Maggie's FarmWe 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. |
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Wednesday, May 16. 2018Attitudes vs. Opinions
Opinions, I suppose, require rational arguments whereas attitudes do not. Attitudes, it seems to me, come from temperamental predispositions, personal experiences, social environment, and the like. Nobody asks you to support a general attitude with data. What's your view? Is it a meaningful distinction or not? I think it is.
Posted by The Barrister
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13:40
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Saturday, May 12. 2018The Last Days Of Lehman BrothersIt's one hour.
Posted by Bird Dog
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16:15
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Thursday, May 10. 2018Existence is an unfolding miracleThe dangers of rationalistic arrogance. We're too powerful. Contend with your own malevolence.
Posted by The News Junkie
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17:59
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Wednesday, May 9. 2018A Maggie's attitudeTaleb believes that individuals require a great deal of autonomy in order to be truly free. In this view, working in large corporations or other hierarchical environments is antithetical to freedom. Arnold Kling, in a review of Taleb's new book Skin in the Game
Posted by The Barrister
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14:27
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Wait Staff
Of course, the dramatic moments are when you drop a fully-loaded tray because some little kid scurries in front of you. Big crash, everybody has to rubberneck. Good times. Just busing tables at large events quickly and efficiently is a skill. Delivering food to the tables is another skill. When I was in college, we figured 40 wait staff for 1000 guests, 4-5 for 150 guests. It's a work-out. Always tip wait staff. Always, in the US anyway.
Posted by The News Junkie
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13:15
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Saturday, May 5. 2018Marriage algorithmsProf. Peterson quips that people marry the best person they can get who can tolerate them. Here's an idea: You May Now Kiss the Algorithm. A mathematical solution ensures no one is paired with an unacceptable mate
Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss
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16:22
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Friday, May 4. 2018The end of the Boy Scouts
Is the idea of being a decent, kind, and honorable person who has many basic life skills an obsolete one? Of course not. Among other things I learned as a Scout, I learned to be always kind to the elderly, to change a tire, to confront bullies and jerks, CPR, how to start a fire in the rain with wet wood, basic riflery and firearm safety, point-to-point navigation on land and sea. I also learned that outdoor camping, regardless of weather, is better in the telling than in the doing. Still, there is nothing as fine as sitting around a campfire. For adults like me who seek and aspire to living a strenuous life rather than a relaxed one, the guys put together a sort-of adult Boy Scout program: 12-WEEK INITIATION INTO THE CULT OF STRENUOSITY.
More on PetersonMore from that Esquire article, via Thompson:
Posted by The News Junkie
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14:16
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Thursday, May 3. 2018Col. Barfoot's storyColonel Van T. Barfoot won the Congressional Medal of Honor in World War II. He also fought the battle vs his local homeowner's association to erect a flagpole in his front yard. It's quite a story. What a man!
Posted by Bird Dog
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16:07
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Wednesday, May 2. 2018Hot teachers
Posted by Bird Dog
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17:40
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"Get yourself together."
He's right. Peterson is a (mostly secular) pastor with a dark message (Life is suffering, a hard thing to do) and a challenge to life adventure (Fight chaos, Be the best you can be, Don't make things worse, etc.). Like a good preacher, he brings truisms and even banalities back to life in a useful and, for many, inspirational way. He rights the ship in a crazy world. Besides that, he's smarter and more articulate than any of us. God bless him.
Posted by The News Junkie
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17:23
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Sunday, April 29. 2018People vary on many dimensionsSkin tone is just one of them, and perhaps the least important one. Why "white privilege" isn't real:
Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss
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13:29
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Brunch?
My best Sunday morning: Early one-hour workout, church, brunch with friends in an outdoor cafe with a Bloody Mary or Bloody Bull, until 1 or 2 pm. Then go do something interesting or go for a walk. Life can be wonderful and beautiful if structured correctly and a Sunday brunch is part of that on a lovely Spring day.
Posted by The News Junkie
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12:34
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Thursday, April 26. 2018Brooklyn, NY
Winter image is some village in Brooklyn by Francis Guy, c. 1819. On its own, Brooklyn is perhaps the 3rd largest city in the US. However, it was incorporated into New York City in 1898 after much political squabbling. It's basically a 70 square-mile peninsula of the western end of Long Island, jutting into New York harbor. Named after Breukelin in Holland as it was first settled by the Dutch (if you don't consider the Lenape Indians who were there then). It is a boom town now with high-rise office buildings and luxury buildings sprouting up everywhere. Gentrifying rapidly. Still, much of it is a brownstone townhouse and wood-frame house city of developments built on farmland from the mid-1800s through the 1920s. Like much of the New York metropolitan area, it has an abundance of relatively distinct neighborhoods distinguished by class, ethnicity, affinity groups, etc. There are Hasidic and Orthodox areas, black areas, Italian neighborhoods, hipster neighborhoods, blue-collar neighborhoods, fully-mixed neighborhoods, quite down-at-the- heels areas like East New York, industrial and warehouse areas, upper class neighborhoods - almost everything but Asian neighborhoods which are mostly in Queens. And yes, Coney Island too. While it is a city unto itself, there is no doubt that the economic engine for it is Manhattan even though many Brooklynites rarely venture into Manhattan. And vice-versa, except for the BAM and Peter Lugar's Steakhouse. There's a good map of the Brooklyn neighborhoods below the fold. Our 12-mile hike last Sat. did not get much further than the westernmost neighborhoods. It would take a lot of time to explore the whole place on foot. I have a daughter in Crown Heights and a nephew in Williamsburg. One of our hiking pals was born in Brooklyn Heights. My grandma (from Norwalk, CT) taught school in Clinton Hill before she got married to a prosperous physician from Connecticut. Will post my photos when I get around to it. Continue reading "Brooklyn, NY"
Posted by Bird Dog
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17:44
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Wednesday, April 25. 2018Sex dataA question from 12 Sex Facts You Didn't Know: At Florida State University, a study was done on gender differences between men and women. Attractive, well-dressed students approached the opposite gender and asked one of the following three questions: Would you go out with me tonight? Would you come over to my apartment tonight? Would you go to bed with me tonight?
