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.
The list of fools who have brought this disaster upon us certainly also will include New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the gelatinous clown who (a) hogged up a prime time spot at the Republican convention to sing his own praises; (b) embraced Obama as the hero of Hurricane Sandy; and (c) then refused to appear at campaign events in support of Romney's presidential campaign. Good luck with the remainder of your political future, governor. It is unlikely Republicans shall soon forget your perfidious betrayal.
The electorate is complicated, and factors of culture and geography can dictate party identification more than any specific policy. And yes, the Republicans rolled out some ghastly candidates. But that shouldn’t fool anyone; there’s been a fundamental shift in how Americans view government’s role in society, and the GOP is losing the argument.
There was no theoretical hope peddling this time around. There was a record. And Barack Obama also promised the most explicitly left-wing agenda in presidential history — more government, more taxes, more dependency, more bailouts, more regulations — and he won easily. He promised universal health care, more crony “investments” in proven economic losers, more interference in markets — yet he cruised.
Conservatives may be shocked by statist slogans such as the Democratic National Convention’s “government’s the only thing that we all belong to,” and they may be scandalized when they hear a candidate say “you didn’t build that,” but their neighbors … well, not so much. When you can’t beat a candidate who — judging him on his own terms — owns both a brutal economic record on jobs (this is the first time since FDR that a president has won re-election with an unemployment rate this high) and the feeblest economic recovery in the nation’s history, it’s time to rethink what you’re doing.
...as concerned as the White House was during the last 30 days of the campaign, its polls never showed Mr. Obama slipping behind Mr. Romney, aides said. The president was helped in no small part by the tremendous amount of money the campaign built up, which had permitted him to pound his Republican rival before he had ever had a chance to fully introduce himself to the nation.
This is from before the snow began falling yesterday (ignore the House Finch on the upper right). I don't see these guys very often. Sorry for poor photo quality through the window.
Thanks to all for keeping Maggie's going and/or for keeping me going in Sandy's aftermath. As we Conservative-Libertarians always say, "It takes a village." I had gotten so accustomed to working and sleeping in the cold (28 degrees F when we woke up this morning), the central heat of the past couple of hours feels a little suffocating.
Also, thanks to all those linemen and utility engineers from Canada and all over the country. Good guys who do real work and make real things. Finally, as in the Academy Awards, thanks to my Mom who kept calling to make sure if we were OK. Bless her heart, she had no heat or power in her place either, but she said "We're fine. We have blankets and candles. I can read next to the wood stove with your Dad."
Bruce has kindly agreed to do the honors once again tomorrow morning (yes, it feels tense!), but I'll unload some items right now:
I'm sorry to let you all know Marianne suffered a pulmonary embolism on July 23, 2012 and died September 25, 2012. She would love it you raise a shot of Jameson’s Irish Whiskey in her honor tomorrow after Romney wins this election. Oh, how she wanted her vote to be counted in this election! She was my dear friend; I miss her so, as I know all of you who had the privilege of knowing her will miss her as well. I have been working to get her beloved husband Downs settled into an assisted living here in Houston. Please pass the word on to those who I don’t have email addresses on. She was a great lady.
S. Colette Chapman
A toast to our friend Marianne, regardless of election results.
I don't know who is going to win this election but I'd bet a dollar that Obama will pull it off. Most elections, you pretty much know who will win, but not this time.
Here's one thing I do know: A flock of about 20 of these guys arrived at my feeder the day after the storm (I do not refer to the Tufted Titmouse in the photo.) They stayed all day, then disappeared.
Thanks to these good guys who took a long drive to help out. That crane is lowering transformers and other apparatus dangling from broken utility poles dow the road from me.
Your editor remains off the intertunnels except via the public library, the FedEx office, or my pal with a DSL line. Cannot download fresh photos effectively with any of those.
Difficult to run a business this way, but many obstacles can be overcome in time.
Do not feel sorry for us in the Northeast - except for those whose homes were washed away. We can cope with things, and challenge builds character. Or so we believe. Storms must be expected, like all of the other bad things in life.
