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, August 21. 2017Monday morning linksTotal eclipses aren't that rare—and you've probably missed a bunch of them - They happen about once every 18 months The Eclipse Can Be A Call To Action On ‘Climate Change’ Or Something The Eclipse Is Racist Because It Fails To Affect Enough Black People, The Atlantic Suggests:
How to clean your Keurig How HIV Became a Cancer Cure When the Arts Czars resign It's a good thing. I oppose government art. The Chinese of the Mississippi Delta Reporter Confronts Al Gore On Sea Level Rise Claims, Gets Called A ‘Denier’ If you're not hysterical, you are an evil denier Menton on women in big law:
NAACP calling for boycott of NFL, Atlanta Falcons Starbucks CEO Faces Backlash After Suggesting Violence and Hatred Towards Whites is Acceptable Door.Ass.Bang: US Illegals exit via the dead end of Roxham Road It’s Not Trump They Hate — It’s Us! Trump is the real Antifa Donald Trump is winning...bigly Democrats own Antifa, just like they owned Occupy NEW YORK TIMES APPLAUDS FAR-LEFT VIOLENCE TDS is a sad disorder Deroy Murdock: Both sides were to blame for Charlottesville violence Scott Adams: How To Know You’re In a Mass Hysteria Bubble Media working overtime to prove Trump is a racist Good luck with that. Trump is the most post-racial US president, but maybe post-racial is racist in this Orwellian world Mainstream Media Exploit Charlottesville Violence to Help the Left Commenter at Althouse
Media created and amplified such jerks to serve the narrative Dartmouth Prof Defends Antifa: It’s Just Self-Defense Against Nazis Seen a Nazi lately? Sheesh, they are everywhere these days. KKK too. Be very afraid. I blame Trump. Rumors of Trump's demise are, once again, greatly exaggerated DUMBEST NEWS STORY OF THE DAY - I know, the competition is stiff. But I think we have a winner. Spanish terror cell planned to use 'Mother of Satan' explosive used in 7/7 bombings to slaughter hundreds in 'spectacular' blast at Barcelona's famous cathedral Barcelona Suspects Planned To Blow Up Church, Accidentally Blew Up Imam Who Radicalized Them 'Better get out early than late': Barcelona’s chief rabbi urges Jews to move to Israel as he warns Europe is 'lost' because of threat from radical Islam The drug that turns ISIS into ‘unforgiving killing machines’ What's up with the US Navy? Tragic and Embarassing Catboat du Jour: Marshall 22
Catboats of any size tend to be beamy, stable, and comfortable. With no jib, they can not point worth a darn. Not a bad idea to have a motor for when wanted. Picking a horsepower for a sailboat is a bit complicated. Salt Water New England posted the pic below of a Marshall 22 quite close to the (not under power, I assume, or just holding in place) Queen Mary 2 somewhere in New England. Marshalls come with a diesel engine. If you ever have the chance to take a Cunard liner across the Atlantic, do it. She is a true ocean liner, not a cruise ship. Today, the Queen Mary is at dock in NYC, due to leave for Hamburg soon. A sail on a catboat on a breezy day is is good too. Marshalls for sale here.
