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.
O’Neill rose to the rank of senior chief petty officer in the United States Navy and served as a team leader at DEVGRU, positions not come by easily. O’Neill has a laundry list of certifications, including instructor, physical trainer, master training specialist, special warfare sniper and breacher, diving supervisor, and survival expert. He was also an officer in charge of small arms, demolition, close quarters combat, explosives breaching, fire and maneuvers, and laser systems safety. His military air operations qualifications include high-altitude and high-opening free fall jump master, tandem and bundle master, parachute rigger, master naval parachutist, drop zone safety officer, and air operations trainer/examiner and quality assurance inspector. He has completed more than 1000 jumps.
O’Neill has been decorated more than 52 times with honors, including two Silver Stars, four Bronze Stars with Valor, a Joint Service Commendation Medal with Valor, three Presidential Unit citations, and two Navy/Marine Corps Commendations with Valor.
While they may not be able to admit it publicly (or even to themselves), it’s clear that the Democrats have deliberately manufactured a government shutdown. Banking on a complicit media and a confused electorate, they have now fully embraced a political tactic they decried for eight years under President Obama.
All out of doors looked darkly in at him Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars, That gathers on the pane in empty rooms. What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze Was the lamp tilted near them in his hand. What kept him from remembering what it was That brought him to that creaking room was age. He stood with barrels round him, at a loss. And having scared the cellar under him In clomping there, he scared it once again In clomping off; and scared the outer night, Which has its sounds, familiar, like the roar Of trees and crack of branches, common things, But nothing so like beating on a box. A light he was to no one but himself Where now he sat, concerned with he knew what, A quiet light, and then not even that. He consigned to the moon, such as she was, So late-arising, to the broken moon As better than the sun in any case For such a charge, his snow upon the roof, His icicles along the wall to keep; And slept. The log that shifted with a jolt Once in the stove, disturbed him and he shifted, And eased his heavy breathing, but still slept. One aged man, one man can't fill a house, A farm, a countryside, or if he can, It's thus he does it of a winter night.
Let's say you are pudgy or fat and want to commit to a 6-7 day per week serious fitness program (something like the programs we recommend on Maggie's - not simply walking, aerobic swimming, or an hour trudging on a treadmill) to both lose fat and to get into fighting shape in general - high-energy, strong, trim, athletic, and fully-functional for life.
You have competing goals, fat loss and strength-building, which makes it complicated. So what sort of nutritional plan do you need for our programs of weights, calisthenics, HIIT, etc?
As readers know, fat loss is 90% nutritional under ordinary conditions. For sedentary people (less than 5-8 hrs/wk of strenuous physical activity), we recommend a low carb diet - lots of filler vegetables and greens, meat and fat. But if you are committing to an arduous daily exercise program too, you will need some amount of daily carbs and extra protein to sustain your exercise and to build/repair muscles happily damaged by exertion.
Nobody writes about this, but I have the correct advice.
For overweight serious exercisers only, use the scale as your guide. If you lose 2-4 lbs/month in your program, that's fine. If you lose much more than that, up your carbs and dietary volume a bit. If you lose less, lower your carbs and volume.
The reason is that too-rapid weight loss will interfere with your fitness and strength-building goals. If you want both, you have to balance these goals. You have to consider that, if you are doing weight training (which everybody ought to do), a male can actually gain 1/4 lb/month in muscle in the beginning months while losing fat at the same time.
I'd recommend as a starting point for overweight daily hard-exercisers a carb intake of mostly one fruit and a bowl of oatmeal daily, and allow for one or two light beers too, or a glass of wine, for sanity. No dessert, bread, potato, pasta, rice, etc. Then get on the scale after one month of the program and feed yourself accordingly. Never get on the scale more often than twice a month - preferably once monthly. And always at the same time of day.
nb:For relatively in-shape exercisers, the recommendations would be entirely different.
We end the week with the bombshell revelations, which in point of fact are the confirmation of our now long-held suspicions, that the fabricated Trump "dossier" was in fact used as a pretext to illegally obtain a FISA warrant as legal cover to spy on first the Trump campaign in order to derail it and then the nascent Trump Administration to for all intents and purposes overthrow it. It also had a parallel goal of obfuscating Hillary's and Obama's real crimes by manufacturing evidence that "see, Trump did it too, so no big deal" or something like that.
As of now, key Republicans are pushing to have this smoking gun, nay, still-flaming howitzer, released to the public while the Democrats, many of whom being part of this "investigation" can be considered co-conspirators in the coverup if not the actual crime, are desperately trying to keep it secret.
I find all of this deeply depressing. Corruption is what comes of having a government too big and powerful.
Many Democrats see their party as the working man's choice. They want to soften capitalism's rougher edges, humanize big industry, and give the average American a fighting chance. One may (and should) disagree with their methods, but their intentions are good and their beliefs sincere.
That is not how the party elites feel. Their mantra is "open trade and open borders,"...
Political Correctness Might Be Redpilling America. Pinker is a lefty Harvard prof, and utters his share of half-truths and flat out untruths, but still interesting. He has gotten a good deal of lefty flak for supporting free speech in academia.
Smart guy, but he could never get a real job with that absurd hair-do.
I was sent this video by a friend who was lamenting the decline of education in the US, particularly physical education. I was, briefly, sucked in. As usual, you have to do 'extra' work before you believe anything these days, and it's work he didn't do. I only did the legwork because....this was just too stupid for words, but completely believable in today's world. Thankfully, it's just satire. Although it wouldn't surprise me if it was actually taking place somewhere.
Actually he (James Jamerson) and Brian Wilson were my two biggest influences: James just because he was so good and melodic. Brian because he went to very unusual places. Brian would use, if you were playing in C, he might stay on the G a lot just to hold it all back, and I started to realize the power you had within the band.
Not actually vengeful power, just that you could actually... even though the whole band is going in A [sings single notes] you could go in E [sings surging single bass note], and they’d go, Let us off the hook! And you’re actually in control then, an amazing thing. So I sussed that and got particularly interested in playing the bass.
To many progressives and indeed elites of all persuasions, Trump is also the Prince of Anti-culture: mindlessly naïve American boosterism; conspicuous, 1950s-style unapologetic consumption; repetitive and limited vocabulary; fast-food culinary tastes; Queens accent; herky-jerky mannerisms; ostentatious dress; bulging appearance; poorly disguised facial expressions; embracing rather than sneering at middle-class appetites; a lack of subtlety, nuance, and ambiguity.
Living near sea-level or on flood plains have forever been risky propositions, calculated (or uncalculated) risks. All the same, people do it. This is interesting:
Donald Trump is certainly a vulgar fellow of questionable intelligence, and the country might be better off with someone else in the White House, but where exactly would that leave black America?
Good question. What have the lefties done to effect the lives of urban black Americans in 50 years other than enough free stuff to thrive? That is Trump's argument to them. Trump is no racist at all. He just expects a lot out of everybody. He's been an employer in private business, so he is tough. So are we all, regardless of skin tone. Just my perspective, of course. I hire and fire more frequently than I would like, of all colors.
An Old Man's Winter Night
Let's say you are pudgy or fat and want to commit to a 6-7 day per week serious fitness program (something like the programs we recommend on Maggie's - not simply walking, aerobic swimming, or an hour trudging on a treadmill) to both lose fat and to get into fighting shape in general - high-energy, strong, trim, athletic, and fully-functional for life.
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Are Mothers Happier