Wednesday, December 27. 2006
Meet sexy, 17 year-old farm gal Caroline here. She is lonely and hot, and wants to meet you. Don't act shy - check her out. (sound on)
Power, unlike money, is a zero-sum game. The Barrister
While Jimmy Carter has written himself out of history, his book was an opportunity for Oren to review the long history of American Protestant support for a Jewish nation. One quote: Generations of Christians in this country, representing a variety of dominations, laymen and clergy alike, have embraced the concept of renewed Jewish sovereignty in Palestine. The passion was already evident in 1620, when William Bradford alighted on Plymouth Rock and exclaimed, "Come, let us declare the word of God in Zion." Bradford was a leader of the Puritans, dissenting Protestants who, in their search for an unsullied religion and the strength to resist state oppression, turned to the Old Testament. There, they found a God who spoke directly to his people, who promised to deliver them from bondage and return them to their ancestral homeland. Appropriating this narrative, the Puritans fashioned themselves as the New Jews and America as their New Promised Land. They gave their children Hebrew names--David, Benjamin, Sarah, Rebecca--and called over 1,000 of their towns after Biblical places, including Bethlehem, Bethel and, of course, New Canaan.
Whole piece at Opinion Journal.
Pastor quoted somebody on Christmas Eve - I forget who - but the gist of it was that many people first experience God by His absence in their lives.  Assistant Village Idiot wrote a suberb, short piece on the Christmas of nostalgia. What does it feel like to base your festivities on your past; to be on the outside, looking in?
It's not the usual kind of "Keep Christ in Christmas" piece. One quote: We are so aware of how many things pull us away from Christ at Christmas that we have forgotten how dangerous it is for those outside to look in. They sense, as we should know but have forgotten, that to step inside might mean never coming back. If emotional distance does not bring warmth, it at least brings memories of warmth, with no danger of burning.
Read the whole thing.
 When you read something like this piece at Driscoll, you have to wonder why Americans - and people from all over the world - are not lining up to emigrate to Cuba.
After all, it's the fun place to live, where everyone is happy, almost nobody has to go to work, and there are no problems. Oh - I almost forgot. Free medical care and free education too! Nobody needs money! And no-one needs religious superstitions, because you are already in paradise. So you can sleep in on Sunday morning! That is true freedom! Fidelito does did it all for you, because of his great love for his people!
Tuesday, December 26. 2006
 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.
 After our mention of Burgoo last week, the Bluegrass-born prof at Right Wing Nation was kind enough to furnish us with a recipe. Sounds good, but a bit civilized. I thought that you needed to use whatever you shot in the woods, plus whatever road-kill you found - or nailed with your truck bumper - on the way home.
Well, the Prof reminds me that he did include "varmint," such as the cute critter in photo. I think my ideal Burgoo would include possum, coon, and squirrel, with a pork base. Most of 'em can be shot from one's back porch without hardly gettin' up out of the chair. Like Bill Quick's blog, I wonder whether the Prof is slowly turning his into a foodie blog. Indeed, there is only so much politics that one can take before you begin to gag on it. After a while, the sheer stupidity of it all just pisses you off. However, as citizens of a free republic, it is a duty to care, even if we would prefer not to.
 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.
In the nanny/totalitarian state, anything not forbidden will be mandatory. Anon.
Monday, December 25. 2006
 It's sad to hear of the death of the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, at 73.
It was interesting, but not surprising, to see that he has been on tour. Rough, raw, and a complete showman, it's hard to imagine anyone putting more more of his spirit into a performance. Definitely not white bread. Everytime I listen to James Brown I feel a little bit like the college guys in Animal House who wandered into the wrong bar. He recorded "Please, Please, Please" in 1956. Most of my generation knew him first from "Live at the Apollo" - but he did his best stuff later with his funk bands. Rude, crude, and socially unacceptable? For sure. "Music" that could make a corpse move their body. Here's Sex Machine at YouTube.
