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, March 18. 2017Cooking basics
What I knew was how to throw stuff together and make edible, nourishing food. It prevented starvation, but it had no art to it and I had never been taught the fundamentals. Nowadays, we lazily specialize in Thai take-out but I love learning more about the fundamentals of serious cuisine. Sometimes I wish I had gone to the CIA - the real one, not the one in Langley. From Great Courses, The Everyday Gourmet: Rediscovering the Lost Art of Cooking Here's their ad for the course:
Saturday morning linksNYC ‘mega-pastor’ Tim Keller sees faith booming in the city He never wanted to be a missionary to NYC, but now loves it. He is semi-retiring. That is sad. How Knowing Too Much Can Hurt You at Work The 100 Websites That Rule the Internet The power of a simple Oxford, aka Harvard, comma Jonathan Haidt on "the Coddling of the American Mind" and How We Should Address It. Students rather than deans are calling for less speech and expression. That should worry us all. These are the 138 JC Penney stores that are about to close Krauthammer’s Take: Despite Proposed Cuts, ‘Big Bird Is Going to Escape Unscathed’ Gibbs is on the job: NCIS has identified hundreds of Marines who are members of Marines United NCIS as bush patrol? What Say to Your Doctor Badgering You On Hotcoldwetdry? An American Working in Mexico Gavin Newsom – “hey, California, let’s have our own single payer health care system!” CO2 goes kaboom The Last Gasps of the Clinton Dynasty Expedia names Chelsea Clinton to board of directors Donna Brazile Finally Admits She Passed Debate Questions to Hillary Clinton Campaign A proposal has been making its way through the social justice sewer system to have white people pay a 5% privilege tax. Liberals are learning to love states’ rights Why corporations prefer Lefties With Thomas Perez As DNC Chairthing, Democrats Go Full Anti-White Diversity-loving is a new thing HYPOCRISY-METER EXPLODES: New York Lyin’ Times Suddenly Appalled by Presidential Overreach The Revolt of the Judges: What Happens When the Judiciary Doesn’t Trust the President’s Oath Warfare: Nazi Card: The Left's Latest Dirty Shot At Gorka Fails Oh no! Illegal immigrants are cancelling SNAP benefits to avoid deportation Budget Director: Trump Isn't Spending Money on Climate Change Because It's a Waste of Money 3 Ways the Trump Administration Could Stop Crony Capitalism Trump Preserves the Export-Import Bank - If you're against corporate welfare, the president's budget has some good news—and a lot more bad news.
Lockheed Martin completes new battle laser for U.S. military Socialism update: As Venezuelan "Bread War" Escalates, Maduro Warns Bakers "You Will Pay, I Swear" The government controls the wheat imports Saturday Verse: Robert FrostThe Death of the Hired Man (1915) You can hear Frost read the poem here. Mary sat musing on the lamp-flame at the table Continue reading "Saturday Verse: Robert Frost" Friday, March 17. 2017Prof. Jordan Peterson's book list
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Friday morning linksHere's What Happens to Your Brain When You Give Up Sugar for Lent How About Freedom for Dinner? The regulatory state determines too much of what and how we eat. Student op-ed: Yes, milk is racist Want to Raise Successful Boys? Science Says Do This (but Their Schools Probably Won't) Universities teach students and employees to yell ‘Ouch!’ when they are offended Female Marines outraged that others watched their sex videos How an ESPN Announcer's Career Was Destroyed by a False Accusation of Racism U.S. airlines flee Castro's island hellhole GLOBAL WARMING WILL SHRINK YOUR HORSE Americans are quitting jobs at the fastest pace in 16 years College: Like Day Care, Only Worse And More Expensive People Are Not Paying Back Student Loans New York Assemblyman Unveils Bill To Suppress Non-Government-Approved Free Speech Google to Now Begin Flagging Content as "Upsetting-Offensive" McArdle: Republicans Keep Repeating the Same Tax Mistake Winners and losers in Trump's budget blueprint Chelsea wrote another book About loving "Hamilton" Mexican Migrants Eye Canada as Trump Cracks Down on Immigration " Even fake news needs content, which is where fake science comes in..." Fake weather news? Trump Says He Found Out He Was Being ‘Wiretapped’ After Reading New York Times Article Was he suckered by fake news? CBO’s Alternate Facts about Obamacare The National Endowment for the Arts Is Bad for Art and Should Be Defunded Trump Begins to Slash Government Leviathan Good luck... Trump's Brutally Honest Budget Puts GOP Lawmakers On The Spot Disagreeing With Democrats Is Now Considered Un-American Thursday, March 16. 2017Birds at the HQ yesterday
