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.
Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday that an inspector general’s investigation into whether the FBI abused the surveillance court process during the Russia probe will be completed by May or June.
It's a crazy subject, fraught with myth. Animals do not need to read articles about when to have a drink of water, but seemingly humans do.
Where I live most of the time, females go around with a plastic bottle of water. In the car, in the gym, on the tennis court, at the supermarket, as if living in the Sahara. There are hardly enough public bathrooms for them all.
A few points:
Coffee is not dehydrating. Beer is hydrating. When you work out hard, especially in the heat, a little water is good. There seem to be extremes: people who are insensitive to their thirst, and people who drink too much. If confused about one's needs for liquid, the frequency of peeing, and the concentration of one's pee, are good indicators.
I have had outdoor adventures when my fatigue was entirely due to a touch of dehydration, when I perked up like a wilted plant with a bottle of water.
Free weights are always better because they engage so many accessory muscles, core, and balance. BUT...
But machine resistance is better than no resistance work, and machine work can help improve your free weight efforts. A prime example is pullups. Lots of people can't do even one. Sad. It indicates that your back muscles are underdeveloped, or you are overweight, or both. BUT if you work on machine pull-downs and machine (assisted) pullups, you can advance get to real pullups. Lat Pulldown vs Pull-ups: Research Reveals Which Is Best
Again, I do sets of each, weekly. Weakly too. I entirely understand doing barbell squats with a Smith Machine. You don't need a spotter. Still, I'd rather do squats with a spotter anyway, and my leg presses on my own.
The moral of this fitness post is that free weights are better, but anything is better than nothing as long as it is difficult to do. "Difficult" means reaching deep down to what you do not want to do because it is "too hard." That's a bad approach to life.
May 5th is the date for the Urban Hike. Upper Manhattan is the route. We have some interesting stops. Starting at Lincoln Center, then working our way up, we will take a gander at 5 of the remaining Carnegie Libraries in Manhattan. There is the Collyer Brothers Park, where the infamous pair lived (the house torn down). High Bridge, Morris-Jumel Mansion, Sylvan Terrace, the Little Red Lighthouse.
Right now the trip is 11 miles. My plan is to hike it a week or two prior, plot out some resting locations and eateries, and then make adjustments. 11 miles is long. Shorter than last year's, but still very long. 9am start time - but beware. May 5th is the Five Boro Bike Tour. We shouldn't have any issues with this. The tour is more or less out of the Central Park area by about 11am, and it's all on the east side. By the time we reach the Collyer Brothers Park, most of the bikes will be past. However, beware of getting to the city early! The Five Boro Tour usually can add 30-45 minutes of entry time into Manhattan if you're coming from the north or east of the city. Plan ahead and keep your radio tuned to traffic reports as you try to get to Lincoln Center.
Open to suggestions, changes, commentary - feel free to share any thoughts you may have. If you plan on attending and would like to see something in particular, let me know and I'll add it. The lucky ones who survive can all hop on the subway and we'll head down to Grand Central for a post-hike cocktail at Campbell Apartment.
America over the last half century had been nursed on the dogma that the Left was the guarantor of civil liberties. That was the old message of the battles supposedly waged on our behalf by the ACLU, the free-speech areas on campuses, and the Earl Warren Court.
Not now. The left believes that almost any means necessary, extra-legal and anti-constitutional or not, are justified to achieve their noble ends. Progressive luminaries at CNN and the New York Times have lectured us that reporters need not be disinterested any more in the age of Trump—or that it might be a crime to shout “lock her up” at a Trump rally. Will those standards apply to coverage of future Democratic presidents?
No reporter seems to care that Hillary Clinton hired a foreign national to work with other foreign nationals to sabotage, first, her opponent’s campaign, then his transition and his presidency, along with the wink and nod help from key Obama officials at the Department of Justice, State Department, National Security Council, FBI and CIA.
The final irony? If the CIA, FBI, and DOJ have gone the banana republic way of Lois Lerner’s IRS and shredded the Constitution, they still failed to remove Donald Trump.
Trump still stands. In Nietzschean fashion what did not kill him apparently only made him stronger.
12:1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
12:2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.
12:3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
12:4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said,
12:5 "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?"
12:6 (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.)
12:7 Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.
12:8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."
2018 New York Times best seller. The first definitive history of the Mossad, Shin Bet, and the IDF's targeted killing programs, hailed by The New York Times as "an exceptional work, a humane book about an incendiary subject."
Photo: Crowds of tourists at Hudson Yards on Sunday 
Poacher Trampled to Death by Elephant, Eaten by Pride of Lions - 
Book recommendation: 
A Greek Salad seems too healthy to be tasty, but it is.