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 13. 2021Saturday 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:
The Woke meet their matchThe Woke Meet Their Match: Parents. Glenn Youngkin's mix of populist policy and moderate style is a breakthrough.
From today's Lectionary1 Kings 17:8-16 17:8 Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 17:9 "Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you." 17:10 So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, "Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink." 17:11 As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, "Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand." 17:12 But she said, "As the LORD your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die." 17:13 Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. 17:14 For thus says the LORD the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the LORD sends rain on the earth." 17:15 She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. 17:16 The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elija Saturday, November 6. 2021MississippiA perfect song?
2000+ year-old pop lyricsYes, you guessed it. Roger McGuinn discusses:
Saturday morning linksThe Newest Insanity Out Of Yale Law School - These controversies could be wake-up calls—for the YLS community, legal academia, and society at large. California Is the Supply Chain’s Weakest Link. Environmental and antibusiness regulations in the deep blue state are backing up port traffic. A torture experiment’: plan for almost windowless student megadorm raises alarm Attacking Merit in a Bumbling Bureaucracy: The University of California Leads Again 5-Year-Olds to Be Required to Show Vaccination Cards in San Francisco Yes, Charles Blow, Cases of COVID-19 Are Increasing in the North, Decreasing in the South THE DURHAM INVESTIGATION, ELI LAKE’S TAKE Young BBC staffers angered by trans story claiming harassment of lesbians Critical Race Theory Is Coming for Your Doctor Woman Who Testified Against Trump Also Introduced Authors of Fake Russian 'Dossier' to Each Other. Gee, What Are the Odds ... ? How the climate lobby crushed debate. Anyone who dissents from stringent climate policies will be branded an enemy of The Science. Note that I’m not saying that the whole climate scam is going to collapse tomorrow. Just that the hysteria has reached a peak beyond which it has nowhere to go. NBC, Axios: Tuesday was worse for Dems than they realize Even The NY Times Editorial Board Thinks Democrats Are Denying Political Reality Your friend in Italy is AutogrillOn their excellent highways. Autogrills have excellent coffee bars, clean bathrooms, and food. And other stuff, like Euroland phone and electric plugs. Gas and diesel, of course.
Friday, November 5. 2021Friday morning linksWhy Do They Want to Vaccinate Children? Italy Makes a Stunning Announcement About COVID-19 Death Toll NY Times Wonders If Classic Rock Songs Should Be Toppled Like Confederate Statues Arrest illustrates how the Steele dossier was a political dirty trick orchestrated by Hillary Clinton New Jersey professor on White people: 'I want to say ... we got to take these motherf---kers out' MSNBC's Meltdown Over 2021 Races Was One for the Ages After Being Humiliated In VA, Democrats Tell the Voters to Kiss-Off Nearly a Week Later, It’s Still Not Clear . . . What Was the Lincoln Project Thinking? A cartoon (not The Simpsons for once) predicts liberal meltdown over 'Lets go, Brandon' Taibbi: The Red-Pilling Of Loudoun County, Virginia ‘Sure to infuriate a few folks’: Joe Manchin truth-bombs far-left Dems during interview with CNN Thursday, November 4. 2021La dolce vita: Evening and nighttime in Italia
Thing about the Italian life style is that most people do not work long hours. Whether in small towns or in cities, the passagiatta at around 5 or 6 pm is a ritual with kids, old folks and, of course, dogs on leashes. Delightful. After that, some wine or aperatifs in a cafe. Dinner begins, mostly, 8-9 pm. That's when restaurants fill up. Many do not open for dinner until 7:30 or 8. After dinnertime, lovers are all out in the piazzas while kids kick soccer balls around in the dark. Cool. Night is the time to get out and about. No danger except from growling dogs. Everything stays open at night. Being American, dinner at 8 seems late but I am a guy who likes to get to the gym at 5 AM so I like to get to my books at 9 pm. (Readers know I do not do TV or movies.) Sunset over the lagoon in Orbetello, which is not really a foreign tourist place but some Brits seem to like it (more night pics below the fold): More evening and nighttime photos below -
Continue reading "La dolce vita: Evening and nighttime in Italia" Mixing up your workouts
Some examples: For legs etc, you can do deadlift one day, barbell squats another. Or leg-press. For HIIT, you can do stairmaster one day, treadmill sprints on another. For triceps, you can do press-downs one day, skullcrushers on another. For calisthenics, the list of choices is so long that you always vary what you do. Varying the things you do reduces boredom, but also keeps your neuromuscular system nimble and adjusting. A few Thursday morning linksThe Toll of Critical Race Theory on Our Children When are we going to stop doing this? When there's a third black mayor? A fifth? A tenth? Never? Facebook Running TV Spots Begging Government To Regulate Them… What Have We Learned? The 'White Supremacy' Bit Is Hack Wednesday, November 3. 2021We learned, long agoDesserts in Italy are not worth it. If you need a sweet, grab a gelato on the street. Or a lemon ice, which the Italians learned from the Arabs who, remarkably, imported the snow and ice from the Alps. Tiramisu seems to be a popular Italian dessert. I think it's ok, but I rarely eat dessert anywhere. I had one gelato (coffee) in Italy, and it was disappointing. The guy who invented Tiramisu in the 1970s has died.
