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.
In case you're looking for some lightweight Sunday fun, I added four horrific disaster vids to my Special Vids page yesterday:
Crossroads — Two airliners defy all odds and collide in mid-air. What makes it interesting is that it wasn't the usual faulty part or pilot error this time around. It was cultural.
Flying On Empty — As much as I like powered flight, I like the concept of gliding even more. The fact that this particular glider weighs 264,000 pounds just makes it all the more fun.
The Gimli Glider — Speaking of 264,000-pound gliders, do you know what 'slipping' an airplane is? It's a little hard to describe. Try "flying sideways — on purpose." See picture below. According to the vid, this was the first time an airliner without power had ever gone into such a heavy slip during a landing. And survived.
Mistaken Identity — Okay, so how does one of the most modern warships in the U.S. Navy mistake a gigantic civilian airliner for a twenty-times-tinier, ten-times-quicker enemy jet fighter and shoot it down?
Damn good question.
Home site is here, art gallery is here, Special Vids page is here. Enjoy!
This airliner is coming directly at you — sideways
Kids know that weirdos are weirdos. Life is not fair. Never was, never will be. I feel sorry for the outlier kids. Painful, but builds character. My kids generally have been embracing of the outliers.
The Killing - The battle to define Mitt Romney is over—and Romney lost
Too genteel to punch back? Should call them out as liars and as degrading politics. "Your campaign is disgusting and beneath the dignity of American politics. Shame on you."
6:35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
6:41 Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven."
6:42 They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?"
6:43 Jesus answered them, "Do not complain among yourselves.
6:44 No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day.
6:45 It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.
6:46 Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.
6:47 Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.
6:48 I am the bread of life.
6:49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
6:50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as his Vice-Presidential running mate sets up a stark choice for the voters come November.
Many of us would have liked to have a running mate who would bring fire-and-brimstone along with humor to puncture the Obamaists' pretensions and lies. On the other hand, especially with the legacy media so in the tank for Obama and with Obama's V-P Biden already so widely seen as a clown, that would have played on Obama's field of seeming buffoonery. Romney, instead, has chosen to appeal to the thinking electorate who realize that we're in deep trouble and to offer them solutions that are drenched in facts. Romney knows that Obama will appeal to his base of know-nothings and gimmee-mores. Romney's choice appeals to the rest of us. That isn't to say that Paul Ryan will be boring. Just remember how Ryan confronted Obama to his face and dismantled him on Obamacare. And, have no doubt that the outside PACs and commentators who have exposed the recent and ongoing Obama smears will continue to raise them to ridicule that even the legacy media can't ignore.
The stark choice will become more and more evident, between continuing the policies that haven't worked and sink us deeper and insult decency and common-sense versus policies that with dignity further our initiative and freedom to excel.
If the average American can’t handle complexity in his or her own life, and only government experts can … then government must direct the average American about how to live his or her life. Freedom becomes a diminishing good. But there’s a major flaw in this “progressive’” argument, and it’s this. It assumes there must be someone or some few who do have all the knowledge and information. We just have to find, train, and hire them to run the government’s agencies.
Friedrich Hayek called this collectivism’s “fatal conceit.” The idea that a few bureaucrats know what’s best for all of society, or possess more information about human wants and needs than millions of free individuals interacting in a free market is both false and arrogant. It has guided collectivists for two centuries down the road to serfdom — and the road is littered with their wrecked utopias. The plan always fails!
Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots. Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills We trekked and picked until the cans were full, Until the tinkling bottom had been covered With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.
We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre. But when the bath was filled we found a fur, A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache. The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour. I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot. Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.
Eastham, Wellfleet, and Truro aren't fancy. At least, they are not pretentious or social-climbing summer colonies. Nobody wears red pants or pants with whales on them, and even the rich folks inhabit very humble dwellings. Unlike the islands (Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket), you do not have to spend $10,000/week for summer rentals.
Nevertheless, tons of good fun family-friendly seafood restaurants, and lots of live music at night. It's altogether cheerful and jolly, full of happy, sunburned, and mostly attractive, fit, modest, and presentable folks (ie it ain't Snooki's Jersey Shore). Just right for me.
As much as I love the Farm in the Berkshire countryside, in the summer the sand and salt and piney woods and cheerful people and chilly water and seafood suit me best. Always will have a hold on my heart.
This old fishing and shipping village was in its heyday in the 1870s, when the train came through town. I believe this building began its life as a salt cod and shellfish warehouse - reader corrected me - a Lorenzo Dow Baker banana warehouse:
The Atlantic has an article this month with the title “Americans Want to Live in a Much More Equal Country (They Just Don’t Realize It).” I am always curious when intellectuals announce that the people (who in the American constitutional system serve as the sovereign power) don’t know what’s good for them (What’s the Matter with Kansas?) or don’t even know what they want.
