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.
AKA doughnuts, aka donuts. It seems like almost every culture has some version of sweet or not-sweet fried dough. The problem in the USA is people baking it instead of deep-frying it in fat. To me, that's just sweetened bread.
Because I do not work in law-enforcement, I am not a fan of jelly donuts. The only kind I like are "plain" donuts, not too sweet, deep fried and crusty, with or without a dusting of confectioner's sugar or sprinkled with sugar crystals. If the bag doesn't show grease, they are no good.
Donuts and coffee. Good ones are hard to find these days.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
I got the pork chops, she got the pie She ain't no angel and neither am I Shame on your greed, shame on your wicked schemes I'll say this, I don't give a damn about your dreams...
It's a bit late in the year up here for this post, but beach wear is basically underwear. It exposes a person's condition.
We've pointed out that it would take about 2-3 hours moving speedily on a treadmill, elliptical, or stair machine to burn the calories in your breakfast bagel. But it doesn't work like that.
Our bodies preferentially burn glycogen (stored sugar, from carbs) for exertion. It takes over 40 minutes of higher intensity (eg running and the like) exertion to begin meaningful fat-burning.
It's true than a daily hour of some exercise (other than walking or slow pool laps) ups your metabolism for a while, but it's not really significant.
It's a downer for people, but the truth is that exercise is about fitness, while fat loss is nutritional unless you have 3 hrs.day to work out hard (probably not a good idea for people over age 35).
The reason doctors and everybody else talks about nutrition and exercise for fat loss is sort-of to fool people into getting moving and less sedentary because sedentary, regardless of body fat, isn't healthy. In fact, it correlates highly with early cardiac morbidity regardless of body fat %.
Sedentary can be defined, roughly, as less than an hour/day of sweat-producing exertion. Let's face reality: other than walks, most Western people prefer a sedentary, no-heavy-lifting comfortable life, and most do not wish to feel deprived of their appetites in these places where delicious things are in abundance. I get that, to each his/her own. We all have people we care about, though, who we'd like to stick around for a while.
With proper nutrition, anybody can lose 8-12 lbs/month easily, with or without exercise. In fact, with difficult exercise (ie heavy weights) it can be a bit harder to lose weight due to the nutritional requirements for muscle repair.
The youth have it easy. It can be difficult for the young (under 30 or 35) to gain weight even if they want to. To gain good athletic weight, the youth have to eat big and work out hard with weights.
Yes and no. Subject comes up because a pal alerted me to a litter of German Shorthairs, getting ready for the taking on Sept. 1. Their hunting pedigree is as good as it gets, so some $ is rightly involved since we aren't socialism yet where there are free champion hunting dogs.
Mrs. BD and I have rarely had a dog-free home, nor did her parents and my parents. And my grandparents, who were partial to Shepherds. I've had English Springers, Labs and (hunting? sort-of) standard poodles. Some of the most glorious times of my life have been grouse hunting in the Maine woods and in Manitoba woods and prairies (Sharptails there). Will a hunt-bred Standard Poodle point on a grouse or woodcock? Yes it can. It will chew up the darn Woodcock, tho.
I'll bet you never saw a Poodle on a hard point. Well, trust Bird Dog on that.
To me, a dog and a fireplace make a house a home. As I write that, it does sound primeval. Maybe I am a primitive male.
Here are my pros and cons, altho who ever made a decision based on such things?
Pros:
- I love having a dog around. A dog also loves me the way no human could or should.
- A well-trained dog is an incomparable companion, and a well-trained hunting dog is a precious thing to you (and your hunting pals)
Cons:
- Huge commitment. When I get a dog, I train the heck out of it. I know how. 40-minutes/day of training for at least 2 years. I want a dog that will heel to my knee without leash through a city street, a 5-mile suburban jog, or a woodland swamp. Chase a squirrel or a deer? No chance unless I give a release signal. I want a dog who will respond to whistle, voice, and hand commands. I want a dog who will Sit-Stay in front of Dunkin Donuts when I go inside. My past dogs learned those things. Any dog will - it's up to the owner. A dog's behavior is a reflection of the Master. Never ever blame the dog. I've heard people say "My dog is difficult to train", as if their dog were special and wild somehow. Pure bullshit. It's on them. Training is work, and no dog yummies. Just "Good dog."
