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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Tuesday, January 26. 2021Tuesday morning linksHandy: Mini circular saws for all your at-home projects Largest land animal unearthed Exercise doesn't improve health for the overweight The making of our consumer culture Error in the essay: Even in Renaissance times the growing middle class aspired to live like the wealthy. Advertising not required. Husband stabbed repeatedly by his wife after she finds photo of him with young skinny girl, turns out it's an old picture of her. Several Super Bowl Advertisers Bow Out over Fear of Offending Viewers Chicago Teachers Union Refuses Order To Go Back to Classrooms Parents Who Opt Out of Public Schools Don't Deserve Smears From Teachers Unions Cuomo: NY Ready To Ease Pandemic Restrictions After Holiday Spike California Gov. Newsom Cancels State’s COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Orders…Unexpectedly Biden Reimposes Travel Ban on European Countries Over CCP Virus, Adds South Africa: White House What Constitutes Sex Discrimination? Biden Executive Order Foreshadows Significant Changes In Title IX For Institutions of Higher Education The Washington Post Just Proved How Desperate It Is to Be Kamala Harris' Pravda The New Censors - Journalists celebrate the destruction of freedoms on which their profession depends. Biden* Lifts Transgender Military Ban, Now All Six Of Them Can Serve In The Military… Biden Actions Against American Oil, Gas Energy Production Could Kill as Many as 1 Million Jobs Biden Senior Director for Environmental Justice Blames “Systemic Racism” for Climate Change We Should Totally Listen To Children On Climate Crisis (scam) Or Something Monday, January 25. 2021Monday morning linksHow many early human species existed on Earth? Sorry Scotland, haggis is actually English Why ‘Just Follow the Science’ Won’t Solve All Our Problems A government ruled by scientists would be hell CA Gov. Newsom Hides Key Covid Data Used to Justify Endless Lockdowns, ‘Too Complex and Would Confuse the Public’ Elon Musk Now Wants To Drill For Natural Gas In Texas Amazon Says Workers Voting To Unionize Can Only Do So In Person Because Mail-in Votes Would Be Susceptible To Cheating…
Former Trump Adviser: Biden’s Early Priorities Uniting Country Against Him Biden quietly embraces far-left ‘critical race theory’ Biden's brag about 1 million daily vaccines was already achieved by Trump It's Happening Already: Joe Biden Calls a Lid Four Days Into Presidency "Unity" With The Program Of The Left Is Not An Option Almost nobody voted for the things this administration is doing Taiwan Reports Second Day Of Airspace Incursions By China – Meanwhile, Biden* Sits On His Ass Doing Nothing… China Authorizes Coastguard to Fire on Foreign Ships in Disputed Waters Sunday, January 24. 2021Clootie Pudding: The Joys(?) of the cuisine of the British IslesWe're making a Clootie Pudding in advance for a Bobbie Burns party. These sorts of "puddings" can last a year in the closet. We'll make a real brandy-flavored pudding to go with it.
From today's Lectionary1 Corinthians 7:29-31 7:29 I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, 7:30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, 7:31 and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away. Saturday, January 23. 2021Saturday morning linksSystemic Racism and Sexism Are Now Mandatory Professor Calls For The Elimination of the Republican Party and Purging “Nazified” People From Congress, Universities, and “Regular jobs" Liberal Reporter Sees the Real Motive Behind Trump Social Media Purge and Impeachment Push Biden won’t stop them, and neither will cops, until Portland is burned down Political strategist explains why he LOVES President Biden’s executive order on trans women in girls’ sports WHAT A COINCIDENCE: Washington, DC Mayor Lifts Indoor Dining Ban Two Days After Biden Inauguration NY Times Contributor: “If Biden Wants Unity He Should Lynch Mike Pence” By 2-to-1 Margin, Voters Want Migrant Caravan Stopped at the Border China Threw Down The Gauntlet To The Biden Team On Day One 'Moscow Joe' Already Trying to Appease Russia Biden sends more troops to Syria What? Friday, January 22. 