Wednesday, March 5. 2014
 The 40-odd days following Ash Wednesday culminating in the prayer-laden and introspective Easter Vigil are the time when all Christians focus most intently on their relationship with the living Christ, and His role in their lives and in their hearts.
I usually welcome Lent with hope, and excitement about discovering where this year's Lenten journey might lead me. It is the gravitational center of my year.
Plant roots wake up and start growing months before the spring buds begin to swell. Lent is my root-growing time, and I hope it will be that this year.
Tuesday, March 4. 2014
Some of our readers enjoy Allen's movies. I do. My first date with the future Mrs. BD was to see Sleeper. Does the man have any moral foundation? I doubt it. Talent? Undoubtably. What is wrong with the people in the film biz?
A shrink friend sent me this comment:
“Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Dylan and Truth or truth” (Or, “Would you read this if the title didn’t say “Woody Allen.”)
“Truth is truth,” Paddy Chayefsky stated. If only analysts could have that certitude, lost in the past few decades. Truth is relative, “constructed” in the present (transference), not historically accurate. Historical truth doesn’t exist or doesn’t matter at least. Except if a child was sexually molested: then truth matters, the real thing, what happened, was she or he seduced, assaulted. No “relative” here (for truth).But not a simple matter. Let’s listen to Jean Piaget (more neutral than Woody Allen).
Piaget said that for much of his childhood, he “remembered” that when he was in the pram with his nurse as an infant, he was kidnapped. Then, some years later, his nurse revealed that he had not been kidnapped; she simply hadn’t paid attention and his pram rolled away. He still “felt” that he was kidnapped, even as he learned the historical truth that he hadn’t been.
Now, Allen and Farrow (for this is mostly a tragedy that results from their stunning animosity); their children suffer from what the U.S. Army would call “friendly fire” (about nothing which is friendly when your shot dead). Their young adult adopted daughter is cited by a columnist as an example of someone molested by her father in childhood and the aftereffects into adulthood. But, Allen cites an extensive evaluation at Yale Child Study Center at the time of the alleged molest, that showed that she was likely not molested by father. If they are to believed, if our Yale colleagues are to be trusted to some degree, then we learn at least three things.
First, the now young adulthood victim believes that she was molested; she is a victim of animosity between her parents. Second, we learn respect for the adherence between love and hate (as Freud suggested); how love turns to hate when a “divorce” occurs.
Second, Farrow, married at nineteen to Andre Previn, has such animosity to Allen that she would make enduring accusations at the expense of her children’s well-being (her older son confirms that mother told the children to turn against their father).
And third, perhaps Allen’s last word on this may be dismissed by some.
Perhaps all that is left to us at this point is to recognize that some “truths” are not so relative; ain’t important. Truth about life events can really count. When we work with children molested, helping them recognize the true events of their, to explain why they feel and live the way they do, is one significant factor in this work.
Two parents rain animosity at each other over the decades; their children are shot down in this crossfire.
Mrs. BD recommends this (free) Lenten devotional series: Devotions for Lent
I will do it.
A parenting website with attitude: Free Range Kids
Monday, March 3. 2014
 Michelle Obama: America's Moms Are 'Confused and Bewildered,' 'Defeated' by Grocery Shopping
Lego Tops U.S. Toymaker Rivals as Full-Year Sales Jump 10%
Small-Time City in Vermont Has Big-Time Heroin Problem
Announcing a New Book! Heading Out On Your Own: 31 Basic Life Skills in 31 Days
How to Pick Your Life Partner
Bwahahaha 101 Week at College Insurrection
Can human nature be discussed on campus?
Dear America, you’re too smart to listen to Beyonce
Man sues McDonald´s for $1.5 million after being given only one napkin
Atheism’s radical new heroes: Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and an evolving new moral view
The Insiders: Liberals are destroying the planet
Obama Administration to Distribute 13,000 Armored Mine-Resistant Vehicles to Police Units Around the US
Michigan Township To Put Cameras ‘In Every Neighborhood’
Why the Grahams sold the WaPo
‘We Need to Quit Acting So Freaking Defeated’: Dems Plot Blue Creep in Deep South
Putin Smashes Washington’s Cocoon
Ukraine: The Haze of Propaganda
The Upcoming Fifth Anniversary of Hillary’s Reset Button
Despite proven academic success of NYC’s charter schools, the mayor and unions have started a war on city’s charter kids
Pielke: John Holdren's Epic Fail
“As a journalist, you weigh how much you should criticize the president because he’s black.”
