Maggie's FarmWe 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. |
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Monday, October 29. 2018Special musicMonday morning linksHBO Will Now Have An Intimacy Coordinator Staffing All Sex Scenes These are the bad things about early retirement that no one talks about ‘You can’t work your way through college anymore’ — and that’s a huge problem, Yale scholar says Columbia U. report finds 'lack of diversity,' despite spending $185 million on 'faculty diversity' Dalrymple: It appears that, unbeknown to me, I was a very needy person. Bummer: Guy Living In A Jar For ‘Climate Change’ Gives Up Al Gore: Well, Sure That Climate Report Was Torqued Up To Scare Lawmakers No, CNN: Nationalism Is Not White Supremacy The Feds Want To Tackle Causes of Food Waste, Except Their Own Don Jr. Tells Young Black Conservatives They ‘Have The Most Guts Of Anyone In America’ Guess whose fault the mass shooting in Pittsburgh was Kobach: The Caravan Is a Consequence of Rewarding Illegal Immigration Bad Hombres Found In Migrant Caravan Approaching America The United Nations admitted on Sunday that they are assisting the illegal immigrants and caravans from Central America making their way to the US southern border. The UN admitted in today’s news article that they have mobilized extra staff and resources to assist the illegal immigrants in the caravans. Europe's War On Italy Is Suicidal In Europe, Free Speech Bows To Sharia Venezuela: Role Model for South Africa How Israel Is Helping the Worldwide Water Shortage Sunday, October 28. 2018Ostia Antica
My mid-day refreshment at the fine cafe halfway thru Ostia Antica a few days ago It's a must-see for history buffs. Instead of showing my many photos, I'll show you this. If near Rome, take the train. I used their good audio guide.
Reading between the lines
Right now, I am going through the Patrick O'Brian naval series. Delicious reading and you learn a bit about running a serious sailing warship. Guys never listen to anybody, but we have some amateur decorators around here who have all sorts of ideas about how to make my work space and living space brighter, less cluttered, and lighter. I am going along with it, because I know nothing. My current plan for the entire HQ in general is to get rid of stuff and lighten everything. One of my daughters is ordering a Task Rabbit for me. They are known to be miraculous helpers for moving stuff around and throwing stuff out. One just has to be brave and get rid of stuff, however sentimental. And we have had dumpsters here since July. Dumpsters' gaping maws beg to be filled with stuff.
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From today's Lectionary: Reborn through trialJob 42:1-6, 10-17 42:1 Then Job answered the LORD: 42:2 "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 42:3 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 42:4 'Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.' 42:5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; 42:6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." 42:10 And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. 42:11 Then there came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house; they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him; and each of them gave him a piece of money and a gold ring. 42:12 The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys. 42:13 He also had seven sons and three daughters. 42:14 He named the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. 42:15 In all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters; and their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers. 42:16 After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children, and his children's children, four generations. 42:17 And Job died, old and full of days. Old New Yorker toonSaturday, October 27. 