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, July 12. 2005Imagining the Apocalypse Predictions of the End Times run through the Old Testament, and maybe Noah's flood could be seen as a mini-preview of the big and final apocalypse. Efforts to imagine the end, or to create metaphors for the end, run through literature, song and art, but none are as familiar as the visions that St. John experienced in his cave on Patmos and are captured in the mystical Revelations, the final book of the New Testament. Alan Jacobs, in Touchstone, discusses some literary depictions of Apocalypse and concludes that it is "inexpressible." A sample from his piece, this bit on the Narnia series:
Candidates for Best Essay of the YearMODERN AMERICA AND THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY Loren J. Samons II teaches in the department of Classical Studies at Boston University and has published a book entitled "What's Wrong With Democracy?" The following is an excerpt and he presents an interesting outlook on the condition of America's supposed democratic ideals. He makes a sound argument on the separation between church and state being moot since Democracy has replaced religion. From Civic Arts Review: "The idealization of freedom through democracy has led modern America to a precipitous position. Implicitly denying man's desire for a society based on beliefs and duties that lie beyond a system of government and the rights this government (democracy) is designed to protect, we have replaced society's extra political goals with the potentially antisocial political doctrines of freedom, choice, and diversity. These words have been made to resonate in the citizens' hearts in a way that God, family, and country once did in America (or gods, family, and polis in Athens). At the turn of the twenty-first century, freedom, choice, and diversity represent America's absolute "moral" goods and have become the would-be unifying principles of American society. They cannot be questioned in polite company, while God, family, and country are fair game. What could more clearly demonstrate America's apparent conversion to this new religion than the fact that basic elements of traditional American society-such as the Pledge of Allegiance or the prayers opening Congress-seem to cause embarrassment to many intellectuals, media figures, and even politicians, who seem at most other times to be virtually incapable of embarrassment (much less shame)? In stark contrast, the classical Athenians never lost the ability to pronounce or enforce their collective standards of morality and thus to produce shame in individuals. Even the democratic icon Pericles spoke of those "laws which, although unwritten, yet cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace" (Thuc. 2.37). The negative and positive requirements for Athens's citizens analyzed in chapter a show that the Athenians placed real strictures on one another and could not have endorsed modern Americans' idealization of freedom, choice, and diversity. Respect for the laws, obedience to magistrates, and shame or disgrace for those who violated society's written and unwritten codes always formed a central part of Athenian life, which exhibited significant amounts of freedom, choice, and diversity as a result. In the United States today, the anti-values of freedom, choice, and diversity have become so powerful (and dangerous) in part because-note the supreme irony-they admit of no philosophical opposition. One simply cannot oppose treating these ideas as society's appropriate goals without risking being labeled a reactionary, heretic, or worse, as if it had been empirically proven that only peoples or regimes that worship these deities can produce justice or happiness. Has America seen the amount of social justice and personal happiness increase proportionately with its rising estimation of this trinity? Read entire: Click here: MODERN AMERICA AND THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY
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QQQQA lot of people spend time talking to the animals but not that many people listen. That's the real problem. Winnie-the-Pooh Monday, July 11. 2005Album Review: Time Out Of MindBy the time 1997 rolled around, Bob Dylan had gone seven full years without releasing any original material, and it appeared as though he had permanently put aside the creation of new compositions in favor of year-round touring and performing. Though 1989’s Oh Mercy was hailed as a comeback, its 1990 follow-up, Under The Red Sky, was widely panned, and Dylan sunk further still with a disastrous tour in 1991. Less attentive observers might have written off Dylan completely by 1992, but those dedicated fans that continued to attend live performances may have noticed a startling turnaround in concert quality by 1993, as Dylan found a strong new voice that reflected both a wiser maturity and much-improved tonal command. After the release of two albums of blues and folk covers in 92 and 93, Dylan continued to hone his live performances to an even greater degree, giving hard-rocking shows in 1995 that continued to redefine and renew songs from throughout his vast catalogue. A breathtaking performance of Restless Farewell for Frank Sinatra’s 80th birthday celebration in the waning days of 1995 led some perceptive commentators to suspect that Dylan was only beginning to rediscover his powers. For most critics, however, the arrival of Time Out Of Mind in September 1997 came as a complete surprise. That the album was excellent, rivaling his best work from the past 20 years, was even more of a shock to the public, its high quality further magnified by the reputation of the author and the seemingly permanent break he had taken from songwriting. The album captured a Grammy award and landed Dylan on the cover of Time magazine, but the music itself was anything but typical pop-scene fare. In fact, Time Out Of Mind was perhaps the gloomiest, most pessimistic take on life and the human experience that Dylan had ever put together, backed by exquisite and immensely atmospheric arrangements courtesy of producer Daniel Lanois. The songs themselves are bleak and haunting, always returning to the tried and true blues themes of lost loves, feelings of loneliness and isolation from society, and the inevitability of death and loss. As he had been doing for decades, Dylan often appropriated classic blues phrases in their entirety, perhaps tweaking them here or there, but leaving the most memorable imagery intact. Lines like “Going to walk down that dirt road ‘til my eyes begin to bleed,” and “turn your lamp down low” are taken almost word for word from old blues standards, and their very familiarity, their innate, almost subconscious power, lends the songs a powerful foundation in a century-old musical tradition. Continue reading "Album Review: Time Out Of Mind" Terror Nukes Already in the US? Jihad Watch reports planning has been going on for ten years.
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Those Seals in Afghanistan What were they doing? Times Online has a theory that they were after someone big. Thanks, Belmont. Did not know you could hit a chopper with an RPG. The prolific Brewton has a slightly new format - intro entries with "read more," the way Auster does. Looks good. View from 1776.
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Che Guevara, the glorified Communist, the man who thought he was the next liberator of Latin America was a cut-throat murdering pig. Alvaro Vargas Llosa from the New Republic writes the true story behind a man who has been memorialized for all the wrong reasons. Murder is murder no matter how you look at it. The below from Click here: Caracas Chronicles "Che Guevara, who did so much (or was it so little?) to destroy capitalism, is now a quintessential capitalist brand. His likeness adorns mugs, hoodies, lighters, key chains, wallets, baseball caps, toques, bandannas, tank tops, club shirts, couture bags, denim jeans, herbal tea, and of course those omnipresent T-shirts with the photograph, taken by Alberto Korda, of the socialist heartthrob in his beret during the early years of the revolution, as Che happened to walk into the photographer's viewfinder--and into the image that, thirty-eight years after his death, is still the logo of revolutionary (or is it capitalist?) chic. Sean O'Hagan claimed in The Observer that there is even a soap powder with the slogan "Che washes whiter." In a recent review in The New York Times of George A. Romero's Land of the Dead, Manohla Dargis noted that "the greatest shock here may be the transformation of a black zombie into a righteous revolutionary leader," and added, "I guess Che really does live, after all." The soccer hero Maradona showed off the emblematic Che tattoo on his right arm during a trip where he met Hugo Chávez in Venezuela."
