Friday, October 4. 2013
They take their goose hunting seriously.
Thursday, October 3. 2013
...with no farming allowed. Living Off The Land: Delusions and Misconceptions About Hunting and Gathering.
Basically, it cannot be done. You'll starve to death.
Somewhat related to that post is a film recommendation from my sis: Happy People. She wondered why they don't just go on the dole and drink like the Eskimos do.
Looking forward to the long drive north from Winnipeg airport in a couple of weeks.
Sol Stern explains education wonk Ravitch's dramatic change of heart.
Now she thinks school choice is a capitalist plot.
 Mead says goodbye to his Mom
Can government properly "recognize... fundamental differences" between males and females?
I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to get my hands on some fucking gourds and arrange them in a horn-shaped basket on my dining room table.
Waxman: Why should I read it?
Sultan: The sun sets on Washington DC
The ‘Washington Monument’ sequester strategy
Microsoft investors push for chairman Gates to step down
Coyote: What Is Wrong With Health Care, Though My Diagnosis is Opposite of the Left's
Illegal Drugs Are Cheaper and More Pure Than Ever
Remember the Permanent Panhandler? Gotham’s next mayor could dismantle 20 years of progress in establishing public order.
One Cosmos: Real Socialism is the Only Remedy for Socialist Fantasies
The Real Big Winner of the Arab Spring
In truth, the Obama administration and satraps like Andrew
Sullivan have been a lot kinder toward terrorists than they are toward
Republicans.
Waxman on 10,535 Pages of Obamacare Regs: ‘Is It Important That I Read It?’
October 2, 2013 - 4:08 PM
Rep. Henry Waxman (D.-Calif.) (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
(CNSNews.com) – When asked by CNSNews.com whether he had read all
10,535 pages of final Obamacare regulations that have so far been
published in the Federal Register, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.)
asked in return whether it was "important" the he read them, dismissed
the inquiry as a "propaganda question," and did not ultimately anwer.
CNSNews.com: "What I was going to ask you is if you've read those [10,535 pages] of regulations."
Waxman said: “Have you read them?”
CNSNews.com: "No. Have you read them?"
Waxman said: “Is it important that I read it?”
- See more at:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/waxman-10535-pages-obamacare-regs-it-important-i-read-it#sthash.GvW1C8YG.dpuf
Waxman on 10,535 Pages of Obamacare Regs: ‘Is It Important That I Read It?’
October 2, 2013 - 4:08 PM
Rep. Henry Waxman (D.-Calif.) (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
(CNSNews.com) – When asked by CNSNews.com whether he had read all
10,535 pages of final Obamacare regulations that have so far been
published in the Federal Register, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.)
asked in return whether it was "important" the he read them, dismissed
the inquiry as a "propaganda question," and did not ultimately anwer.
CNSNews.com: "What I was going to ask you is if you've read those [10,535 pages] of regulations."
Waxman said: “Have you read them?”
CNSNews.com: "No. Have you read them?"
Waxman said: “Is it important that I read it?”
- See more at:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/waxman-10535-pages-obamacare-regs-it-important-i-read-it#sthash.GvW1C8YG.dpuf
Waxman
on 10,535 Pages of Obamacare Regs: ‘Is It Important That I Read It?’ -
See more at:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/waxman-10535-pages-obamacare-regs-it-important-i-read-it#sthash.GvW1C8YG.dpuf
Waxman
on 10,535 Pages of Obamacare Regs: ‘Is It Important That I Read It?’ -
See more at:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/waxman-10535-pages-obamacare-regs-it-important-i-read-it#sthash.GvW1C8YG.dpu
Waxman
on 10,535 Pages of Obamacare Regs: ‘Is It Important That I Read It?’ -
See more at:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/waxman-10535-pages-obamacare-regs-it-important-i-read-it#sthash.GvW1C8YG.dpuf
Wednesday, October 2. 2013
A blissful marriage is the stuff of teenage fantasy. Real life gets in the way of romance, and our unappealing traits become more evident over time. It's amazing how people put up with us.
The age-old institution remains, for us, a sacramental covenant, a secular contract, and a practical arrangement for building a good, decent, wholesome family life. Especially so in an era in which we, and our kids, all quickly move from home, and the extended family in the neighborhood is a thing of the remote past.
