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.
We posted about Armenia this week. Armenia is a mountainous nation. It is said that Noah's ark grounded on a mountaintop there. The Caucasus mountains.
It's the area whence Caucasian carpets. Of all of the varieties of "oriental carpets" (ie Middle Eastern,) it's the Caucasians which most intrigue us at the BD homestead. The antiques, hand-loomed with vegetable dyes are the only ones really worth having, and they come so costly that people often hang them on walls. Folk art.
They were only made in small sizes, always smaller than 5'X8'. As with any type of valuable antique "oriental" carpet, you can only find them in the US and Europe. Not in the Middle East. Today, like 100 years ago, they were made in the villages for export.
Photo is a cool antique Kazak carpet in perfect shape. Would you want to step on that with your work boots?I'd guess you could own that small one for between $6-10,000.We can't afford this stuff but it's fun to look at.
I have a few more modern imitationsfor high-traffic places and you can tell the difference instantly.
Mother's Day breakfast. Make a good mess in the kitchen! Don't wake up Dad either.
Even if you are not Jewish, Challah bread makes the best French toast with bacon: Challah French toast with perfect bacon. A couple of stiff Screwdrivers too would probably be appreciated.
Who knows, she might even decide she likes you brats. Real Maple syrup with it, on the side.
He made two errors: I like to hear what my wife has to say about things because she is darn smart (if emotional) - and he omitted one mokita: Lesbian domestic violence reaches crisis levels. Other than that, he goes easy on the Jihadists but he hits most of the non-PC points.
Record 93,194,000 Americans Not In Labor Force... Record 56,167,000 Women Not Working... APRIL UNEMPLOYMENT: 5.4%... +223,000... Most gains go to immigrants... 100% of job gains among women...
Read it, and Chomsky’s technique becomes obvious, a three-step bit of linguistic legerdemain that begins by emptying words of their meaning, continues by assigning them some random and temporarily advantageous value, and ends with accusing anyone who questions the new meaning as a depraved monster oblivious to the misfortunes of others.
It may be a phony Capitalist commercial day invented by Hallmark to sell their stupid cards, but we Americans are generally forced to observe it now. That's ok, but every day should be Mother's Day (and Father's Day too). It's #6 in God's Ten Suggestions.
We'll have 3 mothers here for lunch, along with misc. other family. I'm cooking of course, but maybe a daughter or two will lend a hand. Darn well had better do, with 10 or so of us here.
My simple rustic American menu:
Grill: A few fat one-and-a-half-inch thick Costco ribeyes - or maybe butterflied lamb
Creamed spinach and/or grilled vegetables with olive oil. (I usually grill onions, sweet peppers, yellow and green squash, mushrooms, maybe some asparagus or eggplant, and toss in a bowl with oil, basil, parsley, and salt and pepper.)
Mashed taters
Sliced tomatoes/vinaigrette
Beer/wine/lemon Perrier/Lemonade
A Trifle for dessert, with Bird's Pudding (but no sherry, rum, or Riesling to flavor the Pound Cake - makes it better but we have some careful teetotalers and kids). Somehow, I have two large English glass trifle bowls. (For a very large crowd, a punch bowl works well but it takes a lot of stuff to fill a punch bowl and it doesn't really fit in the fridge, so for over 15 people best to use individual stemmed glasses)
Strawberry, Blueberry, Kiwi, Raspberry, Banana is my plan. A good few hours in the fridge is good for a trifle.
In half a century, astonishingly, we’ve come full circle and achieved the exact inverse of what the Free Speech Movement claimed it intended. What began as lawless civil disobedience now exploits campus regulations to rescind from others the same rights these erstwhile campus radicals once demanded for themselves. In other words: the oppressed have become the oppressors. Talk about Freudian reaction formation!
1. To speak of Islamist violence, or to suggest there is a problem in Islam, is racist, and hateful, and irrational, and "islamophobic."
2. It is so predictable that Islamists will kill you if you say something "anti-Islamic" that victims of murder attempts can be said to have brought their attacks on themselves.
Hillary Clinton: We knew her as a grim, charmless harridan; a pear-shaped harpy. Now, after reading Peter Schweizer's new book, Clinton Cash, we see the ultimate Hillary, one of the world's truly scary women.
Why not take away the faces on Mt. Rushmore? They pollute the scenery too.(I hate the very notion of Mt. Rushmore. The US is not the Assyrian Empire with government-worship)
Whatever you intend to do with a potato, you need to select the variety for the job at hand. If you have ever made gluey mashed taters, or had taters disintegrate in a stew, you know what I mean. Wrong potato. All of our potato types have been genetically-engineered for specific qualities. Special thanks to Mr. Johnson who came up with the Yukon Gold a few years ago.
As I have commented in the past, it's fun to think about all of the foods the New World native farmers and plant breeders contributed to Old World cuisine. For starters, potatoes,tomatoes, peppers, beans, maize, zucchini and summer squash, winter squash and pumpkin, cocoa, strawberry, sunflower, sweet potato, peanut, vanilla, etc. etc.
At the time of the European invasions of the New World, there were few communities of pure hunter-gatherers (eg the Eskimos). Farming was big, supplemented by hunting-gathering.If you recall, the Pilgrims took over Indian hundred-acre cornfields.
For those keeping score at home, that is one old corrupt white woman against a female former CEO of a Fortune 500 company, a brain surgeon who is black, a former TV host and governor, the longest serving Governor of Texas, the Indian-American Governor of Louisiana, and we already have a doctor turned Senator, two Hispanic Senators, and we are waiting on the former Governor of Florida who speaks Spanish and is married to a lovely lady from Mexico, not to mention the very successful Governor of Wisconsin. There may be more.
Let me say something obvious: if you're paying $500,000 or $750,000 for Bill Clinton, you're not paying for a canned speech from an old man most of whose vague pronouncements have already been well-documented and are trite to the point of agony.
We had our annual crew of 6 (legal) immigrants helping me get my Springtime outdoor to-do list done this weekend. It's amazing what 6 or 7 guys with all the right tools can get done in 7 hours.
I am grateful for these high energy, botanically-knowledgeable guys doing the work which, apparently, Americans do not want to do. It is highly pleasurable to feel effective on a large scale.
15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.
15:2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.
15:3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.
15:4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
15:6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
15:8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
God spede the plow And send us all corne enow Our purpose for to mak At crow of cok Of the plwlete of Sygate Be mery and glade Wat Goodale this work mad
Our doctrine here at Maggie's HQ is that charcoal grills are good for some things (corn on the cob, burgers, hot dogs, turkey, barbecue stuff, Bluefish, Striped Bass, grilled vegetables), but only cast iron is for good steaks (eg ribeye, NY strip, porterhouse. I will not eat London Broil). Readers know that ribeye is my favorite by far. In our current dietary regime, one thick ribeye makes the foundation for 4 substantial meals, probably with some left over.
We posted 
Headline at 
It may be a phony Capitalist commercial day invented by Hallmark to sell their stupid cards, but we Americans are generally forced to observe it now. That's ok, but every day should be Mother's Day (and Father's Day too). It's #6 in God's Ten Suggestions.
Should You Travel to Cuba? 
Pic is a small bouquet Mrs. BD put together for my office 
‘Men aren’t wimping out by staying unmarried or being commitment phobes.
Potatoes, mashed or fried, are the most popular side dishes in North America. Rightly so - the original tiny 
A friend sent that pic of the Greenfield Hill (in Fairfield, CT) Congregational Church's annual Dogwood Festival this weekend
A surprising life: 
145 Intellectuals Agree: Dead Cartoonists Aren't Worthy of Free-Speech 
Pssst: 
