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.
Just about everything we thought we knew about the evils of cholesterol and fats has turned out to be wrong. The doctors, the nutritionists, the dietitians, the heart societies, the experts at Health Canada, the food pyramid that hung on the wall in school – the entire health and medical establishment, in fact, have been perpetuating a big fat fraud.
Did
economic incentives destroy lower-income families? - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/03/did-economic-incentives-destroy-lower-income-families.html#sthash.p1Uw1TKv.dpuf
Or maybe it's already almost too late to plan for 2015. We have our plans mostly set - including a bit more of totally-cool north Africa and the Canary Islands. (Why? Ask Mrs. BD. She plans, I just show up with a passport, an absurd hat, absurd clothes, a credit card, and a cheap camera. I typically pack in 15 minutes, so it is ridiculous. Just remember - always throw in a tux for a formal ship.) I do love ships and I will always jump on one to go anywhere. This one has sails.
Readers know that the whole BD clan has been world-traveling for years, way before Maggie's existed. Between us, my own parents, and my in-laws, there are few spots on the planet which have been left unvisited. We have been a fortunate and adventurous clan.
I have a friend who took his kids (without Mom) on an around the world in 60 days trip which he planned himself. Bonding time with Dad. That's a whirlwind trip but a cool idea. Holland-America has a 115-day round the world cruise. We met a prof and his wife on a ski gondola in New Hampshire who had taken that during a sabbatical and loved it. How could you not? Leave all your cares behind...
I've been to plenty of places in the US and Canada too, before Maggie's, but it's fun to go places without a Wendy's or a Holiday Inn-type place. Never been to Orlando, and it ain't on my list. I guess I could say that my favorite places in the USA are Cape Cod, Montana, and New York City.
For fun, here's our Maggie's Travel and Travelogue with past travel reports, photos, and ideas. (Push "next page" at the bottom of the page to flip back through our old files.)
I have a bucket list, and I have not been everywhere.
It's a little upsetting when you think that this is was your money. I recently read a definition of money as "stored labor," like a battery. Does that make sense?
2:2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.
2:3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.
2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us
2:5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--
2:6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
2:7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God--
2:9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
2:10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
Some thoughts about Mr. and Mrs. Clinton below the fold so as not to overburden our front page with annoying Clinton links -
It's an issue of character. We all know not to look for high character in those inclined towards careers in politics but, policies aside, I think the Left can do better than these grifters and con artists. Even their "marriage" is a fraud, and so is the Clinton Foundation.
I think even the MSM press is weary of them and their endless BS. I am, anyway. Rejected once; why try again?
And I'll ask once again, How does one accumulate a $200 million bank account and a $2 billion slush fund in "a life devoted to public service"? Perhaps that trick can be listed as one of her major life accomplishments. I am impressed by that.
She is the "I went to Wellesley, and I married a sociopathic redneck politician" candidate. Wow.
From one of our links below:
Clinton's political career was launched based on the record and relationships of her husband. She has no accomplishments to speak of from either her time in the Senate or as Secretary of State. But her personal network has put her in the position as the overwhelming frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic nomination.
In the liberal ghetto of Ann Arbor, several University of Michigan administrators recently gathered for a passionate brainstorm. The head of student affairs declared he was simply “going to die” if he heard about one more so-called micro-aggression on campus. When a colleague told him he was “acting crazy” for being so sensitive, he was shipped off to a mandatory session for freshmen where he learned about white privilege and determined that he would never say anything potentially controversial again. And with that, the Inclusive Language Campaign was born.
Academics often defend tenure, despite its many negative consequences, on grounds that it allows academic freedom for independent minds. Yet there are few places in America with more taboos and intellectual intolerance than academic campuses.
I Among twenty snowy mountains, The only moving thing Was the eye of the blackbird.
II I was of three minds, Like a tree In which there are three blackbirds.
III The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds. It was a small part of the pantomime.
IV A man and a woman Are one. A man and a woman and a blackbird Are one.
V I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling Or just after.
VI Icicles filled the long window With barbaric glass. The shadow of the blackbird Crossed it, to and fro. The mood Traced in the shadow An indecipherable cause.
VII O thin men of Haddam, Why do you imagine golden birds? Do you not see how the blackbird Walks around the feet Of the women about you?
VIII I know noble accents And lucid, inescapable rhythms; But I know, too, That the blackbird is involved In what I know.
IX When the blackbird flew out of sight, It marked the edge Of one of many circles.
