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.
The Greeks understood these things, and VDH knows the Greeks.
Bill's wife's judgement has been poor most of her life. Arrogance has been a problem too. Blind ambition. Who is she, in her own imagination? Remarkable she got as far as she did, but she did manage to leave a trail of messes and corruption behind her while becoming a mega-millionaire in selfless "public service".
It's the one thing all Americans have in common, other than summer vacations. If it's too malleable, it's nothing, and then America is nothing. The Constitution embodies the radical idea (with a few compromises to get it accepted - all since corrected).
Krauthammer:
“America is the only country ever founded on an idea. The only country that is not founded on race or even common history. It's founded on an idea and the idea is liberty. That is probably the rarest phenomena in the political history of the world; this has never happened before. And not only has it happened, but it's worked. We are the most flourishing, the most powerful, most influential country on Earth with this system, invented by the greatest political geniuses probably in human history.”
Much as I detest the idea of abortion (it is killing, of course), I also detest the notion that the Constitution confers limited rights on individuals. It was not meant to do so. It was designed to confer limited powers to government.
Murray might be the most important social scientist of our time, but he became toxic to the Left for speaking truth about subcultural issues. Most of his recent work has been concerned with the white underclass, which is far larger than other ethnic or racial underclasses in the US.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in her dissent, accused the majority of weaponizing the First Amendment — an unconscionable position for a person tasked with “faithfully and impartially” discharging the duty to protect the inherent rights of all Americans. The dissenters have perverted the intent of the Founders. It’s none of Sotomayor’s business how we use free expression. It’s her business to protect it.
Americans do not exercise enough according to government CDC recommendations, and they need more help.
"More help"? Does anybody want or need government for elementary life advice? This is the sort of thing that annoys the heck out of me. Hey, let's start a government program to determine your nutrition plan (how did that work out?), your exercise regimen, your heart health (is it now recommending 1-2 glasses of red wine/day? Technically, it should). Anyway, overweight and sedentary is the new normal.
Everybody in America knows what they "should" do for physical fitness. Most do not want to bother. I think fitness is mainly a class/subcultural-related thing. It's a free country. Government should just leave them alone. For anybody who wants to be in good shape regardless of age, Maggie's has written volumes on the topics of nutrition and fitness for anyone to read, for free, and it is smarter and better-informed than any government advice.
As with government nagging, many of our readers are just annoyed by those topics. We post them for the few who find them of interest.
The Gowdy clip is stunning. The arrogance of the bureaucrats is amazing to me. Who do they think they are? Rosenstein's smugness bugs me because he is my employee.
If Trump’s supporters are truly “a basket of deplorables ... racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic” and “irredeemable,” as Hillary Clinton described them to an LGBT crowd, is not shunning and shaming the proper way to deal with them.
Quantum Computing Expert Explains One Concept in 5 Levels of Difficulty. I still don't get it, but I don;t get how regular computers work either. Bits?
Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts...
There appears to be little real self-reflection in Mexico about how and why such a naturally rich country — blessed with good soil, climate, natural resources, ports, and a strategic geography — remains so dismally poor.
Another:
Mexico plays the same role with the United States that North African countries play with Europe, except in the former’s case, it has a deliberate rather than chaotic emigration policy — and uses it as direct leverage over the U.S. Mexico’s sense of immigration entitlement is predicated on the assumption that corporate America wants cheap labor, that liberal America wants voters, that identity-politics activists need constituents, that a liberal elite expresses its abstract virtue by its patronization of the Other — and that until recently most Americans were indifferent...
and one more:
There has been much wild talk of the “servitude” and “serfdom” of impoverished illegal aliens. But the real moral travesty is that Mexico’s entire foreign and economic policy is based on exporting its poor people abroad to scrimp and save cash to send home to provide the support their own government will not.
The United States has many enemies in the world, but it is hard to find one that deliberately is trying to undermine U.S. law by exporting its own citizens to change the demographic and politics of its supposed ally.
They say "Curls for Girls" and "Sun's Out, Guns Out" because, for guys, strong arms are a sign of vigor, health, and fitness to females, and of dominance to males. For gals, toned beats flabby all the time as a sign of health. It's primitive, but physicality matters because we are animals.
Biceps (and brachialis) are a bit more about vanity than functionality, but we want all of our skeletal muscles to be firm and fit. Triceps are much more functional, but what the heck. Good to be strong all over.
I tend to do one or two sets/week of curls more as "maintenance" than as strength-building. Can't do everything in the allotted time, and curls are "accessory." Furthermore, all upper body exertions stress arms so there is no real need to mess with them.
My point here is to mix overhand curls (whether dumbells, straight bar, or crooked bar) with the usual underhand grip. The overhand grip stresses the heck out of your forearms, so it's a good mix.
Grip (ie, forearm strength) tends to be the weak link in many exertions (ie, deadlifts). Another good forearm stressor is max-heavy Farmer's Walks (squeeze those kettlebell handles like your life depended on it). We like functional multi-muscle group exercises, and that darn Farmer'sWalk stresses everything from legs to forearms and everything in between.
Tip for curls - lower you arms to a count of 3 or 4. Don't just let gravity do it. The "negative" is as important as the pull. That applies to most weight work.
I think Trump admired Putin only for being another alpha male who puts his country's interests first. Trump relates to alpha guys, so that's his preference. He does not care for weasley boys like Justin, and that's his choice. Not many alphas in the press corps, so there's that too.
Purely by accident, I watched about 20 minutes of Trump's rally in South Carolina last night. With no notes and no prompter, the guy was a brilliant and highly amusing speaker, interacting with his audience, spewing stats and numbers constantly, and light-heartedly teasing about his opposition. All upbeat and good fun.
He was not my choice, but my choices would have lost to Hillary. As a communicator, Trump makes Reagan and Obama seem like amateurs - and he just wings it. His job seems recreational to him.
As an uncouth outsider, naturally the establishment hates him. That's why he was elected. If it turns out that Trump really is a Russian agent, I'll gladly change my mind about the whole Trump thing.
However, it appears that many US government agencies were working hard to prevent Trump a year before the election, and to undermine him afterwards. If true, it would be the biggest political scandal in US history. Seven Mysterious Preludes of the FBI's Trump-Russia Probe
Sure looks like a CIA/FBI string to me. Who arranged that?
Making 
Vacation time. 
orker: 
They say "Curls for Girls" and "Sun's Out, Guns Out" because, for guys, strong arms are a sign of vigor, health, and fitness to females, and of dominance to males. For gals, toned beats flabby all the time as a sign of health. It's primitive, but physicality matt