Maggie's Farm

Math is running out of problems

A history of Africa

Death from oysters?

The difficulty with forced mental health treatment (and any forced medical treatment)

More offshore wind?

NY Times Seems Upset That GOP Convention Isn’t All About Climate Doom

 The Real Reason Trump Chose JD Vance

 Donald Trump and the GOP are shifting to a party for the working class

 Biden Now ‘Receptive’ to Ending Presidential Campaign

 Biden Seeks Supreme Court Term Limits, Medical Debt Cancellation, Rent Controls

Really?

 Make Democrats tell you what their party stands for

Hamas wants the Benjamins

Van Jones, who I wish were on my team, says this RNC speech was a blockbuster:

I have not been much of a fan of fruit since I was a kid, but I do love grilled fruit for dessert or even as a side dish. Grilled Pineapple is the best thing with grilled Swordfish.

Most kinds of fruit can be grilled (apples and pears take longer than most). In Italy, fresh or grilled fruit is the usual dessert. (Gelato is not dessert - it's a street snack.)

No need for a recipe, but you can sprinkle some sugar on the fruit while on the grill. 

Environmentalists Killed Logging to Protect Owls. Now They Want to Kill the Owls.

Solzhenitsyn Warned Us.The great Russian writer understood the West and predicted its future with frightening precision.

 Microsoft lays off its DEI team as fired staff complain diversity ideals were 'no longer business-critical'

 The Brainwashing of a Nation

Napoleon in a Golf Cart. Plus. . .Martin Gurri on Biden. Silicon Valley goes MAGA. An Iranian assassination plot. The Taliban v. climate change. And much more.

Stuart's Wednesday Potpourri

Oh no - a sloped roof

Former Snipers Agree: It's A Miracle Trump Is Still Alive

HuffPo:  JD Vance Is The GOP’s Next-Gen Authoritarian

Yes, Vance is Hitler too

 Mea Culpa: Turns Out the Dems Can Go Right Back to 'Trump Is Literally Hitler!'

 Why they hate JD Vance - Donald Trump’s vice-president is the future of American populism.

What is populism?

The oysters, from Virginia down to Texas, are the same species as our Northeastern ones but the southern ones grow faster and larger.

As a result (some readers might object), southern oysters are less delectable raw. I've had them broiled over coals with hot sauce (ok, not great) and fried (excellent - but most seafood fried is good). For me, a Po' Boy sammich is as good as a Soft-shelled Crab sammich.

Somebody told me that the best treat they had ever had was an Oyster Pie on the Virginia shore. He told me that the bottom of the pie was lined with a layer of Virginia Ham.

I know that calling people names is juvenile, but politics can be juvenile. It's like calling somebody poopyface.

The "Hitler" and "fascist" name-calling always puzzles me. It's called Godwin's Law: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches."

It preceded the online world though. Nixon was Hitler, Reagan was Hitler, Bush was Hitler, etc. All poopyfaces.

I guess it is just scare tactics, but it makes no sense to me.

 Effort to restore NY Harbor's oyster population encounters problem: They keep dying

Giving advice to your boss

 Congress 'Can Regulate Virtually Anything' - How legislators learned to stop worrying about the constitutionality of federal drug and gun laws by abusing the Commerce Clause

 Sharply More Americans Want to Curb Immigration to U.S. 55% want immigration levels reduced, highest since 2001

 Niall Ferguson: A Shot at the President—And the Turn of History - Assassinations have often changed the course of a country. Would that have happened if the shooter had slightly better aim?

Academics seize on Trump assassination attempt

Taibbi: The Slow Motion Assassination

 Ready for Biden's Counterattack?

I never read J.D. Vance's best-seller, but I might. He's a writer.

I was surprised by the choice. Trump today:

"J.D. honorably served our Country in the Marine Corps, graduated from Ohio State University in two years, Summa Cum Laude, and is a Yale Law School Graduate, where he was Editor of The Yale Law Journal, and President of the Yale Law Veterans Association. J.D.’s book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” became a Major Best Seller and Movie, as it championed the hardworking men and women of our Country. J.D. has had a very successful business career in Technology and Finance, and now, during the Campaign, will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond…."

