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.
Does any of that make any rational sense? Or am I stupid?
Since the recession, we have had a government doing everything it can to suppress, leash, and stifle the animal spirits of American enterprise. Why are the predictable results always "unexpected"? Where would we be, now, without China's loans?
We miss Reagan's common sense. The Dems are blinded to reality by ideological sentiment. Money doesn't grow on trees.
A "casino" (little house) is a place for social amusement and get-togethers, either public or private. The East coast used to have many clubs and assembly places called "casinos," often on the seashore. Gambling Casinos are a kind of casino.
Have you ever tried tennis on a grass court? I have. It's fast and the ball skids low. You skid, too. It's good fun.
Sipp, our American architectural expert, says that Newport, RI is basically the birthplace of Shingle Style. Here's his pic of the courtyard of the shingle-style Newport Casino, now the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
A few ideas, while Mrs. BD and I plan our trip to visit the Pupette in Prague this Spring (think we'll use Club ABC to save $ this time. Prague is a hot place these days for the youths.):
VRBO - Vacation Rentals by Owner. It's worldwide. I like to move around on my trips, but it's a cool idea to rent a place, rent a couple of cars, and bring the whole family and your best friends for a week or ten days. When my Dad was slightly younger, he used to do this for the whole family in Tuscany. Kids, their spouses, grandkids, etc. Two weeks, villa with pool and a cook and a ton of bedrooms, spare cars, walk to the village. Nice. What's the point of a little money if you can't enjoy it and share treats with your family? Uncle Sam will take half your money when you croak to buy votes.
Vacations To Go: Discount ship tix. You have to pick a nice ship, however - not one of the tacky mass-market ones which are beneath the dignity of Maggie's readers. The Silver Explorer is a nice one, with only 132 passengers. Here are some pics of her. I am in favor of the cheaper rooms on ships, because you are hardly never in your room anyway. On ships, I like to spend my time up on the deck. My friends at the Holland America line let me hang out on the bridge.
"We will help you be a good steward for your health," Emanuel said Friday, "but if you choose not to, you'll pay that price and that is the price you'll have to pay."
There are, of course, lots of ways to be smart and lots of ways to be dumb. We often talk about book smarts and street smarts, as though the two are mutually exclusive. We know from experience that brilliant book people can be nincompoops when it comes to common sense, while people lacking formal education can be brilliant problem-solvers.
We know these things, yet we seem to have fallen in love with the notion that only book smarts matter when it comes to the nation’s problems. At least Democrats have.
Photo is the Litchfield, CT Congregational Church, c. 1750. Architecturally, classic New England Congo churches are plain old-time boxy meeting houses, gussied up with a steeple and a portico.
20:1 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
20:2 After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard.
20:3 When he went out about nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace;
20:4 and he said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went.
20:5 When he went out again about noon and about three o'clock, he did the same.
20:6 And about five o'clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, 'Why are you standing here idle all day?'
20:7 They said to him, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard.'
20:8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, 'Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.'
20:9 When those hired about five o'clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage.
20:10 Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage.
20:11 And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner,
20:12 saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.'
20:13 But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?
20:14 Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you.
20:15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?'
20:16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last."
Support your local DU Chapter this year. It's for conservation, not greenie silliness. Attend your local event. It's good fun.
We always have a good time at our annual dinner. Basically all guys, except for the delightful raffle gals. Our DU dinner is old-fashioned, but we realize that the fellas like a guy's night out.
Went down to NYC today to visit one of the pupettes. Had a delicious lunch in Chelsea. Deep-fat fried Cape Cod cod on a bun with mayo and fries. Read the Wall St. Journal which was plopped on her doorstep while waiting for her to get dressed. Dead tree version.
A fine, sentimental experience, as one who remembers the pleasures of such things. It's an interesting newspaper.
George Martin was really one of the Beatles, was he not?
