Monday, February 28. 2005
Snow Day, here in New England. Should be beautiful. Bird Dog will take a few more photos to demonstrate God's grandeur. Good site, plus lots of information about hops - the more the better, it seems: Click here: All About Beer Magazine-Online A brand-new blogger: Click here: TigerHawk Can't get decent crab-cakes in Yankee-land - they are full of bread crumbs, but these are the real thing from Chesapeake Bay: Click here: Faidleys Award Winning Crab Cakes
Sunday, February 27. 2005
Christian blogs and websites are proliferating like loaves and fishes. Here are a few good ones:
Saturday, February 26. 2005
One of the clueless gets a clue on the ongoing Harvard tempest in a teapot: Click here: The New Republic Online: Self Interest Immediately after claiming we don't do breaking news, I'll break that policy and post this remarkable development: Click here: Yahoo! News - Mubarak Orders Egypt Election Law Changes Does anything further need to be said?
Friday, February 25. 2005
Primates come down from trees to debate homosexuality: Click here: FOXNews.com - Anglican Church Asks U.S., Canada to Leave The American Library Association: Bravely leading the vanguard into the past: Click here: Library Journal - Revenge of the Blog People! Lighter fare - See video - The bird Einstein is good, but the Iams advt ain't bad either: Click here: Animal Planet :: Video :: Pet Star 3 Can't stop wondering...if America is so Evil, why does the whole world want to live here? One more example of media's reflexive anti-American bias:Click here: The Kerry Spot on National Review Online Race and Class and Education: The Left always makes every issue into a racial or class issue. It's a highly reductionistic, highly manipulative, and highly monotonous propaganda device. Bradley doesn't buy it: Click here: Commentary: Modern Myths about Race and School Performance
The Scrapple-Man reports on the Harvard flap: Click here: ScrappleFace: Harvard Chief Likens Women to Nazis, Saves Job
Euristan decides Bush was right...no - not that dumb goofy redneck Bible-thumping fascist cowboy who says nucular?: Click here: OpinionJournal - Featured Article Iranians like Americans. Are we supposed to be surprised that they can think for themselves?:Click here: NewsMax.com: Inside Cover Story
Thank you baby for my tea. The Revolution is long past. Best Tea site on the web: Click here: Mighty Leaf Tea Company
Thursday, February 24. 2005
X-Rated. No, this isn't satire: Click here: AOL News - Court Rules Man Can Sue Over Surprise Pregnancy Thanks, pals- Canada refuses to help with missile shield. The Euristan community, including Canada, is either self-destructive or in a psychotic denial of the existence of evil: Click here: The Washington Times: AP Crybabies? Guess only a woman would be allowed to write this, eh?:Click here: Feminists Get Hysterical by Heather Mac Donald
Peggy Noonan on almost everything: Click here: OpinionJournal - Peggy Noonan
If 130 felons voted, does that put the Repub in? :Click here: GOP Says Felons Voted in Wash. Governor's Race
Tom Wolfe on Hunter Thompson: Click here: OpinionJournal - Leisure & Arts -and Tim Blair also: Click here: Tim Blair
News Flash ! - Click here: Bob Dylan attacks modern rock bands - NME.COM
Wednesday, February 23. 2005
Dear Maggie's Farm Readers - I received the note below, and sent the money, in cash. Now I am beginning to wonder whether that was wise. I like to think of myself as being a trusting animal. I do have good pedigree, but have been insulated from bad Gods. I am not wealthy, but have carefully saved my weekly allowance. Advice? Am I being a paranoid Rottweiler? I have my retirement to consider. The Dog
Dear Sir:
I am Mugnbo Mibidgi, treasury secretary of the Republic of Nigeria. I need a trustworthy person to accept a transfer of $50 million for safekeeping. If you would be so kind as to wire transfer me $2,000 for my adminstrative expenses, I will send you these millions immediately.
