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.
Steyn: So "British Muslims Fear Repercussions Over Tomorrow's Train Bombing" is now joined by "Belgian Cabinet Minister Says Tomorrow's Train Bombing Is All Our Fault".
Terrorism is an effective tactic around the world because it allows small groups of people to spread hysteria with relatively little manpower, and because it is impossible to prevent entirely, even in a police state. Where a devoted terrorist group exists, it is nearly inevitable its members will eventually succeed to some degree. But in Belgium, jihadists found a society that was unusually susceptible, and exploited it to bloody effect.
With trout season on the way, a useful chart. ("Exercised" means you played the fish a bit before netting):
Event, Seconds out of Water, and Survival Rate
Fish caught, exercised but not taken out of water 0 secs. 88% Fish caught, exercised and taken out of the water 30 62% Fish caught, exercised and taken out of the water 60 28% Fish caught, exercised, placed in boat, handled and flops around 60+ 0%
Out my office window yesterday. That is a Cottontail, a lucky one who survived the winter's Red-tails, owls and foxes. Our bunny population peaks in Aug/Sept, and by this time there are just enough left to begin the cycle again.
19:28 After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
19:29 When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples,
19:30 saying, "Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here.
19:31 If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it.'"
19:32 So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them.
19:33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?"
19:34 They said, "The Lord needs it."
19:35 Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.
19:36 As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.
19:37 As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen,
19:38 saying, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!"
19:39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop."
19:40 He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."
Adulthood means doing things you don't want to do and discovering that they can make you the person you want to be. That's how virtue is born. Perpetual childhood prevents virtue from ever forming. Instead public life is cluttered with oversized children who have the language skills, resources and political power of adults, but none of the virtues that come with maturity.
"the all-powerful central state worshipped by Reich and all the
other Establishment insiders, Democrat and Republican alike, is the true
culmination of fascism."
The developments provoked fury among Eurosceptics. UKIP Migration spokesman Steven Woolfe said: “It’s clear that the EU has got absolutely no moral obligation to accept them.
“To say it is against EU values to send economic migrants back to home is ridiculous. And what are EU values? Ignoring referendum results in France, Netherlands and Ireland?
"Enforcing Euro membership to create poverty and unemployment for millions? Bullying smaller countries to comply with German demands?
“It seems to me that only value that the EU holds is to increase power for itself, and pay for its bureaucrats.
“The UNHCR estimates that there are 60 million displaced people in the world.
"The notion that the EU alone has a duty to take them all in is ridiculous in the extreme.”
Reading together one day for delight Of Lancelot, caught up in love’s sweet snare, We were alone, with no thought of what might Occur to us, although we stopped to stare Sometimes at what we read, and even paled. But then the moment came we turned a page And all our powers of resistance failed: When we read of that great knight in a rage To kiss the smile he so desired, Paolo, This one so quiet now, made my mouth still— Which, loosened by those words, had trembled so— With his mouth. And right then we lost the will— For love can will will’s loss, as well you know— To read on. But let that man take a bow Who wrote the book we called our Galahad, The reason nothing can divide us now.
Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose. But fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I was going to make a long speech, and there is a bullet - there is where the bullet went through - and it probably saved me from it going into my heart. The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best.
Theodore Roosevelt, October 14, 1912, after being shot by an attempted assassin. He spoke for 90 minutes.(h/t Ace)
Earnest young Christian writers (males more than females, perhaps) wring their hands over discovering materialism* and pride - even in themselves. In this they demonstrate that they totally get it, and understand, and aren't really judging at all, clearing the battle space for denunciation. Double bonus points - you get to demonstrate after how many mattresses you can still detect this pea. Prejudice is another big-ticket item. We all have prejudices that we don't want to admit. Even I have a cute anecdote that I shake my head ruefully at in feigned humility before condemning all you racist bastards. Being part of the system and all that.
I have been reluctant to spend so much space discussing The Bell Curve’s treatment of race and intelligence because it was such an ancillary topic in the book. Focusing on it in this letter has probably made it sound as if it was as important as President Sands’s open letter implied.
But I had to do it. For two decades, I have had to put up with misrepresentations of The Bell Curve. It is annoying. After so long, when so many of the book’s main arguments have been so dramatically vindicated by events, and when our presentations of the meaning and role of IQ have been so steadily reinforced by subsequent research in the social sciences, not to mention developments in neuroscience and genetics, President Sands’s casual accusation that our work has been “largely discredited” was especially exasperating. The president of a distinguished university should take more care.
Krauthammer: "The immediate conventional wisdom was to blame the disturbance on the
“toxic environment” created by Trump. Nonsense. This was an act of
deliberate sabotage created by a totalitarian left..."
Hydrangeas are popular in New England, but you have to know what you are doing in order to have happy plants. As summer-flowering shrubs go, they are fairly easy. Summer-through-Sept bloomers. We have lots of them, even a climbing one.
- South of the New Jersey latitude, Hydrangeas can handle filtered light. North of that, they need more hours of full sun to be vigorous and to produce impressive bloom.
- As their name implies, many varieties like water, mist, and fog. Good mulching prevents summer wilt if that's a problem.
- A new or transplanted Hydrangea wants plenty of water the first year. They like rich soil too. Not hard clay.
- As we have said before, for good bloom you have to know the difference between your Macrophylla and your Paniculata. It's not rocket science. I think my favorites are the Lacecaps, which are Macrophyllas.
- There are so many varietals, it is difficult to keep track of them all. GMO hybrids.
- The Oakleaf varieties seem to be the toughest, least fragile. Big white blooms, late summer.
- Many or even most varietals never want to be pruned and just want space to grow. It does not work to try to control a varietal that wants to be 15' high and 20' wide. Those big ones create their own cool, moist microclimate underneath.
What’s happening across the West is the people are awakening to the fact that their rulers have a very different vision for their societies than they disclose in public. In many cases, it feels like the rulers have plans for the future that don’t include their voters. Those plans may be great ideas, but in stable societies, they must be debated in public. Otherwise, society becomes unstable. That’s what’s happening in Germany and America. The system is becoming unstable.
Fascinating cultural fossils whose members are most likely not to thrive when introduced to modern civilization unless they have the savvy and brilliance of Squanto.
Leave them alone at a great distance as if they were endangered wild animals, film and study the heck out of them, or buy them a Big Mac and take them to the opera? The fate of these stone age tribes is entirely in civilization's hands. A strange situation:
Saturday was Don Pasquale at the Met. Act 3, the serenade and the duet. Turn up the volume.
(Travel tip: If you find yourself driving the A-4 in Italy, get off at Bergamo, park at the bottom of the hill, and take the funicular up to the tiny old charming hilltop city. There in the Basilica of S. Maria Maggiore is Donizetti's tomb, in his home town. Bergamo - an often-overlooked gem with great restaurants on the ancient piazza. Indeed, at one point even this was Venice's domain.)
Female Researcher: 
Re exercise, via 
It's time to plant bare-root fruit trees. A free ad for
Luke 19:28-40
Col. Sanders 
Hydrangeas are popular in New England, but you have to know what you are doing in order to have happy plants. As summer-flowering shrubs go, they are fairly easy. Summer-through-Sept bloomers. We have lots of them, even a climbing one.
The Electric Vehicle Mileage Fraud Update: Singapore Figures It Out