2018Saturday morning linksThe truth behind Costco's $5 rotisserie chicken I never leave Costco without one There is a medical site called Quackwatch Michiganders want global warming. European Court: Calling Mohammed A Pedophile Not Covered By Free Speech "Pedophile," like "rapist" and "liar,"are Western concepts. We must all struggle to become more multiculturally-tolerant. The Administrative State Is a Threat to the Constitutional Order The UN Wants to be Our World Government By 2030 Kimball on socialism: The Eternal Return of a Malevolent Charade This is The Resistance's Real Failure (Assuming They Want to Make Progress on Their Issues, and Not Just Score Political Points) NBC News Hid Information that Would Have Cleared Kavanaugh of Avenatti Rape Allegations Lying by omission ALLEGED FAKE BOMBER IS FILLIPINO EX-CON WHO CLAIMED TO BE SEMINOLE Papadopoulos May Recall Guilty Plea: 'I Was Framed' Democrat Leaders Announce Brief Moratorium On Calling For Political Violence Trump Weighs Travel-Ban-Style Order to Bar Migrants: Source Mexican Police Stop Buses and Trucks – Force Them to Take Caravan Immigrants North to US Border Caravan Members Reject Mexican Offer Of Benefits, Residency Friday, October 26. 2018Friday morning links' Thefood supplement that ruined my liver' And it was not alcohol Drug Our Drinking Water with Lithium? Are transgenders just gay? Facebook Finally Censors Baby Photos Finally! Other peoples' baby pictures are boring. APODACA: Free Speech On Campus Is A No-Brainer, But My School Missed The Memo University of Maryland puts ‘multicultural advocates’ in dorms CHELSEA CLINTON IS SAVING THE PLANET WITH SHORTER SHOWERS, PRIVATE JETS Backfire Economics: Double-digit increases in US steel prices to the highest in the world are crippling US manufacturers Google Employees Second Largest Donors to Beto O’Rourke Campaign He is like Trudeau Megyn Kelly’s Blackface Comments Are Just The Tip Of The Racism Iceberg Such a rasist, terrible country that half the world wants to live here NY Times Tries Some Assassination Chic With Feature On Trump New York Times condemns Trump for ‘toxic environment’ right after publishing a fantasy of assassinating him Trump: Mainstream-Media Reporting Is Making People Crazy, You Know Steyn: Bombs A-Weighed WHAT WILL TRUMP DO ABOUT THE CARAVAN? The "caravans" are chess moves Why Are Young Eastern Europeans So Right-Wing? Thursday, October 25. 2018Hiking and weight lossCan you lose weight by hiking? Not walking - hiking. Sure can, and I am proof. 10 days of hiking - urban and rural, mostly hills and many of them steep because it was Tuscany - for 6 hours/day left me with a 7 lb. weight loss. That's with my usual modest but tasty meals in Italy, never hungry at all. Some daily beers or wine: good food requires it. This loss was entirely unintentional. I was shocked when I got on my scale at home (cuz my pants were falling down). Not good or healthy, really. Also perturbed because that too-fast (1 lb/wk is normal for weight-losers, and I do not want that) loss clearly reduced my deadlifting power this morning. We have asserted here that you can't lose weight with exercise alone, but that refers to, say, a reasonable and realistic one hour/day biking, swimming, lifting, walking, and the like. I did a little lazy research. Jogging at 5 mph burns around 550 calories/hour, about the same as energetic hill hiking. Comfortable walking is around 250, speed walking around 300. That ain't enough burn to make measurable difference. One donut or bagel has 300 calories, a slice of pizza around 350-400. But if you multiply that hourly hill-hiking number by 6, you are getting to real daily numbers and getting into real fat-burning. It's said that 6 hr/day hill-hikers on The Long Trail (Appalachian trail) need about 5000 calories/day to prevent weight loss over days or weeks of hiking. It is true that all calories are not physiologically equal, but you can come up with rough numbers: the average sedentary adult female needs around 2500 calories daily, male 3000, to maintain weight. Those numbers are average and perhaps high for trim fit people. (Sedentary - a modern sin - is often defined as daily exercise equal to or less than a 3 mile walk daily at a 3-4 mph pace. Just above that is "Lightly Active", etc. My one hour daily sched of weights, cardio, and calisthenics gets me just into the "Moderately Active" category by most measures because of the high levels of intensity with HIIT, calisthenics classes, and heavy weights. Intensity can try to compensate for duration. I'd put our hiking guide last year in the Hebrides in the "Highly-Active" category. Craig MacDonald was not only Highly-Active and highly-fit, but highly humorous and sarcastic in the Scots way. Always happy to tease you for a half hour if you bought him a dram or two of Highland Park at the end of the day. That is his beverage.) Readers