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.
Body-building is a somewhat common hobby for men and women. You can term it foolish, but most hobbies are sort of pointless but personally rewarding anyway.
I will join the Guardian in criticising steroid use by both men and women. It just sacrifices health for muscle bulk. The gyms I use have no real body-builders. Strength-builders, sure. General ftness-seekers, lots - but General Fitness includes strength.
On our website, we prefer to focus on "Fitness for Life", while bearing in mind that few women do not want to look "beach-ready" and few guys want to be, or to appear, physically weak or flabby. Some degree of narcissism is just a part of self-respect.
Photo:Jamie Eason is a lady body-builder, no steroids.
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
This post represents a major effort by a friend who wanted to share his career's worth of accumulated knowledge and wisdom from the opportunity-seeking end and from the hiring end. He warns that it is not a final draft. He doesn't know when he will get around to polishing it up (because he does have a day job).
Enjoy it, and send it around to those who might find it handy - young or older.
Over a long career, I have been a job-seeker and I have been a C-suite boss. The last time I went looking for a job it was more of an undertaking than I’d anticipated.
Up until then, I’d pretty much walked easily from opportunity to opportunity. After all, in the beginning there were not many skilled professionals in computing and the IT world, and demand far exceeded supply. At the last time I found myself looking for work, I’d nominally retired but had been requested to stay. During the financial meltdown however, all extensions were cancelled and I was summarily out of work with virtually no notice. I was already over 60 and the economy was unfavorable. I landed what I think is a wonderful, challenging, and interesting job but the process took over a year.
The reason I mention this is because at the conclusion of my search, an experienced recruiter said -more or less in passing - that “You ran a great search.” I’d never thought of myself as even doing “a search.” I thought I was looking for a job. These are much the same thing, but I learned that a search is a disciplined way of looking for a job and doing it right makes a big difference in the outcome.
These are my notes on how to do a great job search. For the more experienced reader to get something from this, I’ve had to write to the executive level. If you’re less senior (more junior?) or just starting out, some of this will be overkill, but it is maybe helpful to know this material in advance of needing it. The principles are the same. And while my vantage point is business/corporate, these basic principles should apply to any sort of work or career pursuit.
Other than obvious stuff on dress, I don’t think there is any overtly male/female, but I admit I may used ”he” more than “she” just from habit.
Today, college has become our go-to yardstick for minimal competence. Take a look at almost any job listing for almost any desk job in any city, and you will see “college degree” listed as an essential requirement. The argument in favor of this arrangement is that if a candidate can demonstrate that he has completed such a degree, he can be assumed to be both relatively smart and capable of sticking with things to their end. Which, in some cases, is of course true. But it is telling that none of the other experiences that demonstrate capacity and tenacity tend to make an appearance in the listings. Know what else demonstrates an ability to stick things out? Military service. Running a small business. Working at a charity. Training as a plumber. Working on a farm. Learning to weld. Keeping another job for a long period of time...
As you may be aware thanks to my merciless flogging of it, I have a new book out called The Smallest Minority: Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics. It is about the way in which social media brings out the worst of the tribalism and idiocy in our contemporary politics by displacing almost all of the substantive discussion with a lobotomized — and, ultimately, useless — politics of white hats and black hats, good guys and bad guys, cowboys and Indians, Us and Them...
The Swan 48 from the 1970s is an iconic blue water sailboat, perfect for trans-Atlantic races (try not to bump into a whale and break your rudder) or for sailng to Bermuda. 2 people can sail her, but she requires extra hands for racing. It's a lot of boat for day-sailing, but people do it.
This president is often gratuitously uncouth in public, and almost unrecognizable to those who know him as a congenial, courteous, and charming man and a fine raconteur. These traits are less frequently in evidence than in earlier days.
Like all of us, the President gets better at his job the longer he holds it. But this would be an easy problem to correct, and that would leave the intense disparagement of Mr. Trump exclusively to the extremists and the decayed servitors he has served the country admirably by driving from office.
11:1 He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."
11:2 He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.
11:3 Give us each day our daily bread.
11:4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial."
11:5 And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread;
11:6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.'
11:7 And he answers from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.'
11:8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
11:9 "So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.
11:10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
11:11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish?
11:12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?
11:13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
Mueller’s testimony before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees was a watershed moment. At this point, it is up to Congress to act on the evidence of multiple counts of obstruction of justice committed by the president, and to continue our investigation into whether he has committed other high crimes and misdemeanors.
Body-building is a somewhat common hobby for men and women. You can term it foolish, but most hobbies are sort of pointless but personally rewarding anyway.
Boar wars: 
Peak mid-summer. Try a deeply refeshing Beerita at your local Tex-Mex joint. 