In early November around here, you don't really need central heating if you have a wife and a dog to sleep with. Plus friends with generators like to feed you and provide nice adult beverages.
Yesterday, down our road we saw utility truck convoys from Missouri, Quebec, Iowa, and Minnesota. Guy on one of the Minnesota trucks said he just arrived last night (that was yesterday). Mind you, government doesn't do that - only private industry can do that.
One has to appreciate the logistics involved. The local utility calls their sister utlilities for a hand, and designs a plan of attack based on priorities. It would be insane for a local utility to own enough resources to cope with major storms.
On Saturday, most of the downed trees on our stretch of road were finally removed by town tree guys. Down our road yesterday, a utility crane from Missouri was carefully lowering destroyed transformers from broken poles. This afternoon, a pole truck from God-knows where was delivering new poles. Wonderful to see. This week, we'll expect to see those pole-installing trucks, after which cross pieces, insulators, cables,and new transformers will be attached before the final linemen can string new lines.
I expect home electric power (and heat) sometime next week. However, I do not expect our internet service (plus TV and home phone which is all via cable) to be restrung any time next week. Cable has to wait its turn.
All of our neighbors without big home generators are recharging their cells in the car. I'll say it again: We don't have it bad at all (except for no doggone internet service other than stupid iPhone which must be designed for women's or children's fingers because mu tjumba akwys hor tah wring vuttom.). We have it very easy compared with much of the world, and with our recent ancestors.
Are there major elections coming up? That might be interesting. I will vote, despite my vote being meaningless in Blue New England.
12:28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?"
12:29 Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;
12:30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.'
12:31 The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
12:32 Then the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that 'he is one, and besides him there is no other';
12:33 and 'to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,' and 'to love one's neighbor as oneself,' --this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."
12:34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." After that no one dared to ask him any question.
- LBJ's federal flood insurance is a perfect example of unintended consequences. The perverse incentive was to encourage people to build on flood plains and coastal areas. Yes, flood insurance is subsidized by you.
- Said by Newt on the radio today: "Barack Obama is a show horse, not a work horse."
- Threw out everything in both fridges and freezers today. Bummer. However, I cooked the bacon hoping for the best, and made bacon and tomato sandwiches. Delicious. I even used the warm mayo from the fridge. And I am still fine.
- Pupette evacuated from NYC decided that living in the cold and dark was getting old, so finagled a trip to San Francisco.
- None of the computer systems I have had access to can do what my own can. Quite annoying to be off all the grids.
- Received this email today from our occasional contributor Bulldog in New Jersey. It begins here, more below the fold with some of my comments:
I'm sure my problems are minor compared to the Doc's Big C - or even compared to the hundreds of thousands who have lost loved ones, friends, homes, etc. It's clear this storm has been devastating. And I agree with my governor that this is not a political situation - however, the night before the storm I did see Obama functionaries commenting on Romney's stance regarding FEMA, so as far as I'm concerned, he drew first blood in the politicization of the storm.
I won't go too political. No need to, and it's not worth it. Christie's stance so far has been correct, at least pre-storm, though post-storm I think he's gotten a bit soft.
But I'm at a disadvantage. I have no power or heat. I haven't had much in the way of news for 4 days, at least not more than I can get on an iPhone. I have been out of work for a week, and may miss more. Since I just took a new position (hence my lack of posting lately), missing work is a bit of a problem. But the company is good about my situation.
Thanks to all for keeping good content flowing here. Some of us are in the land of no news and no real internet. But that's OK, because nothing is really happening in the world anyway, is it?
I am posting from a Fed Ex office.
Storms are exciting and dangerous, but they are to be expected. People make too much of it. A few interesting observations:
You can only buy $20 of gas at a time around here. Huge demand for gas for generators and power equipment.
No ATMs are working, no power to banks, thus no cash.
Our supermarket has no power, just emergency lights. But they're open to sell non-perishables. They have plenty of those on hand.
It's a great time to stock up on free firewood. A chainsaw is a wonderful tool.
My father-in-law put a new roof on his house, job was finished 2 weeks ago. Big old oak landed on his roof in the storm, puncturing his kitchen and wrecking the new roof. He is not happy.
