Maggie's Farm

We've mentioned this common issue several times in the past, but I learned some cool new info from my office IT guy today.

First, I learned you can live-stream almost any radio station in the world from Tune In for $8/month. 100,000 radio stations. Sheesh. All I need is WQXR.

My main discovery is that SONOS makes a gizmo which will connect with your old sound systems. It's called SONOS Port.  I do have two pairs of ridiculously fine speakers so I have to try this thing. I am giving a try just with a SONOS ONE speaker with the SONOS system, and am not impressed. Yeah, it's WiFi, and it's fine for background music but not for listening carefully. I like to listen attentively and, preferably, to be able to see the musicians in a real venue. How do people compose this stuff? Special brains, deserving of attention.

I like my CDs. Large collection. 

Nothing against live music - we go to some at least once/weekend in winter - but I need to listen to pieces of music a bit before I hear them live. Nothing substitutes for live. My brain is slow to get the gist of adult music. Takes me time. Then, when it's live, I really start to get what's in it. A trip to a different world.

When I was young, I liked to focus on music with a little weed. Have not done for many decades, but it somehow opened my ears. (That's the only good it did for me. Otherwise, it's the stupid and lazy drug.)

Our musician readers can tell that I am borderline musically retarded, but it is important to me. I only hear pop music in the gym. Yes, Van Morrison is good for the gym. OK - Dylan is in a different category. Lots of his songs are hymns, of sorts.

What's your opinion? 

 This entitled, infantilized, woe-is-me, the-world-is-against-me mindset is tragic and destructive.  It is why "Squad" members AOC, Cori Bush, and Rashida Tlaib ranted, raved, whined, and cried after Republicans ousted Ilhan Omar from her seat on the House Intelligence Committee.  "Islamophobia," they cried!  "Racism!"  Misogyny!  An attack on women of color!  Etc., etc.  They did not mention that the other two congresspersons removed from the committee were Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff, both white males.  Never mind that two thirds of those taken off the committee for security reasons were white (heterosexual) non-Islamic males.  "Racism!"  "Islamophobia!"  "Sexism!"

Even Trump Didn’t Choose Partisan Divisiveness in the Way Joe Biden Did

 Congress Looking to Create New Regulations, Taxes for Marijuana. Meanwhile, in a victory for 2nd Amendment, a judge has ruled that banning guns for marijuana users unconstitutional.

OK, but I will not shoot with drunk or stoned shooters 

 FBI HQ Retracting Richmond Field Office Document Targeting ‘Radical Traditionalist Catholics’. The Richmond FBI office relied on the Southern Poverty Law Center and articles from Salon and The Atlantic to justify targeting these “radicals.”

 Jordan Drops Explosive List of What FBI Whistleblowers Have Exposed So Far

FBI went to the dark side. Do they want to be STASI? 

Surely an incomplete list:

Henry V111's kitchen at Hampton Court.

I don't know how doctors can actually participate in these things. But, putting legalities aside, I don't know how doctors can do abortions either - much less "late-term" abortions. 

My libertarian side bumps into a cement wall when it comes to kids.

 Transurrection? Protestors Storm State Legislators Over Ban On Child 'Gender Transition' Surgery

 The treatment for transsexualism is sex reassignment

Stunning might be the easiest way. Why let the fish suffer? For a smaller fish, just whack their head against something.

Another common way is to stick a knife into the gill area and let them bleed out. That's not easy with a big fish.

I know some people use a firearm on large Makos. What do you do? 

Related, Can fish drown? 

 Hogs Are Running Wild in the U.S.

 The New Climate Pause lengthens again: 101 months and counting …

Forbes 'Fat Activist' Claims 'Tightening the Belt' Is Fatphobic Hate Speech

 White female scholars keep pretending to be Native American

What is a school "silent lunch"? 

 US school marks Black History Month with fried chicken and watermelon

 HS Student Suspended For Rest Of The Year For Saying There Are Only Two Sexes…

 Once again, Jordan Peterson has just been canceled—I think it’s basically his job now. 

 Majority of MIT students support shouting down speakers or even physically blocking access to them

 SUNY to require DEI and social justice courses in fall 2023

 Colonialism and Its Discontents - Oxford ethicist Nigel Biggar’s controversial reassessment of Britain’s imperial record has reignited an important academic quarrel over the meaning and legacy of empire.

 Miami black leaders apologize to DeSantis for calling the governor a racist

 Manhattan Prosecutor Called Out for Mortgaging His Ethics to Get Trump

 Here’s How Much US Farmland Has Been Bought Up By China

VDH:  Ukrainian Paradoxes - Are the borders of country 5,000 miles away more sacrosanct and more worth taking existential risks than our own airspace and southern border?