2021Friday morning linksBaltimore Suing Energy Companies For Damage Caused By Climate Change… About the Coronavirus, the New York Times Argues With the New York Times Even More COVID-19 Narratives Shift as New Administration Takes Charge Federal Court Blocks Obamacare Mandate Forcing Doctors To Perform Transgender Surgery Profs effectively seek to ban books from Trump admin officials The Politics of Personal Destruction Words of Division - Cloaked in an appeal to unity, President Biden’s inaugural speech hit all the expected themes of racial resentment and blame. So, Joe Biden is now President. Can’t you just feel the excitement? Earth to Joe Biden: Canceling Keystone XL Pipeline Is a Gift to China and Russia Thursday, January 21. 2021Thursday morning linksAVI considers Reality Vs Pseudo-Realities Philosophers Smear One of Their Own for Gender Heresy “Antiracism” Comes to the Heartland.A Missouri middle school forces teachers to locate themselves on an “oppression matrix” and watch a video of “George Floyd’s last words.” Biden’s Climate Team: Climate Change Is Happening Because of ‘Systemic Racism ’ Study Finds Most Americans Support Making Wall Around Capitol Permanent To Keep Politicians In HIS IS HOW CONSERVATIVES GET ERASED FROM THE INTERNET Trump Derangement Syndrome In A Post-Trump World Get Ready – Another Four Years Of Trump Investigations Are About To Start… Wow, Politico Is No Longer Covering Up Biden's Cognitive Decline Face It: The Open-Borders Crowd Won Trump Leaves Washington, Tells Supporters: ‘We Will Be Back in Some Form’ Wednesday, January 20. 2021Bird of the Week: The Ruffed Grouse (The Bird Dog's favorite bird)This northern chicken-like (gallinaceous) bird prefers first-growth areas, with access to water and open areas. I most often find them in aspen, birch or alder thickets, but they can be seen in piney woods, old orchards, ferny woods, and in streambeds. In regions where birch and aspen are the climax forest, they can be found everywhere or anywhere, but never in large numbers. They are most commonly encountered when they flush with a startling whirr of wings. Once known as "fool hens" for their tameness, Ruffies have somehow learned to avoid human encounters once they have had contact with them. These birds do not migrate, and winter very well, since they are very happy to thrive on tree buds all winter, especially protein-rich aspen and birch buds. Their numbers have been declining in the Northeast as the old farms have become either mature woods, or housing developments, but clear-cutting of mature woodlands is a great help to them, as it is to most species of wildlife (it imitates the natural effect of wildfire to regenerate forest succession, which is key to habitat diversity and thus species diversity). The Ruffed Grouse is the noblest game bird in the US. Wary, they do not often hold to a dog's point and when they do flush, their flight assumes warp speed immediately and is unpredictable. (Gwynnie's theory is that they have a random-direction-generating gyroscope in their brains.) They have an uncanny talent for putting tree trunks between the hunter and themselves, or for flying at your face, or flying between you and you pal, whose life you may (or may not) value more highly than you value bagging a Ruffie. And even the most considerate hunters ( yes - you, Craig) will pop off a snap shot regardless of whose bird it is, and rightly so. You cannot wait with Ruffies. Grouse hunters (a very special and scarce, and, to my mind, elite fraternity of intrepid woodsy folks who don't mind cuts, bruises, wet boots, and hours-long struggles through underbrush, raspberry patches, thorny thickets of hawthorn, and impenetrable streamside alder growths) require very quick reflexes and a high degree of "relaxed alertness", but they require, most of all, strong legs for all of the hours of difficult wilderness walking which is required to find these wonderful creatures. It is said that grouse "are killed with legs, not guns." Dogs help, a bit, but they are huntable without dogs. When a hunter finds one, they are generally very difficult to shoot such that every Ruffie is a trophy and is regarded as such. And they are also regarded as a rare gourmet treat, because, with their subtle woodsy flavor, there is no finer fowl for the table. Why "ruffed"? The males have a dramatic black neck ruff which they display for courtship purposes, while they fan their tails and strut around like little Thanksgiving turkeys. Their courtship drumbeat from an old