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.
From “Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us” in London’s Observer, Feb. 21, 2004:
Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.
A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a ‘Siberian’ climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.
The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.
‘Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,’ concludes the Pentagon analysis. ‘Once again, warfare would define human life.’
The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defence is a priority. . . .
As early as next year widespread flooding by a rise in sea levels will create major upheaval for millions.
On the advice of Maggie's Farm, I managed to find some spare hours to get my REAL ID driver's license (which all legally in the US will need in 2020), my Pre-check TSA number (no lines, no undressing, etc), and, lo and behold, my Social Security Card.
The TSA fingerprints you.
In the process, remarkably, I found my original birth certificate. How and why I had that little antique document is beyond me. Stuffed mouldering in the back of some old drawer.
Part of the hassle was getting a SS card. I haven't had one for decades, old one probably disintegrated. But you need one as part of the REAL ID process, which entails a fun visit to the SS office with all sorts of supporting stuff.
I think I now have all the legal documents I need, including my Concealed Carry permit. All of these documents vet you out fairly well, it seems. The latter vets you through the police and the FBI.
Eat Less Red Meat, Scientists Said. Now Some Believe That Was Bad Advice. - The evidence is too weak to justify telling individuals to eat less beef and pork, according to new research. The findings “erode public trust,” critics said.
No wonder Trump seems to be spoiling for this fight. With an eye on Bill Clinton’s presidency, he may even relish a lengthy impeachment battle that uncovers no crime while showing that congressional Democrats are more intent on pursuing a vendetta against a president than helping the people they’re elected to serve.
After all, what surgeons can do these days to alter appearance is remarkable, if you have the dough. They can give you a new coronary artery, or even build a vagina for a guy, for heaven's sake.
This age issue occurred to me because a reader asked my age. Half-seriously, I think. So I considered whether the answer should be literal or not. Intellectual/wisdom age, physical-condition age, spiritual age, social/maturity age, tooth age, sexual functioning age, whatever.
A couple of costly bridges have restored my tooth age to 20. According to my cardiologist (who I only need for my annual stress test that my trainer requires), my cardio fitness/function is age 30 (after 4 years of daily workouts). I have more physical energy than I did at 45. My weight is about 10 lbs more than when I was 30, but it's mostly from weight-lifting in the past 4 years. My physique is youthful enough, but my face not so much... I joke that Mrs. BD should put a bag over my head but $5,000 could fix that too. My social maturity age ranges widely but I get along with most good people pretty well, and my intellectual/wisdom age can be judged by others. Definitely should be better.
And, consider this: I drive a zippy, growling Italian sports car that few 30 year-olds could afford. Lots of my pals decide it's time for toy cars as a reward. I think I'll pick my age as 45, averaging out all of the components. Having written that, watch me stroke out tomorrow.
How about you readers? What ages are you, really? The average age of your various components?
9 Revelations In The Atlantic’s Essay About NYC’s Kafkaesque Schools - George Packer’s extremely long Atlantic essay contains gems of leftist cognitive dissonance, some funny, some enraging, and some heartbreaking. Here’s a list...
The Democrats moved so smoothly from Russia and racism to Ukraine that I hardly noticed. Whatever they are talking about — we aren’t entirely clear yet — it requires President Trump’s removal from office. That is the common denominator. They can’t wait for the election coming up next year to dispose of bad man orange.
" Do the leftists behind the anti-American indoctrination program of the past decades, of which the 1619 Project is a lagging indicator, think America is worth defending? I doubt it."
If You Can’t Sell Your Hysteria to Adults, Try Kids
There are countries such as China that desperately want to defeat Trump and had that interest in the 2018 midterm elections and in 2020 elections. We know that China is actively manipulating its actions to help achieve the goal of a Trump loss in 2020. Are Rucker, Costa and Bade suggesting that whichever Democrat Trump runs against should face “legal consequence” for whatever machinations they employ?
Professor Larry Backer of Penn State University writes in a 2018 paper that resistance to social credit systems in the west could be dissolved when the masses are “socialized… as a collective” and “…the great culture management machinery of Western society develop a narrative in which such activity is naturalized within Western culture”
What Green New Dealers are talking about has nothing to do with stopping dangerous manmade climate change – or with real sustainability, resource conservation or environmental protection. It has everything to do with increasingly socialist, largely taxpayer-financed activists, politicians, regulators and crony capitalists controlling people’s lives; dictating our energy use, economic growth, job opportunities and living standards; and getting richer, more powerful and more privileged in the process.
Meanwhile poor, minority and working class families – pay the price. And destitute families in hungry, impoverished, electricity-deprived nations pay the highest price. China, India, Indonesia and Africa are not about to give up their determined efforts to take their rightful, God-given places among Earth’s healthy and prosperous people. They are not going to stop using fossil fuels to reach their goals.
... a large bureaucracy will, in approximately 100 percent of cases, become extremely wasteful, and essentially corrupt. It will perpetuate the “problem” that it was founded to solve, and at its most creative, invent new and quite imaginative evils. It will become a vested interest — an “economic player” in its own right — and spread, like a cancer, well beyond the flesh it first inhabited. Any attempt to restrain it will then engender new bureaucracies. The idea of a “humane” bureaucracy is a contradiction of terms. There is no such thing.
NYC Is Now 
HOMEMADE
A New Theory Explains How Consciousness Evolved - 
my age?