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.
Well, thus far my posture is better, I stand taller, I am visibly stronger when observed nude-nekked, I feel lighter on my feet, I lost 6 lbs. mostly around my gut that I did not really need to lose, and my need for sleep has gone from around 5 hrs to 6 hrs. I do miss some carbs, still, but I resist. Lots of slices of steak, tuna, hard-boiled eggs, steamed summer squash, and spinach with oil and garlic. He said one half a fruit per day but I don't really like fruit unless I pick it from the tree.
Anyway, fruit is nothing but sugar. It's not "healthy" - it is dessert.
Trainer believes my natural healthy condition is semi-wiry - neither buff nor soft.
It helps that Mrs. BD is on the same routine. She asks me whether I have pain from the workouts. She does. I do not - just total physical fatigue. That's a feeling I actually enjoy. Trainer ramps up the demands every time, 3x/wk.
Dead lifts? I told the guy why I thought they call them that. They f-ing kill you. Sheesh. My language does lapse into the colorful sometimes in that torture chamber.
Trainer says I am still not ready to do his in-between day program on my own time - need day off for muscle recovery. I do. But I will not go gentle into a dark night of sloth even if it kills me.
What is it? Intensive total body workout for strength and conditioning combining aerobic and resistance, with 15-30 second breaks between challenges. That's why they call it "boot camp."You have to get an echo stress test before beginning to minimize the odds of croaking on the floor.
It's a physical and mental adventure.
Do I need all of this? Yes, trust me. I had gotten a little soft and lazy but not fat. Do I like it? Yes and no. More no than yes. An Eat Your Spinach thing. Trainer/torturer is a good, funny fellow (country boy from Ohio who moved east and discovered the glories and fun and seashores of the northeast and of NYC) so that helps. Most enjoyable part is crawling out of the place at 6:15am to get to work.
Will give an update in another few weeks, but I will be moving furniture with my lad this weekend and I can do that, no problem, as long as I don't fall down the stairs.
If you were a man of forty-five, employed, not actually a serial killer, and had fewer than five nostrils, you did well. The women, though desperate, were often attractive, smart, good-looking, warm-blooded, and great people.
The recent revelations about the Clinton slush fund has reminded
everyone that the very worst said about the Clintons is the tip of the
iceberg. There’s always more slime under the next stone.
I been double-crossed now for the very last time and now I'm finally free I kissed goodbye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me You'll never know the hurt I suffered not the pain I raise above And I'll never know the same about you your holiness or your kind of love And it makes me feel so sorry.
Idiot wind blowing through the buttons of our coats Blowing through the letters that we wrote Idiot wind blowing through the dust upon our shelves We're idiots babe It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves.
...a closer look at the numbers shows a mere 13% of program expenses — and just 10% of total spending — went for grants and aid. And despite its global pretensions, most of the aid stayed in the U.S. The rest went to salaries, conferences, travel and other overhead costs.
In fact, the Clinton Foundation was more generous to conference organizers than the poor. The IRS filing shows it spent $9 million on conferences, conventions and meetings, compared to $8.9 million in aid.
View of the upstairs barn apartment at the farm. Three bedrooms, 2 baths, 1930s-style eat-in kitchenette, and living room. Lots of closets. Knotty pine walls. Very pleasant 1000 sq. ft. quarters. Tractors downstairs. Too bad the view down the hill to the farmhouse and river washed out in my pic. The barn needs lots of exterior repairs, though.
For starters, new roof, a bit of new siding, and better insulation would all be good. And a paint job. Heavily leaded red barn paint, please. (You can easily buy the lead paint additive online. Lead-free exterior paint is terrible. As my brother-in-law says, any kid who would chew on the exterior wood of a barn has to be retarded already.) A couple of modern toilets would be nice too.
The farmhouse itself is in mostly good condition.
Maintenance will kill ya unless you can, and have time to, do it yourself. Ownership of places and things can be a life burden and a spiritual burden, as Thoreau often observed.
So much for the terror tactics, which have never worked anyway except on the ignorant. We're in a mild inter-glacial, but not really. Technically, we are still in an ice age.
How does it happen that a properly endowed natural scientist comes to concern himself with epistemology? Is there no more valuable work in his specialty? I hear many of my colleagues saying, and I sense it from many more, that they feel this way. I cannot share this sentiment….
