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.
For those keeping score at home, that is one old corrupt white woman against a female former CEO of a Fortune 500 company, a brain surgeon who is black, a former TV host and governor, the longest serving Governor of Texas, the Indian-American Governor of Louisiana, and we already have a doctor turned Senator, two Hispanic Senators, and we are waiting on the former Governor of Florida who speaks Spanish and is married to a lovely lady from Mexico, not to mention the very successful Governor of Wisconsin. There may be more.
Let me say something obvious: if you're paying $500,000 or $750,000 for Bill Clinton, you're not paying for a canned speech from an old man most of whose vague pronouncements have already been well-documented and are trite to the point of agony.
We had our annual crew of 6 (legal) immigrants helping me get my Springtime outdoor to-do list done this weekend. It's amazing what 6 or 7 guys with all the right tools can get done in 7 hours.
I am grateful for these high energy, botanically-knowledgeable guys doing the work which, apparently, Americans do not want to do. It is highly pleasurable to feel effective on a large scale.
15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.
15:2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.
15:3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.
15:4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
15:6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
15:8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
God spede the plow And send us all corne enow Our purpose for to mak At crow of cok Of the plwlete of Sygate Be mery and glade Wat Goodale this work mad
Our doctrine here at Maggie's HQ is that charcoal grills are good for some things (corn on the cob, burgers, hot dogs, turkey, barbecue stuff, Bluefish, Striped Bass, grilled vegetables), but only cast iron is for good steaks (eg ribeye, NY strip, porterhouse. I will not eat London Broil). Readers know that ribeye is my favorite by far. In our current dietary regime, one thick ribeye makes the foundation for 4 substantial meals, probably with some left over.
Well, thus far my posture is better, I stand taller, I am visibly stronger when observed nude-nekked, I feel lighter on my feet, I lost 6 lbs. mostly around my gut that I did not really need to lose, and my need for sleep has gone from around 5 hrs to 6 hrs. I do miss some carbs, still, but I resist. Lots of slices of steak, tuna, hard-boiled eggs, steamed summer squash, and spinach with oil and garlic. He said one half a fruit per day but I don't really like fruit unless I pick it from the tree.
Anyway, fruit is nothing but sugar. It's not "healthy" - it is dessert.
Trainer believes my natural healthy condition is semi-wiry - neither buff nor soft.
It helps that Mrs. BD is on the same routine. She asks me whether I have pain from the workouts. She does. I do not - just total physical fatigue. That's a feeling I actually enjoy. Trainer ramps up the demands every time, 3x/wk.
Dead lifts? I told the guy why I thought they call them that. They f-ing kill you. Sheesh. My language does lapse into the colorful sometimes in that torture chamber.
Trainer says I am still not ready to do his in-between day program on my own time - need day off for muscle recovery. I do. But I will not go gentle into a dark night of sloth even if it kills me.
What is it? Intensive total body workout for strength and conditioning combining aerobic and resistance, with 15-30 second breaks between challenges. That's why they call it "boot camp."You have to get an echo stress test before beginning to minimize the odds of croaking on the floor.
It's a physical and mental adventure.
Do I need all of this? Yes, trust me. I had gotten a little soft and lazy but not fat. Do I like it? Yes and no. More no than yes. An Eat Your Spinach thing. Trainer/torturer is a good, funny fellow (country boy from Ohio who moved east and discovered the glories and fun and seashores of the northeast and of NYC) so that helps. Most enjoyable part is crawling out of the place at 6:15am to get to work.
Will give an update in another few weeks, but I will be moving furniture with my lad this weekend and I can do that, no problem, as long as I don't fall down the stairs.
If you were a man of forty-five, employed, not actually a serial killer, and had fewer than five nostrils, you did well. The women, though desperate, were often attractive, smart, good-looking, warm-blooded, and great people.
The recent revelations about the Clinton slush fund has reminded
everyone that the very worst said about the Clintons is the tip of the
iceberg. There’s always more slime under the next stone.
I been double-crossed now for the very last time and now I'm finally free I kissed goodbye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me You'll never know the hurt I suffered not the pain I raise above And I'll never know the same about you your holiness or your kind of love And it makes me feel so sorry.
Idiot wind blowing through the buttons of our coats Blowing through the letters that we wrote Idiot wind blowing through the dust upon our shelves We're idiots babe It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves.
...a closer look at the numbers shows a mere 13% of program expenses — and just 10% of total spending — went for grants and aid. And despite its global pretensions, most of the aid stayed in the U.S. The rest went to salaries, conferences, travel and other overhead costs.
In fact, the Clinton Foundation was more generous to conference organizers than the poor. The IRS filing shows it spent $9 million on conferences, conventions and meetings, compared to $8.9 million in aid.
View of the upstairs barn apartment at the farm. Three bedrooms, 2 baths, 1930s-style eat-in kitchenette, and living room. Lots of closets. Knotty pine walls. Very pleasant 1000 sq. ft. quarters. Tractors downstairs. Too bad the view down the hill to the farmhouse and river washed out in my pic. The barn needs lots of exterior repairs, though.
For starters, new roof, a bit of new siding, and better insulation would all be good. And a paint job. Heavily leaded red barn paint, please. (You can easily buy the lead paint additive online. Lead-free exterior paint is terrible. As my brother-in-law says, any kid who would chew on the exterior wood of a barn has to be retarded already.) A couple of modern toilets would be nice too.
The farmhouse itself is in mostly good condition.
Maintenance will kill ya unless you can, and have time to, do it yourself. Ownership of places and things can be a life burden and a spiritual burden, as Thoreau often observed.
So much for the terror tactics, which have never worked anyway except on the ignorant. We're in a mild inter-glacial, but not really. Technically, we are still in an ice age.
How does it happen that a properly endowed natural scientist comes to concern himself with epistemology? Is there no more valuable work in his specialty? I hear many of my colleagues saying, and I sense it from many more, that they feel this way. I cannot share this sentiment….
Concepts that have proven useful in ordering things easily achieve such an authority over us that we forget their earthly origins and accept them as unalterable givens. Thus they come to be stamped as “necessities of thought,” “a priori givens,” etc. The path of scientific advance is often made impassable for a long time through such errors. For that reason, it is by no means an idle game if we become practiced in analyzing the long commonplace concepts and exhibiting those circumstances upon which their justification and usefulness depend, how they have grown up, individually, out of the givens of experience. By this means, their all-too-great authority will be broken.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
Peter Francisco, 
A friend sent that pic of the Greenfield Hill (in Fairfield, CT) Congregational Church's annual Dogwood Festival this weekend
A surprising life: 
145 Intellectuals Agree: Dead Cartoonists Aren't Worthy of Free-Speech 
Pssst: 
American Jacobins: 
Well, thus far my posture is better, I stand taller, I am visibly stronger when observed nude-nekked, I feel lighter on my feet, I lost 6 lbs. mostly around my gut that I did not really need to lose, and my need for sleep has gone from around 5 hrs to 6 hrs. I do miss some carbs, still, but I resist. Lots of slices of steak, tuna, hard-boiled eggs, steamed summer squash, and spinach with oil and garlic. He said one half a fruit per day but I don't really like fruit unless I pick it from the tree.