log is also one of their well-known features: many have heard their deep thumping from deep in the woods, and have no idea that it is just a horny male Ruffie looking for a date. Read more about the wonderful Ruffed Grouse here. The very worthy Ruffed Grouse Society, which Maggie's Farm supports, pays for research on grouse and woodcock ecology, which benefits all woodlands and woodland creatures. Wednesday morning linksJoe Biden's Accomplishments Before He's Even Inaugurated—It's Not Good for America Will Dems double down on crazy? LAT: The ferocious last gasps of the religion of Christian America Pfizer Vaccine May Prevent People From Transmitting Virus Duh A Day of Hypocrisy - How soon will Democrats cancel Martin Luther King Jr. for calling for a color-blind America? Warning: Beware of Hate Studies My Pillow CEO Says Bed Bath and Beyond, Kohl’s to Stop Selling His Products Hillary Clinton, still in wild-eyed obssession about Trump and Putin First Trump declassified Russia document: Christopher Steele's 2017 confession to the FBI. Steele told FBI he leaked Russia collusion story to help Clinton and Great Britain Americans Love Trump: President Trump’s Approval Rating Hits 51% on Day before Inauguration From Tax Cuts to Immigration Restrictions, These Trump Triumphs Now in Danger MSNBC Analyst: Capitol Hill Rioters More Dangerous Than 9/11 Terrorists… State Department: China’s Action Against Uighurs Is ‘Genocide’ US counter-intel chief warns Biden admin of China's malign foreign influence: 'One of the bigger challenges' Tuesday, January 19. 2021Over 40
We're getting down for a week on southern oceans in a while. My soul needs salt water and boats. My nav skills are rusty - not that they were ever good except for coastal. Lost interest in fishing except as a social thing, but big water and wavy gravy appeals to me. Always has.
Tuesday morning linksOver 50,000 Restaurants In Italy Declare "I Am Open" Defying Lockdown Measures New York Times Writes That Somehow, The Positive News About Covid Has Been Buried Until Now! Thousands Of Covid-19 Vaccines Winding Up In The Trash The left now just wants to silence conservatives — all of them CNN Pushes to Close Down Newsmax TV Scarborough Just Revealed How the Left Aims to Pressure Big Tech to Silence Conservatives UNC pushing back against campus intolerance Protesters At Pro-Gun Event In Virginia Deemed White Supremacists/Right-Wing Despite Carrying Gay/Trans Flags… Trump rebuts NY Times '1619 Project' with '1776 Report' urging schools to reject 'ideological poison'. Series of essays cited as 'toxic propaganda' that is a 'crusade against American history' Film Crew Releases Never Before Seen Footage of 2017 Inauguration Riots Trumpism After Trump Buffett Wins: Biden Set To Cancel Keystone Pipeline Permit On First Day Of Office Biden Official Tells Honduran Migrant Caravan Don’t Come Now, Migrants Demand Biden Honor His Commitments Tax and Regulate - The incoming Biden administration looks to roll back Trump-era policies. Biden Taps Mao Zedong Fangirl As Senior Adviser Sheesh Monday, January 18. 2021The pulp fiction illustrations of Edward Hopper
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17:25
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Finally getting back to full normal at the gym
A beast of a 60 year-old guy now begins his daily 1 1/2 hr workout at 4 am (before his finance day job starts) at my little neighborhood gym. So he opens the place up, turns on the heat before I get there around 5. The cheerful guy groans and grunts but that's ok with me. I like to hear people exerting themselves. Just 2 of us in the place (unless I am doing weights with my boss-man) so we do token masking. Breathing is a good thing. I mean it feels really good to take deep breaths. For me, it's as much for mental health as it is for fitness. So back on track with 2 days of powerlifts and related resistance, 2 days of calisthenics, 2 days of HIIT cardio + accessory weights. Our readers know the Maggie's Fitness For Life drill. And back on track with nutrition: Protein shake after workouts, half a small sandwich mid-day (or some cheese and a half apple), usual balanced supper but less beer and vino overall. I know I may need to increase the nutrition to maintain muscle strength once I am fully back in the groove but my problem is that food just makes me tired. What about our readers?
