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
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Labor Costs in U.S.
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Monday, July 25. 2011

Monday morning links

Can You Pass Harvard's 1869 Entrance Exam?


Or could you pass it after college?


When ‘Midnight’ Struck Orson Welles’ Career


Bear Mauls 7 Students on Survival Course in Alaska


Methinks dealing with big bears is part of survival


Gay by Choice? The Science of Sexual Identity



39 Things That Are Driving Ordinary Americans Absolutely Crazy:



According to a brand new ABC News/Washington Post poll, 80 percent of Americans say that they are either dissatisfied or angry with the government.



Falstaff on marriage


From Am Thinker's NYT Making the Motives Clear:



... true to the concept, the Sunday Review section features a cover page boldly splashed with a proposal to move the burgeoning nanny state into further regulation of what we may and may not eat. Penned by Mark Bittman, an erstwhile Sunday writer of rabbit-food recipes, the article condemns Americans' food and drink choices and proposes to control them via the means of taxation -- picking winners and losers in the marketplace much in the way that regulation is attempting to control the winners and losers in the light bulb industry.


"The food industry," he writes:



...appears incapable of marketing healthier foods. And whether its leaders are confused or just stalling doesn't matter, because the fixes are not really their problem. Their mission is not public health but profit, so they'll continue to sell the health-damaging food that's most profitable, until the market or another force skews things otherwise. That "other force" should be the federal government, fulfilling its role as an agent of the public good and establishing a bold national fix.




Gotta love those "bold national fixes"

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 05:51 | Comments (24) | Trackbacks (0)

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"That 'other force' should be the federal government, fulfilling its role as an agent of the public good and establishing a bold national fix."

Progressives are downright creepy. They say stuff like this and in the next breath accuse other people of being fascists.
#1 forest on 2011-07-25 07:53 (Reply)
Amen. Also, they want to lower birth rates and raise tax-paid government services at the same time. How is this done, without slavery?
#1.1 buddy larsen on 2011-07-25 11:44 (Reply)
"Bear Mauls 7 Students on Survival Course in Alaska"

You need an newer article. Only four of the kids were hurt by the bear, two not seriously. Still a shame, though. I suppose one's first inclination would be to wish one of the kids was packing a 45 and had unloaded the clip into the beastie, but that probably just would have ticked it off even more.

"Can You Pass Harvard's 1869 Entrance Exam?"

Why would they use British currency on an American test? Our 'colonial' money wasn't good enough for the pious dons of Harvard? Have we just witnessed the birth of multiculturalism?

Besides, BD, that's kind of a cheap shot, giving us a college exam, when we're still trying to answer at least two of the questions on a simple 8th grade exam.

And whoever grabs that cup of coffee is going to be rich beyond their wildest dreams when it spills onto their lap and they sue Dunkin for a cool 5 mil, like the lady did with McDonald's.

"But Doc! It's just a picture!"

You'll be suing for the virtual pain you received. Given modern juries, you're sure to win.
#2 Dr. Mercury (Link) on 2011-07-25 08:23 (Reply)
Harvard's 1869 Entrance Exam?

That test only goes to prove one thing - Harvard (Yale and the other Ivy's of the time) recruited from prep academies and that they've always been an elitist institution.

Latin? Greek? Seriously? :>)
#2.1 Tom Francis on 2011-07-25 09:36 (Reply)
Latin and Greek, yes - and in public schools. My grandfather had to take both by eighth grade, my father had to take Latin by tenth: I did not have to take either, but a current foreign language (so I took both French and German, while most went with Spanish as many already spoke it [or Portuguese] at home).

Most of the math problems I would have had trouble with, but at least might have been able to tackle them. Fifty years later, I doubt I could evem try to answer a single one...

