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
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
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Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
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Labor Costs in U.S.
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Monday, August 16. 2010

Monday morning links


Regular News


Picture: For one million dollars, guess the venue the picture was taken for.


Finally!  You all know how I like to start off with a little good news, and today is no exception.  While country after country slowly degenerates into an unrecognizable morass of moral decay, one brave nation is stepping up to the plate and putting an end to wantonness and disregard for social convention:


Kissing in cars, feeding stray cats and building sandcastles all banned in Italy


Italy considers banning 80-year-old drivers


So that takes care of those pesky little problems.


When it comes to global warming, two nations are making strides that America might consider emulating:


Belgian undertakers plan to dissolve dead and flush them into sewage system


All new homes to run on green power by 2016


Say, speaking of global warming, you know who's been missing from the debate?  We've got your NASA and NOAA and IPCC, your Popular Science and Scientific American and the rest of the loony tunes, the fervent race between Fox News and ABC News as to who can push it the hardest, but it wasn't until I saw an article by these people that I realized there's a key player out there who we all instinctively know and trust:


The National Geographic.


And here they are weighing in now:


Oyster Herpes: Latest Symptom of Global Warming?


So it's good to know they're playing a key role in the debate.



The next time you stay at a fancy hotel, you might think about paying cash:


Where Your Credit Card is Most Likely to Be Stolen


Actually, the best advice is to have two credit cards, one for regular use and one that you keep almost empty for such things as online purchases and trips.  Most banks have instant online transfers between accounts these days, so if you suddenly want to order something online that costs some bucks, one quick transfer and you're ready.


Well, the first pictures of the new Miss USA contestants are in.  (pictured above: Miss Connecticut Ashley Bickford from the above photo shoot, #13)


Not that I pay any attention to beauty contests, but it does seem like things have changed over the years.


Miss Universe Organization Slammed for Contestants' Topless Photo Shoot



Political News


Bo brings a dogged optimism to White House



Posted by Dr. Mercury in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:00 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)

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The subject of the National Geographic came up in another site I frequent only a few days ago. I posted these comments:

"The National Geographic ought to have died a natural death by the late Nineties. It belongs to that lost era when you had to either go to the public library or buy a set of encyclopedias to have any semblance of a comprehensive source for general information.

Frankly, I always preferred those vintage, unabashedly Eastern-Seaboard-WASP-worldview National Geographics.

You know, the ones that had a jolly time describing those quaint foreigners in exotic countries and their colourful local customs and antics.

And they had a thing for comely bare-breasted native girls too!

There's a great (possibly apocryphal) story of a National Geographic issue in the late Thirties that covered the "people and places" of Spain without once mentioning the country was in the grips of a murderous civil war. If it wasn't true, it should have been.

Also, at the back of the magazine there were always those ads for military academies where you could send refractory young Thurston Howell III away to in order to keep his hands off the maids and out of the liquor cabinet.

The most telling evidence of the magazine's decline is surely this: whenever I'm stuck in a doctor or dentist's waiting room, I'm inevitably disappointed if the National Geographics turn out to be current issues rather than dog-eared older ones."
#1 JJM on 2010-08-16 08:28 (Reply)
In regards to National Geographic, it was one of the two magazines (the other being Smithsonian) that I annually subscribed to for friends in foreign countries.

It long ago succumbed to the AGW promotion nonsense and as a result, I stopped subscribing.

Contrary to many, I miss Life magazine and National Geographic for the same reason: the still photography. I don't remember movies or YouTube videos, but I do remember with great clarity all the magnificent still pictures, both black and white as well as in color, that appeared in those two magazines.

The photography remains stunning in National Geographic, but the political content of the articles is suffocating.

Go back to, say, 1965 and look at the magazines. They're easy to find in antique stores. They brought a real harmonizing perspective that is missing now in our national life. It's not patronizing to say they contributed to a sense of e pluribus unum.
#2 The Real Old Salt on 2010-08-16 11:08 (Reply)
Speaking of "moral decay," that picture almost led me to onanism. Miss Connecticut is gorgeous. I'll get ahold of myself (no pun intended) and take it out on my wife. (TMI, I know.)
#3 Big___Al on 2010-08-16 12:43 (Reply)
Actually, I'm proud to admit that I claimed the million dollar prize. After I smoked my breakfast and drank my lunch, I went to the site as a completely new person. I read the challenge, looked at the picture, and being as cynical as a human being could be, I said aloud, "Yeah, who, Miss USA?"

Winner!
#4 Dr. Mercury (Link) on 2010-08-16 12:50 (Reply)
I confess that my first guess was Ann Margret.

If the Miss USA people want to dress up like underwear models, who cares? As long as they realize that they look like underwear models and not beauty pageant contestants. And it's not edgy, certainly, the Victoria's Secret catalogue has looked like this for 15 years.
#5 D on 2010-08-16 14:25 (Reply)
Not just Belgium:

Six states in America – Maine, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Oregon, and Maryland have recently passed legislation that allow the process to be used.

Do they test the bodies for arsenic content first, you think?
#6 B Moe on 2010-08-16 22:51 (Reply)
Do you mean to tell me that the state that gave us Rosa DeLauro also produced the girl in the pic?
Back in the day, when I lived in Western Mass, females from Connecticut were just assumed to be fast and beautiful, at least in comparison to the local population. Is it coming back around?
#7 Claritas on 2010-08-17 10:08 (Reply)
Claritas - It's funny how stereotypes live on and on. When I was in Vermont and N.H. back in the early 70's, we constantly heard about those "hot Harford babes". If you wanted a classy, well-dressed, high-priced gal, you headed for Connecticut.

As for the picture in the post, I'm speechless. It would have been tough enough if I'd said "Guess who this is?", but when the entire venue becomes the "trick answer", you know times have changed.
#8 Dr. Mercury (Link) on 2010-08-17 10:15 (Reply)

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