Maggie's Farm

I saw a pair of them in my tall oak tree this morning, and I suspect that they are weaving one of their remarkable hanging nests in it again this year, as they did last year.

These exotically-colored Eastern songbirds are never common, but are regularly seen - but only if you look up into the tree-tops. One odd fact about these orioles is that they like to eat oranges. Some people put orange halves out to attract them.

You can see a video of orioles constructing a nest. Orioles tend to breed fast, then head back to their home in the tropics in mid-late summer. 

Image: This male is a bit on the yellow side, more like a female. Most of the males we see in New England are more flame-orange. The Orchard Oriole seems unusual in New England and is smaller, darker, and tends to nest near water in the South and Midwest.

 WSJ: Your Next Big Move Should Scare You. Your gut says no. Here’s why you shouldn’t always listen to it.

 AI MAKES S**T UP

 Marc Andreessen on A.I., Bitcoin, and Billionaires - Is the A.I. breakthrough for real this time?

 Climate activists were in for a surprise after they tried to hurl orange powder at London's famed flower show

 Plants cause global warming now

 UMich botanical garden employs DEI manager, hosts ‘confronting racism’ training

 200,000 cows to be culled in Ireland in order to meet climate targets

 Canadian PM Justin Trudeau Says American Pushback Against Woke Politics Is "Scary"

 “We Have a Captive Audience”: Boston University to Require Students to Take Social Justice Writing Courses

About Chomsky:  Manufacturing Dissent - Activists and opinion-formers on the Left and Right have been persuaded that living under anything besides the kind of governance they want means they’ve been cheated.

 Elon Musk Pulls Twitter from European Union’s ‘Anti-Disinformation’ Agreement - French Digital Minister threatens to ban Twitter if it doesn’t follow EU rules.

 Randi Weingarten Has Zero Credibility

Dethroned. The apparent impending demise of The King’s College is instructive about the pitfalls lying in wait for even the best-intentioned institutions of higher education.

Chronicle: Higher-Ed received billions in Covid-Relief funds. Where did it go?

 The Great Student Loan Nonpayment Boondoggle Is Over

"A little more than a year ago, I attended a virtual symposium on “Nudges in Health Care...” 

 Why The Media Is Attacking Free Speech

Ann Colter not loving Trump: How not to be President 

A New World Order:

 Countries around the world have tired of feeling pushed around by America, of having the terms of their relationship imposed from Washington. Ironically, in a war that is supposed for democracy, these countries want to have a say in their own foreign policies. And we should not ignore the increasing economic power of China..

 The Most Honored Photograph of WW2

10 Years after Sheryl Sandberg’s book ‘Lean In,’ women are on the outs

 No Laughing Matter: John Cleese Holds Line Against Calls To Cancel Scene In 'Life Of Brian'

 When will the lawsuit come? For doctors, it’s a matter of time

 The Futility of School Reform

 America’s Dangerous Shortage Of Free Thinkers

 Memory-Holing of COVID False Narratives Picks Up Steam

 Gorsuch rightly slams freedom-crushing ‘rule by indefinite emergency edict’

 CNN: Work Requirements Are “Offensive To Poor People”…

The Nation:  Biden Must Remake His Candidacy

 Ukraine war is an existential struggle — for the West

What? 

1895:  The Soldier’s Faith - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. brings the song of the sword to Harvard’s graduating class.

ANTI-COVID POLICIES WERE A DISASTER

 Jordan Peterson Considers Every Possible Meaning Of Bible Story Except That It Might Mean Exactly What It Says

Funny 

 ENVIRONMENTALISTS ARE WHY WE CAN’T HAVE INFRASTRUCTURE

They aren't "environmentalists" 

  Is America's falling fertility rate caused by the over-prescription of antidepressants? One in FIVE adults are on mood-busting drugs which sap libido and sperm counts

 My cheating boyfriend told me he was a sex addict. Was it a disorder – or just an excuse?

Gee, that's a hard question 

 The Encampment State - Billions in spending have failed to solve California’s massive—and worsening—homelessness crisis.

"Homeless" is not the problem 

Musk won't play the EU game 

Good 

 'This place deserves to be shut down': Migrant hotel employee reveals the 'free for all' of drugs, sex and violence inside New York City's The Row since it was closed to tourists to make room for border crossers

  'Bike Karen' Race-Hoaxers Flee Like Hunted Rats to Avoid Lawsuit

 Microsoft kicks Vivek Ramaswamy off LinkedIn

 Citywide Youth Curfew Begins In Baltimore As Mayor Strives To Restore Law And Order

 Georgia GOP flat earther raises eyebrows

 Presto-Chango, See Which Democrat Attack Transforms Into 'Republicans Pounce!'

 The disinformation campaign against Ron DeSantis - So much fake news and woke hysteria is being spread about the presidential hopeful.

 Biden keeps turning his political enemies into ‘terrorists’

Call me lazy if you want to, but I like these light-weight cordless chain saws for small jobs. Heavy pruning, for example.

Sure, I have regular pruning saws, but those electric things are nifty.  I go with Ryobi because I already have all of their betteries and chargers for blowers and trimmers.

For heavy-duty, I do have a Stihl Farm Boss which I love to use, but it is overkill for small jobs. For example, I have overgrown lilacs. Neglected to remove 1/4 or 1/3 of their older main stems annually. 3" thick now. 

You can find all of the mini-chain saws on Amazon. 

WaPo has some thoughts about  “The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man,” by David Von Drehle. 

 Life seemed somehow to rest more lightly on him than on most of us. I wanted to know the why and the how. As our friendship grew, those questions deepened, for I learned that life had dealt Charlie some heavy blows: grief, victimhood, helplessness, disruption.

I came to realize Charlie was not a survivor. He was a thriver. He did not just live. He lived joyfully. He was like a magnet, pulling me across the street and into his confidences, where I discovered something about life’s essentials. The sort of something one wants to pass on to one’s children.

That's Fritillaria, Bluebells, some Hosta, Coral Bells, Dwarf Oakleaf Hydrangea.

 Photo: Our Siberian Irises are in bloom

Daily flights, NY to the Faroe Islands

Mrs.BD would love that 

 At High School Debates, Debate Is No Longer Allowed. At national tournaments, judges are making their stances clear: students who argue ‘capitalism can reduce poverty’ or ‘Israel has a right to defend itself’ will lose—no questions asked.

Kotkin:  Can California Be Saved? Though the state retains great advantages, bad policies accelerate its decline.

 TGIF: Cruising for a Bruising - Canadians say yes to death. South Koreans say no to birth. Plus: DeSantis, flat-earthers, a Citi Bike Karen—and Bezos’s amazing love boat.

VDH:  The Left Has Pushed the Envelope. Why are our government, corporations, and popular culture colluding in mass suicide—to the delight of our enemies like Communist China?

OK, but I don't think China is an enemy 

 U.S. NEWSGreenwald: Regime Journalists Promote The ‘Right’ Conspiracy Theories To Be Successful “Journalists who spread conspiracy theories that the CIA wants them to spread get promoted, and the journalists who question the conspiracy theories of the CIA get destroyed.”

We all live in a world of lies 

 Want to be a Seattle firefighter Lt.? Best know your woke reading list!:

...  in 2021, local officials including Scoggins commissioned a report on diversity in the fire service. One of its recommendations: avoid tests that “rely heavily on knowledge of firefighting.”

“[T]ests that focus on how well applicants know the system and the job tend to favor those who make up the overwhelming majority of the fire service workforce, white men,” the report says. “Questions that ask more about the candidate’s character and values, rather than knowing the ins and outs of the job, can be beneficial in advancing more women and people of color.”

NY:  ‘Right-to-shelter’ off-ramp is long overdue

 Why no one will learn the lessons from "Citi Bike Karen" fiasco

5 black kids tried to steal her Citibike. Wrong narrative 

 New York Office Buildings Emptying Out

But rentals are high, along with tourism 

 Germany Is Turning Against The EU's Green New Deal, Common Sense To The Forefront

 The World Realigns

Solar storms have dramatically increased this year.

