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.
The Swamp is filled with incestuous power and money relationships, while the regular citizen wonders why the heck they aren't listening to them. Hence Trump.
... no one is supposed to notice that one government did interfere in the U.S. election — ours. For months and months, the Obama administration was spying on Trump and leaking hints of its investigation to the press in the hopes of helping Hillary, who, by the way, colluded in the effort. Yet even the ruthless partisan Adam Schiff can’t “definitively” cite a single proof of collusion on Trump’s part, as he reluctantly acknowledged on Sunday. Given all the spying and leaking on Trump, wouldn’t we know by now if they had any evidence of collusion?
To say that Trump in this matter is more sinned against than sinning is an understatement. He was the blatant victim of political espionage and criminal leaking by the Obama administration, then when he complained about it, he was smeared anew.
"Maggie Haberman had it. She will not run any articles that are critical of the Obama administration." "Eli Lake had it. He didn't want to run it and Bloomberg didn't want to run it because it vindicates Trump's claim that he had been spied upon. And Eli Lake is a 'never Trumper.' Bloomberg was a 'never Trump' publication."
"I'm showing you the politics of 'real journalism'. 'Real journalism' is that Bloomberg had it and the New York Times had it but they wouldn't run it because they don't want to run any stories that would make Obama look bad or that will vindicate Trump. They only want to run stories that make Trump look bad so that's why they sat on it."
"So where did I get the story? I didn't get it from the intelligence community. Everybody's trying to figure out where I got it from. I got it from somebody who works in one of those media companies. I have spies in every media organization. I got people in news rooms. I got it from a source within the news room who said 'Cernovich, they're sitting on this story, they're not going to run it, so you can run it'."
I’ve been with my spouse for almost 15 years. In those years, I’ve never been with anyone but the mother of my son. But that’s not because I am an especially good and true person. In fact, I am wholly in possession of an unimaginably filthy and mongrel mind. But I am also a dude who believes in guard-rails, as a buddy of mine once put it. I don’t believe in getting “in the moment” and then exercising will-power. I believe in avoiding ‘the moment.’ I believe in being absolutely clear with myself about why I am having a second drink, and why I am not; why I am going to a party, and why I am not. I believe that the battle is lost at Happy Hour, not at the hotel. I am not a ‘good man.’ But I am prepared to be an honorable one.
It's a a good piece about the apparent assumptions about basic human nature. Avoiding problematic temptation isn't just about Christianity though. It's also about maintaining self -respect and reputation. I believe that, with humans, sex, personal advantage, neediness, money, power, dominance, etc. are always at work but that there are many other more admirable things at work too. This is all quite obvious.
Outside Hollywood, public figures have to be especially alert to seductions by star-f-ers, blackmailers, users, and the like, so they have an extra character challenge. Happily being a non-public figure, I meet with women colleagues and clients all the time. Never had a problem with myself but I have had to awkwardly handle a few attempted seductions when I was younger.
It is no longer in fashion to talk about how women take advantage of men for their own purposes. Women have power of many kinds, but the current batch of Lefty women prefer the victim image.
... this reality denying madness we see going on with Progressives, has a late phase degeneracy vibe to it. Most of this nonsense is happening in well insulated compounds like the college campus. The Progs have total control so all of their worst instincts are free to run riot. It’s not some new phase in the long civil war, but the final burst of maniacal lunacy before there is the knock on the door and reality bursts in.
A friend asked me whether I have ever been depressed or considered suicide. I said of course I have, especially when I wasn't married by 23. But suicide? And miss a meal?
Sugarbush ski area has a community feeling with lots of regulars. They have an annual pond-skimming event usually early April or late March. You are supposed to wear a costume, and the trick is to get across the pond. I love things like this.
8:6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
8:7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law-- indeed it cannot,
8:8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
8:9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
8:10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
8:11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
So you drastically expand the definition of "sexual harassment," and then promote an ethic that says that all accusations must be believed, and then you're shocked that workplace men don't want to hang out with women?
