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.
16:19 "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.
16:20 And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
16:21 who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores.
16:22 The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.
16:23 In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side.
16:24 He called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.'
16:25 But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony.
16:26 Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.'
16:27 He said, 'Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house--
16:28 for I have five brothers--that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.'
16:29 Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.'
16:30 He said, 'No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'
16:31 He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"
They are passing through, because I never see them here during summertime. I don't know why not. This morning I saw (and mostly heard) them around my gym's illuminated parking lot. That's a typical place for them.
Over the years, I have seen them around illuminated stadiums and in small towns.
No wonder Trump seems to be spoiling for this fight. With an eye on Bill Clinton’s presidency, he may even relish a lengthy impeachment battle that uncovers no crime while showing that congressional Democrats are more intent on pursuing a vendetta against a president than helping the people they’re elected to serve.
After all, what surgeons can do these days to alter appearance is remarkable, if you have the dough. They can give you a new coronary artery, or even build a vagina for a guy, for heaven's sake.
This age issue occurred to me because a reader asked my age. Half-seriously, I think. So I considered whether the answer should be literal or not. Intellectual/wisdom age, physical-condition age, spiritual age, social/maturity age, tooth age, sexual functioning age, whatever.
A couple of costly bridges have restored my tooth age to 20. According to my cardiologist (who I only need for my annual stress test that my trainer requires), my cardio fitness/function is age 30 (after 4 years of daily workouts). I have more physical energy than I did at 45. My weight is about 10 lbs more than when I was 30, but it's mostly from weight-lifting in the past 4 years. My physique is youthful enough, but my face not so much... I joke that Mrs. BD should put a bag over my head but $5,000 could fix that too. My social maturity age ranges widely but I get along with most good people pretty well, and my intellectual/wisdom age can be judged by others. Definitely should be better.
And, consider this: I drive a zippy, growling Italian sports car that few 30 year-olds could afford. Lots of my pals decide it's time for toy cars as a reward. I think I'll pick my age as 45, averaging out all of the components. Having written that, watch me stroke out tomorrow.
How about you readers? What ages are you, really? The average age of your various components?
9 Revelations In The Atlantic’s Essay About NYC’s Kafkaesque Schools - George Packer’s extremely long Atlantic essay contains gems of leftist cognitive dissonance, some funny, some enraging, and some heartbreaking. Here’s a list...
Dead at 78. As I said recently, never a Deadhead but spent a lot of time with them on the Sirius Dead channel in my new car due to not reading the instructions. Maybe Garcia was "Captain Trips" but the music did not seem like that. Hunter was an American folklorist, as is Dylan and as was The Band.
Squats are one of the basic powerlifts (+ deadlifts, bench press, dumbell or barbell or cable rows, overhead press, and pullups/pull downs). All are designed and used to build or maintain physical sturdiness and energy. They are the core of the strength component of a fitness program for men and women of all ages.
For me, squats are the most unpleasant strength exercise. Years ago, as a beginner, I started out with body-weight squats, advanced to goblet squats and then to barbell back squatting. I hate it because it gets so damn hard to go heavy, but also because it feels scarey to get low with all that weight on your back. You just can't feel confident that you can get back up. Improvement is slow.
If you have short legs, it feels less treacherous but I do not have those.
Three tips: Wider stance, keep knees out, deep breath before you go down and hold it until you thrust up.
In the Youtube clip below, some Boston guy advocates "ass to grass." I do that with goblet squats (a regular component of my calisthenics classes), but never with good weight on a barbell. I just aim to get my butt below my knees. Not so young anymore but, dammit, I do want to get low with the weight because a squat ought to be more than getting up from a chair.
The Democrats moved so smoothly from Russia and racism to Ukraine that I hardly noticed. Whatever they are talking about — we aren’t entirely clear yet — it requires President Trump’s removal from office. That is the common denominator. They can’t wait for the election coming up next year to dispose of bad man orange.