Wednesday morning linksProfessor works to advance ‘fat justice’ Did a NYT's OP-Ed Insinuate That the VA Girl Who Got Raped by Gender Fluid Kid Was Asking for It? GETTING MINDS RIGHT AT YALE: LEARNING FROM TRENT COLBERT The AMA jumps the Woke Shark, introduces Medspeak British government considers "psychological harm" punishment for online abuse Amazon To Open New Office In Jersey City After Being Chased Out Of NYC By AOC The Cost of Communism: 'Comrade de Blasio' Has Gutted the Big Apple Poll: 71 Percent Say Country Headed in Wrong Direction Under Biden Glenn Youngkin's Win Officially Ends the Clinton Era in American Politics Bill Maher Continues His Anti-Democrat Streak, Wipes the Floor With the Woke Over Words Tuesday, November 2. 2021Tarquenia
Etruscans, as I view it, were proto-Romans. A fresco sample:
Tuesday morning linksCanceling Hogarth What did Alec Baldwin know of the firearm with which he killed Halyna Hutchins? The answer, based on his filmography, is not much. Bill Maher: Why won't blue states recognize that the pandemic is over? Virtue Signaling And Wokeness: A Return To The Primitive White students lie about their race on college applications Colin Kaepernick, Who By the Way Is Half-White and Very Ashamed of That, Claims That the NFL Draft Is Exactly Like a Slave Auction VDH on the ignoble lies our government employees tell us COP26 And The Hubris Of Our Political Overlords The Big Climate Summit Welcomed Up to 30,000 Officials Flying in on Planes Young Climate Cultists Travel To Glasgow To Say This Is “The Last Chance For Humanity” DeSantis Calls $450K Payments To Illegal Immigrants “A Slap In The Face” To Americans, Claims Florida Will Fight Back Why Are Relatively Poor People Not More Supportive of Redistribution? McAuliffe: “Everyone Clapped When I Said’ Parents Should NOT Be In Charge Of Their Kids’ Education… Poll: 71 Percent Say Country Headed in Wrong Direction Under Biden Monday, November 1. 2021Reposted: Tuscany in October, with truffles
Best thing of all: it is truffle season. Every decent place to eat had at least one truffle item on the menu, and we brought home two truffle pecorinos for Thanksgiving. Our lovely place outside Montepulciano (Villa Poggiano) put up a chalk board of things they would arrange for you to do each day. One of them was truffle-hunting. (Among others were a cooking class, horseback riding along the back dirt roads, and a rental Ferrari for 4 hours). I declined the truffle hunt because you have to pay but of course you don't get to keep the black truffles. Also, I do not trust myself with a Ferrari although I do enjoy driving around rural Tuscany (in daylight only). We did happen to see a truffle hunter with his dogs on one of our own back-country hikes on which we got happily lost. I always have a half-roll of toilet paper in the bottom of my Osprey daypack. Who does not? An American honeymooning couple at our place did everything on the list during their stay. Ah, youth. As we drove around southern Tuscany looking at various hill towns and things (MapQuest got us everywhere), we stopped by a Roman bath, Bagno Vignoni. We had a nice light lunch there, pecorino ravioli with black truffle. Roasted root veggies on the side. That's Italian! I doubt that you have ever seen so many truffle slices in the USA. Naturally, I had a glass of Vino Nobile de Montepulciano. Fine for the purpose and helpful for driving confidence. A few more pics, and a truffle hunting vid below the fold - Continue reading "Reposted: Tuscany in October, with truffles"
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