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, November 20. 2021Saturday morning linksWho gets into Harvard College? Do Vaccines Stop People From Getting And Transmitting COVID? UT Austin research program teaches white 4-year-olds about ‘anti-Black racism’ CA Teachers Urge Recruiting Kids Into LGBT Clubs Professor In Virginia Put On Leave After Admitting He’s Attracted To Children, Writing Book Trying To “De-Stigmatize” It… "F**k This Murderer": Left Becomes Unhinged After Rittenhouse Acquitted 10 heinous lies about Kyle Rittenhouse debunked: Devine NY Times: Why are Democrats such incredible hypocrites? “It’s For the People” – Pelosi Defends Tax Cuts for Mega-Rich in Blue States – 2nd Largest Ticket Item in Democrat Spending Bill Friday, November 19. 2021Italian charms vs hot newsWhile I would prefer, right now, to post about Italian charms and Thanksgiving blessings, I am urged by our posters to mention the Rittenhouse verdict. Really, just trolling for comments I guess. My view is that if you threaten me with serious bodily harm, I will kill you, or try to. I have the tools at hand. For his future, would be better if his surname were Smith. He could be a good EMT.
Castello di Monte Riggioni
Cool little fortress, but it was all silly then. Chess moves. The fortress was a rook. We split a nice snack up there: A pistachio crepe. Amazing. Ever had one? That is Italian. Mrs. BD, who loves to drive in Italia, had a Coke and I had a glass of Chianti. I like to drive in Italy too, but she just loved to drive that Citroen. Machine issues here todayThe machine I use for editing seems to have crapped out. Lost all of today's links, and I don't think I can enter/edit new stuff entered into the pipeline for other contributors. I blame the problem on the Lunar eclipse. Saw it at 4:30 this morning, and watched it slowly resolve until I got to the gym. Very cool.
Thursday, November 18. 2021One of the most famous gardens in the world: Villa Lante
The ideal of the garden was architectural with the water features which exist to today and are studied by landscape architects. Even the plantings were architectural. Bishops and Cardinals were rich in those days. I think the water features were inspired by the Arab gardens in Spain.
Thursday morning linksIf You Read It In The Mainstream Media, It's Wrong -- Plastics Edition To Fight Climate Change, Los Angeles Bans Restaurants From Giving Out Unsolicited Ketchup Packets College rules against professor who defended rigorous math standards NPR Suffers ‘When Woke Worlds Collide’ Dilemma in Piece on Historic Winner of Boston Mayoral Race Michelle Goldberg: Some of this social justice stuff really is nonsense Among the Elect - Review of 'Woke Racism' by John McWhorter Bari Weiss: The Media's Verdict on Kyle Rittenhouse - Why so many got this story so wrong. 'This experience broke a lot of people': Inside State amid the Afghanistan withdrawal Wednesday, November 17. 2021More LazioLazio is the province of Rome. Drive north, and it is flatland agricultural until you get well into Tuscany where there are good hills for grapes or, sometimes, woodlands. The Italians seem to have protected agricutural lands from sprawl. Also, they made industrial zones. Surely fascistic, but it makes for pleasant landscapes. Beside that, it seems to be that Italians are gregarious people who love to hang out in their towns and villages. These are newly-plowed wheat fields. Some fields this size are planted with alfalfa to be plowed under for spring planting. Excellent roads, as I have mentioned. Fun driving. No speed limits, really. Wednesday morning linksCommentary: Hanukkah Unbound Why progressives ruin cities: A conversation with Michael Shellenberger Why conglomerates break themselves up Whitewashing Asian-Americans The NYT's Michelle Goldberg: Some of this social justice stuff really is nonsense Wow. Sanity seeps in. FBI Whistleblower Reveals Biden DOJ Activated Counterterrorism Division Against Protesting Parents CBS San Antonio Whistleblower GOES PUBLIC, Exposes Internal Diversity & Inclusion Training Where Journalists are Instructed to ‘Stop Thinking in Terms of Objective Journalism’ Democrats' hot new midterm strategy: Getting "aggresive" on CRT? Dangerous Changes Coming for Title IX 6 Ridiculous Budget Gimmicks In House Democrats’ ‘Build Back Bankrupt’ Spending Spree China's Military Modernization Tuesday, November 16. 2021Northern LazioDriving through northern Lazio. Almost looks like Kansas or Nebraska.
