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 biggest problem I can think of with human nature is the tendency in many humans to want a leader, or to want to boss others around. It really would be nice if these people could find each other without involving me."
The 20 Best Small Towns in America - From the Berkshires to the Cascades, we've crunched the numbers and pulled a list some of the most interesting spots around the country
"...Matthews is right: Romney will be at a huge disadvantage this year, running as he is against one of the warmest, most approachable, just-us-folks politicians that has ever graced our public life."
Levon is in the final stages of his battle with cancer. Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey. Thank you fans and music lovers who have made his life so filled with joy and celebration... he has loved nothing more than to play, to fill the room up with music, lay down the back beat, and make the people dance! He did it every time he took the stage...
We appreciate all the love and support and concern.
...more ominous is the condition of the family. The most fundamental component of civil society, it has also become the most vulnerable. Civil society is often identified (thanks largely to Tocqueville) with “voluntary associations.” But the traditional family is not, or at least did not used to be, a voluntary association. Indeed, it is important precisely because it is not voluntary, performing the natural, elemental, even biological functions of bearing and rearing children. Today, as a result of divorce, remarriage, cohabitation, single-parent families, and single-sex parenting, the family has become, in a sense, voluntarized. We are sometimes assured that these “alternative lifestyles” are merely variations on the old, serving the same purposes as the “nuclear” or “bourgeois” family. In fact, these families—“broken families,” like “broken windows”—are often literally “dysfunctional,” incapable of performing the natural functions that define the family.
Civil society has been described as an “immune system against cultural disease.” But much of it has been infected by the same virus that produces the disease—a loss of moral integrity and purpose. What is required, then, is not only the revitalization of civil society but its reform and remoralization—the reform of those institutions that parody government agencies, and the remoralization of those that have lost their moral focus.
My Life as a Failed Country Gentleman - P.J. O'Rourke on his fields of crabgrass, trout-free trout stream, Federalist-era wiring and dashed dreams of tweedy refinement
1:1 We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life--
1:2 this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us--
1:3 we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
1:4 We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.
1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true;
1:7 but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1:9 If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
2:2 and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
What happens next? We don’t know, but we observe that in some respects, the meta-story has become the story. The Zimmerman story is not an important national story. The contraception story was never an important national story. What both stories illustrate is just how far in the tank the media are for the White House, that they will resort to anything to advance a political agenda. The open and unapologetic corruption in the media is an important national story.
Every schoolkid in America used to have to memorize Bryant's Thanatopsis. A common culture. No more. While bound to the Massachusetts Berkshires, Bryant's career was in the NYC newspaper biz.
A Forest Hymn
The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave, And spread the roof above them,---ere he framed The lofty vault, to gather and roll back The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood, Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down, And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks And supplication. For his simple heart Might not resist the sacred influences, Which, from the stilly twilight of the place, And from the gray old trunks that high in heaven Mingled their mossy boughs, and from the sound Of the invisible breath that swayed at once All their green tops, stole over him, and bowed His spirit with the thought of boundless power And inaccessible majesty. Ah, why Should we, in the world's riper years, neglect God's ancient sanctuaries, and adore Only among the crowd, and under roofs, That our frail hands have raised? Let me, at least, Here, in the shadow of this aged wood, Offer one hymn---thrice happy, if it find Acceptance in His ear.
The nephew of a long-time friend of mine was critically injured in Afghanistan back in February. Suffered the loss of both his legs and one arm from a suicide bomber. He made it back to the burn unit in San Antonio, but died last week. His funeral was yesterday in Ithaca.
I never met the Corporal, but followed his teenage years and then his enlistment and service in the Marine Corps. Like many I suppose, the Marine Corps "grew him up" and he turned out to be a fine soldier and a wonderful husband during his all too short marriage. In other words, as we say down South, he done good.
As I told my friend, America only sends its best to defend us.
A beautiful Portuguese word that has no English translation: the "...vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist ... a turning towards the past or towards the future."
Rose garden at the hotel Villa Zuccari, last summer. Mrs. BD and I thought it would be a perfect spot for a destination wedding, in driving distance from lots of hot spots like Assisi, Orvieto, Norcia, etc. and a few hours drive from the Rome airport (GPS helps).
There is nothing but vegetable farms, olive groves, and vineyards for miles around, with the foothills of the Appennines in the misty distance. Pleasant, indeed.
Here's Part 4 of Charles Murray's intervew with Peter Robinson on social capital. When I first heard Murray discuss social capital, I did a Venn diagram of the positive communities (even including the virtual community of Maggie's Farm) of which I am a part. It was illuminating, and I think I can say that I am quite involved in my community and in many sub-communities and thus have a good store of social capital in Murray's use of the concept.
Of course, my religious communities are there, too. Mead discusses here: Religious Are Key to American Revival. I don't particularly enjoy apologetics for religion which include things like "it's good for society," or "it's good for you," but he makes some points.
Mr. Romney also should remind Americans of Mr. Obama's lofty words from his 2008 acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention in Denver. There he said, "If you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from."
Mr. Obama attacked such a strategy then. Lacking any fresh ideas or a record to run on, it's the strategy he's adopted now.
An enjoyable game to watch, and the play-by-play is wonderful. The moral is that when your opponent sacrifices a rook in the early-middle game, watch out because he has a plan. H/t Dino
I'd enjoy playing this game out with the lad on a chessboard, but I think we are scheduled to do some brush-clearing instead, this weekend.
And for some pretentious (but stunningly-filmed) Bergman fun 'n games:
Vermont and Maine are the least urbanized states in the US, and close to the bottom of average GDP per hour worked.
Our friends at Vermont Tiger see these data as a problem, but I don't see what the problem is. These states are in control of their development, their industrialization, their welfare payments, etc. Apparently they do not seek growth or development. What's wrong with that? It's their choice, and apparently most people who live in those states like it that way. Money isn't everything: some seek it, some just want enough to survive until the Social Security gravy train kicks in, paid for by the labor of the folks in the wealthier states. Rural and rustic, with the good and bad (see the Rumford (Maine) Meteor) that come with that.
If those folks want more jobs and urban life, there is a simple solution: bathe, shave, get a haircut, and pile your stuff in a U-Haul and move to the resurgent Bronx in a few short hours. Job choice, no big snow problems, walk to the Stadium, lots of bars and bodegas, quick express subway to the Metropolitan Museum. How bad is that?
I like the idea of each state following its own heart. Each one is crazy and/or corrupt in its own way.
Important reminder: 
Samuelson: 
5 Keys To 
Why 
Every schoolkid in America used to have to memorize Bryant's Thanatopsis. A common culture. No more. While bound to the Massachusetts Berkshires, 
