Thursday, May 17. 2018
Trump Slams Obama FBI 'Spying' Report As "Bigger Than Watergate"
It certainly seems so. In retrospect, Watergate was not a big deal because political spying and oppo research is always done. The cover-up was the thing that got them. It wasn't worth covering up, really. In this case, it was the government itself, not a campaign.
NYT Report Confirms Obama Administration’s FBI Spied on Trump Campaign
If this isn't criminal, it should be. Not to mention the cover-up.
10 Key Takeaways From The New York Times’ Error-Ridden Defense Of FBI Spying On Trump Campaign
Yes, makes Watergate look like child's play.
Related, IG Horowitz Found “Reasonable Grounds” FBI Violated FEDERAL CRIMINAL LAW in Bureau’s Handling of Hillary Investigation
 I was curious about why I never see cabooses anymore.
Wiki explained it.
 Bees: The Neonic Ban: A Scientific Fraud Becomes Enshrined In EU Regulatory Law
Stephen Hawking's Memorial Might Have Time Travelers in Attendance
LA: Why Factor’s Famous Deli's 70th Anniversary Means So Much
More parents smoking pot around kids, study finds
Atlanta’s Building Boom Is Destroying Its Famous Forests - After the recession, Georgia’s capital bounced back with a population surge and a housing boom—at the risk of the unique trees of the area.
Crazy Democrat Promises 100% Clean Energy By 2035 By Government Law
If Solar And Wind Are So Cheap, Why Are They Making Electricity So Expensive?
Don´t Tell Anyone, But We Just Had Two Years Of Record-Breaking Global Cooling
The Sea Is Rising, but Not Because of Climate Change
Students At Taxpayer-Funded College Hold No-Whites Allowed “Day of Absence” Event…
UNIVERSITY SUICIDE WATCH, PART 3
University of Michigan pours almost $7 million per year into diversity payroll, benefits
Number of emotional support animals at Yale increased by 1400% in last year
Do Millennials Really Love Socialism?
No. They just want free stuff
Devin Nunes Is a Badass
Government Informant Spied On Two Trump Campaign Aides
Joe Digenova: Former CIA Chief John Brennan Was Leading the Counter Intelligence Operation Against Trump
The Unfixable Tragedy of Gaza
Attacking Israel for $100, Defending it for $13
HAMAS: “WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ‘PEACEFUL RESISTANCE, WE ARE DECEIVING THE PUBLIC."
Hamas official: 50 of the 62 Gazans killed in border violence were our members
Questions the Press Hasn’t Asked about Violence in Gaza - A conspicuous lack of curiosity.
Machine gun fire from Gaza hits nearby Israeli homes in Sderot, no injuries
Wednesday, May 16. 2018
 You're 30 or 35 or 40 or 50 or 60 (or 70) and you have decided that it's either now or never to make a serious commitment to fixing or maintaining physical fitness.
I don't blame anybody who refuses to do that, because it is unpleasant and requires discipline and effort well-beyond comfort. Effort means effort, pushing every mental and physical limit. I have learned more about the meaning of that word in the gym than I ever learned in regular life. If pleasure and comfort is what your life is about, fine. We reject those decadent values because we are morally-superior we do not want to decay and, in fact, fear it.
Friends have asked me for advice on how to get started, so I wrote down a program, in stages, for ordinary mostly-sedentary (ie less than 5-6 hrs/wk of challenging exertion) people. Non-athletes. There is plenty of exercise advice available, and everybody has an opinion so I expect debate, but I believe my advice is rational, non-faddish, well-balanced, efficient, and practical. Don't rush it - if over 30, it takes time to adapt to demand so it's best to go step by step instead of rushing in and either get injured or burning out. Slow and steady.
Four stages for beginners, below the fold -
Continue reading "The Maggie's Farm detailed advice for committed fitness newbies: Getting Started"
Somebody somewhere highlighted the distinctions between the two, especially as regarding political issues, and suggested that we consider which might be guiding our points of view.
Opinions, I suppose, require rational arguments whereas attitudes do not. Attitudes, it seems to me, come from temperamental predispositions, personal experiences, social environment, and the like. Nobody asks you to support a general attitude with data.
What's your view? Is it a meaningful distinction or not? I think it is.
