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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Saturday, July 15. 2017Saturday morning linksMcDonald´s fries: The little-known ingredient that makes them so addictive How St. Augustine Invented Sex - He rescued Adam and Eve from obscurity, devised the doctrine of original sin—and the rest is sexual history. Good stuff:
The ancient, secular reason why saints are shown with halos Romania's marital prison Book Review: Russell Redenbaugh's 'Shift the Narrative' An impressive man New Theory Explains Economic Growth In Terms Of Evolutionary Biology Science: Power Causes Brain Damage - Studies raise questions about what authority does to the mind. Concentration Camps Reveal the Nature of the Modern State Feminist Magazine Explains Why You Must Not Gender Your Pets High Schools as Indoctrination Mills The Problem With Helicopter Colleges - The Harvard professor Steven Pinker objects to a proposal to ban various undergraduate social clubs, citing a model of higher education that many elite institutions are rejecting. Not Everything Is Caused by Climate Change, Part 971 ABC, NBC under fire after smearing Christian organization as a “hate group” AN UNHINGED LINDA SARSOUR LASHES OUT AT THE “ZIONIST MEDIA” The Left’s Inversion of Anti-Semitism - The new, inverted definition of anti-Semitism. Social Security Slouches Towards Insolvency Atlantic: Tucker Carlson Is Doing Something Extraordinary - He is offering a glimpse into what Fox News would look like as an intellectually interesting network. The One Sentence That Explains Washington Dysfunction - Column: The political class never expected Donald Trump to become president Jamie Dimon blows up at DC's dysfunction, says he's tired of 'listening to the stupid s---- Trump Derangement Syndrome: Yes, They Have All Gone Completelyy insane Donald Trump appears to have caused David Brooks to lose his senses. In today’s New York Times, Brooks imputes the alleged ethical lapses of Donald Trump to the the original sins of his grandfather and father. Germany: Infectious Diseases Spreading as Migrants Settle In What Really Matters in the Middle East Friday, July 14. 2017QQQ“The dog is the most faithful of animals and would be much esteemed were it not so common. Our Lord God has made His greatest gifts the commonest.” Martin Luther Friday morning linksConservatives don’t oppose a government-dominated health system because we are heartless; This fight isn’t about having the cheapest health care, but the best No, it's about freedom Medi-Cal Is A Microcosm Of What’s Wrong With Government Managed Health Insurance Tube to change 'ladies and gentlemen' announcements Clinical Psychologist: 'Women Hate Harmless Men' “You want to know how an ordinary person can also be a monster? Read this. Read this person do evil to her son.” Waffle House Is Dirty? WE ALREADY KNEW THAT! Union Files Grievance Over ‘Goat Crews’ Clearing Brush On University Campus Union Pushing Single Payer In California Is Angering Its Allies Cosmo Warns Parents-to-Be That Revealing Your Child's Gender May Scar Your Trans-in-Training For Life Feds Use Arts Funding to Subsidize Billion-Dollar Nonprofits - Cactus dances, Christopher Columbus assassination plays receive taxpayer funding Harvard task force: Eradicate all private social groups, not just single-sex clubs Evergreen Student: ‘This School Seems To Focus So Much On Race That It Is Actually Becoming More Racist’ The High Cost of "Free" College The Southern Poverty Law Center Has Become a Dangerous Joke It has become a hate group Private Home Ownership May Not Be Viable Because Climate Economics deniers in Seattle Seattle: Cleaning poo off sidewalks is racist Shortage Of Foreign Labor Forces Maine Businesses To Hire Local Workers Oregon’s Radical, Grisly Abortion Law New York Times: World’s nations building huge numbers of new coal plants despite emissions growth The media’s martyr complex is embarrassing CNN's Fake News Machine Why Middle America Doesn't Care About The Trump Jr. Narrative: Reuters Explains Our Current Presidential Era May Not Be ‘Normal,’ But It Is Predictable Trump’s biggest mistake – not going after Hillary NBC: "Parisians Resigned to Hosting President Donald Trump in France for Bastille Day." MELANIA TRUMP DAZZLES PARIS – Speaks French to Children at Paris Hospital Inverness
