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.
Yes, Mr. Moon sure is big and bright tonight. Supermoon. Mrs. BD called it the Trump Moon because it is big and fat, a glitzy show-off of a moon. She voted for Trump anyway.
"Membership in my gym is only by invitation after an initial evaluation and interview. You can be 92 years old, or you can be an Olympic lifter. Our sole criterion is that you must be dedicated about improving yourself, because our goal will be to make you physically quite uncomfortable, and more dissatisfied with yourself than you were when you arrived. If you are fat or weak, we will not tell you that you are fine the way you are, because it would not be true."
Business loves open borders. It keeps labor abundant and cheap. An immigrant from Mexico will work cheap, but that guy will get food stamps, housing, medical care - all sorts of benefits by which the taxpayer is essentially subsidizing their low wages. So low wages are not really cheap except for the employer. Dems love open borders - they believe it means more Dem voters. Do open borders take American jobs? Of course, regardless of the arguments of both lib and conservative pundits. They either take jobs, or they take government assistance.Many Repubs want more open borders for the supposed economic benefit. Trump wants immigration policies that work for American employees.
Trump wants tough international trade. Business wants free trade. Why? Often, imports are cheaper (whether labor or products). However, at the point of sale, such imports are not cheap. They are whatever the market will bear, of course. The benefit to the consumer is greatly overestimated. Generally speaking, Dems, Repubs, and business like free trade. Trump wants tough trade deals and tariffs if they can help American workers.
21:5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said,
21:6 "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down."
21:7 They asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?"
21:8 And he said, "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is near!' Do not go after them.
21:9 "When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately."
21:10 Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom;
21:11 there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.
21:12 "But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.
21:13 This will give you an opportunity to testify.
21:14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance;
21:15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.
21:16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.
21:17 You will be hated by all because of my name.
This is what I'll get for the Thanksgiving wine this year.
We had a fine dinner on Saturday with friends at a Portuguese place.
I believe I discovered the tastiest affordable red wine at that restaurant: Ramon Bilbao Riserva. Yes, a Spanish Rioja - and in a Portuguese restaurant. I can't use those fancy wine words (except rich and earthy for this one), so just try it if you are one of those millions always looking for delicious wine that tastes like a $60 bottle but costs $16.
My nice wine shop says they will get some for me, and that they have had enough requests for it that they may decide to carry it.
A few of my pals and I were splitting firewood this morning (giant 3' wide logs from the trunk of an old Ash tree - with tons of knots), and rambled onto the topic of deep-fat turkey frying. We decided to do a First Annual Bird Fry tomorrow after church. Nobody really wants to crank up a fryer just one one item, plus only one of us owns the gizmo.
We're going to do smaller turkeys, and also ducks and chickens, and will drink a bit of beer in the process. It's a nice neighborhood I live in.
I am brining my birds now with a cider and OJ recipe for infusing.
We will not have a comparable Supermoon until 2034,so make sure to check it out Sunday and Monday night. The article begins:
The full moon of November 14, 2016 is not only the biggest, closest and brightest supermoon of the year. It’s the closest supermoon since January 26, 1948. The moon won’t come this close to Earth again until November 25, 2034. Should you watch for this full moon on the night of November 14? Sure, and, if you do, it’ll be beautiful. But, for us in the Americas, the moon is closer to full on the night of November 13.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a stone, But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, No one has seen them made or heard them made, But at spring mending-time we find them there. I let my neighbour know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. To each the boulders that have fallen to each. And some are loaves and some so nearly balls We have to use a spell to make them balance: "Stay where you are until our backs are turned!" We wear our fingers rough with handling them. Oh, just another kind of out-door game, One on a side. It comes to little more: There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours."
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: "Why do they make good neighbours? Isn't it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him, But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather He said it for himself. I see him there Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. He moves in darkness as it seems to me, Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father's saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours."
Frost is mocking his wall-loving neighbor, but also admits that he mends wall too - together with his neighbor. A reflection on boundaries of all sorts. We happen to have a (stone) wall mending project at hand. New England dry stone walls have always been fragile things because glacial residue tends towards rounded shapes.
Italian savory pies range from the humble snack of "pizza" to the mind-boggling Timballo.
There are as many recipes for Pizza Rustica as there are Italian grandmas. They are not just for Easter but the ricotta one is an Easter special. Sometimes they are cooked in a pie pan, sometimes in baking pans.
A Timballo is a pasta-based pie (as is lasagna) which everything in it: sausage, whole hard-boiled eggs, noodles, lamb meatballs, spinach, peppers, etc.
It became easy to say that a “crude” Trump and a “crooked” Clinton polluted the 2016 campaign. The real culprits were a corrupt Washington elite, who were as biased as they were incompetent — and clueless about how disliked they were by the very America they held in such contempt.
