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.
Boxing Day is the traditional day to be generous to all those who help us during the year. We give $ to the garbage man, the mailman, the cleaning gals, and of course to my 4:45 AM regular Dunkin guy who works the night shift at my 24-hr Dunkin. These folks appreciate being shown our appreciation.
The docs just get fruit baskets. They are health nuts, believe in eating fruits and nuts. I do not, much, although I will go for a pear or an apple pie.
I hope our readers had a blessed Christmas or a happy Hannukah. The BD clan did have a classic Yankeeland one. Life in America: Perfect candlelight service about Grace and Truth, an early Christmas morning family workout at the gym, scrambled eggs with salmon (and pannetone of course - very Yankee), then the girls entertained us with Christmas carol duets with one's new guitar and the other's new keyboard for her apartment in NYC. Gosh, I love family music no matter how imperfect. One of my daughters sings like an angel, the other like a Screech Owl. Son can't sing a lick and neither can I.
Then a "hike" to the countryside, and, finally home, the kids made us filet with roasted sweet potatoes and sauteed brussel sprouts while my father-in-law dozed by the fire with a glass of rare 25 year-old single malt whiskey which tastes like candy. They cleaned up everything too. Always do.
Daughter was still practicing a Mendelssohn piece when I retired for the evening, banging away by a merry fire with an assortment of 4-letter words. This morning was a heavy weights day, so I had to be rested and ready. She's a Mendelssohn gal, I'm a Schubert guy but Mendelssohn second. I want my guitar daughter to work on country blues, but kids do what they will do. They have their own minds and directions...for better or worse.
Make the wealthy poorer - statistical problem solved. If you have more than one house, let the gummint take the others. Then your IRA. Why not, if equality is sacred?
In the history of politics, there is no precedent for the media’s entire focus to be on undoing the last presidential election.
True, the left has wanted to impeach every Republican president, but at least they used to wait a decent interval between the inauguration and concocting some preposterous “impeachable offense.”
People capable of feeling shame would not have immediately followed up the Russiagate hoax fiasco with another transparently phony—and in “substance” nearly identical—attempt to remove President Trump from office, overturn the 2016 election, and shower deplorable-Americans with contempt and hatred. But our ruling elites have no shame.
That is not to say, however, that they are entirely cynical. The means by which they’ve so far tried to crush the Trump presidency may be nasty and illegitimate, but our overlords are 100% convinced of the righteousness of their cause, and of themselves. Hence they do not even need recourse to the cliché that the ends justify the means. The means are good because the end is sacred; they cannot countenance even the thought that the means might be suspect or (ahem) trumped up.
If progressives were truly to “interrogate the current structures of power,” they would only find themselves. Progressives have controlled Seattle for a generation, yet they pretend to be outsiders fighting forces of “institutional oppression” and “structural racism.” City government employs more than 10,000 workers, all subject to rigorous diversity training and politically correct thinking. Despite the occasional public-relations fiasco, the progressive grip on Seattle’s political culture shows no sign of loosening.
Dirty cops, not all of them for sure but maybe just some at the top. A sad, and frightening thing to see what the FBI did against the country for seemingly political purposes. Power corrupts.
The Swedes are a coldhearted people. When a 15-year-old boy was gunned down in a busy square in Malmo recently, a photograph showed that the townspeople had placed only seventeen candles and seven bouquets of flowers on the site where he had fallen. If the murder had happened in Britain, the ground on which the young victim had been shot would have been covered for yards around in candles, flowers, and teddy bears. In Sweden, by contrast, there was not a teddy bear to be seen.
From a too-fancy party last night: "Guess what, Bird Dog, I have an announcement for ya."
"OK, I am listening."
"I've gone vegetarian."
"That's cool," I said. "You are fitting in exactly to the joke about vegetarians telling everybody. But why?"
"Mostly to feel morally superior to other people like you, secondarily for my triglycerides."
Excellent response. I love our friends. So lucky to have them all, especially at Christmastime. I didn't bother correcting him on his medical ignorance, because cheerful friends don't correct people at Christmas parties.
As I’ve often said, conservatives are like doctors. Ours is a noble but tragic business. We’re trying to conserve a living thing: American liberty. And like all living things, liberty will one day die. But not today.
The FBI knew the Russia thing was a Clinton opposition hoax. Sen Hawley notes that the true 2016 collusion was between the Clinton campaign and the FBI. Russians don't scare me, but the FBI does. Russia is a pathetic place.
I don't think people should have strident opinions about trivialities. Children have strident opinions about trivialities.
Men don't. Men are supposed to be wise enough to know which things are trifling, and which things deserve their concern, and express themselves accordingly.
If it's important, you say something.
If it's not important, you practice the most ancient of all manly arts, the Manly Art of Shutting the F*** Up Once in a While and Giving Your C***slappers a Rest.
The Afghanistan fiasco reads like a systematic failure of leadership. The people in charge did not know what they were doing. They did not know what victory would look like. They did not set the agenda and define the policy. As a result, every junior officer and every junior bureaucrat could project his or her own priorities.
Impossible burgers 
" CREATING THE NEW IGNORANCE”:
Microsoft Removes Santa Hat Icon
Lots more images from Liberty Arms 
Photo of holly on ice. We had a nice minor ice storm the other day 
Image via 
From a too-fancy party last night: "Guess what, Bird Dog, I have an announcement for ya." 
WSJ: 
Image via