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.
Related, "Ancient Military Drum Airs" are (in order): "Closing
the Long Roll", "Three Camps" (American Revolution), "The Downfall of
Paris" (War of 1812), and "Hell On the Wabash" (American Civil War).
Almost anybody except a confirmed metrosexual would willingly march into gunfire with good drumming. It can make a fellow feel like "It's a good day to die!" (It seems to be controversial about who said that first, but it's probably been spoken since the dawn of humanity.)
Beginning as early as kindergarten, the authors explained, girls have better average social and behavioral skills than boys, and that relates to girls’ higher average grades at each stage of school and why girls are more likely to earn a degree.
“The grade gap isn’t about ability,” said Claudia Buchmann, co-author and sociology professor at Ohio State University, “it’s really more about effort and engagement in school…”
That's easy for me to answer: I do, and I always did. A person without family, tribe, and community is a person adrift, a lone wolf, a lost soul. Governments have nothing to do with it. He says of socialist schemes:
The state replaced the family. It told men and women that they no longer needed to make permanent commitments to each or to their parents and children. So long as they paid their taxes, the state would bear the burden of their commitments. And so men and women gave up on each other, parents gave up on their children and children gave up on their parents, the family fell apart and now the state that took its place is also falling apart.
"Pre-school" is a fancy word for group babysitting. If government provides it, though, it is union jobs. Suddenly, babysitters are converted into "educators." That means union dues, and votes.
Mrs. B. and I are also "experts in pre-school education." We spent enough years providing it, for free, to our clan. It worked out just fine. We have nothing against group baby-sitting, which is fine too.
Does anybody outside of DC care? Not likely. Taxing and spending is all they know how to do, and most of us are sick of that by now.
After all, these are not particularly intelligent or creative people but they have figured out how to keep their jobs. That's something - keeping a job.
The only way to test a theory is to make predictions. It is not science to make a prediction (eg "There will be no more snow" or "Arctic ice will disappear") and then to pull an excuse out of your behind when the prediction turns out to be wrong.
You cannot say "We're still right, even if our predictions were wrong because we failed to consider so-and-so."
The warmist claims attempt to set themselves up to be unfalsifiable. Snow or no snow, floods or drought, all explainable on an ex post facto basis. That's the problem.
As for a little warming, that would be just fine and preferable to the next ice age.
He is so earnest that he could almost be an optimist. He believes that the end of the world is nigh, and secretly is rather pleased about it. If he is of a scientific bent, he does the following: he takes an undesirable trend and projects it indefinitely into the future until whatever is the object of the trend destroys the world. For example, he might take the fact that Staphylococci reproduce exponentially on a Petri dish to mean that, within the week, the entire biosphere will consist of Staphylococci and nothing else. Man will be crushed under the weight of bacteria.
The desire to write for publication is one which inheres strongly in every human breast. From the proficient college graduate, storming the gates of the high-grade literary magazines, to the raw schoolboy, vainly endeavoring to place his first crude compositions in the local newspapers, the whole intelligent public are today seeking expression through the printed page, and yearning to behold their thoughts and ideals permanently crystallized in the magic medium of type...
The sanctimonious kids who do not want to pursue profit, and desire to be pure in some puritanical way (but not sexually), often are too economically ignorant to realize that they only wish to survive on the exertions, risks, and profit of others.
Do they really aspire to be helpless parasites like the Occupiers?
"Kollege was a necessary step towards the professional license, so I made sure it was a fun step. football on Autumn afternoons (marching to the Coliseum with the band to trash Notre Dame or UCLA, etc.), all the Animal House diversions, had a girl, car, pocket money from minor felonies, it was an idyllic life. I'd recommend it for anyone."
So, after reviewing Fox News, CNN, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, The Washington Times and The Washington Post's web sites this morning, guess how many articles I saw rejoicing in the day's events as we honor our great presidents from the past?
Zero.
It appears Presidents Day has joined Flag Day and Arbor Day in the dustbin of history.
Still, there is hope.
Although it's filled with the usual liberal drool (global warming is going to kill us in 30 minutes, all guns are evil, et cetera ad nauseum) the movie The American President is a wonderful flick with a great cast, clever dialogue, good music and excellent direction.
Including the beginning.
I have a post on my personal fave, Theodore Roosevelt, here.
Copies are available at Amazon for over $100. but I found a used copy somewhere on the internet for one dollar.
It's a practical, common-sense introduction to management. Fun to read with all of his examples. His main topics: Authority, Communication, Productivity, Morale, Change.
Previous books in this semester's not-for-credit course:
Dunkin' Donuts 
Interactive 
Pheasant populations 
All about 
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