The Folk Song Army and Stone-Age Economics Unfortun- "We are the Folk Song Army. His point is that the economically uneducated still believe in a stone-age, pre-currency and pre-growth economics - ie a zero-sum game economy. If you have it, then I don't. Bird Dog jumped on the story in this blog last week. Kling goes on to explain:
Read the whole thing, and forward it to your economically ignorant friends who also think they live in the stone age. (Photo of Lascaux art from the Lascaux website.) The Brits: Harbourers of Terrorism I thought we were at war with terrorists and with those who harbor them. Isn't it clear that the UK is the main harbor for terrorists in Europe, and that London is Jihad Central? The Brits are "tolerant of diversity" unto suicide, but it's unto homicide to us since Brit citizens can so easily enter the US. Foxes welcomed into the hen-house. Their civility is being taken advantage of, and laughed at by their mortal enemies. I know this sounds just a teensy bit harsh and insensitive to say at this time of mourning, and especially about our dear cousins and allies, but...just some of many stories here, here and here. The Brits have made themselves Candide, in an evil world. Will they wake up to the existence of evil now? Let us hope and pray that they will. They have before, God knows. They are slow to anger, but watch out when you get their goat. Selected Jihad CommentsFrom fox-murdering Free Market Fairy Tales:
From Paul Kelly in Weekend Australian:
Roger Scruton hypothesizes envy, in Times Online:
The Global Domination Theory - Handlery in Intell. Conserv. (with whom I agree):
Auster bashes immigration:
Bergen in the NYT - the UK's hospitality to terrorists is a threat to the US:
Jihad Watch: Click here: Jihad Watch
From Belmont Club: London is proof that we are winning:
And last but not least, our own Chairman from Maggie's Farm Britain's psychotically PC immigration policies: you cannot open your door to snakes who are hostile to your gentle culture, and then bitch when they bite you. Rome already tried that, and socio-politically, Italy has been a mess ever since. Remember, the barbarians did not so much attack as simply migrate into the empire. If you want a gentle, civil culture, you need tough borders and boundaries, a shell, just as we do in our personal lives. Freedom, gentility, and civility are not birthrights: some things in life must be fought for and defended. What is happening in Europe is properly called "invasion," not immigration. We have the battles of Tours and Lopanto, redux. Hey, cousins - save yourselves before it's too late. We are already calling it "Londistan" and "Euristan."
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QQQQThe devil can quote scripture for his purpose. Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice Sunday, July 10. 2005Powerful Storm Dennis could be one of the most powerful hurricanes in our lifetime, says Storm Track. Update 6 pm: Woops. Lost power over the cooler northern Gulf waters while I was weeding my garden and munching on sun-hot early raspberries. Still a majestic storm, though. And now Emily might turn into something. We are due a good hurricane in New England - it's been too many years without one. Listening to: Faure Concerto for Piano and Strings. Sunday Verse: JeremiahJeremiah 31:31-34, NLT "The day will come," says the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife," says the Lord. "But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day," says the Lord. "I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their family, saying, `You should know the Lord.' For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will already know me," says the Lord. "And I will forgive their wickedness and will never again remember their sins." Saturday, July 9. 2005Four Dumbest Things of the Week re Radical Islam 1. Terrorism is caused by poverty and hopelessness. Balderdash. Bin Ladin has - what - $50 million and how many wives with American Express cards? The NYT buys it, and even Blair seems to, and of course the Left buys any simplistic Marxist view. This terrorism is caused by a religious perversion which denies the humanity of, and indeed hates unto death, those of different faith - see prescient joke posted earlier this week, which seems less funny now. 2. The Crusaders were evil. Not really. They were sent by their clergy to re-open access to Jerusalem as a pilgrimage site, after it had been occupied by invading Moslem armies and closed to Christian pilgrimage. Put it in historical context - pilgrimages were a big deal back then, and everyone, from peasant to prince, dreamed of walking in Christ's footsteps. Many still do, but now we can. No ancestor-guilt, please - it is neurotic, as I am sure our Dr. Bliss would say. 3. Don't make them even madder by trying to get rid of them. Huh? Is that rational? Appeasing people who want to kill you? What do you do when rattlesnakes come into your house? Give them the house? Never try to "understand" people who want to destroy you - they have written themselves out of the civil realm and must be dealt with differently (unless you have behaved in deeply evil ways yourself - which we ain't done.). Think "Hitler". 