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.
Button Wars! It's juvenile, but Trump just punches back. That's why he was elected. And the experts say "Don't get Kim mad." What?
A better plan might be to not piss off Trump. As a natural bully himself, Trump knows how to deal with bullies like the Palis, the Pakis, the UN, and Iran. It's New York diplomacy: "F- you."
... all weather behavior—whether colder or warmer—becomes a confirmation that man made global warming is real. Or, as Dinesh D’Souza tweeted, “Since heat & cold are both taken as confirmation of global warming, what, if anything, can disprove this supposedly scientific hypothesis?”
I was randomly thinking this weekend about how many current-day American hobbies, pastimes, and avocations have their origins in necessities, or near-necessities, of the past. We are all aristocrats now.
Consider these. You might think of more examples:
Hunting, fishing, weaponry, and gardening used to be necessary for survival.
Dog-raising and training used to be very helpful for survival
Weaving, knitting and sewing used to be the only ways to be clothed.
Music-making used to be for story-telling (still is, to some extent)
We used to have to create our own amusements: make plays, have sing-alongs, invent or play games. Now it's the TV and the computer.
We used to write elegant letters to communicate or to stay in contact. Very few do that any more. Fine writing is now a hobby (mostly)
Painting and sculpting (image-making) used to be special ways to worship God or gods
Golf used to be necessary to prevent deadly boredom for shepherds
Most sports are refined variants of physical combat
Cooking of all sorts used to be the only way to have food. Now it's become a hobby.
Hiking, running, horse-riding, boating, etc used to be the only ways to go places. Now hobbies.
Physical fitness used to be what you got from your daily labor. Now it's the gym in your spare time.
Not a bad interview, but even McWhorter can be naive sometimes. These people are not earnest: they are engaged in a power play and if you give them an inch they will go for the next mile.
Your path to destiny? The call for adventure and the courage to be stupid. "You have to be a fool before you can be a master." Prof. Peterson uses Exodus as a metaphor for life change. He rightly emphasizes the difficulties of change, and the wandering in the desert. He also rightly praises taking life risks to develop oneself, risks of abandoning stale and stupid axioms, risks to fail, and risks to start out stupid.
“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.
So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it. Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”
― Neil Gaiman
"The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective."
Our local Sharp- Shinned Hawks have been daily visitors at our bird feeder. They are picking off innocent sparrows daily. It's a circus out there. Sparrows smash against our windows trying to escape. That's why Mrs. BD terms it a Sharpie-feeder. That's fine me with me because I am a carnivore too, and I like meat rare.
And each morning around 3 AM I hear our neighborhood hoot-owl - a Great Horned - establishing a nesting territory. They have already mated, will lay their eggs in January in the snow and frigid weather in an old crow's nest. That's how they roll, and it works.
The film The Zookeeper’s Wife tells the real-life story of Antonina and Jan Żabiński, a Polish couple who were the directors of the Warsaw Zoo, one of the largest in 1930s Europe. The Żabińskis risked their lives during World War II to save over 300 Jews and underground resistance fighters by providing them with shelter in the zoo’s bombed-out animal enclosures, and in the basement of their villa home.
The Zookeeper's Wife: Interview with Teresa Żabiński below. Proof to me that ordinary people can make life better for others if they decide to. Not through politics - that never works because the game of politics is just about power. Mercy and care is through personal action and it doesn't need to be heroic.
Deads are about picking up heavy stuff, and putting it back on the floor. A basic functional effort and good training for how to pick things up without back strain.
Good technique is essential. Do them wrong (eg lifting with your back istead of your legs) and you can hurt yourself. Do them right - it's not complicated - and your whole body gets stronger including your back. Deadlifts prevent aging! Mrs. BD does them weekly, and swears at by them.
Besides general fitness, just doing 5 sets (including a warm-up set) of heavy deads once-weekly has been great for my posture. Generally finishing with my 6-8-rep max. I only aim for a max one-rep effort every couple of months, just for fun (?). Since I am not a big strong guy, I can probably only get to around 300 with a trap bar at this point, and that is good enough for government work. With a plain bar, my grip tends to fail first. (I do need to work on my grip strength.)
Mens sana in corpore sano. (The former is a tougher challenge than the latter.)
(An important deadlift tip - and for barbell squats too - that is rarely mentioned: Make sure your bowels are well-emptied first. The intra-abdominal pressure gets high with heavy weights, and you do not want an accident. Farts are expected, but...)
