Photo: Twisted Aspens from a friend's hike in Colorado. Why twisted?

Airbnb Regulated Into Legality

Yet another significant paper finds low climate sensitivity to CO2, suggesting there is no global warming crisis at hand

The Military vs. Marlboro - Our soldiers and sailors deserve the right to decide whether to buy tobacco on base.

"the right"?

The Bigger the Rock, the Shorter the Marriage

But - correlation is not causation

Yuck: 83% of nation's schools report more lunches dumped by kids

Can Christians Still Go to Harvard? America’s colleges are increasingly hostile to religion, but a Veritas, a Christian organization, has found a way to thrive.

“I spent 10 years doing New York all wrong”: Adelle Waldman on
youth, loneliness and finally finding Brooklyn

Urban Studies:  The Redevelopment Racket

An Eerie Look at Ireland's Suburban Ghost Towns

A new book argues that the left needs to stop the “awfulization” of abortion and embrace it as a social good.

How the Free Speech Movement Died

Growing crisis of female gun violence

There's a possible Adam Lanza inside every little kid, so watch out for them

Changing public attitudes toward federalism

The Facts About Ebola Funding

Did you Know that USA Has an ‘Ebola Czar?’ We Do. So Why Is She Hiding?

The Centers for Everything But Disease Control

Germany Acknowledges Hard Energy Reality

Historical confusion: Hispanics against Hispanic adventurism in the New World

Dalrymple on bizarre dictators

Hillary Clinton touts affordable higher education in $225G Las Vegas speech

Greed for money and power all the way down

A Border That Is No Barrier Is Still A National Crisis

China Military Buildup Shifts Balance of Power in Asia in Beijing’s Favor

How the Donors Saved Hamas

Rise of IS elicits soul searching in Arab Gulf, a source of funds and fighters

A friend was in Colorado last week, and hiking a bit. Hiking in the foothills is a great joy. His pic of Kenosha Pass at around 10,000'.

Photo: Gwynnie took that in the Adirondacks this weekend

Phobias may be memories passed down in genes from ancestors

About to Give Birth and Already Sick of the “Pay More Attention to Your Baby!” Guilt

The Battered Humanities–Are They Worth Saving?

Want an Economic Boost? Let’s Kill the Death Tax

The Centers for Disease Control Loses Its Grip

Ad Blames GOP Budget Cuts For Ebola Outbreak

Re the above, Sometimes … most of the time … you just have to raise the “BS” flag

Moving Right Along - The massive and still accelerating
cross-border movement of people across the globe might be the most
portentous development of our times.

Best piece on immigration that I have seen

The Man Who Killed Marxism

Why liberals hate the disabled

US Slips to 12th in Economic Freedom

From #2 to #12 during Obama

Obamacare is in hiding until after the election

What The United States Can Learn From Israel About Cybersecurity

The U.S. Intelligence Community's Creativity Challenge

Islamic State says it is buying and selling Yazidi women, using them as concubines

The religion is down with that

Taliban adopts Islamic State terror tactics as U.S. troops exit Afghanistan

...  why does the State Department blame Israel for using excessive force, even though the IDF appears to make even more effort than the U.S. Army or Air Force to avoid civilian casualties?

Genoa is in Portugal. Cristoforo Colombo was Portuguese, and don't ever forget it.

Truth is that Portuguese were in North America before Columbo. They fished for Cod. They are still all over Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts. And insane Vikings before that. And stone-age Siberians before that (we don't call them Siberians anymore - now we call them Eskimos, Indians, Redskins, etc). The great navigator knew something interesting was out there, hopefully spices from India, but he underestimated the distance.

There turned out to be no good spices, but plenty of gold and silver (all wasted on central European wars of little benefit to Spain). Best, lasting imports? Potatoes, Tomatoes, squash, chocolate, vanilla, peanuts, avocado, peppers, maize, tobacco.

Worst import? Syphilis.