4. Britain's psychotically PC immigration policies: you cannot open your door to snakes who are hostile to your gentle culture, and then bitch when they bite you. Rome already tried that, and socio-politically, Italy has been a mess ever since. Remember, the barbarians did not so much attack as simply migrate into the empire. If you want a gentle, civil culture, you need tough borders and boundaries, a shell, just as we do in our personal lives. Freedom, gentility, and civility are not birthrights: some things in life must be fought for. What is happening in Europe is properly called "invasion," not immigration. We have the battles of Tours and Lopanto, redux. Hey, cousins - save yourselves before it's too late. We are already calling it "Londistan" and "Euristan." Bird of the Week: Black Crowned Night HeronThe most widespread heron in the world, this Read more about this elegant heron here. Photo courtesy of P. LaTourette - link to the left. Friday, July 8. 2005Compassion and understanding for the Nazis? It makes as much sense to me to have worried about the "root causes" of the Third Reich's desire to conquer Europe as it does to bring a social worker and a psychotherapist to meet with Al Quaida. It's enough of a "root cause" to see the joy and triumph on their faces when they murder innocent infidels - Christians and Jews. The root cause is the desire to kill and conquer for Allah and the cure is the same as the cure for cancer - you kill the cells. The below excerpted from Rick Moran at RWN:
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More on the UCCThe UCC, More The UCC did vote in favor of divestment re Israel. This kind of thing just amplifies my critical piece on the UCC a few weeks ago. But with the US as the major ally and supporter of Israel, I don't understand why they aren't voting to divest of US companies also. "For God's sake, stop the aid to Africa" says Kenyan economist James Shikwati: Huge bureaucracies are financed (with the aid money), corruption and complacency are promoted, Africans are taught to be beggars and not to be independent. In addition, development aid weakens the local markets everywhere and dampens the spirit of entrepreneurship that we so desperately need. As absurd as it may sound: Development aid is one of the reasons for Africa's problems. If the West were to cancel these payments, normal Africans wouldn't even notice. Only the functionaries would be hard hit. Which is why they maintain that the world would stop turning without this development aid. Read entire in der Spiegel (thanks, RCP) And similar sentiments from Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai Pejmanesque has a great collection of political cartoons re London. Quotes too. He also happens to have reviewed Chronicles of Narnia. Saved me the trouble - nice job.
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From Blamebush:
T-Shirt Free advertising: Shirt available from Northeast Map of all serious Islamic terrorism acts, to date, on Powerline. London transport update: getting back to normal ! The Left continues its descent into madness, on RWN Keith Thompson, at Moonbat Central:
QQQQAn appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. Winston Churchill Thursday, July 7. 2005Four Thoughts First, I predict that the bombers will turn out to be "home-grown" London Moslems, linked to European Moslem groups, not terrorists who snuck into England directly from the Middle East. Hence their comment about hitting other European nations and not the US or the Aussies. They are locals, the Trojan Horse of radical Islam. See Mannes on NRO re the well-tolerated radical Islamic presence in London. Second, that Brit unsentimental, stiff-upper lip is really something, isn't it? In the US, there would be public weeping and wailing, days of mourning, mountains of candles and teddy bears, emergency prayer services, and teams of grief therapists. In contrast to the Brits, we look like a nation of over-emoting-obsessed, self-indulgent hysterics. Third, from Steyn: "the more you insist the Islamist psychosis is a rational phenomenon to be accommodated, the more you risk sounding just as nutty as the terrorists." Fourth, Churchill: "Danger - if you meet it promptly and without flinching - you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!" Comment from Gwynnie Gwynnie likes Sky News: http://www.sky.com/skynews/home as she was annoyed at this mornings conclusion by BBC that the attacks were “in retribution for” Afghanistan & Iraq (like the Battle of the Bulge was “in retribution for” the Normandy landings). Perhaps the Beeb would like to withdraw from Iraq; would it pull out of Northern Ireland too? The Reuters “News” Service still can’t bring itself to use the term “terrorism”. Maybe it would like to refer to the bombings in London as caused by “insurgents”. From BBC:
Final Word from Bird Dog
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