- Re Basic Training. Do I use a shock collar outdoors? You betcha. It's not cruel. It gives you a dog you can live with. After two or three little shocks, the 3-second tone before the buzz is all it takes to remind them that you are God. "Come" or the "Come" whistle means hustle back to the Boss's knee. Dogs do like to be well-trained. Like children, training gives them Purpose and it is all relational.
- Hunt-training. Fairly costly. I can handle basic to semi-advanced obedience training, but not hunt training. You have to send them to camp for that. Then you have to go to camp with them to learn it yourself. Hand signals are the best. My last dog Paco was quite good with them, but not so good with some other things.
- I do not do much of the sort of hunting that I love best anymore. I don't know why, because I can bust brush and alder swamps all day better than I ever could. My favorite is grouse hunting in the Great North Woods, with the Moose etc. I rarely refuse a chance to hunt pheasants etc. at a hunting club, but the wilderness hunts are my favorites. In 6 hours in grouse habitat, you might fire zero to twice with your 20 ga., but you and the dog will have a great outing anyway.
Hey - you're pointing on a White-Footed Mouse, silly dog!
Painting by John Grillo. We have met him on many occasions and have some of his pictures. Always wanted one of his big oils but too much $. No wall space anyway.Yes, Wellfleet had a secret ocean nude beach for the free-love bohemians, artists, architects, and Harvard intellectuals. Not easy to find. Not much nude there now.
She is predictable: Hates the US, hates whites including Jews, loves Palis. illegals, and loves all self-anointed victims, hates the New York Times (yeah). I doubt she ever met a roofer or a hunt dog trainer.
Most people have many more important interests than politics. For example, constructing a good productive and fulfilling life in the brief span allotted us. If anybody expects politics to deliver them a good life, they must dream on.
Other than to stay out of trouble, that is. From Quillette. It begins:
Today we are witnessing an irrepressible and admirable pushback against the specters of ‘cultural relativism’ and moral ‘nihilism.’ On the Right, thinkers such as Patrick Deneen and Jordan Peterson have responded to an increasingly cynical postmodern culture by arguing for a return to traditionalist and/or local values. More centrist thinkers such as Steven Pinker and Sam Harris have argued for a return to the Enlightenment’s emphasis on using reason and its handmaiden, empirical science, to develop an ever more objective set of ethical norms. And even on the far-Left, radical thinkers such as Alain Badiou and Slavoj Zizek have levelled scathing attacks against postmodern relativism and ‘totalitarian’ identity politics, calling for a return to ethics properly understood...
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old... They literally know nothing... We created an echo chamber... They were saying things that validated whatever we had given them to say."
Obama White House aide Ben Rhodes, describing how the Obama admin clowned willing journalists for 8 years.
These complex astronomical machines were all the rage in Medieval Europe after they had been brought by the Spanish Muslims from the east. Chaucer wrote about them with enthusiasm. Early versions seem to have been separately invented in China and in Greece.
Astrolabes were rendered obsolete by sextants, telescopes, and timepieces but are still used for instructional purposes.
Hundreds of pages of previously undisclosed FBI emails and memos show that the Democrat opposition research firm Fusion GPS, through former British spy Christopher Steele, worked closely with the FBI, and DOJ official Bruce Ohr, to take down Donald Trump before, during, and after the 2016 presidential election.
From a bunch of articulate Dylan-appreciators at NR. "Following our trip through the music of The Beatles, we decide to tackle an artist who is just as important and influential, but with a discography roughly four times as long. What could go wrong? In this part one of three, we tackle Dylan’s career from Bob Dylan (1961) through John Wesley Harding (1967), one of the most prolific and successful periods of any artist in history."
The point of "finishers" at the end of your hour of cardio, calis, or weights is to ensure that you finish having exhausted your strength and energy completely. These two finishers are total body exertions.
- Since we aren't musclemen, we use kettlebells for Farmer's Walks, as heavy as possible. Chest up, shoulders set back, and walk around with them. Squeeze the handles hard. Grip is the weak link with this so they are forearm exercises - but everything else too. Often, a quick reset permits going further. I am up to 28 kilo kettlebells now, which is nothing great but better than a year ago for one-minute walks.
