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.
Daughters and I are grilling lunch today for 3 moms in the family. Gave birth so God bless 'em.
Grilled things: eggplant, mixed-colored bell peppers, yellow squash, onions, portobello mushrooms, asparagus. Marinate with oil & vinegar, garlic, and herbs, salt and pepper and toss em on the fire. I use very large chunks or slices. That's Italian, or really more like Sicilian. To keep it traditional, I always throw some wood on top of the charcoal. I close the grill top so they cook before they burn, but I do like them a bit burnt.
London Broil, rare. My new Victorinox serrated meat knife can slice this thin enough to eat happily. 1/4-inch-or- less slices. Otherwise, I find London Broil inedible, meat-flavored chewing gum.
Mixed salad with walnuts and dried cranberries.
Mixed berries with creme fraiche (or sour cream, no difference really) for dessert
1:1 In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning
1:2 until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.
1:3 After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
1:4 While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. "This," he said, "is what you have heard from me;
1:5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
1:6 So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?"
1:7 He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.
1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
1:9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
1:10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them.
1:11 They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."
Unfinished artwork is great fun to look at. It's as much fun as watching a Youtube of craftsmen or chefs at work - or the late lamented Bob Ross' painting show.
Often, a finished product reveals little of what went into its production. It is concealed.
Mrs. BD and I saw the show at the Met's new satellite gallery a few weeks ago. Worth a trip. You can travel the world, but olde NYC right here in little olde USA remains the premier fine art venue in the world. The tourists know that.
Let's assume that few people in the Western world are content to be "who they are naturally," ie without improving themselves by effort or training.
Thus many women wish to behave in a ladylike fashion, many men in a gentlemanly fashion. In the West, people have something we term an "ego ideal" to which they aspire. The ignorant wish to be more knowledgeable, the fearful wish to be more courageous, the cool-hearted wish to be warmer, the weak to be stronger, the unmannerly or boorish to be more civil or refined, the unpopular to be more engaging and interesting. Not all, but many.
Many people work on these aspirations through example or from books, etc. People do this because nobody's "natural self" is of much value or interest to others.
Ego ideals are, in part, culturally-defined. If a man's ego ideal is to be a tough wise guy with years of jail time, he studies that. If Bill Clinton's trailer park gals wish to learn charm and refinement, they read Emily Post or the modern equivalent.
Unless you are a genius, nobody cares much about your "authenticity." That is for your diary or your analyst but please spare the rest of us.
My point here is not really about becoming ladylike, however defined. It is that it takes practice, and some failure, to try to become who you want to be.
Not just for the Derby. This source, which explains why we can thank the Arabs for the basis of this refreshing adult beverage along with inventing Algebra, notes:
Mint Julep first appeared in print in 1803 described as a "dram of spirituous liquor that has mint in it, taken by Virginians in the morning."
A breakfast tonic to tone ye olde brain. Healthy herbs. You can use either homemade sugar syrup or confectioner's sugar. Here's one. Use a chilled julep cup or collins glass. I grow a mint called "Kentucky Mint" which is quite intense, but close to Spearmint, just for this purpose, but I haven't made a batch in years. I should. Unlike Southern families, I do not own any heirloom Julep Cups. I am tempted by these on eBay ($500 for a pair). Nice Sterling cups seem to run between $100 to $1000 apiece. I am not in the market for these right now.
No One Has A Right To A Bathroom - If
the Obama administration is going to demand toilets be open to all
comers, the McDonald’s in Chinatown has some ‘splaining to do.
A Luxurious Adventure Vacation in a Place You’d Never Expect - Israel’s Negev Desert isn’t just home to Ramon Crater, a spectacular, otherworldly playground for biking and hiking, but it’s also where you’ll find one of the country’s most pampering resorts
For the last three decades, at least, it has been a closed system with no real competition. Both sides debated how much socialism and cultural Marxism they would inflict on the country. The Left would open the debate at 10 and the Right would offer 5 and they would settle in between. That’s how we went from telling AIDS jokes to jailing Christian bakers in the blink of eye. There was never a competition.
It's Folk with Rock-Blues drooped over it. That's Mike Bloomfield on lead guitar. Cool guitar, more flashy I think than the suave Robbie Robertson. Bob, always in motion, never stagnant, never staying put. Good stuff. 1965.
Mayor Giuliani cleaned Times Square of the crime and a lot of the porn, but left the gritty, raucous, random parts intact. Good choice.
Times Square is the colorful, crowded, tacky, lively tourist center of the city and the heart of the Broadway theater district. NYC is not Florence - a small antique town. Times Square will never be the Piazza del Duomo, thank goodness.
John Tierny (with whom I often agree) has another vision: Reimagining Times Square. He is being a party-pooper.
OK, but why are we still measuring things by race and ethnicity? Does it really matter? People are individuals. Why not measure people by height instead, or shoe size? Or, with the current meme, hand size?
Forget "gender," skin tone, ethnic background, etc. and just evaluate people on their individual strengths and character. How hard would that be? I am sick and tired of this ethnic-racial-gender-class neo-Marxist analysis which tries to put everybody in some labeled box based on the most trivial and superficial characteristics.
We all know that Jews and Asians statistically out-perform academically, and that African-Americans outperform in many athletics. So what? Many blacks are klutzes and intellectually-talented, and many Asians and Jews are not too bright. Cultural and societal averages might be academically interesting, but we are just talking about basic education here. With an undamaged brain and a decent teacher anybody can learn enough Trig and Calc to study Civil Eng in high school or after and never be unemployed.
