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.
If Repubs win the House and/or the Senate, what will they decide to do?
Many Repubs really cannot answer the question. Paul Ryan has his answers, but I'm not sure they are election winners. The only winners, I think, are to undo Obamacare, to stop the January tax increases, and to halt any further Federal intrusion into our lives.
Suddenly the country had a Resistance movement, standing athwart the flow of Obama history, shouting, "STOP!"
That brings us to this historical moment. If it was not clear during Obama's 2008 campaign (and he made deliberate efforts to obscure it) certainly in late 2010 it is clear where he wants to take the county--toward a European-style socialism, a command economy, driven by an all-powerful central government, determined to redistribute wealth and remake America as a multicultural, secular humanist state.
The election next month is not about returning the Republican Party to power in Washington. It is about stepping back from this tipping point, this precipice that Obama and the Pelosi-Reid Congress have led us to. There is a pervasive sense that this is momentous.
Important? Yes. Momentous? I am not sure. A reaction? Certainly. Much of this is just vague sentiment without specific content, but much of politics is about emotion. Devil is in the details, etc.
...Which brings us to the Tea Party, many of whose activists seem genuinely dedicated to slashing government spending (except on the military, of course) and making the party of Reagan and Bush, once again, the party of Goldwater and Gingrich. Maybe this is one reason the GOP establishment is so scared? Over the last half-century, the Republican Party has been, at times, a genuinely anti-government party and, at times, a politically successful party. But it’s never been both at the same time. Once this fall’s elections are over, I suspect the Tea Partiers will begin learning that, the hard way.
Sounds like sour grapes already, yet he has a point. But does Beinart forget Reagan?
The chirp of the crickets reminds us that hunting season is fast approaching. I have been too busy focusing on yard and farm work to pick up my 12 ga. Belgian boxlock s/s which I only use for pheasant, which has been at the gunsmith since January for a bad firing pin. Sad to say, I only have a paltry two non-local trips planned for the fall: Duck, goose and grouse in Manitoba, and grouse + woodcock (and maybe trout) in the Adirondacks. I made a mistake and scheduled my Adirondack trip to overlap with an annual group trip to New Brunswick for grouse, and puddle duck too.
But there are abundant local opportunities for winter duck, grouse, and "flying mattresses," (ie pen-raised pheasants which is to hunting as miniature golf is to golf but is highly gratifying to dogs who get a little bored or frustrated after two hours without putting up a grouse). The pup is definitely ready and I have gotten him off pointing turtles, mice, and grasshoppers. He still points snakes, and finds them interesting but fortunately will not pick them up. Yes, he likes birds. Why does the subject come up? It's time to get to the outdoor catalogs real quick.
The great divide in America. In our experience, one cannot even discuss across that divide nowadays.
Those marchers aren't into America. Angry haters? Or just paid to show up? But I am sure the Commies showed up under their own steam. Who are these people?
This new walkway sure is a popular item. It's an old elevated railroad line which ran down to the meat-packing district. It's been converted to a walkway with private donations, and it is not complete yet - it will run uptown all the way to the Javits convention center.
Part of its appeal, I think, is that you can really see the sweep of the city up here, instead of just sidewalks and storefronts. You can see the architecture - industrial and otherwise. Views of the Hudson, and a good distant view of the Statue of Liberty out in the harbor.
If you don't care for heights, the Greenway is another popular walking, running, and people-watching route. The staid East Side of Manhattan is lifeless, these days.
I used to have a Browning 28 ga Featherweight. It was truly light. In fact, a little too light in weight for my accuracy or lack thereof. However, it was a pleasure to carry for 6 hours in the woods.
At some point, I turned it in to buy something else in s/s, but I wish I had that 28 now for grouse and especially Woodcock.
Many claim that a 28 patterns better than any other gauge. I wonder whether any of our readers ever hunt with a 28.
17:5 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"
17:6 The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.
17:7 "Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take your place at the table'?
17:8 Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'?
17:9 Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded?
17:10 So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"
Regular readers know what a geology buff I am, although I do not post about it very much. My view is that you do not know what the heck you are looking at when you step outdoors unless you know some basic geology.
The book is a treat, but much better appreciated if you know basic Geo.
(As my friends know, my kids are all given my list of what they are required to study in college - or as AP high school courses - if I am to pay for their education. Intro Geology is on my list. Maybe I should post my Dad's Required Courses one of these days. It might stimulate some fun discussion here. Being a Yankee, I am cheap and hate to waste money on transient nonsense du jour. One reason I love Columbia and the U of Chicago is because they dare have an opinion about what kids need to know from the wisdom of past generations.)
