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.
14:13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.
14:14 When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.
14:15 When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves."
14:16 Jesus said to them, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat."
14:17 They replied, "We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish."
14:18 And he said, "Bring them here to me."
14:19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
14:20 And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.
14:21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
A service guy asked me to clean out my dishwasher drain filter because it grossed him out. That was a humiliating experience. Clean your own once in a while to avoid that unpleasant experience. Chances are that it is full of gunk.
Hello again. Roger here. Bird Dog's off to get wormed, or get his nails clipped, or something, so you're stuck with me. I can't do nearly as good a job as Bird Dog when it comes to assembling links for you fine people. My lips get really tired reading all those stories. However, he's started me off on Saturday. It's a smart strategy. Nothing much happens on the weekends, so I can't get into too much trouble. Of course George III is reported to have written "Nothing of importance happened today," in his diary on July 4th, 1776, so maybe I better scan the papers for you just in case. On to the links!
France is nominally secular, but just like Britain and #ourNHS the French have a state religion - its famously strict labour market. Gallic politicians of left and right are cursed the second they touch the subject of reforms but it looks possible that is about to be confounded. President Macron won his landslide victory earlier this year while advocating far-reaching reforms of labour laws, against the protectionist and dirigiste Mme Le Pen. And on Tuesday the Assemblie Nationale voted through a bill allowing the government to fast-track changes to the labour code.
Dirigiste? My French is rusty. She's not that fat, is she?
Thus the authors’ fatuous pronouncement that: “In recognizing the central role that the medical profession can play in reducing firearm injuries, the court’s ruling highlights the opportunity that physicians have to reduce firearm violence.”
Just plug the holes, doc, and mind yer own business.
The new Doctor Who is a woman. “All the cool humans are thrilled,” cooed Mashable; “Pissboys Are Melting Down,” added Dorkly (when did nerds start talking like bitter drag queens?). The Telegraph was slightly more sober and wrote off the whole thing with “Who cares?” It doesn’t matter to the establishment left because we’ve already established that men are exactly the same as women—especially when it comes to fiction. They see nothing wrong with female superheroes and action stars.
You know, you could turn it off. It sounds crazy, I know, but you could. Smart people never looked at it in the first place.
Even amateur statisticians can correlate two random things. Often, a news article can be based on that because few journalists know anything about stats. Example from Spurious Correlations:
Having taken the ferry from Uig on Skye up to Tarbert on the isle of Harris (Harris and Lewis are segments of the same large island, Harris below and Lewis on top), we got out our fleece, rain gear and hiking poles, and resumed our challenging hiking explorations of the Outer Hebrides.
On a rare lovely but cool morning, we were instructed to hike across this beautiful meadow (they are far and few between, but the wildflowers were in full bloom. This rare meadow habitat is called a Machair) and to climb that mountain in Hushinish. That was a heck of a no-trail climb, and the little plateau on top gave me vertigo.
Could you climb that without poles? No. Mrs. BD and another gal had to pull themselves up on hands and knees using heather as handles at some points to reach the peak. A good workout. This hill had a series of false summits. Sheesh, false summits are a bummer but hill walkers learn to expect them.
The Slow-Motion Coup d’Etat picks up steam - Leak of full transcripts of presidential conversations with foreign leaders a milestone in effort to paralyze the Trump administration.
Look, the problem with special prosecutors is you assemble a team of the best of the best in search of a crime. Normally, you have a crime and then the prosecutors go out and try to prove it. With a special prosecutor, you start with Whitewater and you end up with a blue dress. That’s a long journey. Here, the Russia thing obviously is a pretext, and it’s going to be a subject of the investigation. But it appears to be going into the territory that Trump has wanted to protect, namely his business. At some point, we could come to a crisis. And I worry for the country because this is not good that the presidency, the judiciary, and Congress would be at loggerheads when you really don’t have anybody that ultimately would adjudicate. It would be the Supreme Court but we know that can cause real reverberations for decades.
Mueller Plunges Across Trump's Red Line - A Wall Street Journal story claimed the investigation had moved before a grand jury, while CNN reported it was looking into potential financial crimes unrelated to the 2016 election.
This is Part 1 of the PBS series School Inc. It's a good intro to the history of American education, and a mind-opening intro to what education can be. I would not say that the South Korean system is great, or right for Americans, but competition and choice in education is a good thing.
Clearly, viewing education as a civil service job is not the best route.