Seems like we'll be a small, intrepid group. Here's our tentative route, as of now, via Bulldog:

Meet at South Ferry – Battery Park 10 am, Sat. Oct. 18

Fraunces Tavern 54 Pearl Street
North to NYSE, Trinity Place, WTC
Turn east to South Street Seaport
North and West To City Hall and Brooklyn Bridge
North to Five Points
Chinatown  (At this point, just walking, we’ve covered 3.7 and it’s taken 1 hour 16 minutes without stops.  I figure about 2 ½ hours with stops.   So it would be about noon, good time for a snack if we start at 10am)
West to Soho
Cooper Union
McSorley’s  (assuming we’ve made some stops, pictures, chatted, noodles in Chinatown it would be about 1pm)
Washington Square Park, West Village (Stonewall Inn??  Shelagh thought that would be a funny stop to make given the overall political bend of Maggie’s)
White Horse Tavern
Union Square
Gramercy Park
Flatiron  (By now, we’ve covered 8.7 miles and it would be about 3 or 3:30 if we stop at McSorley’s)
Empire State Building
NY Public Library
Times Square
Carnegie Hall
Columbus Circle  (assuming stops, it would be 4:30-5pm now and we’ve covered 11 miles)

When Columbus came back to Spain with news of the West Indies, it was no big deal and of little interest in Europe. They found no spices.

Bruegel’s Hunting Dogs

Red Bull Settles False Advertising Lawsuit for $13 Million Because It Actually Doesn’t Give You Wings

The Trouble with Physics – Another branch of science captured by groupthink

They must have thought the guy was insane

The goal for some liberals, like medieval ascetics, is to live off only
cabbages that have been certified to have died a natural death.

The high heritability of educational achievement reflects many genetically influenced traits, not just intelligence

The Value of a College Degree is Falling

Biden prays for gun violence

"Why Do New York Restaurants Suck?" - The Surprising Answer

NYC has wonderful restaurants. It's the customers who suck

The Manhattan apartment with the furthest distance from the subway

Spinning out of control: Why voter doubt of big government is on the rise

From Mid-Atlantic to Midwest, Voters Express Frustration and Fatigue

They have been trained to expect too much from government

Men Have Depended on the Government for Centuries—So Why Shouldn't Women Do the Same?

California Law Requires Doctors To Undergo LGBT Re-education

Will: Rent Seeking: America’s National Pastime - A North Carolina case before the Supreme Court could strike a blow against the practice.

U.S. military faces new kind of threat with Ebola:

 Captain Alex Willard, who was undergoing the training, said the West Africa mission was far different than the kinds of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan than many in the 101st "probably are more comfortable with."

Susan Collins says it’s too late to repeal Obamacare; Mark Levin responds

Conservatives' rhetorical disadvantage

Antarctic Sea Ice Sees Record Growth, Cause Climate Change

SHHH, NO ONE TELL THE ANTI-KEYSTONE PIPELINE NUTS: Canadian Oil Exports to U.S Hit Record High

Plotting an American-Style Fracking Revolution in Britain

War against Isis: US air strategy in tatters as militants march on

Mrs. BD warns you that this 2005-2007 BBC/HBO series (on Netflix) can be addictive. Generally historically-accurate too, right down to the footwear. Rome.

It was a shame that Julius Caesar set in motion the destruction of the republic.

Psalm 23

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.

Via Hayward's cartoon collection this week:

Remember that the 1917 Delmonico's menu was cents, not dollars (a 1917 nickel approx = today's dollar) I'd like a time machine to go there today. What NYC Restaurant Menus Looked Like 100 Years Ago Vs. Today

I'd have the oysters, the soft-shell crabs, and the squab (I love squab).

Delmonico's  (Since 1837) is still in business, on Beaver St.

He wants to crush Amazon

On the other hand, What in the World Is Amazon? It's not a monopoly. It's a behemoth fighting for its life in a world of giants.

Gwyneth Paltrow: It Would Be Wonderful If We Could Give Obama All The Power That He Needs

Are Cell Phones the New Cigarettes? Do you have an addiction and not even realize it?

