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.
Media trying to create a Jew-scaring narrative. MSM is trying to scare the heck out of everybody now with freshly-minted narratives and, yes, fake news. It used to be called Yellow Journalism.
Their medical care costs too much? And their Social Security? 25% of Medicare costs are during the final year of life, so please, people, find a way to die before your last year for the greater good of society and the federal debt. It's very European too.
Not intending to go full Godwin, but the Nazis had lots of bioethicists, didn't they? And Margaret Sanger too. When ethicists, or people in the medical fields in general, begin thinking about "the greater good" instead of individuals, our culture is in trouble.
From the utilitarian, practical standpoint of the State, the economically-unproductive or parastic should go away. Maybe we should ban bioethicists due to their lack of souls.
Back to Drudge for more headlines; it offers a daily survey of events that are contra naturam. … Breitbart is also good, but for my tastes, too engagé. … Maggie’s Farm is for the connoisseurs. … They help you keep up with the Devil’s agenda.
1984 author George Orwell gives us perspective from the past. In a piece entitled “Looking Back on the Spanish War”, in the periodical New Road, (1943), Orwell wrote about the controlling techniques used by the Communists in the Spanish Civil War: “If the Leader says of such and such an event, ‘It never happened’—well, it never happened. If he says that two and two are five—well, two and two are five. This prospect frightens me much more than bombs…”
We are witnessing the second great era of speech repression in academia, the first coming during the “culture wars” of the late 1980s and early ’90s. One force behind the new wave is a theory of truth, or a picture of reality, developed the first time around. This theory, which we might call “linguistic constructivism,” holds that we don’t merely describe or represent the world in language; language creates the world and ourselves. A favorite slogan of our moment, “Words have power,” reflects that view.
Yes, it is interesting. I remember dorm room bull sessions, often pot-smoke- filled, on such topics. Also, beer cans, pizza boxes, Haagen Dasz. Very difficult to separate the social construction of reality from propaganda.
Anyway, this is all kid stuff. Reality is when you stub your toe on a rock and enlightenment occurs.
"Even gender-neutral pronouns don’t feel as if they fit me. I feel no identity or closeness with any pronouns I’ve come across. What describes me is my name."
Britain, along with France and Germany the linchpin of the 28-nation EU, has opted to leave rather than continue living under the arbitrary, unelected bureaucracy that now runs Europe. A number of other countries — including France, Greece and Italy — are now talking about exit.
All the good intentions of its creation have been buried under a blizzard of regulations, paperwork and quasi-laws intended to definitively write an end to the idea of the nation-state. Right now, however, in country after country, people are getting sick of the EU.
Closely examining how the 11 percent decline of middle-income families was distributed between the upper- and lower-income categories, he points out that not only did 7 percent move into the upper-income group, but that Hispanic immigrants accounted for three-quarters of the 4 percent that enlarged the lower-income category. Absent the influx of lower-skilled immigrants between 1971 and 2015, the share of middle-class households in the American population would have experienced only a 1 percent shift downward at the same time as the number of upper-income families increased by 7 percent. In other words, middle-class people did not so much experience a downward shift as immigrants enlarged the data set. And for many if not most of these immigrants, gaining a foothold in the lower-income group represented a significant economic step upward compared to their position before coming to the United States.
Something similar has happened with education, I think.
So medical "insurance" is no longer true insurance except at the catastrophic end. If the old model was Major Medical insurance against catastrophe, the new model is more of a medical payment system. That has changed everything.
In many areas, there is no limit on Snow Goose hunting. Gosh, I have had a few times in Manitoba when they came into our field like a blizzard. Just before dawn, before it's legal to fire your shotgun, a few begin descending on you like big moths in the dark but when dawn breaks they come in by the hundreds or even thousands.
It is thrilling.
I recall one amusing moment when one flew out of the back of the truck. I guess he was only grazed and escaped his doom.
I don't have a good photo of me with my buddies with a pile of Snow Geese. It's just as well because it can look like an unsporting massacre. I have chowed down on plenty of them, and used them in Cassoulet too. The only issue is that the breast meat can be tough unless prepared properly. That applies to all wild geese including the delicious Canada Goose.