know that one of the rewards of my fairly-demanding work-out regimen is to be able to do things like hill-hike all day without fatigue, until I grow old. What's my point? I dunno. Maybe that fat loss is dietary, except when it isn't. Just facts to consider. Thursday morning linksNot an inviting name for a park He won Powerball’s $314 million jackpot. It ruined his life. Global preferences for who to save in self-driving car crashes revealed "I am a failed and broken feminist. More pointedly, I am sexist. There are times when I fear for the 'loss' of my own 'entitlement' as a male..." He should worry less. Sounds like a eunuch. Megyn Kelly Makes Tearful On-Air Apology for Blackface Comments Experts Say Vast Deserts, Absence Of Life, May Indicate Mars Was Once Run By Conservatives Climate Change: Hysteria And Reality Dalrymple: In Search of Moral Authority - On Elizabeth Warren’s DNA Papadopoulos Told FBI Informant in 2016 There Was No Russian Collusion in Trump Campaign USA Today: 10 reasons you should vote for Democrats and against Trump in midterm elections. ASAP. Congress playing for keeps with federal judiciary Trump Cites 2005 Obama And Clinton 1995 Remarks To Support Immigration Policy President Trump caught dropping the “N” word CONFIRMED: Pipe Bomb and Powder Sent to CNN Were Har mless – It Was a HOAX BOMB Some questions about the caravan “Elaborately Planned” Caravan Brings Human Traffickers & Violent Gangbangers to Guatemala Migrant Caravan has People ‘From All Over the World’ Migrant Caravan Crosses Southern Mexico Unimpeded As Local Groups Offer Food, Support ID that carTucked away in the giant barn at Mohonk. Not many readers who recall seeing these on the road. Even better is their large collection of horse-drawn buggies. So cool.
Wednesday, October 24. 2018Winter plumageNon-breeding plumage can be confusing with birds, most especially with warblers. If you can ID fall and winter warblers, I'd term you an expert birder. Learn the Fall and Winter Colors of These Common Bird Species - After breeding season ends, some birds adopt a new, unique look. Here's how to remember them. Pic is a male Mallard in eclipse plumage Wednesday morning linksIs there a better story in the history of skiing? How Roman Historians Explained the Fall of Rome - They lived in ancient Rome and knew its traditions and shortcomings first-hand. She Let Her Kids Wait in the Car During an Errand Because…THAT IS A PERFECTLY NORMAL THING TO DO! Brown University flaunts 'Unlearning Toxic Masculinity' guide Megyn Kelly Says ‘Blackface’ Okay On Halloween So Long As You Dress Up As A Character. Internet Explodes. IT’S THE TIME OF YEAR TO REMEMBER YOU’RE LOSER IF YOU GET OFFENDED BY HALLOWEEN COSTUMES Focusing On Plastics Is A “Dangerous Distraction From Climate Change” Or Something Harvard’s gatekeeper reveals SAT cutoff scores based on race More Entrepreneurship Would Help Progressive Causes, But Progressives Do Not Understand It At All San Francisco to Allow Illegal Aliens to Vote Trump Rips Puerto Rico's Misuse of Hurricane Relief Funds A mystery: Americans are happier over declining government regulations PIERS MORGAN: The media hates him, Hollywood hates him but every hysterical piece of abuse they throw at him just makes Trump stronger and now the Democrats are heading for a midterms disaster VDH: Wolves in Wolves’ Clothing The Spectrum of Black Contrarianism Donald Trump may be remembered as the most honest president in modern American history. Don’t get me wrong, Trump lies all the time... Meet the man behind the migrant caravan headed to US A New Migrant Caravan Forms; Former Trump Campaign Adviser Calls "Political Gift" Before Midterms Another U.K. Rape-Gang Case Hey, it's multicultural Britain. Girls and ladies, relax and enjoy cultural diversity. An Epidemic of Knifings in Once-Great Britain Two Authorities, One Way, Zero Dissent - Arbitrary Arrest and Torture Under the Palestinian Authority and Hamas China's hidden camps - What's happened to the vanished Uighurs of Xinjiang? Say a prayer for Vietnam’s forgotten Montagnards - Communist regime's repression of the ethnic minority that supported the US during the Vietnam War has been largely invisible but is starting to come to light Walkin' shoes
This footwear selfie in Rome last week. What do you like for long urban hiking with cobblestones, slippery places, dirt roads, etc?
