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.
It's grade school information: The colonies were British colonies, each separately governed by Brit governors beholden to London. Just like Brit colonies all over the world.
Unification, and rebellion, was extremely difficult requiring all sorts of compromises. Some ugly, some wonderful and wise.
To me, the story is like the Iliad, or some parts of the Bible. It destroyed Melville to write it, it seems. Destroyed him, or changed him. I blame the Transcendentalists although I might be sort-of one myself.
First-term socialists—House representatives such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and her fellow “squad” members, inspired by Sanders—now set the new Democratic agenda. And it is one that is more radical than anything seen in modern American history and largely unsustainable: calls to level a wealth tax and new top income-tax rates of 70-90 percent, to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service, all student debt, an enforceable southern border, the internal combustion engine, and most Second Amendment rights, and to enact multi-trillion dollar new entitlements as outlined in the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, free college, free healthcare for illegal aliens, and reparations.
Like the Jacobins, they are now killing their own.
George Washington was an 'illiterate LIAR who cheated his way to the top, wore dentures made from hippo ivory, beat his slaves and lied about freeing them', new biography claims
They have one heck of a job, especially in Atlanta. Not that piloting is easy either. I would fly anywhere with this guy. He's a retired F-16 pilot and exudes competence.
If interested in walking or biking adventures in Europe (or in the UK, which is thankfully no longer Europe), you can do it the expensive way with Backroads or the cheap way with Macs.
Mac (obviously) started out doing Scotland walking trips, but has expanded all over. We're using his service for our Hadrian's Wall hike this summer. (They book your B&Bs and shlep your luggage. The daily hikes are on you.)
3:1 And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
3:2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready,
3:3 for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations?
3:4 For when one says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," are you not merely human?
3:5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each.
3:6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
3:7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
3:8 The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each.
3:9 For we are God's servants, working together; you are God's field, God's building.
Art is mostly fraud perpetrated by narcissistic academic quacks on a public easily gulled. They should be prosecuted. This is as true of literature as of painting and sculpture. If modern sculpture were placed in a junkyard, art critics couldn’t find it. Most of what we are told are great works are great works only because we are told that they are.
Consider the Mona Lisa, for mysterious reasons regarded an epochal detonation of artistry. Why? She is an excessively round woman who looks as if she is about to spit. We have to be told that she was an astonishment and marvel. Otherwise we would rate her a a pretty fair effort for an art student somewhere in Nebraska...
At one time Americans cherished freedom. While some still do, it’s obvious a large portion of the population prefers comfort provided by others, don’t want to hear ideas and opinions they don’t agree with, and are happy to see the liberty of others restricted, and even eliminated, if those restrictions are holding back freedoms they don’t care about, such as the right to bear arms. They have also grown “apathetic about their freedom,” writes James Bovard, “because most of the media continually assure them that Big Government is nothing to fear.”
For St. Valentine's Day, consider how your lover (or lovers) feel, regardless of age. It's good to be appealing to a lover unless you are a billionaire.
A great exercise to add to your conditioning routines (any sled is fine). It's a total body exercise:
h/t Powerline. Take him or her out for a fancy romantic dinner tonight. It is required, no matter how long you have been together. A week, or 30 years. Obvious. Anybody who sticks with us for over a week deserves something special. Not trinkets, just a special time. Just my opinion.
You Thought Quantum Mechanics Was Weird: Check out Entangled Time - 
Wilfred Reilly at Quillette 
George Washington was an 'illiterate LIAR 