Is there any fix for unmotivated kids? Well, yes and no. Watch it, if only because the teachers' unions hate the series. You might get hooked and watch the rest of the series. Enjoyable and...educational.
Lazybeds are the original raised-bed farming. On the Isle of Harris, where almost nobody bothers to farm or garden anymore since the Medieval Warm Period, remnants of old lazybed "farming" - more like heavy subsistence gardening - are often seen where there is enough soil to plant. There is not very much soil for planting, and peat bogs can not be gardened. However, raised beds with good drainage (always sloping how towards the sea), enhanced with seaweed as fertilizer, could grow enough peas and potatoes for a crofter (who also had some sheep and cattle). Maybe some oats or barley, but not much.
Like Ridge-and Furrow farming, Lazybeds date back at least to Roman times in the rough parts of the British Isles.
Today, on the islands, wool is the cash crop. The sheep just run wild until shearing time which is why so much of the landscape looks like a putting green. In fact, sheep originated putting greens. (The "rough" was, more likely than not, heather - which is very rough indeed.)
Below the fold, somebody in the Hebrides is still using lazybeds - and a view of what looks like a golf course with natural water hazard and sand traps
Stephen Miller is historically correct. Lady Liberty was designed by the French as an inspirational symbol for the US illuminating the whole world with the idea of individual liberty so the world could enjoy the freedom of Americans - not as a welcome mat.
Emma Lazarus' sentimental poem was a 1903 addition to the site of the statue, for some reason.
What should America's immigration policies be? Let the American people decide. Who else should?
Our genius trainer has prescribed us morning calisthenic workouts for our next little getaway.
Genius Trainer hates to see the backsliding that occurs after 10 days away from him. His demands are in addition to our usual Cape Cod daily multi-hour hikes and pond races, not to mention body-surfing in the icy ocean with the seals and sharks for as long as we can. For me, few thrills equal that when there is good wavy gravy.
Here is his email:
You should complete these light vacation calisthenic workout circuits every morning. Including foam rolling and dynamic warmup, this workout should take under 45 minutes in total.
Squats—3x20 Elbow Planks—3x30 seconds Jumping Jacks—3x25 or 3xJump Rope 1 min.
Lunges—3x15 each leg Shoulder Tap Hand Planks—3x15 taps each shoulder Quick Shuffles—3x60 feet
The leaders of the Women’s March, arguably the most prominent feminists in the country, have some chilling ideas and associations. Far from erecting the big tent so many had hoped for, the movement they lead has embraced decidedly illiberal causes and cultivated a radical tenor that seems determined to alienate all but the most woke.
... in contemporary Republican La-La Land, the party in power with control over all three branches of government allows its minority-status opponents to dictate the rules of special investigations and inquiry—a Jeff Sessions recused, a Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) excused from his investigations of unmasking and leaking, a Robert Mueller appointed as special counsel, friend of to-be-investigated James Comey, and employer of partisan attorneys.
Is naiveté the cause of such laxity? Do Republicans unilaterally follow Munich rules because they hope such protocols will create a new “civility” and “bipartisan cooperation” in Washington?
Repubs have balls during elections, none when elected. The Left plays the middle during elections, then goes straight for their goals when elected.
The administrative state is by far the greatest contemporary threat to the liberty of Americans. The appalling Sally Yates urges that the Constitution be left in the dust, and that unelected bureaucrats be elevated above the president whom they ostensibly serve. It is hard to imagine a theory more at odds with our Constitution or our political traditions.
A culture, like a person, is born, lives and then it dies. Like a person, it’s youth is a chaotic becoming, while its maturing is what it became. It’s death is romanticizing what it was and then, it is gone. That’s the American Left now. It is a thing for old people and young romantics, but the death certificate has been filled out with everything but the date. The radical culture that was born in the 60’s and flourished for two generations is about to expire.
The Trump effect is a good thing. He is doing exactly what he said he would do and exactly what people elected him to do. Newsflash to the Beltway establishment: Americans who elected Trump do not worship the current gods of the city. They know you’re responsible for killing the old ones and they wish to return the favor now. We want your gods dead. That is sort of what “drain the swamp” means. And, as Trump points out repeatedly: in America (at least in the middle part) we don’t worship government; we worship God. As in the one true God.
Label photo via Salt Water New England. She seems to like Harris Tweed. It lasts forever, except moths.
"Hand-woven in the Outer Hebrides from Scottish wool." It's still a cottage industry on Harris and Lewis. No factory. I am not sure where the garments and hats, etc. are actually constructed, though.
