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.
Northern Italian menu on restaurant row. The Fegato alla Veneziana (Calve's Liver, Venetian-style) was the best I've ever had. Everybody with us agreed. The Vitello tonnato (Veal with Tuna Sauce) was also delicious. Not quite as good as Mrs. BD makes, but very tasty and delicate.
They do have a popular pasta-tasting menu item but when we do fine Italian, we usually don't bother with pasta. Who needs it, with so many other tastier, less-filling things?
We recommend the cheerful place. It's just a few steps from Barbetta (Since 1906) which is equally good but more formal, hushed, less fun (and more expensive).
Police are systemically racist. Police act stupidly. Police are overmilitarized. Give the police all your guns. Hey, guys, you can't expect armed police to charge mass shooters. All of these statements are being promulgated by the same people.
8:31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
8:32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
8:33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."
8:34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
8:35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.
8:36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?
8:37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?
8:38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
Russel Brand shows how to do a serious and earnest interview based on his own curiosity. In other words, he doesn't want to make his own points. Wants to learn. An exciting conversation, I feel, and rather deep for Youtube.
I like his point that learning new things is painful because it kills something in yourself. I do not know what they mean when talking about equality, though. What is equality?
Image:My selfie just to show how buff I have become with my program after almost two years.
We dare not presume to tell our smart readers what to do to build and maintain fitness. We are telling you what we do, based on our research and the advice from our very stable genius trainers.
This is not about fat loss. That is nutritional. This is only about building and maintaining full functionality despite the efforts of Father Time (patriarchal, isn't that?) to destroy our bodies, spirits, and minds.
Monday: Hour of powerlifts and weights, #1 sequence Tues: Met Con (calis/cardio) class Weds: 60-80 mins mostly calisthenics, or "technical" training* (at least half of my list) Thurs: Powerlifts and other weights, #2 sequence Fri: 1/2 hr HIIT cardio (elliptical, treadmill, stair machine, ski erg,or row erg) and 1/2 hr "technical" Sat: Tough calis class, or another half of my technical, or a long hike Sun: 1 hr long/slow* before church
No program is perfect, but this at least covers all the bases of strength, calis, and cardio. Biggest challenge is keeping one's weight increasing a bit in a relentless program like this.
Note: doing the same thing any two days in a row is not a good idea, because weights need recovery, and the same cardio becomes too efficient to be effective. Need to keep your adaptation off-balance. I alas have no sports this winter, for various reasons.
Yes, George Washington did go to Barbados, to visit with his brother for a while.
Barbados is a coral island situated a bit east and south of the other West Indies. Caribbean on its west side, Atlantic on the east. A popular winter getaway for Europeans and Americans. People tend to have their favorite islands, but I am not a big Caribbean fan. Its east coast gets a consistent pounding from the Atlantic, and a constant and welcome strong ocean breeze which makes the 75-82 degree temps feel cool.
- The island is an approximate triangle. The southern coast has the "city" of Bridgetown and is lined with mass market resorts and hotels like Sandals, etc.. The west coast has elegant old elite resorts like Sandy Lane where you dress for dinner. The north coasts are rugged. The interior is a combination of wild and agricultural. Except for the sugar cane, the agriculture (vegetables, cattle, goats, banana, plantain) is small-scale and not mechanized.
- The east coast, around 20 miles north to south, faces the raw Atlantic and is rocky (actually, coral rocks, boulders, and cliffs), rugged, with massive surf and is not safely swimmable due to crossing surf, sharp coral, and strong currents. Surfers drown there sometimes. There are only 3 little, simple places to stay on the entire east coast - no resorts, etc. We stayed in a nice little place on the east coast - 8 small suites - no pool, tennis courts, TV, or golf course and a little honesty bar in the dining shed which always had a gallon jar of rum punch.
- Photo is our porch, ocean surf behind the trees. During our visit there, the guests were French, Canadian, and Brits. One American, besides us. From Boston. I was reading Faulkner on this trip.
Our trip was not the conventional Caribbean getaway with "relaxing" and water sports. Photo travelogue below the fold -
Everyone knows that journalism has been transformed in recent years, especially in the news magazines, right and left, from reportage into new forms of paralogical rhetoric: political argument disguised as dramatic reporting. It would be fun to spend the rest of my hour simply describing the new rhetorical devices, and the new twists on old devices, that Time magazine exhibits from week to week, all in the name of news. Mr. Ralph Ingersoll, former publisher of the magazine, has described the key to the magazine’s success as the discovery of how to turn news into fiction, giving each story its own literary form, with a beginning, a middle, and an end, regardless of whether the story thus invented matches the original event. “The way to tell a successful lie is to include enough truth in it to make it believable—and Time is the most successful liar of our time.”
The purpose is to keep up this drum beat, to make him so beyond the pale, so unpopular, that the independent fence sitter-voter just doesn't feel comfortable going against the grain and supporting him
I have never been convinced that Freedom is a common or powerful human aspiration. A noble one, probably, but there are many things most people care about more. Freedom is scary. There are reasons people will cling to external and internal tyrannies.
A minority of Americans were in favor of the War of Independence.
There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.
Rick, with some input from Josh, is plotting out a Brooklyn route. As usual, it will be around 6-7 hours with pizza stop and beer stop(s).
I do not know Brooklyn at all (although I have a young daughter who now lives there). All I know is Brooklyn Heights, the BAM, and Peter Lugar's Steak House, so I am looking forward to it. I want to see DUMBO or whatever they call it. I guess it is "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass".
We will re-announce with details, but our out-of-towners appreciate a heads-up.
I want to begin with the water taxi across the East River to Williamsburg, but Bulldog wants the Brooklyn Bridge. His call. I'm a good follower when I have a good leader.
For elderly, 
How 
Notes
Powerline: 
Rick, with some input from Josh, is plotting out a Brooklyn route. As usual, it will be around 6-7 hours with pizza stop and beer stop(s).