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.
Late last fall, the Indians on the Aamjiwnaang First Nation reservation in Grand Bend asked their new chief if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild.
Since he was a chief in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky, he couldn't tell what the winter was going to be like.
Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect firewood to be prepared.
But, being a practical leader, after several days, he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the Environment Canada Weather Service and asked, 'Is the coming winter going to be cold?'
'It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold,' the meteorologist at the weather service responded.
So the chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more firewood in order to be prepared.
A week later, he called the Environment Canada Weather Service again. 'Does it still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?'
'Yes,' the man at Weather Service again replied, 'it's going to be a very cold winter.'
The chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of firewood they could find.
Two weeks later, the chief called the Environment Canada Weather Service again.
'Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?'
'Absolutely,' the man replied. 'It's looking more and more like it is going to be one of the coldest winters we've ever seen.'
'How can you be so sure?' the chief asked.
The weatherman replied, 'The Indians are collecting a crapload of firewood'
19:1 The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
19:2 Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.
19:3 There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard;
19:4 yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun,
19:5 which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy.
19:6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them; and nothing is hid from its heat.
19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the LORD are sure, making wise the simple;
19:8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eyes;
19:9 the fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
19:10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.
19:11 Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
19:12 But who can detect their errors? Clear me from hidden faults.
19:13 Keep back your servant also from the insolent; do not let them have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.
19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
Snowed in now and happily so. House cleaning while mixing up a batch of winter stew for friends and family.
Mountain of sauteed onions, garlic, and celery in bacon fat and butter, all the bacon bits, big browned chunks of pork, chicken, and venison shoulder from the freezer. Lots of carrot chunks. A quart of my frozen gibier jus and a half bottle of cabernet. Half cup of crushed tomato, a few bay leaves, and some herbs. Tablespoon or 2 of raspberry jam and a couple of handfuls of frozen blueberries. A few twigs of snowy thyme from the frozen garden.
Porcinis if I had any dried ones in the pantry, but their flavor is thick in my special jus anyway.
A little thickening if needed.
6-8 hrs in the crock pot to tenderize the meats, then served on Pappardelle with some of my peach preserve on the side. Better yet - just in a bowl with that rich sauce concentrated instead of being spread around on noodles.
Trump is both a reaction to and expression of liberal delusions. Schlesinger’s fears have largely come to pass; we’ve become what he called a “quarrelsome spatter of enclaves.” Schlesinger was too much a part of the elite to imagine that the class he always thought of as representing the best of the future would come to be despised by a broad swath of Americans for its incompetence and ineffectuality. But what Schlesinger saw on the horizon seems to have arrived, with no sign of abating: we are in the midst of a soft civil war.
I love you, though I rage at it, Though it is shame and toil misguided, And to my folly self-derided Here at your feet I will admit! It ill befits my years, my station, Good sense has long been overdue! And yet, by every indication Love's plague has stricken me anew: You're out of sight---I fall to yawning; You're here---I suffer and feel blue, And barely keep myself from owning, Dear elf, how much I care for you! Why, when your guileless girlish chatter Drifts from next door your airy tread, Your rustling dress, my senses scatter And I completely lose my head. You smile---I flush with exultation; You turn away---I'm plunged in gloom, Your pallid hand is compensation For a whole day of fancied doom. When to the frame with artless motion You bend to cross-stitch, all devotion, Your eyes and ringlets down-beguiled, My heart goes out in mute emotion, Rejoicing in you like a child! Dare I confess to you my sighing, How jealously I chafe and balk When you set forth, defying Bad weather, on a lengthy walk? And then your solitary crying, Those twosome whispers out of sight, Your carriage to Opochka plying, And the piano late at night... Aline! I ask but to be pitied, I do not dare to plead for love; Love, for the sins I have committed, I am perhaps unworthy of. But make believe! Your gaze, dear elf, Is fit to conjure with, believe me! Ah, it is easy to deceive me!... I long to be deceived myself!
Refresh your memory about the father of Russian literature here.