Tuesday, October 23. 2018The American cold civil war
Tuesday morning linksMille grazie to Roger de Hauteville, the Norman King of Sicily (recent photo on the right) for his change-of-pace morning links while I was away. Much more clever and fun to read than mine are. World's oldest intact shipwreck discovered in Black Sea - Archaeologists say the 23-metre vessel has lain undisturbed for more than 2,400 years Why It’s Time to End Factory Farming On Long Island, Failure to Absorb Sandy’s Lessons Lost to Sandy, Reclaimed By Nature - Here’s why one community chose not to rebuild MacDonald: From the Kavanaugh hearings to a lawsuit alleging that Harvard discriminates against Asian-Americans, the Left sees “white supremacy” at the heart of everything. Rust Belt Boom: Since Trump’s Election, Jobs Have Increased In Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, And Wisconsin. Ohio setting a 21-year record Paid Protest Firm "Crowds On Demand" Sued In $23 Million Extortion Plot "You Just Don't Know What's Best For You," And Other Pearls From The Elites More than half of Republicans in a new American Barometer poll say they support "Medicare for all," also known as a single-payer health-care system. How The New York Times And Washington Post Do "Poverty" Migrant Caravan Goes Home As Trump Buys Honduras (h/t Am. Digest)
Illegal Aliens Chant “Si Se Puede!” as Caravan of Invaders Swells to 14,000 The Caravan Means the Wall Will Be Built RGV Texas Border Patrol Chief Begs For Help Before Caravan Hits as Over 12,000 Illegals Caught in Last Three Weeks in Rio Grande Valley; 700 Caught Saturday Invasion: Honduran Caravan Includes Military-Aged Male Migrants From Bangladesh, Haiti and Congo Trump's Merkel Moment -- and Ours We doubt CNN reporter meant his photos of migrant caravan to be ‘a walking GOP ad’ Monday, October 22. 2018Isabel LeonardMezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard and guitarist Sharon Isbin collaborate on Manuel de Falla’s Polo from Seven Popular Songs.
Monday morning linksLots of Dylan tix in NYC for the next month Advice from Our Food Critic: If I Have One Day in New York, Where Should I Eat? I pulled a 1,500-year-old sword out of a lake Paul Simon: Fathers, Sons, Troubled Water PETA: Cow's milk a symbol of white supremacy How much do you remember about the miracle of photosynthesis? Striking photos of human scars on earth Americans Strongly Dislike PC Culture - Youth isn’t a good proxy for support of political correctness, and race isn’t either. The more equal women and men are, the less they want the same things, study finds What Do You Do When You Are Anonymously Accused of Rape? The writer Stephen Elliott is suing Moira Donegan, the creator of the Media Men list. How Manhattan Became a Rich Ghost Town - New York’s empty storefronts are a dark omen for the future of cities. The Japanese Man Who Saved 6,000 Jews With His Handwriting - What the astonishing Chiune Sugihara teaches us about moral heroism. South Carolina convicts 'blackmail soldiers in sexting scheme' Old Interview With Heavy-Drinking ‘Thug’ Obama Puts Wild-Man Brett Kavanaugh To Shame Everyone Is Smart Except Trump Kanye West’s White House Rant Steals Trump’s Spotlight How Russian hybrid warfare changed the Pentagon’s perspective KKL: Incendiary balloons caused environmental disaster Pentagon faces 'mounting challenges' protecting its weapons programs from cyberattacks, audit reveals Travesty of Palestinian education Sunday, October 21. 2018SNAAFUThat means Situation Abnormal All F-ed Up. Things generally go OK for us. When I got home, learned my office phone had been out for 12 days. Not good. And more. If any readers care, when I get reorganized here I will post some photos from my reconstituted HQ and after a semi-catastrophic (4 days in Italian government hospital for Mrs. BD, but then 6 days buzzing all around the environs of southern Tuscany with our great VW were pretty fun using an elegant villa in the countryside outside Montepulciano as our base). Good food, still lost 5 lbs which I did not need to lose. It's a long story, but, in brief, due to the accidental stay in the hospital in Ostia, we made a wonderful new friend of a lovely young Slovenian gal who speaks 8 languages fluently, I got to spend 5 hours wandering around Ostia Antiqua, spent a day on the Lido in Ostia, and hopped the train to spend a day urban-hiking Rome which reminded me of how much I dislike that city. I can say that 5 days in an ordinary Italian suburb, no tourists, was a cultural education than few if any Americans could get. I was an alien. Also learned that I need to update my Civil War-era iphone. Buona notte. From today's LectionaryJames 3:1-12 3:1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 3:2 For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. 