With or without kidney beans? The classic is chunks of beef, but it's all fine with me as long as it is hot enough, has some sour cream, and chopped scallions or red onions on top.

If it's too mild, just put some hot sauce on the table or a bowl of chopped jalapenos. 

Here's a no-bean chili, but with ground beef:  Easy No-Bean Chili. Chili, without the beans—just beef, tomatoes, onions, and lots of great spices. Make it ahead, freeze the leftovers, and eat it for days.

Another one, with the beans:  Originally, it was simply meat, sauce, and chili peppers. Eventually, cooks added beans and tomatoes to the dish, although some people are purists and insist that beans do not belong in real chili con carne.

 Harvard Medical School adds climate change to its curriculum

 Healing the blind is "ableism"

 Ag Sec Vilsack announces new nutrition standards for school meals

 American Students -- Dumber and More Woke

Award-Winning Journalist Compares Donald Trump, Republicans to Ku Klux Klan

 Canada’s government poised to move closer to ending free speech

 Revealing the New York Times’ Deceitful Russiagate Coverage

 Bill Maher to the Progressive Left: You Think You Want A Revolution? Study What Happens When They “Spin Out of Control”

Memphis: It looked like gang violence to me 

 How Sam Bankman-Fried’s Psychiatrist Became a Key Player at Crypto Exchange FTX

 New FBI HQ Slated to Be Twice the Size of the Pentagon, Larger Than the Kremlin

 NYC residents are just about fed up with the migrants

 MELONI ASCENDANT

For me, friendships and cheerful acquaintances are important in life.

We've posted on this topic in the past: The Circles of Friendships 

Great Books 30-min. podcast

Good fun.

But one that didn't spend time in the shop, and one that was sporty enough but not flashy, not a cop magnet. And that is affordable.

I've been driving my Stelvio for almost three years (thanks, Mrs. BD). Zero problems.  It's just a Giulia with more space in back like a "crossover". Ferrari designed the fun engine. Just a click into all-wheel drive if you want it. Can drive it on automatic or manual. Zero problems thus far.

I have noticed that Italian police use them. It figures. 

 2023 Alfa Romeo Giulia

Dostoevsky’s masterpiece, ‘Crime and Punishment,’ offers a radical reinterpretation of guilt and redemption.

 The uncomfortable truth that Raskolnikov discovers is that one’s inner self may be dark: cruel, evil, petty, and arrogant to the point of inhumanity. The hideous truth that Dostoevsky reveals is that perhaps one’s inner self is even usually this way.

Raskolnikov is ashamed of not feeling shame for his obsession with his own identity, and he covers up this shame with pride in himself, as though pride were the opposite of—and cure for—his shame. 

The song of the Wood Thrush came through my window Friday morning. A migrant, I think. It is a fine, musical spring sound which connects me with every spring I have lived through.

The Wood Thrush inhabits the dark Eastern forests of mature hardwoods and hemlocks, and is far more often heard than seen. His song is often described as a flute-like yodel, and indeed it is one of the haunting sounds from the woodlands. He forages near the ground for bugs, worms, and berries.

They do breed in the woodlands of the Farm but right now most of them are headed north. The great songbird (and warbler) migration to breeding grounds.

This member of the large family of Thrushes, which includes the American Robin, is heavily parasitized by Cowbirds, the Welfare Queens of the bird world.

Hear his remarkable song, and read more about him, here. If you do not really know birds, make sure you listen to the song on the site - if you spend any time outside, you will recognize that tune.

Ramis was a fine fellow

Candide Thovex has cojones. This is Switzerland.

Should be watched every year. It's an Amazon rental.

More physicists are questioning reality

"It's Time For The Scientific Community To Admit We Were Wrong About COVID & It Cost Lives"

 Massive Peer-Reviewed Mask Study Shows 'Little To No Difference' In Preventing COVID, Flu Infection

 Welcome to Neom, Saudi Arabia’s desert dystopia in the making

 ‘De-Extinction’ Company Will Try to Bring Back the Dodo. Colossal Biosciences also intends to resurrect the thylacine and woolly mammoth—an ambitious agenda, considering no extinct species has ever been brought back.

 GAO going after school dress codes

 Washington Post editorial board: Migrants are gaming the asylum system

 Inside New York's migrant hotel

Heather at Spectator:  Racism has become an unfalsifiable proposition. 

 We may have just celebrated MLK Day, but he lost...

Re Memphis:  Kicks to the head are especially damning. It’s what street thugs do. That’s a beatdown. And it looks very different than the restraint attempts that were at issue in other cases, like the George Floyd drug overdose.

 "Objectivity Has Got To Go": News Leaders Call For End Of Objective Journalism

 Progressives Label Bill Maher ‘Right Wing’ After CNN Adds Him to Friday Night Programming