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.
51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
51:2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
51:3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
51:4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
51:5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
51:6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
51:8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
51:9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
51:11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
51:12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
Biden administration limits what Border Patrol can share with media about migrant surge at border. Restrictions on what border agents can share with the media were passed down verbally, say officials. Some have released videos of the border surge anyway.
Dead Sea scroll discovery brings tantalizing prospect of more yet to be found. With another 20 promising caves to be excavated — and 25% more of the Judean Desert still to be surveyed — stunning finds in Cave of Horror unlikely to be the last
Anthony Fauci’s Brand of Truth Telling - When asked by MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough to relate some of the lessons he’s learned as the face of the nation’s COVID-19 response over the last 13 months, Dr. Anthony Fauci had one lesson to relate: Tell the truth.
The CDC Thinks 2-Year-Olds Should Wear Masks in Schools, Even If Everyone Else Is Vaccinated. The CDC's new guidance for child care facilities is practically begging to be ignored.
Traditional American values have long been under attack by social justice warriors, cultural Marxists advancing the insidious tenets of critical theory. Their “long march through the institutions” has infiltrated schools, universities, entertainment, the mass media, the courts, politics, and beyond. One might assume that business, adhering to the Milton Friedman doctrine of maximizing returns for shareholders, would be insulated from their malign agenda. But that assumption is no longer valid, according to Stephen Soukup’s recent book The Dictatorship of Woke Capital: How Political Correctness Captured Big Business. He illuminates how ‘progressive’ forces have insinuated themselves into regulatory agencies, the finance industry, and corporate America, jeopardizing capital markets and the free-market system itself.
2:2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.
2:3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.
2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us
2:5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--
2:6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
2:7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God--
2:9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
2:10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
In a recent Manhattan Contrarian article, my dad pointed out that, by their own admission, the worst racists in our country are academics in our elite colleges and universities. Even as they make more and more efforts to improve their “diversity and inclusion” with committees, trainings, seminars, course curriculums, and town halls — just to name a few — by their own assessment, this has only resulted in more “systemic racism,” “oppression,” and “white supremacy.” Since that’s the case, it is time to question whether the model of elite-institutions-practicing-diversity-and-inclusion can ever bring society even one step closer to racial harmony — its stated intention — or if it’s only an exercise in punishment and disunion.
We aren’t supposed to care anymore about how the FBI ginned up the conspiracy theory about Donald Trump and “Russian collusion.” The damage is done, and there are thousands of people who unthinkingly take as a given that Trump was a Putin puppet. They’re impossible to talk to. I’m reminded of the old saying about never trying to teach a pig to sing. (It wastes your time and annoys the pig).
Bordewich's other book, The First Congress, is another page-turner and an eye-opener. For example, the so-called First Amendment was not given pride of place because it was viewed as the most important. Instead, the First Amendment, as originally drafted, failed to pass so this one was swapped in at the last minute.
I also am a member of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which I heartily recommend. It sponsors very interesting periodic ZOOM lectures and is raising money to save Stevens' house in Lancaster, PA.
2:13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2:14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.
2:15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
2:16 He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!"
2:17 His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me."
2:18 The Jews then said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?"
2:19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
2:20 The Jews then said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?"
2:21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body.
2:22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
The Maggie's Fitness for Life Program is of course somewhat controversial. All fitness programs are.
Our program is 2 days/wk of heavy weights, 2 days of calisthenics, and 2 days of cardio (meaning heart stress - HIIT, jump rope, stair machine, etc).
Besides plain obsessionalism, I do heavy weights twice/week with a trainer, and no need for a trainer for the other things. Right now, I need to be pushed hard with heavy and he is needed for that. Rightly or wrongly, he pushes me past my limits.
We do not prefer tough calis on the day before weights because tough calis need a bit of recovery too, and for the over-40 crowd maybe a bit more than 24 hrs.
Anybody with a touch of gray, I believe, needs 2 days of recovery after lifting heavy. Calis and cardio more or less count for that.
Our readers know that the Maggie's Farm Fitness for Life Program includes two days of calisthenics, and that we view calis as valuable for toughness and athleticism, but not so much for strength-building.
(It is best not to do calis on the day before a weights day.)
The big owls - around here Great Horned and Barred - have already nested,
The Nazi-Fighting Women of the Jewish Resistance - 
Book Review: 
Harvard's Plan to Blot Out the Sun Is a Great Idea, 
Scientists may have solved ancient mystery of 'first computer'.