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.
The idea behind this and all liberal logic is that if certain people behave badly toward others, there must be a deep-seated reason which is somebody else’s fault. The solution, then, is not to punish the perpetrators, or even demand they take responsibility for their actions, but rather to understand the source of the personal, financial, social, racial, sexual problems or other factor that elicited those actions — and then to try and force the powers-that-be to “fix” the factor. Is it any wonder this never works?
Enrique Granados drowned in 1916 while attempting to save his wife after their ship was torpedoed by the Germans. He was returning home from a performance for President Wilson.
This weekend, we heard a performance of his Danzas espanolas, written for piano but, in our case, amazingly arranged for harp and guitar. Wow. You don't get to hear that everyday - harp as the melodic instrument, with guitar as back-up. Especially after a very pleasant church picnic hanging out with the brethren. A fine day indeed in Yankeeland, then later a delicious no-carb Asian dinner out with dear friends and their Ivy League math genius daughter. Les tres riche heures du Bird Dog. Did I mention three hours of yard and farm work before church?
The classical guitarist we heard with the harpist has a sideline as a studio rock musician. Mrs. BD said classical guitar is like ballet. If you can do ballet, you can do any other sort of dance easily.
The rondalla is wonderful if you can find it, but this is the "Oriental" bit, arranged, in this case, for two guitars:
... the hard-Left takeover of the Democratic Party has meant that there is no longer a credible balance in our system, as almost all the tenets of contemporary left-wing ideology are blowing up, imploding super nova style — unsustainable ideas that are contrary to human nature and demand coercion for their implementation, given that they are increasingly anti-democratic and have to be implemented from high by an elite technocracy whether in Brussels, Sacramento, or Washington.
Americans hate coercion - especially when "it's for your own good."
It's about scientific integrity and junk science. He insisted that scientists report everything that is wrong with their data and their conclusions - to be their own toughest critics and skeptics and, especially, to report and question their own biases and motivations.
This is an adaption of a 1974 Feynman lecture, via the article at Brain Pickings:
Borders R Us. We are educated amateurs, but we work hard on our borders and, when it comes together, it provides great pleasure and satisfaction to us.
Vegetables? I am getting tired of the effort/production ratio but fresh tomatoes are good if the chipmunks don't gnaw on them first. Trouble is, we don't get tomatoes from the garden until mid-late July.
I saw a Killdeer with three teensy, just-hatched miniature Killdeer chicks running around a large gravel parking lot during my morning walk today.
That was a sight which gladdened my heart and sweetened my soul.
The Killdeer is found, either breeding or wintering, in all states of the US. It's a plover of open ground, and not particularly associated with water like most plovers.
You will never find them in tall grass or woodlands, but you can occasionally see them doing their run-and-pause bug-hunting technique on pebbly shorelines.
Their "killdeer" call, sometimes heard at night, and the rusty flash of tail, are distinctive.
You can read about this not-uncommon bird here. Every good person loves the Killdeer.
When in the chronicle of wasted time I see descriptions of the fairest wights, And beauty making beautiful old rhyme In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights, Then, in the blazon of sweet beauty's best, Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow, I see their antique pen would have express'd Even such a beauty as you master now. So all their praises are but prophesies Of this our time, all you prefiguring; And, for they look'd but with divining eyes, They had not skill enough your worth to sing: For we, which now behold these present days, Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.
“Imagine a world in which hunger is vanquished by crops that don’t depend on the soil, water or fertilizer, or pesticides to thrive; they’re just around the corner.”
The obesity epidemic is a convoluted way of saying that the problem with government health care is the people. But that's not the problem. Obesity may not be healthy, but if we ban sodas and force everyone to exercise in the yard before work, the numbers still won't balance. Because the real problem with government health care is government.
When offering a product or service, the most elementary thing to do is calculate the cost of making the product and the price that people are willing to pay for that product. If you can't bring the two together, then you don't have a product. You have a disaster waiting to happen.
Obama promises the progressive agenda — more executive aggrandizement, more marginalization of Congress, more latitude for unaccountable experts to supervise our lives, more regulatory suffocation of society. Romney promises the reverse.
...consider ... that we were born into the freest, strongest, and wealthiest nation that mankind has ever known—and elected as our president a man who promised to “fundamentally transform” it.
Yes, I think that may have been where we made our mistake. We wished to have an orange for a head.
To the extent that these unions shape the Democratic agenda, Democrats aren’t just the party of government; they are the party of inefficient, expensive, unresponsive, bureaucratic government. They are the party of government workers first and foremost, and if there is a clash between the interests of the providers of government services and their consumers (between, for example, unqualified, unmotivated life-tenured public school teachers and kids), the unions come at these issues from the standpoint of protecting workers first, others second.
In terms of the blue social model, they are the party of the bitter clingers: the power of public sector unions among Democrats is a power that inhibits Democrats from putting forward innovative, future-facing ideas (about schools, health care, and so on) and keeps them focused firmly on the defense of the past.
The left’s analysis of its loss in Wisconsin resorts to some classic tropes: it is despair masked as defiance in order to avoid deep introspection...
A rational Liberal, is Prof. Mead. Slick writer too.
While leaning against a wall sweating after my heroic aerobics the other day, at 5:45 AM, I decided to interview a sweet little (but muscular and fit) trainer about some details on the roughly 60 people who show up when the doors open at 5.
She told me that it is not the same people every day, but it tends to break down like this:
- around 1/3 are Moms who do an early work-out before going home to make breakfast for their kids (while Dad is still home and the kids are sleeping). She said this early-bird approach is increasingly popular with Moms around here, where men typically leave for work at 6 or 6:30. - most of the rest of the folks, 50-50 men and gals - are there before work, with their dress clothes with them on hangers
Plus
- about 7-10 muscular hunks doing weight training - mostly guys but always a couple of gals - and usually an "anorectic or two" on the treadmills
The Second-Rate City?
Ray Bradbury: Enemy of the State
I saw a Killdeer with three teensy, just-hatched miniature Killdeer chicks running around a large gravel parking lot during my morning walk today.
Via Insty, 
