Maggie's Farm

Tim Blair coined the phrase "The Al Gore Effect." Whenever anyone gives a speech about the global warming scam, the weather turns cold, or it snows. Is Al Gore the most arrogant doofus in the USA? Or is "Jon Carry"? No-one has the courage to tell them what they are: pompous buffoons. Life has done its best to teach them humility - as it does to all of us - but it doesn't seem to take with them. They must be hopeless. I am afraid that many are beyond help, learning, self-observation, self-doubt, and self-criticism.

Mary Katherine Ham is a true Ham. She is good, too. This one is about the Duke fiasco.

And for another example of true injustice, Instapundit is on the Cory Maye story. Heartbreaking. I'd like to see the blogworld use its feeble powers to do something about this.

Lots of new laws kick in on Monday. Do you know all of your laws?

A "charisma offensive" for Hillary? Coffee snort onto my monitor. She has the charisma of a rabid wombat, unless you are a lesbian moonbat self-hating commie - or a lazy, disgruntled loser looking for more handouts. Yes, alas, we have some of those in the USA, and it's a damn shame they never learned what it's all about. Endless opportunity - and free choice. How bad is that? I don't want her village. I want my own village - good old Pittsfield, MA. That's good enough for now: I can live with my own dumb choices, like being a "journalist." For the present, that is.

You won't believe this Dartmouth prof. Powerline

Take your pick. AP spins poll in both directions.

Self-hating Americans. Gateway. Since when is self-hatred a virtue? It's just the flip side of self-love, and it is an illness - except when self-hatred is justified by behavior. In that case, it is healthy.

Bareback Mountain: Leave them kids alone. Well, sheep.

The anti-war protesters. Flares has it exactly right:

Like they give a rat's behind. I can see them now, they have their party plans all made and they wait avidly and excitedly for the magic 3,000 to come about so that they can sing and preach and burn flags. Just like the good old days when the demonstrators burned down the ROTC building.

Well you know something? I remember those days and a lot of those demonstrators did not care about dead Americans. Not a bit. They were full of the sanctimonious outrage and wanted to bring about the Revolution! I remember. The dead were just handy, an excuse to do what they wanted to do anyway...raise hell.

What about grim milestones? The press loves them, feeds of them like maggots on a wound..but was the life of the first soldier any less precious than another? Is that life precious at all to the people who are planning this event? These soldiers are volunteers. They are not politicians, they are not policy makers and while the constant negativity can obviously erode the will of the public for conflict and keep hope alive in the ranks of the enemy...what then?

Flopping Aces has excellent Ford ceremony photos. Here's one:

This is sick. London to celebrate Castro. I could see celebrating his death, though.

Chavez is shutting down TV station. Typical Leftist hero.

Where your NEA dues go. RWNation

If you can stomach it. The worst of the Times. Conspiracy

Why Bush is my Hero. Singleton, agreeing with Ed Koch

Who would believe this guy? He's just a general in Iraq. Villainous

From a LaShawn piece:

Isn’t it ironic that blacks, who once struggled for equal treatment before the law, now use their race to rally for special treatment before the law?

AP journalists are dumber than me. YARGB

Why do Western people react passively to attacks on their culture? Auster asks, and looks back to an old post of his for the answer.

A TV evangelist sent me money!  (h/t, Smart Christian)

Q&A about climate, at American.com

Why would anyone worry about eating cloned animals? If the original was good, the cloned one should be just as tasty.

Very cool. Photos of jets breaking the sound barrier. It creates a strange cloud. Never Yet Melted

Whooping Cranes on the upswing. One grand species saved by human ingenuity. Am. Thinker

Doesn't want his culture destroyed by immigrants. Tangled Web. Who would, if you value your culture, that is? Didn't nations historically resist invasion for that reason?

Reason # 546 never to take Paul Krugman seriously. Right Wing News. The guy writes like a purely partisan, dishonest moron. Which is why he got the job, one must imagine, instead of me.

German-American comfort food, from food blogger Right Wing Nation. We like to think that all of that fat just smooths the lining of our arteries.

Why is "the world's wealth" in the hands of a small number of people? Lib. Leanings on Sowell's piece.   It's all about the culture.

John Edwards enters the race. John who? But how embarassing to have this on Youtube. Gateway

Awaiting news of Tony Blair's conversion to Islam. LGF

"We wonder if we've oversold the science." Duh. Warming scientists take a step back from their scare tactics - and their predictions. SDA. But will the press reflect this increasing shift?

Record numbers defy the UK hunting ban. As Glenn notes:

If that many British Muslims turned out to protest interference with their customs, the Blair government would be bending over backward to please them. (Via Brits at Their Best).

What's all this fuss about "separation of church and state"? Prof. B. wonders why the Dems continue to perpetuate the bogus theme.

