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.
Professor Larry Backer of Penn State University writes in a 2018 paper that resistance to social credit systems in the west could be dissolved when the masses are “socialized… as a collective” and “…the great culture management machinery of Western society develop a narrative in which such activity is naturalized within Western culture”
What Green New Dealers are talking about has nothing to do with stopping dangerous manmade climate change – or with real sustainability, resource conservation or environmental protection. It has everything to do with increasingly socialist, largely taxpayer-financed activists, politicians, regulators and crony capitalists controlling people’s lives; dictating our energy use, economic growth, job opportunities and living standards; and getting richer, more powerful and more privileged in the process.
Meanwhile poor, minority and working class families – pay the price. And destitute families in hungry, impoverished, electricity-deprived nations pay the highest price. China, India, Indonesia and Africa are not about to give up their determined efforts to take their rightful, God-given places among Earth’s healthy and prosperous people. They are not going to stop using fossil fuels to reach their goals.
... a large bureaucracy will, in approximately 100 percent of cases, become extremely wasteful, and essentially corrupt. It will perpetuate the “problem” that it was founded to solve, and at its most creative, invent new and quite imaginative evils. It will become a vested interest — an “economic player” in its own right — and spread, like a cancer, well beyond the flesh it first inhabited. Any attempt to restrain it will then engender new bureaucracies. The idea of a “humane” bureaucracy is a contradiction of terms. There is no such thing.
The terror of medical opioids is on an upswing. I have seen the upswings and downswings during my career. I wish we could find a middle course, because medical opioids are a blessing to suffering people. Yes, I include Oxycontin in that because it is an excellent medicine.
Of course opioids are habit-forming. For refractory pain, they are also life-giving. For people with life-impairing chronic pain, there is something called "pseudoaddiction." AGAINST AGAINST PSEUDOADDICTION
These days, I have seen people in that category treated like drug addicts. Sooner or later, there will chemicals with the pain effects of opioids but without the habit-forming effects. Not yet.
It's called a sandbar, idiots. Sandbars are temporary. Our stupid government will even insure you to build on a swamp, too. While they protect "wetlands," mind you.
This was a nice breakfast amuse bouche: A single scrambled egg with chopped chives, topped with a dollop of creme fraiche, topped with a scoop of Beluga caviar.
There are, in fact, important and interesting insights to be derived from The Social Construction of Reality. On the other hand, there is ordinary reality which always wins in the end.
I suspect many of our readers would agree that the Obama EPA's extension of federal authority from navigable waters to every rural mudpuddle was overreach.
For three personal examples, that extension made if practically impossible to legally ditch our driveway because two seasonal trickles (albeit, already with small culverts) intersected it. Second, it made it practically impossible for us to replace a 200 year-old bridge over our stream, after Irene washed it out. Third, it made it illegal to dredge out a small old cow pond which, over time, had filled with sediment and become a "seasonal wetland" filled with grass.
As a conservationist, it saddened me to see the gradual loss of that pond along with the loss of our Painted Turtles, the shore and swamp birds, the frogs and salamanders, etc. But to dredge it legally (and I do not do illegal), we needed an environmental lawyer, an engineer consultant, etc. to begin a multi-year process to apply to the Army Corps of Engineers, the state EPA, and the federal EPA. Give me a break. It was a darn (50X60' roughly) farm pond, only 5'-6' deep in the middle at first.
It was on Sept 17. It's a big deal, because it is what "constitutes" the United States. Makes sense for all citizens to get the gist of it, and the curious might want to dig a little deeper.
16:1 Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property.
16:2 So he summoned him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.'
16:3 Then the manager said to himself, 'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.
16:4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.'
16:5 So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'
16:6 He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.'
16:7 Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.'
16:8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.
16:9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
16:10 "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.
16:11 If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?
16:12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?
16:13 No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."
The "wild horses" of the American West are not native critters. They are the offspring of escapes and abandoned domestic horses, same as with the burros. To be blunt, those who want to "save" them are sentimentalists and not environmentalists.
I see no reason to protect them. You can argue that the same goes for cattle, but the plains historically had their own cattle: Bison by the millions.
The locals know all of the best wild Beach Plum spots, and clean them out before anybody else. I do not think they can be cultivated, but the plants can be bought. Very slow growers. However the rose hips from the beach roses (Rosa rugosa, a native of Asia) also make a delicate jelly.
We have a bunch simmering right now. Lots of recipes online.
Joe Biden Bragged That, With Barack Obama's Permission, He Threatened To Withhold Billions in Aid to Ukraine Unless They Fired a Prosecutor Investigating His Son's Company. And Now, The Deep State Refashions This as a Trump Scandal
That's an argument, but I do not care about Afghanistan. It isn't even a country, really. Just a place. Even barbaric Russians could not pacify the place.
Do you have enough clothes? Enough footwear? Enough for the rest of your life?
I understand that women need to keep up with fashion to some extent to avoid appearing non-serious (appearance counts!) so I am talking more about casual wear, outerwear, hiking gear, hunting gear, more than about professional wardrobes.
One of our end-of-summer rituals is to go through all of the closets and all of the clothes shelves. It's mostly getting rid of excess stuff.
It's difficult to anticipate one's life span, but it's easy for me to see what I will never run out of regardless of how active I remain:
I will never wear out my hunting gear. I will never wear out my casual sport jackets I will never wear out my 2 wool suits (weddings and funerals, not needed in court anymore) I will never wear out my Tux I will never wear out my misc. hiking and hunting boots I will never live to wear out my fall/spring outwear I will never wear out my more formal rain wear I will never wear out my sporting rain gear I will never wear out my casual shirts (not including polo shirts and tennis shirts) I will not wear out my collection of gloves I will not live long enough to wear out my fleeces and sweaters
I will wear out another blazer or two, God willing I will wear out more work/dress shirts (I like the Brooks non-iron ones) I will wear out some jeans and casual trousers I will wear out the socks in my sock drawer. Underwear too.
One of my tricks is to keep near my age 35-40 weight. It is do-able.
Do our readers have enough clothing stuff for the rest of their lives? If so, what? I wearing out clothes a good measure of an active and fulfilling life?
(Addendum: seems like much of this does not apply to women, except for the outdoor clothing. Women have to stay up to date to look right.)
Can anyone be taught to be a writer? I sort of doubt it, but anybody can learn to structure a coherent essay, and if that's interesting to read then that's a good start. Many lines of work require that. For writing, talent helps, so does IQ, curiosity, observational power, and wit.
I have always (like so many, because music is harder) aspired to be a fine writer, but I lack the talent. I can do simple declarative, mostly grammatical sentences, but that's all.
My Book 
Tour Company 
The locals know all of the best wild Beach Plum spots, and clean them out before anybody else. I do not think they can be cultivated, but the plants can be bought. Very slow growers. However the rose hips from the beach roses 
Our Skulls Are Out-Evolving Us