However, I think it is barking up the wrong tree to try to psychoanalyze this grievance-collection and grievance-manufacturing by the most privileged and indulged kids in the world. No reasonably balanced person reacts to such non-events. It is a fad, like hula-hoops. Faux outrage, microaggressions, and hate hoaxes are all the rage on campus this year. One might almost imagine that the ignorant kids have nothing to study. What it's really all about is cry-bullying, a manipulative power tactic which only works on spineless women and beta males.
Those are the same administrators who will buy their 3 year-olds Cocoa Puffs at the supermarket when they cry. Same stunt, same result. Too many spineless people out there who are afraid of saying "Shut up and grow up" the way normal people would do. Or, in the campus case, "Shut up and get back to your differential equations."
To inspire those who might like some calisthenics in their fitness routine:
- A three-set circuit of box jumps, squat-and-pull unbalanced bar reps, heavy ball smashes, burpees, and jumping jacks
- A three set circuit of sideways box jumps, unbalanced push bar reps, and floor ladder drills on hands and toes
- A three set circuit of box step-ups, ladder agility drills, and jump rope drills (regular, running man, and speed changes. I can't do arm shifts or doubles yet but these are my jump goals. 13 year-old boys can do amazing things with jump rope but I can't compete with that).
That took one hour, dripping sweat all over the floor. Mrs. BD and I agree that an hour of calisthenics is more exhausting than an hour of weights but you bounce back quicker. Calisthenics are not so much for strength-building as for muscle use and maintenance, agility, balance, core-strengthening, endurance, and cardio. Or, as we say, general athleticism. Good things for the middle-aged but I think the urban youth need these things too. That's why many of them love the demands of Crossfit.
Touche. Funny. I guess I am stuck with The Donald, for better or worse. Just wish he would read the Constitution and some other things, including Maggie's Farm website.
The Democratic base has become more liberal—we all know this part—but in a way the Republican base has, too. Or rather it is certainly busy updating what conservative means. The past few months, in state after state, one thing kept jumping out at me in primary exit polls. Democrats consistently characterize themselves as more liberal than in 2008, a big liberal year. This week in Indiana, 68% of Democratic voters called themselves liberal or very liberal. In 2008 that number was 39%. That’s a huge increase.
Very good points, but the Repub party has rarely been thoroughly Conservative in ideology
The “passions” we see seething through a Trump rally are the anger at elites of both parties who for years now have talked down to the people, dismissed their legitimate concerns, and sneered at their ignorance, even as they pander to privileged minorities or appease the Democrats. They see criticism of Trump, whether intended or not, as criticism of themselves, yet another patronizing dismissal of their grievances. The backlash against political correctness that Trump has brilliantly exploited is the obvious focus of this anger at politicians who are supposed to be on their side, but who always find excuses to cede the high ground to the other side. Why else would the Senate confirm Loretta Lynch as Attorney General, especially after she told the Judiciary Committee that she viewed Obama’s unconstitutional amnesties as “legal”? Was it because she was eminently qualified, or because she is a black woman?
Some will dispute these assertions as misleading or false, but whether they are true or not is irrelevant. Politics is about perception. How else did a cipher like Barack Obama get elected twice? In 2008 he was perceived to be a racial healer, the smartest president ever, a “no red state, no blue state” unifier, and a brilliant orator. None of these perceptions turned out to be remotely true. The second time it was partly because 81% of voters perceived him to “care about people like me,” while only 18% felt the same about Mitt Romney, one of the most fundamentally decent and kind men ever to run for president. Trump seems to get that perceptions and passions come first, and policy can be figured out later. To a greater or lesser degree, this has pretty much been true in all presidential elections. Trump has simply discarded the decorum that camouflages the truth about political sausage-making.
George Will should have been left unemployed and starving ages ago. Newspapers are dying off and people despise the media more than they have ever despised the media—which is saying a lot—and yet here fucking George Will remains, along with the Noonans and Friedmans and Brookses of the world, gainfully employed despite being a worthless, fart-sniffing boob. Try as the world might, we can’t seem to rid ourselves of idiot columnists who make $300,000 just to sit down and invent political trends from looking out the fucking parlor window.....I don’t get how these people have retained any credibility.
Well, they do believe it but only Moynihan was willing to say it out loud. The real goal was achieved: Generations of Dem voters hooked on dependency, uselessness, and hopelessness. Of course, that applies not only to African-Americans. There are far more white than black people in that category.
However, there were no dysfunctional black urban ghettos before Johnson's Great Society eliminated poverty and hopelessness.
Trump is the warning shot. He’s the food riots before the revolution. He’s the stack of letters to the editor in protest over some issue. People do not go from happy to bloody revolt overnight. It’s a process and the early stages are warnings, at least they should be viewed as warnings. If the people in Washington insist on flooding the country with helot labor, despite what’s happening in the election, the people are going to insist on building scaffolds in Washington. The Trump phenomenon is the warning.
How difficult was it to run America’s foreign policy during an era of virtually unquestioned dominance? Why—with so many advantages—have our elites produced so many failed policies? And why do they feel no shame? No matter how many individual positions he changes, Mr. Trump will never satisfy the architects of these massive mistakes or, for that matter, their ardent supporters on editorial boards and television screens. To be clear, it is entirely appropriate to criticize Mr. Trump’s views or, for that matter, his temper. Both have long been important components in our electoral politics. What is not appropriate is to attempt to shut down public discussion of critical national issues.
This
is How Democrats Will Absolutely Destroy Donald Trump if He’s the
Nominee - See more at:
https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/05/this-is-how-democrats-will-absolutely-destroy-donald-trump#sthash.Swnlod14.dpuf
Image stolen from Ace 
Fresh truffles, black or white.
Not just for the Derby. 
China 
Look at Mark Rothko. 
Widespread Mental Illness 
No breadcrumbs 
Image via 