Are others having problems with their thoughtful site?

I keep having it blocked by my filter. Those guys have been a regular visit from me. Might be on my end.

Climate predictions have all been wrong

 No, your parents are probably not to blame for all your problems

Well, your genes do matter

Ageing and fertility rates

 Pamela Paul on Transmania

Meta reinstates Trump on Facebook and Instagram for political expression

Behind the Curtain: The boys vs. girls election

VDH: Assassination Porn and the Sickness on the Left

Maybe, but looking for larger meaning in one idiot's actions is foolish. Yes, everybody knew it was possible. TDS exists.

Biden insists ‘we are not enemies’ as he addresses nation in brief Oval Office speech after Trump assassination attempt

 How the Trump Assassination Attempt Changes the Presidential Campaign

 A Message From Former First Lady Melania Trump

Ephesians 1:3-14

1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

1:4 just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.

1:5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will,

1:6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace

1:8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight

1:9 he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,

1:10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

1:11 In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will,

1:12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.

1:13 In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;

1:14 this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people, to the praise of his glory.

An inch further, and that would have been very bad.

The shooter was skilled. The victim was lucky.

It's too hot outside for fun.

 Dr. Ruth had been a sniper.

We are not machines - Welcome to the new, post-genomic biology: a transformative era in need of fresh metaphors to understand how life works

 How cancel culture is killing mental health

 Colleges aim to increase enrollment by admitting students who didn’t apply

Elon: EU Offered Me a Secret Deal to Censor X

Elon: The legacy media is a propaganda machine

American Farmers Are Pretty Happy With That SCOTUS Fish Decision

 Teamsters boss’ RNC speech reveals his precarious hold on members’ loyalty

More Dems Now Want Less, Not More, Immigration. 1 in 5 Democrats now want to deport all illegals.

It’s the End of the World as the Democrats Know It: And No, They aren’t Feeling Fine

Stuart's Saturday Miscellany

What if the U.S. had been told to stop fighting Japan during WWII, the way Israel is being told to stop fighting Hamas?

Nothing very interesting today. (Well, that turned out to be wrong)

 Strange Motion of Neutrons Proves Nature Is Fundamentally Bizarre

 White supremacy embedded in geology

Elon:  "If somebody has lost their arms or legs, we can actually attach an Optimus arm or leg during the Neuralink implant so that the commands from their brain would go to their robot arms or legs."

  Virginia and Connecticut Slam the Brakes on Imposing California-Style EV Mandates. It turns out that the math behind EVs doesn’t compute.

The Fall of Oakland - Mob lootings. Random shootings. Elderly people beaten in the street. The city has descended into lawlessness.

TGIF: President Putin and Vice President Trump Edition

There’s Only One Reason Democrats Oppose Requiring Proof Of Citizenship To Vote

 Dems Privately Admit Trump Is No Threat to Democracy

 Biden's BFFs Knew the Cognitive Decline Was Real. The president's defenders had private concerns. But publicly? Gaslighting.

I am getting bored by the Biden stories

I know that he is a sleazy, slippery, pandering, lyin' poltician, but most of them are. They wants jobs.

On a half-good day though, Joe can do the job:

Francis Crick can't find evidence for free will

 Thanks to State Control, Doctors Have Become Gods

A burger repesents vour violent past

 Academics Have Contest To See How Many Times They Can Say ‘Racist’ In An Article: An IQ Story

Re Trump: We came, we sued, we did not conquer

"The entire Democrat establishment have been caught red-handed in the thick of the biggest scandal and the biggest cover up. It's a cover up, that's what it is."

 Karine Jean-Pierre admits giving false information about Biden neurology visit after outcry over health misdirection

 SAVE Act Passes House 221-198 – but almost Every Democrat Voted to ‘Protect’ the Ability of Illegals to Vote in Federal Elections

Joe Rogan Calls Out the Open Border Scam: ‘They’re Literally Importing Democratic Voters’

France 'on the brink of financial meltdown' as 'rich to flee country over 90 percent tax'

Am I the only person having trouble with Powerline?

Moms are taking ‘magic’ mushrooms to manage their parenting stress — but is it safe?

