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.
5:1 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the LORD had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy.
5:2 Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman's wife.
5:3 She said to her mistress, "If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy."
5:7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me."
5:8 But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel."
5:9 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha's house.
5:10 Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean."
5:11 But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, "I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy!
5:12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?" He turned and went away in a rage.
5:13 But his servants approached and said to him, "Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, 'Wash, and be clean'?"
5:14 So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.
5:15c Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company; he came and stood before him and said, "Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel."
Mrs. BD is wondering what the Dems would have done if they had had had Bill on tape talking like a lowlife as he is widely known to do? Everybody knew Bill was a lowlife, and Mrs. Clinton an enabler and attacker of his assault victims, but the party rallied in his defense. That is called power politics. Same with JFK and LBJ, but no audio tapes and the press covered for them or, you might say, colluded. A sample: He (Bill) said Hillary had eaten more p***y than he had.’
Mr. Trump has no such amoral supporters. The Repubs rarely do. Hearsay, however accurate, might be manageable but the tape is a killer. The context is irrelevant. Mrs. BD is with Hinderaker: We’ve Had About All the Genius We Can Stand.
She has already written Pence's speech in her mind. Mike, give us a call. No charge.
The EU, of course, is a solution to the past. More precisely, it is what the Europeans wish they had done before the Great War, believing it would have prevented all of it. Like all solutions to past mistakes, it is wildly miscast for the present. That does not bother the Eurocrats. They are convinced their way is correct and they run forward, head down, into the block wall of reality. It is precisely this sort of stuff that led a majority of Brits to vote their nation out of the project, but facts and events play no role in EU thinking.
Why would someone raised in Gothenburg want to leave one of the most peaceful and progressive countries in the developed world to join a violent extremist group in the Middle East?
Because there is more to life than comfort. Humans are not cows.
The War on Cash: Banks, governments, credit card companies and fintech evangelists all want us to believe a cashless future is inevitable and good. But this isn't a frictionless utopia says Brett Scott, and it's time to fight back
Getting into pretty good condition from ordinary condition (ordinary is somebody over 30 who is not fat, hikes, walks daily, plays some recreational sports) takes about two years of commitment. Longer if pudgy, mostly sedentary, or if complicated by some physical impairment (which almost everybody over 40 is).
Yes, two years - and that means ideally 5-6 days per week. I can witness to that because at 16 months of my program neither I nor my trainer feel I am ready for a maintenance program yet. I had thought that I might have graduated by now but I have a ways to go. Part of what has slowed me down has been an old skiing shoulder injury and some non-arthritic hip pain.
If you feel inspired to take on such a slow but ultimately-rewarding process, I would recommend getting an evaluation from the smartest trainer you can find - not a musclebound musclehead, but one who knows physiology and anatomy, etc - and being taught a recommended program. Unless you were a well-trained lifter in high school or college, you can not walk into a gym and begin lifting weights, or even dumbells. You will do it wrong and injure something.
In fact, without training you will not even do simple things like medicine ball slams or heavy rope slams correctly. Everything has a correct technique designed for minimal damage and maximum benefit.
I have the luxury of a superb trainer 3 days/wk, thanks to Mrs. BD. That seems ideal. At this point, though, I think I can do my "heavy calisthenics" hour on my own. You can always learn more, but I have the basics down and an hour of calisthenics is a hell of a total body workout and you sweat like crazy.
Advantages of supervision by a trainer:
correcting your technique and managing your recovery time the trainer is your spotter. you need that for some weights planning your program to match your strengths and weaknesses pushing you harder than you would yourself making adjustments for aches and pains holding you accountable trainer can give you his advice on what you should do on "off days" the well-educated trainers will give you a nutritional plan too, depending on your needs
A less-expensive alternative is a group conditioning program like Crossfit. Crossfitters have good fun and good group bonding while busting their asses, but the supervision is not as exacting as it with with an individual trainer who watches your every move and corrects you constantly.
For a "boot camp" program like mine, most trainers would recommend something like ours (that of me and Mrs. BD):
Mon: 1 hr upper body weights or push weights Tues: Half hour cardio intervals Weds: 1 hr. lower body wts or pull weights Thurs: Half hour cardio intervals or 40 mins speed walk Fri: 1 hr mixed "heavy calisthenics" Sat: Half hr cardio intervals or speed-walking, plus 1/2 hr calisthenics. Some days just 40 mins speed-walking when it's a beautiful day.
That's on the advice of our NYC theatrical daughter, who thought Hamilton was a typical,schlocky, over-hyped pseudo-historical Broadway spectacle. We are generally off-Broadway if not off-off-Broadway people, but that daughter is discerning so I guess we ought to listen to her. Other daughter loved Hamilton.
