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.
If you think Russiagate is real, then you will probably conclude that Sessions, Prince, and Page are all part of a single, monstrous criminal conspiracy—and that Adam Entous is one of the most important journalists in American history, an indefatigable shoe-leather reporter who helped whistleblowers inside the federal government put the truth before the American public, like Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, and Neil Sheehan combined. If you think the collusion story is nonsense, then Entous is just a political operative with a convenient byline. And if you think Russiagate is a campaign of political warfare waged in the shadows by bureaucrats who violated the privacy of American citizens in order to undo election results they disagreed with, then Entous is something worse—an asset whom sectors of the intelligence community have come to rely on in order to manipulate the public.
My theory is that the "deep state" and "inside Washington" were determined to save the country and their careers from the lunatic Trump who obviously had no clue about how "inside Washington" works - and didn't even care. In many ways, Trump had lived in a bigger world than they ever had, a world of national and international commerce, media, sports, beautiful girls, and real estate. He took the blows, was knocked down many times, always got back up - and knew how to manage media. He always knew that politicians were low, devious people like him, but easily manipulated.
I believe that many laws were broken in the process of preventing Trump, in the confidence that they could drag Hillary across the finish line. That did not happen, and Freak-out ensued. However, blowing up "Inside Washington" is part of why Trump was elected.
The "Imperial City" is elite, arrogant, ingrown, bien-pansant, too social, and too wealthy. They only talk to each other, and they are all dependent on highly-paid government jobs. Had I the power, I would move every federal agency to a different middle-sized city, and just keep State and Defense in the DC area. DC was built on a Potomac swamp, is a swamp entirely disconnected from regular people.
Trump, with his countless flaws, was the only answer for us peasants. He had to be knee-capped at least. And there we find ourselves.
We made a good point here recently. The reason people go to the gym or go to classes or to a trainer for an hour 6 or 7 days/week is to try to compress a full-day's worth of physical activity into a manageable amount of time.
Thus we raise the intensity. Instead of lifting light rocks from the field all day, we do 4 sets of heavy deadlifts, and done. Instead of jogging for one or two hours, we do 30-45-second sprints.
Furthermore, a good balanced program can pack that in with minimal or no risk of injury, unlike somebody who shovel-digs ditches all day. The thing is, in the western world very few jobs require day-long heavy lifting any more. That is all mechanized.
Today, even professional tennis players (and all athletes) do their gym programs in addition to their sport training. Playing a sport is more of a use of fitness rather than a cause of fitness. Even many people who do a lot of work with their bodies (eg carpenters) go to the gym to stay fit for their work.
As readers know from endless repetition, we recommend, for general fitness for life for men and women, a balanced program of resistance training (heavy weights), calisthenics, and cardio (meaning heart rate elevated well-above comfort). We also recommend nutrition approaches to meet your fitness goals.
Alexis de Tocqueville celebrated American women’s worldliness as a youthful humor that evolves into a matronly reserve. In Democracy in America, he described the daughters of our young republic and predicted “that the social changes which bring nearer to the same level the father and son, the master and servant, and superiors and inferiors generally speaking, will raise woman and make her more and more the equal of man.” Between cloistered superiority—for America owes its “singular prosperity and growing strength . . . to the superiority of their women”...
What is most art "for"? Well, it's to be decorative or at least interesting. It can be social signalling or status-seeking. It can be used for investing or money-laundering. I suspect all of these things have applied since the Renaissance.
Snowy day here in Yankeeland. They used to call it "snow", but now they call them "Snowstorms" and give them names. Dramatizing ordinary weather. What's the matter with Yankee people these days? The timidity. Mrs. BD ain't askeered. She's off to Philly this morning, weather be damned.
Took Mrs. BD to the Balanchine/Stravinsky program with the New York City Ballet last weekend. One of her Christmas presents. I thought it was a heck of a show, even though I am neither a balletomane nor a Stravinsky fan (Mrs. BD is a dance fan, regardless of style or tradition.) I do find Balanchine's style more accessible to me than classical ballet or modern dance.
NYC is the world center of dance for a good reason - tons of fans, and not all gays by any means. NYCB is almost always sold out, and there are ways to get reasonably-priced tickets.
The lobby of the David Koch theater last weekend, with cool balloon decor:
People looking for magic for fat loss and people looking for magic in muscle weight gain are often suckers for magic diets and magic elixirs. Steroids work for the latter, but it's a bad idea.
