Maggie's Farm

"Happiness" is a hopelessly vague term. However, feeling miserable, anxious, and depressed is not happy. Unhappy is thus easier to define.

Really, Scott Adams is preaching here (at about the 40-minute point) about how to make your life good, or better. It is not very much about race.

New England is enjoying a gentle and lovely Nor'easter today. Breezy and snowy, but not violent at all and it does not really qualify as a "storm." It's weather, not "bad weather."

Why, one might ask, are cyclones travelling to the northeast named after winds coming from the northeast? Well, it's because the winds in the cyclone blowing up from the southeest are usually offshore as the storm, as these typically do, travels up the coast. Image below from this site.

Offshore, therefore, the winds are more likely to be from the southwest - wet winds. However, a Sou'wester is any southwest wind. The big cyclonic storm are still called Nor'easters, as in Perfect Storm. Here's a real Sou'wester (the hat):

Here

He offers a summary of his career. One quote:

 My most widely-read book, The Three Languages of Politics, mentions McRaney, as well as Haidt. It gives a simple model of conservatism, progressivism, and libertarianism. One emphasizes civilization vs. barbarism, the second emphasizes oppressed vs. oppressors, and the third emphasizes liberty vs. state coercion. These are not grand political philosophies, but they indicate the type of language that each tribe is drawn to. These languages serve as war whoops to denounce other tribes.

Mrs. BD had a tough week with four days and nights of meetings in NYC, then moving my in-laws to a new elderly place an hour away from here in the last 2 days (boxes and boxes of stuff, then computers, lamps, comfy chairs, pictures, and more boxes, big TVs, moving guys, hospital bed, etc).

So I asked her what might please her tonight. She said "Funny you ask, cuz Beef Bourguignon was on my mind". I like making stews, so ok. I make these things on the fly, no measurements. Always works. French chef taught me to cook soup and stew by instinct and taste. It should be ready by the time she gets home from the old folk's home tonight. Yes, I did send my father-in-law some more nice vino to keep the old guy happy. The wines they serve at the old folks home are disgusting, and old guys need the wine for good cheer.

- Around 1 or or 2 lbs. of chuck, cut into 1-2 inch chunks. Flour them, then brown quickly in butter and/or bacon. Toss them into a pot or crock pot with a container of beef broth and begin the long simmer.

-  Grab a handful of thyme twigs from the garden and throw them in. I would have tied them as a garni but could not find the string. Then plenty of salt and pepper in the pot. Semi-chopped parsley too.

- Cut up a bag of carrots into roughly 1-2" lengths and throw them in.

- Sautee one or two chopped big onions with a bunch of garlic cloves, and throw them in.

-  Throw in a bottle, of half-bottle, of decent red wine. The really cheap stuff does not work. My friend uses some port too, but why waste it?

- Throw in some good squirts of ketchup if you are out of tomato paste.

- Throw in a glob of grape jelly and a splash of wine vinegar.

- Quarter a big or small box of brown mushrooms, and toss in. I always always throw in a handful of dried porcinis too (affordable on Amazon). Wow - porcinis are a flavor for the kitchen gods.

- Keep all covered with more wine, stock, or water. Crock pot never needs that.

- Towards the end of simmering or crock pot (a few hours - too long is better than too little), I throw in a bag of frozen pearl onions. I love them.

- Really close to the end, I throw in a bag of frozen peas. For color I guess.

- Serve on/with rice or egg noodles. I like egg noodles but noticed that we are out of 'em. If the juice is too thin, thicken it a bit.

Roman food, including a Flamingo Stew

A cheery post. Still, we have to live now.

An author sent me this note received from the CEO of the (US) Author's Guild:

Dear all,

I am disheartened and deeply troubled by the insensitivities and refusal to listen that I saw in some of the comments that were posted in the thread titled "When is discrimination against authors by race not discrimination by authors about race?" 

This forum is open to all members, and all need to feel welcome and respected. Going forward, posts that are insensitive to the historical and current hardships experienced by BIPOC and LGBTQ+ authors will be removed under our current terms of service: (https://authorsguild.org/terms-of-use/), and the person posting it will receive a strike.

A reminder that the AG Council adopted a resolution to try to address the imbalances and lack of equity in publishing, and that it is current AG policy to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, both internally and in the organizations' respective programmatic work.

See https://authorsguild.org/about/principles/our-commitment-to-diversity-equity-inclusion-and-accessibility/

The Guild will offer DEIA training to all members, and I encourage all to take it, especially if you are not familiar with the inequality and bias that BIPOC authors continue to experience today. You might find it mind-opening. We like to believe that we live in a country where all are treated equally and have equal opportunity, but we are still so far from that ideal. As writers, you have the power to change minds and so to change the world for the better. I behoove you to use your gifts to help lift us reach the American ideal of equality. 

Authors today have so many challenges in front of us. We must support one another and unite to face them. Intentional divisiveness has no place in the AG, and should not be tolerated. 