Tuesday, May 15. 2018
Tom Wolfe, dead at 87
A hundred details of Bonfire remain in my mind. Here's Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's from 1970. One snippet from the 19-page article:
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. These are nice. Little Roquefort cheese morsels rolled in crushed nuts. Very tasty. Very subtle. It’s the way the dry sackiness of the nuts tiptoes up against the dour savor of the cheese that is so nice, so subtle. Wonder what the Black Panthers eat here on the hors d’oeuvre trail? Do the Panthers like little Roquefort cheese morsels wrapped in crushed nuts this way, and asparagus tips in mayonnaise dabs, and meatballs petites au Coq Hardi, all of which are at this very moment being offered to them on gadrooned silver platters by maids in black uniforms with hand-ironed white aprons . . . The butler will bring them their drinks . . . Deny it if you wish to, but such are the pensées métaphysiques that rush through one’s head on these Radical Chic evenings just now in New York. For example, does that huge Black Panther there in the hallway, the one shaking hands with Felicia Bernstein herself, the one with the black leather coat and the dark glasses and the absolutely unbelievable Afro, Fuzzy Wuzzy-scale in fact—is he, a Black Panther, going on to pick up a Roquefort cheese morsel rolled in crushed nuts from off the tray, from a maid in uniform, and just pop it down the gullet without so much as missing a beat of Felicia’s perfect Mary Astor voice. . . .
The whole thing is hilarious. A socio-cultural history of American cosmopolitan wealth.
In the US, high-volume off-patent medicines are inexpensive whether generics or not. On-patent, less-popular drugs can be ridiculously expensive.
Trump’s Excellent Plan to Reduce Drug Prices
 They are the smallest of our warblers, but their call (at the link) is distinctive even if you can't see them foraging high in the forest canopy.
A factoid about these birds is that they breed in southern forests (in Spanish moss nests) and in northern forests (where conifers have Old Man's Beard lichen), but pass over a band across the middle of the US where there are neither of those tree parasites.
In warbler migration season (right now, in the US) you will quite likely hear one in the woods in the morning.
With sound, Parula Warbler
I wish my memory for warbler songs were better. I forget them every time May comes along.
In the US and Canada during these weeks, go outside in the morning where there are brush areas and some tall Oak trees, and listen to the migrating warblers singing. Experts don't bother with binoculars. Warblers do not really warble, but they do sing.
Monday, May 14. 2018
At Quillette: Why can’t progressives admit that we’ve made progress?
Good discussion. The racism theme seems mainly to be applied to native black Americans, but not to other races and not to the Africa-born either. Is it mostly just politics at this point?
Sunday, May 13. 2018
Because Dick's is boycotting you. Good luck with that.
I love my old Mossberg pump. It ain't fancy but it is reliable and easy to maintain.
Why Peterson's talks are controversial escapes me. The useful thing he does is to talk about Human Nature 101 and Adult Life 101. Maybe some people do not want to learn about human nature or adult life.
The only thing remarkable to me is that these things need to be said. Basics. A life worth living has to be constructed thoughtfully, in my view. I find it sometimes needs revisions, if not tweaking, because the things that mattered to me at 25 are no longer the most important things to me now. I like to think I have gained a little bit of wisdom.
Psalm 1
1:1 Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;
1:2 but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.
1:3 They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.
1:4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
1:5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
1:6 for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Saturday, May 12. 2018
 DON'T YOU LOVE A MAN OF PRINCIPLES???
In 1952, Armon M. Sweat, Jr., a member of the Texas House of Representatives, was asked about his position on whiskey. What follows is his exact answer (taken from the Political Archives of Texas):
"If you mean whiskey, the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean that evil drink that topples Christian men and women from the pinnacles of righteous and gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, shame, despair, helplessness, and hopelessness, then, my friend, I am opposed to it with every fiber of my being.
However, if by whiskey you mean the lubricant of conversation, the philosophic juice, the elixir of life, the liquid that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer, the stimulating sip that puts a little spring in the step of anelderly gentleman on a frosty morning; if you mean that drink that enables man to magnify his joy, and to forget life's great tragedies and heartbreaks and sorrow; if you mean that drink the sale of which pours into Texas treasuries untold millions of dollars each year, that provides tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitifully aged and infirm, to build the finest highways, hospitals, universities, and community colleges in this nation, then my friend, I am absolutely, unequivocally in favor of it.
This is my position, and as always, I refuse to compromise on matters of principle."
Armon M. Sweat, Jr
Texas House of Representatives
 This is a big deal: Brennan, Strzok And Kerry Allegedly Set "Spy Traps" For Trump Team
It's one thing for political campaigns to spy on each other. That's normal because politics is an ugly business. When government does it, it's criminal. I hope all of this evil deep state conspiracy comes to light, and that the people are held to account. Jail time.