Wise old Doc Higgins reminds us never to confuse a correlation with causation, but this is interesting. It doesn't prove cause and effect, tho. Click here: Friends fortify women's hearts / The Washington Times INSIDER
Bambi Department: Tony, arriviste New England rural hamlet plans massacre of the innocents: Click here: Greenwich Time - Town baits areas for deer shooting
We like Ben! Finally, some truth and balance on the subject: Click here: Ben Shapiro: Ward Churchill, Lawrence Summers, and the hypocrisy of the academics
I can see a Romney-Condi ticket...but it's a little early to think about...or is it? Click here: NewsMax.com: Inside Cover Story
Earth to Charlie Rangel: Click here: NewsMax.com: Inside Cover Story The ailing Pope has some wise words about medical care - (always pleased when the Pope agrees with me!): Click here: Vatican Officials Decry 'Religion of Health'
This in from Doc Higgins, who swears he had nothing to do with any of these surgeries, which is probably true. His senile tremor is so bad, they haven't allowed him near the OR in ten years. If you are bored and really have nothing that you should be doing, take a peek: Click here: Awful Plastic Surgery
Tuesday, February 22. 2005
Maggie's Farm is pleased to be included in this week's New Blog Showcase, hosted by Celebrity Cola. I think we are witnessing the Big Bang of the expanding Blogosphere. We are called "idiosyncratic and eccentric" - Who, us? We may soon have more blogs than blog-readers in this world. Competition is good: http://celebritycola.blogspot.com/2005/02/new-blog-carnival-showcase.html
A word from Gwynnie, on the recent Environmental piece: Gwynnie read the Celebrity Cola article “The Apocalyptic Battle Between . . ..” and even though she’s only a corgi she perceptively notes that the only thing dumber than politicians talking about the environment is environmentalists talking about Christianity! She even remembered the blog which said Christian fundamentalists didn’t care about the environment because the earth would be destroyed anyway in the “end days”. She asks us to remember that Christians have waited 2000 years for the second coming of Jesus, and have no reason to believe it won’t be another 2000 years, and that their faith requires them to be faithful stewards of what God has given them.
Monday, February 21. 2005
Two interesting pieces about the Environmental Movement - is it a post-Enlightenment Pagan Religion, or is it fact-based? And whose "facts"? You will find no-one more conservation-minded than the Bird Dog, but when gummint gets involved, it becomes more about image and symbol than substance - to get our gullible votes, of course. Gummint and science don't mix - and when they do, politics wins. Consider bottle-recycling - what a joke! - cheap feeling of false virtue, but useless. The Bird Dog happens to believe that the real conservation issue in the US is urban/suburban sprawl, but how do you balance people's desires and freedom with land-protection, other than by buying the land up? Easier just to bitch about oil in Alaska - again, cheap and easy feeling of virtue, but meaningless. And of course it is far away ! (Good conservation news - we saw three Bald Eagles yesterday next to the Bear Mountain Bridge. Hudson Highlands - cool. Does anyone remember Dylan's "Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Blues"? Quite humorous.) Well, the Bird Dog was on top of this story too - is this a story about envy and class-warfare, or a story about animal lovers? If about animal lovers, they had better be vegetarians, or they have no credibility with me. But, finally, a cause for which Civil Disobedience makes sense ( if only Gandhi could see this - he'd have a good laugh): Wonderful piece by Michael Dirda on Love - the scribblers really went all-out for Valentine's Day this year - see previous recent posts on Love - my theory is that these dudes use their columns as mass-mailing Valentine Cards to all of their cute girlfriends - using erudition as seduction. Been there.
Looks like about a foot of snow arrived overnite here in Yankeeland, and this morning there is a needling email from the in-laws with their weather report in Cabo. Why do so many of us Yankees love what others call "bad" weather? Is is because it demands more from us, or because it reminds us of the grandeur of God's Nature and God's Cosmos? Or is it sour grapes? Speaking of Cosmos, old Mr. Hubble took some nice snapshots:
Sunday, February 20. 2005
Bubble, bubble...A way to get the fates on your side? Witches brew for Somerset. From the Daily Rant Department: Two very good pieces about guns, and gun rights: Another example of why some of us are a little disappointed in Republican control of the Fed. govt - it is human nature that govts become sponges for power and money, regardless of who is in charge. Where is Newt when we need him?
Saturday, February 19. 2005
This just in from Old Doc Higgins in Rhode Island: Everyone has ADD, and all boys have ADHD. Just a matter of degree. Heck, I remember back in med school, during the lecture on the use of ether for anesthesia, spending the whole time undressing (mentally) a gal in the front row (only gal in the class - this was 19 and 41 - and she was a bow-wow, too, but eventually she let me...(edited for family reading...), and I didn't remember a thing about the class. See, I have a bad case of ADD too. But it didn't matter - back then, I'd just have the patient chaw on a lead bullet and rip out their appendix, or their whatever. Ether-shmeether. We'd re-use those bullets until they were chawed to bits - didn't wash 'em either. There was a war on - needed those bullets to kill Krauts and Japs. So, to save bullets, they came up with this new-fangled novocaine stuff for the whining wussies. I'd have nothing of it - No Sir. Nowadays, it's more complicated, but I like to stick to the old, tried-and-true ways when I can. When I can remember them.
