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.
London Broil (nothing to do with London, it seems) is a cut of top round. Inexpensive but very tasty hunk of cow. It is often recommended that it be marinated for hours. That's fine, but not really necessary. All you need to do is to coat it heavily with salt and pepper, and maybe a steak rub, and throw it in a full-heat frying pan. Three- five minutes on each side depending on its thickness. A good black crust on it.
Let it rest 5-10 minutes, then slice against the grain, on a very sloping angle, as thin as you can with a good knife.
While the meat is resting, throw some thick onion slices into the grease and oil and brown them. Maybe a few mushrooms too. Toss them on top of your slices, cut up a tomato, and dinner is served.
In the photo, I feel even those slices are too thick- and not on enough of an angle either. When I say thin, I mean thin. Too thick slices can be like chewing gum. Very thin slices are great. Takes a good knife and a good knife-handler.
If America Is So Bad, Why Do They Keep Coming Here? To listen to open-borders advocates, left-wing journalists and Democrats in Congress, the U.S. is a hellhole of misery and bigotry
A song often considered to be a sign of maturity in a young Bob Dylan. "I realized I became my own enemy in the instant that I preached..." The discovery of humility, or something.
A QQQ on religious-like faith in government to cure all ills, via Cafe Hayek.Herbert Spencer, 1853
"Though we have ceased to assume the infallibility of our theological beliefs and so ceased to enact them, we have not ceased to enact hosts of other beliefs of an equally doubtful kind. Though we no longer presume to coerce men for their spiritual good, we still think ourselves called upon to coerce them for their material good: not seeing that the one is as useless and as unwarrantable as the other. Innumerable failures seem, so far, powerless to teach this. Take up a daily paper and you will probably find a leader exposing the corruption, negligence, or mismanagement of some State department. Cast your eye down the next column, and it is not unlikely that you will read proposals for an extension of State-supervision. Yesterday came a charge of gross carelessness against the Colonial Office. Today Admiralty bunglings are burlesqued. Tomorrow brings the question, “Should there not be more coal-mine inspectors?” Now there is a complaint that the Board of Health is useless; and now an outcry for more railway regulation. While your ears are still ringing with denunciations of Chancery abuses, or your cheeks still glowing with indignation at some well-exposed iniquity of the Ecclesiastical Courts, you suddenly come upon suggestions for organizing “a priesthood of science.” Here is a vehement condemnation of the police for stupidly allowing sight-seers to crush each other to death. You look for the corollary that official regulation is not to be trusted; when, instead, à propos of a shipwreck, you read an urgent demand for government-inspectors to see that ships always have their boats ready for launching. Thus, while every day chronicles a failure, there every day reappears the belief that it needs but an Act of Parliament and a staff of officers to effect any end desired. Nowhere is the perennial faith of mankind better seen."
Whether you are doing an hour of weights, calis, or HIIT cardio, I think most of us ordinary exercisers reach the point in a given effort when something says "OK, I'm done," but a better voice says (in my case) "Don't be a pussy - push through and do more." I find that self-insults work well for me, as do either insults or encouragement from others.
Distance runners talk about hitting "the wall," but persisting through the wall and finding more energy on the other side. These experiences are both mental and physiological, having to do with the energy sources your muscles or your heart are using and the amount of power your body can enlist.
Yesterday I did elliptical semi-HIIT, semi-long slow on the elliptical (because Wimbledon) on TV. When I do this on elliptical (always using arms too to make it full-body) I do 30-second sprints with 60-second slows, or for variety, I will keep a steady RPM pace while upping the resistance from 1 to 10, increasing every minute and then dropping back down the same way.
After 35 minutes of low-resistance 30-second sprints, I was done. Or thought I was. I called myself a wimp, took a minute slow on level 1, and then got right back in the game to complete the hour going up and down the resistance levels. I have similar experiences in my calis classes.
On the other hand, we all have real limits and it is amusing and educational to confront them in regular life and in physical exertion. Well, depressing too. All we have to do is to check whether it is a real limit or a mental determination speed bump.
On my 5th set of deads this morning (increasing weight and decreasing reps for each set) I found I could not get 3 reps at 245. Genius trainer said "Quick, reset your grip and go again." I think I engaged all my will and force but the goddam thing felt glued to the floor. With a minute's rest, I could have done the third, but that's not the way it works. For you strong guys and gals, this would not be too difficult but I am not you. A fit, skinny, no-bulk gal I know does 3 reps of 300. She is only 35, though.