What are you seeing around your place? Thursday morning linksWhat about square photos? Children Prefer Reading Books on Paper, Not Screens “ATTENTION PARENTS: Kids Under 12 Cannot Walk or Ride to School on Their Own” Cooling to absolute zero mathematically outlawed after a century Solar Road Update -- The Stupid Continues
When a Man’s Unemployed, His Wife Bears the Emotional Costs Why stores are going out of business How Common Core Damages Students’ College Readiness Bias Response Teams Chill Free Speech and Miseducate Students UChicago student leaders slam their president for his commitment to free speech Why are climate-change models so flawed? Because climate science is so incomplete Number of sanctuary cities nears 500 ANOTHER AMERICAN CITY DESTROYED BY THE DEMOCRATS - The tragic story of Minneapolis. CBO: You Can't "Lose" Medicaid You Don't Have Medicaid Is Free. So Why Does It Require a Mandate? Obama Used British Agents For Trump Wire Tap Surveillance No One Will Build Police Station in Islamic Colony of Rinkeby, Sweden Conservative vs. Liberal Logic: A Comparison AMERICAN THINKER: TOP TEN REASONS I AM NO LONGER A LEFTIST TILLERSON REFUSES TO LEAVE ISRAEL-BASHING UN "HUMAN RIGHTS" COUNCIL. BUYS INTO "REFORM" OF THE UNREFORMABLE' Trump to Sign Executive Order Removing "Climate Change" As Factor Government Agencies Regulate Trump Launches Downsizing Effort MIT profs call Trump 'significant step' toward 'fascism' What the heck? Seems like the opposite to me. Trump Orders Massive UN Budget Cuts Wednesday, March 15. 2017JLCO with Wynton Marsalis ft. Jon BatisteWednesday morning linksWEATHER SERVICE DECIDED LAST MINUTE NOT TO CUT SNOW FORECAST Snow and cold caused by The Stupidest Statue - The perverse response to Wall Street's 'Fearless Girl.' The Left's push to redefine male and female may be more dangerous than you think Professor Calls Curing Deafness In Children ‘CULTURAL GENOCIDE’ Michelle Obama's School Lunch Reign of Terror Is Nearly Over Sowell: The Real Lessons of Middlebury College Silencing of speakers far more common at colleges for the very privileged Crashing "Post-Obama Era" Gun Sales Lead To Remington Mass Layoffs Planned Parenthood Official Won’t Tell Tucker Feelings about Aborting Baby with Detectable Heartbeat CNN’S CUOMO: Just Because Michael Brown Dealt Drugs Doesn’t Make Him A ‘DRUG DEALER’ INTIMIDATED FACULTY FIND A NEW WAY TO CAPITULATE Ten ways to reject your white privilege How US Crop Dumping Keeps Haiti Poor and Dependent Using Insurance for Ordinary Health Care is Dumb Freedom’s fallen entirely out of the health-care debate Oops! MSNBC Reveals Trump Paid 25% Tax Rate – Socialist Bernie Sanders Paid 13% Tax Rate Federal Job Training Fails Again Trump Issues Executive Order to Review and Reorganize Federal Government, Eliminating "Unecessary" Agencies, Offices, and Programs Preet Bharara proved Trump right GERMAN OFFICIAL WANTS $53M FINES FOR SOCIAL MEDIA HATE POSTS Iran sets up underground rocket factories in Lebanon Russia Appears to Deploy Forces in Egypt, Eyes on Libya Role - Sources Iran and Israel’s Struggle in Syria Obama White House Blocked Needed U.S. Arms Sale to Taiwan - Trump set to sell more arms As overseas ambitions expand, China plans 400 per cent increase to marine corps numbers, sources say Tuesday, March 14. 2017Cigarettes And Whiskey And Wild WomenTuesday morning links
Snowy day, blizzard hype, nice dump. Essential services like Dunkin Donuts are open. My gym was open too so I got my morning cardio in. Can combining commerce and conservation keep American bison in the wild? Drinking Your Own Pee Is the Latest Health Craze Penis size 6 Lessons on Raising Boys to Become Men Is Google a Good Place to Get Medical Advice? Growing potatoes on Mars could be key to colonizing the Red Planet Creative ways to use a tenement fire escape Just give teacher whatever BS she wants and you'll get the A Students today know the game Big Companies Offload Pension Plans Camille Paglia on Transgenderism and the Late Stages of Culture GLOBAL WARMING IN ONE EASY LESSON Global warming: Fake news becomes no news Science as a Supernatural authority Good Riddance To Preet Bharara ACLU LAUNCHES NATIONWIDE TRAINING ON PROTEST, RESISTANCE Why? The NYT is OK with political violence Lawyers Push to Establish Personhood Rights for Monkeys Harvard Releases Guide to “Fake News” Sites — List Includes Essentially Every Major Conservative Site Senator Praises Obama Fuel Economy Standards for Forcing Automakers to Innovate Why Corporate Leaders Became Progressive Activists Unlike Obama, Trump is hanging out with congress Anyone Look Up the Definition of ‘Tyranny’ Lately? Cory Booker: Republicans Cannot Just Force GOP Healthcare Bill Down Our Throats At the EPA, It's the End of an Era - Until he resigned, Mustafa Ali was the EPA’s most senior official on environmental and climate justice. British Foreign Aid Scandal: “Hundreds of Millions” Wasted on Useless Renewable Projects Turkey Says "Migrant Deal Has Ended", May Unleash Millions Of Refugees The Dirty Little Secret of Palestinian Journalism - with Agence France-Presse Collusion Monday, March 13. 2017Stock up on canned goods
