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.
Qualifications to run for President of the US? Just age and birth citizenship, I believe. In my view, Hillary! is disqualified on moral, ethical, and responsibility grounds. Trump is more qualified than Obama had been, by being an executive, entrepreneur, and by having lots of real life experience.
As I have said many times here, few people care anymore about Hillary's flaws. They are assumed, and she and Bill are somewhat admired for their handling of their countless errors of morality, ethics, and judgement. Having the wind of the media at your back never hurts.
I want one. I used to think they were silly, but now I realize that they are nothing but a permanent campfire. People love to assemble around them, the smoke keeps bugs away, and they are great for burning marshmallows.
And if you go pagan, you can put burnt offerings on it too. It won't hold an ox, but perhaps a goat or unblemished lamb.
I am planning to double the size of our cramped bluestone patio and already know where I want the fire.
This excellent specialty lumber place on Cape Cod, Stonewood, will deliver the cut stone on a pallet with the insert, ready for simple assembly. No mortar.
The Yankee State (CT) was once one of the most prosperous places on the planet, and until 1991 it had no income tax. Its other key attribute was its proximity to high-tax, anti-business New York. But over the last 25 years, Connecticut has been in a free-fall as it has raised its income tax four times, leading to towering deficits.
The joke now in Connecticut is: Will the last person in the state please turn out the lights? As Connecticut depopulates, there may come a time when one super-rich person is left living in a Greenwich mansion who is highly educated and with three patents to his name, and the Times can say: Look how prosperous and highly educated Connecticut is.
By the way, a 2014 poll found that 49% of Connecticut residents say they want to leave the state — second only to Illinois at 50%. The exodus is on: 156,057 people have left Connecticut since 1992, taking $9.5 billion in income with them. As people in Fort Lauderdale and Naples, Fla., will tell you, it seems like every third person here is from Connecticut.
Our view is that the best measure of where the future is happening is to look at where people and businesses are moving to and where they are leaving — voting with their feet. In the day, East Germans fled to West Germany, not the other way around. This rapid migration, more than any distorted statistic that the USSR could cook up, was evidence that free-market capitalism was superior to communism.
Rutenberg recycles one of the progressive media’s most cherished self-justifying myths, that there really is an “objective” journalism they supposedly practice. Such a notion has seldom existed in American history, and has especially been scarce since the 1960s, when activist journalism came out of the closet with its ideological coverage of Vietnam and then Watergate, all perfumed with the spurious claim to journalistic integrity and public service.
The truth is, journalism has been a form of political activism long before Jim Rutenberg noticed. Orville Schell, dean of the prestigious UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism from 1996-2006, was not shy about embracing this role for journalism: “In a democracy,” Schell wrote over a decade ago, “indeed in any intelligent society, the media and politicians have to lead. The media should be introducing us to new things, interesting things, things we don’t already know about; helping us change our minds or make up our minds, not just pandering to lowest-denominator wisdom.”
For overseas travel, we tend to travel heavy. If we're on ships and boats, or renting a car, it's pretty easy to travel heavy except when banging around airports.
We travel heavy because we do so many different things, from dressed-up to rough hiking, and everything in-between. We are partial to staying in tenutas in the countryside, and boutique hotels in town where they have overnight laundry service. Never really tried traveling light since our youth.
For our upcoming trip, we decided it made more sense to forget the Costco International car rental (which we highly recommend) and just to train it between cities even though I enjoy driving in Europe and getting lost usually leads to interesting adventures.
Traveling light means some form of carry-on-sized luggage, and an additional bag of stuff to hand-carry for which I usually use a large LL Bean tote bag containing reading stuff, a smaller day bag or briefcase that I stuff in there, camera, etc. Airlines never seem to mind that bag. I don't bother with laptop for recreation travel.
So my airplane plan is to wear the blazer and tie (which I like to wear traveling anyway because you get treated better if you look good), my largest hiking shoes, maybe a light jacket, wear the hat, etc. and to put other stuff in a carry-on.
But what sort? Gotta figure on needing a couple of dress shirts, nice shoes, polo shirts, toiletries, a few pairs of trousers, etc. No rain gear or sweater needed on this trip.
Good for her, but you do not need to go to Appalachia to find Charles Murray's Fishtowns. There is lots of dysfunction out there, and many people lacking in "Social Capital" and "Cultural Capital". So much, in fact, that the Fishtown life might be a sort of normal. The Belmonts might be exceptions, not normal.
Leading a high-functioning, disciplined, and productive life is far more difficult that it can appear. When dependency becomes normalized, behavioral regression and immaturity are further enabled.
America has never been a classless society. From the beginning, rich and poor have usually lived in different parts of town, gone to different churches, and had somewhat different manners and mores. It is not the existence of classes that is new, but the emergence of classes that diverge on core behaviors and values—classes that barely recognize their underlying American kinship.
14:25 Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them,
14:26 "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.
14:27 Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
14:28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it?
14:29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him,
14:30 saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'
14:31 Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand?
14:32 If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.
14:33 So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.
"The American Fotoplayer is a type of instrument that was specially designed to make music and sound effects for silent films. Here, Joe Rinaudo shows off all the (literal) bells and whistles that make this such an impressive piece of machinery."
The full-body fitness exercise category, combining some resistance with cardio, contains my favorite Friday tortures. They do not build strength so much as build functional fitness and endurance. Best of all, you feel great when it's done. Well, maybe an hour later.
(We forgot to include isometrics in our categories. That's more for Yogurt Yoga, but Planks are isometric)
An example of my Friday mega-set would be something like this, with no break between exercises:
3-minute Elliptical warm-up to start 1 set of high-rep bench press to failure for secondary warm-up
Burpees, 10-20 Heavy ball smashes, 10-20 Lunges with heavy hands, 2 walks Jumping Jacks or Jump Rope Squats with and without light military lifts, 20 Dips High step ups, lots Heavy Ropes Farmer's Walk, 4 walks Calf lifts, 50 with weights Mountain Climber Planks or any other type of plank, 1-2 minutes each Ball wall slams 30-second Sprints
Rinse and repeat italicized 3-4X as time permits.
Then 5 minutes stair machine to finish up, to painfully drain the last drop of energy from your body
I think I have more power, endurance, and general fitness than I have had since I was 18. A body will respond to demand, slowly. That is useful and feels alive. I do one day of mostly upper body resistance, one day of mostly back and lower resistance, one day of mostly total-body calisthenic destruction, and 2 or 3 days of intense cardio for just an efficient and exhausting 1/2 hr. I do all of it at 5 am. My trainer is a sadistic Nazi monster Ohio farm boy. A real knowledgeable pro, cheerful and demanding, precise about form and technique.
Here are some tough, fun, medicine ball calisthenics:
Three statistician hunters see a deer. First one shoots, 3 yards to the left. Second one shoots, 3 yards to the right. Third one exclaims "We got him!"
I want one. I used to think they were silly, but now I realize that they are nothing but a permanent campfire. People love to assemble around them, the smoke keeps bugs away, and they are great for burning marshmallows.
A salute to Labor
Government Workers Now 
How people died 100+ years ago, 