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.
“What was initially intended as an honor has now devolved into a moment of shaming. Yet the slur on my reputation is not the worst aspect of this episode. More deplorable is that an institution set up on the basis of religious freedom should today so deeply betray its own founding principles. The ‘spirit of free expression’ referred to in the Brandeis statement has been stifled here, as my critics have achieved their objective of preventing me from addressing the graduating Class of 2014. Neither Brandeis nor my critics knew or even inquired as to what I might say. They simply wanted me to be silenced. I regret that very much."
Guardian: Call climate change what it is: violence - Social unrest and famine, superstorms and droughts. Places, species and human beings – none will be spared.
Craven
Cowards at Brandeis Cancel Ayaan Hirsi Ali Honor, Cave to Muslim Thugs’
Demands - See more at:
http://pamelageller.com/2014/04/craven-cowards-brandeis-cancel-ayaan-hirsi-ali-honor-cave-muslim-thugs-demands.html/#sthash.pEZ9pI5a.dpuf
Several species of North American ducks normally nest in tree cavities: Wood Duck, Hooded Merganser, Common Merganser, Common Goldeneye and Bufflehead. This can be surprising to those who think of them as marsh-dwellers. During nesting season, and the 21 days of brooding, they are tree-dwellers.
Their chicks often end up taking quite a long and dangerous exodus to relative safety in the water.
Other ducks may nest on above-ground sites but not in cavities, such as this Mallard. As we have mentioned in the past, Screech Owls often take over these nest boxes.
Photo is Hooded Merganser in late winter/ Spring breeding plumage. They are a fairly common winter duck in southern New England on salt water bays and inlets, but, like most of the tree-nesters except for the Woodie, breed further north.
One of the deadliest threats with which government has ever had to contend, over the entire pageant of human history, was the immense wealth and mass affluence generated by the industrial revolution. The usual metrics point to the exponential growth of goods and services from 1750 until 1914 if not 1929.
Exponential growth of what we call the private or the “real” sector of the economy—everything that is not government—means that government also has to grow exponentially in order even to be detectable. Moreover, one can ask: if exponential real-sector growth occurs over the long run, what possible need could civilization have for government?
I hear people tell me that they have lots of Purple Finches at their bird-feeders, and nesting in their eaves. Them ain't Purple Finches, they're House Finches.
House Finches were an import from Mexico and California in the 1940s, originally sold for bird cages, so they are in fact an invasive species and have now spread all over the US and southern Canada. They were marketed as "Hollywood Finches."
I haven't seen a conifer-loving Purple Finch in quite a while. They are, generally, uncommon and if you are not a birder, you have probably never seen one.
Top photo is a male Purple Finch. Below is a male House Finch. (females of both look like slim, brown sparrows with finch beaks)
Why
are so many people still out of work?: the roots of structural
unemployment - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/04/why-are-so-many-people-still-out-of-work-the-roots-of-structural-unemployment.html#sthash.zcP03Frm.dpuf
My Mom died a little over a year ago, and I have not gotten over it yet. Possibly, I never will.
It's a Quaker song (correction - Shaker). Mom was a Quaker at heart although a Congregationalist in practice by family tradition.
She had plenty of money, but she never owned a camera, computer, or a cell phone, drove a 13 year-old Honda, and did her own yard work with knowledge and skill. She had a small collection of expensive timeless fancy clothing, and used them for many years. She always looked Yankee-style-elegant, if you know what I mean by that, never dowdy, always conservatively-chic. She hated jewelry but would wear pearls to the opera. She always looked great, trim, and put-together, even in old age.
When we cleared out her closet, it was amazing to my sisters how little she had because she always looked perfect in public. A very small amount of perfect stuff. St. John, Chanel, etc., plus gardening, hiking, tennis, and skiing clothes.
Simple Gifts was her kind of song, one of her favorites. Jewel is pretty good. I remember booing Jewel when she opened for Bob at a concert in New Haven when she insisted on talking politics. Embarassed my friends. After touring with Bob, she wondered whether he was gay because he never hit on her.
Maybe Jewel was just annoying when she wasn't singing. Shut up and sing.
37:1 The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.
37:2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry.
37:3 He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know."
37:4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.
37:5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.
37:6 I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD."
37:7 So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.
37:8 I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them.
37:9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live."
37:10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
37:11 Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.'
37:12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel.
37:13 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people.
37:14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act," says the LORD.
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, And all the air a solemn stillness holds, Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds:
Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower The moping owl does to the moon complain Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, Molest her ancient solitary reign.
Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade, Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap, Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, The rude Forefathers of the hamlet sleep.
The breezy call of incense-breathing morn, The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed, The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.
For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, Or busy housewife ply her evening care: No children run to lisp their sire's return, Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share,
Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke; How jocund did they drive their team afield! How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!
The rest of the poem is below the fold. Dalrymple recently discussed Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey)
The Kochs are needed to counterbalance Soros. If you want to do character assassination, Soros is a Jewish Nazi collaborator, a market manipulator, and a convicted felon. How's that for starters?
Official
Policy: Male Federal Workers Can Use Women's Restrooms, Locker Rooms -
See more at:
http://cnsnews.com/commentary/terence-p-jeffrey/official-policy-male-federal-workers-can-use-womens-restrooms-locker#sthash.FjcOgjgH.dpufKoch: I'm Fighting to Restore a Free Society - Instead of welcoming free debate, collectivists engage in character assassination.The Kochs are needed to counterbalance Soros
I think Frank Gehry's stuff is terrible, narcissistic, and annoying, but he is an interesting showman - and his stuff sells. He shoulda been a sculptor or something.
Who's been getting rich in the US? It's not the 1%, it's not even the 0.1% - it's the 0.01%
Do we all really hate and envy those star athletes, pop stars, movie stars, TV stars, inventors, successful entrepreneurs, and captains of industry? I sometimes envy their talents, skills, and money, but I sure don't hate them.
I agree with that. (I also believe that not all poverty is via 'culture of poverty.' There are a thousand sorts of poverty, including genteel poverty.) Dr. X summarizes that debate:
Is racism fundamentally causing the problems that afflict large swathes of urban black America or does an independently self-sustaining culture itself account for the afflictions? I think many people all too readily take one position or the other, feeling certain about it. I don't see things as quite that tidy. Jonathan Chait and Ta-Nehisi Coates have been hashing this out in a series of posts. Begin here with Coates, then a reaction from Chait, response from Coates, then Chait answers.
The United States passed its first sugar tariff in 1789, before Rhode Island got around to ratifying the Constitution. We’ve had some major public-policy changes over the years — abolishing slavery, women’s suffrage, direct election of senators, gay marriage here and there — but the sugar tariff stays and stays, the economic version of drug-resistant syphilis. It is a matter of pure political power: The sugar producers believe that the price that Americans are willing to pay for sugar is not the right price — which is to say, it’s a lower price than the one they would prefer — and so we pay more thanks to the cowardice of Congress and the predictable victory of the producers’ concentrated benefits over the consumers’ dispersed costs. As Willi Schlamm said, the problem with capitalism is capitalists, a motto that should be engraved in marble above the entrance to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
I agree that it is unfair and market-distorting - just like 1000 other government "favors."My view is that I want the Feds to have less money, less power, and less control.
Plato,
Rawls and the Liberal 'Comfort Zone' at Harvard - See more at:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2014/03/plato_rawls_and_the_liberal_co.html#sthash.t65m8fsX.dpuf
More Moms Stay Home With Their Children
Image from 
Nomination For The Biggest Single Fraud On The American Consumer: Vitamins
Image stolen from 
A friend took that pic of a gamer at a gamer convention in Boston last week.