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.
,,,if your idea of your marriage contract requires you to stay exciting and
interesting, then it’s like a TV show that depends on its ratings, and
eventually, no matter how many cute kids you add, murder trials you
withstand, or sharks you jump in water skis, ratings will inevitably
decline.
Richard Vedder: The Real Reason College Costs So Much - The expert on the economics of higher education
explains how subsidies fuel rising prices and why there's a 'bubble' in
student loans and college enrollment.
Obama Holding Private Bi-Sexual Conference At White House
- See
more at:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/08/obama-holding-private-bi-sexual-conference-at-white-house/?ModPagespeed=noscript#sthash.mwt3jeMo.dpuf
A Republican, in a wheelchair, entered a restaurant one afternoon and asked the waitress for a cup of coffee. The Republican looked across the restaurant and asked, "Is that Jesus sitting over there?" The waitress nodded "yes," so the Republican requested that she give Jesus a cup of coffee, on him.
The next patron to come in was a Libertarian, with a hunched back . He shuffled over to a booth, painfully sat down, and asked the waitress for a cup of hot tea. He also glanced across the restaurant and asked, "Is that Jesus, over there?" The waitress nodded, so the Libertarian asked her to give Jesus a cup of hot tea, "My treat."
The third patron to come into the restaurant was a Democrat on crutches. He hobbled over to a booth, sat down, and hollered, "Hey there honey! How's about getting me a cold mug of Miller Light?" He too looked across the restaurant and asked, "Isn't that God's boy over there?" The waitress nodded, so the Democrat directed her to give Jesus a cold beer. "On my bill," he said loudly.
As Jesus got up to leave, he passed by the Republican, touched him, and said, "For your kindness, you are healed." The Republican felt the strength come back into his legs, got up, and began to praise the Lord. Jesus passed by the Libertarian, touched him, and said, "For your kindness, you are healed." The Libertarian felt his back straightening up, and he raised his hands, and he began to praise the Lord.
Then, Jesus walked towards the Democrat, just smiling. The Democrat jumped back and yelled, "Stand back... I'm on disability."
Some of our friends have a (volunteer, but expert) project to provide cheap and simple medical 911 systems to Third World countries. They plan to begin with Haiti and Latin America.
It's a good cause. Roll them a coin if you can, and tell friends who might be interested. It's not an app, it's a phone feature. God bless those who put their time, brains, and energy into such positive and inventive pursuits.
Few of us in the First World have any idea what it's like out there. And still people in America complain about medical care. They always will. Prosperity and the world's best medical care have turned us into babies.
A couple of years ago, Mrs. BD and I vowed to never replace a rotten piece of wood on the outside of our home - or of the Farm, for that matter - with real wood. Purists like Sipp might object, but we've had enough. Too expensive in the long run.
My father-in-law taught me this lesson, and recently re-did most of his home's exterior these ways. He is no longer thrilled with the DIY approach as he grows a little older.
Blame design, or Nature, or Entropy, or whatever. Dead wood and water do not mix. Not in Yankeeland, anyway.
In the past week, we had Anderson's custom replacement service replace 8 old custom-sized windows with their new fake, never-paint, never-chip, last-forever composite frames and good thermopane glass. Not anywhere as expensive as one might have thought, but still costly enough with all of the custom sizing. Including three casement windows. Their guys work fast, too. Did it all in one day, and put insulation in the edges of the new frames.
Any wood that rots - sills, etc. - all we will use is Azeks. If it rotted out once, it will do so again. We're gradually replacing all the dang wood columns for the pergola and the porches with custom fiberglass columns with 6X6" pressure-treated wood posts hidden inside.
These new "woods" never rot, never peel, never warp, and never need painting. Woodpeckers never peck holes in them, and wood-boring wasps leave it alone. Best thing of all: it looks like real wood.
You might say that we have been converted by maintenance cost.
