With The Wandering Monk in disappearance mode, I’ve been scrambling to keep up with summer house projects. Yesterday I worked on gutters, soffits, and trim. The toughest bit was removing a 28-foot section of old aluminum continuous gutter. This is a much more formidable object than you’d think — especially when it has raw metal edges and you’re on the fifth step of a ladder in the general direction said object is trying to fall. But isn’t falling because you have to yank and hammer on that one last stubborn connection that’s holding it to the rafters. And you just…
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While the rain kept me indoors this afternoon, I watched Little Pink House, the wonderful new indie movie about Susette Kelo and her fight (aided by the Institute for Justice) to keep her own Olde Wreck of a home. It’s not a documentary, but a dramatization with the great Catherine Keener as Kelo. Very good movie. I highly recommend it. Although small bits of the dialog are too expository (perhaps necessary to set up the complex legal and political issues), the performances are awesome and the story both uncompromisingly freedomista and surprisingly un-Hollywoodized. Keener totally nails Kelo. She’s an undereducated,…
11 CommentsThis was today’s main project. Not a big project; it was rainy and I got covered in mud from handling used concrete and 3/4-minus gravel (which has a lot of fine gritty stuff in it to encourage it to pack down). I came inside early. But I’m happy with this beginning of a front walkway. The kid rocked the area yesterday (over black plastic, of course, sloped slightly away from the house). I came back today and added a few cartloads to smooth the gravel, level it up, and give something more to hold the stones. I’d become a little…
6 CommentsThe tech giants are secretly meeting to protect their platforms against political manipulation collude in a joint electoral strategy. A rat is a rat is a rat is a rat, Scott Greenfield accurately notes. She frantically called cops twice for help getting her baby out of a hot, locked car. They blew her off. Both times. At least they later apologized, though. They didn’t come and taser her to death. That’s something. Bigger airplanes, smaller seats, weird proposals for change. If an American cop had done this, it would probably be considered one of the rare cop-firing offenses. This Argentinian…
4 CommentsI’m sorry for the irregular blogging the last few days. I’m racing — shoveling, hauling, painting, sawing, and prepping — to get house projects done before the rains descend. The good news on this front is that the kid showed up and put himself to work. The 13-1/2-year-old boy who lives next door spent Monday afternoon leveling dirt and today’s afternoon helping me spread some of the eight yards of gravel delivered this morning. The gravel arrived this morning when I was only half dressed. After dog-walking, I put on my sweats and heavy gloves and spread rock until and…
5 CommentsCato has released its 2018 rankings of freedom in the 50 states, compiled by William Ruger and Jason Sorens of the Free State Project. Yep, these ranks are subjective — and Cato recognizes that by allowing users to customize their own rankings by what they consider important. (Gun rights forever! Down with civil asset forfeiture!) And rightly so. Just glancing at the map is mindboggling. Wyoming next to and below Washington and Minnesota in freedoms? Seems unlikely — until you start playing around with the factors. Quite interesting. You could spend hours with the interactive map and customized rankings. Thank…
4 CommentsYeah, I know all you smartphone people have cameras in your pockets. My dumbphone has a camera, too. But it’s not worth much. So this morning I didn’t get a photo of the car that had a) a big sticker identifying the owner as a member of one of the local tribes and b) a big sticker supporting one of the local sports teams, which depicts a stereotypical Indian leaping around doing a war-whoop. Tolerance. It’s what’s rural. —– In the second case, I couldn’t have taken a photo, because part of the subject of the picture would have been…
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