Dog-Killing Afghan Refugee to Swedes: “Throw Me Out and I’ll Kill 10 of You”
Germany’s Energiewende: A Path to Economic Self-Destruction
John Fund:
George W. Bush famously told Colin Powell, his secretary of state, that he thought the Russian leader was religious. “Powell, I looked into Putin’s eyes and I saw his soul.” To which Powell replied: “Mr. President, I looked into President Putin’s eyes and I saw the KGB.”
Sunday, March 2. 2014
 Mrs. BD and I have liked Barbetta for many years. It's on the theater district's Restaurant Row, and it's been in the same townhouse, and owned by the same family, since 1906.
Food is mainly Piedmontese, no red sauces and only one pasta on the menu. I had the rabbit with a white wine sauce as secondi and so did the pupette, while she explained to us the basic architecture of successful playwriting from Aristotle to Beckett (it's always been the same because it works, even for screen writing - we had just seen a fairly OK production of Measure For Measure at The New Vic. She explained that Godot had perfect structure but no content - which was the point. For me, Godot sticks in my head but I don't really want or need it to).
Their pre- or post-theater prix-fixe menu is very reasonable if you pass on their amazing wine list. The upstairs dining is cozy, the downstairs is elegant but simple. The jewels that can be hidden inside simple old brownstones are always surprising to me. They also have a small garden.
Reservations absolutely required and appropriate adult attire is expected but the family which owns it has run a relaxed, highly-attentive, and cheerful, comfortable joint for over 100 years.
 I stumbled on these, and they sound good to me:
Lamb Shank Posole
African Chicken Peanut Stew
Matthew 17:1-9
17:1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves.
17:2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.
17:3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.
17:4 Then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
17:5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!"
17:6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.
17:7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be afraid."
17:8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.
17:9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, "Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."
Saturday, March 1. 2014
Two signs seen in the bustling NYC theater district this afternoon:
To A Skylark
Hail to thee blithe spirit!
Bird thou never wert -
That from heaven or near it
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.
Higher still and higher
From the earth thou springest,
Like a cloud of fire;
The blue deep thou wingest,
And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.
In the golden light'ning
Of the sunken sun,
O'er which clouds are bright'ning,
Thou dost float and run,
Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.
The pale purple even
Melts around thy flight;
Like a star of heaven,
In the broad daylight
Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight.
Keen as are the arrows
Of that silver sphere
Whose intense lamp narrows
In the white dawn clear,
Until we hardly see, we feel that it is there.
Read the rest of this remarkable poem below:
Continue reading "Saturday Verse: Percy Bysshe Shelley "
Friday, February 28. 2014
Hiking to the backside of the mountain for the gnarly untouched off-trail runs. Windy up there.
Thursday, February 27. 2014
A reason to walk your dog: California couple finds $10 million in buried treasure while walking dog
Farrow, After Three Days on the Air, Receives Cronkite Award
Why are educated adults slim - Causation or selection?
Zero Tolerance Teaches Students Important Lessons About Authority: Don’t Share Information, Don’t Consent to Searches
Do Schools Need To Learn a Lesson about gender from... Facebook?
Good grief
NY Middle School Girls Forced to Ask Classmates for “Lesbian Kiss” Pretend Like They Are On a Date
Whole Foods, Junk Science, and the National Pseudo-Intelligentsia
Why Our Nutrition Facts Need an Overhaul
Dem Candidate Admits Immigration Reform A Cheap Labor Import
Obama's New Asylum Decree Favors Muslims Over Christians
“Cow Sex” Pervert Judge Orders YouTube to Remove “Innocence of Muslims” Trailer
The Period Of No Global Warming Will Soon Be Longer Than the Period of Actual Global Warming
An Open Letter to CNN’s Carol Costello on ‘Why are we still debating climate change?’
Could A Carbon Tax Have Prevented The 1815 Hurricane In Providence?
Increased domestic spending may be behind proposed military cuts, CBO report suggests
Obama Asks Court To Make NSA Database Even Bigger
Ed. by Podhoretz: The New War on Israel: And How to Fight Back
France's Reckoning: Rich, Young Flee Welfare State:
When France's richest man, Bernard Arnault, announced he was leaving over France's new 75 percent super tax on the rich, he got the journalistic equivalent of a kick out the door.