We must begin with Dylan doing our theme song, Maggie's Farm, from the Rolling Thunder Review Go Tell it on the Mountain by some Gospel choir Allman Brothers, Blue Sky. How sweet is that? Bing Crosby, White Christmas Grateful Dead, Pretty Peggy-O Emmylou Harris with the Nash Ramblers at the Ryman, Roses in the Snow (with their Nash Rambler intro - remember that one?) Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited Keb Mo, Sweet Home Chicago, with Corey Harris. Another Keb Mo - Angelina. Love this guy. Like him? Here's Every Mornin' Bob Dylan, Restless Farewell, at the Sinatra Tribute. Wow. Hypnotic. John Fogerty, Lodi Dylan, I Threw it all Away, on the Johnny Cash Show, 1969 Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho, Mahalia Jackson Dylan, Highlands Sinatra, My Way
Luke 2:15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Sunday, December 24. 2006
This year's Christmas card from our friend, artist Elissa Gore:
I urge you to take a few minutes to read Gagdad Bob's latest, which concerns education and religion. A few quotes, to tempt you: Anyway, like me, Professor Taylor is worried. However, we are worried about opposite things. While I am worried about his influence on students, he is worried that “more American college students seem to be practicing traditional forms of religion today than at any time in my 30 years of teaching,” which he calls “religious correctness” -- thereby confusing the disease with its cure.
He is obviously upset, because these religiously correct students seem immune to the charms of his academically correct vacuities. “Indeed,” he writes, “it seems the more religious students become, the less willing they are to engage in critical reflection about faith.” Translated, this means that these dangerous students are less willing to confuse a prideful ability to doubt anything with the discernment of truth.
and Taylor then says that “In the most egregious cases, defenders of the faith insist that only true believers are qualified to teach their religious tradition.” To which one can only reply, “well duh.” Any religion, in order to be understood, must be understood “from the inside,” because that is precisely the sort of knowledge embodied in religion: interior knowledge. Religions are not about the horizontal, objective, or quantitative world, and to treat them as such is to misunderstand them, precisely. They are specifically roadmaps of the cosmic interior, and only someone who knows the territory on a first hand basis is qualified to teach about it.
It is absolutely no different with, say, psychoanalysis, which cannot be understood objectively, but only subjectively. Its truths must be experienced, or they are no truth at all, just empty “k.” It is no coincidence that the most egregious misunderstandings and misapplications of psychoanalysis have always come from academia, because intellectuals naturally believe it is something that can be greedily understood just like any other merely intellectual system.
The purpose of an elite university education is no longer to become educated -- to acquire a well-furnished mind and familiarize oneself with the best things that have been thought and said -- but to become stupid by elevating a means to an end. Thus, upon contact with his luckless students, Professor Taylor tells them “that if they are not more confused and uncertain at the end of the course than they were at the beginning, I will have failed.” In short, the goal of education is to make students as lost and confused as Professor Taylor, through the deification of man’s capacity to doubt anything.
Enough? Bob always leaves me thinking. Read the whole thing. America's first colleges: King's College (Columbia now), Harvard, Yale, the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) - were all begun as places to mainly educate clergy, and/or religiously-interested lay people. Have they simply been co-opted by a new religion? Are colleges still doctrinal seminaries, with new doctrines?
Saturday, December 23. 2006
 Three things heard on the radio today, about money:
1. "Today, a 'millionaire' is someone who makes a million dollars a year." 2. "Pay off all of your holiday bills with a Quicken home loan!" Great idea, Quicken. Hey, honey: those nice folks at Quicken want to pay our bills! Gee, thanks for the generous offer! 3. "People who say Christmas is all about the baby Jesus are just trying to rationalize being cheapskates." Hmmmm. Ummmm. Nevermind.
That is why the young rich man was so loath to follow Jesus, for the cost of his following was the death of his will. In fact, every call of Jesus is a call to die, with all of our affections and lusts. But we do not want to die, and therefore Jesus Christ and His call are necessary for our death and our life. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (h/t, Dr. Bob) I have a personal piece in mind to write about this subject of "will," but it will need to wait.
Al Zawahiri ("Call me 'Al'") delivers his Christmas message. Great. Via Driscoll
 Bush's former speechwriter, Michael Gerson, wrote a piece about the idealistic strain in the Republican Party for Newsweek, which was highlighted by YARGB and Ankle Biting, among others.