This live recording is as close as I can find to the album version, which I feel is superb. Lyrics from this tune have been coming back to me for years.
Kimball: One of the most conspicuous strategies to limit free speech on campuses
in the United States these last few years has been via the weaponization
of victimhood.
Demonstrating her devotion to purposeful, tactical race-baiting, Berry in 2010 endorsed the practice of gratuitously smearing conservative Tea Party political activists as racists. “Tainting the Tea Party movement with the charge of racism is proving to be an effective strategy for Democrats,” she said. “There is no evidence that Tea Party adherents are any more racist than other Republicans, and indeed many other Americans. But getting them to spend their time purging their ranks and having candidates distance themselves should help Democrats win in November. Having one’s opponent rebut charges of racism is far better than discussing joblessness.”
It turns out that the future is not “a boot stamping on a human face – forever.” The future is a conference call on which a cheery 30-something says things like “progressively coordinate functional strategic theme areas” – forever.
He is a man of the sort that was behind the American revolution. Brexit was the only freedom cause he could find. A Maggie's hero. A shame that he, like Farage, will leave politics after seeing their mission accomplished.
However, that is as it should be. Career pols are pathetic. I recently reviewed Washington's farewell address. Served humbly, reluctantly, and went home to the farm.
Utopia has a class system. At the top are the thinkers, the philosopher kings who develop plans based on how things ought to be and then turn them over to lesser men to actually implement. They are the priestly class of an ideological movement whose deity is politics and whose priests are politicians.
Since The Very #Principled #NeverTrumpers Never Talk About the
Downside of Electing Their Preferred Candidate Hillary Clinton, I'll
Talk About It A Bit
Pic is your editor busting through a thick alder patch. If a woodcock jumps up, often a branch blocks your swing of the shotgun. That is annoying.
My favorite hunting is for the Ruffed Grouse, aka Partidge, aka "Paatrich," aka "chicken". Best done with dog - pointer or flusher - but it can be done alone too, if alert.
In the autumn, a Ruffed Grouse hunt generally involves Woodcock too. This is real hunting, because even in good habitat you might be lucky to raise a bird or two every few hours of rough hiking. Then the bird flies behind a tree and you miss it. These birds have every advantage.
This good guy shot a Sage Grouse. I've seen them out west, never shot one. I wouldn't shoot one. Once I almost shot a Spruce Grouse by mistake, in Maine. They are protected, and not really edible. I have shot my share of Sharp-Tailed Grouse up in Canadian prairie. That might be the most enjoyable hunting I have ever had. A firing line of a few guys stalking through low brush, scrub, and prairie grasses, for a few miles. Then a sudden burst of grouse occurs right when you have stopped to take a leak.
Regardless of the species, grouse are killed with legs, not shotguns. You walk. A grouse hunt is an excuse to take long gnarly off-trail walks with a dog and thus to earn a glass of warm whiskey by the fire afterwards. That's about as good as life gets.
We have lost track of the volume of our readership, but we know it is substantial and could be monetized in some way if we wanted to do that. We do not, because we do not want another Job.
However, if you have not done so, please let your friends, neighbors, relatives, enemies, colleagues, etc. know about us. Our readership is our reward.
Our eclectic site can be of interest to all sorts of people. As far as the political component goes, we just try to put up stuff that the MSM avoids. Tom Paine sort-of-thing. No need to agree with our political or other points of view.
In this election, Clinton’s honesty problem is not a big issue because her lying does not change the voter’s sense of where she stands on the big three items. On the other hand, Trump’s authenticity is a great benefit because it makes him trustworthy. You may not agree with his position on an issue, but you know what you are getting with Trump. His authenticity not only helps him on a personal basis, it helps him overcome the uncertainty issue all newcomers face. It makes him seem less of a risk.
Children
Getting into pretty good condition from ordinary condition (ordinary is somebody over 30 who is not fat, hikes, walks daily, plays some recreational sports) takes about two years of commitment. Longer if pudgy, mostly sedentary, or if complicated by some physical impairment (which almost everybody over 40 is).
Pic: Bragging pal sent photo of his tomato vine in California growing onto his roof. I bet he waters it illegally...
Pic is your editor busting through a thick alder patch. If a woodcock jumps up, often a branch blocks your swing of the shotgun. That is annoying.
We have lost track of the volume of our readership, but we know it is substantial and could be monetized in some way if we wanted to do that. We do not, because we do not want another Job.
Former Navy SEAL commanders explain why they still wake up before dawn every day — 
