get into decent functional condition.
The human body is remarkably adaptable, but adaptation is not quick except at the very beginning of a 5-6 day/week program. Progress can seem fast for the first few months, assuming the starting point is poor condition, but then it gets slow.
What is poor condition? It's where I used to be. To find out, take a gym calisthenics class and see how you do, or get a trainer's assessment. He or she will discover your limits very quickly with agility tests, cardio tests, strength tests, endurance tests, and just by observing your body at rest and under effort. When I began, I was not overweight on a scale, but I was - with excess fat, and underweight in muscle. I ended up gaining 15+ lbs with little visible fat.
Why does it take that long to build a good foundation for future fitness-building and maintenance? Not for great fitness, just for passable fitness?
As I write, eight are dead - all men, five Argentines, one Belgian, all in the path of an Uzbek Muslim who decided to take a Home Depot pick-up truck down the bike path for 20 blocks mowing down bicycle after bicycle after bicycle before exiting the vehicle and yelling - go on, take a wild guess - "Allahu Akbar!" Well, I never! You could knock me over with a feather duster
More animal 
Denver Built Up Its Public Transit, but Where Are All the Riders? 
Humans love dogs 
Most experienced trainers will tell you that it takes that long for a middle-aged-to-older person get into decent functional condition.
Why do they always term these Muslim terrorists "deranged" and "cowardly"? They are neither.