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.
2:41 Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover.
2:42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival.
2:43 When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it.
2:44 Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day's journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends.
2:45 When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him.
2:46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.
2:47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
2:48 When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety."
2:49 He said to them, "Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?
2:50 But they did not understand what he said to them.
2:51 Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.
2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.
A short film about three antique, wood, triple-cockpit speedboats running together on Lake St. Clair, Michigan. Features a Chris-Craft, a Gar Wood and a Hacker Craft.
Photo via Salt Water New England: When there's no snow or ice, Christmas week is a good time for a hunt in Yankeeland
'They shall not grow old' a box office blowout - for good reason
Meet Bai Shaofeng, a Beijing bachelor looking for love. Shaofeng’s problem — one faced by millions of his countrymen — is a product of cultural preferences, government decree and modern medical technology. In China, there are simply too many men.
I'll just add that I can barely read the news these days (and I absolutely cannot watch it on TV). The negativity toward Trump is so relentless, cluttering up everything. It's crying wolf times a thousand. If anything is worth taking seriously, I'm afraid I won't be able to notice.
These endless Happiness Studies bother me. What is happiness anyway? A warm gun? Seems to me that not feeling depressed or overly-anxious is worth feeling grateful for.
Researchers reported in 2016 that men who ejaculated more frequently were less likely to have prostate cancer—but the researchers didn’t know why. They now believe they have an explanation.
A lot of it is about the problems with elitism. The guy gets it. I'd vote for him for anything, but I think he loves his life as it is. Like Scott Adams, he is not a political dogma guy.
Like Adams, a superb and humble gentleman. Tucker is right: Trump is most most leftist Repub elected in many decades. In fact, he was always a Dem.
Bach's Christmas Oratorio (1734) was written to be performed in 6 parts on 6 days, the first on Christmas Day at both St. Thomas' and St. Nicholas' Churches, Leipzig. (Complete, it runs 3 hours.)
Interestingly, it was what was termed a "parody," that is, a recycling of his previous music which had been written for secular purposes.
Photo is our Christmas card from Uberhof Duer in Bulla, Italy. Dolomites' Val Gardena. Nice place to stay, classic hiking of course and great high skiing. Yes, the food up there is mainly German/Austrian. There is no single Italy.
Betrothed gays looking for wedding cakes and floral arrangements are not just carelessly stumbling into homophobic bakeries and florists. It's an organized campaign consciously targeting particular establishments. That's why no gay couples have wandered into a Muslim patisserie in Dearborn... and, if they did, they'd be the ones in hiding. Tim Cook, the Apple CEO who'll have no truck with hoosier homophobes, is happy to enrich Iran's mullahs so they can build fancier gay gallows on which to hang the sodomites. Muscle respects muscle.
Maggie's Farm is a Stilton cheese place. It's our favorite artery-smoother, although there are hundreds of other cheeses we love too. We also believe that great cheeses should be served after the main course - either instead of dessert or before dessert. (I agree with that article that you can and should eat the rind of cheeses - unless coated with wax or stuff.)
Somebody you know needs a Stilton Spoon. Give them a wheel of cheese to go with it - or what good is the spoon?
I see Williams Sonoma has them. They have the proper spoon, and the cheese too. Who needs bread or crackers? You could eat it right off the spoon like ice cream. (Correction - they don't seem to have them anymore.)
We hear a lot about “male privilege” but historically it has been the “privilege” of men to make their way in the hard world in order to first win a woman’s affections, and then support the family structure financially. We might call this “patriarchy,” but this term isn’t the synonym for misogyny that contemporary progressive political culture seems to think it is. (One has to appreciate the misplaced sincerity of many of my university students who roundly condemn The Patriarchy, while driving their father’s Toyota to campus every day, and using his savings to pay for their tuition. Not infrequently it occurs to me that the people who are most vocal against The Patriarchy are those who have benefited from it the most.)
Photo: Christmas Eve moon over the Maggie's HQ after church and a late Christmas Eve party
The 10 
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DNA tests: