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.
Today is the 242nd birthday of the Marine Corps. There's good reasons we're the few and the proud, and feared by our nation's enemies and respected by our nation's friends. Those of weak spine and mind may resent those of us who are not, but they are not the ones first called to charge forward, known to win. Instead weaklings guard their own rears (sometimes).
Socialist W. E. B. Du Bois—Harvard’s first black Ph.D., a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and editor of its magazine, Crisis—wanted no part of American industrial capitalism. Redistribution, not production, was his focus. Let white America wallow in the world of grubby accumulation; “We black folks is got the spirit,” says a character in one of his novels. So while he valued education, like Washington, its goal was political power, not economic advancement, and he urged blacks not to let their education dilute their sense of a separate, special group culture.
That proved fatal advice, especially given Dattel’s interesting account of Du Bois’s cultural premonitions. However much he disdained bourgeois economics, Du Bois sensed the necessity of conventional morality for a people’s rise. He worried that, by his estimate, a quarter of black births in 1900 were out of wedlock, and only half of blacks observed “monogamic sex mores,” as opposed to whites’ 2 percent and 90 percent, respectively. He also worried that black preachers were too interested in making money to “adopt a new attitude toward rational amusement and sound moral habits.” He saw, in other words, that black cultural mores had a self-destructive streak, and that the one indigenous black institution that could preach a moral message was shirking its principal duty...
Next, we ban golf clubs. After that, how to deal with fists – boxing gloves? If killing is already illegal, does making the instrumentality thereof also illegal have any relevance
Eliminate all deductions in the individual income tax code except for a single personal deduction Eliminate the corporate income tax. Tax capital gains and dividends as regular income. Eliminate the death tax as well as the write-up of asset values at death
Mountain Climbers are plank position, so they are full body exertions: shoulders, arms, core, legs. And cardio of course.
To do them correctly, knees to elbow, and no humping your back or butt - flat back. No jumping either. A left and right leg counts as one Mountain Climber. Start slow, and do not try 200/day at first unless you are in tough shape. As with the pushups, divide your sets in time but push for the most you can do in one set. If too easy, push the speed.
And don't quit with your pushups. 100/day should be comfortable by now, so maybe go to every other day with them, or vary the type of pushup to reduce the number. I did.
Looking back, the improbable election of 2016 proved a Rubicon moment. Once Trump crossed over the Rubicon, carried by his base of “crazies,” “irredeemables,” and “deplorables,” the die had been cast, and those who were fearful where America had been headed had no choice but to follow him through the river.
Either Trump will restore economic growth, national security, the melting pot, legality, and individual liberty or he will fail and we will go the way of Europe.
For now, there is no one else in the opposition standing in the way of radical progressivism. At best, some not actively promoting progressivism are only begging it to slow down a bit; at worst, the “I told you so” others wish for now progressivism to prevail to demonstrate what happens when the hoi polloi do not listen to their supposed betters.
Storm King, Breakneck Ridge, Tuckerman's Ravine, Mohonk's Labyrinth are just a few of New England's famous mountain day hikes. In Europe, they call such things "hill-walking" because they are not technical climbing even if you have to be on hands and knees at some points.
As we'd suspect, the shootings in Texas are being politicized by the anti-gun groups. It seems I can't turn around without some anti-gun nut calling for more laws, if not outright elimination of guns. As if that would actually stop these events. Of course, none of these people have called for elimination of autos or trucks, particularly after last week's events in NYC.
What we hear is 'but that was only 8 people killed by a truck while there were 58 in Vegas and 26 in Texas' as if scale is somehow meaningful. Frankly, I'm less concerned about numbers, and more concerned about means, motive and outcome. The assumption is that the means is a desire to use a weapon, so being concerned with autos is silly since few people use them as weapons. There is a massive flaw in this concept. Two flaws, really. First, they are used as weapons (Nice and London are just 2 recent examples, and ISIS has called for them to be used more...but I should add Charlottesville to the list) often enough to be of concern. Second, whether they are used as weapons or not, autos kill far more people every year than guns, and people aren't even trying. Imagine how the numbers would rise if they were. By any comparative measure, it's not even close. WE MUST BAN AUTOS AND TRUCKS!!
It's a class thing, not a policy thing. They would blackball Trump at their clubs, and so would I. But I prefer him as Pres to Hillary. I did not vote for somebody to be my friend.
Ten of Bird Dog's pals did the long loop (orange up, yellow down) on Storm King Mountain on Saturday. Actually, it wasn't the longest route which we would have preferred, but we missed the turn to make it 4 hrs. Would have been 12 people, but two spouses were under the weather. Perfect weather, high 40s to low-50s. Colder up top. There is some rock scrambling, just enough stair-climbing stretches when you can't catch your breath, and all of the trails are rocky but there are magnificent views of the Hudson River up top. It's just north of West Point, and we ran into some cadets doing a point-to-point over the mountains with 60-lb packs. Nice kids.
The route up that we took might be rated a 5/10 of 3/5 in some American systems, a 2-3/9 in the European system - but all rating systems vary and all are lousy. Descriptions are better. This hike quite manageable if not crippled or frail. Hiking poles definitely came in handy but our rule is always bring poles and especially if carrying a pack. We brought a drone and did some drone group pics from the top, and some drone panoramic views. We did it in 3 1/2 hours, but we didn't really stop for snacks or rests. Stopped only to fly the drone a couple of times, which is so cool to play with.
We saw migrating Broad Wing Hawks, a Merlin, an immature Bald Eagle (maybe a Golden - no binocs), and of course some migrating Turkey Vultures.
We finished up at Prima Pizza in Cornwall for great pizza and beer. Great choice. Try it.
Here's one of our team, perhaps familiar to our NYC Maggie's Urban Death Marches.
23:1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 23:2 "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; 23:3 therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. 23:4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. 23:5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. 23:6 They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, 23:7 and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. 23:8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. 23:9 And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father--the one in heaven. 23:10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. 23:11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 23:12 All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.
On a chilly evening in early March 1507, high in the Apennine Mountains of northern Italy, a group of cultivated gentlemen and ladies sit around the fire in the audience chamber of the Duchess of Urbino discussing the qualities of the perfect courtier.
Such is the setting of one of the most celebrated books of the Italian Renaissance, The Book of the Courtier (Il libro del cortegiano) by Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529), which was an international best-seller for a century after its first publication in 1528. The author, a minor nobleman from Mantua, was a humanistically-educated diplomat who served at the courts of northern Italy for most of his life, ending his career in Spain as Pope Clement VII’s nuncio to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V...
So sensitive to offended students, aren't they? As we keep trying to point out to the academic so-called grownups, these kids are manipulating you. And, as with 3 year-olds, the more you give in, the more they want.
Some of The Most 
Via Dan Mitchell's 
Photo: 
More animal 