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Sunday, August 20. 2017Fun football quotes"I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game." Bear Bryant / Alabama "It isn't necessary to see a good tackle, you can hear it!” - Knute Rockne / Notre Dame "At Georgia Southern, we don't cheat. That costs money, and we don't have any." Erik Russell / Georgia Southern "The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it." - Lou Holtz / Arkansas - Notre Dame "When you win, nothing hurts." - Joe Namath / Alabama "A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall." - Frank Leahy / Notre Dame "There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you." - Woody Hayes / Ohio State "I don't expect to win enough games to be put on NCAA probation. I just want to win enough to warrant an investigation." - Bob Devaney / Nebraska "In Alabama , an atheist is someone who doesn't believe in Bear Bryant." - Wally Butts / Georgia "I never graduated from Iowa. But I was only there for two terms - Truman's and Eisenhower's." Alex Karras / Iowa "My advice to defensive players is to take the shortest route to the ball, and arrive in a bad humor. - Bowden Wyatt / Tennessee "I could have been a Rhodes Scholar except for my grades." - Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State "Always remember Goliath was a 40 point favorite over David." - Shug Jordan / Auburn "I asked Darrell Royal, the coach of the Texas Longhorns, why he didn't recruit me ." He said,"Well, Walt, we took a look at you, and you weren't any good." - Walt Garrison / Oklahoma State "Son, you've got a good engine, but your hands aren't on the steering wheel." - Bobby Bowden / Florida State Lots more below the fold - Continue reading "Fun football quotes"
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Vitex agnus castus: Monk's PepperA few years ago I posted a photo of a garden shrub that I see occasionally thriving on the Outer Cape. Many of our readers concluded that it was Mexican Sage. It is not. I wasted some money buying a couple of Mexican Sages online, and they will not survive my winter. I finally got to the bottom of it today. It is Vitex (aka Monk's Pepper, or Chaste Tree). The leaves look like marijuana leaves. Vitex can grow into a small tree or, if pruned, can remain a small shrublike perennial. In northern climes, it tends to die back to the ground in cold winters (like buddleia) but comes right back up in spring. This site sells a dwarf version which is exactly what I have been seeking. Give it a try in a perennial bed as a bushy perennial. Butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds like it. It blooms all summer. From today's LectionaryRomans 11:1-2a, 29-32 11:1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 11:2a God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. 11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 11:30 Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, Saturday, August 19. 2017Saturday morning linksCereal Box Eclipse Viewer Do you suffer from decision fatigue? WHY BRILLIANT GIRLS TEND TO FAVOR NON-STEM CAREERS Only In Cali: New Bill Would Imprison Healthcare Workers For Using Incorrect Pronouns With Patients Want A $400K Grant To Watch Gay People Drink? Time to re-name Yale “Is This The Day The Internet Dies?” How ‘Bout We Punch You In The Face Week In Higher Education “You Need Violence In Order To Protect Nonviolence” Dems risk culture war fight in Charlottesville response And Yet President Trump, in His Classically Inartful Way, Was Absolutely Right THE DEMOCRATS’ DANGEROUS DOLCHSTOSSLEGENDE - The Master Party would rather destroy America than question its own superiority. PBS Stands by "Dying to Be a Martyr" Curriculum Turkey to boost military cooperation with Iran after army chief's visit How Syria continued to gas its people as the world looked on Why terrorists are so focused on attacking Europe
Saturday Verse: Dylan ThomasThe force that through the green fuse drives the flower The force that through the green fuse drives the flower The force that drives the water through the rocks The hand that whirls the water in the pool The lips of time leech to the fountain head; And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb Friday, August 18. 2017A few Wellfleet pics, Aug 2017, with restaurants and tides
When you are hiking and pond-hopping in the sandy back roads of the Cape Cod National Seashore and encounter signs like this, ignore them. Everybody does. Just go on through to a lovely isolated ocean beach. In the 1950s and 60s, it was a nude beach for the artists, writers, bohemian free-love intelligentsia from Boston and NYC, and the horny modernist architects from the US and Germany.
More random pics of the place we love below the fold - Continue reading "A few Wellfleet pics, Aug 2017, with restaurants and tides" House Music, with a question for our genius readers
My house radio music has always been WQXR (live streamed or sometimes regular radio), but on the Cape I discovered Chatham's Cape Classical 107.5. They are at least as enjoyable as WQXR and they also live stream. OK, I do CDs also, but only radio introduces me to music I haven't heard before. My perennial question to my readers is this: How do I get live-streamed music to go through my fancy speakers? Or is streamed music of such lousy quality that it doesn't matter? What about a Bluetooth audio receiver? I don't know how those work. I eagerly await suggestions.