Monday morning linksThe Rev. Martin Luther King’s legacy for the nation NASA finds there are fewer galaxies than first thought, leaving the possibility we're alone in the universe The 10 Worst Helicopter Parenting Hysterias of 2020 Everyday Life in New York City, today I Used To Love NYC But Feckless Leaders Have Forced Me To Leave Testing For NYC’s “Gifted And Talented” Student Program Is Deemed Unfair, Will Be Eliminated Blacklists are back and the Democrats have got ’em Mexican President Compares Social Media Censorship to Spanish Inquisition, Calls for Global Action Poland Set To Make Censoring Social Media Accounts Illegal Pennsylvania Lt. Gov: Accusing Us of Election Fraud Is Not Free Speech Parler’s Website Back Online With a Message From Its CEO ‘They Want to Cancel Our Culture, Our History, Our Liberty’: Goya CEO China ‘Sought to Influence’ 2020 US Election, Director of National Intelligence Assesses. CIA Management Pressured Analysts to Withdraw Assessment Soon-to-be President Biden has a pen and a phone Biden's First Executive Orders: Rejoin Paris Climate Deal and Rescind 'Muslim Ban' There is no "Muslim Ban" Americans Struggling With COVID Lockdowns, Business And Economy In Tatters, Biden’s* Top Priority? Legalize 11 Million Illegal Aliens In First 100 Days… Joe Biden to Cancel Keystone XL Pipeline Permit on Day One Feel Good Now—Pay Later. The Biden stimulus is crammed with goodies but makes no economic sense. Powerline: WHERE TRUMP WENT WRONG Sunday, January 17. 2021Dancing birdsFrom today's LectionaryPsalm 139:1-6, 13-18 139:1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me. 139:2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. 139:3 You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. 139:4 Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely. 139:5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 139:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it. 139:13 For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 139:14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. 139:15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 139:16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. 139:17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 139:18 I try to count them -- they are more than the sand; I come to the end -- I am still with you. Saturday, January 16. 2021Saturday morning linksCOVID lockdowns do no good Leftists Are Colonizing Red Towns Like Mine, And Local Republicans Are Clueless Shooting, homicide surge came after ‘reforms’ NY’s leaders said would cut crime Most NYC schools aren’t trying to track online attendance — or trying to do anything at all, really IT BEGINS: Trump to Declassify 'Foot-High Stack' of Obamagate Documents Harvard Students Petition For Trump-Allied Graduates To Lose Degrees America’s New Corporate Tyranny - The American political and legal systems are working just fine, despite a few hiccups. Meanwhile, American corporations are depriving citizens of basic rights and freedoms and destroying our democracy. Mexico’s Left-Wing President Mounts International Campaign Taking On Tech Companies After Trump Bans Whistleblower Video Shows Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Discussing Extensive Plans To Censor Politics On Twitter (Starting With Donald Trump) Mozilla CEO Says Deplatforming President Trump Isn't Enough VDH: An Impeachment Incitement - What is this latest impeachment gambit really about? Of course, it was a Parthian shot to discredit President Trump’s supporters. What will angry Lefties do without Trump? The All-Out Assault on Conservative Thought Has Just Begun Duke profs suggest Biden pursue 'new laws' to combat 'misinformation'. A pair of Duke professors are calling on the incoming Biden administration to establish a new commission aimed at combatting "misinformation." Friday, January 15. 2021Friday morning linksMore Than a Quarter of US Households Will Cut the Cord in 2021 De Blasio hates gifted schooling because it exposes his own failures Chicago Teachers, Checked Out - Second City public school instructors are not stepping up in a crisis. San Fran Doctors: Opens The Schools Already! China slams United States for Big Tech censorship The Media is Actively Running the Social Media Purge of Conservatives Save the Constitution from Big Tech 2020’s Spike in Urban Homicides Should Not Be a Mystery Frank Luntz Looks Visibly Disturbed When His Focus Group Proves People Still LOVE Trump Another Violent Leftist Arrested at US Capital Protest: Registered Democrat and 34-Year-Old Son of a New York Judge NOT THE MOST EVIL POLITICAL ACT OF MY LIFETIME…
Unity? CNN's Don Lemon: If You Voted For Trump, You're With The Klan, The Nazis, & The Rioters Trump re-impeached, supporters silenced, humiliated and threatened No One Will Let Trump Go Away US energy independence is on the way out Restart, Reset or Renew? The Strategy against Iranian Nuclear Ambition Thursday, January 14. 2021Is everything broken?
Life in the Western world, right now, is better than it has ever been in history anywhere. We live in a Golden Age. Complaining is easy and fun but gratefulness is not as fulfilling...or is it?