Tuesday morning linksThis Is the ONLY Time You Should Wash a Turkey Longest Lunar Eclipse in Centuries this Week China is destroying the world’s fishing ecosystem MC: Be Thankful That COP26 Has Ended Kimball: Thinking Critically About ‘Critical Thinking’ - Reason allows us to distinguish between appearance and reality; but our reality turns out to be rooted firmly in the realm of appearance. Ethnic Studies Requirements Erase the Past 'It's a Trojan horse for CRT': Now furious parents push back against Social Emotional Learning (SEL) being taught in schools, claiming its promotion of 'diversity' is more evidence of government indoctrination Pandemic first graders are way behind in reading Alan Dershowitz: Kyle Rittenhouse Should Be Acquitted, Sue Media Outlets Amazing he would do that Jennifer Rubin, of the WaPo and MSNBC, calls on media to stop treating Republicans as ‘normal’ Biden’s Banking Chief Nominee Wants to Eliminate Your Private Bank Account More on how the public feels about those massive payments to illegal aliens
Monday, November 15. 2021Speck for lunch in San Gimignano
Why does this hilltop village have so many towers? No earthquakes. Lots of towns, like Siena, knocked their towers down for safety. I had some speck (cinghiale speck, in fact) for lunch with a beer. Italian speck is not German speck. It is some sort of norceria. It came with those cheese-stuffed crackers which were amazing but I have no idea what they were.
Monday morning linksTudor wall paintings uncovered in Yorkshire ‘discovery of a lifetime’. ‘Pristine’ 16th-century work found beneath plaster in bedroom at Landmark Trust’s Calverley Old Hall Is the news always fake? Some Liberals Now Willing To Admit They Were Duped By Media About Kyle Rittenhouse WaPo Retracts Steele Dossier Russia Collusion Reporting, Points Finger At Hillary Clinton Jennifer Rubin update How media coverage of critical race theory misses the point Why Special Counsel John Durham Subpoenaed The Brookings Institution. Brookings was ground zero for the Russia collusion hoax, with many key staff embroiled in the damaging lie that Donald Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin New antiviral drugs mark a big turning point in the covid-19 pandemic Do You Have Any Doubt That The FBI Is Fundamentally A Criminal Organization? We Have a Plan to Deliver Equal Opportunity to Every Student in California America Is Built on a Great Culture. Progressives Want to Abandon It Exasperation and dysfunction: Inside Kamala Harris' frustrating start as vice president Sunday, November 14. 2021Real ItalianA good supper in a cool cafe (Etruria) in Volterra. As usual, we showed up as the first customers at 7 but the place filled up at 8. It was chilly so we sat inside. No big COVID deal in Italy. Our Primo: Gnocchi with a pumpkin and sausage sauce. Far tastier than the photo looks. I had a glass or two of Brunello:
Secondo: Roast Cinghiale with a dolceforte sauce (vinegar + chocolate) on a bed of fried polenta, with a cotorno of canellini beans in some tasty broth because they had no spinach that night. Spinach sauteed in oil and garlic is one of my favorites with a secondi, but the beans were just fine. Go for a nighttime stroll after and get lost as usual. But this can be found. Go for the pistachio:
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From today's LectionaryHebrews 10:11-14, (15-18), 19-25 10:11 And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. 10:12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, "he sat down at the right hand of God," 10:13 and since then has been waiting "until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet." 10:14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 10:15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, 10:16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds," 10:17 he also adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." 10:18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. 10:19 Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 10:20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), 10:21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 10:22 let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 10:23 Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. 10:24 And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, 10:25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Saturday, November 13. 2021How much music theory did The Beatles know?Saturday morning linksClothes From 8,000 Years Ago Were Made From Trees Vermont now requires free condoms in public middle and high schools Global Warmist Jeff Bezos Buys Oceanfront Mansion Blood test accurately identifies people at risk for Alzheimer's, study finds 50 years of predictions that the climate apocalypse is nigh After Just Coming Back to Work After a Year Off, Teacher's Unions Want to Close School Because They're Tired The Wrong Housing Answer in Saint Paul. Trying to combat a housing crisis, Minnesota’s capital city passes the strictest rent control policy in the nation. WaPo Issues Massive Correction About Steele Dossier, Says It Can Not Stand By The Accuracy Of Two Stories Harris: Hey, did you know that prices have gone up? Has the Antiracist Movement Become a Counterproductive Religion? John McWhorter takes aim at the fundamentalists on the far left—who are scaring away allies Democrats desperately need. FBI Immediately Leaks Project Veritas Internal Documents to New York Times After O’Keefe Raid Friday, November 12. 