Everyone should email like a boss

Fruit juice is bad for you

The sharing economy, Schumpeterian gales of creative destruction, and my top 10 interesting facts about Airbnb

When Vanderleun left NYC

The Turner Prize is an example not of the art world’s daring but its rancid exhaustion.

Feminist Hysteria: Infantilizing or Empowering?

 People often tell me that feminist dogma often backfires and makes women look ineffective. But looking ineffective is not a problem for many women. They see it as an asset and it is a form of power.

Ross Douthat Loves Lena Dunham for All the Wrong Reasons

Unlike Machiavelli’s The Prince, Antoine Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince isn’t usually on reading lists for
policymakers and international relations scholars. But it should be.

Sultan:  The Progressive Missionaries of Unhappiness

In a stunning reversal, the Australian Labor Party bails out on the ‘carbon tax’

Jesse Jackson: Racism Played Role in Ebola Patient's Death

The Muslim Plan for Australia and Then the World

Global Alert From Chongqing: Foxconn Strike Is An Epochal Inflection Point

French say au revoir to France - Opposition convinced people are leaving because of 'the impression that it’s impossible to succeed'

100,000 Libyans flee fighting near Tripoli, UNHCR says

When Bombs Aren’t Enough

On January 20, 1961, Robert Frost spoke at John F. Kennedy's inauguration. The snow-glare made it impossible for him to read his new poem for the occasion (he was 87 years old), so he recited a better poem, The Gift Outright, from memory.

~ The Gift Outright ~

The land was ours before we were the land's.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia.
But we were England's, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak.
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become.

Things That Make You Go Hmmm... Like The Perfect 'Kondratieff Winter' Storm Ahead

Stop Hating on Divas

This 29-Year-Old Woman Has Chosen to Die.

New at the pot shop: Milder marijuana for novices

How Are the Boy Scouts Doing in American Cities?

When Your Rabbi Comes Out as Gay

Philly School Reformers to Teacher Union: The War Is On

Raisins:  Uncle Sam’s Vestigial Feudalism

Vestigial?

Seattle Liberals Will Look Through Your Trash and Fine You if You Throw Away Food

Polio-like illness claims fifth life in U.S

Duncan Family Plays the Race Card After Ebola Patient Zero Dies

PPACA to prompt decline in employer-provided health coverage

Fernandez on paradigm shift:

...Obama’s not without ideas. He’s full of ideas, all of them out of date. All of them from the last century’s paradigms. He wanted to become like European social democracy at the very moment when it finally collapsed into the dust-bin of history. He hankered after the ideals of ‘progressivism’ when it had already become reactionary. He is like a man who has saved all his life to buy a pair of bell-bottomed pants only to reach the required sum just when they were 40 years out of style.  He’s at the store looking to buy them and can’t find them on the rack.

Krugman on Obama's successes

The Liberal Case for Effective Immigration Law Enforcement

France Crushes Socialist Welfare Dream, Admits "Living Beyond Its Means" For 40 Years

As World Deals With Ebola And ISIS, John Kerry To Focus On More Important Stuff

Western Fear of Angering Turkey Leaves Besieged Kurdish Town at Mercy of Islamic State

A sad, slow death of General Theological Seminary

Beautiful garden campus in NYC

Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) Guide for the Perplexed, 2014

There's this via Drudge: The vaginal orgasm doesn't exist - it's the clitoris that holds the key to female pleasure

"The other night shows included a tedious-looking ensemble that played covers of Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Who, ELO, Fleetwood Mac, and several other bands I'd try to hurt if I ever encountered them."

In Defense of Male Aggression: What Liberals Get Wrong About Football

Menu for Obamas: No Butter!

Why?

Cleveland School Dumps FLOTUS Lunches for Chipotle-Style Burritos and Clam Chowder

Study Shows Legalizing Pot in Colo. Was ‘Reckless’

Wrong. People who want it buy it taxed or untaxed

Having Students Pay for College is Socially Unjust

How and Why American Universities Hate America

Nebraska School Tells Teachers To Avoid ‘Gendered Expressions’

Desperate: Two All-Female Colleges Prepare to Enroll Male ‘Transgender’ Students

Too many Asians:  Making Merit Subjective - The de Blasio administration floats a proposal to water down the admissions test to the city’s specialized high schools.

