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.
What are (or have been) your favorite places to get frisky au pleine air? It's the best fun, is it not?
- on a boat - in a wildflower meadow - in a sleeping bag by a campfire - in a pool or other body of water - on a beach - in the woods standing against a tree - Urban rooftop or balcony - Other
This is a Scientific Survey for purely research purposes so your responses matter. Please no facetiousness - this is Serious Science.
World Cup balls are designed anew for each World Cup. Adidas makes them. They vary especially in pattern, and number and size of the seams.
Pro balls are inflated to rock-hard levels, unlike recreational balls. That's one reason people are concerned about brain injury from heading in pro soccer despite the fact that more concussions in soccer are from collisions on the field.
What sorts of speeds are attained by balls in the highest levels of soccer? Obviously it depends on the purpose of the pass or kick, but most are in the 20-80 mph range. Free kicks and penalty kicks can reach 90-100 mph. The fastest recorded penalty kick was 131 mph. Those balls can bang up a goalie pretty bad.
Does the white Appalachian coal miner in West Virginia really have an innate leg up on the Punjabi immigrant exec in Silicon Valley on the basis of his appearance? Yet somewhere along the line in a supposed racist America, being a white male in Fayette County, W. Va., did not innately trump being a techie immigrant from Mumbai in Menlo Park. Does multibillionaire Oprah Winfrey have less privilege and opportunity than a white cook in Provo, Utah?
Does the recently arrived undocumented immigrant who has lived his entire life in the Mexican state of Oaxaca become eligible for career and job enhancement because he does not superficially look like the out-of-work lathe worker in southern Ohio? Is the theory that the minute the immigrant crosses the border to the U.S. from his formerly racist society, his children will become eligible for federally mandated advantages on the reasoning that from now on, they will face racism as a non-white in the country to which he fled in order to avoid racism in the country of his birth?
Paul Manafort is rotting away in solitary confinement on the flimsiest of specious nothingness while murderers, rapists, pedophiles and other scum of the earth post bail and are out in a heartbeat before the ink on their fingerprints are dry. That is also an abject travesty. It's political terrorism just as bad in its own way as that suffered by Steve Scalise at the hands of a Dick Durbin-linked would-be assassin. The President can put a stop to all of this right now by firing Mueller, ending the kangaroo court and just flat out pardoning Paul Manafort, but the politics of that is dangerous to play with.
The elites believe they should run my life, and the dependents want my stuff. As it is, governments take 42% of what money I make. I guess in a way I am a serf, or a tenant farmer. I don't mind paying taxes, but it never seems to be enough for them.
“We’re looking at the destruction of the Constitution of the United States” – 2020 front runner for Democrat nomination to the Presidency, Sen Kamala Harris
If so much hangs on the appointment of a single person to the Supreme Court that it matters more than almost anything else in our politics, then maybe the Supreme Court matters too much. In a healthier republic, it would matter less.
Backroads is a bit pricey, but they are excellent. The Dolomites—A Peak Experience in Italy & Austria. We've hiked quite a bit up there, but the bike trip sounds very cool if you're in shape for hill biking.
This has been a banner year for the Eastern Chipmunk around my place and everywhere I go. I love these little buggers.
Sure, they take bites of out my tomatoes (for the water, I suspect). I don't mind much. If you have stone walls, log piles, and brushy areas, they will build their tunnels. It seems like their main enemies are house cats, Black Snakes, and weasels. Since we have no roaming house cats these days (thank goodness), our friendly little chipmunks are having a good year.
At this time of year, there are plenty of young ones too. They are innocent, do not seem careful enough about life.
A friend of mine sits on his front porch in the evening with a whisky and a cigar, and feeds them his walnuts from his hand.
6:1 He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him.
6:2 On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands!
6:3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.
6:4 Then Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house."
6:5 And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them.
6:6 And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching.
6:7 He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.
6:8 He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts;
6:9 but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.
6:10 He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place.
6:11 If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them."
6:12 So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent.
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."
What are (or have been) your favorite places to get frisky au pleine air? It's the best fun, is it not?
World Cup balls are 
Clan MacGregor: 
This has been a banner year for the 
Burgers etc are great on charcoal. Cuts of beef, not so much in my opinion. 