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Wednesday, July 20. 2011

How animals experience pleasure

The Autism Generation

Are smaller blogs an endangered species?

We are a smaller blog, for sure - but not exactly a political blog. I am not sure what we are, which is why I refer to us as a boutique site despite the lame sound of that. Do we want to be Big? Darn right we do, but our audience grows in fits and starts. I think we need an Asian office.

Can a playground be too safe?

It's all about fear of law suits, turning our kids into weenies.

A short history of the debt ceiling

Your tax dollars at work – EPA offers “golf swing seminar” on EPA work hours and in an EPA facility

When al Qaeda Is Defeated, Can We Have Our Liberties Back?

Prager: Ten Ways Progressive Policies Harm Society’s Moral Character

Is Britain's decline and fall unavoidable?

Between 1966 and 2007, the entire increase in the size of government relative to the economy resulted from growth in tax-financed health spending.

Obama rolls out the wedge issues

Giving us all a wedgie.

Ethanol Fail

Wynn's rant is one among many

Liberal Whites Flood DC: Poor, Minorities Hardest Hit!

One of my friends voluntarily attended an event recently, one that I wouldn't go to for a million bucks (well, maybe a million bucks). It was called Erasing White Privilege.

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 05:52 | Comments (16) | Trackbacks (0)

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"Can a playground be too safe?"

Absolutely. The worst is slides that are so slow the kids practically have to push themselves to get to the bottom. Then they get bored with it immediately and stop playing.

#1 forest on 2011-07-20 08:41 (Reply)

Why do cities continue to use the seesaw symbol ** as the playground sign-long after they have removed all seesaws from their playgrounds?

**http://www.ussignsandsafety.com/PLAYGROUND-SYMBOL-SEE-SAW-SIGN.html

#1.1 Thalpy on 2011-07-20 11:13 (Reply)

It's kind of like people using an image of an incandescent light bulb to represent a good idea after we've banned incandescent light bulbs.

#1.1.1 forest on 2011-07-20 11:56 (Reply)

"Are smaller blogs an endangered species?"

Suffice to say that John Hawkins is the biggest gasbag in the right-wing blogosphere. There wasn't one thing he said that rang true. Furthermore, discounting his nutjob opinions, he couldn't even get certain facts straight. I could totally dismantle this guy, but David did a decent job so I'll just let it ride. Hawkins has completely lost his sense of what blogging was all about in the first place, if he ever even knew.

#2 Dr. Mercury (Link) on 2011-07-20 09:16 (Reply)

He does have a point, but smaller blogs attract their own audience and tend to become smallish communities that live in their little niche ecosystem of the blogosphere. Being small is not necessarily a bad thing as it is more manageable.

Look at AoSHQ - his whole co-blogging concept is an example of that ecosystem thing I was talking about. All his co-bloggers are members of the same community even if they don't "know" each other in a real life sense. Feeder sites to Ace like The Hostages, IBD, etc., all have people who hang at AoSHQ, comment there, contribute there, but they live and breath in other corners of the blog universe. When you think about it, Maggie's is a part of the larger AoSHQ - occasionally links appear here and Ace has taken notice of what happens here occasionally.

I'm sure other much more smarter people than I am have commented on this, but that's the way I look at smaller blogs.

#2.1 Tom Francis on 2011-07-20 11:22 (Reply)

Your 'smaller' blog is the epitome of excellence. Don't give up, ever.

Dylan on Obama:

You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal.
How does it feel?

#3 Smokey (Link) on 2011-07-20 09:48 (Reply)

good gravy --what a chill that sent down by back --shock of finding something way familiar and long forgotten --for the first time in the right place in time --

#3.1 buddy larsen on 2011-07-20 19:29 (Reply)

What would the autism rates be if schools and parents weren't "rewarded" if their student/child had autism. There was a time when autism meant a serious illness that made victim virtually catatonic or only slightly less then that. Today I defy you to identify many with autism when you see them playing and interacting with others. What we have is an epidemic of autism labeling and not an epidemic of autism. Sadly autism is still a serious disease that is heart breaking for parents. It seems almost intentionally cruel to allow resources to be wasted by greedy schools and medical facilities instead of concentrating the care where it is really needed.

#4 GoneWithTheWind on 2011-07-20 10:23 (Reply)

".....I refer to us as a boutique site despite the lame sound of that."

I look on Maggie's Farm as a kind of bazaar - fits the definition which is "a store in which many kinds of goods are offered....". You never know what's going to headline at Maggie's as the interests, which are diverse but have a certain synergy, all fit somehow.