" Do the leftists behind the anti-American indoctrination program of the past decades, of which the 1619 Project is a lagging indicator, think America is worth defending? I doubt it."
If You Can’t Sell Your Hysteria to Adults, Try Kids
I like leftover cold pizza for breakfast as much as any other guy, but around here late summer is when our home grown tomatoes ripen. In New England, tomato season is brief (except for cherry tomatoes). Almost done. They are sweet.
Here's my favorite way to use our own tomatoes for breakfast: Put one (large) or a couple of thick slices of tomato on some thin white bread. Then slices of cheddar to cover the tomatoes. Put under a hot broiler til the cheese melts a bit and the exposed bread browns. Not necessary, but a small sprinkle of oregano on top if you must.
Perfect breakfast - simple pizza. A shame that the Romans never knew tomatoes.
There are countries such as China that desperately want to defeat Trump and had that interest in the 2018 midterm elections and in 2020 elections. We know that China is actively manipulating its actions to help achieve the goal of a Trump loss in 2020. Are Rucker, Costa and Bade suggesting that whichever Democrat Trump runs against should face “legal consequence” for whatever machinations they employ?
Robbie Robertson and some drummer who should have made it in a band, plus people from all over the world. How was this thing produced? Double h/t to Am Digest. I was a youth when Big Pink came out, remember when I first listened to it on vinyl. I do remember the girl I was with, hope she remembers me.
Not The Band's best tune. Too many of their bests to list. They were not rock, just American music. Nazareth, Pennsylvania.
Robbie, in my opinion, has perfect taste with lead guitar. No showboating, just the right touches.
If you're younger than me, give the "record" a listen. Then thank me. About The Weight
Professor Larry Backer of Penn State University writes in a 2018 paper that resistance to social credit systems in the west could be dissolved when the masses are “socialized… as a collective” and “…the great culture management machinery of Western society develop a narrative in which such activity is naturalized within Western culture”
What Green New Dealers are talking about has nothing to do with stopping dangerous manmade climate change – or with real sustainability, resource conservation or environmental protection. It has everything to do with increasingly socialist, largely taxpayer-financed activists, politicians, regulators and crony capitalists controlling people’s lives; dictating our energy use, economic growth, job opportunities and living standards; and getting richer, more powerful and more privileged in the process.
Meanwhile poor, minority and working class families – pay the price. And destitute families in hungry, impoverished, electricity-deprived nations pay the highest price. China, India, Indonesia and Africa are not about to give up their determined efforts to take their rightful, God-given places among Earth’s healthy and prosperous people. They are not going to stop using fossil fuels to reach their goals.
... a large bureaucracy will, in approximately 100 percent of cases, become extremely wasteful, and essentially corrupt. It will perpetuate the “problem” that it was founded to solve, and at its most creative, invent new and quite imaginative evils. It will become a vested interest — an “economic player” in its own right — and spread, like a cancer, well beyond the flesh it first inhabited. Any attempt to restrain it will then engender new bureaucracies. The idea of a “humane” bureaucracy is a contradiction of terms. There is no such thing.
The terror of medical opioids is on an upswing. I have seen the upswings and downswings during my career. I wish we could find a middle course, because medical opioids are a blessing to suffering people. Yes, I include Oxycontin in that because it is an excellent medicine.
Of course opioids are habit-forming. For refractory pain, they are also life-giving. For people with life-impairing chronic pain, there is something called "pseudoaddiction." AGAINST AGAINST PSEUDOADDICTION
These days, I have seen people in that category treated like drug addicts. Sooner or later, there will chemicals with the pain effects of opioids but without the habit-forming effects. Not yet.
It's called a sandbar, idiots. Sandbars are temporary. Our stupid government will even insure you to build on a swamp, too. While they protect "wetlands," mind you.
Intersectionality 101
They are passing through, because I never see them here during summertime. I don't know why not. This morning I saw (and mostly heard) them around my gym's illuminated parking lot. That's a typical place for them.
Mass transit and govt subsidies: 
my age? 
Tour Company