Maggie's Farm

Not good.

 A Revival of Classical Education is Underway

 Freezing, Storing and Thawing My Eggs Cost Me $33,179. I Still Didn’t End Up With a Baby.

 Bari’s Picks of the Week: Deals! Deals! Deals!

Stuart's Miscellany

Trump’s ‘knock-down-drag-out counterrevolution’ is tackling long-festering ills no one else would

Liberals Are on the Verge of a Major PR Pivot. And Their Next Target Will NOT Be Trump.

 Democrats Are Digging Their Political Graves -- and Trump Is Selling Them the Shovel

The Democrats’ trillion-dollar reparations racket = I couldn’t take a check in good conscience

I think we drove over 1000 miles in our rented Nissan (nice car) from Lisbon airport, east into central Portugal, then north to the Douro Valley, then west to Porto, then down to Lisbon again. 12 days. The central plains are all agricultural (cork groves, olive groves, hayfields, huge pastures for sheep and cattle) then north (apples, chestnuts, peaches, cherries) until the endless hillside vineyards begin.

- The highways are excellent and well-marked. A pleasure. No traffic. Zero litter. Good truck lanes on hills.

-  The rest stops are unprepossessing until you get inside. Really nice.

- Never saw anything but spotless bathrooms anywhere.

- Storks nesting all over, especially on powerline structures. Lots of swallows too. Harriers and Golden Eagles on hillsides.

- Off-highway, country roads. Good condition but curvy.

- You get tired of seeing hillside castles and fortifications. Wars since Roman times. We stayed in a few old fortified places.

- Everybody speaks at least some English, from grade school.

- Things generally are much less expensive than I expected.

- Meals are too large. Best thing I had there was a pile of sliced foie gras with a good drizzle of port wine reduction. Mrs. BD's favorite was a venison stew full of whole chestnuts. Yes, their pork and bacalao and oysters and fried cuttlefish too. Octopus always on menus too.

- The standard beer is SuperBock.

- Mapquest works perfectly. So does Alltrails for hiking. Interestingly, Merlin works for bird song. Those apps are life-changing for travelers.

- May is perfect. Maybe up to 70 day, 50s at night. Summer too hot.

- Plenty of Asian tourists. Few Moslems to be seen. We met a few people to connect with - an older Aussie guy smoking while his wife was in some shop, a couple from Newfoundland (really) but he grew up in Yonkers, and a serious boating couple from Connecticut who had done the Great Loop three times. Sheesh.

- If you ever imagined that Porto was a cute fishing village, think again. Streets crowded with tourists - Brits, Asians, Scandinavians, Germans, Canadians - all sorts. Not lots of Americans.

On our drive south from Porto to Obidos, we stopped in a seaside joint for grilled sardines. Nice. I do not know why they gave me a dark beer, but it was hydrating.

Mrs. BD is a world-class trip-planner and an adventurous one too:

 Glow in the Dark Flowers!

 My Robot Sophia Wasn’t Just a Machine. I Loved Her.

 DEI Destroys the Beauty of a Great Opera. Why do music critics bring their politics to bear on precisely that which is meant to transcend our time and place?

 "I Can't Understand My Professor"

 TGIF: The Emir of America - The Afrikaners arrive in America. The Pope has a Facebook brother. Trump’s trade war worked. Hindus don’t get a heritage month. Britain’s PM goes MAGA. And much more.

Chicago: Why is CPS treating charter and private schools like liquor stores?

 "You're sitting here, live, defending a member of MS-13!"

The prosecution of President Trump was an organized effort by the Democratic Party "resistance." Lawfare is real. The justice system was weaponized against President Trump.

Supremes consider whether one district judge can derail a president

Justice Thomas Destroys the Case for Nationwide Injunctions With One Devastating Question

I could use this guy

Check out this robot

Demonology - By turns benign and malign, powerful and vulnerable, earthbound and aerial, daimons across the world resemble one another

As The Federal Government Abandons The Climate Fantasy, New York Doubles Down

 American Colleges Are Building a New Elite - The best and brightest are increasingly unwelcome on campus.

 Mississippi rising: Look South for progress in reading achievement

The Most Important Speech of Trump’s Presidency

Miranda Devine: The left tries to claim white South Africans aren’t worthy of refugee status

 Make America Uganda! I've always wanted to write a column where every sentence is a hate crime.

White House Calls Out Episcopal Church Over Refusal to Help White Refugees

How Qatar Bought America - It’s not just the 747. A Free Press
investigation reveals that the Gulf state has spent almost $100 billion
across Congress, colleges, think tanks, and corporations. What does it
want in return?

 Trump Shocks the World — Again

 The Answer Isn’t Studying

Without wanting to sound like an old guy, that would not have worked for me.

It is complicated.

Why Europe’s Lights Went Out - Spain’s blackout is a cautionary tale of overreliance on wind and solar.

Poll: college-educated women end friendships over politics - Your experience of losing friends since the 2024 election is absolutely real

Ahead of the Curve - Jay
Bhattacharya, Marty Makary, and Vinay Prasad challenged the public
health orthodoxy in our pages. Now, they have the power to fix things.