IQ is part of it. If you and a spouse each have average IQs of 100, the marriage should have an IQ of 200. If your judgement is mediocre, you can find a spouse with better judgement. If your social skills are weak, a spouse can help compensate. If your taste in decor stinks, your spouse might do better.
And unless you are very wealthy and can afford plenty of help, four hands can get more done in a few hours than can two.
It all just makes good sense as a life foundation, as something to try to build whatever one wants in life on top of. As much as I may even hate and abuse my spouse at times, my life would be lousy without him. At this point, I could not do it without my companion to rely on 100%. It is a permanent bond, as we vowed in the beginning. We put up with eachother's flaws, and benefit from eachother's strengths. We are loyal to eachother and to our life together, above all else. We even confide in eachother, which can be a bit sexy. Fantasy is fun.
The political Left is ambivalent about marriage. They like the idea of marriage to the State instead of to people, but they like gay marriage. Go figure. Historically, however, marriage did not strictly require monogamy despite the spoken vows in church, and allowed room for adventure. We do not do that because that was not our deal.
Charles Murray has been on this topic for years. Marriage works well for society as a whole, but it probably works well for individuals too. Marriage is increasingly the big sociological divide in American life: Getting and staying married makes you part of a privileged elite.
How America's Marriage Crisis Makes Income Inequality So Much Worse
Mr. Clancy was an insurance salesman when he sold his first novel, “The Hunt for Red October,” to the Naval Institute Press for only $5,000.
So young? He did good research and was a fine story-teller. Red October was a movie in my mind before the excellent movie was made. The movie was far better than my imagination.
Yale Prof and Maggie's hero David Gelernter: Back To School - A reclamation project for higher ed.
He wants more conservatives involved with higher ed, but nobody even knows what higher ed means anymore, much less a Yale prof. It can mean anything, but most of what it can mean nowadays is a lot of money for a useless piece of paper.
I've read a few articles like this and I still don't get it.
Dartmouth Will Spend $3.6 Million on Special Gay & Lesbian Housing
Good grief. I can imagine Animal House 2.0, but I do not want to.
Five Eye-Popping Naked-Student Traditions at American Colleges
Republicans made me lose my car keys
How to nap
14 Embarrassing Sex Questions – Answered!
Here Comes the Spoils Society
Should hairbraiders have to build a barber college, become barbering instructors to teach hairbraiding?
In the future, most people will live in a total surveillance state – and some of us might even like it
Escaping 'Government' Schools
The current crisis, at its heart, is about greed and the human lust for authority over other humans.
Indian baby farms
AVI thought we might like this quote
Indian baby farms
Indian baby farms
Tuesday, October 1. 2013
 And we still do. She certainly enriched our lives, and will continue to do so.
She had the Emilia-Romagna thing going, and her Bolognese is the best. Bologna is the capital of Emilia-Romagna. Baloney. The home of Balsamic, Mortadella, the Lamborghini, and many other fine things.
 William Shakespeare pretty much stole his plots. That's fine with me. And I suppose he was commercially right to take on the then-old Romeo and Juliet tale, judging it to be one that would sell tickets. Passion, blood, melodramatic death, etc. He wanted to be wealthy, and he was. Little could he have imagined, though, that his version of R&J would be selling tickets in 2013, both on and off Broadway.
It's a silly story, and a silly play. No character development, no fine poetry, no tragedy. Two stupid hormone-crazed 14 year-olds off themselves because the mailman missed delivering a letter in an Italy in which mail delivery is spotty and the vendetta is the spice of life. Poor mail delivery is not the stuff of tragedy. In fact, the play is not a tragedy in Aristotelian terms - or any terms.
My drama expert kid says she thinks it was written as a spoof.
West Side Story beats the Shakespeare, in my view, by miles.
In Verona last month, Mrs. BD and I avoided the Juliet tourist trap baloney. I hate that kind of phony crap but, again, it sells tickets.
Instead of the B'way version with heart-throb Orlando Bloom, we went to see the opening night at our regular Classic Stage which we support to a humble degree, starring (heart-throb) Elizabeth Olsen.
Dumb play, and a lousy performance by all. Where did WS instruct the players to shout their lines? Or to do a ponderous delivery? "Look Mom - I'm reciting Shakespeare!" When people do Shakespeare, they forget how to act like people because it's SHAKESPEARE. Like it's holy.
