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.
It can't go on indefinitely. Lives are being destroyed. It's a balancing act, but whatever they do will be wrong. Reality's a bitch, but here's another problem:
One does not need to be Roman Catholic to appreciate this.
The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything by the Revered James Martin, SJ (My Life with the Saints) is a practical spiritual guidebook based on the life and teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. Centered around the Ignatian goal of “finding God in all things,” The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything shows us how to manage relationships, money, work, prayer, and decision-making, all while keeping a sense of humor. Filled with user-friendly examples, humorous stories, and anecdotes from the heroic and inspiring lives of Jesuit saints and average priests and brothers...
We have superb speakers, extravagant. Living room and bedroom. We happily live with no TV out in the country. Music-lovers, on a Brahms kick now. Live music is better, but how often? And I do not like to waste my time on live music unless I have heard it at home a few times first to get the idea of it. Otherwise, first time is too complex for me to process.
Computer music is good enough for pop or folk, but not for serious "adult" music. Try buying a good 6-CD player now to run through your fancy amp and fancy speakers. I have 1000 CDs, all important to me. Many operas. My player must have gotten the coronavirus, because it seems to have died.
I have tried "used" or refubished players. Not a good idea, sadly. That is from experience.
I welcome your ideas. The ones I find cost almost double what they used to cost. Do I need to spend $500 for a CD component? I have two great old amps which have lasted forever.
Is that at least part of why women here tend to vote for parental governments? For security, or a fantasy of security? Is that a female thing? If so, it doesn't seem very feminist to me.
Pretty good advice for Liberal Arts students. A quote:
What follows is advice I would offer to any student with the good fortune to study such a course. You enjoy a remarkable opportunity—afforded inside what Oakeshott called “the interim,” a sunny recess between the sheltered world of childhood and adolescence, and the onerous responsibilities of adulthood—to enjoy without distraction an induction into a great inheritance. It is unlikely you will get it again. I hope the thoughts I have assembled here will help you make the most of your experience. They are not exhaustive and they are not gospel. You can judge their value for yourself as you pursue your studies.
An Egyptian friend, now thriving in the US, brought me a Turkish coffee kit from Cairo. The little copper pot, two ceramic cups, and a few bags of that powdered Turkish coffee. She blames it on the Ottoman Empire.
Turkish coffee is delicious, strong, and sweet. Once tried, you will never go back. Spain's coffee con leche is wonderful too, and entirely different. So is espresso. The only great thing about American coffee is that you get a lot of it to sip on. Coffee is a multicultural wonder and necessary for mental and physical health.
It's grade school information: The colonies were British colonies, each separately governed by Brit governors beholden to London. Just like Brit colonies all over the world.
Unification, and rebellion, was extremely difficult requiring all sorts of compromises. Some ugly, some wonderful and wise.
Art is mostly fraud perpetrated by narcissistic academic quacks on a public easily gulled. They should be prosecuted. This is as true of literature as of painting and sculpture. If modern sculpture were placed in a junkyard, art critics couldn’t find it. Most of what we are told are great works are great works only because we are told that they are.
Consider the Mona Lisa, for mysterious reasons regarded an epochal detonation of artistry. Why? She is an excessively round woman who looks as if she is about to spit. We have to be told that she was an astonishment and marvel. Otherwise we would rate her a a pretty fair effort for an art student somewhere in Nebraska...
It seems as if the official Maggie's Farm view is that government should be put into humble shopping centers and abandoned buildings in odd places rather than in grandiose, imperial-style rockpiles.
I am all in favor of grand public building, though. Just not governmental. Grand Central Terminal, for example. Public places which uplift the spirits of the common man or woman and government structures which humble our public servants.
I have long held ambivalent feelings about Lincoln. Freeing slaves, good. Overpowering the federal government, bad. Killing hundreds of thousands of Americans, bad.
I do not idolize any human. Monuments in Washington disgust me. We are not the Roman Empire.
I read it in a college course. It's a long novel. In retrospect you could call it a bildungsroman. Tom was a good guy, full of vitality unlike his sour "brother".
Book recommendation: 
CDs are our basic home music.
Wilfred Reilly at Quillette 
I have long held ambivalent feelings about Lincoln. Freeing slaves, good. Overpowering the federal government, bad. Killing hundreds of thousands of Americans, bad.