The Deep State’s Worst Nightmare

I’m a Yale free-speech champion — arrested for words I never said

Roger Kimball: Donald Trump is a Great Man of History

Your Standard of Living Is About to Improve

‘A Defeated Party In The Wilderness’: Fmr Clinton Pollster Predicts What’s Next For Democrats

Merz Meets Reality: Europe Still Needs U.S. for Ukraine, NATO

Israel Up Close - My travels through a demonised democracy.

Alaska Defies Court Order, Moves Forward with Controversial Bear-Killing Program Despite Ruling It Is Illegal

Bananas Under Threat From Global Boiling

ASU campus that is 30% male says it will focus on ‘gender equity’ – for women

VDH:  The Decivilizing of America - From secure borders to functioning
cities, America is shedding the hard-won pillars of civilization—by
choice, not chance—in a sweeping, top-down descent into disorder.

Why Elon Musk Is Right: The Case Against Subsidizing Amtrak

 Financial Media's Tariff Incontinence: A Retrospective

Is President Trumps EO on Drug Prices 'Price Control'?

Trump's drug pricing order delivers blow to pharmacy benefit managers

Long American Tradition of Tension Between the Executive and the Judiciary

The Scandal Buried in the Air Force One Story

UK PM Keir Starmer now says migrants should learn English -- after arresting Brits for hate speech for saying the same thing

Germany Halts Surveillance of AfD Amid US Pressure and Legal Challenge Over Extremist Label

 Germany Is On The Brink Of National Suicide

I posted one of my pics of the picturesque Douro Valley yesterday. Except for the steepest parts, it's all vineyards.

The Douro Valley has produced plenty of table wines since Roman times, but is most famous for its Port Wines.

The table wine vines are irrigated, but the vines destined for Port are not.

Port Wines are a 17th Century invention, traditionally transported (mostly by Brits) from the town of Porto at the mouth of the Douro - hence Port.

I've never been much of a Port drinker, but I had a bit in Portugal. Whites and Tawnies. Nice. Unlike table wines, I can't tell much difference between expensive and cheaper Ports but connoisseurs can.

Here's a Brief History of Port Wine

Here's one of my pics of the valley, with the Douro, from the Ventozelo Hotel and Quinta.

Don't Be Too Nice

 Julie Burchill: I’m finally out of hospital and I’m haunted by my former self

The worst of the deadly sins - Envy and how to defeat it

 The American Pope - The newly elected pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, is seen
for the first time from the Vatican balcony on May 8, 2025, in Vatican
City. Pope Leo XIV is almost certainly the first Vicar of Christ to have fond memories of the ’85 Bears

Gender dysphoria should be treated with therapy instead of transition treatments, massive Trump-ordered HHS report urges

New York Finally Gets Serious About Mental Illness, In expanding
involuntary commitment, Governor Kathy Hochul, taking cues from Mayor
Eric Adams, has delivered meaningful mental-health reform.

Surprise! Ice is rebounding at BOTH poles

The Mind of David Brooks

 One Hundred Days of Ineptitude - Even those of us who sounded alarms
before the November election underestimated just how unhinged the second
Trump presidency would turn out to be.

Really?

Need More Proof That Polls Showing Trump Underwater Are Bogus?

America is Under Siege – 233 Federal Cases Against Trump

Speech and self-defense are dead letters in England

UK Officially Imposes Islamic Blasphemy Law

How a falsehood about Gaza became accepted as fact.

Arrived home today.

This is from our vineyard stay in the Douro Valley, but we drove and stayed in cool places all around central and northern Portugal. Posadas mostly, including a night in one of the towers in the Posada of Obidos.

Acts 9:36-43

9:36 Now in
Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is
Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity.

9:37At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs.

9:38 Since
Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there,
sent two men to him with the request, "Please come to us without delay."

9:39 So
Peter got up and went with them, and when he arrived, they took him to
the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing
tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them.

9:40 Peter
put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned
to the body and said, "Tabitha, get up." Then she opened her eyes, and
seeing Peter, she sat up.

9:41 He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive.

9:42 This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.

9:43 Meanwhile, he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.

Statistically, anyway. There are quite a few cities up there.

Gale force winds are 39-54 mph winds. Windy.

I occasionally post the guys not so much because of their good seamanship but because of their mechanical knowledge. They can fix it, mostly. 

Acts 9:1-6, (7-20)

9:1 Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest

9:2 and
asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he
found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them
bound to Jerusalem.

9:3 Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.

9:4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

9:5 He asked, "Who are you, Lord?" The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

9:6 But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do."

9:7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one.

9:8 Saul
got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see
nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.

9:9 For three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank.

9:10 Now
there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in
a vision, "Ananias." He answered, "Here I am, Lord."

9:11 The
Lord said to him, "Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at
the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment
he is praying,

9:12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight."

9:13 But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem,

9:14 and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name."

9:15 But
the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen
to bring my name before gentiles and kings and before the people of
Israel;

9:16 I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name."

9:17 So
Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said,
"Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here,
has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the
Holy Spirit."

9:18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized,

9:19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength. For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus,

9:20 and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "He is the Son of God."

I don't think it's something to survive, but more of an adventure. On the psychological part, it gives young people a (partial) identity. Brick in the wall? Only kinda.

I know and have known quite a few Marines and a couple of ex-SEALs too. Army and regular Navy too, of course. A good thing for a young person, and good for the country.