Finally! One thing we can all agree on is that last-minute Christmas shopping is a real drag. The crowds, the noise, the confusion, the cold sleet or snow because you're in the middle of goddamn winter — in short, it sucks.
So, while we'd all appreciate just a few more days in the shopping season to help us out, the hands of the retailers are tied since there's an unwritten rule that they can't swamp the land with Christmas stuff until the official 'Thanksgiving timeline' is over.
However, with the help of the Department of Interior collaborating with the National American Turkey Council, they came up with a very clever solution:
For someone who grew up in an era when it was strictly verboten for businesses to put up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving, it's been somewhat sad to see the commercial greed seep forth a little earlier every year since. I believe these days the decorations are going up just after the 4th of July. I hear Easter's the next goal.
In the writing biz, this is known as when fantasy meets reality.
13:10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.
13:11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.
13:12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment."
13:13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
13:14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day."
13:15 But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water?
13:16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?"
13:17 When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.
With so many miles of empty beaches, every beach in Wellfleet is as private as you want. It's easy to find a place to plant your cooler and umbrella where you cannot see another soul, swim nude if you want. Still, a private one you can stroll to is pleasant sometimes.
If you live in a flood zone, you should expect floods. If you build in a forest prone to fire, you should expect fire.
Flooding is nature telling you that you should not build a house there. Fire, likewise. Fire is part of a forest's natural cycle. Fire suppression only makes the next one hotter and more violent.
Floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, forest fires. Mother Nature is a harsh school-mistress. As the sea-captain said, "I love going to sea, but I do not love the sea. The sea is my enemy because it is always trying to find a way to kill me."
The same goes for the deep woods.
If you recall, the last big fire in Yosemite was a boon to wildlife and to the forest's health. It's like a natural ecosystem, ya' know?
Unfortunately, the advice to eat less saturated fat probably isn't going away anytime soon. Like the baseless ideas that calories are calories, or fat people simply lack willpower, fear of dietary fat has become entrenched in our thinking about nutrition, and won't die no matter how many times it's debunked. But if we're going to be lead to believe that saturated fat is harmful to our brains, the link should be based on more than observational research. I'm certainly not convinced that I need to eat less bacon, anyway.
This is part of why my high-meat, zero carb weight loss program (fixed) works: all calories are not handled the same way (and bacon and eggs are a good, healthy diet breakfast). More here:
There are and always have been populations around the world who are both poor and very physically active who have obesity rates very similar to those of the United States and other Western societies. Under this paradigm, there are certain foods — mainly carbohydrates — that stimulate an insulin response and cause weight gain. Avoiding these foods is probably a good idea for those of us who easily store body fat.
Like I said, if you want to lose weight, cut out the carbs and eat meat. Calory-counting does not work because it's the insulin that stores the carbs.
Nothing bothered me more, in local kids' sports, than the handing out of 'participation trophies'. I never got one as a kid, so I was really angry. It's just not fair! I didn't get one and my kid did!
Actually, the concept is so foreign to me I laughed the first time I heard about it, thinking it was a joke. I was always motivated to try harder if I didn't win. My mother always prodded me if I came in second with "if you studied/practiced/tried harder, you'd have won."
But we're in a brave new world where kids who try harder to penalized and told they win too much.
Why have completion times in the New York Marathon? Everyone who finishes is a winner.
For starters, I need to find a new 6-V starter battery for the old Ford tractor. Then mowing, hedge-trimming, and tree-cutting.
Half of America is on holiday right now, and nobody else is in the mood for the bad news anyway.
I will throw in one link, about coffee: How to Make Perfect Coffee - The science of what makes coffee great. The article feels so effete that it could be satire, but it isn't.
AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race, I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place. Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn: But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind, So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace, Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place, But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch, They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch; They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings; So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace. They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease. But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life (Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife) Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all, By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul; But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man There are only four things certain since Social Progress began. That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire, And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wobbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins, As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn, The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
A daughter and her (seemingly) true love are heading off for ten days in Japan tonight. This daughter been to lots of places in the world, but never Asia. (I have never been further east than Turkey, and have no desire for further.)