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Friday morning linksPhoto is Lincoln posing with Edgar Allen Poe in Brady's studio See an animation of how the solar eclipse will look from anywhere in the U.S. NYT: Jun Takahashi, sorcerer of fashion HOW BASEBALL BECAME A PROFESSION Why Millennial Women Are Failing and How to Fix It You nonna's Italian-American cooking If you like heartburn... Vaginas absolutely need sex or they’ll become medically ‘depressed’ Is there a role for government here? Related, WHAT DO FANNY HILL AND KING LEAR HAVE IN COMMON? Look out, Amazon: China's Alibaba may soon be bigger Why the North Pond Hermit Hid From People for 27 Years - Christopher Knight did not have a conversation with another person for almost three decades—but he committed roughly a thousand burglaries. In India, an Uber for farm machinery aims to make a difference in rural areas Cool Why we need to curb our enthusiasm for scientific ‘breakthroughs’ Alexis de Tocqueville on Free Health Care How technology breeds inequality University cancels event called ‘The Stifling of Free Speech on University Campuses’ The "Diversity" Follies, Gender Edition No, the Government Should Not Censor White Supremacist Views Loonies are free to speak Related, Missouri Senator: ‘I Hope Trump Is Assassinated!’
The Democrats Wanted Charlottesville Media and Dems doing their darndest to shape our reality. They keep seeking to create Trump's Katrina - media did create Bush's Katrina successfully Greenfield: Arrest the Editor of the Washington Post - Inciting violent riots should have consequences. New York Times: Some Charlottesville Protesters Were Not White Supremacists, Nazis Like Trump said Prominent Republicans Endorse Antifa " The Republican Party is no more. It is dead. It has ceased to be. It has joined the choir invisible and is pushing up the daisies..." ISRAEL ON THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BALFOUR DECLARATION Alternative Facts Under NY Times Editor Matt Seaton - Newspaper Claims Eilat Was an Egyptian Port, Abbas Accepts a Jewish State, Israel Built no Arab Cities, Palestinian Factions Don't Call for One-State Solution Thursday, August 17. 2017Seals and sharksThe movie "Jaws" ruined beach fun for millions of people. Like "Psycho" with showers and "Snakes on the Plane" with airplanes, the idea was to make money by creating disturbing mental images for people who live lives blessedly free of elemental terrors. Shark attacks on humans are extremely rare, and probably mostly accidental. Still, the thought of it is disturbing and resonates with our deepest "monster under the bed" terrors. I never saw Jaws. Didn't want to. I do know the famous lines from it, though. Great Whites are cold-water eating machines. They congregate where the food is. They will live on fish, but seem to prefer delicious mammalian flesh so they go where they can find it. Does the Bird Dog family swim with the seals? Yes, and the gals often with wet suits that make them look like cute seals. You can't have a life if fear dominates every aspect of it. I do not frequent golf courses in thunderstorms, but I do not frequent golf courses anyway. Short video: A shark expert says this US coastline could be the next danger zone for great white shark attacks
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Thursday morning linksCanadians Can Eat Genetically Enhanced Salmon; Americans Can't Applebee's Gives Up On Millennials After Failed Rebranding Efforts WHAT TO DO WHEN THE COPS SHOW UP A Navy SEAL explains what to do if you're attacked by a dog Could Elite Colleges Expand? CBS Brags: Iceland Has Cured Down Syndrome. But Can You Guess How?… Professors Told to Treat Microaggressions Like Assaults Don’t Even Think About Being Evil - Corporate America has managed to make higher education look like an open marketplace of ideas. Can NY Times really win Sarah Palin case by proving Editorial Author didn’t read the NY Times? Trump To Roll Back Yet Another Obama ‘Climate Change’ Rule University Physics Researcher Chanda Prescod-Weinstein Denounces White Male Science Baltimore Pulls Down Confederate Monuments In Dead Of Night Trump Supporters In Seattle Demand Lenin Statue Be Torn Down The Pandora's Box of Taking Down Confederate Monuments Trump on Charlottesville: Danged if he does, danged if he doesn’t Mr. President: Dismantle the Insurrection Council on American-Islamic Relations: Tear Down Every Confederate Memorial ACLU Blames Police Inaction for Charlottesville Street Brawls David Horowitz: Charlottesville Is Biggest 'Fake News' Story of Summer The Rise of the Violent Left - Antifa’s activists say they’re battling burgeoning authoritarianism on the American right. Are they fueling it instead? THE INVASION OF CANADA - A Somali immigration minister and an open border. Practicing Coercive Diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula Migrant Crisis Reaches Spain Wednesday, August 16. 2017Today's Tap
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Upper body exercise planEarly this year, to deliver on my New Year's resolution, I started working out. I found this brilliant exercise for people who have a hard time getting into the habit of working out. Here's how it goes - begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side. With a 5-lb potato sack in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute, and then relax. Each day you'll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer. After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-lb potato sacks. Then try 50-lb potato sacks and then eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-lb potato sack in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute. (I'm at this level.) After you feel confident at that level, put one potato in each of the sacks...
Wednesday morning linksViking Fashion: Men And Women Were Vain And Very Clean During The Viking Age Anti-Israel Curricula Used in World History Courses Across the Country Subsidizing health insurance cannot ever get us to universal coverage Google memo author exposes three of the most scandalous thought crimes of contemporary American society Study Finds 3.5 Million Ghost Voters in US – More Than the Entire Population of 21 States WaPo: Documents Show Russians Sought Meetings With Trump Campaign…and Team Trump Declined I've changed my mind about the statues Allen West: Ok folks, here’s what REALLY happened in Charlottesville – and what everyone is missing Trump's Epic Presser Clarifies Three Truths That Have Driven The MSM Insane NYT Illustrates Perfectly Why Conservatives Consider Mainstream Media Hostile WASHINGTON POST: "START THROWING ROCKS" Tuesday, August 15. 2017Birds are dinosaursTuesday morning linksNow at Saks: Salt Rooms, a Bootcamp and a Peek at Retail’s Future Granola: Not particularly "healthy" but tasty To each his own. I think it's gerbil food Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? To The Progressive, Everything That Happens In Urban America Is Bad Participation boost: Americans are still rushing back into the job market The Eclipse as Dark Omen - America’s skies are set to dim at a strange hour of its history. The Statues of Unliberty - Confederate leaders are honored with sculptures in the halls of Congress. James Damore Confronts the Nagging Harridans of High Tech (and Loses) Sundar Pichai Should Resign as Google’s C.E.O. Reynolds: Google needs a new CEO, but dumping Sundar Pichai is not enough Google's search for non-white male employees shows few results (Asian now counts as white, I guess) McArdle: As a Woman in Tech, I Realized: These Are Not My People Conservatives say campus speech is under threat. That’s been true for most of history. Violent Charlottesville Protester Claims 'Free Speech Does Not Protect Hate Speech' Avoidable Mayhem - Why did Virginia’s political leadership order the police and National Guard to stand down? How The Liberal Media Created Charlottesville Antifa Website Calls for Violence Against Trump Supporters So dumb they think he was serious With Tom Price in charge, doctors are winning again in Washington How Middle-Class Europeans Fare Under the Welfare State The Forgotten South Vietnamese Airborne Clarity on Israel Anti-Boycott Act Another Gwynnie vacation photoOur (too-occasional) contributor must be on the way home from their Sierra Nevada family camp because I was emailed a pic of their 11-mile driveway.
Monday, August 14. 2017Snow GeeseWe've seen flocks like this in Manitoba. When a thousand come down into your field decoys at dawn it can be quite a slaughter Unlike Canada Geese, Snows go down, as they say, like a prom dress.
Monday morning links‘Wind River’ Is A Criminally Underrated Film Vanderleun: I’m a believer because… well because I’ve really got Nothing. Better. To. Do.