Why do Catholics become Evangelicals? Via News for Christians,

...Father Raniero Cantalamessa...has shockingly described the state of the Catholic Church in Latin America by noting that Catholics there proclaim that, “When we need a labor union we go to our parish priest; when we need the word of God we go to the Protestant pastor,” and that, “In Latin America the Catholic Church has made an option for the poor and the poor have opted for the Protestant Churches.”  

Whole piece at Homiletic and Pastoral Review

Krugman wants the US to deal with poverty the way the UK does. Rethink that, Paul. Worstall

The LA Times is ready to exchange their Lexus for a Yugo. Foolish people. They will live - or die - to regret their position on "free health care." And they omit telling you who those uninsured are. How many are illegals, and how many are young people who don't give a damn? Any excuse to take over 1/9th of our economy, turn everyone into dependents, apply Washington wisdom to medical treatment, and turn the best medical care in the world into the Post Office. And the biggest problem is this: Where will Canadians go when they get sick?

From the "If Murtha were a Republican" Department: Sleaze, via Rhymes with Right. Yes, this would be a major scandal. Way bigger than that gay Florida congressman whose name I have already forgotten.

Happy Kwanzaa? Huh? What? Never Yet Melted. Thankfully, it has become a joke phrase.

"A lying, shakedown whore"? Sounds about right. Ace

More on the union dues ruckus. Yes, it is a scam. Front Page. The press, of course, is indifferent.

Carrying big cash is a crime? Since when? Coyote. Heck, I never carry less than $100,000 in my wallet. You never know what might strike your fancy, and I hate to use my Mastercard. Doesn't everybody?

Funding for the famous fence is gone. The Mexican colonization of the US will continue.

Father of 30 has a very good gig in Belgium. (h/t SDA)

Brave Moslems run away, in Somalia. Hey - what about the virgins? Maybe they aren't entirely certain.

It's Boxing Day. Why is it called that? It's not clear. We should call it Clean-up ye Olde Cabin Day.

The Scarlet Letter. Dr. Helen (pictured) explains it.

Freud's affair with his sister-in-law. Does anyone care? Besides Peter Gay, that is?

Department of Lefties=Fascists: Driscoll

It only takes about five minutes to figure out how the press lies about polls and statistics. Powerline. At least the papers didn't headline "Most believe religion the work of Satan."  But they came close.

Woops. Moonbats got the date wrong. Whatever.

Those dang Christmas Carols annoyed Brit unions. I can understand being annoyed by the Christmas songs - but never by the carols. My problem with the carols is that I know them so well that I can forget to hear the astonishing words. Same with the Lord's Prayer.

Would you take the Chunnel this week? I wouldn't.

Fear of Romney. Romneyphobia? He is pretty good. Town Hall

Americans are forced to be generous, because their government is so stingy, claim Canadians. How is that for a distortion designed to salvage one's self-esteem and to assuage one's conscience?

Hitler on Federalism. Volokh's piece begins thus:

One of the relatively few underanalyzed major topics in the extensive academic literature on federalism is the relationship between federalism and totalitarianism. A potential advantage of decentralized federalism is that it might serve as an obstacle to the establishment of an oppressive totalitarian state. Yet most scholars have largely ignored this possibility. One writer who didn't, however, was Adolf Hitler, who had this to say on the subject in Chapter 10 of Mein Kampf (which is devoted to German federalism):

"Might serve"? Definitely serves. That was the original deal, aka the US Constitution. The piece is here. We agree with the point which is made. Centralized power is always a threat to freedom - even when it is elected. It is in the nature of government to accrue power, using any excuse at hand. FDR was the worst criminal, in this regard. The Civil War and Jim Crow gave state's rights a bad name, but I am inclined to believe that, generally, states and localities have the right to be wrong sometimes. That is part of what freedom is meant to guarantee.

Neither wisdom, nor common sense, resides in Washington, DC; it resides elsewhere - in our people in our towns. Washington, DC obtains its power from the income tax, and the ignominious power of vote-buying with OPM.

But many will vote away their personal freedom for a bowl of lentils, especially when they feel spiritually and personally uncertain, frail, and lacking in a "support system".

Try some of our Christmas YouTubes - scroll down. Nice selection, Bird Dog. I can think of 100 you omitted, though.

A few points:  First, no links from the NJ for a few days. Someone reminded me that Christmas is coming soon, so I should start to focus. Second, photo is Rockefeller Center, of course. I will be in NYC tomorrow through Christmas, I am happy to say, and out of the dark, pagan, socialist MA woods for a change. Third, we are still getting additions to the Family Holiday Game #1. Feel free to add some more equally lame offerings. Fourth, a Merry and Blessed Christmas from your very own, mostly-reliable, unpaid, and devoted News Junkie. I will pre-post a nice card for y'all to see tomorrow.

Top Ten Reasons American Women Suck.  And Rightly So. You may not agree.