I think it was a true physical limit at that point in my dead routine, because I engage everything so as not to disappoint my trainer's expectations and demands. However, for that moment, I am fairly confident that I was done. Sucks to disappoint a mentor.
When I think about it, I most frequently encounter genuine limits in jump rope and in pull-ups. Also, the sprints on the combat bike. Even the f-word just doesn't help at all.
I wonder how our readers feel when things go from manageable to tough to hard to painful to walls to breakthoughs to actually confronting real limitations.
Last year he announced his retirement from his regular columns and academia, but he keeps writing anyway. Some Thomas Sowell quotes here.
I picked a rebellious one for the 4th because, in my lifetime, the "best and the brightest" have produced nothing but trouble:
In their haste to be wiser and nobler than others, the anointed have misconceived two basic issues. They seem to assume: 1) that they have more knowledge than the average member of the benighted, and 2) that this is the relevant comparison. The real comparison, however, is not between the knowledge possessed by the average member of the educated elite versus the average member of the general public, but rather the total direct knowledge brought to bear through social processes (the competition of the marketplace, social sorting, etc.), involving millions of people, versus the secondhand knowledge of generalities possessed by a smaller elite group.
The vision of the anointed is one in which ills as poverty, irresponsible sex and crime derive primarily from ‘society,’ rather than from individual choices and behavior. To believe in personal responsibility would be to destroy the whole special role of the anointed, whose vision casts them in the role of rescuers of people treated unfairly by ‘society.'
Man, was the place packed this morning. The calis classes were packed, the yoga classes, the cycle classes, and the running classes (actually, HIIT sprinting classes). The work-out floor was packed too. Saw people I haven't seen in years.
Wonderful, like a party. I like the place when it's quiet, but when it's full the energy level rises for everybody, like a contagion. Great way for us to spend an hour or two in the morning on a hot holiday, especially with blasting a/c and Wimbledon in the TV. Vanessa is 38!
I think we'll grab a kayak (and a beer) this afternoon to complete a perfect holiday. God bless America.
(For my fellow exercise people, all I did was 5 sets of pull-ups - actually, 1 set of pull-ups and then 5 sets of "hangs." Hangs strengthen your pull-ups. Jump your chest to the bar with overhand grip and your elbows at your side, then hang as long as you can. You get remarkable arm vibration, and watch your lats and arms slowly give way until they give out. Count the seconds. Then I did just 60 mins of elliptical cardio with Wimbledon because I do heavy weight tomorrow morning and because I love tennis.)
Mexico permits essentially no immigration - unless you come with plenty of money. Puerto Vallarta has been a bit of an American colony for many generations.
A friend just returned from a destination wedding in San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico. It's a World Heritage site. He loved it - said it felt like Seville but with lots of Central American Indians. Turns out it is popular for expats and American retirees - 20% of its population is non-Mexican. Due to its altitude, it is always Springtime there.
I enjoy Mexico, but not Cancun and Cozumel and all those drunks and college trash. I think I'll plan San Miguel for next winter, then maybe hop over to Puerto Vallarta for some water and beach.
It's a country formed in rebellion and built on freedom from government power. That's a healthy attitude. As Jefferson said, every once in a while you have to throw the bums out and get a fresh start. Well, Jefferson's terms were more bloody, but it's the same idea.
I love the "everybody's in grief and shock this morning."
Why is it that when anybody (including returning Americans) coming to the US through a port of entry requires papers, passports, etc or they are sent back immediately to whence they came?
But if you wade through the Rio Grande, they put you up and feed you.
Burgers etc are great on charcoal. Cuts of beef, not so much in my opinion. 
Lions 3, poachers 0
Whether you are doing an hour of weights, calis, or HIIT cardio, I think most of us ordinary exercisers reach the point in a given effort when something says "OK, I'm done," but a better voice says (in my case) "Don't be a pussy - push through and do more." I find that self-insults work well for me, as do either insults or encouragement from others.
It's Hot Dog Day on Coney Island. Joey Chestnut ate 72 Nathan's Hot Dogs last year in ten minutes at the contest. 
Photo stolen from