Yeah - I like that - a bazaar.

#5 Tom Francis on 2011-07-20 11:10 (Reply)

Once again the white women of wealth from Seattle have crafted another way to eliminate democracy. Their is a non-profit group in Seattle whose sole purpose is to eliminate white supremacy. Yup, that's right and they are moving their way across country with their efforts. Here is the link:
http://carw.org/about/

Just one more piece of the game plan to eliminate democracy--my gosh how those wealthy folks in Seattle love China. You know the families I mean: Weyerheuser, Plum Creek, Boeing, USBank, UPS, COSTCO,Nordstrom, oh and let's not forget MICROSOFT. All doing whatever takes to give the Chinese what they want--no democracy! Let's not forget that the destruction of the Episcopal Church and the first attacks on "No Child Left Behind" all began right there in Seattle. Not to mention the more than 30 years of "elections are only a general indicator as to how people are feeling" style of democracy.

#6 another one on 2011-07-20 11:17 (Reply)

Just after the end of World War II, my father and brother, who were frequent adversaries in debates on the politics of the day, had a lengthy debate one Saturday morning at breakfast about which country would be in the future the most dangerous to the American way of life. My father won that round, by pointing out that China, if it ever got really organized, society-wise, would be the most dangerous to American freedoms and future. Dad had taught briefly at Shanghai University just before World War I, so he was more familiar with Asians and their way of thinking than my brother. In the end of the discussion, they both agreed that when China [and presumably Japan] got themselves adapted to Western ways and behaviors, and conquered the vast areas of their economies which were keeping them from economic progress, China would be the most potentially dangerous, not only for its sheer numbers of population, but for its ability to focus quite ruthlessly on what it wanted.

They do make some outstanding errors, however, one of which was to regulate family reproduction and numbers of children. Which is why now, fifty or sixty years later, they have a shortage of women. If a family can have only one child in China, they choose to have sons. They didn't think ahead far enough.

Hey guys, you have to have women to bear your children.

Marianne

#7 Marianne Matthews on 2011-07-20 12:53 (Reply)

Yes, very short sighted (and perverse) of them. I mean, who would want to live in a world with fewer women??

#7.1 mudbug on 2011-07-20 14:12 (Reply)

Re: short history of the debt ceiling

A friend of mine likes to tweak me saying that for all their talk about fiscal responsibility, the pubbies (considering who's been president) have been worse than the Dems. Until Obummer, it's been hard to dispute that.

Then, saying that a balanced budget amendment isn't required since all the people who run the government need to do is just do their jobs. That's a real hoot! At the same time, if 536 people can do their job so poorly for so long without (or with little) repercussion from the voters (and given the way the Bill of Rights is largely ignored when a voter's vote is at stake; and even when one isn't), does anybody really believe that such an amendment would make that much difference? I'd like to think so, but maybe I'm too old to actually believe it.

#8 mudbug on 2011-07-20 14:54 (Reply)

The "white privilege" meme is one I've run into on the left blogosphere. The basic concept is that white people have an easier time of it because they were born white. They are more likely to get off easy for offenses such as being caught with marijuana, etc. They don't face racism, which blacks and others have to deal with, etc. It's "unearned privilege" - they receive it even though they did nothing to earn it. So because they have this unearned advantage, they have to do something to expiate that.

#9 RonF on 2011-07-20 15:49 (Reply)

OTOH, non-whites don't have to pay contrition to the random event of personal existence --a fair enough trade off, i'd say.

#9.1 buddy larsen on 2011-07-20 19:34 (Reply)

RonF ... I suggest that we white folks stop accepting blame for being born white. If I'm going to have to sympathize with black folks because they were born black, then turnabout is fair play. White men, both dead and alive, have been unfairly excoriated for their skin color just as blacks have been. It's gotten so that the most disrespected group in our society now is the Caucasian group of males, and I'm tired of it.

Our American military is largely white and all volunteer, and most of those who volunteer to protect us against violent enemies are white. I don't know the exact statistics, because I don't think of people being one color or another. I prefer to deal with people as individuals not as representatives of a group.

Anyway, it thrills me to think about and remember our American military heroes, both men and women, and I never try to parse out how many of them are white, Asian or black.

Marianne

#10 Marianne Matthews on 2011-07-20 21:51 (Reply)

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Wednesday, July 20. 2011

Weds. morning links