2021Were you raised on stuff like this?I was working on some food posts about our Italian dinners when I found this image. Funny thing is that millions of American kids grew big and strong on things like this. Friday morning linksÖtzi the Iceman: What we know 30 years after his discovery The Early History of Human Excreta. When humans stopped being nomadic, we could no longer walk away from our waste. We’ve been battling it ever since. Long Covid doesn't exist, volume one zillion. A huge French study shows BELIEVING you had Covid is associated with many later symptoms. But ACTUALLY having had Covid isn't associated with any (except loss of sense of smell). 1619: The Falsification Project Primary school asks boys (and teachers) to wear skirts to class to 'promote equality' Watching My Great Nation Lapse Into a Cult of Self-Abasement Americans Are Waking Up To The Democrats' Race Hustle Watch Biden Nominee Call for Bankrupting Energy Industry ABC News documentary challenges Pentagon's claims of rogue Green Berets. "3212 UN-REDACTED" probes the mystery behind the deaths of four Green Berets. At the Center of the Crossroads: A New U.S. Strategy for the East Med Thursday, November 11. 2021Veteran's DayIn Jupiter's swirling Great Red Spot, NASA spacecraft finds hidden depths 7 Reasons Doctors Are Leaving Medicine The Progressive Neo-Racist Cancer Has Completely Destroyed The AMA Thomas Friedman: Why Won’t You Peons Just Allow Government To Force You To Make Lifestyle Changes For ‘Climate Change’ Unscientific Method - An astronomer’s peer-reviewed work is passed under the “equity” lens and found wanting. Biden Transportation Secretary: Roads Are Racist… America's Ports Need More Robots, but the $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill Won't Fund Automation. The one thing that would most help increase efficiency at America's lagging ports is also the one thing that Biden's union allies dislike the most. Corporate Safe Spaces: How Racial Affinity Groups Radicalize Companies How Covid despots humiliated America. The Democrats have become public health technocrats Schools: The parental revolution Kyle Rittenhouse spokesperson slams Joe Biden for casting defendant as a White supremacist Feds ponder how much to pay illegal immigrants France To Build New Nuclear Reactors For The First Time In Decades
Wednesday, November 10. 2021Wednesday morning linksThe eccentric dog breeds that vanished Trains are racist California’s COVID-19 Case Rate Is Now Twice Florida’s Democrats are slowly coming around to nuclear power Randi Weingarten should have learned in school that she cannot fool everyone Anatomy of a media hit job — how press pushed Clinton’s lies against Trump “Let’s Go Brandon” Is Latest Progressive Virtue Signal Biden’s Generals Are Fighting the Last COVID War Winsome Sears: The latest Black conservative to make liberals nervous VDH: Trickle-Down Bidenism. This Biden socialist cadre who engineered these self-induced calamities has no clue about the damage they have done to America. Tuesday, November 9. 2021Hanging out around Orbetello, with some food
I learned the word sprezzatura from there. You can drive out the causeway to the mountainous island Monte Argentario and visit the cool seaside villages of Porto Santo Stefano and Porto Ercole. They are about diving, sailing, and professional fishing. Also, duck and woodcock hunting, judging from some bumper stickers. Excellent cafe on the waterfront in San Stefano. Good beer. Euroland does not pasteurize beer. Fun pics, etc. below the fold - Continue reading "Hanging out around Orbetello, with some food" Tuesday morning linksHow bad is plastic? You’re Already Living in the Metaverse. Dave Chappelle is wrong. Twitter—and Instagram and Facebook and even this platform—are real life. Not for me ‘If you want to understand why no one trusts the press’: AG Hamilton looks at some headlines on the Kyle Rittenhouse trial Turley: Why is the FBI investigating the theft of a diary? NYT to Dems: You haven't hit bottom yet in rural America -- or the suburbs either Biden looking at shutting down another pipeline as winter approaches White House Seems Perfectly Fine With Giving Your Tax Dollars To Illegal Aliens… Poland wants to build a wall Monday, November 8. 2021Monday morning linksAre U.S. playgrounds too safe? Native American Lawsuit Challenges Colorado Ban On Native American “Mascots” As Discriminatory Climate Change Hysteria, circa 2004 NYT Urges Biden: 'Why Not' Force Americans to Pay Higher Gas Prices to Fight Climate Change? What the AMA says:
Let’s face facts. There is nothing historically un-American about election skulduggery. (h/t, American Digest) What is early voting all about? Ivy League Analysis Destroys Biden’s Entire Argument for Multi-Trillion-Dollar ‘Build Back Better’ Spending Plans Sunday, November 7. 2021A menu in Volterra
Typically a nice dinner for both of us will run around 50-55 Euros, not including a glass or two of wine. Tip? In Euroland, 10% is more than enough. I plan to do an Italian food post one of these days, but for starters here's a pic of a restaurant's offerings in Volterra. If your Italian is terrible, Pasta al Nero is squid with a squid ink sauce. We will try a pasta as a primo on rare occasions, and only if it seems unique:
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