Right or wrong? It's gotta be pure economics - a fat waitress will remind you of your diet, and you won't eat. Who else besides me is getting tired of hearing about "our failing schools?" But it's a real issue, and I don't think it has much to do with teachers - I suspect union control, and lack of parental involvement in inner city schools, are a big part. This is a thoughful piece. I don't know how Gwynnie's pal Rex found this bone, but it's a goodie, and related to the earlier essay "Life is so Scary." (Based on this website, the Bird Dog has made a significant investment in Safety-Flo, which should do as well as his other private placement investments - but this is NOT a recommendation that you should invest. Bird Dog is not a professional investment advisor.)
Friday, February 18. 2005
It is called out-to-lunch. The age-old theme is the human reluctance to self-criticize, but the minor theme is "why are there schools of journalism anyway?" Name me someone in the press who writes better and is more devoted to truth than John Hinderaker of Powerline, and he didn't go, and neither did the sublime wordsmith Bird Dog...well, you can't teach writing....some folks can just turn a phrase around a concept like a boa around a rat - I love that, but cannot do it. Anyway, a review of Lehmann's piece in the New Yorker begins thus: Nicholas Lemann was named dean of the Columbia School of Journalism in 2003. It's too soon to tell whether he is making Columbia a stronger school. It's not too soon to say that Lemann, the author of two good books and many compelling articles, has made himself a weaker writer. Evidence of this decline comes in the current New Yorker, where Lemann devotes 5,000 words to asking, "Why is everyone mad at the mainstream media?" without saying anything clear or consequential in response.Nicholas Lemann was named dean of the Columbia School of Journalism in 2003. It's too soon to tell whether he is making Columbia a stronger school. It's not too soon to say that Lemann, the author of two good books and many compelling articles, has made himself a weaker writer. Evidence of this decline comes in the current New Yorker, where Lemann devotes 5,000 words to asking, "Why is everyone mad at the mainstream media?" without saying anything clear or consequential in response.
A Rather-fest? I guess the phony pompous blowhard deserves something for making an ass of himself all these years: If "Big Pharma" are the villains of today, the Dog would like to know who the good guys are. Has any technology done more for quality of life, in all of human history, than the mainly American drug companies have done inthe past 50 years? Well, the Bird Dog was ahead of the curve a few days ago when lamenting the removal of some drugs from the market due to side effects. Let's get a little rationality here:
The Bird Dog would like to plug The Teaching Company. He is neither paid by them nor does he own any shares in their company, but he does wish he had started the business. They collect the best college teachers - not the most famous, just the most engaging. Look at their website - on left column, under Other Swell Places. I have done about 8 of their courses and each has been wonderful. The music stuff by Greenberg is a pure delight. It is excellent for the car or for workouts. You can fill in all of the gaps in your education, and no exams! Like Brooks Brothers, they have regular sales, and that is the time to stock up.
Thursday, February 17. 2005
The only thing nuttier than Australia banning gun ownership - so that the Army has to be called in to shoot infestations of rabbits - is the banning of fox-hunting, otherwise known as "hunting," in the UK. Thank God for our revolution, or we might have become as nutty as England, Australia and Canada. This has got to be one of the saddest days for the time-honored Brit sporting traditions. What will be the next target of the self-righteous weenies? Soccer, because it leads to fighting? Pathetic. But maybe we can offer psychological counseling for those ex-hunters? Teach them knitting and TV-watching? And maybe those beautiful horses can be re-trained to be therapy-horses....hey - that would be a better world, right?
Read Norman Geras' piece in Dissent. A well-known Brit socialist, a retired professor, Norm is notable for not only being open-minded but for being a nice guy. And an articulate blogger. Got in hot water with the Brit Left for violating the Party Line on Iraq - how shocking ! Can you imagine such a thing ?! Bad form. Almost as distressing as a lady forgetting to wear a hat at Ascot, or sipping her tea before the hostess sits down. Who knows - it could lengthen the time 'til the Revolution, when we all will get free apple pie (or, more likely, guillotined). Click here: Dissent Magazine - Winter 2005 Another delectable dog bone. Speaking of guillotines, the Bird Dog is on the trail of The Enlightenment these days, with a fine Himmelfarb piece coming up tomorrow maybe. But this piece sets the stage. Whatever The Enlightenment was, it wasn't perfect, and even though we may live in it, like fish in water, we have to think about it. That is what Dog thinks is so cool and great about Western Civilization - not only can we think, but we don't get shot for doing it. Click here: OpinionJournal - Leisure & Arts
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