True the Dems became the party of banks, big corporations, lesbians, and feminists and abandoned appeals to the rural areas, the shopkeeprs, etc. - but they are wrong about Trump's appeal, which is heavily to the old Dem base. Lefties keep bringing up Trump as authoritarian, when he is just Populist even to the point of complaining about Amazon. Of course, old-fashioned populism no longer works in a world of multinational corporations and relatively free trade. If you somehow broke up Amazon, for example, Mr. Ma in China would buy the pieces and keep running it.
Whoever takes over what’s left of the Democratic Party is going to have to find a way to appeal to a broader cross section of the country. It may still be true that in the long term, Republicans can’t win with their demographics, but we found out Tuesday that the long term is still pretty far away. Democrats have to win more white voters. They have to do so in a way that doesn’t erode the anti-racist or anti-sexist planks of the modern party, which are non-negotiable. If only there were a model for this.
He is so very wrong about this. "Trump has been in the public eye for at least thirty years. He was never accused of racism until he opposed a Democrat."
You are welcome to just walk in and watch a wedding. We chanced to watch one 2 weeks ago in Madrid in San Jerónimo el Real, right next to the Prado. Man, the French did a lot of destruction in Spain during the Napoleonic era.
Quite formal wedding, ladies dressed to the nines. There is no bridal party, just dressed up kids as bride assistants. Pic is awaiting arrival of the bride. The party after at the Ritz was wild and crazy and went on until the wee hours.
I thought Hillary had it wrapped up months ago. I have been wrong about many things before, but I spoke about this with too much certainty and I burst Mrs. BD's balloon - but she never entirely lost confidence that Trump would win.
A friend in Calif. was so confident of Hillary that he promised his Trumpist wife that if Trump won, he'd quit ceegars. Now that was confidence. Mind you, he is a Trump voter too, but in Calif. what does it matter? I feel terrible for him now.
Stunned to get up and check Drudge on the election results while getting ready to head to the gym. I was curious to learn how much Hillary won by. I guess that was a Hope and Change vote - plus a Hillary is Horrible vote.
Comments are open for all amateur pundits. I am going to do my Deadlifts now.
- Spain is for Spring or Fall, not summer. Too hot unless well-north of Madrid. - People in Spain dress well and look fit. Seems to be a matter of pride. Best to look a bit elegant and well-dressed. - Spanish people, we feel, are the most friendly, warm, and freely helpful people we have seen in Europe. - Spanish people go out at night, eat in restaurants, drink wine and beer, stay out late, socialize. - Spanish food is not great. It's not about eating. - Spain is a young country. You see far more youth than grey hairs. Old Seville is a romantic town, maybe Disney Spain. and it's not mostly about old stuff and museums - it's more about life. - Spain is supposed to be one of the sad PIIGS of Europe these days. If it is poor, you would never know it from the city life. - Andalusia embodies a lot of the stereotypes about Spain - bullfights, Moorish architecture, flamenco, etc. Andalusia, and the Iberian peninsula in general, used to be one of the poorest parts of Europe, really since the flow of New World gold and silver ended in the 1600s. Doesn't seem poor now - at least in the cities. - Seville is a charming, human-scale tourist trap. Tourism the main business there, plus higher ed. As in most European cities, local people prefer to go into the Old City to hang out. - Seville is far up the Guadalquivir River, but it was the starting port for the New World expeditions, including Columbus'. As the river silted up, Cadiz became the port for the New World.
Rainy night alley in the old city.
Lots more below the fold, with plenty of small streets and alleys in the medieval maze. We saw lots of other places in Seville, but these posts are a lot of trouble to put together so give my pics a look.
It's an interesting mix of thoughts from lifting hobbyists and pros. Readers know that I am convinced that moving weight is an essential component to fitness even if, or especially if, your goal is not to be a body-builder or a gym rat.
In a way, the lifting part of my fitness program has changed my relationship with my body. I know that sounds stupid, but I don't know how to express that I am aware of, and feel, my physicality more than I used to - even when just sitting in a chair. That feels like a good thing.
Perhaps a reader can explain that better than I can.
Squats are a bitch of an exercise, demanding of many muscle groups. That's how you know that you need them. Maybe you can walk all day, but your legs are weak, Jack.
My lower body is great for endurance, terrible for strength. I have been doing barbell squats for a year, but have started doing box squats for a change of pace, and to see if I can go any lower on my plain barbell squats. Box squats give you a brief break from tension, but demand the thrust from total rest.
A few of my pals and I were splitting firewood this morning (giant 3' wide logs from the trunk of an old Ash tree - with tons of knots), and rambled onto the topic of deep-fat turkey frying. We decided to do a First Annual Bird Fry tomorrow after church. Nobody really wants to crank up a fryer just one one item, plus only one of us owns the gizmo.
The True Story of Hacksaw Ridge and Desmond Doss:
We will not have a comparable Supermoon until 2034,so make sure to check it out Sunday and Monday night. The 
Mending Wall
Italian savory pies range from the humble snack of "pizza" to the mind-boggling Timballo.
Photo via 
What the Gym Teaches You About Life