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.
As much as I enjoy The Great Courses, I am happy to see Hillsdale put its own courses online, free.
I am in the middle of their Basic Chemistry course. Good fun, but not a real college Chemistry 101 course.
Yeah, the Periodic Table is remarkable.
You might be different, but in secondary school and college, I always would have benefited from a broad overview before going into the weeds. Hillsdale's Chem series is like that.
Too late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient, O Beauty so new. Too late have I loved you! You were within me but I was outside myself, and there I sought you!
In my weakness I ran after the beauty of the things you have made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The things you have made kept me from you, the things which would have no being unless they existed in you!
You have called, you have cried, and you have pierced my deafness. You have radiated forth, you have shined out brightly, and you have dispelled my blindness.
You have sent forth your fragrance, and I have breathed it in, and I long for you. I have tasted you, and I hunger and thirst for you. You have touched me, and I ardently desire your peace.
Every 5 or 6 months, we are due a Costco expedition. Clothes soap, dish soap, ketchup, capers. ribeyes, lamb chops, excellent olive oil and butter, Irish cheese, Mexican coffee, good still hot baguettes - all that good stuff. Mrs. BD sorta wanted a big screen TV because they are so cheap, but I pointed out that we never do TV.
My gym trainer teases me that I'm not a real American if I don't watch TV at night. He likes football. To each, his or her own. The thing about Costco is that there are people from everywhere in the world of every imagineable language, color, size, age, and shape. Amazing, everybody enjoying the abbondanza.
It is interesting to feel like a minority but it just sorta amuses me. Not Mrs. BD so much.
How many high school students know this stuff? I wish I had had this big picture when I was in school. I learned bits and pieces, but not the big picture.
The US did not know how to do this, not that the US could have. The NVA was relentless. It is so strange that Vietman is a nice place now for tourists, but so are Germany and Japan.
Was Vietnam another proxy war? The NVA was not stupid. Tanks? That was WW2.
Illegal migrants from all over the world. It is an invasion, of sorts, without arms. There are many routes to legal immigration and most Americans are ok with that. Who wants open borders?
By the way, peanuts are, of course, not nuts even though they look like nuts. Like so many foods that the world loves, peanuts originated in Central America.
1,400 years ago, when Islam was created in the 7th century, Iran was Zoroastrian—today Muslim. Iraq was Christian; today it’s Muslim. Turkey was Christian; today it’s Muslim. Lebanon was Christian; today, with a Muslim majority, the Christians are disappearing from there. Egypt was Christian; today it's 92% Muslim. ..
In The Little Book of Stupidity, Sia Mohajer draws on extensive research and makes surprising connections among ten of life's most pervasive cognitive biases. It is a story about how stupid we can all be...
The UN’s Terrorism Teachers - American taxpayers have been subsidizing educators who call for the murder of Jews. Suspending these funds isn’t enough. UNRWA must be abolished for good.
8:1 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that "all of us possess knowledge." Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
8:2 Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge;
8:3 but anyone who loves God is known by him.
8:4 Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that "no idol in the world really exists," and that "there is no God but one."
8:5 Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth--as in fact there are many gods and many lords--
8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
8:7 It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
8:8 "Food will not bring us close to God." We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.
8:9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
8:10 For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols?
8:11 So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed.
8:12 But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
8:13 Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.