A Harris wool sports jacket is heavy, water-resistant, and heathery-looking, perfect for Isle of Harris summer or winter weather.
Scotland, they say, has no summer and no winter. The wool just keeps growing. Was that a mutation in sheep?
Mrs. BD and the gals forced a sports jacket on me at the Harris Tweed shop on the harbor in Tarbert. Nice lining in it. Nothing really in the tiny village of Tarbert but a ferry dock, a whiskey distillery (where they suggested coming back in 5 years when they will have something good) and the little Harris Tweed shop.
Pics of a weaver, the shop, and bustling downtown Tarbert below the fold.
Clearly, it is unrigorous to equate skills at doing with skills at talking. My experience of good practitioners is that they can be totally incomprehensible— they do not have to put much energy into turning their insights and internal coherence into elegant style and narratives. Entrepreneurs are selected to be just doers, not thinkers, and doers do, they don’t talk, and it would be unfair, wrong, and downright insulting to measure them in the talk department.
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas. Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (h/t reader)
Why do libertarians and Christians intentionally increasingly use the term “government schools” to describe public education? First, because it’s true. Public schools are government schools. Second, because it’s clarifying. Too many Americans are stuck in a time warp, believing that the local school is somehow “their” school. They don’t understand that public education is increasingly centralized — teaching a uniform curriculum, teaching a particular, secular set of values, and following priorities set in Washington, not by their local school board. The phrase is helpful for breaking through idealism and getting parents to analyze and understand the gritty reality of modern public education. The phrase works.
Andy McCarthy: If You Think the Imran Awan Investigation Is About Bank Fraud, You're Wrong. It's About Islamophobia.
"There's a part of America that is sick and tired of being told what to do by this overeducated population that Hillary Clinton perfectly represented. That's why they're sticking with him."
I've done reading on the topic of daypacks. I have always used my antique Osprey daypack (made in Dolores, CO) which is about 20-liters. With a replacement waist belt which my shoe repair guy fixed up for me for $10, it sits right and holds anything I might need for an ordinary day hike. (I think any pack without a waist belt is a terrible idea. I have also found that a proper fit and tweaking the adjustments makes a big difference. It has to sit on your butt.)
I bought my Osprey pack in Telluride on a ski trip with the kids. Needed a place for them to put spare winter clothing in as the temperatures went up and down and as snow came and went during the day.
Mrs. BD took the liberty of buying me a 40-Liter REI daypack for our recent Hebrides hiking trip. It fits well, but holds far more stuff than I am ever likely to need other than for lengthy winter hikes.
In fact, it could function as a smallish airplane carry-on. These days, half the people on international flights carry backpacks. They have become standard tourist items, but who needs a backpack or daypack to walk around Florence all day?
Let's say the usual day hike off the beaten track is from 4 to 8 hours. What do you need in the pack? Some liquids, snacks, maybe a sandwich or two, some rain pants and waterproof jacket, a trail map or travel guide, a first aid kit and some blister packs, a wallet, binoculars, a little camera or iphone, perhaps a 2-way radio if remote, maybe a place for hiking poles - and empty space to stuff layers that you might not want as the day warms. A box of ammo if hunting in the wilderness.
Shouldn't a 20-L pack be able to handle that, and more? Unless it's warm weather and you are carrying several liters of water, or unless you are playing sherpa and carrying stuff for other people.
We're about to plan our next wilderness hiking trip (day hikes only, thank you, with fluffy towels and hot water at night), so I will decide for sure whether 40 L is overkill.
If you are a regular day hiker, what size do you use, how do you use it, and what do you put in it? And if you would want a 40-L pack, why?
It's not a "diet." It's an exercise and fitness plan with a simple weight-loss component. It can't hurt to try it, if you need it. Lean and fit is better than fat and unfit.
Kinsley: "Yes, it’s true that Hillary Clinton got more votes, but he got the votes of more than 62 million people — and I am pretty sure I don’t know any of them."
... most have never seen such an immediate and no holds-barred battle between the Washington power structure and a new administration, because there has never been one, and want to see which way it moves before getting aboard one battle wagon or the other.
The 
Off to the Cape for a few days with family and friends. View from our patio
Remembering Sam Shepard’s 
Gwynnie sent us this email bouquet from his garden and from the woods in the Sierra Nevadas 
Monarch pic from reader 
Photo is the REI 40-L daypack.