In our town, clearing of fallen trees on roads and power lines is moving slowly. Why? Because here, the town union contract forbids subcontracting of tree work on roads and public land. Has to be done by town employees no matter how long it takes. Insane.
People have already mentioned to me that global warming caused the hurricane. One just doesn't know what to say in response to such ignorance. I suppose they never heard of hurricane Hazel, or Gloria, or all the rest. Hurricanes routinely hit the northestern US, but just not many in the past 2 decades. Perhaps we're in for a new cycle of them.
It was cool seeing CVS open through the storm and afterwards without power, staff in there with flashlights helping customers. Cash only, of course.
I feel badly for all the people who were subject to flooding. It's even more disheartening than a burglary in disrupting ordinary dependable reality. My advice is not to build or live near sea level.
There's not much power in New England, and NYC is a mess too. I'll try to post some photos but DSL isn't broadband. Trees and power lines down everywhere, and even NYC isn't functioning very much. Downtown still without power, and the Bird Dog family is being heated by fireplace, working, cooking, and reading by oil lamp.
Almost like camping. Not too cold, fortunately. Only down to 43 F last night.
Gee whiz, it's getting breezy and blustery in Yankeeland today. Expecting to lose power to our servers any minute. If I lived near the shore, I'd throw out an anchor. But on to more interesting topics than the weather -
My pic in an oil shop in Spello, last summer. They have little paper cups for tasting. People design their own blends:
My lad quipped yesterday, as I was dressing the salad I had brought for Dad's birthday, "America needs to free itself from dependence on imported olive oil."
I was using a super-special oil I had smuggled home from Umbria along some of my precious but tiny supply of 25 year-old Balsamic that friends gave us as a dinner gift.
- As with wine in the past, California olive oil is now competing with Europe's finest.
- The fresher it is, the tastier and more fragrant. We use a lot of it here.
- To really taste it, dip a piece of bread in it - or just sip it to taste it as housewives and chefs do in Italy in the oil shops.
- For salads and for dressing cooked vegetables (eg asparagus, spinach, cauliflower, carrots, raw tomatoes, etc, with or without garlic), use the best you can get. For cooking, I don't think it matters too much but gourmets would dispute that.
- Costco's house brand oil (Kirkland) is much better than any supermarket brand for an everyday oil. It comes from their Tuscan orchards. Naturally, Dean & DeLuca has good oils. Cold-pressed extra virgin.
- High-end Italian oils are often blends of olive varieties from neighboring orchards. Reminds me that I have a friend who owns an olive orchard in Greece on a hill overlooking the Aegean, and each year he ships home 100 small casks of his own orchard's first pressing to give friends as Christmas presents. Nice.
- Do not dress a salad until immediately before it is to be offered. Also, never serve a salad with a meal. Only before. There are many good reasons for that.
- Do you prefer red wine vinegar to Balsamic? The store stuff is terrible. Make your own. When you drink a bottle of decent red wine, leave an inch or two in the bottle if you have the moral fortitude to do so, stick the cork back on top lightly or leave it off, and put it in the pantry. In a couple of weeks, it's good wine vinegar. The better the vino, the better the flavor. It's possible to go overboard with this.
- As I posted a while ago, Balsamic Vinegar is not really vinegar. Here's my post on that topic.
Here's how we make and dress a simple Italian-style, home-style salad: Buttercrunch or Boston Lettuce, thinly sliced bell peppers - all 4 colors, red onion quartered then sliced thin, 1" tomato chunks. Then I drizzle a little balsamic over it - not too much - and toss gently. Then I drizzle the oil over it, season with salt and pepper, and toss gently again. Always the vinegar before the oil.
For fancy dinners, plain frizze or mache with balsamic and oil.
Storm stuff: Yesterday, we all gave my Dad a good birthday party, had good fun tossing a football around, took a long autumn walk with my sibs, spouses, kids and the dogs, and then packed Mom and Dad off to one of my sisters' houses over in northern Connecticut so they will have some help when the power inevitably does down. I am parking my car up the road in a spot with no trees to fall on it, and so I don't get blocked in by big fallen trees. Got gas and oil for the chain saw, though. I love harvesting free firewood. Also, tipped over everything outdoors that could be damaged by wind. Daughter and Yorkie got out of NYC because her building on the Hudson River was evacuated. Last but not least, switched my office phone to link over to my iPhone. Hope it's not a big dud.