I suspect the mole was Carter Page, but who knows? He had done odd jobs for the FBI in the past. This feels like CIA business, done on American soil.
This is supposed to be America, not East Germany.
Liberals are perpetually offended by just about everything. Why? Because liberals have decided that being offended trumps logic, fact and every other argument that anyone can make. If it were up to liberals, we would not have free speech because too many people say things that contradict liberal ideas. So, they may not be able to put you in jail for believing that you can’t change genders or that it’s not smart to send gay men who may be sexually interested in teenagers out into the woods with them overnight as scout masters, but they can use a variety of different tactics to silence you. Outrage is one of those tactics because again, according to liberals, the second someone is outraged, the debate is over and they’ve won (Of course that only applies to liberals. If conservatives are offended by something, that doesn’t count.)
George Mason Univ: Cue the outrage
N.V.N.
There is a sacred, secret line in loving
which attraction and even passion cannot cross, —
even if lips draw near in awful silence
and love tears at the heart.
Friendship is weak and useless here,
and years of happiness, exalted and full of fire,
because the soul is free and does not know
the slow luxuries of sensual life.
Those who try to come near it are insane
and those who reach it are shaken by grief.
So now you know exactly why
my heart beats no faster under your hand.
Friday, May 11. 2018
It has become standard to recommend exercise as at least one component of the treatment of depression.
Now it appears that moving heavy weight is the best antidepression form of exercise.
WSJ: The FBI Hid A Mole In The Trump Campaign
FBI Advised Comey to Consult with Mueller’s Office Prior to June 2017 Senate Testimony, Emails Show
Now paranoia strikes deep...
And also, Grassley Demands 302’s from Wray and Rosenstein on Flynn Testimony — Proving Possible Deceit by Deep State
Everything will come out, in time. Too slowly.
I listened to about 20 minutes of Trump's rally last night. He is an amusing talker, quite informal, and constantly going off-script. He called Gov. Brown "Governor Moonbeam." Since he had been up all night, I was impressed. He is bold. Honey Badger doesn't give a shit about the pearl-clutchers.
Google Duplex: An AI System for Accomplishing Real-World Tasks Over the Phone
Media Feeding Frenzy as Goodall Commits Assisted Suicide
He knew he was done.
Bungee Dating in New York City
Madame Pele's Grip on Hawaii - The Big Island’s residents are reacting to Kilauea’s latest eruption with a combination of grief and reverence.
Check Out Mike Rowe’s Brutal Takedown of a Critic Of Blue-Collar Workers
Half of all Americans now live in ‘sanctuaries’ protecting immigrants - Study finds surge in those jurisdictions
NAACP Goes Big Brother: What We Need Is Mandatory Implicit Bias Testing
Constantly playing the victim card creates bias, but they need bias for their existence. White Americans do not give a damn about skin color any more.
CALIFORNIA’S SUICIDE ATTEMPT, PART 6: LET’S MAKE HOUSING MORE EXPENSIVE!
Who's afraid of Bari Weiss?
The ‘Russian Collusion’ Trial Is On, And Mueller May Be The First Casualty
Avenatti Exposed: Stormy's Lawyer May Face Disbarrment, Legal Action As Past Catches Up
The Obama Legacy Deserves To Be Destroyed
Donald Trump vs. Barack Obama: Veni, vidi, vici
Despite the Media, Trump Pulling Down Wins for We the People
Trump is actually following through on his campaign promises
Here's a List of Major U.S. Allies Celebrating an End to the Iran Nuclear Deal
"Old Europe" can learn from Trump
Merkel: "Trump's Decision Damages Trust In The International Order"
What????
Walsh:
What the novice president understands, in a way that none of his predecessors since Ronald Reagan has, is that (as the Declaration puts it) “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind” does not mean to sacrifice control of America’s self-interest on the altar of cultural-Marxist shibboleths like political correctness, “fairness,” “tolerance,” “diversity,” or “white privilege.”
CNN Analyst Praises Trump For Bringing North Korea Hostages Home
Pigs fly!
TRUMP AND THE TWO AMERICAS - Why the anti-Trumpers just can't give credit to the president for his successes.
Five "Most Wanted" ISIS Leaders Captured, Trapped Using Smartphone App
Nikki Haley Calls for Regime Change in Venezuela: 'It's Time for Maduro to Go!'
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When Milky Got His Money - 
Photo is the Lemon Squeeze in Mohonk's Labyrinth Trail. See why you leave your daypack behind. No worries - nobody will steal it. Only nice people there.