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.
Spring is on the horizon up here. Snow piles are melting. Thoughts about the gardens appear.
I have always had a vegetable garden, as did my parents, as did my Grandpas. It's a guy thing mostly, symbolic providers only since WW2.
I had a couple of reasons for adding this hassle to my life: family tradition, tomatoes, and to teach and show my kids where food comes from. It is rewarding for kids to go out and pick a couple of cucumbers or peppers or summer squash, or a basket of beans to bring to the kitchen.
Except for tomatoes, in my view home gardening makes no sense unless you value your time at zero, which makes it pure hobby. Home-grown stuff, for the month or two it is available up here, may be marginally better, but truly marginally and often worse. And there are the bugs that eat everything.
If I were rational, I would stick with my fruit trees, tomatoes, figs, herbs, and rhubarb and forget the rest. Almost forgot my Mouse melons - they are cool. I gave up on raspberries because the birds ate them all. I gave up on the native blueberries too because they never thrived.
I have a pal who has a huge fenced and irrigated vegetable garden. Definitely one of his hobbies. He leaves bags of chard, peppers, and eggplants on my front porch. Much appreciated but I do not know where he finds the time.
With kids, definitely good to show them how to grow things, though. Kids love to dig and love to pick stuff. That's why I always grow some pumpkins.
With the inspiration of Mrs. BD (and my Mom), I have become more interested in flowering borders in recent years. Very rewarding and challenging without being edible, the bugs are no problem, and the hummingbirds and butterflies are good fun.
Do you enjoy weeding? I don't, but I enjoy the (fleeting) results. I use Preen on the flower beds, and it sort-of works for a while. I would rather take a long hike with Mrs. BD, or go to the city, or go fishing, or to the gym, than spend half a weekend day growing something I can pick up at the market for 99 cents.
Go ahead and argue with me -
Photo is a Rhubarb patch. I love rhubarb. You can even munch the stalks raw, and it never fails to come up strong. You often find a cute snake curled up in there, which makes it fun. It's a crop you can count on and do not have to do anything for other than throw a little manure or fertilizer on it in April. Do not bite into the Garter Snake because it will piss him off.
The old adage about giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish has been updated by a reader: Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and French fries! Moreover, some politician who wants his vote will declare all these things to be among his 'basic rights.'
Details to be posted soon. You can contact us via the comments section below. We'll probably begin near Lincoln Center and head south.
Save the date if you are interested in joining us, rain or shine. Details to be announced soon but it will be a west side story. It will be in Manhattan again, maybe Brooklyn next time. Or maybe Columbia to the Cloisters next time.
We had good folks from all over the country joining us last year, around 30 of us. It was jolly to meet people, but it is a hike and not a cocktail party. We figure 8-9 miles perhaps because of all of the meandering to catch the essential sights, like Clement Moore's church and the Flower District.
There will be bathroom breaks (for all genders) and a snack and beer break somewhere fun and cheap. As usual, Bulldog will lead us and I will try to shepherd.
Sweden will ´never go back´ to the days of mass immigration after failed asylum seeker launched Friday´s truck attack in Stockholm, says the country´s shell-shocked PM
The Passover Seder, in which we follow a strict order of prayers and foods, is the Jewish way of remembering from whence we came from slavery into freedom. The question has been debated among Judaism's leading scholars whether it is more important to learn the rules of Passover or the lessons of Passover. It is largely a false dichotomy. Following the Seder rules are an act of devotion and discipline to continue the memory of our roots. The memory of our roots, however, are not just about a history but a future. In every generation we are to remember and feel the experience of the Divine liberation, and that since then there have been numerous efforts to eradicate us so it is important to build solidarity and faith for survival.
The narrative is about what the past tells us for our future. The narrative is meant to be a call to discuss and think about freedom, slavery, choice, and destiny. The Exodus is a call to revolutionary hope, rather than acceding to slavery and hardship. Because of retaining the memory of the seemingly impossible liberation, as if we had ourselves experienced it, it provides the hope and belief that the days to come will not necessarily be like today, if we work and fight for a better tomorrow. That's why the Seder ends with the affirmation of next year being in Jerusalem, of the ingathering in peace, safety and justice.