She emailed me and asked whether I had any travel advice for Japan. I told her all I know: "Omakase." It means that you want the sushi chef to surprise you with some spontaneous creations with his best stuff. I survived five years of lousy sushi, ended up calling it "bait." Now that I have found a superb relatively local joint, I am back on sushi.
As far as Italy is concerned, the way Mrs. BD and I lose weight in Italy is by sharing meals. One antipasto each for lunch, and one antipasto, one primi, and one secondi for supper to share. Lots of good tastes, lower volume. And lots of walking.
He may be right. The Dems have been quite outspoken about their expectation that Obamacare is just one step towards single payer medical care by basically putting government bureaucrats in charge of everything.
As a sole proprietor (other than my donated time to a charity clinic), I have thus far been successful in keep government, and insurance companies, out of my practice. However, I do not know how long that will be practical - or even legal.
As BD mentioned a while back, he and the missus are doing their usual summer fling in Italy in a few weeks, so I'll be saving up goodies and not posting much in the interim. I'll have some pretty interesting pieces, though, including an AGW post with a very unique viewpoint, a tutorial on how to make one of those 'slideshow songs' where the pics line up with the lyrics, how to type "I ♥ Maggie's Farm" with a few quick keystrokes, and it only took two hours and 20 years of online expertise but I finally tracked down a copy of the 1974 National Lampoon Stereo Test And Demonstration Record on a backwater P2P site for your listening and stereo testing enjoyment.
On the health front, I just took my blood pressure and it was 135 (high figure), and that's without taking any blood pressure medicine for four days. That's still slightly above average, but compared to its peak of 195 a few months ago, it'll do.
The one main difference has been an almost salt-free diet. I got so curious about the whole salt issue that I purposefully didn't change anything else (exercise, smoking, coffee, etc) just to see what would happen. Despite claims that "salt does not cause these things", I must beg to differ. The blood pressure medicine initially knocked it down to non-life-threatening levels, then I halved the dosage a few weeks ago, then decided to see what would happen if I stopped it altogether four days ago. The results speak for themselves. I'll go back to halving it and get a fresh prescription when I visit the GP in a few weeks.
I also still owe the hospital over a thousand bucks and am desperately low on cash (as I've been since this nightmare started), so if anyone would care to throw a few doubloons into my relief fund, it would certainly be appreciated.
In other news, I heard via email the other day another by-now-typical domain name heartbreak story:
(the names have been changed to protect the innocent, if any)
Doc -
Well, craparoonie! You would think that "James Morgan Downing" would be an obscure enough name that it would be available, but not only was "jamesdowning.com" and "jamesmdowning.com" taken, but so was the whole thing, "jamesmorgandowning.com"! I ended up taking "james-downing.com", but I'm not happy about it. On the other hand, I suppose I should be grateful that at least it was available!
Indeed.
As I've noted before, once a domain is gone, it's pretty much gone forever because the domain harvesters will snatch it up automatically within milliseconds of it coming back on the market. They figure if somebody wanted it once, then somebody else will want it again one day, at which point they'll be happy to lease it to you for the rest of eternity — unless you want to buy it outright for a mere $4,995, of course.
The bottom line is, if you ever might want your own domain, even if just to post pics of the grandkids on in twenty years, now's the time to get it. At $5.95/mo, it's the cheapest bill in the In Box, and you don't have to actually build a site or anything to hold it.
As for grabbing it, I highly recommend BlueHost. It's run by a nice conservative company based in Provo, Utah. The CEO does a twice-yearly email round-up and the guy's hysterical, always throwing zingers and barbs at Washington and our meddling Congress. I have some tips on domain names here.