The only plus was dinner with one of the NYC kids at the Blue Water Grill afterwards with a wonderful jazz singer under our balcony seating. I do love that joint with their music, the exceedingly pleasing surroundings and staff, and their lobster mashed taters. I'll do a whole post about Branzino when I get to it. A tasty fish, but any grilled fish (or anything) is good on a bed of lobster mashed potatoes.
My pic is the pleasant East Village, with the Classic Stage sign. Despite this screw-up, we still like them. They do good Ibsen and Chekhov if you like that sort of thing.
Possibly not, but he's very good at selling books. He seems likeable enough, though.
Monday, September 30. 2013
It's well-known that the Chinese rightly love Western music, and love our "serious" music more than our pop music (not that I believe that any music is really "serious"). It is no surprise that they love ours, because their traditional music is hideous.
Right now in China, it's not so much the violin as it is the piano:
China made 379,746 pianos last year, 77 per cent of global output, almost all of it for domestic sale. Multiply that by ten for second-hand sales and you are still nowhere near the popular estimate that 60 million Chinese children are currently playing the piano, equivalent to the entire population of the United Kingdom sitting down every evening and practising scales for two hours.
I wish that I had had a better piano teacher when I was a kid but that sounds like lame excuse-making. I have no musical talent at all, but I always have wanted to make just a little music for myself instead of pushing a button for it like a king with his court musicians. I wanted to understand what was behind the pieces I was learning to play, and she kept saying "that's for later." Then, eventually, there was no later. I should have been learning scales, and why scales exist. Or maybe not. I have a friend who is taking up piano in middle age, and is having a wonderful time with it. Great delight learning scales and jazz chords.
Every home needs at least one person practicing music, however well or poorly.
Maybe this is like our post about new math. You either have it, or you don't, but there is a gray zone.
Successful Businessman on Mentoring Misled Students
Tell 'em what you know how to do, not where you went to school.
 Just back from an extra-long weekend around my old haunts in Oxford (UK). Same old, same old, and tourist-free in September.
But here in the USA, we have New! Improved! Education’s shiny toy syndrome.
A while ago, I mentioned how my math education was almost destroyed by New Math. Even my math teachers didn't get the point of it even though they were required to teach it. Base Nine. Base 11? WTF? I am not an Einstein and do not need my math deconstructed. Base 10 is plenty enough to keep my brain challenged.
Once I recovered from the now-discarded New Math (it took me 3 years), I was fine. One regret I have with my career, among others, is that it does not require any sophisticated math. I still believe that the Calculus is a beautiful gift from God and the real shiny toy of education.
And statistics remain a perfect tool to fool juries with no math knowledge.
These guys will play you for money. Many of them prefer speed chess - 5-minute or even one-minute games. It's a wonderful thing, excellent mental exercise. I hear that these guys are savvy players.
There are a few checkers guys too, but isn't checkers too much like tic-tac-toe? If you start, you win or draw unless you make an error.
Sunday, September 29. 2013
A member of Parliament to Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease."
"That depends, sir," said Disraeli, "whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."
"He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr
"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill
"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)
"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas
"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain
"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." - Oscar Wilde
"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend, if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill, "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one." - Winston Churchill, in response.
"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." - Stephen Bishop
"He is a self-made man and worships his creator." - John Bright
"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." - Irvin S. Cobb
"He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others." - Samuel Johnson
"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating
"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." - Charles, Count Talleyrand
"He loves nature, in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker
"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" - Mark Twain
"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)
"He has Van Gogh's ear for Music." - Billy Wilder
"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx
Upper Manhattan Residents Say Skunks Are Stinking Up Neighborhood
Skunks are cute, adaptable little critters (weasel family), but their only real predator is the Great Horned Owl. My family never had a dog who didn't get skunked once, or a dog who never got slapped by a Porkie. The hard but non-fatal lessons of life.
As a country bumpkin from Minnesota, I wanted to be a tough New Yorker, but people told me I was just "too nice"
Shall We Call Bill de Blasio a Socialist?
Bill de Blasio and the Jews of New York
A movie to see if you haven't: Margin Call. It's on Netflix. It's a New York movie.
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