The Passover Seder is a ritual meal that serves our vision of improving our lives and world.
There's a third element that is important in Judaism: enjoying ourselves so that our connectedness is emotionally felt and ongoing via teaching in an enjoyable way. With that, I give you the latest "uptown" Passover narrative:
Here's a new 2017 description of a traditional East European Passover Seder. But, Jews have been scattered all about the Earth. Here's about those delectable foods brought to the Passover table.
A little background on the medical studies you read about. Everybody knows now that most are misleading if not entirely in error: ACSH Explains Epidemiology
26:14 Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests
26:15 and said, "What will you give me if I betray him to you?" They paid him thirty pieces of silver.
26:16 And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.
26:17 On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?"
26:18 He said, "Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, 'The Teacher says, My time is near; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.'"
26:19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover meal.
26:20 When it was evening, he took his place with the twelve;
26:21 and while they were eating, he said, "Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me."
26:22 And they became greatly distressed and began to say to him one after another, "Surely not I, Lord?"
26:23 He answered, "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me.
26:24 The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born."
26:25 Judas, who betrayed him, said, "Surely not I, Rabbi?" He replied, "You have said so."
26:26 While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body."
26:27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you;
26:28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
26:29 I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."
26:30 When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
26:31 Then Jesus said to them, "You will all become deserters because of me this night; for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'
26:32 But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee."
26:33 Peter said to him, "Though all become deserters because of you, I will never desert you."
26:34 Jesus said to him, "Truly I tell you, this very night, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times."
The only good thing Ikea sells is Loganberry Jam. Excellent stuff. Have not heard of child sex slaves for sale there yet, but with Sweden going the way it is going, who knows what the future holds for Ikea?
The United States has no interest in Syria. There are no good guys to back. There’s no “solution” to what ails that part of the world, short of another flood. Syria is a mess because it is full of Syrians. The only sane policy is to make sure it remains full of Syrians. Let them kill each other there, not in Paris or Portland. If the Russians want to build their pipeline there and pay the price for it, good for them. If the Saudis want to stop them, best of luck with it. This is not an American problem. It is their problem. Let them own it.
And few people are entirely satisfied with their souls and minds either. Often, we make reasonable efforts to work on all of those things, but at what point do our goals become crazy? If I need to look like Melania, I am crazy. If I need to look like a man, I am double-crazy and should want help separating fantasy from reality.
Fortunately in the USA it is rare that Psychiatric help can be forced, but it distresses me when people seem to endorse double-crazy as normal. But, as I say, in a free country you are free to be crazy, and free to get help with it if you want to. Lots of people are half-crazy, crazy, and double-crazy, but I see no need for the culture to pretend to deny that reality. Or any other reality.
It is interesting to me that the Psychiatric officialdom is expanding the list of "disorders" to the point that nobody can keep track of them anymore, at the same time that the elite culture is normalizing other ones. Something strange is going on on both sides.
It's unclear what in particular they wish to resist about Washington, but it is quite clear that they wish to support gay Palestinians. Pathetic. And to build bridges between gay American blacks and gay Palestinians to change America. Good luck with that. As if there were any gay Palestinians left anyway.
I am afraid that they have no idea what this sort of thing sounds like to ordinary Americans. It sounds psychotic, out of reality, worse than Portlandia.
Exactly where is Syria? What is it? Why should I care? Well, I do care about any people who are being tortured, abused, killed, etc., but that is the way of much of the world. It pains me terribly and only increases my gratitude for living in civilization. Still, I had hopes that Trump would stay out of the Middle East messes and leave it to others. I guess not.
And, for the 1000th time, the UN proves itself useless for its supposed purpose. Why do we bother with it?
Their findings are mainly gross-anatomical, but the connectome mapping goes further. Unsurprisingly, there is some male-female overlap in this effort to define structural sex differences. Anyway, it would be news if no differences were seen in male and female brains.
An historian seeks to 'disprove' the 'myth' of Social Security being a Ponzi scheme. His assessment? The fact that is has worked for almost 80 years. Just because it's operated for 80 years doesn't mean it's not a Ponzi scheme. Ponzi didn't last that long because his scheme just didn't force everyone into it. In addition, while the math indeed proves SocSec will go broke (to me, proof of a Ponzi scheme is that the investment, under constant conditions, will go broke eventually), what makes it a non-Ponzi is that government just has to raise taxes!
Brilliant! And all Ponzi had to do was get more people to join and charge them more as he got closer to failure!
Sorry, any pay-as-you-go system which has regular payouts in perpetuity and no clear way to link dollars in to dollars out in the future, and without a clear method of investment and growth, is a Ponzi Scheme. Saying government bonds fulfills the method of investment is like saying investing in the next big bank heist is an investment. You're relying on coerced collections rather than actual organic progress and growth.
I see something similar unfolding now as during the Iran deal. Whether Rhodes was or is involved is not clear, though he has been particularly active in attacking the Trump administration. But the methodology is the same, a fact-free narrative endlessly parroted by the media in a circular fashion so that media reporting on what other media are saying creates an endless cycle of news stories about news stories.
It’s worth noting that while the media shows keen interest in building up the anti-Trump collusion narrative, it seems highly motivated to tear down the improper surveillance narrative asserted by Congressman Devin Nunes and others. The media worries more about whether Trump’s tweets about “wiretapping” were accurate than whether the powers of our spy agencies were abused for political purposes, and whether the Obama administration deliberately tried to undermine the incoming president.
This is a rant. If you think government works for the people, you may not want to read this. If you know government is essentially a means for legal theft, read on. I have just gone through a mind-numbing process which has left me absolutely cold and more determinedly Libertarian. Shrink the government, and shrink it fast. Don't worry about the process. Just time to get rid of the stupid, inefficient and idiotic things it does.
When my son was born, a friend bought a single share of Disney stock for him. Today, that would be slightly more than 3 (3.04) shares. At today's price, that represents $339.
When my son graduated from college, he began to pull together all his savings bonds, gifts, and various financial instruments to see what was at his disposal. Sadly, he couldn't get the stock. It had been taken by the state of NJ in 2012. Presumably because the corporation had had no contact with me for over 5 years. Which is strange. I contacted the corporate offices and they had my name, address, email, and phone number. All of the correct information.
I never received any notifications of escheatment, never received any kind of warning from the shareholder office or the state.
What is even more galling is what happened after escheatment. NJ law stipulates after 1 year any financial instruments are to be sold. This meant the state was now holding about $220 in my son's unclaimed property, rather than the stock itself.
It's amazing to me that the state will have no problem finding me in 10 days to take my taxes. But when they take my property, they won't lift a finger to find me.
In fact, that's literally what the two brainless bureaucrats at Unclaimed Property Administration said to me. The state does nothing, outside of advertise in newspapers and the web, to contact people whose property they are holding. Here's the kicker. I was told the stock was sold in 2013, but the advertisement wasn't made until 2014. In other words, they held it for 2 years before even letting the world know they held it. So there was no way we were getting the stock back.
I can point fingers at the corporate shareholder office for not trying hard enough. They certainly didn't. But they would, presumably, keep trying unless the law steps in. The law did, in fact, step in and once its process started, nothing was done to assist in 'finding' me. The state, which presumably has greater resources to contact me when they want my taxes, didn't lift a finger to find me. The response from the unclaimed property division is that they have no relationship with the tax division. Of course not. That would actually require intelligence.
My son is only out $110, so this isn't the end of the world. As a big picture example of how useless government is, though - this is a classic example.
Spring is on the horizon up here. Snow piles are melting. Thoughts about the gardens appear. 
Details to be posted soon. You can contact us via the comments section below. We'll probably begin near Lincoln Center and head south.
Why Are So Many People 
Preparing adult workers 
“Sex Traffickers at Ikea?” 
As Steyn says,