Obama’s strategy, says Heileman, is built around the idea that he can win with a coalition of the “demographically ascendent,” African Americans, Hispanics, women, and young people. To a degree, the bad economy has pushed Obama toward this approach. The obvious hope is that economic weakness can be countered by appeals to socially liberal women and young people on cultural issues. But don’t underestimate the extent to which this strategy is a deliberate decision that could have gone otherwise, as the behind-the-scenes opposition of some Democrats indicates. Obama is clearly willing to abandon centrist voters and place his own likeability at risk for the sake of creating a socially and economically liberal Democratic coalition that would allow him to govern securely from the left.
and
...if you’re feeling disappointed, insulted, or left out by Obama’s campaign of trivialities and low blows, it’s fair to say the effect was intentional — or at least that Obama was willing to risk offending you for the sake of something he wanted much more.
The president is going for broke. He wants to govern from the left and ignore the center. His top strategists promised a campaign that would permit this, and that’s the campaign Obama has delivered. Noticed that Obama has actually doubled down on this strategy when he still might have tried a last-minute pivot to the middle. That’s how badly Obama wants to abandon the center and take this country to the left.
We tend to lose power and all other utilities with storms. If this is like the past, it could take days to restore utilities. I just heard on the radio that utility bucket truck convoys are already heading east from Iowa. Thanks, Iowa.
This storm is huge - only Cat 1 but possibly the largest storm, in area affected, ever seen in the North Atlantic. I'd get out of low-lying coastal areas about now, from the south coast of Cape Cod through Jersey due to the predicted storm surges. I'd get out of river flood plains too. This storm will plow well inland after it goes feet dry.
We recently posted a report of the closing of the last brownstone quarry in the US. Manhattan and Brooklyn have tons of old brownstone buildings, commonly entire blocks of them. Some people like the look and some do not, but it is not a very durable building stone.
I stumbled on this brownstone for sale on the Upper West Side (87th St, just off the Park). If I were a rich guy, I'd enjoy owning a place like this with the top floor used as living quarters for the help. Like most buildings from the era (1850-1910), each brownstone has a garden out back. Looks great from theoutside, but if you look at the video you'll hate what they did inside when converting it to apartments.
For every 100 industrial workers in December 2010, there were 73 “workers” receiving disability payments. Between January 2010 and December 2011, the U.S. economy created 1.73 million nonfarm jobs — but almost half as many (790,000) workers became disability recipients. This trend is not a Great Recession phenomenon: In the 15 years ending in December 2011, the United States added 8.8 million nonfarm private sector jobs — and 4.1 million workers on disability rolls.
10:46 They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside.
10:47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
10:48 Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"
10:49 Jesus stood still and said, "Call him here." And they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take heart; get up, he is calling you."
10:50 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.
10:51 Then Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man said to him, "My teacher, let me see again."
10:52 Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made you well." Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.
I read in Mayflower about how the Pilgrims were astonished by the woodland autumn blaze of color. Europe doesn't have this. The storm will probably remove this year's magnificent display prematurely.
He also mentioned that America has 30 million Mayflower descendants. Not an exclusive club.
Wherever I go I hope there's rum! Think we'll just stay put and stand in awe of God and nature's power.
Jimmy's relentless good cheer is a blessing. It's a gift to the world, and I'd like all Maggie's Farmers to try to spread such good cheer and positivity to everybody in their lives. I try to do that all day long despite my innate Yankee reserve and crankiness.
Volcano, but same idea. However, I don't mind landing in no New York City. Love it despite being a country boy. Our gal Marianne did too.
FEMA: 
I received this email a few days ago:
Your editor remains off the intertunnels except via the public library, the FedEx office, or my pal with a DSL line. Cannot download fresh photos effectively with any of those.
Nothing Gold Can Stay
New Yorkers and New York lovers 
