We 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.
This way of thinking isn’t just an idiosyncrasy of Weiss’. It is typical of someone in the throes of a strong cognitive dissonance that he or she cannot easily resolve. She hates Trump, but hates the danger on the left as well. What to do?
22:15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said.
22:16 So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality.
22:17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?"
22:18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites?
22:19 Show me the coin used for the tax." And they brought him a denarius.
22:20 Then he said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?"
22:21 They answered, "The emperor's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's."
22:22 When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
Bob did this performance of his 1964 song for Frank Sinatra's 80th birthday in 1995. Yes, it has a lot of Parting Glass in it, but Bob makes things his own.
He's been restless and on the move ever since 1964.
This uplifting piece always reminds me of a sail (yes, sails) from Lisbon, down to Morocco - Casablanca and Marrakesh - then out to the Canary Islands, a few years ago. Our Captain always blasted this tune when leaving a port.
As I have mentioned before, Columbus' house is still there on Las Palmas. We checked it out, and the cathedral next door. Some lady farmer gave him a bunch of sugar cane so he could find out whether it could grow in the West Indies. It sure did, for better or worse.
I did bring home a bunch of varieties of Canary Island rum. Stupid not to.
It is a long read, mixing public policy with religion. The personal parts are good, but the public policy parts get complicated. Religion is mostly about the transcendent (to me, anyway), but policy is about hard core earthly reality.
I liked the way One Cosmos talked about Vertical Being and Horizontal Being. How they do, or should, intersect is above my pay grade.
I had my first one of the season this week, creeping around a woodpile. They are a cold-weather wren, much darker than our ordinary House Wren which has pretty much migrated south by now.
Winter Wrens are are a bird of the Northeastern US and eastern Canada during breeding, most often seen in woodpiles, brush piles, and similar sorts of places. You need good eyes to see them but when they are in the mood they sing up a storm.