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.
View of Storm King Mountain (which we climbed a few weeks ago - an easy ascent) from the first peak of Breakneck Ridge. These Hudson Highland mountains have wonderful names.
George Washington went up into the Highlands and selected West Point as the site for a military academy (and for the location for a cross-river chain to protect the Hudson from the Brits).
Walkin' down the line. This 1962 ditty has been covered by many, including by Arlo Guthrie at Woodstock. I don't know why anybody covers it. It's a simple piece.
Here's Bob with the Dead. Pickin' Jerry adds a lot of bounce to it, but I think Bob is drunk and gets the lyrics all screwed up. He's not perfect. Correct Lyrics here.
Jerry had such a laid-back taste with guitar, and his "singing" too. I love Jerry's relaxed picking.
The FBI appears to be fully complicit in a cover-up that attempted to influence a presidential election for a favored candidate – Hillary Clinton. And the truth was trampled on a Phoenix tarmac.
64:1 O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence--
64:2 as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil-- to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
64:3 When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
64:4 From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him.
64:5 You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed.
64:6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
64:7 There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
64:8 Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
64:9 Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.
The trail was a total blast - if you want to call it a trail because it's mostly bouldering and scrambling with some physical challenge and a tiny bit of risk too. A giant playground for outdoorsy people and Girl and Boy Scout Troops. Not much "hiking" on this thing - you have to pick your route up carefully or you might have to backtrack. Much more difficult than Tuckerman's. There is no going down the way you go up.
I'll write up a report later. My photo is heading up to the second peak yesterday (the ridge has 4 peaks on it, but getting to the first one is the most gnarly and steep). Exhilarating and good training for White Mountain hikes:
Spanning nearly 200 years, Ice Ghosts is a fast-paced detective story about Western science, indigenous beliefs, and the irrepressible spirit of exploration and discovery. It weaves together an epic account of the legendary Franklin Expedition of 1845―whose two ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, and their crew of 129 were lost to the Arctic ice―with the modern tale of the scientists, researchers, divers, and local Inuit behind the recent discoveries of the two ships, which made news around the world...
I tried out that Beginner's calisthenics class we posted this past week. Even though the class was coached by three smiling girls who never broke a sweat, I found keeping up with their pace challenging and I did break a sweat.
I would recommend it as an excellent first-thing-in-the-morning daily light warm-up/workout for beginners. Since no HIIT or weights (only hand-weights) are involved, no recovery is needed so you can do either weights or HIIT cardio on the same day with no problem.
Remember that calisthenics like these are for athleticism, light cardio, and general fitness maintenance. There is no strength gain or cardio gain involved, but that is not what it is for. I did feel great after doing it. If you are new to the fitness cult, I'd recommend this as a daily morning routine before advancing your program too much further.
Yes, I would advise first thing in the morning, right after slugging down a quick cup of coffee and before opening your computer. Unlike an hour of heavy calisthenics, this will leave you pumped up for the day instead of ready for a nap.
Tomorrow, Bulldog and I, with Mrs. BD and Mrs. Bulldog, will be doing something like the bears. Well, not exactly, but enough rock scrambling for us. If we survive, we'll bring back iPhone pics.
Breakneck Ridge in the Hudson Highlands, rated by many sites as the best day hike in the US. I'm sure there is plenty of competition for that title, though. Breakneck is all up and down, but mostly up. Best thing about this hike is pizza and beer afterwards in the delightful, cozy, artsy riverfront village of Cold Spring, NY. Angelina's is my choice.
Join us if you are in the neighborhood. We are easy to recognize, with our MAGA hats cheery dispositions.
I would answer No. The sex drive is strong in most people. Bill Clinton did not have a "stronger more manly sex drive" than other people; he was just a predator and exploiter. Manly men don't do that even if they want to because the key to "manly" is self-mastery, not self-indulgence or mastery of others - especially women.
Are there badly-behaved people, criminal people, boorish people, and people with poor self-control out there? Of course, as in all areas of life besides sex.
