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Monthly Archives: February 2017

Book review: How Propaganda Works

Thursday, February 9, 2017

How Propaganda Works, by Jason Stanley. Princeton University Press, 2015, 354 pages. I was very excited about reading this book when I first ordered it from Amazon, but I was soon disappointed. After a dynamite introduction, the book becomes bogged down in low-level philosophical questions — linguistics and epistemology. Though the book makes a couple […]

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Trespassing Across America now in paperback

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Ken’s second book, Trespassing Across America, was published last year in hardback. The paperback version was released yesterday. It’s available at Amazon and at most bookstores. One of the abbey’s bookshelves is reserved for the abbey’s own output. It will grow next year with the publication of Ken’s third book, This Land Is Our Land, […]

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Silence

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

What are you hearing right now? I hear a very faint noise inside the computer. I just heard Lily’s cat feet hit the floor downstairs as she jumped off her table by the window. Now I hear her downstairs lapping water from her bowl. I hear keys clicking as I type. I don’t hear any […]

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Yep, I’m a liberal

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

While doing some reading on “Moral Foundations Theory,” I came across this on-line test for “moral foundations.” I answered 36 sly and somewhat troubling questions, and the test identified me quite correctly as “left liberal.” The test attempts to measure the relative strength of your “moral foundations” in six categories: Care Fairness Loyalty Authority Purity […]

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New chicken house

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Today Ken finished the abbey’s brand new chicken house in the woods. We already have one perfectly good chicken house, in the garden. But a second chicken house gives us better options for where we pasture the chickens, according to season, to keep them happy and out of trouble — garden, orchard, or in the […]

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Uh-oh. More cookies.

Saturday, February 4, 2017

The abbey’s chocolate budget is pretty high. Though desserts are far from a regular thing, there’s always dark chocolate after supper — the good kind, organic chocolates from Whole Foods, usually 70 percent and above. If the chocolate runs low before I make a Whole Foods run, then some sort of emergency chocolate is necessary. […]

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Nature, confused

Saturday, February 4, 2017

These maple blossoms jumped the gun during a warm spell in late January. I hope the tree comes to no harm.

Filed in The land | | Comments (2)