And yes, I have no real idea what Ye Olde Britanne money system is doing there. I suppose in major ports like Boston and New York it was still in common use.
#2.1.1 John A on 2011-07-25 13:28 (Reply)
But first you have to pass the Jersey City High School entrance examination (yes, to get into high school!) of 1885 at this link. http://schotlinepress.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/%E2%80%9Ccould-you-pass-the-1885-admission-test-for-high-school%E2%80%9D/
#2.2 boqueronman on 2011-07-25 13:52 (Reply)
The "journalism industry appears incapable of abandoning their relativistic-narratives reporting and returning to a facts-based reporting...." etc. etc.
As Mr. du Toit would write, "Rope, tree, journalist. Some assemble required."
#3 Kerry on 2011-07-25 08:25 (Reply)
Bear Mauls 7 Students

After reading the article, it sounded like they handled it pretty well - set up a camp, administered first aid, got their EPIRB going and were evacuated in short order.

Not bad for kids.

Of course, this kind of begs the question of who was the adult in charge - the guide - whatever.
#4 Tom Francis on 2011-07-25 09:30 (Reply)
Well, they'd been living in the woods for a month. After that length of time, it would be logical that a group would be allowed to explore on their own. They don't mention how far they were from the main body.

Bad things happen, these were near adults, who by their experience in the program, were probably more men than most adult males these days. Bad things happen, especially walking point.
#4.1 JKB on 2011-07-25 10:30 (Reply)
''bad things happen'' --i think that's a Zen koan --in order for the reality of 'bear danger' to take a place among the truths, this will happen.
#4.1.1 buddy larsen on 2011-07-25 11:50 (Reply)
Well, I'll tell you guys this - I did some consulting work for a friend of a friend and it turned out that this friend of a friend's brother owned a hunting/fishing camp in the Arctic. The result was I got an all expenses paid Arctic Char fishing trip out of the deal (plus I got paid my usual fee - man, I'm good).

Anyway, one day I was fishing along a stream with an Indian guide. I wasn't paying much attention to anything other than the char when I heard the "snick - click" behind me. I turned around and about 50 yards from where we were was the biggest damn bear I've ever seen in my life - looked the size of a F-150 pickup truck and I'm not lying.

I looked over at the guide and he's got a .460 Weatherby locked and loaded and was looking down the barrel at the bear. I knew he had a rifle case with him when we walked in, but I didn't know it was a damn elephant gun. :>)

Fortunately, the bear wasn't all that interested in us apparently because he/she rumbled off back into the tree line. We picked up and beat feet out of there, but the Weatherby stayed ready just in case something happened before we got to the truck to head back to camp.

The guide told me later that it was the biggest bear he ever had seen in that area. I'll tell you what - it was a something something clenching moment for me. :>)
#4.1.1.1 Tom Francis on 2011-07-25 12:33 (Reply)
They're all so certain "there oughta be a law" and [b] they [b] should be the ones to make it, so they're horrified when the other party gets the power to write the laws. Because they can't see that far into the future, or are incapable of thinking that it could happen.
#5 Sam L. on 2011-07-25 12:06 (Reply)
If ever there was "proof" of some kind of cabalistic behavior on the part of the MSM to keep the Republicans from winning in 2012, here ya go:
[url]http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/2011/07/what_the_the_candidate_running.html
[/url]

Sure, 6.5% doesn't seem like much, but given the nature of the field (and Bachmann WILL fade), it's not too shabby. Particularly when you add Cain's numbers to Paul's. The two are ideologically similar, so one's followers are very possibly going to shift easily.

Paul is also raising money at a particularly fast clip. Not on the order of Obama or Romney - but assuming he'd get additional coverage (his recent speeches have been excellent, his questions in recent Fed hearings brilliant), he can become a power broker, if not a full blown legitimate candidate.

But the MSM has one goal when they see a threat:
"Deprive them of oxygen"
And they are good at depriving Paul of coverage - coverage being a good candidate's oxygen.
#6 Rick on 2011-07-25 13:27 (Reply)
Well, yesterday they didn't work at all. Today I forgot to do something....