Pantywaist panic in men, says Insty

Fearfulness is not becoming in men

Internet Trolls Really Are Psychos

But Of Course, Record Antarctic Ice Is a Sign of Global Warming Too

Why everybody is moving to Texas

Where Have All the Good Men Gone?: Gender Differences in Marriageability

Why legal polygamy is inevitable

Why is it illegal?

Dear CDC: You had just one job

CDC: We Could Have Done a Better Job on Ebola If We Just Had More Money

Obama never made management a high priority — and it shows.

Iranian Woman Faces Death on Wednesday for Killing Alleged Rapist

Stalking Victim Begged Cops For Help 120 Times Before Being Stabbed 8 Times

Needed a firearm

Life in America: Gypsy Retail in the Texas Autumn

This is Why Running a Service Business is Hard

At Insty: 

LIKE SO MANY HAPPENINGS IN THIS ADMINISTRATION, IF YOU PUT THIS IN A NOVEL IT WOULD SEEM CRUDE AND UNREALISTIC: Obama slams billionaires at the home of a guy named Rich Richman. Who is . . . wait for it, wait for it . . . rich!

China currency push takes aim at dollar

"Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb."

America In Crisis and POTUS Won’t Lead: Former Officials Seem “Scared,” Worried,” “Alarmed”

October 2014 Out of Control? Consider October 1944

E.U. Austerity, You Must Be Kidding

More on the phony “end of liberal Zionism” narrative

A range of perspectives, but all anti-Israel UCLA center uses federal funds to promote pro-Palestinian views

If Islam is a religion of peace, what sort of peace does it bring?

Want to know why Catalans want to leave the loving embrace of Spain?

When Night Fell In Indochina

Misrepresenting Atrocities: "Kill Anything that Moves" and the Continuing Distortions of the War in Vietnam

My pal who returned from a couple of weeks in Zambia is quite the wildlife photographer.

Wish he had included photos of the people, town life, etc., but these are wonderful.

More pics below the fold - 

How Radicals Hijacked Environmentalism

Why 12-Foot Traffic Lanes Are Disastrous for Safety and Must Be Replaced Now

Schools Ban Swings Because Everything Is Dangerous

Eggs?  This Unhinged Woman’s Tearful Rant Will Change Your Mind About Food Forever, or Something

Judgemental map of Seattle

Why Charities Collect and Sell Used Clothing and Shoes

NASA Scientists Puzzled by Global Cooling on Land and Sea

Obama: 'There’s A Sense ... The World Is Spinning So Fast and Nobody Is Able To Control It'

Mark Udall Says He Supports Abortion During the Eighth Month of Pregnancy

The Siege Of Kobani: Obama’s Syrian Fiasco In Motion

Hong Kong: The party and the people

FBI Director Raves That ISIS Terrorists Are “Entitled” to Return to USA

Panetta: '30-year war' and a leadership test for Obama

Where is the Case for Co-Ed Ground Combat?

A street fair on Lex

They are cooking that corn the right way. The city is always a blast to walk around in, everywhere.

More pics below the fold -

Hilton selling the Waldorf

Nobel Prize for work on brain's navigation system

Standards for a school Diversity Leader

Lambeth Conference Postponement Spells More Uncertainty For Anglicans

The Left’s Religion of Unhappiness

"You have to lie to win elections."

The decomposition of the Obama presidency has created what Obama might call a teachable moment.

