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.
I found a lengthy word with a non-Russian ending, unwittingly, inside a children’s storybook, and turned away from it with a strange kind of shudder.
That word contained the writhing of mysterious passions: The growls, the howls, the whistles and the senseless visions, assassinated horses’ vitreous eyes,
the sinuous streets, the evil-auguring constructions, a man, incarnadine, prostrate upon his back, the bestial motions of somebody’s avid hands!
And, once upon a time, how sweet I used to find it to read of funny rabbits who would dance in spring with guinea pigs on stumps beneath the moon.
But now the fateful word above my childhood tales, stormlike, has rushed! Gone is their old simplicity; and terrifying thoughts, during the doomful nights,
You can be sure that as soon as the Zoom cameras are turned off the Chinese representatives burst out in laughter among themselves at how they have humiliated the foolish U.S. leaders.
... too many Americans have developed an acute fear of speaking up about social and political issues, especially those involving race. According to a recent Gallup poll, 77 percent of conservatives are afraid to share their political beliefs publicly. Worried about getting mobbed on social media, fired from their jobs, or worse, they remain quiet, largely ceding the public debate to those pushing these anti-American ideologies. Consequently, the institutions themselves become monocultures: dogmatic, suspicious, and hostile to a diversity of opinion. Conservatives in both the federal government and public school systems have told me that their “equity and inclusion” departments serve as political offices, searching for and stamping out any dissent from the official orthodoxy.
YouTube, being so bold, fearless and brave, has awarded its CEO the "2021 Free Expression Award", which was then accepted by the CEO, Susan Wojcicki. Wojcicki, in her acceptance speech, detailed how she works to deny freedoms because "The freedoms we have, we really can't take for granted, we also need to make sure there are limits."
This is cutting-edge stuff here. Orwell would have a field day with this one. That is, assuming anyone reads, let alone understands, Orwell anymore. “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.”
I suppose I'd be aghast at the irony, hypocrisy, and outlandishness of all this. But when the Committee of Public Safety arrives, a distinct lack of intelligence is the norm. To paraphrase Monty Python, "Nobody expects the French Revolution." Except we're reaching a point where if you don't expect it, you're just not paying attention, or you love the new-fangled guillotines these modern Jacobins utilize.
President Joe Biden took the occasion of the conviction to recycle his favorite “white supremacy” themes from his allegedly “unifying” inaugural speech and campaign rhetoric. Floyd’s murder “ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see the systemic racism . . . that is a stain our nation’s soul; the knee on the neck of justice for Black Americans; the profound fear and trauma, the pain, the exhaustion that Black and brown Americans experience every single day,” Biden said from the White House. The “summer of protest” had sent the message, according to Biden: “Enough. Enough. Enough of the senseless killings.”
Biden was not referring to the senseless killing of seven-year-old Jaslyn Adams, gunned down in a Chicago McDonald’s over the weekend. He was not referring to the four dozen black children who were killed last year in their beds, front porches, back porches, at barbecues and family birthday parties, and in their parents’ cars. He was not referring to the dozens of blacks killed every day in drive-by shootings—more than all white and Hispanic homicide victims combined—even though blacks are only 12 percent of the nation’s population...
Police shoot a lot more white people than black people. Who knew? It's not "news". Message to police officers is leave black people alone. However professional, they will tend to do that from now on.
I'd prefer a cocktail, but who knows? Only opiates I've had were after dental procedures, and they made me feel sick. Almost forgot - had fentanyl for a colonoscopy years ago. That did feel nice. Floaty, without a care.
The predicted COVID apocalypse in ‘Neanderthal’ Texas never happened
I think lower body conditioning for strength, endurance, and athleticism ought to include (not all on the same day) barbell squats, leg press, kettlebell lunges, stair machine (which is good cardio also), deadlifts, box jumps. I do sets of each just once weekly. No time for more.
I omit mentioning cardio exercises which use legs (all of them do) because the emphasis of cardio is, obviously, cardiac fitness.
Lunges with weights are easy to hate. Gotta get in shape, though.
Recommended. You do not need to be a STEM student or an MD to understand this history. I had not known that this author had a serious family history of mental illness.
Mrs. BD and I have been fairly COVID-fearless during the past 12 months. Call us stupid if you want to.
Our Hadrian's Wall hike was cancelled last summer because the UK blocked foreigners (except immigrants - we blocked Europeans too). As Mrs. BD is getting ready for a long-weekend trip to Texas to get together with gardening friends, I decided to recall all of the places she, or we, have been during COVID Year (not including restaurants - we've done them all along):
Florida, Cape Cod (twice), Eastern Shore of Maryland for crab cakes and boats, NYC about 5 times, and Rhode Island. We tried to get a hiking week in Sedona for May, but every darn place was full. We have one of our group hikes in Upstate NY next week with great dining and beer at the bitter end. We want to get to Europe this fall.
Today, Mrs.BD is off to an architectural and historical hike around Staten Island with a pal. That is an Urban Hike. Carpe diem.
I think our running around has been about average for Americans in COVID Year.
What have our readers been doing for fun trips and adventures since last April?
In chat logs reviewed by the Examiner, a hiring manager rejected a candidate with strong credentials who had performed well in an interview — because the hiring manager mistakenly thought the candidate was white. An employee corrected the manager, noting that the candidate was indeed a minority, and then the manager said she was excited to hire him, despite learning almost nothing else about his background.
The most recent one to implode is "the 1/6 insurrection led to the death of a police officer." That is now absolutely not true. Assuming you believed that (or the "insurrection" meme) is what happened. Being a natural skeptic, I didn't believe much of the official nonsense 'news' that was shared. After all, I knew many people who were there that day, and none of them were in the Capitol, all were outside protesting. While appalled at the few who did rush the building and do damage, they all said it was a small number by comparison to the group outside, which was peaceful.
Other Progressive narratives are breaking down, too, though. Progressive stronghold Portland is still a hot mess. Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Cuomo's mismanagement of Covid is set aside for a more Progressive-friendly sexual misconduct. Maxine Waters has in the past, and is now, inciting 'insurrection' and won't face impeachment. Gaffe Machine Biden keeps putting his foot in his mouth. His son is on a make-nice tour answering softball questions to clear his image. Wikileaks published emails showing Dominion's legal firm offered assistance to the Clinton campaign in 2016. All this dirt is readily available and very little is going to make the mainstream news (frankly, I'm shocked the Russian bounty story's dismissal made it to the mainstream, as that was one of Biden's memorable hot buttons).
It's hard to understand why anyone pays attention to mainstream news. DeSantis' treatment is such that one can only shake their head in wonderment at the brazen nature of the lies and deceit. Living in one of the few (there really aren't many - just look at the map of popular votes for all the blue sections) bastions of Progressive thought, I am often stunned at what people are willing to listen to and believe. Comfortable lies rule the day.
Say what you want about alternative news sources being 'fake news'. Determining what's real in the supposedly 'credible' media is a feat in itself.
We’re going to increase the number [of refugees]. The problem was that the refugee part was working on the crisis that ended up on the border with young people. We couldn’t do two things at once. But now we are going to increase the number.
"Agricultural Disaster" - Frost Blast Decimates French Vineyards, 
I guess we were all asked to read Thucydides (a brilliant story-teller) in high school or college, but VDH's recounting of the Peloponesian Wars is much more fun to read:
They are both valuable for lower body fitness. Squats are more about strength-building, lunges are more "functional." 