Augustine’s tortured recognition that involuntary arousal was an inescapable presence—not only in conjugal lovemaking but also in what he calls the “very movements which it causes, to our sorrow, even in sleep, and even in the bodies of chaste men”—shaped his most influential idea, one that transformed the story of Adam and Eve and weighed down the centuries that followed: originale peccatum, original sin.
This idea became one of the cornerstones of Christian orthodoxy—but not before decades of dispute...
Did Augustine and Christianity ultimately make sex sexier and more exciting?
We have friends who take these trips regularly. They are inexpensive compared to regular cruises (generally 1/2 the price), the ships tend not to be full, and the ports of call can be interesting.
If you like oceans (and missed service in the Navy), the transatlantic trips are wonderful and relaxing. Lots to see on the Atlantic ocean, and amazing food.
Imagine a new president whose first year saw: withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord; wiped out ISIS; reversed hundreds of Obama Administration regulatory overreaches; saw back-to-back quarters of 3 percent economic growth; a stock market gain of over 20 percent; illegal immigration plummeting by more than 50 percent; a sterling originalist appointed to the Supreme Court and a record number of similarly-minded judges to the lower appellate courts; and the most fundamental pro-growth tax reform in 30 years.
Time's winged chariot does hurry along. As life goes on, it hurries faster, frighteningly so.
I know only one way to slow down that acceleration: do new things, take on new challenges, visit new places, have new experiences, find some fresh successes and failures, make new friends, . While routine and structure are generally useful and comforting for people, new challenges and adventures, large or small, which entail some special stimulations and anxieties.
Yes, anxieties. New stresses are good. Seek God, learn Mandarin, lift heavier weights, remodel the house, take a Great Courses course on something about which you are totally ignorant and uninterested to open your mind, find a new mate (not for me - we make new together), climb a mountain, or try some good therapy and reawaken or unleash parts of your inner true self which have been smoldering in the dark for years.
All such things have the effect of adding punctuation marks, or even fresh chapters, to the humdrum prose of life.
While it's not just about a manipulative seduction, Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) was spot on with the time thing.
To His Coy Mistress
Had we but world enough and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime. We would sit down, and think which way To walk, and pass our long love’s day. Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide Of Humber would complain. I would Love you ten years before the flood, And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires and more slow; An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze; Two hundred to adore each breast, But thirty thousand to the rest; An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state, Nor would I love at lower rate. But at my back I always hear Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near; And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found; Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound My echoing song; then worms shall try That long-preserved virginity, And your quaint honour turn to dust, And into ashes all my lust;
The grave’s a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace. Now therefore, while the youthful hue Sits on thy skin like morning dew, And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires, Now let us sport us while we may, And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapped power.
Let us roll all our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball, And tear our pleasures with rough strife Through the iron gates of life: Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.
Four years ago, while I filled in for Bird Dog on the daily news update, I posted a few articles about Bitcoin, which back then barely garnered any attention.
2017 was the "year ofBitcoin" and many ordinary Joes became millionaires, as a result. Some people believe this ride is over. Perhaps with Bitcoin it is (I do not believe it is, though 1,000% returns are definitely over for it...perhaps not for other cryptos, though), and at least one 'expert' thinks it is. I'm not an 'expert', but I've heard if you speak enough publicly about something, you can become one (not a joke, this is definitely true). So maybe I should speak more about cryptocurrencies and be an expert.
This much is true - I suggested cryptos could represent a move away from standard currencies and represent a new reserve, particularly for nations which aren't fond of the dollar. This seems to be exactly what is happening. Amidst all the speculative excess which surrounds some of them, there are more and more real-world firms adopting them, as well as the technology which surrounds their development. In fact, I have begun to find uses for blockchain tech in my own field, and we are beginning to pioneer new uses for it to defeat fraudulent activity (funny, because the one reason people fear cryptos is that they are often used to engage criminal activity. My son told me many of his friends who used to purchase illegal substances via the web used Bitcoin. I asked him how much they had left. He said none, they'd spent it all. I said "shows you how much value you get out of using drugs.") Point is, Bitcoin does have uses. I am aware of several people who entered the Cannabis growing business (legally, in states that allow it) and cater exclusively to cryptocurrency clientele.
I think this means the academy either doubts the ability of the students to absorb knowledge or the unwillingness of faculty to convey it. What good is "process" without deep knowledge? This is pure laziness all around, but I do understand that colleges compete and many paying students do not want to strain their little brains.
Photo: 
Deads are about picking up heavy stuff, and putting it back on the floor. A basic functional effort and good training for how to pick things up without back strain.
From 
