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.
I have been assigned - again - the task of running the bar for the fancy Christmas cocktail party of one of Mrs. BD's lady clubs next weekend. It's a formal, traditional sort of group, dressy but not black tie. The husbands are very fine and jolly guys most of whom I have known for years and are happy to pitch in with tending the bar for 1/2 hour when asked, so the manpower part is easy. The bar generally needs only 2 guys at a time.
There will be tons of excellent "heavy hors d'oevres", aka supper, with desserts - but that's not my department.
My past experience with this group, which will be around 100-120 people for 2-3 hrs, is that most ladies are light drinkers (a couple of glasses of wine or a couple of beers), most guys will do a bit more, and there is a subset can get cranky without vodka or Scotch. I want everybody to be happy but I like to keep it simple.
Thus my provisional shopping list:
Bag of limes and lemons A few bags of ice Case of Coke Case of Diet Coke 1 case of Perrier 2 cases of Harpoon beer 2 cases of some other beer 1 bottle of Johnny Walker 1 bottle of Grey Goose 1 bottle of Rum 1/2 case of Prosecco 1 1/2 cases of red (which one to be determined) 1 1/2 cases of Sauvignon Blanc
Does that sound right to you? Too much? A case of wine is about 50 glasses of wine. You hate to be stingy and run out of something basic but you don't really want leftovers either. As a rough guide, I use this party site.
Recently, returning from another World Youth Day in Kracow, Poland, the Pope made the fantastic and disturbing claim that “Catholic violence” is just as much a problem as “Islamic violence”—and this right after the brutal assassination of Father Jacques Hammel by Islamist terrorists in a church in northern France. The only example of “Catholic violence” that Pope Francis could come up with was that of a baptized young man who had killed his girlfriend for clearly non-religious reasons or motives.
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Cardinal Zen of Hong Kong recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the Pope has no understanding of Communist theory and practice, that he associates Communists exclusively with those activists and intellectuals imprisoned or killed by the military government during the “dirty war” in Argentina during the 1970’s. In a word, his vision is remarkably parochial and blind to the greatest evil of the twentieth century, a totalitarianism inspired by viciously anti-Christian ideology.
Almost every major initiative that Obama pushed has largely failed. Obamacare is a mess. He nearly doubled the national debt in eight years. Economic growth is at its slowest in decades. The reset with Russia, the Asian pivot, abruptly leaving Iraq, discounting the Islamic State, red lines in Syria, the Iran deal — all proved foreign-policy disasters.
Yet Obama has been quiet about one of the greatest economic revolutions in American history, one that has kept the U.S. economy afloat: a radical transformation from crippling energy dependency to veritable fossil-fuel independence. The United States has become the world’s greatest combined producer of coal, natural gas, and oil. It is poised to be an energy exporter to much of the world.
Stop using Republican interpretive frames like "entitlements" to describe the very things that benefit the hopeless people who just granted unfettered power to Paul Ryan and his fellow granny-starvers. If Republicans are intent on gutting Medicare, do not under any circumstances compromise to make such a fiasco slightly more palatable. This is the only way for the Democrats to recapture power at a scale significant enough to fundamentally transform the American political system. And when this moment finally presents itself, in 2022 or 2024 or 2028, Democrats must have an extraordinarily radical agenda ready to roll: A massive amnesty. Compulsory voting. The end of plurality-rule elections. A new Voting Rights Act. Sweeping criminal justice reform. Medicare for all. Higher education whose cost is truly nominal. A basic income for all Americans. A Marshall Plan for climate change.
I was working tonight, but I gather from Mrs. BD that his speech was wonderful and uplifting, humorous, half-scripted and half off the cuff, and neither Republican nor Democrat but just plain American. It takes a lot to impress Mrs. BD, especially if you are not a Conservative (which Trump is not).
It reminded some pundits of Teddy Roosevelt. Things are getting more and more interesting.
If you heard or watched that speech, what did you think?
Carrier leaves 1000 jobs in Indiana, Europe beefs up its defense spending to avoid Trump's ire, Obama admin announces it will not in its last days force its weakening of Israel, Trump is ahead of other incoming admins in naming Cabinet, our Defense Dept will be headed by a wise warrior and not wooses pushing social programs at the cost of battle readiness, and the wins keep coming. President-elect Trump isn't even inaugurated yet and the wins keep coming.