Since we have so many guys and gals here getting on the heavy-duty fitness bandwagon, here's my update. Friday is mostly Heavy Calisthenics Day for me - moving day - and each time it is different to prevent habituation. This morning 5 am:
- 3-minute elliptical warm-up - Four sets of leg press, just 340 lbs, 15 reps each after an 100 lb. warm up of 20 reps. I can do it. I can do more. Barely. Grunting. - A four set rotation of heavy rope variations, step-and-press with heavy ball, and big ball wobbly planks - Four sets of jump (speed) rope alternating with variations of heavy ball slams. (I am working towards 100 jumps without slip-ups). How is your jump-rope coming along? It is a tough calisthenic exercise. - 3 sets of hamstring curl with big ball to balance the leg presses
Yes, that is mostly intense cardio/general fitness, not strength, on Fridays. One hour, more or less, with minimal breaks for a sip of water or coffee. I can feel my heart pound for about an hour afterwards and I can not climb the stairs. That is the good sign that I have exerted myself to my max. One hard-boiled egg with salt for breakfast is enough for repair.
Tomorrow is my normal cardio day regardless of global cooling: 5 minutes stair machine intervals, 10-20 minutes elliptical intervals, 25 minutes treadmill intervals (while watching the Food Channel), with plank variations plus calf lifts with 20-30 lb. weights between each item. Could do more, but the trick is to find the right amount and be done with it. No point in over-doing it but a good point to doing it.
Sedentary people like me without manual labor jobs need to move with intensity - or face decay. Mrs. BD's knee problems were solved by some weight loss plus weight- lifting and other leg-strengthening exercises. Bad knees need weight loss and muscular compensation. It is a vulnerable joint, like the shoulder. These joints were just built to get us past breeding age.
After almost 8 months, I am getting to the point where I can truly begin to work hard, and all of the aches and pains in the first 6 months have resolved by building strength and endurance. Remarkable adaptation of the middle-age body, but nothing ever gets possible before the bar gets raised. Goals! 10 reps of 200 lb. deads!
Columbia Psychiatry's Prof. Myron Hofer, MD has had a career-long research interest in developmental psychobiology and psychogenetics. His side interest in psychoanalytic theory has been contributory to that.
His most recent fascination is with epigenetics and how gene expression is affected by environment and spans generations. Gene expression - not genes - is transmissable. The egg from which we were hatched was formed in our Mom's ovary while she was still gestating inside Grandma's uterus. Thus many influences, all in nature's interest in providing variety for adaptation and natural selection.
... there is a tendency to believe that existing in the natural state of every person would mean their body functions perfectly. In reality the human body is a kluge, a series of evolutionary compromises that functions well enough to breed, and exists in a constant state of decay, barely staving off entropy for seven or eight decades until finally succumbing to the inevitable.
Don’t get me wrong, the human body is also a marvel of evolutionary complexity. Biology is subtle and powerful. But it is also messy and imperfect. Everything that can go wrong, does (in someone). I think most people intellectually know this, but just don’t want it to be true.
I almost can't believe I'm saying this, but I am declaring myself for Ted Cruz, because I have always leaned toward the moderate wing of the Republican Party and have always been first and foremost a foreign affairs conservative. But, the Republican Party is too far away from even minimal effectiveness, even with Congressional majorities, the issues being so aligned closer to conservative values, and the sheer incompetence and thuggishness of the Obama administration so evident and scary. And, Republicans in leadership have been as willing as Democrats to allow the hollowing of our military and degradation of its spirit. The situations in the MidEast and with Russia and China are among the most fearsome that our country has faced and we have frittered away our abilities to counter these threats. At the same time, our domestic strengths have been so weakened and spent into moral and financial near bankruptcy that unless we rebuild domestically we can forget about having a future in dealing with foreign gangsters not to mention the class of gangsters -- the politicians arm-in-arm with Wall Street and megacorporations --who are looting our pockets and self-esteem.
Ted Cruz is not a foreign affairs candidate. If anything, I would expect him to be restrained, both out of traditional conservative restraint and due to concentrating on setting us upright at home. He may be too restrained for my taste but there is something more important right now at stake, the very survival of the United States as the strong beacon of values that light up the world. Meanwhile, I feel confident that Ted Cruz will help rebuild our military strength and combativeness, weakened by social experiments that disregard fighting effectiveness, and will not stand idly by as foreign slime spit at us.