With beasts and gods, above, the wall is bright. The child's head, bent to the book-colored shelves, Is slow and sidelong and food-gathering, Moving in blind grace ... yet from the mural, Care The grey-eyed one, fishing the morning mist, Seizes the baby hero by the hair And whispers, in the tongue of gods and children, Words of a doom as ecumenical as dawn But blanched like dawn, with dew. The children's cries Are to men the cries of crickets, dense with warmth -- But dip a finger into Fafnir, taste it, And all their words are plain as chance and pain. Their tales are full of sorcerers and ogres Because their lives are: the capricious infinite That, like parents, no one has yet escaped Except by luck or magic; and since strength And wit are useless, be kind or stupid, wait Some power's gratitude, the tide of things. Read meanwhile ... hunt among the shelves, as dogs do, grasses, And find one cure for Everychild's diseases Beginning: Once upon a time there was A wolf that fed, a mouse that warned, a bear that rode A boy. Us men, alas! wolves, mice, bears bore. And yet wolves, mice, bears, children, gods and men In slow perambulation up and down the shelves Of the universe are seeking ... who knows except themselves? What some escape to, some escape: if we find Swann's Way better than our own, and trudge on at the back Of the north wind to -- to -- somewhere east Of the sun, west of the moon, it is because we live By trading another's sorrow for our own; another's Impossibilities, still unbelieved in, for our own ... "I am myself still?" For a little while, forget: The world's selves cure that short disease, myself, And we see bending to us, dewy-eyed, the great CHANGE, dear to all things not to themselves endeared.
Here's some art: This is Truth and Repentance, a detail from Botticelli's allegorical The Calumny of Appelles. Interestingly, this was Sandro's last secular painting. He became a Renaissance reborn Christian. How that happened I do not know.
One of the most interesting features of the show was Dylan the DJ, or his persona as a DJ. He never denied who it was behind the microphone, dropping, here and there, little jokes or anecdotes about his life as a musician among musicians. With his choice of themes, listeners learned, among other things, that the Bob Dylan who decades earlier wrote a song about the New York Yankees pitcher Catfish Hunter remains very much a baseball fan, enough so to offer his own a cappella singing of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” on his show entitled “Baseball.” But Dylan also took on a role, as a disc jockey from out of the past but also as instructor of music appreciation, biographer, comedian, commentator, and dispenser of recipes, household hints, and other bits of useful information.
In 1939, about 5,000 copies of a book offering hopeless drunks a spiritual path to recovery through 12 steps were released by a fledgling fellowship of alcoholics.
"The enthusiasm gap is real," said Rodd Freitag, UW-Eau Claire political science professor. "I think younger voters may be experiencing the frustrations of seeing our political system at work, of not getting everything you want immediately. The euphoria has gone away."
McDonald's Corp. has warned federal regulators that it could drop its health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 hourly restaurant workers unless regulators waive a new requirement of the U.S. health overhaul.
The move is one of the clearest indications that new rules may disrupt workers' health plans as the law ripples through the real world.
I want to see old people. I want to see babies. I want to tell people their ugly children are beautiful. I want the ballgame to be on TV. I want the TV to be on a shelf over a bar.
I want to go to church on Sunday. I want to go to a bar on Friday night. I want to go dancing with my wife of many years on Saturday. I want to be buried in the same suit I was married in. I want people to stand there and look at my cold face and say I was no great shakes but I was alright.
I'll tell it to you while you are still warm, Sipp: "You are alright." I think it's a wonderful thing to know what one wants, especially when they are simple gifts.
...busy beavers in various corners of the federal bureaucracy are laying plans for new fiefdoms. Thousands of new employees are planned for various offices in HHS, including the new office to regulate private health insurance nationwide. The IRS is gearing up both to enforce with tax penalties the requirement that everyone carry government-approved insurance, and to help administer the massive new entitlement program that will require income verification on tens of millions of applicants. States will also be forced to build new bureaucracies to carry out the scores of tasks the federal government will be ordering them to perform.
Massive bureaucracy. Disinformation campaigns. Blatant power plays.
The funny thing is that conservatives are all aware of the power and presence of the old media, where beltway journalists wield influence and pretend objectivity when we all know they are 12-to-1 in the bag for the Democrats. But these same journalists, their fans, and their political allies all seem really perplexed at what’s happened to make a majority of freakin’ moron-Americans so very angry. It’s ironic that the people who believe they possess superior education, knowledge and wisdom seem quite a bit less informed than their adversaries about one of the great societal events of our time.
Congressman Calls For Schools To ‘Promote The Agenda’ Of Climate Change, Population Limitation. Maybe they can fool the kids.
That’s the ideal sentiment; the truth is that I enjoy the art of killing too much, and playing modern warfare games would reawaken how much I nostalgically miss the wargames, real and virtual, of my youth in Vietnam, as well as how much I envy, truth be told, the warfighting options available to youth today all over the planet…
Men were built to kill, rape, and to create general mayhem. Civilization is a challenge for us. Our only redemption is being touched by God.
No idea where this was. (thanks, Buddy). We photographed a scene like this (but without the bird-feeding) driving down from Whistler to Vancouver some winters ago. Awesome. Even the non-birders in our skiing group were impressed.
The eagles were like gulls. These greedy fish-eaters have no idea that they are symbols.
Sen. Patrick Leahy has introduced a bill affecting the Internet that could have a “dangerous impact on freedom of speech,” according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
One out of every three dollars earned in the U.S. goes to pay for or comply with federal laws and regulations, and new policies enacted in 2010 for health care and financial services will increase this burden.
we need to fundamentally restructure our economy and re-establish popular control over the private corporations which have distorted our economy and hijacked our government. That’s a long-term job, but one we should start now.
If Repubs win the House and/or the Senate, what will they decide to do?
Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
Royal Navy 
Regular readers know what a geology buff I am, although I do not post about it very much. My view is that you do not know what the heck you are looking at when you step outdoors unless you know some basic geology.
Urban 
Sean Wilentz, author of 