It's "Kwik-Trip - A Revolution in Travel." Who would not like to push a button on your phone and be transported near your favorite restaurant in Epernay for luncheon or dinner, and, after dinner, stroll around town until ready to be transported back to your home?
Our killer, but not entirely original, idea is a high-tech travel app which will only require an in-home transporter dome and transporter domes located in desirable travel and dining locations, but this could eventually be scaled to travel anywhere we can build the domes. We haven't worked out all of the bio-engineering details yet because of the molecule issues, which is why we need investors. If possible, we'd like to avoid that Cinderella pressure to get back home.
Molecular transport talents do not come cheap and one of the challenges is the time frame. Molecular patterns change over hours, and transport reassembly accuracy is important to most people. Right now, we feel three hours (including a nice dinner) is about all our models can handle. We have good computer models.
What's the elevator pitch? It's Time and Hassle. It is not very expensive to fly to Paris and take the train to Epernay, and then hike through the charming area to your restaurant, but who has time for that if all you want is a nice lunch with a pal, your spouse, or business associates? And do you really want to mess with the Paris airports? They suck big time.
We are looking for visionary investors to get in on the ground floor who have deep pockets, a sense of adventure, and tolerance for risk and the opportunity for long-term profitability. We are also considering government Green grants to support our early development, and have received some verbal interest from many Western governments as our app could eventually eliminate the need for carbon air travel. On request, we can provide our provisional business plan to credible investors.
Bob Dylan Discusses Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Iggy Pop, Amy Winehouse & New 'Triplicate' Album In Rare Interview. A quote:
Did a young Dylan feel like rock and roll was a new thing, or just an extension of Ellington's groove?
"Rock and roll was indeed an extension of what was going on – the big swinging bands – Ray Noble, Will Bradley, Glenn Miller, I listened to that music before I heard Elvis Presley. But rock and roll was high energy, explosive and cut down," says Dylan in the most extensive answer of the 8,000-word interview. "It was skeleton music, came out of the darkness and rode in on the atom bomb and the artists were star headed like mystical Gods. Rhythm and blues, country and western, bluegrass and gospel were always there – but it was compartmentalized – it was great but it wasn’t dangerous. Rock and roll was a dangerous weapon, chrome plated, it exploded like the speed of light, it reflected the times, especially the presence of the atomic bomb which had preceded it by several years. Back then people feared the end of time. The big showdown between capitalism and communism was on the horizon. Rock and roll made you oblivious to the fear, busted down the barriers that race and religion, ideologies put up. We lived under a death cloud; the air was radioactive. There was no tomorrow, any day it could all be over, life was cheap. That was the feeling at the time and I’m not exaggerating."
With all the many problems facing the biosphere (man being its parasite in chief), the arrival in the Dutch parliament of the Party for the Animals is a small step forward—but it is not enough. Everyone knows (or ought to know) that man could not live for a day, for a second, without bacteria. I therefore hope and expect before the end of my life to see the emergence of a Bacterial Liberation Front, to save bacteria from the ravages of antibiotics.
On a summer day in the month of May a burly bum came hiking Down a shady lane through the sugar cane, he was looking for his liking. As he roamed along he sang a song of the land of milk and honey Where a bum can stay for many a day, and he won't need any money
Refrain: Oh the buzzin' of the bees in the cigarette trees near the soda water fountain, At the lemonade springs where the bluebird sings on the Big Rock Candy Mountain
There's a lake of gin we can both jump in, and the handouts grow on bushes In the new-mown hay we can sleep all day, and the bars all have free lunches Where the mail train stops and there ain't no cops, and the folks are tender-hearted Where you never change your socks and you never throw rocks, And your hair is never parted
Oh, a farmer and his son, they were on the run, to the hay field they were bounding Said the bum to the son, "Why don't you come to the big rock candy mountains?" So the very next day they hiked away, the mileposts they were counting But they never arrived at the lemonade tide, on the Big Rock Candy Mountains
One evening as the sun went down and the jungle fires were burning, Down the track came a hobo hiking, and he said "Boys, I'm not turning." "I'm heading for a land that's far away beside the crystal fountains;" "So come with me, we'll go and see the Big Rock Candy Mountains."