It's July in Scotland, and people wear fleece, down jackets, Barbour-type jackets, wool hats, etc. just to walk around town. We flew into Inverness via Amsterdam, and had a day or so, on both ends of our Hebrides trip, in Inverness. It's the commercial center of the Highlands with a population around 50,000. It is slightly touristy - really more of a take-off point for the hinterlands - and pleasant, but there really isn't much there for a tourist. The River Ness runs through it, from Loch Ness to the North Sea. Salmon and Sea Trout in that river. More Inverness below the fold -
Continue reading "Inverness" Thursday, July 13. 2017Thursday morning linksThe Toscanini Wars - No maestro was more revered—or more reviled. On the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his birth, it’s time to give him a fair hearing. Why 10,000 Steps a Day Won't Make You Thin - If you start walking with the expectation of losing weight, it might be smart to reevaluate No, poor people don't eat the most fast food Transgender Men in Women’s Showers Must Get ‘Dignity and Respect,’ Says U.S. Army Batshit insane. Will Combining Purdue and Kaplan Improve Higher Education? Wind And Solar Power Don't Work Newspapers: All the rich are screaming Jeff Sessions Wants More Mandatory Minimums, Less Justice - The attorney general is determined to reverse the recent trend toward more judicious use of severe penalties. Sessions is wrong about this Can Democrats Make Nice with Deplorables? A few prominent liberal writers venture outside of the partisan bunker. NY Post: Donald Trump Jr. is an idiot No, but he is an amateur Team Trump Is Getting Buried In Political Warfare This Time We Liberals Have Totally Got Trump. Mirengoff: THIS DAY IN “COLLUSION” HYSTERIA Over 120,000 Palestinian Children Attend Summer Camps Run By Hamas Terrorists … The Terrifying Way Sweden Is Killing Itself
India's Gruesome New Welfare Trend France Unveils Plan To ‘Systematically’ Deport Illegal Migrants Wednesday, July 12. 2017Training for hill and mountainous hikingOn Wednesdays we usually focus on general conditioning (fitness for life) and rarely on training for specific athletic endeavors. That's for a reason. However, tough hiking is just an extreme variant of walking. A question might be "If you had three months to prep for a ten-day backpacking hike in Denali, or the Bob Marshall, or the White Mountains, or, like us, mountains in the Highlands, what would you do?" I should modify that a bit. "What would you do, assuming you had a day job and little free time on weekends?" I asked an exercise expert friend, a competitive athlete who can do several reps of 300-lb deads, that question. She said, given just an hour daily, the emphasis should be on lower body endurance and intense cardio. She said she would do two days/week of the usual powerlifts, but replace her other exercise routines with an hour of stairmaster with a 20-lb weight vest, and an hour of calisthenics with a 5-10-lb weight vest. She correctly observed that hill/mountain hiking is not mostly about strength but is about stamina, agility, and endurance. A person can be very strong without good endurance (and vice-versa). She said an hour of intervals on the bike would be fine, but an hour walking on treadmill with a 20-30 -lb weight vest at a high incline would be better for the purpose. She also said that, from her experience, daily 7-hour mountain hiking with packs over 10 days can not really be duplicated in normal life. Best approach, when actually doing the trip, would be two to three days on, alternating with one lighter day for recovery. In fact, that is roughly what our guide had planned for our mixed group - two days hard, then one day lighter, and so on. By day 6, I felt eager to tackle anything. Pumped up and ready to go. Too soon, it was time to go home.