 Is It Still a Good Idea to Take Aspirin to Prevent Heart Disease?

Today's Students Are Dangerously Ignorant of Our Nation's History.

Expecting people to be on time is part of ‘white supremacy culture,’ Duke Medical School claims

 Justice Sonia Sotomayor Opposes Guns. For You. Not For Her.

VDH on rural "rage"

Stuart's Wednesday Potpourri

Trump Made His First Misstep in Weeks

 Has Trump learned anything over the years? Will he continue to allow Biden to make mistakes, and do things like just talk about policy? Or will he do the things that drive people away? The election is 4 months away.

Who enabled Biden? A case study

Dems are running a de facto coup: Even if Biden wins, Kamala will be prez

The media’s newfound interest in Biden’s health, and the skill with which they are examining it now, exposes its complicity in a massive deception.

The insanity of Biden’s NATO support for Ukraine

The graphs are interesting, however accurate.

 The Hippos of South America

University ‘decolonizes’ art collection due to ‘problematic’ paintings, sculptures

 The evidence is mounting: humans were responsible for the extinction of large mammals

 ‘They’ shrieked about ‘global warming’ — but now they admit we were ‘accidentally cooling’

 Dr. Turban's Transmania

Can you get electrocuted in water? Yes

Liberalism and the West’s ‘Crisis of Meaning’ - Many liberals are strangely eager to concede that liberal societies are morally and spiritually bankrupt without religion to give life meaning.

 Biden Title IX overhaul blocked from being enforced in four more states

 Joe Biden Is A Good Man?

TDS hysteria crescendoes

 Maxine Waters: Trump Capable of the ‘Kind of Violence’ That Will Destroy Democracy

TNR:  OK, Democrats, This Is the Week to Say What You Really Believe. Want to replace Biden atop the Democratic ticket? It’s now or never.

Nate Silver:  Blaming the media is what got Democrats into this mess. Reality comes for everyone — and now it's come for Joe BIden.

Is It ‘Undemocratic’ to Replace Biden? Plus. . .

Europe Doesn't Want to Be Saved

 France Just Committed Suicide

UK's New Leftist PM Kills Illegal Immigrant Deportation Scheme On Day One

Why Cats Meow at Humans More Than Each Other

 Biden Admin to Kill 470,000 Owls to Save the Owls. A government bureaucracy will kill half a million owls

 A genius psychiatrist taught me the seven secrets of happiness, says GYLES BRANDRETH.

 Mount Everest’s highest camp is littered with frozen garbage, and cleanup is likely to take years

 How Did Such A Smart Guy Get So Stupid: Bill Gates & Cow Farts

The Great Barrier Reef has never been better

Dems All In Against GOP 'Citizens Only' Voting Act

 Mexican nationals can fly visa-free to Canada from Mexico before illegally crossing into America.

Who Is The Greater "Threat To Democracy"?

The Courtier Game - When Presidential aides are intoxicated with the thrill of being close to power

Mika really dislikes Trump

Whew

 White House Gave Radio Host Questions She Was Allowed to Ask Biden — and He Still Gaffed It Up

Biden's Dementia: What Did They Know and When Did They Know It?

Biden’s Cognitive Collapse: Greatest Media Scandal We’ve Ever Seen

Joe Biden’s Upcoming Fundraiser in Wisconsin Cancelled – Donors Who Committed to Giving Large Sums Withdrew After First Debate

Communists and Islamists Take France

Labour’s Net Zero Mandate Presages Economic Failure

A bee from somewhere flew up to our boat and jammed his or her weapon into Mrs. BD's shoulder. Mean old bee.

That reminded me of this Basement Tape musical horsing around:

What is Parkinson's? It's a not-uncommon neurodegenerative disease in older people. There is also a syndrome termed Parkinsonism.

Many articles about it seem to minimize the effects of the dementia and psychosis that can occur in advanced Parkinson's.

Mark 6:1-13

6:1 He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him.

6:2 On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands!

6:3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.

6:4 Then Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house."

6:5 And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them.

6:6 And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching.

6:7 He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.

6:8 He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts;

6:9 but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.

6:10 He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place.

6:11 If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them."

6:12 So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent.

6:13 They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.