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.
Water balloons are bombs, and water hoses are flame-throwers. Dangerous out there if you have a psychotic imagination. Life is more fun without psychosis.
The point is that the left doesn’t kowtow to Islam because they actually love Islam, but rather because they hate our own culture. They have been steeped in a narrative about how American and Western culture is racist and “imperialist,” and they’ve been trained to see anyone with a dark complexion and a non-Western origin as the victim of our crimes. When they see criticism of Islam, or deliberate attempts to defy Islam, they filter it through that narrative. They see it as: there go those bigoted right-wing Christians, demeaning dark-skinned foreigners again. So they reflexively oppose it.
For finish coats on refinished or freshly done wood, Sippican recommends this stuff. It's what he used as a finish for his furniture: Deft clear finish.
I always listen to him. As an old-timey Yankee traditionalist, I figgered he'd go for for waxes or oils which I prefer on my gunstocks, but he likes a couple of coats of that Deft stuff, sprayed or brushed. I will not use polyurethane on furniture as my religion forbids it but that's not polyurethane. It's a lacquer.
I am still contemplating how to finish one of our old oak rustic, wide-board family dining tables which I sanded, steel-wooled, and stained. Why do that? Drink and other stains, and 90 years of grime, food, wax, dust, and dead mouse excretions. And rustic enough that I could not screw it up badly. Would never dare touch fine furniture. Maybe I'll use the Dreft Deft.
I am completely opposed to any death taxes. The income has already been taxed.
Why tax the dead? Well, it was because the turn of the century (last century) Progressives hated the wealthy families. Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, etc. appeared to hate the wealthy because their influence, like that of churches and large businesses, competed with government - as they should wish to compete. Government is not God. Over the years, many families have fallen victims to that tax other than those who are slick enough to dodge it.
My view is that I want all families to be free to be as wealthy and independent as they chose to be, and to be free to accumulate whatever they want to for their futures. Farm, flower shops, whatever. It means a lot to people. In America, wealth is never the most important thing in life but everybody cares about their family and their families' futures. You can call it love, not greed.
It's an exaggeration. They do well in state and local elections. For national elections, I feel they need to inject a larger dose of good old American Libertarian ideas and rhetoric.
Sometimes I imagine that they are afraid to win the WH, Senate, and Congress at once. That never bothered their opposition with their messianic aspirations. I do not aspire to utopia, just personal freedom from government, as much as is reasonable. Trans-fats? Are you kidding me?
Obama
— You’re a bad person to do the best for your kids. Me? You’re kidding,
right? - See more at:
http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=56832#sthash.4YhFG9Qo.dpuf
A friend sent this pic from Colorado yesterday. He was visiting Denver to see family, heard some slopes were open, rented some skis and boots and skied in his jeans. Arapahoe Basin.
Cosmology has been on a long, hot streak, racking up one imaginative and scientific triumph after another. Is it over?
We might be trapped in this snow globe of photons forever. The expansion of the Universe is pulling light away from us at a furious pace. And even if it weren’t, not everything that exists can be observed. There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in our philosophies. There always will be. Science has limits. One day, we might feel ourselves pressing up against those limits, and at that point, it might be necessary to retreat into the realm of ideas. It might be necessary to ‘dispense with the starry heavens’, as Plato suggested. It might be necessary to settle for untestable theories. But not yet. Not when we have just begun to build telescopes. Not when we have just awakened into this cosmos, as from a dream.
Procession
Honoring Virgin Mary Considered “Provocation,” Attacked by Moslems in
Italy - See more at:
http://moonbattery.com/?p=58511#sthash.9uxYlOp1.dpuf
... it's not unusual to hear statements like those from The Lancet editor Richard Horton that "Much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue." He continued: "Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness."
Pvt. Joe Bowers: Every time Metsler says, "Lead, follow, or get out of the way," I get out of the way.
Sgt. Keller: Yeah, when he says that, you're not supposed to choose "get out of the way." It's supposed to embarrass you into leading - or at least following.
A wife comes home late one night, arriving early from being out of town and quietly opens the door to her bedroom. From under the blanket she sees four legs instead of two. She reaches for a baseball bat and starts hitting the blanket as hard as she can.
Once she's done, she goes to the kitchen to have a drink. As she enters, she sees her husband there, reading Maggie's Farm.
"Hi, Darling", he says, "Your parents have come to visit us, so I let them stay in our bedroom."
His story reminds me of Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel. I think I read that book out loud 200 times. Mrs. BD has it memorized, just like Good Night, Moon, Hungry Caterpillar, etc.
1:1 Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;
1:2 but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.
1:3 They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.
1:4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
1:5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
1:6 for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Another place where I imagine that I could happily live (were it not for my kids, my work, my church, our friends, our clubs, etc) - Nonquitt, MA
An Indian name, of course, but it's a good name in English too. Gen. Philip Sheridan's summer house was there. It's a waterfront village in the town of Dartmouth, MA.
The key word is pedigree: the array of background traits, including the cultural, social, and educational capital passed from one generation to the next, which EPS candidates bring to the competition for elite jobs. But it’s a closed competition. One must get through the gates first. A candidate’s pedigree determines whether his or her application to an EPS firm is legitimately considered in the competition, or tossed in a slush pile of candidates who have no realistic chance to even compete for such jobs.
Of course, pedigree has always been influential in hiring decisions for first jobs at elite professional service firms. While Rivera acknowledges this, she contends that the rules surrounding pedigree have changed over the generations. Although elite employers have always hired on the basis of pedigree, the mechanism is now far more indirect. Finding young talent to fill society’s most important and highly paid jobs once was based on descent, the handing over of familial economic power from one generation to the next.
Today, elites have modernized the rules of entry. Rather than explicit bloodlines being the determining factor, the outcome biased toward elites is interpreted as just the rational outcome of the “meritocracy” at work. Now, just as elite colleges contend that they admit students on the basis of cognitive talent, elite employers claim their highly competitive hiring practices lead to finding the best and brightest young employees.
But the way elites choose talent is hardly an open competition, Rivera argues. Rather, EPS hiring is a “sponsored contest.” While any college graduate is free to apply for a position, only those who are pre-qualified are actually permitted to compete. The most important pre-qualification is earning a degree from one of two types of schools. Generally, EPS firms maintain two lists of colleges from which they draw the applicant pool. First is small list of so-called “core” schools that have fed firms’ talent requirements for decades. The relationships are historic, steadfast, and habitual. Think Ivy League, especially colleges that are within a few hours drive from power centers of finance, banking and law.
Next is a list of “target” schools that firms have relied on for talent, but to a far lesser extent than core schools. The pivotal difference between a sponsored and an open competition is the behavior of gatekeepers in seeking talent. EPS firms go to great efforts to seek out the kinds of college graduates that fit the firm’s culture. The firms go to the students, spending valuable time and money traveling to the listed campuses and recruiting for their applicant pool.
I think this is far less true today than in the past. However, admission to a highly-elite school demonstrates something of value and speeds up the vetting process. My advice: Save your admissions letters but go somewhere you can afford.
The Italian Coastal Dinner, May 18, at The Lincoln Ristorante at Lincoln Center. That delicious-looking Italian menu is below the fold, but it's neither on my workout nor my wallet menu although it's cheaper than flying to Italy for a good supper.
Boy Scouts of America bans water gun fights;
For finish coats on refinished or freshly done wood, Sippican recommends this stuff. It's what he used as a finish for his furniture: 
Woodcock Chicks
In a spa town in the Swiss Alps, you'll find snow-capped mountains, chocolate, goats... 