Maggie's FarmWe 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. |
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Friday, March 31. 2023Political assassination
Nancy Pelosi said yesterday: "Now Donald Trump has the chance to prove his innocence."
PeanutsWhen we discuss the New World foods which, thanks to Columbus, ended up changing the cuisine of the world, we always forget to include the peanut.
Friday morning linksDiversity Training Disaster Pols, teachers unions aim to scrap tests to hide huge learning loss Joe Biden: ‘Transgender Americans Shape our Nation’s Soul’ "WTF Is Wrong With You": Columbia Center & Law Students Protest Meeting With Justice Kavanaugh How the tech elites lost touch with reality - Joel Kotkin on the growing rift between Silicon Valley and the masses. Unprecedented: Former President Donald J. Trump indicted by Manhattan grand jury Democracy in America on life support as President Trump is indicted Thursday, March 30. 2023The 12 Apostles of JesusAnother lengthy history:
The Null HypothesisIt's the basis of the scientific method, but often overlooked: The Null Hypothesis It is why experiments never "fail."
Thursday morning linksNew insights into an old drug: Scientists discover why aspirin works so well Defeating Cancel Culture Male weightlifter proves a point: I just set a world record! Social contagion is making teen girls depressed — and trans At a loss for words - On The New York Times’s reporting on the shooting in Nashville. Tolerance and Acceptance Were Never Going to Be Enough for the Trans Crowd '$5 million is too little:' Activists tell California reparations committee to aim higher Are You Ready for the "Trans Day of Vengeance"? Long read: A Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century - Thirteen ways of looking at disinformation BY JACOB SIEGEL What Ukraine Needs To Learn From Afghanistan Wednesday, March 29. 2023Native AmericansWednesday morning linksPETA: Crabs are people too, you know Mass misconception: The real reason we can’t outpace light speed Florida moves on school choice Tritium Panic in Minnesota - Once again, a minor incident at a nuclear plant provokes unwarranted fears. Biden Targets Air Conditioners In Latest Attack on Americans’ Quality-of-Life Choices Legacy Media Struggle to Characterize Trans Shooter’s Sex Godwin’s Law Goes Woke: UT-Austin Prof Says Objecting To Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Is “Modern Day Lynching” Air Force Academy Focus On Anti-American Critical Race Theory Training Of Cadets Majority Still See Hard Work, Tolerance, and Religion as Important American Values Tuesday, March 28. 2023Fancy CheeseThere are too many routine uses of cheese in the US to list them all - just think cheeseburgers, nachos, cheese and cracker appetizers, McMuffins with cheese, grilled cheese, ham and Swiss sandwiches, salads with gorgonzola. There are many more. The big supermarket sellers in the USA seem to be "American cheese" (which is a food-like substance), sliced Swiss (made in Wisconsin), Dutch Gouda, and Cheddar-type cheeses (often made in Vermont - but the best of that type imo is Irish Kerrygold Dubliner). Gorgonzola too if there are a lot of Italians around, and goat cheese has become basic these days. Cottage Cheese and Cream Cheese are not really cheeses. Yeah, and Brie is a popular party cheese. Amazing cheeses (often French) are due respect. The frogs can be as fussy about cheese as about wine, and for good reasons: they go from sheep to cow, from gooey to hard, from intensely stinky to nutty, plenty of complex blues, etc. Our experience in France is that a charcuterie board (supposedly an aperitif) is a meal in itself - sliced hard cheeses, cured meats, nuts, olives, bread, etc. We also had excellent and interesting cheeses at breakfast buffets. However, the special cheeses are reserved for the Cheese course, before dessert. If you don't know the names, you just point to 3 or 4 that you want, and the slices are put on your plate. Some jam, sliced apple or pear. No bread to dilute the intensity. Links: Cheese or Dessert First? Short answer: the cheese. How To Serve A Cheese Course For Dinner
Birds eating buds and blossoms
Interesting to me has been seeing Chickadees munching on the emerging rosebuds. Never seen that before. Thanks to Google: Why Do Birds Eat Flower Buds?
