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 less than 40 months, Obama destroyed the greatest bipartisan good will that any recent president has enjoyed, and has done more to discredit Keynesian neo-socialist politics than have all of talk radio, Fox News, and the internet combined. In just two years, he took a Democratic Congress and lost the House in the largest midterm setback since 1938. In other words, the people — fifty percent of whom either do not pay federal income taxes or receive some sort of state or federal entitlement or both — saw the best face of modern neo-socialism imaginable, and they were not quite sold on it.
Second, it is hard to screw up America in just four years. Look at it this way: gas and oil production has soared despite, not because of, the federal government. The rest of the world — the unraveling European Union, the Arab Spring, Putin’s Russia, aging Japan, authoritarian China, the recrudescent Marxism in Latin America — reminds us of American exceptionalism. The verdict from Wisconsin is that the statist model is over. The public union, big pension, non-fireable employee model is left only with an “après nous, le déluge“ sigh. The private sector is not doing fine, but shortly will be when it is assured taxes won’t soar, energy will be cheaper, and Obamacare will cease. The irony is that the last four years have reminded us of what we still can be, and how we differ from most other places in the world.
..."I'll say this, I don't give a damn about your dreams."
Thunder on the Mountain. How good is this? A masterpiece, in my opinion. The punch of the lyrics and the punch of the tune, plus the way the more recent Bob records sound under-produced. "I got the pork chops, she got the pie, she ain't no angel and neither am I..."
No president in memory has done more to divide America than Barack Obama. Exploiting every division for political gain, he has pitted poor against rich, blacks and Hispanics against whites, gays against straights, women against men, young against old, and union members against business and government leaders. Mainstream Americans are tired of these divisions, and they want a president who speaks of "believing in America," not believing in black America, Hispanic America, young America, female America, gay America, or unionized America.
The American people are tired of change. What they want is jobs, better wages, stability, and security.
...you directly imply that I am a “denier”, as I am highly skeptical of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming (not just “anthropogenic global warming”, which is plausible if not measurable, although there are honest grounds to doubt even this associated with the details of the Carbon Cycle that remain unresolved by model or experiment). Since I am a theoretical physicist, I find this enormously offensive. I might as well label you an idiot for using it, when you’ve never met me, have no idea of my competence or the strength of my arguments for or against any aspect of climate dynamics (because on this list I argue both points of view as the science demands and am just as vigorous in smacking down bullshit physics used to challenge some aspect of CAGW as I am to question the physics or statistical analysis or modelling used to “prove” it). But honestly, you probably aren’t an idiot (are you?) and no useful purpose is served by ad hominem or emotionally loaded human descriptors
Well, it's about women but it might as well be about men. In a sense, everybody wants it all, but everbody's "all" is different. Furthermore, there is this annoying thing called reality which always gets in the way of wishes.
If the Supreme Court could decide that a “living constitution” reflected the failures of laissez-faire capitalism in the 1930s, which is what we’re told it did, then why can’t it decide that a living constitution must recognize the failures of big government in the 21st Century?
Most voters don't know what the heck is going on, and don't care very much. We often forget this although in ordinary life we encounter such ignorance every day. Friend Sissy recently objected to my pointing this out, but I will stand by my first-hand impression.
Our readers seem to be highly-informed and engaged about policy, but pols know that such voters do not matter much.
Ilya discusses informed and uninformed (and uninterested) citizenry in his usual charming and amusing way, below:
"The deficit spending the Greek government wants to do is almost-entirely suppressive or neutral to GDP - it is spending by government, for government, on government. The population is shrinking, their internal revenue picture is already dreadful and only getting worse (because they have the worst ratio of producers to consumers of tax funding in the civilized world, and getting worser) and the only way any government of Greece can survive and keep the mayhem in the streets down to acceptable levels is to restore the drunken-sailor approach to public spending that got them into trouble in the first place. This means 14 monthly pension checks a year, retirement at 50 for workers in hazardous trades like hairdressing, and all the other 1,001 ways they managed to bankrupt themselves already."
Obama certainly tilted America leftward, but he didn't do it through inspiration, he did it through deception. This was not an administration that created a new consensus, but one that functioned as its own closed door consensus that it occasionally stepped out to announce to the American People.
Not only didn't Obama win the argument, but he lost the election. Congress snapped back to the right so fast that it might have been a rubber band on steroids. And this was to Obama's advantage because it allowed him to spend the next two years blaming his own laziness, corruption and ineptitude on a Congress which had only tilted right because of him.
...guiding all this would be the world’s premiere political body and bastion of freedom, fairness, democracy and human rights – the UN General Assembly.
To guide this “fundamental” shift toward the sustainability paradigm, the Group laid down eight principles – the key being the “precautionary principle,” which forbids any activity that might involve risk or “do harm.” Its own sustainability prescriptions are, of course, exempted from any reviews under the precautionary principle.
Like a cross between a kayak and a surfboard. Probably invented by cavemen on logs, but new again.
They look like good clean fun. A friend of mine takes her dog on it with her. Her husband fly-fishes for Stripers and Blues off one in Block Island Sound, and looks down on decadent fishermen on comfy boats. I can picture a thrilling Nantucket Sleigh Ride with a fat Striper on the line. Cool ride.
There is always space for new sorts of water fun. I was told that a local joint sold out of them on Father's Day, at $700-2000 per board.
Apparently you can surf on them, if you have some sense of fun, but getting wet is part of it all. Generally, you have to keep your knees bent to do the balancing thing when there's a good chop or wavy gravy, as in skiing or snowboarding. Paddleboards.
The worst economic recovery since World War II that Obama and the Democrats midwifed has exposed the failure of the notion that the government can create economic growth and wealth rather than merely expropriating it from the creative and productive, and that centralized planning and regulating by “experts” can more efficiently allocate resources than the free market does. But more important is the underlying idea of progressivism that Obama’s policies is predicated on: Perfect justice, prosperity, and equality are possible if enlightened elites are given the power to organize and run society according to “scientific” knowledge about human nature and behavior. For two centuries this hubristic idea has led to failure, misery, and murder on a vast scale, yet progressives continue to increase government power in order to create this impossible utopia. Obamacare is just the latest iteration of this frequently demonstrated fallacy that complex human behavior, which reflects the unpredictable free will of millions of unique individuals, can be organized, controlled and regimented in order to achieve some dream-world utopia. That progressives still cling to this exploded idea despite the evidence of history and a disintegrating E.U. shows just how reactionary and blinkered they are.
Those two peacocks 
I am taking Sundays off from my morning links this summer. 
Genius Israeli scientists have produced a 
A History of Women’s Bathing Suits
Sex in the park
Impact of Student Debt on Future Housing Demand
Rules of storytelling
Like a cross between a kayak and a surfboard. Probably invented by cavemen on logs, but new again.