Department of Unintended Consequences: How govt destroyed the family farm. Captain Ed

Why won't gun criminals get with the program and be a little more progressive?

What defeat in Iraq would mean. Lib. Leanings

This is cool - the 90-second history of world religions

About those "jobs American's won't do" Patterico

If it were not a few days before Christmas, one of us would comment on this piece by Volokh: Adolf Hitler on Federalism. Good piece. I agree.

And if were not a few days..., one of us might be more likely to comment on this very interesting piece about Michael Gersen and the Republican party, highlighted at Flares from Darkness. Maybe someone will find the time to do so.

No tengo futoro, says Jeb Bush. Very sad.

Michelle labels 2006 as The Year of Perpetual Outrage, and summarizes the silliness.

The Nokia Internet Tablet. A gift idea. Looks like a handy gizmo.

Ralph Peters asks "What if they don't want what we want?" Indeed. We recently asked the same question. Dino

Another idea: One-cup Mellitta coffee maker

Women overcommunicate! Am Thinker. Yes! Sometimes a guy does not want to be a receptacle for your entire inner life. "Inner" means inner. Keep it with yours, or we will say "Shut up!!!"

Marriage and Caste in America. View from 1776 highlights a review of the book of that name by Kay Hymowitz. A quote from the book:

“Why would women working for a pittance at supermarket cash registers decide to have children without getting married while women writing briefs at Debevoise & Plimpton, who could easily afford to go it alone, insist on finding husbands before they start families?”

The answer, in Ms. Hymowitz’s view, is that many among the urban poor have lost the “life script” for future-oriented child-rearing. Policy makers may assume that the problem is a shortage of employed, marriageable men. But the problem is more existential, a loss of a sense that marriage and children are connected. "

As reform stalls, things in Latin America looking worse. Quote from a good review at TCS:

Even more disturbing than Latin America's tepid economic growth is the fact that its stuttering and half-hearted attempt at economic market reform over the past two decades has barely made a dent at reducing the region's mass poverty and chronic income inequality. In fact, various academic and multilateral bank studies suggest that Latin America still has the worst income distribution in the world and that there is more poverty in Latin America today than there was in the early 1980s when economic reform programs were being initiated.

Bush targeting Pacific Coast indians. Like he did with Katrina, only worse.

Woops. It turns out real vegetarians are less smart: Big Lizards

Four drinks per day: Instapundit. I'm sure they do not mean four Grey Goose martinis.

Official dhimmitude at University of Leeds. View from the Right

The New Zimbabwe diet. From piece by Right Thinking:

There’s a great picture of fried rats on the linked page.  It just goes to show, though, how an abundance of resources doesn’t mean jack shit if you don’t have a democratic capitalist political system to make good use of them.  And as Hong Kong shows us, if you’ve got the democratic capitalist political system you don’t even need any resources.

My God how I love the market.

Chavez brings back slavery. Publius. Hey - he means well. Right?

A good howl against economic ignorance, by Coyote

Babes in Toyland. Yikes. Kirsten Powers. This is sick. Can I have one?

Corrupt Dems just can't get the press. Michelle

Lobbying Reform? This has an ominous sound. Flares into Darkness. Every American is a one-person lobbyist for something.

The booming Iraq economy, via Newsweek. Miller. The news you will not hear.

Europhobia on Rise in Europe! Truthiness at Crittenden

The German Church defines limits for tolerance. Gates of V.

Kofi's illegal apartment in NYC? NYSun

A nice intro to Mexican food: RWN. I salivated.

Did you see Hawkins' Most Obnoxious Quotes of 2006?

Ahmadinejad takes a political hit. We should not misunderestimate the sense of the Iranian people, despite their recent leadership. Rick has a good discussion.

1984 at Michigan State. Creepy.

Disney tells J D Worley (photo) he cannot go to Disney World looking like that. He must shave, because Santa is a Disney character!  Moonbattery. My opinion? This guy should be busy with his elves in the North Pole two weeks before Christmas, and not hanging out with all of the fat Americans at Tinsley World. (Image borrowed from Moonbattery)

What happened to the bird flu scare? An update. (h/t, Junk Science)

Update on the unraveling of the Episcopalians. Is this really all about homosexuality? I doubt it. NYT. I suspect that was just the final straw.

YouTube and copyright laws. It all sounds fuzzy, but one probably shouldn't post copyrighted stuff on YouTube.

This year's war on Christmas. From a piece by Steyn:

Seattle Airport could certainly put up a menorah. And maybe a commemoration of Eid, and Kwanzaa, and something for solstice worshippers, and perhaps something for litigious atheists. But to do that is to turn society into a kind of greater airport departure lounge -- to say it's no more than an assemblage of whoever happens to be in it at any particular time. Successful societies (unlike plastic trees) have deep roots: Nobody should be obliged to believe Jesus is the son of God, but likewise nobody should take such umbrage at trees and tinsel and instrumental versions of "Silent Night" that he would deny the reality of the land he lives in to the vast majority of his fellow citizens. Because the logic of that leads not to a diverse secular society but to an atomized ersatz non-society. And, as those other touchy types the Islamists well understand, once you put reality up for grabs, all kinds of pathologies suddenly become viable.

On which note, God rest ye merry. It's tougher than you'd think.

From a piece by Fjordman on Alexander Boot's book, How the West was Lost:

Is Islam compatible with democracy? This is a question I address elsewhere. We also have to ask ourselves, however, whether the conditions needed for a properly functioning democratic system are currently present even in the West. I’m not always sure about that. In a functioning democratic state, the state passes laws in accordance with the wishes of the people, and also strives to uphold these laws. In Western Europe in particular, the state does neither, as most laws are passed by unelected EU bureaucrats and not elected national parliaments, and as the streets are increasingly ruled by gangs and criminals.

Image of healthy, low-fat, low carb breakfast from Mr. Free Market

The aurora? We had too much fog and cloud cover here.

BB King goes to the White House. It's about time. NY Sun

Does light rail accomplish anything? The Commons. Sadly, no. 

Yoga = $. Col. Journalism Review

Jamie Oliver will take on road kill cooking.

PJ O'Rourke studied The Wealth of Nations, so you won't have to. His new book.

Private schools are more integrated than public schools, and generally, the private tend to do lots of thing better. From a quote from a piece by Coulson at TCS:

...the most significant educational benefits to private schooling tend to be enjoyed by African American students, both in achievement and graduation rates. Economist Derek Neal has found that African American students attending urban Catholic schools are vastly more likely to complete high school, be accepted to college, and complete college than similar students who attend public schools. And a review by Harvard University researcher Paul Peterson and others finds that the academic achievement gains to students attending private schools under voucher programs are greatest among black students.

Labor markets, and helping the poor, made simple. From a piece by Clayton Cramer:

Teachers may not want to believe this, but there's a reason that plumbers get paid better than teachers. Teachers don't climb around under houses, in the dark, fighting with spiders, loosening and tightening the pipes coming out of your toilet. I've done just enough of this work when I was young that if I had the choice of being a plumber, a teacher, a software engineer, or a lifeguard, all for the same pay--well, let's just say that not many people would be lining up to be a plumber. The line to be a lifeguard or a teacher would run all the way around the block and perhaps into the next county.

Labor rates are a way of adjusting supply and demand to reflect fluctuating needs. If plumbers are in short supply, in a free market, wages will rise to reflect that scarcity. If the wages get high enough, people will become plumbers. If the supply of plumbers start to exceed the number of jobs, wages will drop, and send those who aren't keen on spiders and sewage into other jobs.

All of Mozart, online. Wow. Chequerboard

Baby-killing for stem cells. S. Mom

Finally, an answer to the flying imam mystery. Captain Ed. You have seen the video already, right?

Pigouvian taxation. Read it and learn something about Pigou and externalities. Big Lizards

Call US Air - urge them not to cave to the Flying Imam's demands. RWHowler tells you how.

China's coal mine fires are killing Gaia. Blair

Rent-A-Rector. The Dems are all doing it, and now Hillary too. Michelle. Is this more cynical than eating pizza and bagels and tacos? I think it is. Maybe related to the Third Commandment?

The willy that can be seen from space!

The Baker-Hamilton Report of 1943. Greenberg at TownHall. A quote:

With only some exceptions, our allies falter and retreat. In contrast to early and overly optimistic reports from the boisterous General Geo. S. Patton, enemy forces under the command of a seasoned and daring strategist, Field Marshal Erwin J.E. Rommel, aka The Desert Fox, continue to inflict heavy damage and threaten the progress of our arms.

We are richer than we think. NY Sun

Brit cops want to take DNA from babies, to solve future crimes. My advice: Just put 'em all in jail at birth. Everybody's guilty of something, eventually. But, come to think of it, how different from jail is a nanny state with snooping cameras everywhere?

Good piece on the lack of conservative ideas in the academy, at Chronicle of Higher Ed. It's a plea for scrutiny and debate, not a diatribe. One quote:

...the conservative tradition remains a vital resource of ideas and theories, a heritage that claims world triumphs. To gain it the full measure it warrants — and to bring it to bear wisely on the issues we confront — we need more than conservative pundits on television or in the blogosphere, more than conservative publishers or think tanks. We need to subject it to the full analysis — critical and appreciative — of the academy, to bring conservative works into the classroom and onto the syllabus. It would be healthy for everyone if the academic curriculum broadened its scope, if the lineage of conservatism were consolidated into a respectable course of study — that is, if Hayek won one-tenth the attention that Foucault receives.