Ted Cruz is a principled Constitutionalist and conservative of the stripe that used to be so common. That's why the hypocrites and sell-outs in the Senate despise him, because compared to his legislative bravery they are revealed as pygmies of pusillanimity. I remember when Barry Goldwater ran for the nomination, how castigated he was by the Republican establishment, who deserted him. He lost by a landslide, but set a standard that Americans could gather around and retake the Republican Party for conservative principle and patriotism that didn't just conveniently wave the flag but who were willing to bleed for it and for what it stands for. That is Ted Cruz. Every generation, we must reassert our standard of principles, or see them bought for a pocket of lucre and allowed to be weakened for the passing comforts of laziness.
Ted Cruz may very well go down to defeat. It is tough to buck the stacked big city states in the electoral college and the sheer wall of hatred spewed by the mainstream media against any Republican -- and most Americans still get their news and views from the mainstream media. So may any other Republican go down to defeat. None of them are inspiring. I am willing to see that happen IF, IF, the Republican candidate sets out a clear standard of conservatism and articulate, knowledgeable defense of the Constitution and decency of values. Of all the candidates, only Ted Cruz has done that and can do that and be counted on to govern that way if elected.
At National Review some of the leading principled conservatives, none of them sycophants of big government-big business, set out their reasoned opposition to Donald Trump. In doing so they actually set out the case for a real, principled, knowledgeable, brave conservative. The only one on the field who lives up to that standard is Ted Cruz.
Sober reflections by Allahpundit. The NYT quote is worth considering:
[T]he cadre of Republican lobbyists, operatives and elected officials based in Washington are much more unnerved by Mr. Cruz, a go-it-alone, hard-right crusader who campaigns against the political establishment and could curtail their influence and access, building his own Republican machine to essentially replace them…
Presidential candidates always have flaws. Personal flaws, and flaws in the sense that they do not agree with me about everything. Elections are not about messiahs.
I am your basic Libertarian-ish Conservative Constitutionalist "Leave me alone" American, but I am practical.
Ted Cruz is impressive but unelectable. Keep him in the Senate to stir the pot, and thank Texas. Trump is more fun than a barrel of drunk monkeys but he is deeply incurious about anything, to put it nicely. His remarkable work is done for now. Some of the others (eg Kasich, Bush) might be fine but they do not have the pizzazz for the circus this year.
For me, Marco Rubio is at the intersection of the lines where acceptability to me meets electability. He is a serious person.
He is in error on some topics, I feel. Every person has deep flaws (pols maybe more than most), and political errors. Bill's Wife has more personal than political flaws from a general election standpoint, but she is not my candidate.
It is a complicated topic. Private schools can and should accept whoever the heck they want for whatever reasons they want. However relevant SAT scores and grades are, they are not the only things of interest to colleges and not the only measures of merit or of potential. If all a school cares about is IQ, then a combined SAT is an excellent proxy for that.
Snow on the way. I blame global warmening. Stock up on beer, canned goods, and batteries - and keep your TV or radio turned on for the latest catastrophizing. Sheesh.
Oxford Union backs motion to remove Cecil Rhodes statue - Students narrowly back Rhodes Must Fall campaign despite hearing that next step would be to tear down statues of Winston Churchill and anyone else with a blemished historical record
My lad and a couple of my cousins are studying old family portraits and putting them on a family ancestral photo website. Good clean fun. They emailed me this photo of a couple of my Mom's ancestors, asking me whether I recognized them. They must think I am ancient, but I can't even make out the faces.
A guess is that's my great-grandfather's winter house in Fort Lauderdale. His grand old place still stands there.
It's an interesting topic. For example, there are still people who avoid fats for fear of their cholesterol or of getting fat. Even some doctors can't let that go although it's been debunked for years now. So often, people believe what they want to believe unless they are of a skeptical bent.
Many people believe that the moon landing was faked. People afraid of cell towers.
Snowed in now and happily so. House cleaning while mixing up a batch of winter stew for friends and family.
Confession
The clean eating delusion: