Wednesday, December 11. 2019
 Desperate woman punches mountain lion as it attacks, later eats dog: 'She could hear her baby dying'
‘Girls Need Female Role Models’ and Other Bromides
Yale's diversity is 0%
Students love Medicare for all…until learning what’s in it
The Ascendency Of Magical Economic Thinking In The Democratic Contest
New Poll Has Still More Very Bad News For Democrats
Pelosi Announces That the House Democrats Support New Trump NAFTA Deal
FISA Report Reveals Clinton Meddled In 2016 Election
Carter Page: FBI Investigation 'Ruined My Life'
As I recall, he was a CIA asset
IMPOSSIBLE! EVERY SINGLE ONE of the 17 Flaws and Omissions Listed in IG Report WENT AGAINST DONALD TRUMP
A Trail of FBI Abuse - The Horowitz report confirms that the bureau deceived FISA judges with the Steele dossier.
LIVE FROM COMEYWORLD
BARR IS ON THE CASE - with an excellent interview
China’s Library Officials Are Burning Books That Diverge From Communist Party Ideology
Ideas are dangerous to ideologies
NATO has worries more pressing than Donald Trump. It needs a new role in a changed world.
If it has no role, why does it need to find a new one?
5 Infuriating Takeaways From The ‘Afghanistan Papers’ - Lies, spin, over a trillion dollars wasted, and no strategy. They knew for 18 years and no one said a thing.
Europe No Longer Hides Its Hostility to Israel
Why is it hostile? Israel is not their enemy
Tuesday, December 10. 2019
They do not need it and they are not on food stamps, but it's fun to do. You get to see what birds are around in wintertime, and you get to try to figure out how to defeat the greedy squirrels. It adds vitality to your winter garden, same as butterfly plants do in summertime.
Feeding Birds: A Quick Guide To Seed Types
Postcast: I hate my f-ing government.
Losing his usual serenity. 17 "mistakes" all in the same direction? That's not random.
Monday, December 9. 2019
 Lots of Saturnalian and also northern European pagan aspects to this season around this part of the world. It's a multicultural festival season.
- Cocktail parties, lots of them. Saturnalian, but on a civilized level. Time to look great and behave well. Get hair done and dig out that tux for the fancy ones. Gotta show up or people will forget that you exist.
- Excesses of foods and hors d'oevres. Saturnalian. Control oneself.
- Random reckless holiday drunken sex. Saturnalian. Sounds exciting, but I have not seen this yet around my neighborhood, so no worries.
- Decorated evergreen trees. Ain't they purty? Pagan German/Scandinavian. I do not think baby Jesus had one, though. We bought one for outdoors and one for indoors. Almost bought a fake one for indoors. It looked perfect, and had 1000 lights but I hate white lights. They look like a bank lobby and if you're not sensible, you might need to visit the bank for Christmas anyway.
- Presents? Sort-of Saturnalian (jewels for your mistresses - they can give you Viagra), sort of European with St. Nicholas. And the wise men with their perfume and stuff. You know what She wants - A Pucci scarf and ballet tickets. We guys generally want nothing other than family happiness. Presents are the worst thing about Christmas unless they are food (we like rare stinky cheeses). We go with 1/person only to keep the tradition going. Yes I know - little kids love opening gifts. Adults don't.
- Snow and cold. Not real Christmassy - northern European. Lucky for me, I like snow and cold and the only thing I love as much around here as a powerful hurricane is a beautiful blizzard that stops life in its tracks and gives us time to not be busy.
- The Messiah. It was written for Easter, for heaven's sake.
- Christmas - it was illegal to celebrate it in New England until, like, a few years ago. You could go to jail for making a savory mince-meat pie at Christmastime. They had pie-police sniffing on the streets of Boston. I have (well, had) and old-tyme Connnecticut Congregationalist pal whose family still refused to acknowledge Christmas. As a Congregationalist by ancient family tradition, I do not think of Christmas as "holy" either but there is nothing not to like about it and the hymns and carols are as good as it gets.
- As for me, any excuse for assembling family is good. I have a big one (5 sibs), and I love them all. Not certain about vice-versa... The holiday decorations are fun, and lovely. Church on Christmas Eve always brings tears to me but whether they are holy or sentimental is hard to tell. All has little to do with whether I am a Jesus-follower or not but yeah, I feel He's worth following as best one can and I take it seriously. Not a grinch, not a scrooge. Birth (Christmas), or re-birth (Easter) - all good lives of the living Spirit.
Punishable by death. The below from Ace this morning:
Good morning kids. Start of a new week and the top stories are the release of the IG Horowitz Report and the House Judiciary Committee set to charge President Trump with treason. Yes, gentle reader, you read that right: T-R-E-A-S-O-N. These people are truly sick. They are doing more than just playing games; they are playing with fire, here. If I had the ability to hold back and not slam my fist into Jerrold Nadler's gaping maw, I would certainly displace the perpetual slab of pastrami with a microphone and try to get him on record to answer the question "do you realize treason is a capital crime?" Okay, I get it. You turds are doing anything and everything you can to sabotage the President while covering up for your own crimes of sabotaging 2016 and then Trump's nascent presidency, which for the record, come within a red nether-hair's breadth of actual dictionary definition treason. Meanwhile, we still have hearings set for today, which you gave the Republicans on the committee essentially zero time to prepare for, dumping thousands of pages of evidence at the last minute. Not that that would matter since the committees are a farce of both fairness and legal precedent.
The Democrats have ensnared themselves in their own trap. For over three years, everything they have done to rig the election and then sabotage this president have failed, and spectacularly so. And since impeachment was promised even before Trump took the oath of office, impeachment is what they are going to have to deliver. But invoking treason is truly crossing a line. For argument's sake, let's say the House votes to impeach - and the jury is still out on if they even have the votes (although I suspect they do and the scuttlebutt that they don't is a head-fake), and then he is exonerated in the Senate. What then? Forget the shmoo-like bespectacled "G-d-cursed chimptato hybrid" screaming at the clouds. Will the Antifarians turn into Weathermen 2, Electric Boogaloo? I almost feel the Democrats would cheer that on, if not intentionally engaging in all of this to enable exactly that. As I said, they are playing with fire here.
Orange Man bad. He won.
‘OK, boomer’? Pay the bills, support a family, then we’ll talk
For the First Time, Scientists Have Reversed Dementia in Mice With Drug That Reduces Brain Inflammation
Not just counterfeit: Legal THC vaping products linked to lung illnesses
Six Months at an Amazon Fulfillment Center
Lots of exercise, 16 miles/day.
Great News: The Peloton Wife Is Safe, She’s Leaving Her Husband, And She’s Drunk As Hell
This Harvard grad has made millions on U.S. college admissions for international students
Amazon’s Bezos Hits Silicon Valley For Not Working With Pentagon
The US Space Force Appears Cleared For Launch
Muhammad Makes List Of Top 10 Baby Names In The U.S. For First Time
PRAGER: The Left Hates The Salvation Army. That’s All You Need To Know About The Left
Sex Reassignment Market to Exceed $968 Million by 2024
New York can end its insane scaffolding plague
Elizabeth Warren reveals she made $1.9 million from private legal work over 3 decades
Good for her. She made more $ flipping real estate, though.
Bill Barr Indicts 8 Including Mueller Top Witness for Funneling Millions in Foreign Donations to Adam Schiff, Hillary Clinton and Top Senate Democrats
Ukraine Was The Origin Of The Trump-Russia Collusion Hoax
Related, The Empire Strikes Back on Kennedy - Louisiana’s junior senator finds himself behind the eight-ball on Washington’s illusory Ukraine narrative.
Jobs Report Takeaway: It's Morning in America
Everybody in the US who wants a job can have one. That is good.
Trump’s Unexpected Jobs Boom Leaves Dems Incoherent
There’s great hate for Donald Trump’s success: Goodwin
Trump Boasts About Getting NATO Countries to Contribute $530 Billion More and US Less …And Fake News Mocked Him!
Pope Francis Compares US President Trump to King Herod Who Slaughtered Baby Boys During the Time of Christ
Atlantic: Trump’s Supporters Are Displaying the Will to Win. Democrats Are Not. The House Judiciary Committee needs a clearer plan for mobilizing public opinion in support of impeachment.
Suppose They Threw an Impeachment and Nobody Came?
Impeaching Trump Is Already A Win For Democrats
President Trump’s Approval Rating Jumps 5 Points in One Week After Democrats Announce Impeachment!
Impeachment Proving a Cash Cow For the President
Hong Kong Protests Attract Massive Crowds, Estimated 800k March In Financial District
How anti-semitic is UK's Labour
Why is the Left anti-semitic?
Furious French Protest Climate Policies, Cost of Living, Pension Reforms
Sunday, December 8. 2019
As a college junior, he wrote an illustrated history of trout — and he’s been an outside-the-box artist ever since.
A banana duct-taped to a wall was sold for $120,000 at Art Basel Miami
2 hour painting he made during a live paint-off last night
Wow. Like Bob Ross.
Matthew 3:1-12
3:1 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming,
3:2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."
3:3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'"
3:4 Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
3:5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan,
3:6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
3:7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
3:8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance.
3:9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
3:10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
3:11 "I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
3:12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
Saturday, December 7. 2019
Advice from my Cordon Bleu Chef friend:
Pizza with Champagne
Big Macs with Cote Roti
I should have asked about Chic- Filet and Popeye's good Chicken Sandwich. Later, maybe.
Vanderleun's update on the fire
Abandoned Alaska child, 5, carries toddler a half-mile in sub-zero temps in socks, light clothes: police
Climate: How Wrong Can One Article Be?
Is the inequality of intelligence increasing?
Los Angeles Is Spending Over $1 Billion To House the Homeless. It's Failing.
It's not the buildings...
Terrorism Probe Opened After Pensacola Shooter IDed As Saudi National Mohammed Alshamrani; Was There For Pilot Training
Ninth Circuit Lifts Injunctions Blocking Trump Admin’s ‘Public Charge’ Rule for Immigrants
Rashida Tlaib Headlined Anti-Semitic Hate Fest - Other speakers have compared Israel to white supremacists, rapists
Americans defy experts by thriving
NYT: Yeah, Everything We Knew About The Jobs Market Was Wrong
The Democrats insist that President Trump is a threat to the republic, although no one can explain why. Meanwhile, their mantra has gone from “It’s the economy, stupid” to “Economy? What’s that?”
MANDARIN MEDIA NOT EVEN TRYING TO HIDE THEIR BIAS ANYMORE
Rush: Dems Motivated by 'Pure Raw Hatred'
WaPo Columnist Suggests Melania Trump Is Sending ‘Coded Messages’ With Fashion Choices
Pelosi/Schiff Abuse Worsens, FBI “Finds” Clinton Emails, PLUS 5 NEW JW Lawsuits Against Deep State
GOP senators seek records on 'connection' between Dem operatives, Ukrainian officials in 2016
VDH: When Our Guardians Fail Us
Is Warren Over?
Elizabeth Warren Would Rather Make You Fix Your Terrible Public School Than Let You Send Your Kid to a Charter School "You don't like the building? You think it's old and decaying? Then get out there and push to get a new one," she said.
It's not the buildings. Abe Lincoln did pretty well in a log school
Impeachment Is A Flop For Democrats. So Is Their Presidential Field.
John Kerry Joins Joe Biden on Iowa Bus Tour – Kerry Touts Biden as Messianic Figure Who Can ‘Save the World’
Rep. Al Green: After This Flops, We Will Impeach Him Again
Party of Permanent Impeachment: Democrats do their part to re-elect Trump
Jonathan Turley writes that he was "a tad naive in hoping that an academic discussion on the history and standards of it might offer a brief hiatus from hateful rhetoric on both sides."
Pelosi: If We Don’t Proceed With Impeachment, We’re Letting Trump Act Like A King
Hillary Clinton: Trump Incited Mass Shootings At Synagogues, Churches And Walmart…
The Moral Case For Decoupling From China
NATO is obsolete
Friday, December 6. 2019
I haven't been yet. Happy to go, tho. The Whitney, however, is not my cup of tea.
Navigating the new MoMA
Have you ever seen any abuse of power to compare with that of Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, and Nadler?
Destabilizing the country for political gain. Scott has it.
The first few months of lower body weight training move along fairly quickly because the improvement is more neuromuscular than muscular.
After the neuromuscular system wakes up and is ready for action, progress slows down a lot. Physical architecture, frailties, and age are of course possible obstacles too.
Lack of progress, and plateaus, can be discouraging with large muscle group strength. I think my max 1-rep deadlift has only increased by about 20 lbs in the past year. 2020 will improve by 10 lbs, maybe, because I am fighting ageing. Small muscles improve more quickly (eg arms, but even backs improve fairly quickly - pullups)).
In my experience, the aspects of fitness that improve most dramatically and quickly in the Maggie's Fitness for Life program are endurance and energy. Precious things. Two days of weights/wk is not enough for serious strength-building, but the part of our program with 2 days of calis and the 2 days of HIIT cardio will get you fit for most recreational activities like sports, day-long hill hiking, etc.
Any age or gender. Give it a try. Include the barbells. A good Christmas/New Year present to oneself is a badass sexy and highly functional physique but, God knows, it takes discipline. Nothing pleasant about it except the slow progress.
I have a retired friend who has taken on learning Mandarin as his retirement project. I'd rather face a nasty, ugly barbell.
The Mystery at the Center of the Solar System - A spacecraft has finally gotten close enough to the sun to gather clues about some lingering questions.
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
Just "be yourself"
GM Crops Like Golden Rice Will Save the Lives of Hundreds of Thousands of Children
Trannies: A Tyrannical Minority and Silent Majority
A Divisive, Historically Dubious Curriculum - Teachers should reject the 1619 Project.
Another Fake Crisis — the College Hunger Hoax
Trump's tax cuts reduce US burden to one of lowest in the world. Taxes in France and Denmark are nearly twice what they are in the US
The war against wealth and saving: The Confiscation Is the Point
Poll: Fans of Bernie Sanders, Liz Warren Oppose Free Speech, Want Jail Time for Speech Offender
That is deeply offensive to me
The 10 most important revelations to expect from the Russia probe FISA report
Mueller witness bragged about access to Clintons secured with illegal campaign cash, says Justice Department
ROGER KIMBALL: ON THE Russia Hoax OMERTÀ
We have Lincoln to blame for the mess we’re in
WaPo: How Can We Journalists Better Convince The Public To Support Impeachment?
More: Former NYT "Public Editor," Now WaPo Hack: How Can We, The Unbiased Fact-Finding Media, Convince Our Deplorable Fellow Citizens to Do What We Want and Impeach This Motherf***er?
TIME Contributor Says 'Nancy Pelosi Reminds Me of Jesus'
Impeachment Power Can Be Abused, Too
Democrats Plot Impeaching Trump Multiple Times, Including If He Wins Re-Election: ‘No Limit To The Number Of Times The House Can Vote To Impeach’
Honey Badger don't give a sh-t.
Kimberley Strassel and Sharyl Attkisson DROP the MSM for giving Schiff a pass for SPYING on a member of the press
Impeachment hearing: Nothing is more convincing than liberal professors yelling at you
Chris Wallace Criticizes Dems for Refusing to Call on Republican Impeachment Witness: ‘Not a Search for Justice or Wisdom’
Democrats Argue that Obama Should Have Been Impeached
FRANCE PARALYZED BY STRIKES, VIOLENCE
Do the French have a work ethic? Seems like they expect money for nuthin.
Report: Iran stashing missiles in Iraq that can reach Israel. Iran stockpiling ballistic missiles in Iraq with long enough range to reach Israel.
Religion of peace
Germany: All EU Members Must Take in Migrants
The German Empire, aka EU, strikes back
Our problems with Turkey aren’t due to Trump, or Obama, or any other President. Put the blame where it belongs: with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his choices.
Thursday, December 5. 2019
(First King Of Portugal, Alfonso I, reign 1139-1185; also called Alfonso the Conqueror for expelling the Muslims and securing independence of Portugal)
Portugal is a current go-to for Europeans and increasingly for Americans (including BirdDog). Rightfully so. The Portuguese people are renowned for their generosity to strangers. Except to Moors. They expelled them three centuries before Spain did.
The land is fertile, green -- even a kelly green to rival Ireland --everywhere, its cork trees supply the world, grape vines and olive trees are all over. Lisbon's verdant and luxurious Avenida Liberdade makes Paris' Champs-Elysees look like a version of cheesy Times Square.
We traveled throughout Portugal, enjoying tremendously the preserved culture and architecture. The roads are well built and kept, and even the narrow mountain lanes and dirt paths we strayed onto were maneuverable. However, I'm glad that I made a last-minute upgrade from a Euro roller-skate car to a Mercedes, even though twice the cost but more than quadruple the comfort and safety. We drove quite a bit from south to north and west to easy, to be exposed to as much countryside as possible, and exceeded our hopes.
The food along the way is mouthwatering, the baking rich yet light, the Portuguese table wine -- especially the whites, and of course aged Ruby Port, (as in Spain's reds) fragrant, crisp, rounded, and almost sensuous to the palate. The prices for these kingly repasts are relatively economic. I almost always had various octopus recipes, although not Kosher. I did avoid the giant tiger-prawns as large as small lobsters, and the pork roasts and bacons were appealing even to my Kosherist eye and nose. The national dish, a mix of cod and eggs and seasoning is superb. (Warning: as in any tourist country, never go into any restaurant with photos at the entrance or with hamburgers on the menu. Touristy mediocre food, and not much less cost, actually a much higher cost due to missing out on affordable great food.)
The weather was a mild 60F in the daytime but intermittently raining, not pouring, so the winter in Portugal's Med climate is fine for touring, plus far less tourists to bump into.
Now, on with some photos (OK, a lot of photos):
Continue reading "Portugal for 11 Days over Thanksgiving"
The best Expert-Led Cultural Tours And Gulet Cruises: Peter Sommer
What Muscles Do Squats Target?
In my view, squats are not as total-body as deadlifts. Anyway, best to do both because synergy. Barbell squats are of course the best stressor for building or maintaining lower body strength, but there are plenty of squat exercises in the Calisthenic category that are worth doing in a Calisthenics routine:
Goblet squats
Regular body-weight squats
Squat jumps
Box jumps
Squats plus, eg squats + overhead press, squats + curls, squat+heavy ball throws, etc.
Why Calisthenics category? Because they are lower stress, mainly aerobic endurance things that can be done daily without more than 24 hr recovery.
When Disruptive Students Are Coddled, the Whole Class Suffers
|