X At the sight of blackbirds Flying in a green light, Even the bawds of euphony Would cry out sharply.
XI He rode over Connecticut In a glass coach. Once, a fear pierced him, In that he mistook The shadow of his equipage For blackbirds.
XII The river is moving. The blackbird must be flying.
XIII It was evening all afternoon. It was snowing And it was going to snow. The blackbird sat In the cedar-limbs.
With an Irish father-in-law, the boiled dinner is de rigeur around here on, or close to, St. Paddy's Day. I'll make up a big pot this weekend even though he is still in lovely San Diego, slowly on the mend and eager to get home.
I happen to be one of those people who love that New England Boiled Dinner, aka Irish Boiled Dinner, aka (per reader) "a greasy, one-pot slopfest."
The real traditional Irish St. Paddy's dinner is Bacon and Cabbage. Why is the New England dinner associated with the Irish? Read all about it here.
Cook the heck out of the meat, for hours, until it almost falls apart. Lots of whole peppercorns, Allspice, cloves, bay leaf, and garlic in the pot.
The carrots are optional, in my view - and the cabbage is the best part. For a large volume of food with generous leftovers for all, I am using 2 packaged corned beefs, 6 turnips, a small bag of carrots, a couple of giant onions, a small bag of parsnips (yum), a bag of potatoes, 2 or 3 large cabbages. That's all that will fit into our largest stewpot.
We're gonna need a bigger stewpot.
A large pot of hot mustard on one side, and a pot of beer on the other side. Great peasant eats, and the spices perfume the entire cabin.
Update: Had to do it in multiple batches but reusing the water from cooking the meat.
What scares the new atheists - The vocal fervour of today’s missionary atheism conceals a panic that religion is not only refusing to decline – but in fact flourishing
Usually we begin to see the first flocks of northward-headed blackbirds in New England around Feb 15, but in recent years their arrivals are later and later. This year, the first wave arrived here yesterday.
"Blackbird" isn't a species - it's a category. Around here, it is mainly Red Wing Blackbirds and Common Grackle, who have spent their winter in the southern US and are headed for the marshy breeding grounds in the northern US and Canada. Very early migrators, they don't seem to mind nasty weather as long as it does not persist. (In the midwest and west, there are other species of Blackbirds.)
Photo below of male Red Wings. The females are an inconspicuous brown. In spring, the males get up on a branch, flash their red epaulets, and crow, in their territorial ritual, while the drab females skulk around and build nests in the rushes.
The Millennial’s Guide To Reaching Adulthood - Here are seven ways millennials can reach adult milestones such as paying off student loans, getting married, buying a house, and starting a family.
The Greatest (Party) Generation - Raising children wasn’t always an all-consuming job. Humorist Dave Barry on his parents’ wild parties and the grown-up escapades of the ‘Mad Men’ era
Professor Judith Hall, of Northeastern University in Boston, said: ‘Benevolent sexism is like a wolf in sheep’s clothing that perpetuates support for gender inequality among women.'
I hold doors for both ladies and gentlemen. Some women can never be happy
It was what kept coming to mind as she stood before the cameras once again, under fire once again, aggrieved once again by Americans’ refusal to see and simply trust how well intentioned and virtuous and good for the country she is:
A New Life for Dead Malls - Developers have had to to get creative when it comes to salvaging America's failing shopping centers, turning them into hospitals, churches, and even parks.
Gonna raise me an army, some tough sons of bitches I'll recruit my army from the orphanages I been to St. Herman's church, said my religious vows, I've sucked the milk out of a thousand cows
I've got the pork chops, she's got the pie She ain't no angel and neither am I Shame on your greed, shame on your wicked schemes I'll say this, I don't give a damn about your dreams.
A Wellfleet beach this week. Proof of global warming, I'd say. The warming makes it colder. I understand that part, but it's a little too nuanced for most people.
When I grew up, I thought the Democratic Party was the great friend of minorities and women. The party wanted a world of equality, I thought. Most people I knew believed that too. Sorry, I was an idiot.
Manhattan Studios 
Some thoughts about Mr. and Mrs. Clinton below the fold so as not to overburden our front page with annoying Clinton links -
An amusing book, and still accurate: 
Department of Corrections: Those Carville boxed quotes which we linked to yesterday were not real - but they are truthy
A book by a fellow blogger, Robert Stacy McCain: 
Top 10 secrets of Grand Central Terminal 
