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.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

Categories


All categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

Open login screen

RSS Readers

Add to Google

Subscribe with Bloglines

Thursday, January 22. 2009

Thursday pub-time links

Gummint rules keep WH in dark ages


Docs have to treat anybody? No, they do not. They can treat who they want, when they want, and how they want.


Tax cheat to head IRS. It's "change."


Prosecuted for criticizing Islam. Good grief. Seems like everybody criticizes some religion or other these days.


What we don't know about Obama. Politico


Insty:



STEVE CHAPMAN: “We all know how we got into this economic mess. We spent too much, borrowed with abandon, and acted like the bills would never come due. So what’s the prescription for getting out? Spending more, borrowing more, and acting like the bills will never come due.”


Yeah, that’ll work.



Tiger:



... if Republicans did nothing but expose pork and keep their own noses relentlessly clean for two years -- a tall order, I admit -- they would rehabilitate their reputation as the guardian of the hardworking, taxpaying non-complainer who puts his shoulder to the wheel every day whether he likes it or not, and vastly improve their chances in 2010 and beyond.

Sad to say, I'm not holding my breath.


Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 16:18 | Comments (9) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Uhhhh, the post on "docs" above points to the previous article on the WH being in the dark ages. Nothing like CTRL-V of previous links.
#1 JoeC on 2009-01-22 16:37 (Reply)
Geeez: Yesterday and today, January 21, 22, 2009. The Republicans are standing up there fighting over abortion. FOR ______SAKE! Give it up! You can continue to fight this loosing (LOST) battle in congress and loose our freedom, our country, and everything that we have ever gained, or you can go quietly home and handle the situation of an unwanted pregnancy any way you CHOOOSE! HOWEVER, if the Republican party can only focus on my PRIVATE choices regarding reproduction--then you might as well get real--we no longer have a second party in this country! And, while our stupid leaders of the R party (and I do mean truly stupid) are trying to get their heads out of the sand they might take a look at the fact that the only retirement check many folks have coming in this month is from the much hated safety net--Social Security. Why don't you guys stand up there in the middle of this economic chaos and demand to shut down Social Security while your at it--that'll go over real big in two years also! Somebody, please help us to build a viable second party.
#2 apple pie on 2009-01-22 18:43 (Reply)
AP, you have true grit. You're preaching to the choir here just like everyone else. All the options are being quietly taken off the table. We have a group of Fascists/ socialist types who do NOT under any circumstances compromise, or negotiate.

What we have left is either passive or aggressive resistance. Pick one. I've tried all the rest, to little ,or no avail.
#2.1 jappy on 2009-01-22 19:36 (Reply)
I just have a little problem rationalizing a system in which a citizen can do hard time for breaking the egg of an Upland Sandpiper, but that same citizen has a Constitutionally-protected right to kill an unborn human. Can't quite get my head around that, as they say. I suppose I need to get in touch with my inner feelings and quit thinking so dern much.

Chesterton suggests we let all the babies be born, and simply drown those we do not like.

Social Security has likely done more long-term harm to our historically tight-knit, family-oriented, hard-working culture than any other government handout entitlement program.

The Republican Party is toast, and from what I know (and who I know) among those jockeying for leadership, there is no point in looking to that group to save the Republic.

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.
#3 The Distributist (Link) on 2009-01-22 19:20 (Reply)
OK, so one absurd extreme position justifies another? The second a sperm meets an egg, this constitutes a full and complete human life. Rape or incest arguments be damned? Where are the graves of all the eggs that never implanted due to nature's (God's?) course? Since we are talking moral rightness here, is that a human "disorder" we should be pouring resources into?

Scroll down further on this blog and you'll find some people posting here in support of the idea that some fully formed adult humans are not equal to others based on the color of their skin. We should lift a fertilized egg to the same level? And yes, I've heard the arguments using the subjects of slavery and abortion to support the opposite position, no need to repeat them.

In spite of all I write above, I do not pretend to know what the right answers are, but I'll be damned (literally, in my view) if I'll condemn others to live by how I see these things. And yes, my arguments have holes you can probably drive a truck through. So does most every argument I've seen from the other side. And we can argue and argue this damn issue but one way or the other, it wont stop a terrorist, it wont put money in a bank, and it wont save the lives of people already here. The sooner the extreme R's learn to accept that honest, decent people see these things differently the sooner more of those honest, decent people will give more of them a chance.
#3.1 KRW on 2009-01-22 20:21 (Reply)
Okay, I'm an Orthodox Christian, and I have to agree with you: the most universal and compelling ideas the Republicans can present to the American voter as an alternative to Socialism are those having to do with the legal benefits of Republicanism, the power and rationality of the free market, and the freedom assured by small government.

Decades of Leftist indoctrination have left an alarming number of Americans ignorant of these ideas--hell, most Republicans can barely articulate them. If, over the next four years, Republicans concentrate on educating the public on these ideas, they might be able to resonate with the average voter in the next election. Otherwise, we're sunk. Obama will have made one half the populace dependent on the other half, and we will be screwed forever.

Many Americans fail to realize that not only their prosperity, but their very freedom, is at stake. High-minded social issues having to do with the sanctity of life--important as they are-- must come second.
#4 ahem on 2009-01-22 20:35 (Reply)
That’s my kind of bartender. No fancy bottle and mug flippings. No clever puns about workaday woes. He just stares at you, crazylike.
#5 commander clopfelter (Link) on 2009-01-22 21:12 (Reply)
Hahaha... so right, CC.
#5.1 Luther McLeod on 2009-01-22 21:13 (Reply)
The tip you leave might save your life.
#5.1.1 commander clopfelter (Link) on 2009-01-23 14:14 (Reply)

Add Comment
(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)

By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email
addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications.

Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u],
[url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here.

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA

BBCode format allowed
 
 
A Chris Southern Consulting website.