If our homemade server goes down, then that's just more proof of climate change. Speaking of global warming (which I am in favor of - warm is nice. I don't know why nobody talks about the advantages of a little warming) Meyer is excellently rational here: So Skeptical Science Is "Correcting" Me So is this: Scott Pruitt Is Absolutely Right About Carbon Dioxide Giving names to snow seems silly to me because snow is routine in winter, but this one is called Stella
Deeper Squats: Stress is goodExercisers generally want their barbell squats (or even their air squats and goblet squats) to get the butt as close to the floor as possible (ass to the grass). That is, lower than parallel (the photo shows a great example - that little gal is stronger than I am or will ever be but, in a half-hearted defense, shorter people have an easier time with squats because the range of motion is shorter. Same goes for bench press with smaller people - shorter levers). Everybody needs squats unless there is a medical problem. I am working on lowering by using gradually-lower box squats and lightening the weights. It is always too easy for me to find my sticking point after a few reps and then I lighten the weight. Why bother going below parallel? Because it's another tough challenge to take on, and because it stresses all of the muscles involved in squatting even further. Stresses willpower too and we all need to strengthen that. That article doesn't even cover all of the accessory muscles involved in balance and core stability. Total body stress including your heart which pounds like it is at the edge but what doesn't kill ya makes you stronger, I hope...and you could do worse than croak on the gym floor. I am thinking that I ought to do lighter-weight deep squats once a week, and my usual almost-parallel squats once a week. I have weak quads even after 2 years of this, relatively-speaking. I know we have a few powerful squatters at Maggie's, though. Keep those knees out! Monday morning links400 years of Don Quixote Will Pope Francis Allow Married Men to Become Priests?. Which Is Better: Wild-Caught or Farmed Fish? Food fetishism is a First World issue Ozymandias discovery? Despite Trump uncertainty, pot industry forges ahead Terminating Down's babies Soon there will be none Who’s Up For Another “Schoolkids Won’t Know What Snow Looks Like” Prognostication? Not this week G-20 Poised To Signal Retreat From Paris Climate Deal Pledge Science without intersectional feminism is white supremacy Got that? Moonbat: Can You Make A King Kong Movie Without Perpetuating Racial Undertones? New York to scrap literacy test for teachers. Guess why. Sheesh The tyranny of political correctness You can lose your job if you state your opinion. Like the Soviet Union, people know when to speak freely and when to speak bullshit Your DNA and medical info aren’t the business of your employer or the government California Democrats’ Never-Ending War on the Poor No assault charges yet? Students Denounced As Racist For Wearing US Flag Colors It’s OK To Be Racist So Long As You Think Someone Else Was First Is Trump Making Americans Free to Speak Truth Again? A warning to Democrats about fake news in the Trump era — from a Republican Actually, Repealing Obamacare Wouldn't Kill Anyone Sessions’s Firing of 46 Obama-Appointed U.S. Attorneys Isn’t Scandalous It's only a scandal when Repubs do it. Bharara had to go. Now he will play the victim card for his career MEMO TO JEFF SESSIONS: IT’S TIME TO CLEAN HOUSE 'Los Angeles Times' Puzzled at Lack of Trump Hatred They crave more hate Germany rebuffs Trump's call for a big jump in military spending They want the US to do the heavy lifting for them. Trump wants a better deal. Europe's Lesson Teaches Us: Don't Go Green Sunday, March 12. 2017In Maine, put Mom on drumsThe Tuckerman Cult - New Hampshire
There is no such thing as reliably nice weather on Mt. Washington, but most New Englanders have vowed to climb it in summer if not winter. Hiking to the top of Mt. W in winter is an ultra-macho and dangerous adventure, but hiking up the ravine is do-able with skis on your back. Hike Mt. Washington Via the Tuckerman Ravine Trail
A friend skied it last week with his 7 year-old son. He ended up carrying the kid's backpack and his skis up. Just one torturous hike up and one wild and hairy run down. Pick your ski route down carefully. It's rugged, lots of rocks. Hiking up Mt. Washington in summer is a good outing, much easier but still a leg challenge.
