Saturday, September 30. 2023
Friday, September 29. 2023
Thursday, September 28. 2023
Wednesday, September 27. 2023
Tuesday, September 26. 2023
Monday, September 25. 2023
 Photo for our Woodchuck-hating readers. Our guy likes the tomatoes I put on the table to ripen
Zombie Salmon
More schools are adopting 4-day weeks. For parents, the challenge is day 5
The Strategy of Dating Short Men - Why don't more women use it?
How Trauma Can Become a Catalyst for Personal Growth. For some people, adversity isn’t something to just get past. As I discovered, it can also be the impetus for new, positive behaviors.
Mayo clinic now says hydroxychloroquine MAY be used to treat...whut?
Medical Examiner’s Office source: Only 1 to 2 percent of 'COVID deaths' were really COVID
Why Is Anxiety Rising? Fears of extinction, Covid, socializing and a second Trump term are all at play.
Why are so many young men so angry online?
There is no such thing as a ‘sex spectrum.’
Is Censorship a Partisan Issue?
Why do public intellectuals condescend to their readers?
Is the Americal left happy they got their wishes?
No surrender: More migrant buses sent by Governor Abbott are New York City bound
New York Post Sends Reporter to Restaurants Dressed Like Sen. John Fetterman- He is Refused Entry
Senate Relaxes Rules To Allow Fetterman To Take Baths In Reflecting Pool
Reading this week’s news of the Biden Administration, I kept thinking of the Three Stooges poking fingers in each other’s eyes.
WEIMAR 2? Destroying the German economy isn’t easy, but that country’s government is working hard at it.
France: Foreigners Commit 69% Of Robberies, Violent Crimes & Sexual Assaults On Public Transport
Russian Foreign Minister Says U.S. 'Directly at War' With Russia in Ukraine
Sunday, September 24. 2023
I remember when the situation in Ukraine began, we were assured the Russian claims of "Nazis" wasn't true. Since that original falsehood, the NYTimes has walked back the position slowly. But sometimes reality gets even more absurd than you can imagine. After all, when the Left, which once called Trump a 'Nazi', offers up a real Nazi for a standing ovation, you have to begin to wonder who the 'real Nazis' are. I've always known it is the Left, masquerading as they do as "anti-fascist" which allows them to behave in a fascist manner.
Point is, when you celebrate a Nazi, simply because he's Ukrainian and fought Russians in WWII, you confirm that you have created a self-perpetuating cycle of BS which is beginning to pile up. It becomes even worse when you utilize your media ties to block the information surrounding that person. The Left will say "but lots of German soldiers weren't Nazis." Soldiers, yes. Waffen SS, not so much. Let's just get a grip and call things what they are.
The cycle of leftist hypocrisy and lies is growing. We're just caught in their vortex.
Saturday, September 23. 2023
Friday, September 22. 2023
Thursday, September 21. 2023
Wednesday, September 20. 2023
I'll expand this and point out "Anti-Gouging Laws" are a form of sanctions and not only make strenuous situations more difficult, but they also create their own markets (among people willing to pay, pay cash, and keep their mouth shut). Lots of government agencies will claim they 'work' and cite a few specific and unusual examples and claim "victory." Pyrrhic, at best. The same is true with governments discussing sanctions.
International sanctions rarely work because of the point made in the title - they create 'black' markets. Russia's oil has sanctions against it? So what. Some country that doesn't care about the West will buy it on the cheap, then resell to nations that support the sanctions but are happy to play intermediary, and eventually it gets back to the West one way or the other. Either as refined product, or by markets elsewhere that undermine the larger market and disrupt supplies.
The communist world had sanctions against many Western goods - but they were always available in communist nations. My father traveled to Russia with a suitcase carrying a few extra cases of Marlboros (he didn't smoke) and a few pairs of Levis. Always good to have the local currency (contraband) ready just in case. A friend who travelled to Argentina 8 years ago, where currency controls were in place, was directed to join a "currency club" where they got a "preferred rate of exchange". The official Argentine rate was so bad, many people set up these "clubs" where they'd exchange at a better rate, knowing they could get the currency out and exchange at better rates outside of Argentina.
There aren't many examples of sanctions working and doing what they're supposed to do. Usually sophisticated nations can find ways out of, or around, sanctions.
In the modern world, the claim was Russia's removal from the SWIFT payment system would cripple them. Someone forgot that the decentralized nature of the internet and cryptocurrencies made the hegemonic controls of a SWIFT system problematic. If you're going to cut someone out of the system - when might YOU be cut out of the system (for any variety of political reasons)? Russia isn't crushing it, economically, but the claims about how poorly it would be doing by now were clearly overblown and based on a poor understanding of modern economic interactions.