I think it's worth reading because the Repub Party is, like any party, a mix of views and philosophies. Furthermore, I think many Repubs are, like me, a mix of contradictory and philosophically inconsistent views, ranging from the radical Libertarian to the socially "progresssive." Indeed, almost all Republicans these days are "big government Republicans." There's no big movement to eliminate Medicare, is there? It's just a matter of degree. For me, and for most of us bred-in-the-bone proud Yankees at Maggie's Farm, I think it boils down to something like this: We distrust Federal power. We distrust state power less, and local power even less. We are Federalists partly because it is a bulwark against excessive centralized power, and we lean Libertarian because power, unlike money, truly is a zero-sum game. We are sympathetic to CS Lewis' statement: Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
Here's a quote from Gerson: Campaigning on the size of government in 2008, while opponents talk about health care, education and poverty, will seem, and be, procedural, small-minded, cold and uninspired. The moral stakes are even higher. What does antigovernment conservatism offer to inner-city neighborhoods where violence is common and families are rare? Nothing. What achievement would it contribute to racial healing and the unity of our country? No achievement at all. Anti-government conservatism turns out to be a strange kind of idealism—an idealism that strangles mercy.
But there is another Republican Party—what might be called the party of the governors. It is the party of Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, who has improved the educational performance of minority students and responded effectively to natural disasters. It is the party of Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, who mandated basic health insurance while giving subsidies to low-income people. Neither of these men embrace big government; both show convincing outrage at wasteful spending. But they have also succeeded in making government work in essential government roles—not a small thing in a post-Katrina world.
The future of the Republican Party depends on which party it wants to be—the party of purity, or the party of the governors. In that decision, Republicans should consider: any political movement that elevates abstract antigovernment ideology above human needs is hardly conservative, and unlikely to win.
There is an "idealism that strangles mercy" - and there is government power that strangles freedom, self-reliance, autonomy, and emotional and spiritual maturity - and thus cripples humankind. I'm not saying I agree with all that Gerson says, but it's well worth the read, here.
Friday, December 22. 2006
Readers will be happy to know that my venison mince-meat has now been properly aged and is ready to go into the pie and tart shells. What a fine smell. Lots of cranberries, and brandy this time. One pie for the pal who bowed the doe in his back yard. (We have no limit on does.) Santa. Coke claims that they essentially invented our image of the jolly old elf. Snopes begs to differ. (thanks, reader Chuck.)  Burgoo. Ever had it? Good stuff. Right Wing Nation needs to offer a recipe. I've had it a few times. Possum, squirrel, coon, snake, whatever. And vegetables. But road-kill menu items are disappearing. Maybe the Kentucky State Troopers are picking up all the good stuff.
Godwin's Law, and illegal immigration. Ace Al Quaida: Kill a Christian on Christmas. Jawa. The religion of peace and tolerance. If you can understand Columbia's Lee Bollinger, you are smarter than me. What a mealy-mouthed, double-talking schmuck. Power Line. Where do universities find such lame sitzpinklers? I guess the boards want limp guys they can control. NYC is in its prime, but these stats are not cheering. This is your future, America. From Moonbattery: According to New York City's latest release of vital statistics, there were 88,891 reported abortions in the city in 2005. When babies were allowed to live, Medicaid paid for 52% of the births. An appalling 44% of women giving birth weren't married.
It is still running. There are some good ones on the comments. Get them out of your head - now or never.
 Rape charges dropped. Now she's a "28 year-old student at North Carolina Central University." Funny, I thought she was a 28 year-old prostitute and stripper. How does a newspaper decide what to call people? By the way, I am a 37 year-old lion tamer.
Best hunting photo ever. Here Europe's largest dinosaur found in Spain. It's Global Orgasm Day. Do it for Gaia. Marg. Rev. Let's all make Love and Peace global: Together, we can do it! (Or alone, as the case may be.) "Hey there, cutie. Let's do Global Orgasm Day for peace together....ouch, hey - that really hurt. Hey - that wasn't peaceful at all!" An Honest Confession of an American Coward. Pat Conroy. From his new book. A good read. Truth is good stuff. Rare. Further thoughts about big govt. conservatism, at Ankle Biting Give 'em an inch...Getting tougher at Gitmo. Big Lizards Christians unwelcome in Bethlehem.
"Thank you for purchasing a McDonnell Douglas military aircraft. Please take a moment to complete this warranty card..." Free Market Fairy Tales
From the Hagerstown Herald-Mail: During the 2005-06 school year, 28 kindergarten students in Maryland were suspended for sex offenses, including sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexual activity, according to state data. Fifteen of those suspensions were for sexual harassment.
The precocity of these Maryland kids is remarkable, is it not? Or would it be better understood as a mass outbreak of a pedophilia epidemic, requiring governmental intervention? (h/t, The Moderate Voice)
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