Mead on sex:

I’m sick of it all, especially the obsessions of the Sunday New York Times Magazine, whose editors seem to have great difficulty getting their heads out of their, or other people’s, crotches. I am unashamedly old-fashioned: I think public discussion of intimate sexual matters is unseemly, a word that has become as quaint as outlandish mass-culture fare has become hideously sexualized. I don’t care if the subject to hand is essentially heterosexual in nature, or homosexual, transsexual, omnisexual, multisexual, interspecies-sexual, or all the other kinds of sexual that I’m sure exist but know nothing about. I could not give a damn what consenting adults do with their genitalia in private, but I don’t need or want to hear about it in public—and these days you nearly have to hole up in a mountain cave somewhere to escape it.

Caifornia drought: "Nobody Has Any Idea How Disastrous It's Going To Be"

ISIL Within Shelling Range of Baghdad Airport

From my dumpster guy, a good, reliable fellow, Hernando:

"I wish I could send all these stuffs to my relatives in Colombia. They could use all these stuffs you people throw away."

Gerard Vanderleun refers to this sort of thing as a "Manhattan Death March."

We have some takers. We'll definitely start at 10 AM at South Ferry. Rain or shine.

Even though we are only doing parts of southern Manhattan, we are going to try to keep the walking distance under 11 miles, and the time under 7 hours (including stops). Lots of meandering (and lots of street crossings which slow things down a lot).

We'll have to delete some things from our wish list but if people like it - and survive it - we can do a different route next year.

Can you identify that cool building?  Answer below the fold -

Fewer men are working, and marriage is dying.

Assisted Suicide 'Out of Control' in Netherlands

Sultan:  Science is for Stupid People

Hailing the First 'Great' Transgender TV Show

Steyn: Ebola Yes, Bagpipes No

Thomas Jefferson’s Folly - California’s worst-performing law school illustrates the moral hazard of federal student loans.

Please don't vote. The biggest fans of "democracy" treat this orgy of vacuous lever pulling as if it were sacred or patriotic. It's neither.

Canada: I’m an adult. Stop nudging me

 Planners have tried all kinds of incentives to get us to cycle more. Toronto has built dedicated bike lanes, as well as semi-dedicated lanes (a safety menace, in my view). It even invested in a money-losing bike-share program. Sadly, though, I’m no more inclined to ride a bike than ever. My reasons are pedestrian: Sweatiness, helmet hair, inability to pick up dinner and 10 kilograms of cat litter on the way home. And the weather, which is crummy half the year.

But mostly, I enjoy not having my teeth knocked out.

Every single thing this president has tried has failed

The Dark Side of Green Justice - Review: ‘Law of the Jungle’ by Paul Barrett

 “I once worked for a lawyer who said something that I have never forgotten,” Donizger recalled in another outtake. “‘Facts do not exist. Facts are created.’ Ever since that day, I realized how the law works.”

Dutch Military Retreats Before... Tweets!

White House Can't Hide Look Into Koch Tax Data Misuse

OBAMA FORCED OUT INTEL CHIEF WHO WARNED ABOUT WEAK IRAQI ARM

Hamas disarming? Forget about it, says top IDF intel officer

We are remembering last September's trip to Northern Italy and the Dolomites (with a drive down to Verona). Pic is me - yer editor Bird Dog with well-used Osprey day pack - made in Dolores, Colorado. That pack has been from Telluride to Tunisia to Turkey, and lots of places in between.

I do not mind looking like an American tourist. In fact, I often try to, just for fun.

Northern Italy 2013, #1: Bergamo, with food

Northern Italy 2013, #3: Gardone Riviera on Lake Garda

Northern Italy, 2013, #2: Breakfast time on Lake Garda

Northern Italy 2013, : Italy's Sud-Tyrol in the Dolomites

Northern Italy 2013, #4: Hiking in the Dolomites

Northern Italy 2013, #5: Mostly random street photos in Verona

Back from Italy: Home, Sweet Home

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

20:1 Then God spoke all these words:

20:2 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;

20:3 you shall have no other gods before me.

20:4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

20:7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

20:8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.

20:9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.

20:12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

20:13 You shall not murder.

20:14 You shall not commit adultery.

20:15 You shall not steal.

20:16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

20:17 You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

20:18 When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance,

20:19 and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die."

20:20 Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin."