Maggie's Farm

We 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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Much Sorry with Delays
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How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
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Good intro to fly casting
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Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
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Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
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Monday, January 19. 2009

Monday links

More snow yesterday and last night. This has been a wonderful winter thus far, cold and snowy, and cozy indoors. I got myself some nasty frostbite on my hands splitting and stacking firewood this past week. Just beginning to heal with the help of the BD daughter's special hand lotion stuff. Having sons is a darn good idea, but daughters take care of you.


Photo is my snow-covered duck boat.


16 things it took me 50 years to learn. Dave Barry


Are new jobs "stimulating"?


Jules needs a new system if he is going to continue to put up with his family's resentment of his blogging. His slow loading was bugging me, too.


Jew-baiting, then and now.


Bill Moyers vs. Abraham Foxman


"The sheer arrogance is breathtaking." Samizdata. Same in the US.


Towards market-based universities. Ward Connerly.


It's always fun to kick Tom Friedman around. He is indeed a legend in his own mind.


James Hansen: Obama has just 4 years to save the world. Meanwhile, Princeton Physics Prof unloads on the AGW charlatans


A parody or not?, from Slate's whine wine critic.


George Lakoff's job is to find new metaphors with which to render statist and socialist agenda items more palatable. Wilkinson discusses Lakoff's notion of "countries as clubs." I kept misreading this as "countries as country clubs."  Free golf for all? or "Free the Golf Foursome"?


More details from the proposed Dem spending that you might have missed.


Middlebrow Messiahs and The Rise, Fall, and Afterlife of The Great Books


A blog the Dyl found: The Contemporary Calvinist. He posted Jonathan Edwards' 70 Resolutions. It's all good.


The Eastern Church: How much do you know about it? One quote:



Eastern priests expect not only regular confession, but regular attendance, and most Eastern priests do not consider only every Sunday regular attendance. Both the Byzantine and Orthodox priests here expect attendance at Vespers as well as Matins and Liturgy on Sundays. The Orthodox parish offers Vespers and confessions every Wednesday and Saturday evening, and the priest expects attendance on Wednesday evenings, as well as Holy Days, in order to receive the Eucharist. Both priests require regular confessions.



The Plague hits Al Qaida. How nice for them.


I agree with this quote at Am Thinker:



It can be stated without fear of serious argument that no previous president has been treated as brutally, viciously, and unfairly as George W. Bush.


Bush 43 endured a deliberate and planned assault on everything he stood for, everything he was involved in, everything he tried to accomplish. Those who worked with him suffered nearly as much (and some even more -- at least one, Scooter Libby, was convicted on utterly specious charges in what amounts to a show trial).His detractors were willing to risk the country's safety, its economic health, and the very balance of the democratic system of government in order to get at him. They were out to bring him down at all costs, or at the very least destroy his personal and presidential reputation. At this they have been half successful, at a high price for the country and its government.



Related: Bush's Rehabilitation. Krauthammer.


Related: War on Terror most successful US military operation in history. Jefferson on the pirates has nothing on him.


Related: Bush saved ten million African lives. He is better appreciated in Africa than in the US.


Related: To trash Bush was to belong. Related: The infantile tantrums Bush endured, without any hostile reaction from him or from his admin.

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 08:11 | Comments (39) | Trackbacks (0)

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The American Thinker quote is accurate for our modern times, and those of us who are not Socialist might as well adapt or rebel, for we now have a firmly established socialist government backed by a majority of Americans who want more government intervention and guidance in their lives. The polls are very consistent on this.

This country is now the leading socialist country in the world and the socialists intend on keeping it that way.

All that has been sacrificed for generations is now simply history; history that will be rewritten by the socialists to futher bury what was real and futher prepare the coubtry for the Road to Serfdom.
#1 Habu on 2009-01-19 09:10 (Reply)
"coubtry" is a new word, or a typo. An amalgam of country and club or too may Irish coffees. Take you pick.
#2 Habu on 2009-01-19 09:18 (Reply)
I was thinking of moving to Bavaria for the Obama Years. If I have to live under socialism, I'd just as soon do it somewhere with a mandatory eight weeks of vacation and good local beer.
#2.1 HeatherRadish on 2009-01-19 11:45 (Reply)
I don't know Habu. The polls I've seen seem to indicate that people want Gov runned health care, but if companies have to fire people to pay for it the approval rating goes down to 29%. The people seem to want something for nothing and can't quite make the connection that nothing is free. Government programs are paid for by the working people. Most people these days can't fathom that. They still think that if its from the Gov its free.
I hope someone is investigating why those Al Qaida scum got The Plague. They're probably experimenting with it to use it for terroristic purposes.
#3 sean on 2009-01-19 09:33 (Reply)
Doubt it. That old disease still exists everywhere there are rats.
#3.1 Bird Dog on 2009-01-19 09:59 (Reply)
Re ruining a great coubtry via rat-carried plague, i'm finding a glimmer of hope in the barbs that Red Moron nancy pelosi keeps aiming at Obama. Wouldn't it be cool if he turned out to be a manchurian candidate alright but from the right rather than the left?
#4 buddy larsen on 2009-01-19 10:48 (Reply)
I've known quite a few Eastern Catholics including the late bishop of the Parma Eparchy of the Byzantine Church. I've always been fascinated by the other half of Catholicism. I've also known a couple of bi-ritual priests.

One other difference between the eastern rite churches and the Latin church is that married men can be ordained as priests, although a single priest can't marry. The eastern rules on celibacy are frequently raised in the argument against mandatory celibacy for Latin rite priests. The situation stands as a glaring inconsistency in the Vatican's position on the issue.
#5 Dr X (Link) on 2009-01-19 11:12 (Reply)
I am Protestant (born Congregationalist, whatever that means), so my view means nothing.

However, I love the RC Church and would have no problem with married priests. The Episcopalians and Anglicans do it... not that there are any real Episcopalians or Anglicans left.
#5.1 Bird Dog on 2009-01-19 11:23 (Reply)
I rather think it would be akin to a man keeping two families - both would be short-shrifted.
#5.1.1 The Distributist (Link) on 2009-01-19 12:52 (Reply)
True, like the Orthodox, but also like the Orthodox, bishops are drawn from monasteries and cannot be married.
#6 rightwingprof (Link) on 2009-01-19 11:20 (Reply)
It's a divorced priest, a man with a little experience, that you want as a spiritual advisor.
#7 bob on 2009-01-19 11:42 (Reply)
...if understanding & sympathy is in order. If church orthodoxy is the order, then (theoretically) experience doesn't matter; you need a scholar.
#7.1 buddy larsen on 2009-01-19 12:22 (Reply)
no wonder your hands have frostbite after seeing that picture of stacked wood. Looks like your back must be in pretty good shape though. Priests will never be allowed to marry in RC and it is a shame.
#8 opie109 on 2009-01-19 12:44 (Reply)
I lay in my firewood with an ax. I call my son and ax him to do it.
#9 buddy larsen on 2009-01-19 14:12 (Reply)
Wish I knew more about this, but I think in the earlier RC church priests could marry. Why or how this changed I'm not sure. One idea I picked up was that the men died early, and the church was saddled with the care of the wife and kids, and didn't much like the burden. I'm angling here for someone to tell me what the deal was.
----


Everything is now possible! Obama will save us!
#10 bob on 2009-01-19 14:27 (Reply)
I think it was the Council of Elvira in Spain in about 306 that first mandated a celibate clergy.
#10.1 Skookumchuk on 2009-01-19 14:59 (Reply)
Ax, and it will be hewed unto thee.
#11 bob on 2009-01-19 14:53 (Reply)
Most, maybe all, certainly Peter, of the Apostles seem to have been married. An organization built on these rocks would seem logically to allow for marriage.
#12 bob on 2009-01-19 15:08 (Reply)
So, the Salon writer is surprised that a recovering alcoholic allowed the White House wine cellar to atrophy? Way to think that through.
#13 MHB on 2009-01-19 15:17 (Reply)
Hey, best get that firewood under cover. Oh, right, where you are it won't rain for six months straight once the snow stops...
#14 Skookumchuk on 2009-01-19 15:28 (Reply)
BD, you cease to amaze me . Frost bite on the hands? Ever hear about gloves? I think they were made to keep your hands warm and dry.

Glad your Obama party went well. I know you are a closet demorat. Speaking about rats. What kind of neighborhood to you live in, that you have them. Get a Jack Russell Terrier.

Nice picture of the "new" tree rat that will destroy your new grill. I'm tired and going to bed, just got in from plowing. Yesterday and today . Got about 15"from both storms. I need my head examined, like someone else on this site.
#15 jappy on 2009-01-19 15:48 (Reply)
HOORAY! Just heard that Pres. Bush commuted the sentence of the two border agents who shot the drug dealer in the a___!

Thank you again Mr. President!
#16 apple pie on 2009-01-19 18:41 (Reply)
Now on to Scooter
#16.1 phil g on 2009-01-19 19:44 (Reply)
You can see a Scooter Libby trial right now at the movies. It's called "Valkyrie" and in it you can see the Nazi party holding trials for the Hitler would-be assassins.

