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.
Again, a Christmas book only for those who wish to continue or to update their secondary or college educations: Campbell's Biology.
It is the current basic text, and it guarantees a thorough grounding in the basics. If you shop around on line, you can find it for much less than the list price.
A magnificent book, clear and easy to read if you recall some basic biochem. If you took college bio ten years ago, you know almost nothing.
For him, his accumulated stuff is like a joke on his inheritors. He does understand that no amount of possessions can fill an emotional or spiritual hole.
My experience is that most people stop accumulating stuff and possessions around age 50, and begin getting rid of it all slowly thereafter. How many ties, jackets, socks, sweaters, shirts, cooking pans, decorations, lamps, chairs, tables, china sets, serving platters, do I need?
We would have an abundant life without buying a single material thing (other than food) for the next ten years. I will admit that dress clothing becomes outdated and can look ridiculous or like thrift shop goods, so that does need to be replaced. As the kids grow in independence, I will encourage them to take anything here that they want, but they won't want it. They will have their own ways and their own tastes, and all of our stuff will end up in a large dumpster someday. I can live with that.
The sad answer is "Not really." Only moving the heavy weights can improve strength efficiently, but some calisthenics can at least maintain strength, prevent muscle decay, and maybe build a little strength too if not just muscle endurance.
That post mentioned some of those key lower body exercises.
Below the fold, good video tips on often-neglected Side Lunges and correct technique for Body-Weight Squats (We believe in "Ass To Grass").
As I said to Tucker Carlson the other night, the demographic transformation of the western world is "the biggest story of our time", and it will indeed determine all the others.
Maybe Donald Trump is just not your type of guy, and certainly not the guy you would want to be President; but keep in mind who was the alternative. Before these things fade into the memory hole, bring back to mind a few of the wildly incompetent policies of the previous administration...
Wherever men and women spend time together, emotional things can happen. Actually, whenever any people spend time together, emotional things happen: attraction, enjoyment, revulsion, admiration, irritation, enchantment, envy, disdain, boredom, indifference, and everything else.
It's a given that the propensity for love/romance/sexual interest, to varying degrees, is a common, normal, and healthy subtext of human interaction. No number of social rules or boundary-construction can get rid of that, so it is common enough for people to fall so heavily that they arrive at "Damn the rules, the heck with everybody. I want this more than anything else". I see it all the time because things often do not work out well.
The way I see it. Conservatives like me did not elect Donald Trump. The Liberals did by driving ordinary working class Americans round the bend with their left-wing insanity, their incredible arrogance, and their contempt for America and Americans. Trump is the ordinary American-in-the-street’s rejoinder. And they obviously deserve it.
As an anti-Trumper, he advises not listening to Trump at all but to just see what his admin is doing
The final night of Hanukkah and Christmas is bursting out all over. Lots of things to cover so let us commence. Leading off we have President Trump who delivered a national security speech for the ages. Calling his strategy "principled realism," it is exactly that. In short, for the world to be a better and freer place, America must be an economic and military powerhouse. He also urged tighter, saner immigration policy and renewed his pledge to build the border wall. With the Dow Jones poised to hurtle through the 25,000 point barrier, business and consumer confidence is at an all-time high; certainly at a level we have not felt in nearly 20 years. The President knows and understands that American decline is not inevitable. Despite the lost decade of the Obama years, where we had political and cultural elites who not only thought that the best we could do was manage the decline but who actively took a sledgehammer to our institutions to hasten the decline, this president's first year in office has been a rhetorical and actual declaration of "not one inch further."
" The generation now coming of age has been taught three Great Untruths: their feelings are always right; they should avoid pain and discomfort; and they should look for faults in others and not themselves. These three Great Untruths are part of a larger philosophy that sees young people as fragile creatures who must be protected and supervised by adults. But despite the good intentions of the adults who impart them, the Great Untruths are harming kids by teaching them the opposite of ancient wisdom and the opposite of modern psychological findings on grit, growth, and antifragility. The result is rising rates of depression and anxiety, along with endless stories of college campuses torn apart by moralistic divisions and mutual recriminations."
With help from friends and readers. Let's face it: people will avoid hard things unless they work up some self-discipline.
Please feel free to add more loser excuses in the Comments
It's too early
It's too late
I have too much to do
I'm right in the middle of something
I'm having trouble getting going today
I just ate
I'm too hungry
I think I have a cold coming on
I feel too tired today
I have errands to do
I'll start in the New Year (Right! Meaning in 2019)
I need to lose some weight first (Right! Meaning never)
I have a morning appointment (right - probably "early" - like 8 o'clock, by which time most people have exercised, showered, dressed, checked their emails, and are at work or on the way to it)
I might just go for a nice walk instead
I'll get to it later (of course you will)
I had a hard day yesterday
My stomach doesn't feel right
I hate the gym (It's a playground for adults seeking health and vigor. What's to dislike about that?)
It's (snowing, raining, too windy)
It's too cold out
It's too hot out
I deserve some rest time (Really? Convince me that you deserve anything)
I feel a twinge in my (foot, leg, knee, hip, back, shoulder, etc)
I didn't sleep well last night
I'm too distracted/upset about (whatever)
I know I ought to...
I'm just a lazy low-energy SOB by nature, and that's not my fault.
Finding excuses for everything in life is just my nature - and my nature is not my fault.
Do you agree with that? Many people today are going to things called colleges like junior colleges and trade school colleges to learn careers in things such as nursing, practical electric, cooking, hospitality, criminal justice, emergency medical service, and all sorts of other practical fields.
I get a kick out of winter bird-feeding. It gives me an idea of what things are around, and it makes a winter garden lively and interesting.
One rule: If you start, you have to keep doing it through the winter. Like people, they will develop a dependency on your generosity, and can starve without it because they have not had to develop or find other resources.
His writing and speech-making productivity is remarkable, but he still finds time to write scholarly books, exercise, and to run his farm. Pretty busy for a retired fellow. Admirable indeed.
The Palestinian statelet is in no way viable, and the Palestinian cause is less and less useful to the Islamic powers with each passing year. … and the Palestinian cause has in no small part devolved from instrument of civilizational conflict to instrument of ordinary grift, a phony jihad used to fortify the alliance between fanatics and financial interests that is the default model of government throughout much of the Muslim Middle East.
Walking, jogging, running, and elliptical don't do anything to build lower body strength. Those things are about cardio and endurance - which are also useful things to pursue with exercise.
Strength for full functionality is something different. It's not easy to build lower body (hips, glutes, legs) strength without heavy weight exercises like deadlifts and barbell squats, but there are some exercises that can help get in shape for skiing, mountain hiking, etc. - and are good cardio too. I generally do 3 sets of each of them once weekly in addition to my heavy weight regimen:
- Mountain Climbers - 50-100/set (left+right = 1). They toughen your core too, because it's a dynamic plank.
- Body weight squats. I combine them with 90 degree 10-second squat-sits every 10 squats. It burns.
- Squat and press, with lighter hand weights - a good full-body calisthenic. Or Step Up and Press.
- Lunges - forward, backwards, sideways. I do them with lightish hand weights, like 10 lbs.
- Kettlebell swings. Don't use your back - use your hips.
- Box jumps or jumping squats
- Stairmaster machine, at whatever speed you can handle. Your body adapts quickly to this demand. People say it's a fat-burner too but I doubt it unless you go for 45 minutes at a brisk pace. (the first 20 minutes of any cardio exercise burns zero fat)
Again, a Christmas book only for those who wish to continue or to update their secondary or college educations: 
Portland’s Disgraceful Anarchy - 
Why ‘The Last Jedi’
