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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Wednesday, August 30. 2017EmmylouNutrition update: What is a healthy diet?
The Low-Fat vs. Low-Carb Diet Debate Has a New Answer Study challenges conventional wisdom on fats, fruits and vegetables Even more evidence that we’re eating all wrong. Forget fat, it’s carbs that might stick it to your ticker. By the way, does any normal person in the Western World eat five servings of fruit and vegetables daily anyway? But never mind, it doesn't matter. We all know that broccoli causes cancer, carrots and fruit are basically sugar, and coffee helps you live forever. 9 Unexpected Things That Happen When You Abandon Your Workout Routine
Everything goes downhill quickly - cardio, endurance, speed, strength. Measurably downhill in 10 days. Unfortunately, things do not ratchet up in a positive direction unless you keep pushing it. In fact, there is no ratchet. There is only uphill or downhill. That's why Mrs. BD and I try to stick to a fitness regime even on vacation. Too much time and money invested in it to let it slip away. Time off is like blowing your savings. Wednesday morning linksNASA wants to prevent the Yellowstone super volcano from destroying the US 21st century Americans shouldn’t pick a side in the Civil War - Both Lincoln and the Confederacy were awful Greenfield: The Left's Values Are Our State Church How To "Solve" All Known Human Problems: Spend Some Of The Infinite Free Federal Money Scandal Erupts over the Promotion of ‘Bourgeois’ Behavior Students Demand Denunciation and Investigation of Professors: 1966 China or 2017 U. Penn? The not-so-latent totalitarian impulses of the Left creep me out Jim Acosta Attacks POTUS Trump’s Uplifting Speech to Texans – Trump Supporters Respond "For years, engineers have warned that Houston was a flood disaster in the making. Why didn't somebody do something?" MONTAGE: MEDIA POLITICIZE HURRICANE HARVEY, BLAME GLOBAL WARMING, MOCK GOP But even the climate experts disagree Denmark to cut taxes, make it more worthwhile to work Wealthy Danish (and Swedish) families often escape to the US - but it's difficult for Europeans to obtain US citizenship and Europeans do not want to be illegal Tuesday, August 29. 2017Easy Blueberry CakeAugust is blueberry season in New England. Local blueberries, that is. Our wild blueberries are the highbush and the lowbush, and both are smaller and zingier than the commercial varieties. Here's a good Blueberry Cake recipe. Serve it with hard sauce on the side. How To Stop Failing & Become Really Successful2 QQQsThere is no such thing as bad weather, only bad equipment. My sister There is no such thing as "waterproof." Our Hebrides guide Craig MacDonald. (In Scottish, the "Mac" is de-emphasized and the "Donald" is emphasized, because the Donald is the real family tribal name). Tuesday morning linksHow to Whistle With Your Fingers These are the names no one’s using for their babies anymore Fads. Why America Still Hasn’t Learned the Lessons of Katrina - As Harvey plows through Texas, officials in Louisiana are still battling with Washington and the Army Corps of Engineers to prevent the next disaster Are you smart if you look smart? I don't buy that Is a Lack of Hands-on Work Making Us Angry? Everybody needs to work with his hands CrossFit Founder Greg Glassman: 'I Don't Mind Being Told What To Do. I Just Won't Do It.' Z-man on cool combat sports ACLU Sues Trump Over Rule Restricting Gender Confused From Serving Cuomo’s ‘clear energy’ con Chicago had 14,000 more votes than voters in 2016 general election ENJOY YOUR ANTIFA PROTESTS NOW UC-Berkeley chancellor doubles down on pro-free speech position Sad that being for speech is newsworthy Berkeley Mayor Is So Into Free Speech That He Asks College To Cancel Free Speech Week Joe Biden makes a fool of himself again Byron York: Next stop for Trump dossier probe: the FBI Republicans brace for September chaos as Trump puts himself before party Wrong. He is putting his voters before party " Sure, Trump occasionally misspeaks, and