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.
Same thing applies to tractors, lawn tractors, etc. I learned that idling does not recharge a battery. RMPs have to be at least over 1000. In other words, driving and the faster the better.
" In this highly acclaimed work of intellectual history, Andrew Delbanco argues that Americans, who once pictured their history as an epic struggle against the devil, have become indifferent to the reality of evil."
Between now and Labor Day weekend, I have tried to schedule to post a book each day while I am semi-vacationing. These are books that have made an impression on me and stuck with me, for whatever reason. All sorts of books.
For starters, Melville's Billy Budd.
Yes, his cosmic magnum opus Moby Dick is a grand and ever-interesting American tale (the Great American Novel, if there is one), but Billy Budd gets to the heart of human nature and civilization.
No, not to read each day. Sheesh. It's just a personal book list.
He had a relationship with a PhD candidate after she left the university. In this world, I would advise that male and female faculty and students stay far apart. It's not like the old days, when college and university romances were commonplace.
Despite overwhelming evidence that opening schools for in-person education is both safe and beneficial for children, teachers unions across the U.S. continue to try to hold families hostage in pursuit of political gains. As the unions overplay their hands, there is a great opportunity for market disruption of the dysfunctional union-controlled status quo.
I have seen almost no overt racism in my life, other than a bit of paranoia about Muslims on airplanes. I am not sure whether that counts as racism. Having been a victim of two crimes in NYC by black guys, and another in Cambridge MA, I am instinctively wary of guys in hoodies behind me on empty streets at night but I don't call that racism either.
I think the idea of systemic racism was invented when ordinary, disgusting racism disappeared with the passing of generations.
In the worldview of the Woke, America has never been that paragon of freedom, justice, and opportunities for all that attracted us immigrants, but rather a terribly unjust, racist, and corrupt society. Its foundation does not begin with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that we proud and patriotic immigrants venerate, but rather, as the New York Times tells us in its 1619 Project, with the date when the first slaves were brought to these shores. American history is no longer taught dialectically, as a constant struggle for improvements made possible by the magnificent founding principles and institutions of the republic, but, rather, statically as a mindless sequence of acts of oppression against various groups. In fact, the founding documents are themselves often deemed to be racist and sexist, as are the historic figures who wrote them...
"We can tell when it’s politics being talked about for the solution to a current problem is always whatever it was that the person wanted to do anyway."
It's an English (via French "chef" and Latin, same root as "captain" and "chieftain." "Jefe" in Spanish.
Do any readers associate the word "chief" as disparaging to Native Americans? If the CEO is question doesn't want to be a boss, ok, but a CEO has to be a boss whether you like it or not.
In the Algonquin family of languages, a "sachem" was the boss.
Boccaccio's Decameron (1352) was written partly as porn for women of the time, situated away from Florence in an idyllic, sybaritic setting away from the urban Black Death.
When women were commonly married off at 15 to older gents, naturally they sought romantic adventure and especially so when you might die any day from the plague.
This was a time when the clergy were not too holy, and not overly-respected except on Sundays.
Boccaccio worshipped Dante's works and was a pal of Petrarch. A canonical writer with whom it would have been fun to have some wine.
I've always been interested in the mysterious concept of ignition, but fire is of course of great fascination to humans. Controlled fire, of course, is what we prefer.
I've always been interested in the mysterious concept of ignition, but fire is of course of great fascination to humans. Controlled fire, of course, is what we prefer.