3:3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. 3:4 Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 3:5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! :6 And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. 3:7 For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, 3:8 but no one can tame the tongue--a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 3:9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. 3:10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. 3:11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? 3:12 Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh. Saturday, October 20. 2018Saturday Verse: Robert GravesGrotesque Dr. Newman with his crooked pince-nez Thursday, October 18. 2018Why you should never say "Bagel Street" or "Susquehanna Hat Company"
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Wednesday, October 17. 2018A good daughter
Mrs. BD is planning a trip to Normandy with her Dad. She has already signed up a well-respected Brit guide who will drive them all around. Flight to Paris, train to Normandy, guide pick-up at train and ride to their (first floor) rooms at a chateau. The old guy is not great with stairs anymore but what he lacks in agility he makes up with Rugged Determination. 7-day trip, with no doubt great food. My father-in-law has been a history buff all his life. Always had regrets that he was far too young to get into the Army in WW2. His much elder brother was in the third wave at Omaha Beach, while another brother was stationed at the Bermuda air station for the entire war. Sheesh. Of course, I he had to take crap about that. The old guy always wanted to tour Normandy, but his Mrs. would never OK it although they did travel everywhere on the planet - entire USA and Canada, Japan, Australia, China, Thailand, Scandinavia, Sicily, all of Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Hawaii, Mexico, Bolivia, India - you name it. Always up for adventure into their 80s. Besides it having been a final item on his bucket list, Mrs. BD felt it would inspire him to get into better shape after his quadruple bypass, multiple heart attacks, botched back surgeries, protsate cancer, and other medical misadventures not to mention arthiritis, etc. The anticipation has gotten him out walking distances again, and thus far has managed to lose 30 lbs. by eating rationally on my advice. After his PT he gets to his gym every day. An American story: Second-generation Irish. Shanty Irish. Reluctant HS graduate, worked since age 8 (at first, in bowling alleys as a pin boy), later as A/C repair and the like until got onto the NYPD. Yes, he can be a pretty tough SOB when needed. I have his retired billy club but never used it on my kids. When he got that pension, became an entrepreneur with his Mrs and they built a very successful business together (she had been working on it for years already). They sold it in their 70s with a nice profit. I do love this youthful old fellow. Love his stories about taking his baby sister to the outhouse in snowstorms in Jersey City, and their summers working on a farm in Spring Lake (NJ). No father (died young), 5 kids, wonderful but poor childhood (His baby sis slept in a dresser drawer), and wonderful successful and adventurous life. And, being Irish, a brilliant and entertaining story-teller so he has always been socially popular. Very much so - he is a fun guy and a great companion. When he was younger, we would go for 10-mile runs and he would try to tell me jokes the whole way while I would try to point out the birds. I am so pleased with Mrs. BD's plan with him. I am not going. I want them to have this trip together. I think it will be his last international trip. His passport is up to date. God bless him, he still loves chances to get into NYC to see his old haunts and to stop into Irish pubs for a beer or two even if he needs a cane. Some people are just blessed with joie de vivre. Can't keep a good man down. The meaning of things is the most real thing to peopleThere is some brilliance in this presentation at Oxford. If you only have a few minutes, try minutes 29-50. However, the whole thing is intellectually exciting.
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Monday, October 15. 2018New Balance Cross TrainersCross Training shoes are designed for minimal cushioning, good floor-feel, light weight and as close to barefoot as possible. That's what you want for calisthenics, weights, and cardio. You can Google New Balance Minimus Trainers and see all of their models. Here's one example.
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