Though the leaders of the US security services have denied the President’s allegation that they wire-tapped him – though they were careful not to deny that they mounted surveillance on him and his associates – the President’s claim that they did, in effect smoked them out.
Thus former DNI James Clapper admitted that he had seen no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians up to the point of his retirement on 20th January 2017, and former Acting CIA Director Michael Morell more recently has publicly trashed the whole story of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Possibly the single most important admission that no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians has been found came however from within the FBI itself, though it has gone almost completely unnoticed...
Heard from Axelrod on CNN (at the gym this morning): "Trump Administration paralyzed by deepening Russia scandals."
... attention to the Kremlin was bad news for Clinton. It invited scrutiny of the Clinton Foundation’s corrupt foreign dealings; the sulfurous interplay of Putin cronies, Bill Clinton’s lucrative speech racket, and Hillary’s biddable State Department that resulted in Russia’s acquisition of major U.S. uranium supplies; the embarrassing “Russian reset” whereby, during Clinton’s State Department stewardship, the supine Obama administration watched Putin capture territory in Eastern Europe and muscle into the Middle East, while arming and aligning with Iran; and the intriguing relationship between Podesta (the Clinton-campaign chairman and former Obama White House official) and Putin’s circle — specifically, a $35 million investment by a Putin-created venture capital firm, Rusano, into a small Massachusetts energy company, Joule Energy, just two months after Podesta joined Joule’s board.
Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, 'This is my own, my native land!' Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned, As home his footsteps he hath turned, From wandering on a foreign strand! If such there breathe, go, mark him well; For him no Minstrel raptures swell; High though his titles, proud his name, Boundless his wealth as wish can claim; Despite those titles, power, and pelf, The wretch, concentred all in self, Living, shall forfeit fair renown, And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust, from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.
The New Yorker: " Lewis’ fiercely considered intellectual reason makes the stuffy Oxford don intriguing company.”
My favorite line from the performance: "My Oxford friend Barfield was raised in an open-minded family... so naturally he knew nothing about Christianity." I also loved the part about his pre-university tutor W T Kirkpatrick. Some teacher, demanding as hell of intellectual consistency and precision. Also, his experiences in combat in WW l.
Lewis' conversion happened like Hemingway's line about how a character's bankruptcy happened, "Gradually, then suddenly."
It's at the Acorn on W 42nd St NYC. Cheap. McLean did another one man show of Screwtape a couple of years ago (which we saw. Also a tour de force). This is only 80 minutes. After, you can grab a bite or a cocktail at our favorite joint in that neck of the woods, The West Bank Cafe, right across the street. Cozy and great service.
When McLean finishes, he takes questions from the audience. Mrs. BD unmasked her intelligence with the best question.
The Acorn is in one of these new sorts of multiplex stage theaters that are emerging around NYC. It's a cool concept: four or so black box theaters on a few floors of an old converted industrial building, all sharing administration etc. Each small theater has its own name.
Also want to mention that all the brand-new high-rises around W 42nd are astonishing. That used to be a lousy area between the Garment District and Hell's Kitchen with a long windy hike to the subway. Every few months there is a new luxury high rise even though the general area is too busy and charmless in my opinion. The Big Apple draws ambitious, determined, and talented people like an apple draws fruit flies.
Imagine you are a young midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy processing the news that Jim Webb—Annapolis class of '68, recipient of the Navy Cross, former senator and secretary of the Navy, former member of the Annapolis faculty, bestselling novelist and acclaimed journalist—has been forced by political pressure to decline an award for distinguished alumni at your school this week...
I was happy to see that Steiner is still alive. He is one of the smart guys with a lot to say about everything, and it's a shame he doesn't have a website on which to toss out random thoughts and ideas.
"Revealing and exhilarating, A Long Saturday invites readers to pull up a chair and listen in on a conversation with a master." A Long Saturday: Conversations
How 1,600 People Went Missing from Our Public Lands 
Breastfeeding Is 