Posted by The News Junkie
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15:09
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Sunday, April 22. 2018A more seriously-demanding NYC urban hike: The Great SaunterThis was an-all NYC weekend for us. A splendid, uplifting weekend all-round. Glorious. Took a daughter and her boyfriend to see the Met's Thomas Cole show today after an early morning 4 mile mini-urban hike with my sis and her hubbie to loosen up stiff muscles from yesterday's hike (with evil Starbucks break this morning). Good informative show and ran into good family friends there serendipitously so the kids had to catch up and chat too-loudly in the museum. Saw his Oxbow painting of a sight which all drivers up and down Rte 91 near Northampton have seen. At lunch, the good boyfriend told us that he, his dad, and his uncle will participate with 1400 people in this year's The Great Saunter on May 5th. It's a 32-mile all-day Manhattan hike. This event is new to me, but I love the idea. By comparison, our hikes are Little Saunters. 32 miles would be a challenge for me now but, dammit, I would finish it if I had to crawl. I have a friend who had to crawl a mile to finish the Hawaii Ironman triathlon a few years ago. His wife was proud of him. Here's Cole's 1836 The Oxbow:
Posted by Bird Dog
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16:10
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Cures for Self-Confidence
- Socializing with high-achieving, highly life-competent witty people I welcome your suggestions for deeper humility in the comments - Saturday, April 21. 2018How to get out of a conversationGood advice, but it's also always a good idea to sense when somebody is tired of taking to you. Sorry to say, they probably are. On both ends, short and sweet is best in most cases unless you are lucky enough to get a truly lively and jovial interaction going.
Posted by The News Junkie
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16:33
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PickleballA friend recently extended his driveway to put in a Pickleball court. The game is like a cross between tennis, ping-pong, paddle tennis, etc. It looks like this:
Posted by The Barrister
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15:46
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Wednesday, April 18. 2018"Show me the man and I'll find you the crime."
I continue to recommend the (depressing) Three Felonies a Day by Prof. Harvey Silverglate. You can count on it. You are a felon. There are 6000 federal crimes (including owning an owl or eagle feather), and nobody knows all of them until somebody looks one up to pin on somebody they decide to target. That's not counting the 40,000 pages of federal regulations. Feel free to confess in the comments for your trivial crimes which might be past the statute of limitations.
Posted by The Barrister
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13:25
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Tuesday, April 17. 2018A superb writer has died: Bill NackFrom Sports Illustrated: And here's Nack's reminiscences of his favorite horse, Secretariat: Pure Heart
Posted by The Barrister
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14:50
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Sunday, April 15. 2018How to be Ultra-Spiritual
Posted by Bird Dog
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15:34
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Bike-Sharing Graveyards
Posted by Bird Dog
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06:01
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Friday, April 13. 2018Manhood
Historically, the path from boy to man was hard-earned and marked by specific achievements. With the modern invention of adolescence and "extended adolescence", the lines are blurred. Like the song says, a "mannish boy" is not a man. Puberty does not make a man, nor does sexual activity. Are the ideal "manly" qualities today very different from those of the past? I don't know. I can tell you what qualities my friends aspire to and work towards as a life-long project: providing for and protecting family and progeny, independence, courage and shame for weakness, the willingness to take risk, the willingness to be tough and forceful when needed, a seriousness about life while remaining cheerful, physical fitness and athletic development, mental fitness, spiritual development, skill development of all sorts, community involvement, responsibility and integrity, kindness and being a good friend, having constructive life goals, generosity of spirit, etc etc. We discuss these things in our men's Bible study group. It's a tall order, and that is exactly the point. We all raise boys to aspire towards these qualities, knowing full well that it is a challenging and difficult path with many speed bumps and disappointments. (How different or difficult the path is for women is not something I feel qualified to discuss.) When I went off to prep school at 13, on the first day the Headmaster said to us (paraphrased from memory): "Welcome, boys. You have said your goodbyes to your parents and have had a nice lunch. We are delighted to have you now officially join our school. I am sorry to tell you that we will make it very hard for you and you will suffer many disappointments but we expect that you boys will become adult young men who are a credit to this school when you graduate. One more warning. Disappoint us too deeply and you will be sent home to your Mom. Please do not do that. Since we picked each of you carefully and personally, we expect that each one of you will have victories too in whatever areas you choose. If you have troubles with something, let us know. We are on your side but we will be tough in expecting and demanding your success, so get ready for the adventure. Give everything your best. You have one hour to settle into your rooms, and then report to the Field House for your health and physical fitness and sports assessments. Good luck, boys, and I will see you tomorrow morning in Chapel." Good little speech about male privilege. Although the intellectual challenges were intense, overall it seemed secondary to their focus on personal development, to expand oneself to become the best, most developed person you could be. School, or parents, same message. At Qulllette, this: Becoming a Man Related, quotes on What does it mean to be a man?
Posted by The Barrister
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12:06
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Thursday, April 12. 2018The P Value controversy
At the least, he recommends it for new research findings. A good discussion.
Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss
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14:22
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