Concepts that have proven useful in ordering things easily achieve such an authority over us that we forget their earthly origins and accept them as unalterable givens. Thus they come to be stamped as “necessities of thought,” “a priori givens,” etc. The path of scientific advance is often made impassable for a long time through such errors. For that reason, it is by no means an idle game if we become practiced in analyzing the long commonplace concepts and exhibiting those circumstances upon which their justification and usefulness depend, how they have grown up, individually, out of the givens of experience. By this means, their all-too-great authority will be broken.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
We have a similar trip planned to the famous Greyfield Inn on Cumberland Island in Georgia. We love Georgia but, then again, we love almost anywhere. Again, no phones, no wifi, no TV, no shops, and no transportation other than bike or foot. Other than the old mansion (built by Carnegie), there is no other development. All nature sanctuary. Bring binoculars of course, bathing suit ... and mosquito spray.
Hikes and bikes, and sea, all day.
You get there by boat from Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island. Ha. I've been there! Had a fine seafood lunch in Fernandina overlooking the harbor. Huge plate of fried oysters with pepper salsa, as I recall, cole slaw on the side, and a couple of beers.
Clinton Inc. needs money, but the money is likely seen more as tribute than bribery, a bit of coin offered up as a sign of loyalty to the coming Ozarkian Restoration — a restoration that may just have to wait for Chelsea.
It's his birthday week. The youth may not know what a talented fellow he was with words, rhythm, wit, and wisdom, and it's tough to know that if you are under age 18 or more. Shakespeare: The Ultimate Dead White Male? Every word he wrote is best read aloud.
Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Each garment has a pocket for a phone and is designed to be professional wear which can be easily dressed up for after-work outings. If you're not in NY, you can find her stuff online or in these places.
Here in New England, the spring migration is underway. Blackbirds came a month ago, and are still passing through, but the hardy songbirds are beginning to show up despite yesterday's light snow.
The Juncos headed north a couple of weeks ago, and now most of the White Throats have left too. I heard the first Towhee of the Spring this morning.
Photo is our Eastern Towhee. Unmistakable, loud call, "Drink your teeeee." Saw my first of the season yesterday, scratching under my feeder. Love those guys.
Here's a chilly male Cardinal. Due to global warming, it was a wicked winter and a cold early Spring this year.
Did you ever wonder why Al Kooper's organ chords were slightly behind? He didn't know the chords. Besides, he barely knew how to play the organ. He was a guitar player.
Good story, and true. With enough ballsiness, life can be like that.
- Most other plants cannot tolerate daffodil or narcissus sap. They secrete something which prevents other stems from absorbing water. That's why you never see bouquets or vases with daff or narcissus cuttings shared with other flower or plant cuttings.
I can’t fathom the naiveté required to believe that this egregious double standard—i.e., tribal identity for everyone except white males—will end in harmony rather than disaster. It horrifies me to ponder the gullibility you’d need to think that one day, all women and nonwhites will suddenly say, “It’s cool, white dudes—we’re even. The score is settled. The historical scales are balanced. Everyone’s equal now.” Anyone with the most basic grasp of human nature knows that people never truly grow out of infancy—both as individuals and in groups, they will grab more and more candy until someone finally prevents them.
The American Robin is actually a woodland thrush. People used to hunt and eat them. From a reader this week. Look at those egg sacks on that fat (European immigrant) worm:
American Jacobins: 
Well, thus far my posture is better, I stand taller, I am visibly stronger when observed nude-nekked, I feel lighter on my feet, I lost 6 lbs. mostly around my gut that I did not really need to lose, and my need for sleep has gone from around 5 hrs to 6 hrs. I do miss some carbs, still, but I resist. Lots of slices of steak, tuna, hard-boiled eggs, steamed summer squash, and spinach with oil and garlic. He said one half a fruit per day but I don't really like fruit unless I pick it from the tree.
Is Sunday School
Readers may recall how much we enjoyed
Top Ten Most Expensive Prescription Drugs
It's his birthday week. The youth may not know what a talented fellow he was with words, rhythm, wit, and wisdom, and it's tough to know that if you are under age 18 or more. 
"Proudly made in New York City." She's back! The 
Here in New England, the spring migration is underway. Blackbirds came a month ago, and are still passing through, but the hardy songbirds are beginning to show up despite yesterday's light snow.
Live and learn. Nobody would eat a daffodil bulb on purpose, but if you do it's bad news.
Pic: Mr. Volcano in Chile celebrates Earth Day with megatons of CO2 and air pollution, via 