"The full headline in [the Leftist newspaper] Liberation was, 'Get lost, you rich b***d,'" Moutet recalled. "In this country the general attitude in the media, on television, etc., is that bosses are wrong, companies are wrong, and creating business is dubious at best and dishonest at worst."
France is being battered by both a brain drain and capital flight and risks becoming one of the poorer nations in Western Europe.
Big Sky seems like a popular place to ski these days, especially for very experienced skiiers. A friend sent me a pic of him skiing off-trail last week, explaining "I am the tiny blue dot in the photo."
Wednesday, February 26. 2014
Some insecurity goes a long way toward successful students
Dalrymple: Everybody is trying to collect my personal info
Mom and her kids visit an art gallery
Respecting husbands
Does the 1st Amendment apply to students?
Student Diversity Group at Dartmouth Threatens Physical Action if Demands Aren’t Met
Good grief
How is your state doing with its government pensions?
Long but good: What Killed Egyptian Democracy?
Extracted from our commenter Taquiya
Unbeknownst to you, I am surrounded by people who claim to identify with the tea party and/or go to the meetings. Most of my family , extended family, friends and associates for starters. When I ask them what they are willing to do to stop the runaway federal spending, they have nothing to offer. Well, they want their taxes reduced a bit. Maybe ease back a bit on defense spending, maybe. But not the veteran's benefits. Most of them resent the welfare queens and food stamp recipients and most of them won't say so out loud. Most are not thrilled with the bank bailouts. But, not one of them is willing to stop paying taxes. None of them would touch 95% of the federal budget. None of them would surrender any of their own federally funded benefits. So, where does that leave us? It leaves us with the conclusion that the members of the tea party want their goodies and are willing to pay enough tax dollars to keep them. But they don't want to pay for some of the goodies other people get. It's just simple logic.
It may be that you don't quite grasp the extent of the gravy train. Or maybe you have so much money, it just doesn't matter? The federal spending train subsidizes nearly everything in this country. And I mean everything. Would you really put all those people out of work - at one stroke? If so, the anarchists would love to have you join their group.
Educated Mainstream: The Bastion
of Western anti-Semitism
Venezuela Violence and Latin America's Divide
Analysis: Venezuela’s violence, Cuba’s ‘farce,’ and Marco Rubio’s milestone speech
The Stakes in
Ukraine - Putin's "Eurasionist" dreams threaten us all
The story of a remarkable reporter: Political Hatred in Argentina - An Interview with Uki Goñi
Tuesday, February 25. 2014
Roughly as I predicted, our blackbirds arrived sometime last night - over a week late. They all made a racket at 5 am on my way to the gym. That's proof of global cooling.
Also at my feeder today along with the usual (Cardinals, Song Sparrows, Titmice, W-T Sparrows, Blue Jays, and House Finches, and an occasional Carolina Wren) a handsome Fox Sparrow. Haven't seen one in quite a while. A pleasure to see the guy on his way to the far north.
Monday, February 24. 2014
The future of Windows: where will Microsoft take its OS next?
Maria von Trapp, last of famous singing siblings, dies at 99
Top Ten Pistols of The World (vid)
After 400 Years, Math Finds New Class of Shape
Angels Unawares: A Baby Box
The Woes of Wall Street: Why Young Bankers Are So Miserable
EPA Wood-stove Proposal Prompts Rural Backlash
But it's biofuel
There have been times when the CNN host Piers Morgan didn’t seem to like America very much — and American audiences have been more than willing to return the favor
Asylum Fraud in Chinatown: An Industry of Lies
A lively place, full of criminals
McGill faces massive backlash after ‘ridiculous’ apology for microaggression over emailed joke Obama clip
Update: Homeland Security Says It’s Canceling the Plan to Track Our License Plates
Gee thanks, KGB. I blame Bush for creating this monstrosity.
Mandatory Government Training for Parents in People’s Republic of New York
NY State Steps Up Its Surveillance on… Little Kids
THE IRS SCANDAL: TIMELINE
Big Government and Tipping Points: Is America Doomed to Become a Failed European-Style Welfare State?
How a Fanatical Environmentalist Deliberately Caused UK Flooding
I blame global cooling
Democrats, FDA Going After Electronic Cigarettes
Why?
Progressive Insanity and the Global Warming Cult
Grim Times for Gun Grabbers
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Photo from Bookworm's
You Thought You Were Educated
Wild beavers 