Maggie's Farm

Several versions of this American classic. 

I think it was inspired by Zorba The Greek.

Johns Hopkins study: Huge gulf between D.C. political class and the rest of America

Pic from the article. Tell me, what impression is that rockpile designed to make on the ordinary citizen?

One in three Americans can’t name a single branch of the U.S. government

Not the America Jefferson had in mind

The Media's Absurd NFL Hysteria

Beta Male War on Football and Biology

The latest culinary fad: famine food - Middle-class foodies are paying a fortune to eat what peasants once lived on.

How Sugar Daddies Are Financing College Education - The popular website Seeking Arrangement sets up "mutually
beneficial relationships" between wealthy older men and young female
students.

The beginning of the end of the hedge fund gravy train?

California regulates massages

Definitely an important role of government. RR: "If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it."

Shakespeare Didn't Really Want To Kill All The Lawyers, But We Should Deregulate Their Profession (h/t, Insty)

Birth Control Without a Prescription - An unusual Republican proposal makes medical sense

What Alibaba really teaches us about the world

Angry with Washington, 1 in 4 Americans open to secession

Whistleblower in Scott Walker Case Pays Heavy Price

Well-Heeled and Wrongheaded in California - Tom Steyer spends millions to stop energy exploration.

The U.N.’s Climate-Summit Charade

Krauthammer:  Islamic State Logic: Dragging U.S. Into Mesopotamian War

Related, consensus within the ruling class is setting America on course to demonstrate impotence

Those guys are manipulating us

After Apple Picking

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.

Industrial Espionage and Cutthroat Competition Fueled the Rise of the Humble Harmonica

Why everything you think you know about salt could be wrong

Is All Spanking Child Abuse? - The Left wants to tie reasonable parents who spank their children to the Peterson case.

Hitting Your Kids is Legal in All 50 States

For the first time in American statistical history, the majority of American adults are single

College Launches Group for White Students to Combat Their White Privilege

Next-gen Zumwalt-class destroyer

Looks like the Monitor - or the Merrimack

Why Samizdata wanted Scotland to vote Yes

The cat just got up from the couch as soon as I sat down. When will these microaggressions end?

"Sorry, but it’s your fault if you’re offended all the time"

Campus Reform's Caleb Bonham discusses crazy college classes

A NYC Bartender's Powerful Open Letter To The Hedge Funder Who Allegedly Grabbed Her Ass

Funny

Islamic Welfare Colonists Demand Free Halal Food in Minnesota

NBC: Survive Home Invasion By Cooperating With Invaders, 'Treat Them Like Royalty'

A reverse Castle Doctrine

Understanding America’s ridiculously large $17 trillion economy by comparing US metro areas to entire countries

Eight bodies found after attack on Guinea Ebola education team

BEWARE FALSE FLAG SITE "THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE": Shares an Office with Far Left American Prospect

Is that true?

John Kerry, Master Dhimmi

ISIL is not a terror group - just ordinary Islam warriors with an ancient history

Rotherham:  A Nice Place to Raise Your Kids

Is it “Moral” to Restrict Fossil Fuel Use

Hey, I Sort of Watched Hillary Clinton's Top Aides Scrub All Damaging Benghazi Files Out of the Official Records

Worse than Watergate

Pay Attention to this Gas Deal in Israel

Why Sunnis and Shiites hate eachother

Mattis: US Ground Combat Troops Must Be Option Against ISIL

Rift widens between Obama, U.S. military over strategy to fight Islamic State

DNI: Obama's intelligence-gathering limits boost U.S. risk

Australia raids foil reported ISIS beheading plots

Not really ISIS - ISIS-sympathizers

Why Women Do Not Belong in the U.S. Infantry

Photo is another from Zambia - a Great Egret. Basically the same bird in North America, which we used to term American Egret.

Remembrance of Trumpets Past -Rosh Hashanah as described in the Torah looks very different from the Rosh Hashanah we know today. What happened, and what exactly are Jews celebrating?