OK that's hyperbole but only in degree. In kind, both were shows of criminalized politics. In Libby's case, one look at the jury and you knew that nothing mattered but the politics. Testimony might as well have been Tiny Tim singing "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" acommop uh accomppa uh backing himself on the ukulele.
#16.1.1 buddy larsen on 2009-01-19 20:20 (Reply)
h ttp://paracom.paramountcommunication.com/ct/2763146:3438194424:m:1:142131142:63E0BEC785708C3E899C58064064AE98

re RCs --whoee --this is powerful --
#17 buddy larsen on 2009-01-19 23:10 (Reply)
On sometimes I grieve because I am in conflict with my Jewish/American friends. Sometimes, I grieve because I am in conflict with my RC friends. But, I come from the land--I understand over grazing, and overpopulation. Better to do it voluntarily than not at all-- sorry, Buddy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_density
#18 apple pie on 2009-01-19 23:51 (Reply)
We humans are tragic critters, ap --for sure.
#18.1 buddy larsen on 2009-01-20 00:05 (Reply)
Population density... oy! Why not heed the words of Chesterton and let all the babies be born, then drown the ones we do not like?
#18.2 The Distributist (Link) on 2009-01-20 07:17 (Reply)
there's an enormous philosophy in the old chestnut "Where There's Life There's Hope".
#18.2.1 buddy larsen on 2009-01-20 07:44 (Reply)
Oh my, James Hansen is now totally paranoid. He needs to be institutionalized to keep him from hurting himself.
#19 Agent Cooper on 2009-01-20 00:58 (Reply)
Jesting aside, you may be close to the truth.

Imagine that you had staked your entire being on what you knew all along was a fraudulent "act now or the sky will fall" proposition, and --you are running out of time to stampede people into "acting now" in time to later claim that when the "nothing happened" non-event rolled onto the calendar, the non-eventedness was entirely due to the actions you had demanded having been at least in some measure implemented.

In lieu of any sort of implementation *at all*, at some point you'd have to either quietly disappear to a beachcomber's shack on Samoa, or roll the dice in a nothing-left-to-lose show of hail-mary throw-it-into-the-end-zone hysteria.

He's just reached that point, tha's all.
#19.1 buddy larsen on 2009-01-20 07:58 (Reply)
The Church prohibited ordained clergy from marrying before the first Ecumenical Council, around 300 AD. The East and West actually follow the same canonical laws wrt clerical marriage, that once ordained, a priest (or deacon or bishop) may not marry. However, a married man may be ordained. The difference is not one of canon law but tradition. Married priests became the tradition in the East, and vice versa in the West. Also, the wife of the priest developed into its own role, with an honorific (Arabic, khouria, Russian, matushka, Greek, presbytera, no English equivalent), and takes a leadership role in the parish second only to her husband, more so than the wife of a Protestant minister.
#20 rightwingprof (Link) on 2009-01-20 11:38 (Reply)
Before the birth of the next generation, we have the opportunity to exercise good judgment and restraint. We cannot make a better world for tomorrow's children (not yet in the womb), if we make it impossible for them to enjoy an appropriately populated planet. This is not about race--this is simply about numbers. There is a limit to capacity. I know of no Jewish person, nor Catholic, nor Hindu, nor . . .who likes to stand in an overcrowded room in which it is difficult to move, to breath, to express one's self! C'mon folks be honest!
#21 apple pie on 2009-01-20 13:50 (Reply)
Plenty of room left up here in Maine... and we haven't scratched the surface of our ability to grow/raise/make food. I ain't buying the overpopulation ruse. Undereducated, yes. Overpopulated, no.

"You can't have the family farm without the family."
-GK Chesterton
#22 The Distributist (Link) on 2009-01-20 14:28 (Reply)
Somebody calculated --not hard to do if ya got a minute to research the area numbers --everybody in the USA, with a 3' x 3' standing room, would fit in Rhode island with plenty of room to spare. I know it's a meaningless fact, but it does make a word picture contra the teeming hordes image.
#22.1 buddy larsen on 2009-01-20 15:02 (Reply)
Oh c'mon Buddy--your better than that!
#23 apple pie on 2009-01-20 18:08 (Reply)
apple pie, think through his point. What in the world does overcrowded mean? That is an entirely technology dependent question?

As for the Orthodox and other Eastern Christians, the linked article is about those churches here in America. The history of those churches in eastern lands is brought forward only to show development as it relates to us. Left out of this picture are the actual Orthodox churches as they now exist in their countries of origin. In the last hundred years - and I am being kind by cutting it so short - the Orthodox churches have a miserable record of collaborating with tyrants, and where they have been the national church, have persecuted other Christians.

This doesn't make their theology wrong or their type of worship invalid, but the author's tone of how superior the Eastern approach is really stuck in my craw.
#24 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2009-01-20 22:09 (Reply)
"This doesn't make their theology wrong or their type of worship invalid, but the author's tone of how superior the Eastern approach is really stuck in my craw."

Theology is the only issue. As for politics, I really don't much care what the Europeans do. Perhaps you should free up your craw for things more immediate to your own life.
#25 rightwingprof (Link) on 2009-01-21 11:39 (Reply)
With relatives in Romania, it is my life.
#25.1 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2009-01-22 21:01 (Reply)

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