I have had enough success with patients who want fat loss over the past 12 months with Contrave to feel that it is worth a mention. It's a magic elixir of Wellbutrin and Naltrexone. Both seem to have a measurable effect of reducing cravings of all sorts. No, it's not quite magic but it can reduce greed and take some of the burden from self-restraint.
I have posted in the past about how subjective hunger (aka "false hunger") is common in the overweight who have no caloric needs at all but who tend to desire more intake and to eat more avidly, more rapidly, than normal-weight people. It may have something to do with the loss of satiety signals, or ignoring them. Insulin sensitivity plays a role, for sure, and that is produced by poor or excessive eating habits. Psychological factors too. All we really know is that, if you are overweight and hungry, something is out of whack because you do not really need any food at all.
(As I have asserted in the past, exercise does nothing meaningful for fat loss. I'll make one exception to that: compulsive exercisers who work out for hours daily, but they usually are living on organic lettuce from Whole Foods too. One other factor: for most people, heavy-duty cardio and weights do tend to reduce appetite. People in rigorous daily fitness programs therefore need to follow nutritional programs to make sure their intake is sufficient to support their efforts or they can risk losing muscle while their bodies are undergoing renovation. This only applies to body renovation projects, not maintenance)
Historical fiction (I still do not know how much of it is historically accurate) about the legal and commercial battles between Westinghouse and Edison during New York's Gilded Age: The Last Days of Night: A Novel by Graham Moore. (The youthful Moore has made quite a varied writing career for himself.)
I do know that Paul Cravath played a major role in the battles, and that Westinghouse promoted alternating current while Edison preferred DC. A good story with mythic underpinnings.
If it means letting males off the hook for the arduous task of becoming manly gentlemen with the accompanying virtues that the world (and women) expect, then I would see it differently. Developmental arrest is not a thing to encourage.
An excellent calisthenic. Switch legs quickly in air during the jump, use the rear leg only for balance, swing your arms in natural running motions, and keep the front knee over your ankle or toes.
For those of you sick and tired of being abused by empty-headed film celebrities -- many of whom you've never heard of and never will again -- imposing their narrow monolithic partisan views, and the films they love even though in many cases the audiences didn't, here's a more honest film awards show.
I promise you that I would have no chance with these high driven pheasants. For one thing, it's not a game we play in the us. A delightful tradition, though.
Envy is diabolical. It is also human, however sinful. I am learning to identify it in myself, and then to address it when I see it. Nobody likes to identify it in themselves. My red flag is when I feel like putting other people down. Sure, other people can be jerks, idiots, mercenary, lazy, and character-flawed in a multitude of ways, but so am I. It's fair that I try to use discernment when assessing others, but that is different.
I used to deny it, or rationalize it. A bit of that came from wanting to boost myself up by mentally putting down others. That is not only sinful, but a complete and futile waste of mental energy. I recommend prayer, with humor, as an approach to malignant envy. My preaching to myself this Lenten season is to confirm that Christ is my rock, not my damn self.
Costco on a Saturday morning is an American place. I made my every 5-6-month pilgrimage yesterday. Of course it was busy, and filled with people of every size (including an obese woman in an electric cart whose equally-obese aide could barely keep up with the cart), age, class, color - and every language known. Lots of cute little kids or all sorts of cute races.
All filling their baskets with their preferred products of American abundance at reasonable prices and in high volume. It's a kick to go for staples, but 2-3 times per year is enough for me. Mrs. BD gives me a list, but I do whatever I want.
Heard at the cheese place there, a mom to a little girl: "Honey, let's get Dad some good cheeses. He loves cheese. He's like a mouse." Of course I make some impulse buys, like their Kerry Gold Irish cheese. Good stuff, like cheddar but better than cheddar. And a pack of their amazing ribeyes of course. $50 for a 5-pack of thick and fatty ribeyes? Since Mrs. BD and I share one ribeye for a supper, that's a $5 delicious and protein-packed supper for this couple which lifts weights and exercises daily. If you exercise hard, you need that nutritional fat. Nothing to do with that silly cholesterol nonsense.
Word to the wise: their house brand (Kirkland) extra virgin olive oil is as good as anything anywhere.
Not from The Onion: 
Roger Bannister,