I tested posting it again, and got an anti-spam notice.

So...I'll just keep trying.
#6.1 Rick on 2011-07-25 13:30 (Reply)
"Deprive them of oxygen"

A nice, concise phrase to illustrate the bias and methods of our biased journalists. I like it, I think I'll steal it. [/honest praise]
#6.2 John (Link) on 2011-07-25 13:48 (Reply)
I stole it from Microsoft, back in their glory days, when they threatened to "deprive AOL of Oxygen".

It was standard practice at the behemoth to simply not allow access to the platform if any company represented a potential threat.

Today, other companies have learned from this mistake. They just buy out their competitors, keep the best parts, and kill the rest. That's the market at work, and interestingly a return to behaviors of the past. It was standard practice for men like Cornelius Vanderbilt to engage in a ruthless price war, one he knew he could last in, and starve his competitors to the point that they would either buy him out, pay him off to leave, or he could buy them out for pennies on the dollar.

Sadly, I'm not sure there is any similar platform in media coverage. You're either "in" or you're "out"....and if you're not Left of Center, then you are most decidedly "OUT".
#6.2.1 Rick on 2011-07-25 16:21 (Reply)
Rick, you need to put the address inside the square brackets after an equal sign like this:

[ url=http://some.com/]words[/url]

I added a space between the first bracket to break the code for demonstration purposes.
#6.3 Jephnol (Link) on 2011-07-25 16:42 (Reply)
[ur+++l=http://maggiesfa+++rm.anotherdotcom.com//]experiment[/url]

+++ added twice to break code just in case

(nope, tried it and tried it and so soap --just the Red Message)
#6.3.1 buddy larsen on 2011-07-25 18:06 (Reply)
You're just breaking stuff because....
#6.3.1.1 Jephnol (Link) on 2011-07-25 18:27 (Reply)
Kudos to the kids and their parents, who will still venture into the wilderness to learn survival skills, despite the danger of bears. Without the threat of a little danger there is no spice to life – and the country becomes soft and weak.

"Marketing healthier foods" is the next step in the incessant craving for safety at any cost. The current Nanny State recalls for me the several times I read "The Decline and Fall Of The Roman Empire." A quote:

"In the end more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free.”
~ Edward Gibbon
#7 Smokey (Link) on 2011-07-25 14:51 (Reply)
Unlike the legions of granola eating, water-walkers who wax all Timothy Treadwell about guns in bear country, I'm all about being the last man standing if I'm looking down the muzzle of a angry bear the size of an F-150. If I ever find myself in bear country I'm toting - at the ready - an AR in .50 Beowulf or a Marlin Guide gun in 45-70 loaded with Garret Super-Hardcast 540-gr AND I'd strap a S&W .500. I'm just sayin'....
#8 Jephnol (Link) on 2011-07-25 17:18 (Reply)
me, my old Colt 1911 .45, second clip handy, because i can place all nine shots reasonably where i intuit the bullets to go, in the certain nervous-system surge of a charging bear. Them hand cannon, second shot won't be reliably steady.
#8.1 buddy larsen on 2011-07-25 17:58 (Reply)
The shortish, big bore rifles are highly workable, but the pistola is a deal breaker if the shooting is too brutish. Trigger time is the only answer...it doesn't belong in your holster if you can't reliably shoot it. So I don't disagree with your contention, but my fear of being eaten compels me to feel go-big-or-go-home is the recipe for backwoods, bear territory peace of mind. If range time bore out your contention, then I'd scale back the back-up to a Ruger Alaskan in .44 mag. But just to be clear...I am talking back-up.
#8.1.1 Jephnol (Link) on 2011-07-25 18:37 (Reply)
See Newville's letter on the Garrett review page re: 44 mag Grizzly encounter. If I was packing a .44 mag these rounds would be filling it.
#8.1.2 Jephnol (Link) on 2011-07-25 19:51 (Reply)

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