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.
They do acknowledge the rather obvious fact that bears have legs and go to where the food is. They can swim for miles, too, and seem to like to do that.
Interview with the smart columnist David Harsanyi, a good American rebel.
He's entirely right: the US is a constitutional republic, not a democracy. He's is also right that democracy needs to be close to home or it loses its valence.
Balsamic Dreams: A Short But Self-Important History of the Baby Boomer Generation, by Joe Queenan. Boomers will see themselves almost too clearly in this book. Laugh or cry? Your choice, but the book's mirror could cause a boomer to want to off himself due to self-disgust.
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."
Frederic Bastiat
“To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.”
Charles Krauthammer
“The entire north polar ice cap will be gone in 5 years.”
Al Gore on the 13th of December, 2008 (So sorry, Al. It has expanded. Find a fresh new scam, or have you made enough money on that one? Last I heard, it was close to $200 million, which ought to cover your special massage charges including the Happy Endings too.)
Via Am. Thinker, explaining the deep thinking of a Soros employee:
...It’s an outlook that is deeply critical, even skeptical, of systems, models and sedimented language, but is ultimately rooted in worldly faith, rather than skepticism itself.
Letting beings be — trusting them to come forth — it seems to me, is the motivating sensibility of radically progressive activism. It’s a question of faith — in the world, in polar bears, in sea turtles, in pygmy owls, in the authority of poetry and painting, in the rightness of ice that has cooled our planet for 800,000 years and is now coming apart.
What about dinosaurs? And the "rightness of ice"? Ice is never right in a gin Martini but, OK, it is right in a Mint Julip and in a Coke with a lime. The guy sounds psychotic to me. Word salad.
50 acres on its own peninsula. Looks like a lot of lovely manicured gardens, but I'd prefer it with plain meadows with horses. Otherwise, of course I would have made an offer.
Sorry, I can't download the pics, and sorry again - it just sold. It's almost enough to make you hate and envy the wealthy. Almost, but we all need those folks.
I can pretty much guarantee that this will not be bought by an American, but it will be snapped up fast by some Arab prince, Russian oligarch, South American crony capitalist, or some such international low-life. Nice commission for the realtor. I don't really like the layout (no gun room, no servants' quarters, slave quarters, or space for multiple wives/concubines), but the view sounds good.
Expulsion is the correct response to threats, not "conversation."Oppressed by the Ivy League - What Dartmouth's president should have told bullying students.
...leading Progressive defenses of freedom of expression, such as Zechariah Chafee’s, relied on utilitarian considerations and not on freedom of expression as a fundamental individual right. Progressives identified freedom of speech as a civil liberty to differentiate it from what Progressive understood to be the obsolete, individualist, natural-rights based liberties of the American past. While activist government was inimical to such rights as liberty of contract and property rights, it arguably buttressed a Progressive case for freedom of speech. According to Progressive advocates of constitutional protection for freedom of expression, the more active a role played by government, the more important it is to ensure that public policy is subject to vigorous and uninhibited debate. Such debate not only could bring important considerations to light, but also could serve as a check on those who would use public power for private gain, which in turn would lead to better public policy, which in turn would create a welcome demand for even more government.
Freedom is not utilitarian, and not meant to be. Freedom is, by nature, messy, difficult, and contentious. Furthermore, freedom is not meant to help government, or to help anything in particular other than the human spirit. If anything, freedom is meant to be against government power. Where is Breyer coming from?
America is not a government. America is a bunch of individual people. Who bankrolled Tom Paine's writings? The wealthy Tom Jefferson did, as I recall, out of his own fat pocketbook.
Yes, the 1st Amendment lives to fight another day. Maybe New York was right to insist on the Bill of Rights. Should never have been necessary, though. The fascists and statists hate it.
I plan to turn on every piece of electric I have. Make some banana/strawberry daiguiris with the blender, too. Electricity is the greatest invention ever, and it deserves one hour of celebration and gratitude.
It is indeed true that our posture, along with our general comportment, attire, manners, speech, and capacity for chat are what others base their initial impressions on. Rightly or wrongly, those things matter to me too.
To stay strong and upright, I do deadlifts. Like squats, they are highly unpleasant but highly beneficial for leg strength and back strength. If we spend 15 hours per day sitting, we must do what little we can to remain vital and to delay physical decay.
Physical and mental decay begins, according to the experts, in our late 30s.
Every small-to-medium-sized business in America pays quarterlies, as do all Maggie's Farmers. It's simple: you just write a check to the US Treasury, and they pay it to the Chinese as interest on our national debt.
The astonishing wealth of the West, more widely distributed than in any other civilization, the abandonment of religion as the foundation of morals and virtues, the transformation of political freedom into self-centered license, and the commodification of hedonism that makes available to everyman luxuries and behaviors once reserved for a tiny elite, have made self-indulgence and the present more important than self-sacrifice and the future.
Declining birthrates, a preference for spending on social welfare transfers rather than on defense, and a willingness to beggar our children and grandchildren with debt in order to finance these entitlements– all bespeak a people whose wealth deludes them into thinking that they can imprudently ignore the future and indefinitely afford these luxuries that in fact insidiously weaken the foundations of our social and political order. This process is more advanced in Europe than in the U.S., but we in America have been steadily moving towards the same mentality.
Heading back up to Killington tomorrow (where it was a balmy -4 degrees F this morning) for my last few days of skiing this season. I need a few more days on those bumps on Superstar. Carpe diem.
Who counts "vacation days"? I have equity in our company, we're making money - and anyway, I'm skiing with my boss and we plan to meet some gals at the pubs. America is a great country!
Speaking of time away from work , this guy is our employee and he can't be fired:
...the president might consider rearranging his work schedule. Last year came the news that Mr. Obama was unaware of the problems plaguing his health-care website until after its rollout and that he never once had a private meeting with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius between July 2010 and November 2013. How does something like that happen?
An answer of sorts comes in an article by Sean Blanda on "How Barack Obama Gets Things Done" on the 99U website. The president, Mr. Blanda reports, wakes up at seven o'clock. He works out 45 minutes a day every day, not including his regular basketball games. He watches a lot of "SportsCenter." Dinner each night with his family. To limit "decision fatigue," he likes to set policy via memos where he can check the box on "agree," "disagree," or "let's discuss."
I agree with Bernstein: 
The incredible 
Heading back up to Killington tomorrow (where it was a balmy -4 degrees F this morning) for my last few days of skiing this season. I need a few more days on those bumps on Superstar. Carpe diem.
1. Where the heck is that airplane?