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Thinking about Job
I always thought the message was that God is not a tame lion, that he is power and neither a "nice guy" nor a cuddly grandpa. I mean, if "God is love" it's not of the human sort. But countless essays and books have been written about The Book of Job as if it were a riddle that man, with man's small and self-centered point of view, could solve. Here's a pretty good one: MISERY - Is there justice in the Book of Job?
From today's LectionaryMatthew 17:1-9 17:1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 17:2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 17:3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 17:4 Then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." 17:5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!" 17:6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 17:7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be afraid." 17:8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. 17:9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, "Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead." BuffleheadsThere were some Common Mergansers there too.
Saturday, March 11. 2017Lightnin HopkinsOspreyHating Silver
We have lots of sterling platters, bowls, and dinner sets. Also, lots of old silver plate stuff which does look pretty at times but really it all tarnishes so fast that there is no reason to use it. Garbage, basically, even if it has an ancestor's initials engraved in it. We have no scullery maid at present, alas. If you haven't gotten rid of all of your silver, here's How To Clean Silver With Aluminum Foil & Baking Soda. Basic chemistry. Even clean and shiney, you will never use it.
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Saturday morning linksToon via Lucianne Salmon: Truckloads of baby fish hauled to river in restoration plan Cowen likes Ireland AVI is annoyed with Bryson How to cut a steak from an Elk or Moose North Korea's Hotel of Doom A strange Hindu cult Let them eat brains Let the Kids Eat Cake Thinking about the Battle of Cerami Barnard College to Divest from Undefined ‘Climate Change Deniers’ Talk about conspicuous virtue signaling. Need a disparaging term analogous to conspicuous consumption University Bans Long List of Common Terms Deemed Politically Incorrect List is far too short. Wait - "short" is disparaging to short people. Why do people look down on short people and look up to tall people? We should get rid of up and down also. There Really Was A Liberal Media Bubble - Groupthink produced a failure of the “wisdom of crowds” and an underestimate of Trump’s chances. Duh Shaken Dems Introduce Bill Lowering Voter Age to 17, Soros Brings His Billions Why not age 6? The youth have many unmet wants In political discussions, much depends on how the discussion is framed Dismantling America’s Destructive ‘Fourth Branch’ of Government Elaine Chao: The woman who will keep America great President Trump Needs To Keep His Promises No Matter How Hard The Haters Squeal And squeal they much Trump Derangement Syndrome is not temporary insanity but “a calculated plan to wreck the presidency, whatever the cost to the country.” Federalism and the End of Obamacare Stop protecting the employer-based healthcare system People need to own their medical resources A Good First Step - Republicans’ Obamacare-replacement plan is promising but needs some adjustments. 55% of Americans Say Free Market Competition Offers “Better Way” to Provide Affordable High-Quality Health Care SWEDEN: At Least 300 Islamic State Fighters Are Now Receiving Government Benefits Generous and tolerant nation Friday, March 10. 2017QQQ"Force is among the most simple-minded, and hence primitive and unrefined, reactions that we hairless apes resort to. And it is nothing less than sadly astonishing that some of the most prominent enemies of peaceful commerce and voluntary cooperation have become known as “Progressives.” “Progressives'” first and overriding instinct whenever they encounter some economic or social situation that they disapprove of is to forcibly push, pull, demand, and prohibit individuals who are going peacefully about their own business to behave in ways that “Progressives” have divined is best." Prof. Don Boudreaux, here Friday morning links10 Crazy Creations of “Plant Wizard” Luther Burbank GMOs Where Have All the Free Speech Fans Gone? Free Speech = Hate Speech. I hate the people who make that equation, and they hate me. Hate hate hate everywhere. The Foundations of the Campus Free Speech Crisis How Middlebury College Enabled The Student Riot The great anti-Semitism panic of 2017 Podesta Didn’t Register As A ‘Foreign Agent’ When He Represented A Bank With Ties To Russian Spy Agencies VDH: Politicians who cannot cope with the realities of governing should stop fantasizing about utopia. Five Reasons Why Ridicule Is The Proper Response To Global Warming Alarmists Cuomo’s millionaire tax will hurt more than just millionaires CBO Says U.S. Has Highest Top Statutory Corporate Tax Rate in G20 Who Will Wiretap the Wiretappers? The Most Shocking Revelation From The CIA-Spying Scandal Did Americans vote for a police surveillance state? I blame Bush Kling: How to Think About Obamacare and its Replacement Stop calling our health care pyramid scheme 'insurance' Now it's Chelsea: The Democrats’ Clinton Problem We Need A Moore's Law For Government On Labor and Beyond, Trump Is Following Scott Walker's Playbook Instead of moving the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the U.S. should move its East Jerusalem ‘embassy’ to Ramallah
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