Wednesday morning linksA riptide swept away a Florida family. Then beachgoers formed a human chain. How Zillow Became an Internet Villain - Poor little "McMansion Hell" was a small and sympathetic target. Evergreen State upheaval felt like some sort of warzone, scholar says Professors Must Now Fear Intimidation From Both Sides Expecting good grammar is racist Speaker gets disrespected by high schoolers, and it inspires him to deliver a great speech (video) Why Roman concrete still stands strong while modern version decays Imagine if the media covered alcohol like other drugs…. Ray Bradbury Wrote ‘Fahrenheit 451’ to Prevent a Dystopia. Instead, He Predicted One We Just Passed Prince Charles’s 96-Month Deadline to Save The World From ‘Ecosystem Collapse’ The Grenfell Tower Fire Would Not Have Happened Without EU And Climate Regulations As Trump mulls DACA change, undocumented students enjoy lower tuition rates, other perks Hartford, Hit with Brunt of Connecticut Tax Hike, Hires Bankruptcy Attorney Why Replacing Obamacare Is So Hard: It’s Fundamentally Conservative Senate Obamacare Debate Is About Money, Not Compassion WaPo: The media’s mass hysteria over ‘collusion’ is out of control "... to the Atlantic writers, defending Western civilization is nothing more than a defense of white racism."
Trump Has 6 Options to Neutralize North Korea—but None Are Good Giuliani to EU: You’d Be ‘Far Stronger’ Without ‘Socialist Economies’ Tuesday, July 11. 2017Waterproof, Shockproof, FreezeproofOver the past few years the iCamera (aka iPhone, etc) has largely replaced regular cameras. People don't want to carry even small cameras around unless for special situations, and full-sized cameras are rapidly disappearing except for professional shoots. If you are old-fashioned like me, you carry a pocket point and shoot when you go places. Smartphone cameras can be temperamental in cold weather, and do not like to be dropped on rocks or soaked in rain. A reader who enjoys camera stuff recommends the Olympus TG-5 Waterproof Camera with 3-Inch LCD.
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Paco, RIPA well-loved, loving, well-trained (but overly-exuberant as a hunter-retriever - could never train that excess out of him as some of my bird-hunting pals know) dog, dead at 13 after enriching our family life in countless ways. From a line of hunting Standard Poodles. Sad for the Bird Dog clan, leaves a hole. Many dogs in my life, and each one was the best pal. I train the heck out of them, and they repay it in all ways. Never needed a leash until he got half-blind and entirely deaf in the past year - responded to me, at least, promptly to voice, whistle, and hand commands until then, even if there was a rabbit to chase. That is Paco sitting watch over a napping Mrs. BD at the Farm a few years ago after a swim in our trout stream. Kept watch over all of us, I guess. Loved to swim with us at the Farm and on Cape Cod. Like all of us, a Cape Cod-lover who was invigorated by the salty air.
Tuesday morning links33 depressing photos that show Sears is a disaster Men and Republicans Are the Best Tippers U.S. seniors are employed at the highest rates in 55 years. Seems like a good thing to me NY Times: Campus Protests ‘A Disaster’ For Mizzou Kafkatrapped at Evergreen State College - Prof. Bret Weinstein’s attempt to clear himself of false charges of racism used as proof of his racism Award-Winning Journalist Who Broke Story of Jewish Women Barred From Chicago ‘Dyke March’ Removed From Reporting Duties Why ordinary Americans hold politicians and media in contempt, all in one Hamptons party Trump’s Right: The West Must First Have the Will to Survive Maxine Waters Acts The Fool Lambasting Ivanka At G20, Chelsea Clinton Doubles Down On Stupid At Least On Immigration, Democrats Are Still Losing The “War Of Ideas”
White House points collusion-seeking reporters toward the Democratic National Committee House Passes Medical Malpractice Reform Bill Kling: A conservative American President in Poland France: "Jihad by Court" The Impact of Jihadi Attacks on the British Elections Monday, July 10. 2017Hebrides OvertureMonday morning linksIt's good to be back in the land of Dunkin Donuts. The Scots are tea-drinkers. Well, tea, ale, and whisky drinkers. You can't get a cup of coffee until, at the very earliest, 7:30. Utterly unacceptable. Europeans do not seem to be early-risers. Many thanks to our occasional (too-occasional) contributor Roger de Hauteville, the one-time Viking King of Sicily, for his unique morning links over recent days. Roger has a gift. Now back to my usual. You’ll never want to use a reusable water bottle again (h/t Insty) What killed the giant wombats? 