Tuesday morning linksOur pal Stuart Schneiderman has opened at Substack Scholars say U.S. treatment of youth gender dysphoria not evidence-based Liberal College Professor Placed on Leave for Suggesting it’s OK to Murder Conservative Speakers EU Members Clash Over Nuclear Energy's Role In Climate Policy Black Lives Matter Activists Executed A Shocking $83 Billion Shakedown Of American Corporations Trump’s bizarre behavior a gift to the left just as public opinion was turning on Bragg Monday, March 27. 2023Monday morning links
Re-writing Agatha Christie Audubon-NYC’s name change is cowardly way to avoid facing its heritage Why Birdwatching Is Good for You: All About the “Profound” Mental Health Benefits of the Avian Pastime Another outstanding school takes a hit for equity Civils rights class cancelled after student feels "discomfort" The disgraceful scenes at Stanford are a flawless embodiment of how diversity doctrine distorts academic life and constrains decision-making. Why Did States Require Blood Tests for Marriage Licenses? Eminent Oxford Scientist Says Wind Power "Fails On Every Count" Ban AC in DC Yes, some American blacks were slave owners
National Archives just torpedoed Joe Biden's 'I know nothing' defense The Trump of Waco, Texas Is Very Different From the Trump Who Came Down the Escalator in 2015 Unfortunately Recent Airstrikes Are Our Periodic Reminder That We're Fighting a War in Syria. Four years after IS was officially defeated, the U.S. continues to keep hundreds of troops in Syria to fight the vanquished terrorist group. ChiComs Colonize Argentina Sunday, March 26. 2023Popcorn and politicsIs existence a God's simulation?None of us have a doctorate in metaphysics nowadays (I think), but is life just a dream? I like to imagine that my life has my own steering wheel, but I am not sure about that. I do know that all lives have or need some sort of anchorage, centering, lodestar - whatever. Do we live in a God's simulation? Is that Judeo-Christian view? Best if I shut up before writing more. This is interesting:
From today's Lectionary: LazarusJohn 11:1-45 11:1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 11:2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 11:3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." 11:4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, "This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God's glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it." 11:5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 11:6 after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 11:7 Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." 11:8 The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?" 11:9 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. 11:10 But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them." 11:11 After saying this, he told them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him." 11:12 The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right." 11:13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 11:14 Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. 11:15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." 11:16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." 11:17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 11:18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 11:19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 11:20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 11:21 Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 11:22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him." 11:23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." 11:24 Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 11:26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" 11:27 She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world." 11:28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." 11:29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 11:30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 11:31 The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 11:32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." 11:33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 11:34 He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." 11:35 Jesus began to weep. 11:36 So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" 11:37 But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" 11:38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 11:39 Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days." 11:40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" 11:41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me. 11:42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me." 11:43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 11:44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." 11:45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. Saturday, March 25. 2023Danger appeals to menFrom an interview with Sebastian Junger:
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Saturday morning linksA book: Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier by Kevin Kelly Marriage Isn’t Hard Work; It’s Serious Play NPR vs. Masculinity How to Shut Down New York’s Unlicensed Pot Shops Why bother? A debate on DEI will be held at MIT. The university’s DEI deans refuse to participate. "Trump didn't drain the swamp, he merely annoyed it" looks unfortunately true. DeSantis’s Trumpy Foreign Policy Goes Deeper Than Ukraine US Contractor Killed, 5 Service Members Wounded In Syria - Airstrikes Ensue Why is US military in Syria? Things Are Getting Spicy in France as Mass Protests Turn Violent in Some Areas Friday, March 24. 2023Roast Beef of Old EnglandFriday linksThe US will see northern lights Friday — and great views even sooner Why science and its journals should remain free of ideology: an example from Nature Government Grows on Crisis How to Understand the Well-Being Gap between Liberals and Conservatives University removes statement compelling faculty speech after CRO report Stanford Law announces DEI dean is on leave, students will get mandatory free speech training Dean Steinbach still thinks she did nothing wrong Doubts Grow Over Bragg’s Case Against Trump. The office of the district attorney is reported to be riven by uncertainty. GUESS WHAT: REPARATIONS ALREADY UNPOPULAR IN SAN FRANCISCO LIBERALS, STOP TRYING TO KEEP BLACK KIDS DOWN! 1% OF DEMOCRAT COUNTIES MAKE UP 42% OF AMERICA’S MURDERS San Fran Dem: Being robbed by drug addicts is "basic city life experience" In Moscow, Xi and Putin Bury Pax Americana Thursday, March 23. 2023How medical practice has changed
Thursday morning linksFreud is uncancellable Audubon Society Defies Wokes, Keeps Name. "We are shocked, confused, and deeply disappointed." Organic farming fleeces consumers and does not significantly promote sustainability Stanford law students who shouted down judge may be reported to California Bar Our Kafkaesque culture and its many victims NSF: We have ways to force you to stop being skeptical of government The Pentagon Supports Child-Sex Changes, Argues Red States Have Created a 'Public Health Crisis' Are you ready for the "trans day of vengeance?" Growing trend: Chinese nationals at the southern border Ron DeSantis Is Right About Ukraine It's a good historical view Wednesday, March 22. 2023Oliver Sacks on musicHis folksy talk begins at around the 12-min. mark. He is right about dementia and music.
Wednesday morning linksWhite People Drinking Coffee Perpetuates 'Pillar of White Supremacist Capitalism' Insect farming is immoral? “I actually think it's super liberating to feel like I’m not responsible for my weight," said Prof. Brennhofer University president ‘steps back’ from duties after dubious indigenous ancestry claims Why are literacy rates for San Francisco's black children so low and what can be done to fix it? The Hollow Return of American Manufacturing - American factories might come back but the middle class won’t follow Politico isn't quite sure about the Constitution anymore Blinken Declares a Ceasefire Illegal NSC Communications Director John Kirby Says War Should Continue Because a Ceasefire Would Favor Putin President BILL CLINTON Paid Paula Jones $850,000 To Shut Up About Sexual Harassment Charges While He Was In Middle Of Impeachment Hearings For Affair With 19-Yr-Old Intern...Why Was He Never Arrested? Ugandan President Blasts Western Countries For Promoting LGBT In Africa Tuesday, March 21. 2023Fun with CellosTuesday morning linksAcademia is adrift in a sea of low standards. The demand to make classes easier comes at a time when classes are as easy as they ever have been. Illegal immigration to cost New Yorkers $10 billion in 2023, US $150B Miami Beach mayor declares state of emergency - "We don't want spring break in our city" Manhattan prosecutor's office reportedly 'in chaos' Russian Hoax to the 10th Power Is the Way To Describe Prosecution of Trump. The political left will go to any means to stop Trump from becoming president again. Tenured Professor Amy Wax, Under Siege for ‘Truth Telling’ on Race, Makes Her Case. Can the tenure system at America’s universities survive the campaign of a critic of academia’s reigning ideology? MacDonald: The Great Abdication - In California, public officials now favor the lawless and deviant over the law-abiding and hardworking. France's government survives no-confidence votes and controversial pension reforms will move ahead I don't understand. Who gets pensions in France? South Africa update
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