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.
Note to readers and to website proprietors: We frequently fail to give appropriate h/ts to link sources. We try to make up for that by linking their pieces when it makes sense to.
Anyway, thanks to those who send us interesting links, and thanks to some of our frequent but sometimes unacknowledged resources:
From Steyn: "A Disgrace to the Profession"- The World's Scientists - in their own words - on Michael E Mann, his Hockey Stick and their Damage to Science
Hillary Clinton has a $350 billion plan that she says will make college more affordable. Which has to be better than my parents’ plan to make college affordable: “Be good at sports.”
I'm an enormous fan of Jonathan Haidt's work. Nonetheless, I've always had two outstanding questions about it (and would note that these are not exactly questions of which Professor Haidt is unaware). The first is simply whether his surveys capture the actual moral reasoning that people do, or represent people pretending to do the sort of moral reasoning they think they ought to do.
... they laughed when I said how strange it was that I met many people who fell in with the wrong crowd but never any members of the wrong crowd itself.
I love a good diner breakfast (pancakes, bacon, fried eggs, hash browns with ketchup, white toast) about once a month, but I don't need it. It just makes me tired and useless. My trainer forces me to eat a hard-boiled egg after my morning work-out, so I do that.
Quote via reader:
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts."
What potions have I drunk of Siren tears, Distill'd from limbecks foul as hell within, Applying fears to hopes and hopes to fears, Still losing when I saw myself to win! What wretched errors hath my heart committed, Whilst it hath thought itself so blessed never! How have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted In the distraction of this maddening fever! O benefit of ill! Now I find true That better is by evil still made better; And ruin'd love, when it is built anew, Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater. So I return rebuked to my content And gain by ill thrice more than I have spent.
There's nothing more refreshing than a cold Borscht. A family member handed me an old recipe for it yesterday.
There are countless ways to make it, all from eastern Europe. I think I like it best with chunks, and with a dollop of sour cream on top, but the one pictured is excellent too.
I've been there twice - saw a bullfight, the markets, the beaches, and the Matisse Museum - but want to go back for a week or so bringing all the kids.
Watch the video in the article. Lots of fine dining and wine. Top two on my travel bucket list: A week in a villa in Provence (or maybe somewhere north of Perugia) with all family, and 4 days grouse hunting in Scotland. Hey, it's almost the Glorious 12th
Good pals recently invited us to join them on this Viking trip. Would love to, but 8-10 days away is my max, and work is one of my joys so my need to get away is just for curiosity and education. No need to escape anything.
Speaking of travel, a daughter of mine found this note in some files I have been going through. My dad had sent me his travel plans in 2001 and my assistant tossed it in a file. They were in late-70s at the time with medical challenges they tried to ignore (Dad was half-blind but still working and Mom could be a space cadet) but they drove all over the world anyway same as my inlaws do now in their 80s).
It was their habit to go to Europe every early summer. They loved the canal barges in France almost as much as they loved small ships.
I suspect the deal was Sissinghurst for Royal Opera.
Stuck at home like a loser tonight with no date, no garden cocktail party, no cook-out to go to, and all your friends are on vacation to exciting places? Ain't That A Shame?
O, Utopia. Why must your sweet governance always turn so quickly from the Edenic to the Stalinist? The college revolutions of the 1960s—the ones that gave rise to the social-justice warriors of today’s campuses—were fueled by free speech. But once you’ve won a culture war, free speech is a nuisance, and “eliminating” language becomes a necessity.
Cheryl Mills To Destroy Emails About Boss Hillary Clinton
Read more at http://observer.com/2015/08/breaking-cheryl-mills-to-destroy-emails-about-hillary-clinton/#ixzz3iDKgTMLl
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A wonderful, low-key place to get away to with plenty of good restaurants, lakes, ponds, bay, harbor, and Atlantic Ocean all within a couple of miles in the pine-scented, salt-sprayed National Seashore. Sea breezes, no bugs, genteel people but no rich jerks.
To maintain fitness and conditioning from middle age onwards, there are just a few exercises that are most efficient and essential. They are efficient because, combined, they are full-body, all-muscle engagements which require balance and control, and which can eventually pretty much eliminate the need for other exercises. This applies to gals too.
If unfit, it seems that most of these need to be worked up to gradually with smaller muscle groups (eg calves, quads, curls, pull-downs) to be able to handle them with proper technique and without pulling a muscle or damaging a tendon. That's called conditioning.
I mention this topic today because I have just started with barbell squats so I am slowly getting to the full deal as I move from unfit and sort-of weak but fully-functional to borderline-fit for my age. An adventure, physically and mentally:
Push-ups Pull-ups Bench press Barbell squats Planks of all sorts Dead lifts
Plus...general fitness interval-type cardio aerobics of a great variety of fun sorts on off-days, from heavy ball smashes and throws to farmer walks to lunge walks to step-ups to squat+mil pushes to ropes to sprints (elliptical, bike, run, swim, row, etc). It doesn't need to be boring but it does need to be stressful and varied. If not stressful to the max, it's a waste of time: if you can move afterwards and are not dripping with sweat it's not tough enough to make much difference. Gasping and heart pounding for 20-30 minutes.
Lots of the exercise machines and lighter weights seem to be made just to raise you to the point that you can do a few sets of those simple, basic, demanding multi-muscle resistance exercises in a reasonable time before you go to work in the morning. For example, I can't do 20 push-ups or 10 pull-ups yet, so we try to condition the things to make that possible. Intensity, simplicity, and weights save time and money. (nb again - this is not about body-building, it's about maintaining general fitness for life for as long as possible)
This is what I am learning. I get lots of arguments from readers. Go ahead and argue with me while I begin to rediscover my 22 year-old abilities. Painful and deeply-fatiguing, but do-able over time. I know a fit 55 year-old gal who can do 35 regular pushups. She shows no muscles and looks fully trim and feminine.
Note to readers and to website proprietors: We frequently fail to give appropriate h/ts to link sources. We try to make up for that by linking their pieces when it makes sense to.
Growing kids need breakfast. Adults do not, except athletes. A coffee and maybe a smoke is perfect, same as the Italians do.
Massive Study 
There's nothing more refreshing than a cold 
How To Slice A Bagel Along A Mobius Strip —
How To Make 
To maintain fitness and conditioning from middle age onwards, there are just a few exercises that are most efficient and essential. They are efficient because, combined, they are full-body, all-muscle engagements which require balance and control, and which can eventually pretty much eliminate the need for other exercises. This applies to gals too.