Related, THE PURGE OF THE DEVIANTS MAY GO TOO FAR. Regarding that piece, I'd remove the terms "deviants" and "pervs" that I keep hearing. Historically, rich and powerful men were free to use women as they wished to fulfill their fantasies without consequence. The Kennedys were famous for that, as were British royalty. I'd prefer to talk about decent and indecent behavior except in the cases of assault or rape, in which cases I would discuss criminality.
The "photogenic," like aesthetics in general, is socio-culturally defined. We seem to have a few categories for photos: Nature scenes, kids at play, quaint scenes, people who look interesting or attractive, and images used to document moments or things. At this point, a lot of them are cliches (sunsets, waves, babies, old men on benches, etc).
Painting is a Cropsey, Hudson River. We're looking at a photogenic photo image of a picturesque painting of people looking at picturesque scenery.
This is the best, easy, at-home calisthenics routine I have found for beginners, male or female. After a month of this routine daily, anybody would be ready to advance to a more intense calisthenic routine or, preferably, a more intense general fitness program. Still, this is not as easy as it looks. Gals, get your guy to join you in this every morning, and keep up with the gals on the video even if parts of it seem silly.
I am a believer in calisthenics for flexibility, athleticism, cardio, agility, vigor, sexuality, and mental health. A great way to roll out of bed and begin the day by getting the blood moving and to wake up the brain. (Their virtual jump rope is good but real would be better.)
If John Conyers were a Republican, Cokie and her fellow females in the press corps would have wired themselves up with spy cameras and intentionally rode the elevators with Conyers day after day, capturing every lurid moment until they had enough to run an hour long expose on Nightline.
But he isn't, so they left this predator to prey on other unsuspecting females instead.
They still don't get that Trump is smarter than the lot of them. They think that because he does not speak as they do, because his sentence structure is unlike their own, he must be stupid. They are slow learners.
The male desire to interact with, flirt with, or hit on charming females will never be eradicated no matter how hard the man-haters try. We can accept that groping and touching in the wrong context are over the top, and not effective ways to initiate a connection anyway.
As an aside, I wonder why so many of these recently-exposed skirt-chasers are so into presenting themselves nude to women. I am thinking of Weinstein, Charlie Rose, Al Gore, etc etc. Do they really think they look good naked? Or are they delusional? Not from personal experience, but it seems to me that the only guys who look great without clothing are gays. Women, on the other hand...
Secret truth: Guys wish that appealing women would hit on them. Guys complain that they have to take all the risk and do all the work in this game. Generally speaking, guys don't mind being grabbed by appealing females, but it doesn't happen in normal life much.
Can't we simply accept that male-female interactions frequently contain elements of fun with sexual overtones, and that life without that would be dreary indeed.
Not for walkers, but for those who really want to Move It With Vigor over hill and dale and and clamber over steep rocks: The Best Five Hiking Pants
I have the Pranas and the Montanes. The thing is that, for cold weather, they are easy to layer underneath. Re the Montanes, Amazon doesn't have them but Montane USA does. Their sizing is not US sizing, so check the sizing for those great water-resistant hiking/climbing pants.
Life has its vales of tears, but also its hills of delights and, very rarely, its mountaintops of joy. Sometimes I wonder whether the mandarins of my profession seek to pathologize all negative emotions.
Nobody promised you a rose garden. That was Eden. Learning to bear emotional pain, like bearing some physical pain, is part of life. It never hurts, of course, to have somebody or something accompanying you with that.
Many students are given just one lens—power. Here’s your lens, kid. Look at everything through this lens. Everything is about power. Every situation is analyzed in terms of the bad people acting to preserve their power and privilege over the good people. This is not an education. This is induction into a cult. It’s a fundamentalist religion. It’s a paranoid worldview that separates people from each other and sends them down the road to alienation, anxiety and intellectual impotence.
Perhaps it is projection. It seems to me that most Americans, at least, seek power only over their own lives to seek their own form of satisfaction as best they are able to. Meanwhile, the power-seekers seek control over poor little us who only want to be left alone and to be given nothing.
It's not a rant, but the Prof sure does unload a lot of info and insight in this short clip. "Of course you can just compare yourself to the few people who are richer than you and feel sorry for yourself, but that's pretty pathetic in my estimation"
Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition
India’s Punishment
Photos: Above, Romanian bread lines under socialism, below, Romanians line up for new iPhone, Via 