Boswell promised not to attend more executions but ultimately always gave in to his morbid compulsion

Lincoln Log Manufacturing Moving to Maine

Beyoncé’s Theology of the Body

How Ancient DNA Is Rewriting Human History

Don't Be a Jerk. Buy Life Insurance.

How many young women can a school legally punish for dress code violations?

California Sorority in Trouble After Taco Event Deemed Racist

Tacos are racist

Not safe to display American flag in American high school

American flag is racist

Could the Apprenticeship Model Work Here?

Despite Liberal Media’s War on Football: Rate of Criminality in NFL Half That of General Public

Why Congress will never take back the NFL’s tax break

Ray Rice vs. Bill Clinton

Chinatown Bus Pioneer Fung Wah Strangled by Federal Bureaucracy

Sierra Club and Sierra Club Foundation Accused of Tax Law Violations

Surber: Go away, Hillary

Thornston on GMO: When Activism Kills

Are things good enough in California?

Even the New York Times Fears Socialized Medicine

Obamacare: From game-changer to background noise

Scotland’s Moment of Destiny

Scottish Independence: Politicians Love Democracy So Much They're Trying To Subvert It

The “No Boots on the Ground” Mantra is Strategic Foolishness

40% of Europe's Jews hide their Jewishness

The Islamic State of Sexual Violence

How Peace Negotiator Martin Indyk Cashed a Big, Fat $14.8 Million Check From Qatar

Lonely Ukraine - The embattled Eastern Europe country is finding few real allies in its struggle with Russia.

Cool stuff, and a cool life story, from a guy who I barely remember from 12th grade Art History. This dude is having a fun evening: Three Lovers:

The Grand Tour, 2.0 - Can today’s travel deliver on the promise of the Grand Tour – or is the idea of edifying travel utterly bankrupt?

No, not if you ask me. The more people are able to get out of their comfort zones, the better. Furthermore, the only brake I know to slow the rapid passage of time in life is new experiences, new places, new stimulation, new people, and new ideas. Otherwise, it can all just be a blur of same, same and, next thing you know, seven years have passed.

Certain parts of San Francisco are what happens when white people have no natural predators.

3D Printing, Now With More Jet Engine Parts

Gay activists condemn straight same-sex marriage

The truth about the “G-spot”: Why it’s time to put this sex myth to bed

Eliminating Stigma with Psychiatric Disorders: Is it Even Possible?

"All the Lonely People..."

Child Services to Mom Who Did Nothing Wrong: 'Just Don't Let Your Kids Play Outside'

School District Gets Fed Surplus Military Assault Vehicle

To enforce homework?

9 Facts About How the Poor in America Live

The “Baffling” Call of Nationalism in Multicultural Age

Study Finds Michelle O’s Healthy Food Program Elitist, Sexist, and Shames Working Mothers

- Boiled new potato with mint

Hardly needs a recipe. Salt and pepper, and chopped mint mixed in with a little olive oil. A Med. classic

- Roasted Brussel Sprouts

What kind of low-life would leave the room maid a $1 per night tip at a hotel or motel? In the US, I'd say $5 minimum per night, $10 at a fancier place. In Europe, 4-5 Euros minimum per night for the maids.

Some people seem stingy to the point of sadism, cruelty. Envelopes in Marriott hotels invite tips for maids

Marriott is right to do that. Like restaurant servers, these people live on their tips. Leave the $ on the table each morning and, if you stay a few days in a place, you will get better attention and a grateful attitude.

Always tip generously. It's an easy way to make the world a more pleasant and cheerful place for all. In the US, roughly 20% in restaurants. In European restaurants, they usually include the gratuity in the bill but I always add a bit to it especially if the service is attentive. They do know that I am American, after all.

Addendum: Man, did that get some debate. Really, except at Dunkin Donuts, better not to tip at all rather than to leave a one dollar tip. It's insulting. A good rule of thumb: Always tip helpers to show gratitude. Including barbers.

