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.
We have written about habitual, ritual, compulsive, and recreational eating several times. Except for growing kids, manual laborers, distance hikers, and people who lift, all the talk about "the most important meal" was nonsense.
Yet we hear it all the time. For most people nowadays, the best way to get fat is to eat three meals/day.
Written in 1918. Best national song for the USA. OK, I am a Yankees fan, sort-of, but they should be banned for their racist history. Along with all of the slave owners on our currency.
When I was working for Roger Ailes, he'd tell us stories about what it was like to be working with Nixon. One story he told was the advice he gave to Nixon when the Watergate story broke, which was (remember, it was his story and I'm telling it second-hand) "Tell the truth, you had nothing to do with this, it was overzealous campaign members going overboard. The American people have a great capacity for forgiveness."
That story was one I heard about 23 years ago, and I can't confirm it ever happened, but based on the (limited) interactions I had with Ailes it was probably fairly accurate. I was raised to believe most people have a great capacity for forgiveness if you're sincere, if you're honest, and you're willing to make amends.
I no longer think that's as true as it once was, and it certainly is not true with Progressives (unless, of course, you are a Progressive and they need to protect you). This is why Confederate statues are coming down, history is being rewritten to suit their feelings, people are castigated for views they had, behaviors they employed, and words they used which no longer are 'acceptable' in this overly PC environment today. This is why social media outlets like Facebook or Twitter are employing questionable means and methods to block speech.
Recently, my favorite hockey team, the Philadelphia Flyers, removed Kate Smith's statue because it suddenly came to light that she sang a few song with racist lyrics in them. Kate's dead, and can't defend herself, let alone apologize. So what option do we have to deal with this? Expunge history. Make her disappear. She is a horrible person who is irredeemably terrible and nobody should know about her.
Kate played a large, if indirect, role in the Flyers' winning the Stanley Cup in 1974 and 1975. But today she's persona non grata for doing things which, in her time, were deemed perfectly acceptable. From my perspective, it's a learning moment. Keep her history alive, and do teaching sessions around who she was, what she did, and why she's still an important part of the team's history regardless of whether we find a few of her song off-putting.
Today's America is about forgetting our past - pushing it aside, and not allowing for any forgiveness whatsoever. That is, in what is Progressive America. You know, the urban elitists and academics who have a good portion of the political upper class in their sway. Naturally, if THEY do something wrong, they'll find a way to apologize, expunge or set aside the misbehavior - maybe even vote one of their own into power, despite having done something 'wrong'.
Extramarital affairs have tradtionally been normal among the social class extremes: the wealthy and aristocratic, and the poor. An interesting sociological topic might be why so many ordinary people do not see this as a good idea.
The cited motives listed are these:
Top Reasons for Men:
His wife’s libido has dropped after marriage, children, etc. His wife is more preoccupied with being a mother than a partner. His wife no longer makes him feel sexy, masculine, virile. He is nostalgic for his free and wild youth The relationship is dull. Same conversation over and over again, same position over and over again, etc.
Top Reasons for Women:
Her husband no longer makes her feel sexy/desirable. Wants to explore sexual desires (kinks) she was too immature or unaware of in her youth. Her husband views her as a caregiver not a sexual being. Her husband initiates sex like she is a robot. No slow burn. No romance. No passion, excitement, thrill.
Strong arms seem to be a biological signal to females that a male might make a good sexual/reproductive partner. It's primitive, a sign of power, vitality, and virility.
Well, all guys want strong arms for either signaling or functional purposes, but curls are not the most sensible way to approach strength: they are more about hypertrophy. We prefer compound exercises over single-muscle exercises. More time-efficient. After all, the hands are connected with the arms, the arms to the shoulder, and the shoulder to chest and back.
I'll assume that few of our readers are Body Builders who focus mainly on the size and definition of muscles, but are, rather, regular, function-oriented fitness people.
What about the ladies? All of our exercises are valuable to ladies' fitness, but ladies can not develop bulging muscles under ordinary circumstances. Big muscles do not equate with strength.