- Around 3 sets of Kettlebell Swings are on our list of biweekly calisthenics. Correct form is essential for benefit. The swing is exerted by a hip thrust of your "power zone." Arms should do no lifting - they are just hooks for the weight. After one or beginning swings, get the bell up to near eye level, with the weight trying to pull you forward a bit. Never lean back - let the weight try to pull you forward.
High-rep, light-weight swings (one-minute sets like in a cardio class) are aerobic cardio/calis. Medium-weight, lower-rep kettlebells (like 20 reps/set) are more for power and tend to go anaerobic. High-weight, lower-rep (eg 10) kettlebell swings are pure power-builders. Do them all, mix and match. About Kettlebell Swings.
She took this Spitfire ride on her 100th birthday. She died last month. By seeming chance, today was my Mom's b'day, and she could fly single-engine airplanes. She quit flying when she had us kids, same way I quit motorcycles when I had kids.
Who do we have working on ye olde Maggie's HQ these weeks? it will take 6-8 weeks total, I think, depending on rain.
1 Project Manager - The Boss. Made the Plan, designed the solutions to problems, coordinates everything, pays everybody, checks their work. It is a high-end job. Everybody kowtows to him, because he will be the source of their next job if they please him. It's how the world works. 1 Contractor who is here each morning til noon. 1 Roofer boss, 2 assistant roofers, and a few roofer helpers. Good guys, work their asses off. 1 Master Carpenter and 2 journeyman carpenters. Lots of bad wood, windows, etc to replace. Lots of Azec and new cedar. Good guys, but only work 6 hrs if temp above 90. ...and soon, 1 Master Painter with assistants and helpers. They will powerwash, sand, prime and double prime/paint where needed, paint everything with the most expensive paint that exists. Flat on the clapboard, marine semigloss on trim etc. I asked them to add lead to it. I believe in lead paint. Guaranteed 15 years but I want a 30-year paint job or I'll be eating dog kibbles when I am 80.
Somebody has to keep the Trump economy booming. Why not us?
Ya know, I love seeing how they do their jobs and how meticulous they are. Also, their apprenticeship system. The journeymen carpenters are obviously experts, but they keep learning new tricks from the Master. And trust me, this place has some tricky things to deal with.
Well-meaning white progressives... treat black Americans more like the family pet than the family friend, condescending to praise us when we align with their views, and ferally attacking when we don’t. The conversation about race in America has been framed by progressive media and co-opted by the Democratic party to supplement the coalition that supported Obama during his presidency—presumably in the hope that blacks would gratefully support Hillary in her run for office. But Democrats have come to take the black voting bloc for granted—even though 44 percent of black voters consider themselves moderate and another 27 percent consider themselves conservative, black Americans still overwhelmingly vote Democrat (90 percent).
The idea behind giving professors lifetime tenure is that this will enable them to speak out freely. But it would be hard to name any other occupation with a more cowardly record than academics, who have been giving in to politically correct campus bullies ever since the 1960s.
This is not Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. This is something heartbreakingly better: Tom Petty playing with Jeff Lynne, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr
AKA doughnuts, aka donuts. It seems like almost every culture has some version of sweet or not-sweet fried dough. The problem in the USA is people baking it instead of deep-frying it in fat. To me, that's just sweetened bread.
Yes and no. Subject comes up because a pal alerted me to a litter of German Shorthairs, getting ready for the taking on Sept. 1. Their hunting pedigree is as good as it gets, so some $ is rightly involved since we aren't socialism yet where there are free champion hunting dogs.
These complex astronomical machines were all the rage in Medieval Europe after they had been brought by the Spanish Muslims from the east. Chaucer wrote about them with enthusiasm. Early versions seem to have been separately invented in China and in Greece.
Richard Jarecki, 
The point of "finishers" at the end of your hour of cardio, calis, or weights is to ensure that you finish having exhausted your strength and energy completely. These two finishers are total body exertions.
The real story 
I thought that dust mites were mythical beings. They are not.