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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Thursday, June 30. 2011Thursday morning linksPhoto from In Maine, ObamaCare's New High Risk Pool Attracts Just 14 Enrollees Nice that Hussey's sells everything you need for a shotgun wedding Turtles on JFK runway cause flight delays Those are female Diamondback Terrapins living in Jamaica Bay in New York City, looking for nesting sites. Good to know that they are still thriving there. Somebody built a cement runway on their historic nesting site. An oldie from David Horowitz: Columbia a disaster. Kenyon an unexpected surprise Surber asks The Republican presidential candidates are serious. Why isn’t the press? Powerline has a new look Maggie's Farm will stick with our antique look - for now. You can scroll down quite a long ways here, and we only put things on a continuation page when they exceed our ordinary format. The Religion of Rape… ALL Norwegian Rapists in 2010 Were Muslim Why is Greece too big to fail? Greece is already bankrupt, financially, morally, and spiritually. But, as Donald Trump once said, if you owe a bank a half million bucks, they own you - but if you owe them 300 million bucks, you own them. Something like that. New Obama deficit talking point: The GOP loves corporate jets or something. However, Obama Blasts Private Jet Tax Breaks Created by His Own Stimulus That is called The Washington Monument Strategy Children will starve, Granny will die, etc. As Lizards says:
McArdle: Breaking: Voters Prefer Free Stuff to Higher Taxes, Lower Spending From Obama, Listen to Andrew Cuomo:
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Based on yesterday's court decision, I shall attempt to embrace broccoli. After all, it must be SOMEWHERE in the commerce clause that congress shall and will order the eating (or wearing)of broccoli.
Our court system has turned into a farce which goes along with the other parts of our government, potus and congress. Hey, Rick! You know how you called Michelle Bachmann "insane" yesterday? Well, you're gonna love the post on the new Power Line, "What Do Michelle Bachmann and a Serial Killer Have in Common?" Their answer is "lots and lots of things", which I expect will send a real tingle up your leg!
As far as the new look goes, I agree with this commenter: "Why in the world would you want to emulate a dying industry with a "newspaper-like format"? How about a dead dinosaur for a mascot." Neal Boortz switched over to this format a few months ago and I went from reading him religiously every day to maybe stopping by once a week. That 'Read More' is just bullshit, especially when the 'more' is just a paragraph or two. When Bruce or I do the 'read more' thing, you can bet there's a shitload of text below the fold. And then there's this poor bastard: "Much prefer old format, thanks for leaving it as an option. Hope I don't have to reclick it every time I return." You do. Great programming, Power Line. Myself, I deleted their bookmark the day Sarah Palin was announced as McCain's running mate and John "Asshat" Hinderaker came out with a scathing anti-Palin screed. And look where Palin is today, John -- and where are you? "Asshat" was being kind. "Somebody built a runway on their historic nesting site." I sure hope someone isn't implying that it was somehow 'wrong' to build the runway on the poor turtle-wurtle's nesting ground. Because if "who was here first" is now the standard, we're sure going to be returning an awful lot of land to the Indians! Heh - don't 'cha just love the political misogynists - Palin is a air head and Bachmann is insane. And people ask me why I have this weird opinion that a woman will never be President or Vice President for that matter. :>)
I actually like the new Powerline layout - a lot easier to get around - kind of like Hot Air in fact. The Commerce Clause has become a dreadful thing in the hands of Congress and pliant courts. The Weckburn decision seems to be the root of its evil.
The Commerce Clause has one primary purpose: to allow the free flow of goods and services among states. Under the Articles of Confederation, thirteen independent nations allied themselves loosely, much like the European Union before the Euro was introduced. They had separate systems of currency and of tariffs and they were very protectionist. This was one factor that made the Congress of the period impotent and it affected their mutual credit, since they couldn't agree on how to pay the debts of the Revolution or fund any shared activities. The thirteen independent nations were very vulnerable to economic pressure and they probably would have been vulnerable to military pressue as well. The Commerce Clause enabled the new nation to establish a single currency and to eliminate internal tariffs. The Commerce Clause established that the federal government would handle tariffs and gave it authority for trading with Indian nations. Those were its only purposes. It was never meant to establish duties on individual citizens and it should not be used that way now. As so many have said, including J above, the "individual mandate" would establish the most wretched precedent since Plessy v Ferguson (separate but equal), one even worse than Weckburn but rooted in Weckburn. I have no direct stake in this because I'm a military retiree. My health care insurance is written into federal law. But I have a son and a daughter just coming to adulthood. Am I raising two citizens or two subjects? Back when Sweden had tiny populations all of whom were related they were critical of the U.S. for our failing with our diversity. They confidently imported diversity and are now experiencing problems beyond their naive imagination. Go figure!
Interestingly in the U.S. most rapes are committed by "minorities". Not all of course but a strange statistic never the less. "The risk is that banks, both in Europe and the U.S., would have had to chalk up billions of dollars in losses because of Greek loans that had gone bad. No one knows which U.S. banks hold what amount of Greek debt."
Why in the name of God - and their investors - would any sensible bank or financial house buy Greek bonds? I'm not talking today, I'm talking any time in the last 10 years. Don't tell me they couldn't see this coming. Speculation. Trading. Buy 'em and hope to get out in time while making some $.
Yes, Hussey's covers the proposal, the nuptials and the reception.
But I see an opportunity for competitors. If someone up the road just advertised, condoms and cold beer, they'd really cut in to Hussey's franchise. Way, way off topic, I know, but I just have to write this.
I have just returned to the US from a three week trip to China. China has become the ultimate capitalist, super-consumerist society. The energy of the people in cities like ShangHai is palpable....and infectious. They work hard, they spend hard. Expensive cars (Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Bugattis, RRs, and even special edition models of those cars with local nameplates) were everywhere. In Beijing I watched as a well dressed, obviously wealthy woman went into a car showroom and drove way in a bright red Ferrari that she took right off the floor. I read very little US or international news while traveling but went through the local English language newspapers almost every day. The view I got from afar amid the enormous economic boom in China is that President Obama and the US government seem almost juvenile--not worth taking seriously. The US is practically irrelevant except for the sovereign debt we owe China. Having discovered the power of capitalism and consumerism to raise their standard of living, all the Chinese I had contact with were befuddled (or, should I say, wryly amused) by America's march in the opposite direction toward national socialism. The trip was a real eye opener for me. |
Tracked: Jun 30, 07:08