Mrs. BD recommends this (free) Lenten devotional series: Devotions for Lent

I will do it.

A parenting website with attitude: Free Range Kids

Breast-feeding Benefits Appear to be Overstated, According to Study of Siblings - Advantages of women who choose breast-feeding likely bias findings in previous research

Federal audit calls new school lunch rules a failure

Business Leaders Doubt Higher-Ed's Value

Planned Parenthood to Spend $16 Million in Midterm Races

The Coming Collapse of the Welfare State

Even the Hapless Jimmy Carter Wasn't This Bad

February's Furious Foray Against Food Freedom

A few good links at Thompson

Seventeen and a half years. Not a flicker of global warming.

Gloomy France - As the young and entrepreneurial flee, the country struggles to
compete and pay for its massive welfare state.

 h/t Nice Deb

Michelle Obama: America's Moms Are 'Confused and Bewildered,' 'Defeated' by Grocery Shopping

Lego Tops U.S. Toymaker Rivals as Full-Year Sales Jump 10%

Small-Time City in Vermont Has Big-Time Heroin Problem

Announcing a New Book! Heading Out On Your Own: 31 Basic Life Skills in 31 Days

How to Pick Your Life Partner

Bwahahaha 101 Week at College Insurrection

Can human nature be discussed on campus?

Dear America, you’re too smart to listen to Beyonce

Man sues McDonald´s for $1.5 million after being given only one napkin

Atheism’s radical new heroes: Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and an evolving new moral view

The Insiders: Liberals are destroying the planet

Obama Administration to Distribute 13,000 Armored Mine-Resistant Vehicles to Police Units Around the US

Michigan Township To Put Cameras ‘In Every Neighborhood’

Why the Grahams sold the WaPo

‘We Need to Quit Acting So Freaking Defeated’: Dems Plot Blue Creep in Deep South

Putin Smashes Washington’s Cocoon

Ukraine: The Haze of Propaganda

The Upcoming Fifth Anniversary of Hillary’s Reset Button

Despite proven academic success of NYC’s charter schools, the mayor and unions have started a war on city’s charter kids

Pielke:  John Holdren's Epic Fail

“As a journalist, you weigh how much you should criticize the president because he’s black.”

Dog-Killing Afghan Refugee to Swedes: “Throw Me Out and I’ll Kill 10 of You”

Germany’s Energiewende: A Path to Economic Self-Destruction

John Fund:

George W. Bush famously told Colin Powell, his secretary of state, that he thought the Russian leader was religious. “Powell, I looked into Putin’s eyes and I saw his soul.” To which Powell replied: “Mr. President, I looked into President Putin’s eyes and I saw the KGB.”

Mrs. BD and I have liked Barbetta for many years. It's on the theater district's Restaurant Row, and it's been in the same townhouse, and owned by the same family, since 1906.

Food is mainly Piedmontese, no red sauces and only one pasta on the menu. I had the rabbit with a white wine sauce as secondi and so did the pupette, while she explained to us the basic architecture of successful playwriting from Aristotle to Beckett (it's always been the same because it works, even for screen writing - we had just seen a fairly OK production of Measure For Measure at The New Vic. She explained that Godot had perfect structure but no content - which was the point. For me, Godot sticks in my head but I don't really want or need it to).

Their pre- or post-theater prix-fixe menu is very reasonable if you pass on their amazing wine list. The upstairs dining is cozy, the downstairs is elegant but simple. The jewels that can be hidden inside simple old brownstones are always surprising to me. They also have a small garden.

Reservations absolutely required and appropriate adult attire is expected but the family which owns it has run a relaxed, highly-attentive, and cheerful, comfortable joint for over 100 years.

I stumbled on these, and they sound good to me:

Lamb Shank Posole

African Chicken Peanut Stew

Matthew 17:1-9

17:1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves.

17:2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.

17:3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.

17:4 Then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

17:5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!"

17:6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.

17:7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be afraid."

17:8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

17:9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, "Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."

Two signs seen in the bustling NYC theater district this afternoon:

You Thought You Were Educated

Joe Mitchell and Joe Gould:  The Patron and the Panhandler

The UK: Bring back beavers to control flooding, environment secretary told

Today’s new homes are 1,000 square feet larger than in 1973, and the living space per person has doubled over last 40 years

University of Iowa president apologizes to precious snowflakes for mentioning reality

Taxpayer-Funded Planned Parenthood Promotes Sadomasochism Month for Kids

Environmentalists champion economic ‘de-growth’

If you want to de-grow the economy, They’ve Already Got the Right Man for the Job in the White House

Federal Court Rules High School Can Ban ‘Incendiary’ US Flag Shirts

Touré Corrects Obama: ‘Structural Racism,’ Not Personal Responsibility, to Blame for Black Issues

Supreme Court Rules Police May Search A Home Without Obtaining A Warrant

Lest We Forget: Hillary’s Heroism Under Fire

Heating up: Climate change advocates try to silence Krauthammer

To A Skylark

Hail to thee blithe spirit!

Bird thou never wert -

That from heaven or near it

Pourest thy full heart

In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.

Higher still and higher
From the earth thou springest,
Like a cloud of fire;
The blue deep thou wingest,
And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.

In the golden light'ning
Of the sunken sun,
O'er which clouds are bright'ning,
Thou dost float and run,
Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.

The pale purple even
Melts around thy flight;
Like a star of heaven,
In the broad daylight
Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight.

Keen as are the arrows
Of that silver sphere
Whose intense lamp narrows
In the white dawn clear,
Until we hardly see, we feel that it is there.

Read the rest of this remarkable poem below:

h/t Theo