Grand Central Terminal’s Swankiest Bar Reopens As the Campbell FAR-LEFT FASHION AT VOGUE Yes, Left=Fashion 47 Hospitals Slashed Their Use Of 2 Key Heart Drugs After Huge Price Hikes Dumb move When it's OK to mock bums NYT: Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism "It is likely that from a strictly environmental point of view, practices like buying local and subsidizing renewable energy have adverse effects." It's just a virtue fad CA sued for not offering assisted suicide The Atlanitc: This author is certain that only he is "reality-based"
DC hasn’t come to grips with Trump’s presidency Washington Post Decides To Write What Trump Should Have Said About Charlottesville Is Charlottesville What's Really Going On in the USA? Of course not What is Kim’s Strategy? Sunday, August 13. 2017A pleasantly exertional dayJust home and perused Roger's Saturday links. He is so good at this. Too bad I can't afford to pay him more than he makes painting barns in Maine with red primer. Roger, I have done my share of red barn painting and entirely agree with the idea that nothing but lead is effective for endurance. Nowadays, we can easily add lead to lead-free paint. Amongst other kayaking adventures this past ten days, Mrs. BD and I went to sea and almost made it to Jeremy Point when my back cramped up so we only had a 4-hr trip. This was a remarkably calm day in Cape Cod, but the tidal currents which you can not see are what wear you out. Do not wish to be carried too far out to sea. That's Mrs. BD in front of me, off the shores of Great Island, Wellfleet. Fitness nuts that we are, all of our daily outdoor exertions are after our morning 50-minute prescribed calisthenics. Yes, we may be crazy but we are physically, if not mentally, tough. Why are kayaks such krazy kolors? So you are visible to other watercraft - or to the Coast Guard if you are flushed beyond paddle distance by currents (which did happen to one of my bothers in law one time, years ago. He only sails now). We seek secluded beaches for skinny dipping. Why not? Nobody is out there. Just Ospreys. Is it true that, when a couple quits wanting to skinny-dip, the romance is over? Beaches are all about wholesome exhibitionism and sex. Good things. Get brown, trim, fit, and happy. It is spiritual. From today's Lectionary: The good newsRomans 10:5-15
Saturday, August 12. 2017What Physics does these days. The power of the gods, reposted in case you missed it
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Wednesday, August 9. 2017Stairmaster Fun! RepostedStairmaster intervals provide possibly the most efficient and intense cardio exercise. Your heart rate jumps up to max immediately. You can do 30 seconds of high-speed anaerobic intervals then slow down for 60 seconds, and repeat at the speeds that work for you. If you can do two steps at a time on the higher speeds, so much the better. Another approach which I am using now is to do 3-minute stairs at the highest speed I can handle for that long, then get off and do a one-minute plank and another minute to breathe, then back on. Thus a 20-min cardio work-out which also beats the hell out of your quads. What is it good for? It's for intense cardio training, lower body endurance, core stress. It doesn't build strength per se the way squats and deadlifts do, but it does work for lower body "toning" at the least. Because it is very low-impact, about the same as walking, it is also a cardio recommendation for people with bad knees, hips, and lower back. (Readers know that we believe that two 20-30 minute cardio stress sessions weekly is enough cardio, if combined with the other weight and calisthenics routines.) Five hours or less per week of weights, calis, and cardio is all it takes for general Fitness for Life. Then throw in some sports or hiking or yoga or golf or swims or whatever for fun, plus some Cokes or beers as rewards, and you've been a darn good steward of your body, which is your most important real estate. Anybody can find time for that. Just avoid any distance running or you will regret it. Cardio Days
What we call "cardio" is really endurance-maintenance and endurance-building for people with sedentary (ie less than 6 hours/wk of short-of-breath exertion) lives. The idea is to keep heart rate far above walking or recreational biking, with sprints of max heart rate, for 1 hr+. At this point, I can tell how hard my heart is pounding without looking at any gauge. Our current cardio routine gets us moving with vigor and lots of sweat, and the time flies: - 15 minutes elliptical, moving resistance up and down the scale from 3 to 15 That's just a bit over an hour if you take very little rest to breathe - which you are not supposed to do.
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