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.
Photo above - winter Robins taken by a reader. Many Robins and Bluebirds in New England do not migrate, and live on old fruit. Sometimes they get drunk on fermented fruit and berries.
From It’s The End Of Sex As We Know It - Feminism has gone off the deep end, commercializing both sex and women and claiming that their subjugation is instead a demonstration of their power:
Given the Dr. Frankenstein aspects of modern medical technology, Kendall’s biologically mystifying claim, “You don’t have to have a vagina in order to be pregnant,” is true, but a more obvious explanation seems to be that Kendall and a great many of her peers have lost their minds...
I never saw the need, or use, for Google Glass. People who had them were weird, a bit stuck-up, and their quirky behavior was not a selling point. It's no surprise to me that the entire project fell apart over differences in marketing, but the addition of an illicit affair just makes the story that much more interesting.
There are a few things to take away from a story like this. First, keep it platonic. I've never felt there is a good reason to get involved with anyone you work with. I have a hard enough time with people in my own industry, having to date someone at the same company would be murder. The old "Don't crap where you eat" are words to live by. Second, it's clear Google is not without its imperfections. Those who think Google is becoming a monopoly or overly dominant have some legitimate fears. Perhaps those fears are overblown, though. Back in the 1980's a friend of mine used to say "Someday, we'll all work for IBM." By 1995 it was "Someday, we'll all work for Microsoft." Today, you can figure out who we're all going to work for. I doubt it. Google is very good at what they do, but there are no guarantees they will take over everything. Finally, while I don't see any reason to dislike the idea of Google Glass, I just don't see the fit today. Apple's Newton was about 10 years ahead of its time, but there is clearly a market for handheld computing. Maybe computing glasses will make a comeback. I wouldn't be hopeful, but I don't see why they can't be the next thing, either.
Want an idea of how big Google is? Submitted for your approval, a video that has a tinge of conspiracy paranoia, but is completely clear in its intent to just show you everything Google is doing without making judgments.
The Right is finally coming around to the understanding that what mainly distinguishes it from the Left is not its general preference for muscular foreign policy, its not always convincing defense of the Judeo-Christian tradition, or even its relatively faithful reading of the Constitution, as important as those things are. Rather, the fight between Right and Left is about coercion.
Bingo! It's about freedom.King George's yoke was light indeed compared to our current feds, but I guess our current yoke is more or less voluntary.
Obama made his foolish and condescending prayer breakfast talk a too-easy target for mockery. Surely unintentionally - I believe he thought he was conveying an important perspective about tolerance and understanding to us benighted, ignorant citizens. Our moral and intellectual superiors, of course.
Best comment was from Bobby Jindal: "The Medieval Christian threat is under control, Mr. President."
Thanks, David Warren - Good Health May Be Bad for You- for commenting on our short piece. A bit from him about the Yankee spirit:
Through Robert Frost and many predecessors, poetic and other, I recognize strengths and weaknesses in the species. Currently I am focusing on strengths.
There is a certain rough-hewn spirit of independence that goes deeper than any politics, and is expressed with a laconic drollness that cannot be defeated by the world. You could not enslave these people. They would not cooperate.
Cooperate only when we want to.Often, our bias is not to.
We must strive to be multiculturally tolerant and understanding of different views. Anyway, Christians do it too, right? Heck, we behead adulterers, gays, and blasphemers routinely in our church. It's a lot of fun. The masturbators, we bury alive just like the Muslims but we're running out of space for that in the churchyard and are considering using the Town Dump.
Barack Obama’s plan to tax the earnings from parents’ “529” college-savings plans lived just long enough to indicate why some progressives perhaps prefer slow rather than rapid economic growth. Rapid growth reduces the appeal of redistributive policies and the need for the bitter, jostling, divisive politics that advance such policies. The 529s help enable families to achieve self-sufficiency. This excites progressives’ dislike of any private provision that impedes implementation of their dependency agenda.
The feds want to regulate fireplaces and wood stoves, which burn biofuel. But they want to cut down trees for biofuel - and to term it "carbon free" which is ridiculous. They want good food (maize - corn) turned into alcohol for fuel, which is more inefficient than oil or gas and produces more pollutants and screws up engines.
Meanwhile, they are still pushing electric cars, which are powered almost completely by...coal.
There's nothing complicated about it: Capitalism requires the discipline of losses being taken by those responsible, the firing of incompetents and the destruction of imprudent lenders.
and
Let's set aside the propaganda for a moment and get real: anyone with the slightest knowledge of Greek finances and the power structure of the Greek economy/society knew it was insanely risky to loan Greece billions of euros.
Army Deletes Tweet About ‘Chinks In Armor’ After People Cry Racism - Apparently, being “offended” is a force so powerful that not even the U.S. Army can stand up to it.
Ben Kingsley on the holocaust: Pointing to a painfully ironic experience he had on the set of a Holocaust-related film staged in Budapest, he recalled an elderly passerby who told him, “It never happened, and if you don’t shut up it will happen again!”
Measles is not particularly dangerous as infectious diseases go. Like Mumps (crazy names, aren't they?), serious sequelae are rare. Most people past 40 had Measles and/or Mumps or were exposed to them. However, these are those unpleasant things which had been eliminated in the Western world.
"It’s good to explore alternatives rather than go with the panic of everyone around you,” she said. “Vaccines don’t feel right for me and my family.”
They don't "feel right"? What?
Not long ago, parents tried to expose their kids to other kids with Mumps, Measles, and Rubella (German Measles) to get it over with during Grade School.
There are moments in economic reporting when seasonal adjustments make sense. But in reporting temperatures?
My fraternity had a summer paper that we mailed out to members. Its motto was "All the sh*t that fits, we print." This has been the motto of the IPCC for quite a long time.
Super Bowl Sunday. Why not Super Duper Bowl? For you furriners, it's a very big deal in the US, as big as the World Cup is to you. These guys are skilled and very strong gladiators if, like gladiators of old, not always model citizens.
Super Bowl is an American excuse for a winter party, and pretty much everybody in America goes to one regardless of football interest. By tradition, Super Bowl party food ranges from disgusting to just plain fattening. For me, I'd be happy to never see any more guacamole in my life. Beer is the required libation, sometimes supplemented by better stuff. Often, people drink and eat a little too much just to endure the forced fun. Games take hours due to the advertising interruptions.
Most importantly, the Super Bowl is about gambling. Therefore, Go, Pats! I put in a bet, Pats by 6, but I won't watch the game and will socialize instead. Football has become too slow and too boring for my ADD.
The Hack That Warmed the World -Europe’s carbon-trading market was supposed to be capitalism’s solution to global warming. Instead, it became a playground for gangsters, international crime syndicates, and even two-bit crooks -- who stole hundreds of millions of dollars in pollution credits.
Tractors 
Super Bowl Sunday. Why not Super Duper Bowl? For you furriners, it's a very big deal in the US, as big as the World Cup is to you. These guys are skilled and very strong gladiators if, like gladiators of old, not always model citizens.