However, we do single-muscle-group exercises as accessory exertions when there is time for them. Thus hand and forearm exercises, calf exercises, upper arm exercises, leg raises and leg contractions, etc.
Let's list both focused and compound exercises which can build stronger arms while mostly stressing other muscle groups at the same time:
- Pullups and cable pull-downs (biceps, forearms, back) - Bench press (triceps, biceps, chest, shoulder) - Cable push-downs and skull-crushers (triceps) - Dumbell and barbell curls (biceps and brachioradialis) - Pushups (triceps, chest, shoulder) - Overhand curls (forearms and biceps) - Grip exercises like rope climbing, grippers, farmer walks, deadlifts
NB: Sometimes you will see a guy in the gym with muscles bulging all over the place. That guy is juicing. A bad fitness plan.
Lindsey Graham tells Trump to 'expect impeachment proceedings' - But the end result of the proceedings, he predicted, would be Mr Trump’s re-election in 2020
In light of Elizabeth's massive giveaway to the irresponsible and unaccountable, I thought this piece was particularly good.
As I see it, I get penalized for being a responsible parent, helping pay for my kids' college, and making sure they took on some of the financial responsibility (they have some loans they are paying off), but that they were prepared to enter the workforce and pay it off.
I do the right thing, I get bupkus. Make your kid irresponsible, unaccountable, and let him/her/it/whatever-is-popular-now study Transgendered Poets of the 18th Century from Madagascar, and you'll have $1 Trillion in debt accumulate, with an entire generation incapable of being able to pay it back or understand what they did wrong. All you'll hear is "It's NOT FAIR!!!"
Let's not forget the MSM is saying "It's good for the economy!" No, it's not. It's good for a few people who are lazy and shiftless. It would damage the economy severely.
The entire Democratic Party has gone full-on Leftist, and is more dangerous than ever. Once there was a time worth considering voting for a Democrat. That was probably not more than 20-30 years ago. There are no worthwhile people in the Democratic Party. Not saying I'm fond of the Republicans, either. At least they show a veneer of accountability.
Maggie's has been having fun with Boats, Trains, and Planes posts lately. Also, with Scott Adams who always has fresh, brainy, and provocative perspectives. Our website goes through phases, various enthusiasms. It's good that way. We can do whatever we want to do.
Fun ideas from Scott today:
- Gen 4 nuclear power is the only option for everything. Why are people anti-science?
- President Trump’s Tweet about impeachment when the OTHER SIDE committed the crimes, colluded with Russia, and attempted to overthrow the government
- We are living in the best time ever in human history. We have the best of everything right now. Only the media tries to bring us down to sell us their ads or, in the case of NPR, to sell us their frowns about everything.
- So, a cool idea for happiness: Go on a news diet. No newspapers, no tv news. Most news is wrong. Your life will be the same, or better because life is good these days.
- The desire for "fairness" in life is infantile kindergarten thinking. The most anybody can wish for is rules that apply to everybody. The whole point of competition is unfairness in ability. He likes trannies playing on girls' teams.
As I see it, grits are the Southern mashed potatoes. I love both. However, grits were not always just southern. The northern Indians made it and taught the colonists. After all, Indian Pudding is just molasses-flavored grits.
It’s been particularly heartening to see so many children joining our group. It’s never too early to start being politically active and, as we saw with the Youth Strike 4 Climate back in February, some young people are so committed to direct action they’re even prepared to miss school for it. After all, it’s their future that’s at stake.
- A Russian person sourced the Steele dossier, Kremlin connected? Narrative: Kremlin was trying to help Trump - Confusing Fact: Steele dossier was rabidly anti-Trump - Why are Clapper and Brennan not in jail? a coup was attempted on our President, are they innocent? They were in key positions of knowledge and power - Did Joe Biden collude with Russia? Joe was on the “team” that attempted the coup
Italian Town to Cover Crosses at Cemeteries 
Strong arms seem to be a biological signal to females that a male might make a good sexual/reproductive partner. It's primitive, a sign of power, vitality, and virility.
Dog-Walking 