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.
Let's not fool ourselves. "I believe Juanita" doesn't just mean that you're generally in favor of believing women when they report sex crimes. It means you believe that for eight years our country was in the hands of a violent rapist.
My Alabama friends say they'll vote for Moore regardless, given the alternative. He was not their choice in the primaries, but the primaries were screwed up. They also hated Trump personally, but voted for him anyway. Lots of voting is voting against, not voting for.
I'm not talking about Urban Hiking, which we always do in Europe and in NYC. I'm talking about off-road "hill walking" which is how they term challenging hiking in Europe.
Mrs. BD and I have explored most of the parts of Italy (and pretty much all of Sicily too). Still need to get to Bologna, tho. Anyway, Mrs. BD's favorite area is Umbria. It has the mountains and the villages, the Sibillini national park, the black truffle, norceria, and of course Norcia itself which is all about food, St. Benedict, and our friends the Monks of Norcia. Also, Assisi - but one visit to that tourist trap is enough.
"Aulicism." This is a rare word that means "A courtly expression or turn of phrase" or — and this is a historical usage — "A tendency or attitude amongst clergymen to become attached to the secular ways and values of court, or to seek political influence and power, at the expense of devotion to religious and spiritual matters."
"There are only 2 genders. Change my mind." Crowder video
"I hate to use the word 'corrupt,' but they become so dirty that ... who is watching the watchmen? Who is investigating these people? There is no one."
2.2 Million New Jobs Since Election... Record low unemployment rate for manufacturing...Hispanic unemployment rate drops to 4.7% - LOWEST in history of USA... MORE...
Drudge headline:
CNN BOTCHES ANOTHER 'BOMBSHELL' THREE BIG MEDIA SCREW-UPS IN WEEK TRUMP UNLOADS
It’s another black mark for CNN. I have said before that CNN should abandon all of its television programming, and simply fill the screen with a sign that says, “We hate President Trump.” That would save a lot of trouble, and avoid quite a few factual errors
It is as if a hurricane has swept through Washington. Each fallen pillar represents a very deliberate reversal of the status quo ante policies of Barack Obama. The entire edifice the former president erected in his eight years in office is in the process of being systematically demolished. Unsurprisingly, Crain's Chicago Business reporter Greg Hinz reported a very unhappy former president warning that Trump was nothing less than a new McCarthy, Nixon, or Hitler while speaking at the Economic Club of Chicago...
President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel will be as a stab in the heart to the Arab World. But anything else would be to succor Arab hopes that Israel might some day be defeated and eliminated
... cities and states keep making these CDBG-funded loans on the dubious assumption that distressed areas suffer primarily from lack of investment, which government can remedy with taxpayer money. There’s little evidence that such government lending works, though, and much of it turns out to be frivolous. Recently, for instance, local officials have lent $80,000 in CDBG money to a brewery and tasting room in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, $205,000 to an apiary in northern Michigan, $25,000 to a T-shirt store in Batavia, New York, and $90,000 to a distillery in Gardiner, Maine. Funders seem to have a particular fondness for spirits. Living- ston County, in New York’s Finger Lakes region, announced a competition last year to provide loans using $600,000 in CDBG funds to four craft breweries that agreed to open in the county. The Finger Lakes region already boasts about 100 small breweries.
Exactly right. Unlike career politicians, Trump keeps his campaign promises. Let's face it: the Palis are nothing but trouble and nobody in the world likes them. Even Putin says Jerusalem is Israel's capitol.
The top story today continues to the be the continuing insanity of the Mueller "investigation" which, with the Torquemada-ing of Michael Flynn has officially morphed from trying to find/fabricate evidence of "collusion" into a political witch hunt into "obstruction."
If it's about obstruction, perhaps the FBI ought to investigate itself
In a series of heavily criticized tweets (aren't they always) Trump is asserting that the FBI's reputation is in tatters. Of course, he's right. This isn't justice as it's supposed to be, not even faintly. It's Kafka meets Orwell in the Deep State.
Robert Mueller may not realize it, but the conclusion of his investigation, whatever it is, will never be accepted by a huge percentage of the public. As the French say, Mentir est honteux. Lying is shameful. Mike Flynn may have lied, but so, undoubtedly, has the FBI, multiple times, more than Flynn could ever dream of doing or be capable of doing. And they're the ones we're supposed to trust in the end.
The FBI appears to be fully complicit in a cover-up that attempted to influence a presidential election for a favored candidate – Hillary Clinton. And the truth was trampled on a Phoenix tarmac.
I would answer No. The sex drive is strong in most people. Bill Clinton did not have a "stronger more manly sex drive" than other people; he was just a predator and exploiter. Manly men don't do that even if they want to because the key to "manly" is self-mastery, not self-indulgence or mastery of others - especially women.
Are there badly-behaved people, criminal people, boorish people, and people with poor self-control out there? Of course, as in all areas of life besides sex.
Related, THE PURGE OF THE DEVIANTS MAY GO TOO FAR. Regarding that piece, I'd remove the terms "deviants" and "pervs" that I keep hearing. Historically, rich and powerful men were free to use women as they wished to fulfill their fantasies without consequence. The Kennedys were famous for that, as were British royalty. I'd prefer to talk about decent and indecent behavior except in the cases of assault or rape, in which cases I would discuss criminality.
If John Conyers were a Republican, Cokie and her fellow females in the press corps would have wired themselves up with spy cameras and intentionally rode the elevators with Conyers day after day, capturing every lurid moment until they had enough to run an hour long expose on Nightline.
But he isn't, so they left this predator to prey on other unsuspecting females instead.
They still don't get that Trump is smarter than the lot of them. They think that because he does not speak as they do, because his sentence structure is unlike their own, he must be stupid. They are slow learners.
The male desire to interact with, flirt with, or hit on charming females will never be eradicated no matter how hard the man-haters try. We can accept that groping and touching in the wrong context are over the top, and not effective ways to initiate a connection anyway.
As an aside, I wonder why so many of these recently-exposed skirt-chasers are so into presenting themselves nude to women. I am thinking of Weinstein, Charlie Rose, Al Gore, etc etc. Do they really think they look good naked? Or are they delusional? Not from personal experience, but it seems to me that the only guys who look great without clothing are gays. Women, on the other hand...
Secret truth: Guys wish that appealing women would hit on them. Guys complain that they have to take all the risk and do all the work in this game. Generally speaking, guys don't mind being grabbed by appealing females, but it doesn't happen in normal life much.
Can't we simply accept that male-female interactions frequently contain elements of fun with sexual overtones, and that life without that would be dreary indeed.
Many students are given just one lens—power. Here’s your lens, kid. Look at everything through this lens. Everything is about power. Every situation is analyzed in terms of the bad people acting to preserve their power and privilege over the good people. This is not an education. This is induction into a cult. It’s a fundamentalist religion. It’s a paranoid worldview that separates people from each other and sends them down the road to alienation, anxiety and intellectual impotence.
Perhaps it is projection. It seems to me that most Americans, at least, seek power only over their own lives to seek their own form of satisfaction as best they are able to. Meanwhile, the power-seekers seek control over poor little us who only want to be left alone and to be given nothing.
How to
Duck-like dinosaur fossil, plucked from black market,
Photo: Lamborghini tractor
Photo 
On Advent: 
Photos: Above, Romanian bread lines under socialism, below, Romanians line up for new iPhone, Via