That was quick. The Zambia pics, he says, are from Nikon D800, lens Nikon 200-400  f4 straight through.

I do not know what any of that means but it seems to work for taking pretty pictures. I just use a Lumix Travel Zoom.

Photo: Another one from my friend's Zambia trip. I'll ask him re camera and lens.

A new term, "humblebrag"

Was Washington a Better Place When Politicians Dueled?

From Kurdistan to Texas, Scots Spur Separatists

Why parents are raising their kids on Minecraft

Liver battle pits Midwest, South against California, New York

Using Transgendereds to Protect the Vote Fraud Franchise

US Ranks 32 in Business Index – Tax Burden Worst in Industrialized World

California Extends Bureaucratic Control in the Bedroom

Geraldo: Anti-Illegal Immigration Activists Are “Xenophoic,” The “Real Threat” Is Coming From Canada…

Bombshell: Former Clinton State Dept. Official Describes Benghazi Cover-Up Operation

Dozens of Christians 'including women and children' are arrested in Saudi Arabia after tip-off to state's Islamist police force

Freedom and the Power of Pop Culture

The Insiders: Is there a mutiny brewing around Obama?

Obama’s ship is sinking

Three Shaky Pillars of Obama Fiscal Policy

Russia:The Russian Autocrat’s Eternal Return

For the Western political observer, Russia judged by common metrics always seems on the verge of being a spent force. As Joseph Conrad reminds us, Russia never seems to vanish from the map, and remains a font of imperialism and war.

If You Liked Vietnam, You’ll Love the War With the Islamic State

Argentina: Down the Tubes, Again

Venezuela: The next default

Photo: A pal and his wife just returned from two weeks in Zambia. I had to wiki Zambia. They loved the trip. He promises some photos, but sent me just one thus far: A Lilac-Breasted Roller

Yes, I’m a Good Person. But Did You Hear About Her?

Sorry Hipsters, That Organic Kale Is a Genetically Modified Food - And those juicy red grapefruits are mutants created by radiation exposure

Can Republicans Win in a Post-Family America?

I live in a family America, and it's pretty good

Gelernter: ‘Free’ Speech at Yale- A letter to the Muslim students protesting Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s lecture.

O'Rourke:  A Free Scotland Would Be a Hilarious Disaster

Is Polygamy the Next Gay Marriage?

Prof Bob Carter warns of unpreparedness for Global Cooling

The president’s problem is that he has been wrong about virtually every major issue.

Obama’s fecklessness is so unique that our adversaries and enemies surely realize they will never face a weaker president. They must assume the next commander in chief will take a more muscular approach to America’s interests and be more determined to forge alliances than the estranged man who occupies the Oval Office now.

Democrats’ Push to Criminalize Dissent - Harry Reid wants to gut the only thing stopping federal authorities from suffocating free speech.

‘Where Have All the Anti-War Protestors Gone?’

They’ll say anything - Israel's critics spotlight supposed human-rights abuses while utterly ignoring Hamas' culpability

Why didn’t the Barbary Pirates get regular jobs?

At the Kurdistan Front - Holding the line against the Islamic State.

A Million Steps with Marines - What lessons can we learn from the 3rd Platoon’s experience in Afghanistan?

Hay is gold in the Alps. Gotta keep the cattle, horses, and sheep fed all winter. There are hay barns all over.

It was haying season when we were in the Italian alps and the Dolomites last September, so many of the meadows looked almost like golf courses. You can't get a baler on the steep slopes, so they store it loose. They don't let a scrap go to waste.

They use equipment like this:

How Zara Grew Into the World’s Largest Fashion Retailer

It's about global, disposable, rapid-response fashion. They won't sell in middle America - the Spanish company says the women are too fat for their stuff.

For good looking clothing, Mrs. BD says D&G is the best by far. Italian designers and artisans. It's wonderful that some people can wear it, and afford it. Zara does not copy D&G.