sure people can get bored with a speech. But more importantly, the press is so relentlessly and insanely biased towards anything Trump says or does that it’s sometimes impossible to figure out what they’re reporting on, other than whatever is inside their heads, pre-packaged and ready to “report.”" My prediction: the coming collapse of China’s Ponzi scheme economy LABOUR DEMOTES MP OVER TRUE BUT POLITICALLY INCORRECT STATEMENTS ABOUT RAPE Iran is Hamas’ Largest Backer Financially, Militarily Jared Kushner’s Mideast Peace Push Is Going Nowhere. That’s Why Israelis Love It. - ‘Past administrations jumped into the peace process pool,’ says an Israeli official, praising Team Trump’s go-slow approach. ‘There’s no water in this pool, no reason to jump in.’ High Water
Houston Looters Shoot at Cajun Navy, Try to Steal Rescue Boats The Difference Between The Right And Left On Full Display After Harvey
\ Monday, August 28. 2017Monday morning linksToon via Never Yet Melted Endangering America: The crazy quest to topple history How to push Grandpa over the edge (viral video) Gotta love the giggling grandkids Study Proves 'Fat But Healthy' Isn't a Thing Mindfulness would be good for you. If it weren’t so selfish. IS MINDFULNESS MEDITATION A CAPITALIST TOOL OR A PATH TO ENLIGHTENMENT? YES Altucher: The Nine Surefire Ways To Fail At Anything Full extent of Harvey’s aftermath starts to come into chilling focus Why Houston did not evacuate Congress debating federal flood insurance NYT: "Blacks and Hispanics Are More Underrepresented at Top Colleges Than 35 Years Ago" Blame racism Why Is Congress Not Investigating Obama’s Unprecedented Political Espionage? All governments love to spy on their citizens Law Professors Condemned as Racist After Praising America’s 1950s ‘Bourgeois Culture’ - UPenn students, alumni slam professors for 'promoting hate and bigotry' The ludicrously misnamed Southern Poverty Law Center has become a scam operating as a left-wing hate cult. 66% of Americans now fear speaking their minds in a politically correct nation: poll Who Wins if Free Speech Loses? Charles Barkley Labeled "White Supremacist" For Telling Black People To Stop Killing Each Other Brent Bozell: The Slow Death of the Republican Party He is pissed about their timidity Conservative Surge Puts GOP Control of States at 95-Year High Democrats Are Working Hard to Destroy Their Party The Left Will Blame Trump for Hurricane Harvey The Destructive Power of Progressive Overreach - Good for Trump. Bad for progressives. Bad for the country. Yuval Levin on Trump's reckless executive failures Lindsey Graham: President Trump Focusing Against Congress "A Very Thought-Out Strategy, There's Nothing Crazy About It" THE RACIST ATTACKS ON AMERICA AND TRUMP - Why the Left hates the president and the nation he heads. Another example of climate alarmism idiocy – Germany’s dieselgate SOMALI SHOUTING "ALLAHU AKBAR" ATTACKS SOLDIERS IN BRUSSELS That is not news anymore With Afghanistan, Third President’s a Charm - Obama declared combat operations ended in 2014—except they didn’t Sunday, August 27. 2017Offshore Wind: Follow the money5 minutes of music educationFrom today's Lectionary: Do not be conformed to this world...Romans 12:1-8
Recommended toyA pal invited me to do some 5 AM salt water kayaking yesterday, the plan being to do some sunrise drone photography over the water and to get a couple of hours of exercise. He built a landing platform on the bow of one of his kayaks. Admit it - that's a cool thing to do. Paddling out in the dark, startling the night herons - wonderful of course. The beauty of kayaking is no noise, no sails to mess with, no concern about the water depth, and you get good exercise. In the dark, it feels magical. Unlike duck hunting (also an early start around here), it's not frigid and sleeting when you set out on the water. Anyway, this darn drone (the Solo) has about 20-25 minutes of power and it is damn fast. We put it up to around 3000 feet and sent it off about 2500 feet (around 1/2 mile) across the water when it lost contact. However, since it tracks GPS satellites, it automatically returns to its launch area when it loses contact so you easily regain control when it comes back into range. The thing has a gimbel and GoPro camera connected to your iPhone. Video or still shots. It only takes a minute to see why the military loves these toys. There are various regulations about how these toys can be used, many of them sensible. There's never a problem over water, if you keep the altitude below aircraft. Sunrise, yesterday morning, around 200 feet above Long Island Sound:
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Saturday, August 26. 2017Saturday morning linksMake DIY cold brew coffee—without fancy equipment The Farthest: Voyager in Space (full-length film) Astonishing
US News' Best States Rankings A Lawsuit Over What Counts as ‘Spring Water’ A young Scottish woman bewildered by American campus politics Hurricane Harvey Narrative Already Set: Trump Failed
Memphis Theater Cancels Showing of ‘Gone With the Wind’ After Alt-Left Complains of Racism Calif. Catholic school removes Jesus and Mary statues: ‘Alienating’ What Did That Confederate Statue in Durham Stand For? But the soldier depicted by the upended monument in Durham? Who was he most likely? California Could Start Jailing People Who Don’t Use Transgender Pronouns Study: Social justice activism is 'rife' with 'oppression' White House Reporter Mocked After Claiming ‘Young Hispanic Boy’ Asked Him ‘Why Does the President Hate Me?’ The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics Reports: Globalists in White House Oppose Trump’s Border Wall, Reforms Canada’s Trudeau Has Second Thoughts On Open Borders MORE TERROR ATTACKS IN EUROPE - It is getting to the point where they are barely newsworthy. Dog bites man stories Friday, August 25. 2017Look out Houston, storm is comin' through...A mean storm on the Texas coast. We are all thinking of y'all down there. Too serious of a storm, it seems, to facetiously blame it on Al Gore's new movie. This tune's been going through my head again. The lyrics are incoherent on top, so how come it fits together so well that you can memorize them in five minutes, and it can stick in your brain forever? Thus, perhaps, the Nobel prize. Where is Alicia Keyes? Friday morning linksWine and health Wine is medicine Hunting season: Quick Fixes for Better Shooting - Follow these 25 simple tips to bag more ducks and geese SWEDISH MUSEUM ACCELERATES THEIR CULTURAL COLLAPSE BY TURNING VIKING ARTIFACTS INTO SCRAP METAL ACLU: That Photo Of A Flag-Waving 3-Year-Old We Just Posted Shows ‘White Supremacy Is Everywhere’ Hitler-Jugend, no doubt Surprise: Hurricane Harvey Blamed On ‘Climate Change’ Climatologist Shreds Al Gore’s Latest Propaganda Movie Affirmative Action Has Failed. It Never Had a Chance to Succeed What Texans Are Telling Their Congressman - Are voters fixated on Trump? Health care? North Korea? Nope. Think again. It fascinates me when people say, “Why won’t gun owners compromise?” DHS: Arizona Proves ‘Border Walls Work’ AN OPEN LETTER TO MICHAEL CHABON'S READERS - The novelist instructs his fellow Jews that their biggest enemy is – who else? – Donald Trump. Jewish activists target removal of Peter Stuyvesant monuments Southern Poverty Law Center Labels Christian Groups As “Hate” Groups University of Michigan frat cancels ‘Nile’-themed party after student complains One student - sheesh. Upset about cultural appropriation of ancient Egypt. Really? A creepy prediction of internet censorship Scott Adams: Oppositions tend to hallucinate Wall Street Journal Editor In Chief Admonishes (Liberal) Reporters for "Commentary Dressed Up as Reportage" In Trump Coverage; NYT Criticizes, Claiming WSJ Lacks the "Verve" of Full-On Leftist Bias CNN: Everyone Who Voted For Trump Is A ‘White Supremacist By Default’ It’s Official. Democrats Have Learned Nothing From Donald Trump’s Win US Navy has a problem with pregnant sailors Surprise. When you put men with women, things happen. It never fails. TERROR AVERTED IN ROTTERDAM - A tip from Spanish authorities saves Dutch lives. Poland to EU: No Muslim Refugees Venice snipers authorized to kill anyone shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ Disney Venice (as I term it) doesn't want any terror headlines Thursday, August 24. 2017Summertime BluesFitness, comparison, competition, and a partial solutionEvery good fitness trainer will urge you not to compare your fitness with others. That is fine in theory, but it goes against human nature. There is an unspoken rule in gyms that you do not look at other people or at what they are doing. A rule more honored in the breach than in its observance, maybe. Indeed, we glance at what the big boys are doing with the multi-100 lb barbells, and we at least glance at the 30-something pigtailed blond bouncing merrily and faster than us on the elliptical in front of us. I'm talking about the competitive urge, though, not the boy-girl aspect. I'll admit that I envy the taller, hunkier guys with more rugged features and builds than mine, and there is an ugly thread of hatred in that because I imagine they could have stolen the girl I liked when I was in high school, or gotten a job I wanted for being a more formidable or impressive presence. It is common for women to feel similar things, to feel defeated by women who are shapelier, more athletic, more charming, etc. People who are relatively free of interpersonal competitiveness, whether in talents, brains, career success, wealth, fame, fitness, attractiveness, etc. are blessed in a way, I think. Anyway, all such comparisons and competitions can interfere with, or even defeat, our personal fitness goals (unless we are, in fact, seriously competitive athletes). Indeed, they can discourage people from pursuing their goals at all. Some people are afraid of gyms. The ancient Greeks were not. Their gyms were for people without manual labor who needed phys ed and intellectual stimulation. OK, it is true, they liked the boys too but that is not what we are about. My suggestion is to make a set of, say, 6 fitness provisional goals (signal goals, eg body composition, distance on 60-second sprints of whatever sort, deadlift max, number of pull-ups, etc) and to keep a monthly log of progress while doing the full round of fitness efforts. This takes the focus off others and puts it where it belongs, at least in this area of life. We don't compare our bank accounts with Warren Buffet's. We compare them with ours from last month or last year. Am I progressing morally, spiritually, financially, physically, intellectually, culturally, from year to year? If not, what the heck am I doing with this incredibly challenging and often-harrowing brief gift of life? Waiting for something? Or surviving (not a bad idea)? Thursday morning links´My daughter came home crying afraid she´d turn into a boy´: Parents´ anger after kindergarten lesson has student´s transgender reveal occur mid-class Child miners aged four living a hell on Earth so YOU can drive an electric car Here Are 8 Monuments That Have Been Attacked Since Charlottesville UC Berkeley chancellor’s message on free speech Britain’s War on Free Speech Why Are Media Outlets Giving Commentary Space to Wannabe Censors? Should Apple and Google Ban Gab? ESPN, THE WORLDWIDE LEADER IN LIBERAL IDIOCY Immigration Twilight Zone - Objections to President Trump’s proposed new system run the gamut from hyperbolic to self-serving. Dear President Trump: It's Time for Some Conventional Political Finesse Tapper Admonishes Trump: ‘Your Behavior Is Causing Great Concern Among the Majority of the American People’
Trump’s Afghan Escalation Iran extends reach with fight for land link to Mediterranean New England Real Estate: Redding CT
Redding has a few nasty mcmansions but it's still far enough from things to have a rural character while having high-functioning residents. If this place in Redding had another ten or 20 acres, it would appeal more to me. Frontage on the large pond, a large greenhouse, and, interestingly, it used to be Edward Steichen's studio. It's for sale. I'd let lots of that lawn turn to once/year mowed meadow. Mowed in early August, after the meadow birds and bunnies have bred.
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Wednesday, August 23. 2017Wednesday morning linksShark feasts on seal in video, causes panic on Cape Cod beach Not vegans yet Cannabis shows inconsistent benefits for pain, PTSD Basically, some people love weed, some don't. I don't. It made me feel paranoid. The New Yorker: Who owns the internet? James T. Hodgkinson, Attempted Assassin Of Steve Scalise, Already Being Erased From History "The only people who are nostalgic for Communism are those who did not have to live under it." The New York Times thinks corporations now serve as the moral voice of America. Not from The Onion: ESPN pulled Asian announcer Robert Lee off the UVa home opener to avoid offending viewers Jeh Johnson Demonstrates Why We Need Limited Government Civil war history is a threat to homeland security Alan Dershowitz Defies Democrats: I’m Against Destroying Art and Statues “We’re Not the Taliban. We’re Not Stalin” “The issue is never the issue, the issue is always revolution” CNN: Trump a threat to national security Also, he is demented, a sexist, and a Nazi. Where do you go from there? Mattis Just Took an Unannounced Trip to ISIS´s Doorstep to Personally Tell Them They´re About to Die Tuesday, August 22. 2017Applause for entrepreneurs: Nora Gardner.comIt is remarkable and noteworthy to me when anybody successfully opens an independent business in this country's anti-business climate, whether it's local plumbing, money management, or a clothing line. It's good for people whenever somebody has the cojones to do such things. Many people get jobs from it. Why does government make it so hard to do? One high-energy young gal we have been following is Nora Gardner, whose online shop for conservative upscale professional women's wear ("Day-to-Night" clothing, made of Italian wool right in New York City's garment district) has added a flagship shop on 58th between Madison and Park. Mostly online, though. Lots of people try being employees, and conclude that they ain't gonna work for Maggie's Farm no more. That's good, that's the American spirit. I tried to be an employee for a while. Hated it, never looked back despite the "security." Problem is, it's a bitch to be your own boss, because boss is too hard on you. Gotta be tough, bold, and brave, and take a ton of self-criticism. You Go, Girl.
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Tuesday morning linksLatest Victim Of Statue Hysteria: Catholic Saints All the reasons to masturbate — that have nothing to do with sex You Don't Need a Thermomix. But You Should Want One. The appliance you didn't know your kitchen longed for. We'll survive without one, somehow Many more chances to see total eclipses Plastic surgeons who give you Vulcan and elfin-like ears Vietnam Vets were cheated Internet free speech threatened Too Much Power Lies in Tech Companies' Hands Provocateur Journalism - CNN uncritically publishes a list of “hate groups” compiled by the discredited Southern Poverty Law Center. From College Indoctrination to Corporate Intolerance Yale’s Disgraceful Whitewashing of History Continues To protect the children from Lux et Veritas Congressman, Native American: When political correctness runs amok -- erasing our history doesn't change it Yes it does change history, because history is just what is depicted by the present Let Us Now Praise Muslim Apostates - For two brave writers, the battle against Islamism can be won only on the terrain of ideas.
Trump’s Critics Give White Supremacists the Notoriety They Crave Boston Antifa: This City Has No Room for Supporters of the U.S. Constitution If You Condemn Antifa, Are You Excusing Neo-Nazism? Antifa is a media creation Dear Media: Stop Putting Scare Quotes Around 'Free Speech' Is the Nazigarm over yet? Should The Democratic Party Be Abolished As A Symbol Of Oppression? Long knives unsheathed for Sebastian Gorka now that Bannon is gone Scalp collecting. It never ends With Angry Politics Dominating, Trump's Smart Infrastructure Reforms Go Almost Unnoticed Dear Federal Government, Stop Trying to Fix the Infrastructure GOP Lawmaker: Paul Ryan and McConnell Are Slow-Walking POTUS Trump’s Agenda Because They Don’t Like It The horrible UN always hungry for power Canada’s Trudeau Warns Against Entering Country ‘Irregularly’ North Korea shipments to Syria chemical arms agency intercepted - U.N. The Kurds Are About to Blow up Iraq
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