I blame climate change 

 Early Apes Lived on Savannahs, Not in Forests. Two new studies suggest that 21 million years ago African primates frequented edge habitat and fed on leaves

 Scientific American is Now the Bud Light of Science Journals

 Plastic Recycling Now Contributing to Microplastics Pollution Mania

 Nebraska Becomes 18th State To Ban Transgender Surgeries On Children…

What Banks Do

 Leftist Cancellation is the New Rite of Passage

 Trump’s ‘Hush Payment’ Trial to Begin Months Before 2024 Presidential Election

Why my GOP competitors should take my lead and visit America’s inner cities: Ramaswamy

 Joe Biden Keeps Lying That His Son Died in Iraq. In fact, he lies about an assortment of his dead relatives.

 Contrary To Popular Myth, Brexit Was Not A Bad Decision And Did Not Fail

 Scotland moves toward removing trial by jury

 The Ukraine War Was Provoked - & Why That Matters To Achieve Peace

A quote from MarK Twain's The Mysterious Stranger:

More quotes from the unfinished story here.

“Still, it is true, lamb," said Satan. "Look at you in war—what mutton you are, and how ridiculous!" "In war? How?" "There has never been a just one, never an honorable one—on the part of the instigator of the war. I can see a million years ahead, and this rule will never change in so many as half a dozen instances. The loud little handful—as usual—will shout for the war. The pulpit will—warily and cautiously—object—at first; the great, big, dull bulk of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why there should be a war, and will say, earnestly and indignantly, "It is unjust and dishonorable, and there is no necessity for it." Then the handful will shout louder. A few fair men on the other side will argue and reason against the war with speech and pen, and at first will have a hearing and be applauded; but it will not last long; those others will outshout them, and presently the anti-war audiences will thin out and lose popularity. Before long you will see this curious thing: the speakers stoned from the platform, and free speech strangled by hordes of furious men who in their secret hearts are still at one with those stoned speakers—as earlier—but do not dare to say so. And now the whole nation—pulpit and all—will take up the war-cry, and shout itself hoarse, and mob any honest man who ventures to open his mouth; and presently such mouths will cease to open. Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.”

― Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger

A Wall Street accountant turned professional escort says she's a psychopath – and swears it's the key to making 6 figures

 Democrats to parents everywhere: Your kids belong to US, not you!

 Social Justice™ Now Claims Waking Up Early Is White Supremacy

 Now, It’s Time to ‘Cancel’ Problematic ‘Three’s Company’. Collider dissects beloved '70s sitcom in a pitch-perfect woke parody

 First they came for Roald Dahl, then they came for Monty Python

 California High School's Female 'Teacher of the Year' Busted for Allegedly Having Sex with 16-Year-Old Student

Inappropriate, but a crime? 

The guy who issued the Florida warning lives in Florida 

 The Encampment State - Billions in spending have failed to solve California’s massive—and worsening—homelessness crisis.

 Poll Shows How Radically Different Americans' Opinions Are From Liberal Corporate Media Narratives

 The FBI is a danger to democracy

Not meant to be the KGB 

 Uber’s DEI Chief on Leave After Complaints Over ‘Don’t Call Me Karen’ Seminar - “We have heard that many of you are in pain and upset by yesterday’s Moving Forward session.”

 Pulitzer Prize-Winning Media Malpractice: Russian Hoax Confirmed by the Durham Report

 More upstate NY counties declare a migrant state of emergency

 Musk is right about Soros, libs’ trouble with truth and other commentary

Tim Keller, retired New York megachurch pastor and bestselling author, dies at 72

Here's 11 minutes:

But this tune is like a dark American hymn. "She came from Providence..."

Our internet pal Gerard lived in Paradise until his place burned down. 

Spectator:  Umbria: Italy’s underrated gem. The region is so much more than the ‘poor cousin of Tuscany’

Yep 

 Gold­man struggles to close gender divide after dis­crim­in­a­tion pay­out. US bank com­mits to boost­ing female staff in wake of $215mn set­tle­ment but some remain scep­tical

 1 in 3 Female Recruits Injured in Army Basic Training - "Nearly 30% of female recruits were injured on average each month"

 UT Austin tells students to use 'wimmin' instead of the word 'women'

 Because It Worked Out So Well For Bud Light, Fords Unveils Its “Very Gay” Truck…

Not an important war, but the Brits did burn down my hometown in Connecticut. Also, the small town of Washington DC. Fort McHenry is in it, and New Orleans too.

Really, only Canadians still remember much about it except for the song.