Thank you,

Mary Rasenberger, CEO

Her Beet Soup turned blue 

TGIF 

WSJ: There's no substitute for meeting in person 

VDH:  The Price of Eliminating Consequences - Magnanimity demonstrated to those harming us at home and abroad is interpreted as American weakness, if not decadence to be further exploited.

No good deed goes unpunished 

A dogmatic belief in science is contrary to the principle of science itself.

Joseph Cropsey - full quote at Powerline 

Time for salt beef, peas, grog, fruit, biscuits, etc. Good stuff. Only the cook could be fat.

This is more relevant for men than women (they are not medically-equal). If over 45-50, never a bad idea to get an echo stress test on some sort of regular basis. I've seen many trim, athletic guys drop dead, or almost drop dead, with cardiac events which could have been dealt with semi-ok for years. 

While it is a fact that almost half of male Western humans (Asians too) will succumb to arterial disease (and almost the other half to some cancer - something will take us down), there is no reason to speed up the former death. (Less civilized areas have people of all ages dying of infection, accidents, war, etc.) Can treatments for cadiovascular disease keep you going? Yes - just ask my 90+ year old overweight, wine-loving father-in-law who has had stents, bypass, pacemaker, and ongoing treatment for congestive heart failure, and is still truckin' and loving life.

Sheesh, it's only arthritis that really limits him now. Too many sports.

 Revenge of the Patriarchy: White House Gives Women’s Day Award to a Dude in a Dress

Very advanced 

 A glimmer of hope for free speech at Yale Law School

 Harvard students demand Winthrop House be renamed, call name ‘harmful’

What? 

Critical race theory is teaching kids to hate each other

 Stop Lying To People. They're Not Perfect Just As They Are

As my wife frequently reminds me 

 The Rise of Father Absence and Its Attendant Social Ills - Fatherless children are at higher risk of delinquency that undermines their own prospects and disrupts the communities in which they reside.

Correlation is not causation 

Feeling good about your fat bod is reserved for Black women

 ‘Indigenous Studies’ lecturer denies historical brutality of Native American tribes, blames ‘white people’

DeSantis is simply avoiding the backbiting of the national media who have made it their goal to destroy him by lying about him.

DeSantis is Hitler + Stalin + Pol Pot. Trump is just Hitler. 

If you like Patrick O'Brian's naval stories, Thomas Cochrane's career will seem familiar. However, Cochrane's astonishing career was beyond any credible historical fiction. He should be better-known, especially with his South American exploits. There are monuments to him in Peru, Chile, and Brazil.

One heck of a life. Titanium balls for sure. Not crazy, just ballsy.

Chronicle:  Diversity Statements Are Under Fire. Here’s What They Are and How They’re Used.

WSJ:  Employees Terrorize Their Bosses Into Going Woke. A new study confirms that power-seeking workers play an ‘outsized’ role in politicizing businesses.

MacDonald:  in Loco Masculi - The feminization of the American university is all but complete

 The American Way Versus the Politicians’ Way

Chuck Schumer has Big Mad about Tucker and the tapes

 TUCKER CARLSON’S EXPOSE BLEW A RATHER LARGE HOLE IN DEMS ‘DEADLY INSURRECTION’ STORY

 Mitch McConnell Slams Tucker Carlson and Fox News Over J6 Video Release. Denying the truth of what the videos show makes McConnell as complicit as those who participated in the sham J6 committee.

 'Bring Nation To Standstill': France Hit By Massive Strikes Over Pension Reform

Around ten years ago Mrs. BD made me leave the house for 8 hours. Sent me hunting or fishing or whatever. She had a dumpster outside. The guys took away everything in the attic. It is bare, still.

So it seems that the basement has become the storage place.  Excess. A firetrap. Sentimental stuff mostly, but 2 brass beds and a nice carved wooden trundle bed. A pair of antique rockers. Sets of china. Punch bowls. Photo albums. Photos and prints. Books. Kids' memorabilia they don't want.

My rules:

- If you don't use it and your kids don't want it, donate it or junk it. It's difficult to donate stuff nowadays unless it is desirable. In NYC it's easy because any stuff you put on the sidewalk evaporates in an hour or two. I don't live there though.

- If you don't use it ever, will it end in a dumpster when you croak? Save your kids the trouble, now. 

-  Extra shoes, boots, coats, clothes? Will live long enough to wear them out? Garbage. Donate only if in perfect shape.

- What about all the stuff from past hobbies? They are past, aren't they? Dust-collectors.

How do our readers do these things? Often, people wait until they move, or die.

 Are EVs evil?

 Are There More Than Two Sexes?

 The Sad Spectacle of ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’

 At the New York Times, a tale of two headlines

 Hide the Ball: Columbia U Becomes First Ivy League School To Permanently Eliminate Required Standardized Admissions Testing

How ‘woke’ ideologies are upending American childhood

 The Humanities: Another Example Of Leftism Ruining Everything It Touches

 West Coast, Welcome to the Dumb Idea Factory!

 LGBTQ slurs found at MIT done by students protesting school’s new pro-free speech efforts

 BLM Rioters Get $6M Because Cops Didn’t Wear Face Masks

Thousands of Belgian Farmers Join Protest Against Globalist Reset Plans