(In proselytizing) Protestants stick out. By and large, Catholics, like mainline Protestants, have been less aggressive in efforts to convert people; Evangelicals have been the most aggressive, most spectacularly the Pentecostals among them, who have probably experienced the most explosive growth of any religion in human history. (Most Pentecostals can be described as Evangelicals with two important additions—speaking in tongues and miraculous healing). Modern Pentecostalism is usually dated from the so-called Azusa Street Revival in 1906, when an African-American preacher named William Seymour started to preach in an abandoned stable in Los Angeles, gathered around him a wildly enthusiastic (and incidentally inter-racial) congregation, who exhibited all the Pentecostal addenda and sent out missionaries throughout the United States and then abroad. In 2016 the prestigious Pew Research Center estimated the worldwide number of Pentecostals as 600 million people. For a number of reasons, I think that this is probably an underestimate. Still, a rather impressive trajectory from Azusa Street! (Seymour must have been a remarkable man.)
In just 24 hrs, Trump scored twice. First, by trolling the media with one little tweet about flag-burning and, second, with the Carrier deal. That is The Trump that baffles pundits.
A master of reality TV. This admiration from an ardent Lefty Dem who is wrong about the federal tax inducements (maybe state deals, though):
He is a Thatcherite, a devout Catholic, and a political realist. The fact that he won the primaries by a two-third majority is but another confirmation of the gap between elitist narratives and popular feelings.
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Fillon is also an outsider because of his social conservatism and of his foreign policy realism. He is a practicing Catholic in a country where religion is mocked by the elites (Fillon is dubbed a “Catho,” the secularists’ catchword to deride church-goers). He is a faithful husband of 36 years and a father of five in a country where divorce, mistresses and affairs are de rigueur for politicians. And while he has vowed not to repeal abortion and gay marriage, he is an unabashed and proud conservative when it comes to family and to education.
They let the peasants vote. That's what happens sometimes. Peasants can be wise, politicians are mostly just clever.
Iran regime even more oppressive since nuclear deal, dissidents say
The Overhead Press (aka Military Press) stresses your shoulder muscles and your triceps, and stresses your abs for stabilization. I can not do these because of an old shoulder injury (skiing accident). I can do them on a machine with light weights, though, but even then it is painful.
What is left is the reality that the Democratic Party has been propped up by the personal likability of President Obama that pushed them past the finish line in 2008 and 2012. Now they are grappling with what is next in a post-Obama landscape.
I follow orders from distant galaxies, from the President, from my dead mother. The orders come from a barking dog. The TV. Email
That’s the low-grade stuff. I’m probably somewhat paranoid, a little on guard and on edge, at all times. Perhaps once a week (the tea invitation and the cocktail party) I experience paranoia severe enough that I make a note of it in my journal.
What exactly is the Democratic criticism so far of Trumpism? That he is jawboning companies not to lay off thousands of workers and leave the country? That he is barring revolving-door lobbying for five years? That he raised and spent too little on his amateurish campaign, had too few bundlers, and did not hire enough professional handlers? That he met with the press too much and mouthed off on the record? That too many working-class people voted for him and not enough of their supposed Silicon Valley, Wall Street, beltway, and Hollywood betters did? That conservative pundits had their columns fact-checked and researched by the Trump campaign? That the Republican party sabotaged his primary competitors to give him the nomination? Or that he wants impoverished miners to work again and export coal?
It only takes a couple of minutes to fix up some fresh cranberry sauce for chicken or game. Before stores run out, grab a few bags and just pack them in the freezer.
Throw a few handfuls of frozen berries in your Saturday morning pancake mix too. Dynamite.
Amusing piece about the class component of the recent election. I think Fred overstates it though, because Trump did collect the bulk of the Republican base everywhere. Admittedly, many country club Repubs held their noses and voted Trump. Holding one's nose is a normal part of voting.
"Budgeting" money, though - what's that? Today we have credit cards so we can get whatever we want whenever we want. Budgeting and living within one's means is obsolete, same as with government.
A beginner’s guide to
Boycott
Planning for retirement? 
It only takes a couple of minutes to fix up some fresh cranberry sauce for chicken or game. Before stores run out, grab a few bags and just pack them in the freezer.