Maggie's FarmWe 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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Tuesday, May 24. 2011Bruce’s Eye-OpenersThe audience: Wiseguy member of the media joked, “If he nuked Tel Aviv, maybe the Jewish vote would go down to 60 percent.” [He forgets that Reagan won 40% and Bush#2 35%, before President O alienated more.]– And, Jewish support for Israel is not declining. And, consciousness is rising. So, another solid 2008 O-group will not be so overwhelming in 2012. Ari Fleisher: “If Jews go 4-1 Democrat (as they did in 2008) Republicans lose, he says, but: If the Democrats win three to one it almost always tips it to the Republicans in Florida and Ohio.” – Isolationists among Republicans –Paul, for example- do not help, though.
Demonizing Plastics is Not Good Science Cynthia McKinney: Islamofascist tool
How 3D glasses helped defeat Hitler -- But, are they worth the extra cost at the movie theaters? Comments? Why University Presidents Are Clueless About the Real World “The Amsterdam court that is trying Mr. Wilders is engaged in a surgical operation for political purposes under the mandate of the Dutch ruling class. Its task is to excise the PVV leader from the Dutch body politic and restore the multicultural state to its previous dominance.” The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean The inspiring humility of Jimmy Carter Preschools Checked Less than Dog Kennels Interesting parallels to today (1989 paper by a dear friend Miriam London, and wife to another dear friend Ivan London, both profs during my college days)
Resisting the Urge to Cut the Defense Budget: “Make no mistake: If fully implemented, Obama’s envisioned defense budget would imperil the peace and our global standing” More useless gov't: “This is major expansion of government -- a separate branch of the Federal Reserve with immense powers to regulate "all consumer products." The excuse for it is bogus…” Climate cleansing: Google to censor skeptics? Irony Meter Explodes: California, which imprisons 30,000 illegal immigrants, ordered to release 30,000 prisoners due to overcrowding – But, California likely to release the ill prisoners, who will then start collecting MediCal, shifting billions of costs back to Washington. Why the Left Has Re-newed Calls for Scottish Independence. Cantor (Eric, that is) sings out, fervid applause for Republican from heavily Democrat audience Trackbacks
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Waking up next to an old fat butt: OK, Stuff happens
Waking up to Jimmy Carter: It sucks when I fall asleep with the news on, circa 1977 Waking up to Jimmy Carter tattooed on your old fat butt? Retttchhhh............ You clean the toilet... I'm going back to bed. How does MF neglect to mention Bob's 70th birthday? I'm sure you're planning a special surprise party for later!
Bite your tongue, young man! Comin' up in a bit. No 'surprises', though, outside of the fact that I'll actually try to feebly attempt to justify his heinous, treacherous, unforgivable act of switching to electric instruments. I wanted to name the post "Rot In Hell, Bob", but that didn't seem like an appropriate birthday sentiment.
Yes, he was so much older then; he's younger than that noooooowwww.
Oh boy - lots of stuff to comment on!
Women in Special Forces This was a huge debate in both the volunteer and professional fire service. The argument from the social engineers was that women can perform as well as men in both the area of performance stressors and actual physical performance. What they found was that women can, and do, handle the performance stressors (mental, knowledge and high tech skills [like High Angle Rescue]) better than men but when it comes to brute strength and speed required of the job, they just ain't got it. Secondarily, why would a woman want to join the Special Forces - in particular SEALS? If its just for the challenge, then get involved in ultra-marathons or ultra-ironman competitions. Why University Presidents Are Clueless About the Real World Pretty simple - they have never lived in the real world. Climate cleansing: Google to censor skeptics? "The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State." ----Josph Goebbels. Control the information, control the people. Obvious isn't it? Dear Mr. Kessler:
We need truth. We need to make sure a system of justice is based on fact. The American people need to hear those in the Jewish community who commit crimes to either be punished, or to apologize and make restitution. If the liberals in this country could see a movement away from the "never apologize--it's a sign of weakness" position, then maybe we could get to a true friendship built on trust. You must start to help your people get to that understanding--they are no longer the victims as they once were.Recognition of that would be good for the individual as well as for the body politic. Re women in special forces. To point out the obvious, you may have noticed that in general men are larger than women. On the average men weight about 20% more than women and that additional weight is mostly muscle. When the army started training male and female recruits togeather, they had to reduce the intensity of the physical training because too many women were being injured.
Re: Why University Presidents Are Clueless
The "money quotes" come in the penultimate paragraph, but I don't think the author has got it quite correct. It's true that higher ed now depends a lot on government funding (especially state schools), but it also depends on the philanthropy of wealthy alumni in order to build endowments and to fund major new facilities. The important difference is that businesses get critical feedback from their customers. If they fail to do a proper job of serving their customers, their sales go down and they literally go out of business. In academia, it's much harder to define a good metric of success: how does a school know when it is succeeding or failing in its mission of teaching and creating new knowledge? The ranking of schools by news magazines seemed to offer prospective students a way to gauge the performance of various universities and colleges. By now, however, most schools have found ways to game the system in order to pump up their ratings. With no clear standards in place, few schools ever suffer the consequences of failing to provide their student "customers" with a top-notch education. How many of them are ever forced to shut down the way a bad company goes out of business? Perhaps the rise of for-profit schools like the University of Phoenix will eventually lead people to take a closer look at the traditional schools and to ask them: Are you fulfilling your educational mission to society and, if not, why are you still here? |