Posted by Bird Dog
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Thursday morning linksAustralia to kill pigeon that crossed Pacific from Oregon New York Times Suggests Wearing Two Masks Instead Of One. There's a drawback: “We run the risk of making it too hard to breathe." Thomas Sowell: Is truth irrelevant? Reining in Big Tech CNN Pulls Out Of Airports After 30 Years, Citing Pandemic The Cancel Culture Comes For Elise Stefanik Tulsi Gabbard Pulls Back the Curtain on Why Congress Won't Act Against Big Tech The Cold Civil War: Social Media Bans Threaten Free Speech For All MSNBC: How Do We ‘Deprogram’ Millions of Racist, Violent Trump Supporters? It’s all fallen apart’: Newsom scrambles to save California — and his career Louis Gohmert Quotes Nancy Pelosi Calling For “Uprisings Across The Country” And Liberals Lose Their Minds… It's Time To Get To Know Joe Manchin Wednesday, January 13. 2021Wednesday morning linksClimate Cultist Prince Charles Blames COVID On ‘Climate Change’ Florida puts New York to shame in rational pandemic policies Defying common sense, Andrew Cuomo’s crazy vaccine rules bring ‘chaos’ End Covid Now - Use our existing vaccination channels with broad distribution to stop the pandemic. Ignore the Teachers Unions and Open the Schools. “Keep the schools open,” said Anthony Fauci. Barbara Boxer, Now Formally Working for China Wikileaks files: Forwarding from Western Rifle. You might want to forward as well. Bawer: What now? Terrifying times lie ahead. From October, How I Switched From Never-Trump To Never-Biden ANTIFA Forces Portland Book Store to Stop Selling Andy Ngo’s Book About ANTIFA Uganda Blocks FaceBook and Twitter To Block The Tech Monopolies' Power to Interfere In Their Elections; Twitter Bizarrely Declares That the Free Flow of Information over the Internet is Critical During Elections World Leaders Denounce Big Tech Censorship of President Donald Trump National Association of Realtors Bans Free Speech President Trump Takes a Hit for the Team At Taki:
Trump Campaign Official Denied Entry into TV Studio for Interview — Told He’s On a “List of People They Won’t Allow In” PBS Top Lawyer Says Gov Should Build 'Enlightenment Camps' And Remove Children From Trump Supporting Homes Orwell vs. Big Tech The Democrats Will Go On Impeaching Trump Forever. Welcome to the permanent anti-Trump party. Book: Formula for Failure in Vietnam: The Folly of Limited Warfare By William Hamilton Tuesday, January 12. 2021Tuesday morning linksCOVID Gone Crazy - An Epidemic Of 'Positive' Tests Survey: Most Don’t See Life Returning To “Normal” Any Time Soon About 30% of NY health care workers opt out of coronavirus vaccination; how that might affect you VDH: Crazy 2020 Is Dead! Long Live Crazier 2021! Hang on. It is going to be Mr. Toad’s wild scary ride for all of 2021. The Death of Political Cartooning—And Why It Matters IT’S A SAD DAY WHEN THE GERMAN CHANCELLOR HAS TO LECTURE US ABOUT FREE SPEECH How mass media gins up hate CA: Prop. 16 showed most voters reject racial preferences The temple of critical race theory Why will the big tech giants never censor foreign authoritarian regimes? Social-Media Oligopolists Are the New Railroad Barons. It’s Time for Washington to Treat Them Accordingly Forbes boldly announces its intention to discriminate against staffers of President Trump MSNBC: ‘We Can Draw The Analogies’ Between Capitol Riot And Rise of Hitler…. CALIFORNIA’S INTERNET CENSORSHIP OFFICE IS WATCHING WHAT YOU SAY Why Is America Still In Syria? Monday, January 11. 2021Monday morning links
Biden Will Release More Vaccine Doses Despite Warnings From Operation Warp Speed Makes sense to me, but the Feds are not in charge - states are Nancy Pelosi Just Admitted Why Dems Obstructed COVID Relief Bill for Eight Months "It's A Ghost Town": Debt-Laden NYC Taxi Drivers In Dire Straits Shootings In NYC Up Ridiculous 97%… The Night of the Tech Long Knives Parler CEO ‘Prepared to Take Full Legal Action’ After Big Tech Companies Target Platform The Great Purge Expands As CNN Sets Its Sights On Fox News’ Cable Providers THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS WEIGH IN Merkel’s Government Seeks to Revive Hate Speech Law Citing Capitol Hill Events Democrats blowing House control right off the bat with Trump vendetta: Goodwin The Slow Implosion Of The European Union
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