For your visual delight, a blast from the past; the incredible footage of that airliner landing on that highway out in L.A. a few years ago. The fact that a TV news crew happened to be right there when it happened was a remarkable stroke of luck, not to mention catching on film the horror of the harrowing landing, itself.
Obamacare
Officials Hire Detective Force to Go With Their Armed Tax Agents - See
more at:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/08/feds-hire-obamacare-detective-force-to-go-with-their-armed-tax-agents/#sthash.URtmUZhH.dpuf
I believe that I was the Psychiatrist who coined the term "psycho-utopianism." It is the delusional notion, analogous to political and social utopia, that if people could just get enough therapy or analysis, things would happen to perfect a life. Well, it is possible sometimes in some ways for a person's life to improve, but it's a tough world and reality is a harsh master.
Political and social utopian delusions hold that, if the world were correctly organized by the right people (our moral and intellectual superiors), something wonderful would happen, human nature would change. Universal contentment or something like that would ensue. Brave New World.
Ideas about religious utopias of sorts are something I can buy into. Not 72 virgins, or becoming sublime starlight (although I suppose we are, in a sense). The Christian Kingdom of God can and does exist, not the child-like version of heaven and not a theocracy of Christians but the dominion of God in one's heart and soul not after death, but today. The Hereafter is another topic.
Life is a struggle. But I have meandered far off track.
Neuro-utopianism is the fantasy that, if the brain matter itself could be fully understood, life could be peaches and cream and everybody would be nice people or never crazy or neurotic or destructive because the very heart and soul could be dissected and repaired. Repaired, based on whose idea?
When it comes to writing, I have a rule I made up a long time ago that's worked to perfection over the years, so I thought I'd pass it along.
It's very simple, and you wordsmiths out there might already employ it subconsciously.
I had a perfect example just the other day, which prompted me to write this piece. I had written in a post:
Try telling it to the F.C.C.
I pondered whether it was a common enough acronym to leave out the periods, like 'NASA' and 'NBC', but I knew it was one of those things the 3-Notice Rule would catch, so I left them in. This was the first 'notice'.
I finished up the post and hit the 'Save' button, then the 'Preview' button to proofread it. I got to the above line and hesitated, thinking it might look better without the periods, then read on. This was the second 'notice'. I knew what was coming, but rules are rules.
Then I posted the article and gave it one more proofread (the actual Web page is wider than the editor, so things look a tad different) and noticed it again — that is, the sentence just didn't flow like it should have — and that was it.
I popped open the editor and changed it to:
Try telling it to the FCC.
Then I read it through again and this time I flew right through the line without hesitation.
I guess you could say I'm quantifying a bit of common sense here. By making it a 'rule', though, you're forced to stop at that third 'notice' and change the damn thing, no matter how trivial it is. In other words, yes, it's a pain to open the editor just to change one tiny little thing, but this is about readability — which overrides everything else — including our own inherent laziness. So, if the 3-Notice Rule catches it, you're obligated to fix it right then and there — or throw the damn rule out.
If a guy has had some drinks, is it OK for a gal to have sex with him just to satisfy her immediate lust? Horny women take advantage of guys every day, and nobody says a word about it.Seducing guys is the easiest thing in the world and every female knows it. Vice-versa, not so easy.
Real Men of West Monroe 
Finally! One thing we can all agree on is that last-minute Christmas shopping is a real drag. The crowds, the noise, the confusion, the cold sleet or snow because you're in the middle of goddamn winter — in short, it sucks.
Too many projects to get done on the Farm today.
The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919)
I believe that I was the Psychiatrist who coined the term "psycho-utopianism." It is the delusional notion, analogous to political and social utopia, that if people could just get enough therapy or analysis, things would happen to perfect a life. Well, it is possible sometimes in some ways for a person's life to improve, but it's a tough world and reality is a harsh master.
When it comes to writing, I have a rule I made up a long time ago that's worked to perfection over the years, so I thought I'd pass it along.