Naturally, the Left is pushing the "oppressed victim" route instead of the success route. My experience of uneducated new Central American immigrants on the East Coast is that they have no interest in being oppressed victims.
Here's how we cook corn on the cob: After removing the most loose outer husk, we soak the ears in cold water for an hour or so with husks on and silk still present, then toss them on the grill, turning regularly for roughtly 15 minutes.
They steam and char a little. Some of the husk will char a bit, and most of the silk will burn off. That's good.
Peel and eat. For me, no butter, no salt on it. Tastes good the cave man way.
We oppose racial preferences at Maggie's. We believe that an Asian gal is no less worthy a human than a Hispanic gal - other qualities being equal. But I do understand - race is all about politics. Still, I don't quite get why, if you're half Hispanic (is Hispanic a race?), you're Hispanic. Are you Hispanic if you come from Spain? Or Argentina?
I am middle class and I love to see the rich get richer. That's what they are trying to do. I am not trying to be rich so I have no envy of their accomplishing what I am not attempting. Bless the rich their good fortune; don't despise them for being able to do what you can't.
I'd be pleased to be rich, but I somehow never get around to doing anything about it other than buying Powerball tickets. My money manager pal tells me that most people stop worrying about money when they have $17-20 million. I'd make out OK with half of that if I scrimped on some things.
Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.
Interesting fellow, Henley. He was a pal of Robert Louis Stevenson, who modeled Long John Silver after him. Henley had amputations for Pott's Disease - TB of the bone.
Al's Goreathon: Gaia is speaking loudly. Gaia is crabby. She used to be nice, back in the last Ice Age, but now she is annoyed by humans. Well, who isn't?
For balance, Watt's toons based on the Boreathon Goreathon.
...we will be the laughing stock of the world, seen jumping head first off a cliff into a shark infested sea, as we will have no way back, because we were sold a tax that has nothing to do with climate change, instead introduced purely for egotistic governance.
Small businesses — hardware stores, gas stations or restaurants for example — are likewise unable to transfer themselves overseas. So they are far more likely to be unable to escape the higher tax rates that are supposedly being imposed on "millionaires and billionaires," as President Obama puts it. Moreover, small businesses are what create most of the new jobs.
Why then are so many politicians, journalists and others so gung-ho to raise tax rates in the upper brackets?
Obama Administration Gave $17.2 Billion in Stimulus Funds to Green Projects – Only $645 Million to Small Business
Will it be the Jews next? Image below via Moonbattery:
Our friend Sipp got me back to studying American architectural styles. I realized that I had been making a rookie error by referring to some houses as "Victorian" which may have been Victorian-era but were, in fact, correctly identified as "Colonial Revival."
In the area where I live, the vast majority of the gracious houses built after 1890 are Colonial Revival. Many of them were built as summer, weekend, or "country" houses. Pre-war and pre-income tax, ordinary comfortable people could do much more than they can today.
What style is this house (my pic in Newport, RI last summer - not a rich guy's house but a pre-income tax middle-class house)?:
Follow-up: Many readers fooled by those rocket ships - and the white paint on the shingles or whatever it is sided with now. My expert tells me it's actually Shingle-Style and not Queen Anne. It would look better with natural cedar shingles, would it not?
Darn pleasant home, regardless, and in a fun town, especially for boaters and barflies. Boat drinks!
That's all he's got, for now - another stimulus. Youngman:
This is the campaign.
For the rest of 2011, at least, Obama and his team will speak of little else. This is the debate they want to have, and they are betting the president’s job on their belief they can win this debate.
This is sports strategy, not serious adult concern about the state of the country. Wehner asks Has Obama Learned Anything?
Regarding the jobless American economy, the esteemed 
A 
Vacations To Go
What Lucky People Do
Here's how we cook corn on the cob: After removing the most loose outer husk, we soak the ears in cold water for an hour or so with husks on and silk still present, then toss them on the grill, turning regularly for roughtly 15 minutes.
The excellent New English Review is 
Image stolen from