Tuesday, September 19. 2023
I posted on Monday about the death of someone I'd gone to high school with and the conversations it sparked, as well as the odd situation it presented due to the poor teen experience I'd had (and since resolved for myself), and the difficulty of finality when a relationship ends poorly.
Part of writing in a forum like this is to just 'get stuff out there'. Another part is to share ideas or feelings that may help others. Still another part is seeing what others share back.
Every single comment made is helpful and meaningful. While I haven't written for quite some time (I really need to fix how I handle time management), this was something I felt was good to share. I'm glad I did and thank you to everyone who commented. Maggie's is not just a forum to write, it's a place to share. One reason I like to post anonymously is because writing can be a way to draw attention to yourself, and that's not what I write to do. While some readers do know who I am, most don't. I like seeing what almost all our readers have to say (there is a rare comment I can't abide by...but free speech still rules my life). In this particular case - all were very useful.
Death and Birth are two things which bind us all. It's something we're all going to experience. The stuff in between? We're all going through stuff. Just stuff. My believe is sharing will help develop ways8: for us to bind together in better ways. So always trying to be open.
Thank you.
Monday, September 18. 2023
Saturday, September 16. 2023
This is a song for an opera, Clari. It came to mind after 8 hours in hospital yesterday repairing 3 hernias. Really nice to get home:
Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there
Which seek thro' the world, is ne'er met elsewhere
Home! Home!
Sweet, sweet home!
There's no place like home
There's no place like home!
An exile from home splendor dazzles in vain
Oh give me my lowly thatched cottage again
The birds singing gaily that came at my call
And gave me the peace of mind dearer than all
Home, home, sweet, sweet home
There's no place like home, there's no place like home!
Friday, September 15. 2023
Thursday, September 14. 2023
Good luck with that. AI is just a slightly new software thingy. In fact, IBM has worked on more human-like computer interfaces for decades.
Can you really define what is AI and what is just clever software stuff? Plus it's world-wide now, and you can't insulate the US from internet things without a police state.
Senate starts to fracture over how to govern AI
Wednesday, September 13. 2023
 Bernie Taupin, Elton John’s lyricist, would like to have a word
Your Fault: Our ‘Climate Change’ Dystopian Future Is Here
Ames, Iowa, underrated mecca of science
The Dating Pool Dropouts - Young men today feel they must be six feet tall, make six figures, and have six inches downstairs to get a girlfriend—so many have given up trying
Endangered Whales Unprotected With Wind Industry In Violation Of Sonar Limits, New Research Finds
‘Too rock heavy,’ too ableist, too white: Geoscience students identify concerns in field
Democrats Froth and Seethe After John Kennedy Reads 'Gender Queer' During Senate Hearing
Slate: Maybe some of these books really aren't suitable for younger kids
High stakes at New College
Colleges making Gen Z mental health crisis worse with trigger warnings
A Faculty Committee Recommended Censure, but She Was Suspended and Banished Instead
"[E]ven if we spend another year between now and the election carefully analyzing the structure and shape of the madhouse we’re locked in, it’s still a madhouse."
Massachusetts governor panics over migrant arrivals - demands ‘Right-to-Shelter’ law reform
Tuesday, September 12. 2023
Photo of true love from a pal in Colorado
Trail Life USA Celebrates 10 Years of Picking Up Where BSA Left Off
Shostakovich in South Dakota - A manifesto for the future of American classical music
Mistranslation of Newton’s First Law Discovered after Nearly 300 Years. A new interpretation of Isaac Newton’s writings clarifies what the father of classical mechanics meant in his first law of motion
Feminists Are Outraged At Men Going Overseas To Find Traditional Wives
Italy is a good bet.
Academia becomes female
ANALYSIS: Students are entering college unable to write
A Kiss Is Just a Kiss. The uproar over a fleeting outburst of uninhibited joy is ludicrous.
Normal for Europeans, isn't it?
Spiked: The disturbing truth about Just Stop Oil
Electric Vehicles for Everyone? The Impossible Dream
No, a fad
Climate Change Calamities
A blunt and chilling (but accurate) appraisal of where our government schools are taking us
Amid another rise in cases, Covid’s new normal has set in
The Government Censored Me and Other Scientists. We Fought Back—and Won.
Professor to ‘hold space’ for students of color: ‘I see your pain, grief, anger’
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