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains, there's a land that's fair and bright, The handouts grow on bushes and you sleep out every night Where the boxcars all are empty and the sun shines every day On the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees, The lemonade springs where the bluebird sings In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains, all the cops have wooden legs And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth and the hens lay soft-boiled eggs The farmer's trees are full of fruit and the barns are full of hay Oh I'm bound to go where there ain't no snow Where the rain don't fall, the wind don't blow In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains, you never change your socks And little streams of alcohol come a-trickling down the rocks The brakemen have to tip their hats and the railroad bulls are blind There's a lake of stew and of whiskey too, And you can paddle all around 'em in a big canoe In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains the jails are made of tin, And you can walk right out again as soon as you are in There ain't no short-handled shovels, no axes, saws or picks, I'm a-goin' to stay where you sleep all day Where they hung the jerk that invented work In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.
This song was written and performed by Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock in the 1920s. The only other hobo/bum/homeless song that competes with this one is Roger Miller's country version of King of the Road - not as good as this song, though.
Apparently Jews and Christians are fair game in the West, but not scary Muslims. Why is that?
I will disparage such monsters as much as I want. In fact, as polite a person as I try to be, I will disparage anybody any time I want to. That is part of being a free person. Sad that Canadians might be too nice to be free. Can they see that enforced "nice" might not be a good plan?
"Athleticism" is a measure of physical functionality or functionalities, but everybody's graph has a different shape.
Genius Trainer and I were watching some NCAA reruns on TV while I was resting between deadlift sets, and we talked about the role of "quickness" in basketball. We separated the dancelike but predatory quicksilver moves in elite basketball players from speed, which is an entirely different quality, and proceeded to break down athleticism into components (some more valuable for some endeavors, some for others) during other between-set rests as we worked the weight up for 5 sets.
We came up with quite a few: power (= strengthXspeed), pure strength, speed (running speed), agility (rapid precision of bodily position. balance, and posture), quickness (of instant movement, acceleration/deceleration and directional changes), explosiveness (power bursts), situational awareness (mental), overall physical endurance, stability, mobility, flexibility, and all kinds of eye-hand and other sorts of coordination talents which are difficult to put into words.
I don't watch basketball but I used to enjoy playing it quite a bit in high school because it took a lot of movement and total concentration, despite basically sucking at it. Like everything in life, you can train all of these things but biology is foundational and you can't shine sh-t.
Elite basketball players, it seems to me, have the largest collection of athletic components.
Legend and anthropology hold that some American Indian cultures believed that, if you rescued somebody, saved somebody's life, or prevented them from disaster, you were indebted to them forever. That is, the saver was beholden to the saved.
My fantasy is that the issue is that you postponed their arrival to the Happy Hunting Grounds.
In Western culture we tend to see it the other way around because of a Christian foundation, or because we want to see this life as heaven (?), but as an American physician who works for nobody - not government, not insurance, not a hospital - except my patients, I see it both ways. If I get you out of big trouble, you sort of own me as long as you want to.
I was reading pretty well at 5 with phonics. Mom taught me to read. Expecting school to teach a kid to read is like expecting government to be your doctor.
... it appears that at least one person has perjured himself over this and that one person is FBI Director Comey. There’s no way to square his testimony with these new revelations. The best he can do is split hairs and claim he was not part of the spying effort. Of course, there’s no way to touch him as he runs the FBI. In fact, there’s no way to investigate any of the intelligence organizations. This is the point where many of the robot historians of the future will say the American political class murdered itself.
As long as people are still free to criticize Christianity, I'm cool. Christianity is used to it. Christian guy or gal might feel hurt or insulted, but all they will actually do is to throw in a prayer for your soul. They won't scare the crap out of you the way the Canadians are askeered of their Muslims.
‘No European…can walk safely on the streets,’ Turkey’s Islamist President Erdogan Warns Europe
Gwynnie's photo of overhead Snows 
How 
In many areas, there is no limit on Snow Goose hunting. Gosh, I have had a few times in Manitoba when they came into our field like a blizzard. Just before dawn, before it's legal to fire your shotgun, a few begin descending on you like big moths in the dark but when dawn breaks they come in by the hundreds or even thousands. 
Bob Dylan Discusses Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Iggy Pop, Amy Winehouse & New 'Triplicate' Album
Participating In Your Office’s March Madness Pool
On a summer day in the month of May a burly bum came hiking