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.
A lengthy interview with many good moments. Listen while cleaning a closet or something. It will save you the trouble of reading their book. Peterson does the interview but he properly keeps himself out of it and lets them talk.
I have always loved them. I love ships and boats, and even canoes and kayaks. Some of my life-long favorites off the top of my head:
Moby Dick Two Years Before the Mast Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World The Patrick O'Brian series Carry On, Mr. Bowditch Perfect Storm The Nagle Journal Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America
I learned from O'Brian that the original use of the term "skyscraper" applied to topgallant masts which reached up to catch the highest breezes. What is a mast and what is a spar? You can figure it out yourself.
Whether true stories of fiction, the sea is a dramatic setting for tales. What are your favorite sea stories?
Give this a listen. It covers child-rearing, victim identities, reflexive empathy, care for the elderly, and the importance of responsibility for meaning in life. Of course, life is difficult and painful. The youth know nothing. Of course life is unfair. You are not all you could be. Everybody is a victim. You have rights so you can meet your responsibilities. Feeling sorry for someone is not a moral virtue. "I don't care about you. I care about who you can be." Be more than you are. Treat yourself like somebody who wants to help you. The consciousness of time. The evil in taking revenge against God for the structure of reality. Etc.
Bird Dog turned me on to the Dilbert creator's daily podcasts. Now, I am addicted. Nobody on TV is as smart as him, he cuts to the core while being friendly, non-partisan, and with a rare degree of clarity. There is no way not to like the guy.
He has been in some pain this week as his 18 year-old stepson died of a drug overdose last week. Still, he carries on.
He admires Trump not because he likes him at all, but he enjoys persuasiveness and effectiveness. I enjoyed his argument this week that all registered Democrats should throw away their guns.
I had never heard of them. They are evaporative cooling systems which are efficient in low-humidity areas. Deserts, for example. In the desert southwest of the US, they are often roof-mounted. A lot cheaper than a/c, but won't work in most of the US.
A reader made a point about job vs. vocation on Thursday's retirement post. I sort-of get that, and sort-of do not. All productive work is ennobling, I believe, whether for family, friends, customers, community, nation, or world. Job vs Vocation might be just a state of mind, an attitude. Whether killing or harvesting for food, or working in a cubicle, we all need to work profitably unless we and our family are fixed for life. Even then, many of us seek ways of being valuable.
People love this one. It's clever the way he replaced "life" with "light," as he was going blind when he wrote this sonnet. The "talent" refers to the parable of the talents - double meaning. But what does he mean by "wait"? When I was in high school, I imagined waiting on tables: waiting on table is surely valuable.
When I consider how my light is spent
When I consider how my light is spent, Ere half my days in this dark world and wide, And that one talent which is death to hide Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present My true account, lest He returning chide; “Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?” I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need Either man’s work or His own gifts. Who best Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed
And post o’er land and ocean without rest; They also serve who only stand and wait.”
It's a done deal, finally, I believe. This sort of thing is one of the reasons why people who disapproved of Trump on a personal level felt the need to vote for him. This is fun:
Why Americans Are Retiring Later. I don't think it's just about money. People find purpose and challenge in work, and the relational part is important too.
I know people in their 80s who work. If you ask them about it, they say things like "What good would I be?" or "What would I do all day? Play golf?"
A perennial bestseller by eminent mathematician G. Polya, How to Solve It will show anyone in any field how to think straight. In lucid and appealing prose, Polya reveals how the mathematical method of demonstrating a proof or finding an unknown can be of help in attacking any problem that can be "reasoned" out―from building a bridge to winning a game of anagrams. Generations of readers have relished Polya's deft―indeed, brilliant―instructions on stripping away irrelevancies and going straight to the heart of the problem
Much as we might wish that most things fit Gaussian "normal" distributions because it's easy to visualize, they do not. Some college-level math underpins the Pareto distribution, but more interesting than the income and wealth distributions it describes are all of the other psychological (including intelligence), geological, and other natural effects which it predicts.
... antithetical to the stated goals of Wokeness is the tendency of its most popular preachers to castigate sinners instead of calmly attempting to persuade them of the justness of the Woke doctrine. Antithetical, but perfectly comprehensible from a signaling perspective. Those who are Woke don’t really want to inhabit an entirely Woke world without the bigoted masses; instead, they want to occupy a world of good and evil, of the just and the wicked, of the high status and the low status, of the elite and hoi polloi. The Woke faithful almost certainly do believe that the world is unjust, even wicked, and they almost certainly do sincerely want to ameliorate the suffering of its victims. However, they also want to signal their membership to an elite and morally righteous club, and therefore they need an out-group, a foil, a morally wicked other for contrast. And, they can’t let just any kind-hearted person into their club, because then it would lose its exclusivity. So they must develop a strenuous vetting system, one that is vigilant and suspicious and quick to detect sin.
In short, James Comey, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page have all said or implied that the FBI had nothing linking Trump to Russia. Which, as John Solomon concluded last week, raises the question: If there was no concrete evidence of collusion, why did we need a special prosecutor?
I assume the prosecutor was to handcuff Trump. Didn't work, thus far. Honey Badger doesn't give a shit.
A reader made a point about job vs. vocation on Thursday's retirement post. I sort-of get that, and sort-of do not. All productive work is ennobling, I believe, whether for family, friends, customers, community, nation, or world. Job vs Vocation might be just a state of mind, an attitude. Whether killing or harvesting for food, or working in a cubicle, we all need to work profitably unless we and our family are fixed for life. Even then, many of us seek ways of being valuable.
Mathematician