Photo is D&G, not Zara. I will admit it - that is art.

The purplish one on the long stems, on the left (from somebody's garden in Wellfleet)

Psalm 103:(1-7), 8-13

103:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits--

103:3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,

103:4 who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

103:5 who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

103:6 The LORD works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed.

103:7 He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.

103:8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

103:9 He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever.

103:10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.

103:11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;

103:12 as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.

103:13 As a father has compassion for his children, so the LORD has compassion for those who fear him.

The real thing: Peach Melba.

Named after opera singer Nellie Melba. I would doubt that Nellie was on a diet.

Above: Montana Man Creates Wood Mosaics Out of Stacked Firewood

Ashkenazi Jews Descend from 330 Individuals

America's Last Carousel Craftsmen

Lobsters are people too

The science of sex: 4 harsh truths about dating and mating

The Fed Has A Big Surprise Waiting For You

I'd like to see the Fed abolished. I guess I'd also like to see every grandiose imperial-Roman-looking building in DC knocked down and replaced by ordinary humble office buildings. The grandiosity of DC, the silly memorials to dead politicians, the lines of limos and tinted-window black Suburbans etc., all disgust me. It's not American and it does not represent the American spirit: quite the opposite.

Full-Frontal Environmentalism: We Knew It All Along

“Global Warming” Advocates Plan March Amid Record Cold Temperatures

Apple iPhone 6 Plus Pre-Orders Appear to Exhaust Supply

Remember Kids, If A Stranger Offers You Drugs Say Thank You Because Drugs Are Expensive

Warming update: Autumnlike Chill, Frost to Grip East This Weekend

“Okay, smart-a___, what is your strategy?”

The Scots have little to gain and a whole lot to lose with independence

I guess sovereignty and freedom don't enter that equation

Israel, America, and the Lessons of 9/11

A hungry feeling
Came o'er me stealing
And the mice were squealing
In my prison cell
And that auld triangle went jingle-jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal

Oh! To start the morning
The warden bawling
"Get up out of bed, clean out your cell!"
And that auld triangle went jingle-jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal

Oh! the screw was peeping
And the lag was sleeping
As he lay weeping
For his girl Sal
And that auld triangle went jingle-jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal

On a fine Spring evening
The lag lay dreaming
And the sea-gulls were wheeling
High above the wall
And that auld triangle went jingle-jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal

Oh! the wind was sighing
And the day was dying
As the lag lay crying
In his prison cell
And that auld triangle went jingle-jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal

In the female prison
There are seventy women
It's with all of them
That I'd like to dwell
Then that auld triangle could go jingle-jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal.

This song was written by Irish playwright Brendan Behan for his play The Quare Fellow (slang for a condemned man). A lag is slang for a new prisoner. The song has been performed by The Dubliners, The Clancy Brothers, and The Pogues, and is recorded on one of Bob Dylan's practice "basement tapes" with The Band in a folk-rock style.

Photo: Behan with Jackie Gleason, 1960.

I finished off the peaches with something like this tonight - my own recipe:

I had only around 20 peaches from my tree left after my previous chutney cooking last weekend. Skinned and roughly chopped them. There were plenty of bad spots.
1 giant white onion chopped roughly and 12 cloves of roughly-chopped garlic, lightly sauteed in canola oil.
6 of those diabolical long skinny red peppers with the seeds, chopped (guess you could use those dried chinese ones)
2 cups of roughly chopped fresh ginger - that's a lot
Simmered those things in a cup or two of cider vinegar for a while, maybe 20 mins, then added two cups or so of light brown sugar, a teaspoon of curry powder and a teaspoon of chili powder, a good sprinkle of Kosher salt, and stirred that up. Had to add  more vinegar. I let that simmer and blend for around 20 minutes.

Then threw in the pile of chopped peaches to brew on a high simmer for around 40 or more minutes to simmer some of the juice off and to blend the flavors.