Implicit in all of these revelations, of course, is the firmest, if never directly expressed, belief of the Left: That the average person is too stupid to run his own life, let alone make public policy decisions. Those few, those happy few, that band of liberal intellectuals, must do that for them.
The author of the Atlantic article, Dan Ariely—a professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke—divided the American population into quintiles according to wealth. He then asked a representative sample of more than 5,000 Americans to guess how the country’s wealth was distributed amongst these quintiles.
He doesn’t say exactly how he determined the population’s wealth. Are the hundreds of billions of dollars in union and government pension funds that will fund the retirement of millions of blue-collar and government workers considered an asset of those workers? I’d guess not.
You can rent kayaks cheap at Gull Pond. Gull Pond connects to two other ponds, so you can have a nice time paddling around for a few hours and jump in the water any time you feel too warm. You can bring a picnic, too. Entirely pleasant despite my aversion to unsalted water. Had a chat with a fellow there from Maine. Complained to me that the water was too warm to be refreshing, but his kids seemed to love it.
No powerboats are allowed on any Cape "ponds." That's a welcome community policy. They are really small lakes.
Neat thing about Wellfleet: Lakes, harbor, ocean and bay within a mile's drive or bike. Lots of different ways to play in the water. What else is there to do in the summer, besides reading books and playing tennis? August is my personal Robert Parker Fest.
Next trip, I will bring camera, rent a kayak, and paddle around Nauset Marsh in Eastham at high tide and check out the wildlife. Gosh, I sure do love being up there in the piney woods and the cool salty air. Thankful, too, that both of my parents can still enjoy it. Yes, my Mom still kayaks and chows down on Littleneck clams and Wellfleet Oysters. Dad is a bit too rickety for kayaks but his brain is as Yankee-acerbic as ever.
I missed young Carl's ("Buddy") several TV appearances on the weekend, but had a chance to attend an all-male dinner get-together with him at an excellent steak house's private dining room last night. Good fun, and a jolly good bunch of fellows. Brought the lad with me.
The restaurant staff stood in the back and listened with fascination.
Now that Buddy has retired from the Navy, he can say whatever he wants, and he sure does. SEALs do not worry about political correctness.
I notice that his book is #941 on Amazon. Not bad for a kid who hated school and just wanted to do things.
Mrs. BD and I listen to Teaching Company cds in the car. Well, it's called "Great Courses" now.
Best college course I ever sat in on is Bob Greenberg's How to Listen to and Understand Great Music. It's on sale now. I cannot express how absorbing and wonderful he is to listen to. It's life-changing, even for somebody musically-disabled like me.
Handel wrote Messiah - 50 gem-like and unforgettable tunes - in 24 days.
School education isn't everything in life. There are many important things to know that cannot be learned in school. As parents, we all try to ensure that our kids acquire basic life skills to help them enjoy life and to participate fully in life.
What makes life interesting is that all parents have different ideas about this.
Here's my first stab at making a list of the things we have expected our kids to know how to do - or at least to give it a good try - before turning 18 (guys and gals):
- Handle firearms safely - Ride and groom a horse - Play a musical instrument and sight-read - Achieve some level of competence with at least one sport which can be played throughout life - Learn CPR, and basic lifesaving, water safety, and mastery of basic swimming strokes - Handle a sailboat and a powerboat with at least basic safety and effectiveness - Display appealing and engaging table and cocktail party manners - Strong familiarity with our religion - whether they believe or not - Manage their own money safely, and learn how to save it - Internalize our (sub-) cultural codes of conduct, from dress codes to effective job interviewing - How to prune trees, hedges, and shrubs - How to cook a good number of basic foods - How to cut, split, and stack firewood - and for boys, chain saw expertise - How to start a fire - How to (try to) catch fish and shoot a duck or pheasant. And clean them, too. - How to handle a tractor safely on New England hills - Row a boat, paddle a canoe - How to identify at least basic plants, wildlife, habitat types, and rock formations - How to travel in foreign countries - Vegetable gardening - Drive a standard transmission vehicle, change the oil, check the anti-freeze, inflate tires - At least basic understanding of household basics like painting, power tools, hammers and screw-drivers, making cement, etc. - Know the basic laws, and how not to break them - Know how not to get lost in the woods, and use of a compass - How to select friends - How to be an informed citizen and to participate in one's community
That's a start. I know that some of it is somewhat culture-specific to our lives, but it seems to me that all of these would come in handy for anybody.
The Science of How Music Enchants the Brain, Animated
John 6:35, 41-51
Rhino poachers
Blackberry Picking
I missed young Carl's ("Buddy") several TV appearances on the weekend, but had a chance to attend an all-male dinner get-together with him at an excellent steak house's private dining room last night. Good fun, and a jolly good bunch of fellows. Brought the lad with me.