10,000 years ago, North Americans were chowing down on potatoes Masculine Moments (video) De Blasio’s bizarre humbug in Hamburg Obama Forgot He is No Longer President, Shows Up at G20 Summit America’s Long March toward a Secular Socialist Democracy Have You Heard? All Republican Presidents Are Stupid Why Democrats are still losing the war of ideas How and why Maine reduced the minimum wage The minimum wage is always zero Goodwin: The 2016 Election and the Demise of Journalistic Standards THE NEW YORK TIMES IS IN LEGAL TROUBLE Liberals Can't Deal With A President Who Takes America's Side Dreher: Yes, They Really Do Despise Their Civilization
Trump Launched An Energy Revolution While Everyone Was Obsessing On His Tweets Sunday, July 9. 2017Leonardo and Michelangelo as engineers
Michelangelo's projects for the fortification of Florence If you take a nice hike from the center of Florence across the Arno and up the hill to San Miniato (an active abbey), you will walk past and even clamber over some of the defensive walls designed by Michelangelo. The monks at San Miniato are friendly fellows, and they can sure chant the vespers. Citius, Altius, Fortius: An Outer Hebrides adventure, Intro - Part 1 of 3Pic above is one of our hikes in heavy rain through the higher terrain of Scalpay along the Hebrides Way. - I'll post a few more photos when I get my over-200 photos organized and edited (mostly taken with Gwynnie's waterproof Olympus pocket camera - man, that was necessary), but a few introductory comments with some photos - below the fold - Continue reading "Citius, Altius, Fortius: An Outer Hebrides adventure, Intro - Part 1 of 3" From today's Lectionary: A love song for summerSong of Solomon 2:8-13
Saturday, July 8. 2017Made in VermontI am sure they are excellent rugged socks for hiking and backpacking. Mrs. BD likes them, but I call them Darn Expensive Socks.
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Famous last words
Who knows how accurate these are? Still, good stuff.
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Friday, July 7. 2017400 degrees (F)
Even chicken. Ignore the cookbook. Use a meat thermometer if you can't tell doneness by touch. More meat advice from our expert: - Remember (everybody knows this anyway) that meat continues to cook for at least 10 minutes after removing from the heat. That fact has ruined many a rare steak or butterflied leg of lamb. - Rib-eye is best pan-cooked, no matter how thick. Otherwise many or most meats can be pan-seared and roasted. She says grills are best for burgers and hot dogs, but I disagree. I love a grilled butterflied leg 'a lamb. Possibly my favorite meat. Rare, please. Mount MansfieldI have skied Mount Mansfield countless times (at the Stowe ski area) but I have never hiked it. Hiking to the top in summertime would be quite the challenge for me but I'd love to give it a shot. Or maybe not. Mansfield is the tallest peak in Vermont. New Hampshire has higher peaks. In winter, you can get up there on skis, cruise along the ridge, and go down Madonna Mountain into the Smuggler's Notch ski area. That's really a better ski area - fewer people. Ace posted this painting of a Here's Mount Mansfield, from Stowe, in summertime
Tuesday, July 4. 2017Beacon Hill, for July 4Beacon Hill is a charming 19th neighborhood in Boston, close by the Massachusetts State House. It can't really be compared with the West Village of New York because the current charming West Village was built for the poor and working class, while the Beacon Hill development was built for the gentry. Mrs. BD and friends were visiting colleagues on Beacon Hill a little while ago. She wondered where the beacon was. I checked it, and discovered that most of the hill and its warning beacon were taken away by horse and wagon in 1811. It is still hilly, though. Some major urban areas still have delightful, quiet, antique neighborly enclaves, untouched by modernity or urban renewal. I'm thinking Brooklyn Heights - and large parts of Harlem. Outside the northeast, I think of the entire downtown of Savannah, GA, which was spared the devastation of the Union armies and of urban renewal.
Monday, July 3. 2017Michael RoachNYC history: The sinking of the SS Normandie
The sinking of the SS Normandie at Manhattan's Pier 88 in 1942 is a story of one screw-up after another: The Sinking of The S.S. Normandie At NYC’s Pier 88
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