Wish I could tell you how this smells, and how that sauce tastes. Spicy indeed. I'll call this one Ginger-Pepper-Peach-Garlic Chutney. It will cure cancer and chase away the Devil - and Mrs. BD loves it on grilled or broiled salmon. The modern wife likes to be well-taken care of by a farmer spouse while she tends to the young'uns.

I'll freeze doses of this in freezer bags. Now I have a winter supply of mildly-peppery, and of highly-peppery, home-grown ("organic"!) peach chutney. Do you know how good this stuff is with cheese, meat, or even on crackers with cream cheese?

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

H.L Mencken (more here)

Revisiting Michel de Montaigne

A Lesson in Graciously Turning Down a Man

Canadian Illegally Crossing U.S. Border Gets Arrested, Fined $5K, 'Expedited Removal'

The cost of college might be less than you think

 The net cost of tuition and fees paid by low-income students at public four-year schools is actually $0. Here’s why - and why it matters.

Connecticut Gov. Malloy Trails Republican Challenger Tom Foley by 6 Pts

Scott Brown Takes Root in New Hampshire

German Scientists Ridicule New York Climate Conference As Major World Leaders Decline To Show Up

The New Hypocrisy Puritanical Elites Limit Their Kids’ Use of Tech They Create

Corporate Welfare: Can Republicans Kick the Habit?

Williamson on the pointless pursuit of ideological purity

Notre Dame to ask high schoolers how they know ‘for sure whether they are male or female’

Pro-Christian Conference Descends Into Anti-Israel Bigotry

Obama Rejects 'Best Military Advice' in Fighting ISIS

The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious - How the worst apple took over the United States, and continues to spread

At the Maggie's HQ, the current favorite seems to be Fuji but I am fine with the old MacIntosh.

Warming update: Shocking’ damage from heavy snow will take days to clean up, says Calgary Mayor

College Students Declare Bras, Band-Aids ‘White Privilege’

Fifth-grader is banned from using ChapStick at school because it´s considered an ´over-the-counter drug´

There's a Giant 'Super Henge' Underneath Stonehenge

Gearing Up for the Post-Radio Shack World

Free speech and civility at universities

For too long, the cab and limo industries have employed political cronyism and protectionist regulation to fend off competitors -- all at
the expense of innovation, efficiency, and service

Attack ISIS? Hold On, Mr. President

 Maybe it’s time for America to stop taking the bait. Islamic militants do monstrous things all over the world. We cannot stop it all.

ISIS Army Parades in 43 New Toyota Hilux Trucks – Donated By US Taxpayers

Former prosecutor says Wisconsin investigation fueled by “hyper-partisan” DA and union activist wife

Willful Avoidance - The media ignores an important, bipartisan warning on American military readiness.

When sales of adult diapers exceed those of baby diapers

Selling your home:  The Art of Scrubbing All Identity From a Home

The MSM really does think of its consumers as children, minds of tabla
rasa to be molded into a leftwing worldview, objectivity and facts be
damned.

America is running out of jobs. It's time for a universal basic income. The politics of a guaranteed income get a lot easier when you acknowledge that the U.S. is no longer the land of opportunity

Nice. Like retirement, rockin' on the porch sippin beer and smokin legal weed.

Psychologist: Minorities Are Obese Because of Racism - Are racial microaggressions making you fat? One professor at an N.J. public university thinks so.

Overweight, rightly or wrongly, is a class and character marker in the US regardless of skin tone

I’d love to stomp ISIS flat, with a big ol’ American boot on their neck,
as they gasp their last breath, while watching us kill their pet goat.
I’m not really sure that’s the best answer, anymore, though.

Nor am I

Women should be doing high-paying work like this

Obama: “Let’s Make Things Clear: ISIS Is Not ‘Islamic'”

Coulda fooled me

Missing Persons (ie killed persons) photo below via Sultan's Divided We Stand