Thursday, December 14. 2006
Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. Norman Vincent Peale
Wednesday, December 13. 2006
Due to overwhelming spam attacks, our comments are closed for a while. Update: back on. We weren't the only ones to deal with that spam storm.
Should a jury of twelve Texans have the power to destroy a major American business? Coyote looks at the absurdity of the trial bar. Yes, SUVs roll over. That is why they do not call them "sports cars."
Our blog friend Dr. Sanity just cannot lighten up, even during Christmastime. One quote from a new passionate piece which I wish appeared on the NYT Op-Ed page: The rise of neoconservatism represents the only modern intellectual counter and the only known antidote to the infection of postmodernism and its resultant toxic effects on philosophy, rhetoric, and politics.
In order to succeed in undoing and undermining the clear and unambiguous evidence of socialism's and communism's utter human toxicity, the totalitarians of the political left had to undermine nothing less than reality, reason, and truth. Furthermore, they had to deconstruct and invalidate human consciousness, making sure that the everyone understood that the only apparatus available to humans for perceiving reality--the mind--was completely unreliable, and that the evidence of the senses must therefore be discounted. This intellectual strategy resulted in a pervasive cultural relativism and intellectual nihilism that permeated all aspects of society and intellectual thought. Words and language were redefined to mean whatever one wanted; history was deconstructed--ostensibly to expose it's lies, but really to render it meaningless; and the ideas and values that were the foundation of Western civilization were mocked and shown by postmodern "logic" to be no better than any other random ideas.
Out my CT back door yesterday morning - Mr. Red-Tail. He is mainly looking for our fat squirrels. Bird Dog told me he saw one go for a duck decoy in his driveway. The tree? One of those unpleasant, alien Norway Maples we have all over New England these days: it would be nice if they all caught a disease. 
 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.
Most of the time, you want to be out a bit in front of your guides to get the shot, but, in this case, you just might want to lag a bit behind. Warning: T and/or A Rated photo, below, on continuation page:
Continue reading "Hunting Guides"
 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.
 It is painful for many old-time ornery New Hampshire Yankees to watch their state change.
But there are less of those folks now, relatively speaking. Two-thirds of NH residents were born outside of the state, and arrive with different values, and different politics. It's a sad thing for other Yankees, too, who have counted on NH to hold the fort for traditional Yankee values of endurance, thrift, honor, independence, grumpiness, and the Live Free or Die spirit which basically wants to tell the govt to f-off. Story about it in the CSM. Image is Robert Frost's farmhouse.
Tuesday, December 12. 2006
Can't find your duck press? Then you're out of luck if you are hungry for pressed duck. Had it once in Frogland. They did a flambe with the livery sauce, with all of the blood. Not too darn bad. Decadent but not vulgar.
 How did any kids in the UK make it to adulthood without the help of The School Food Trust?
A quote from Battle of the Lunchbox at Spiked: So, we’re apparently so useless we can’t even work out when and how to make our kids’ lunches but somehow we have the time to wander around sourcing a variety of fruits. Nor does it stop at fruit. There are all sorts of interesting breads we should search for, too. Examples given to put in our children’s lunchboxes are pittas, bagels, baguettes, ciabatta, rice crackers, rolls, wraps - anything but the humble white loaf which somehow has assumed the moral status of heroin.
Your very generous tax dollars at work, Brits! But what if your kids don't like kiwis?
Never get into fights with assholes. They drag you down to their level, then they beat you through superior experience. via Jay Tea
Sowell speaks out on the case now before the Supreme Court in which  students, both white and black, are suing school districts in Louisville and Seattle for denying them admittance to the schools of their choice on the basis of their race. The schools' motivation is not to remedy segregation, but rather to provide the "benefits of diversity" by making sure all schools in the system meet certain racial quotas for each group. What are those "compelling" benefits of "diversity"? They are as invisible as the proverbial emperor's new clothes. Yet everyone has to pretend to believe in those benefits, as they pretended to admire the naked emperor's wardrobe. Not only is there no hard evidence that mixing and matching black and white kids in school produces either educational or social benefits, there have been a number of studies of all-black schools whose educational performances equal or exceed the national average, even though most black schools fall far below the average... Look at it another way: Have black kids bussed into white schools had their test scores shoot up? No -- not even after decades of bussing.
Indeed, the whole "diversity" concept only arose AFTER it became abundantly clear that integration and busing had failed completely to improve the achievement of either black or white students, and in fact was correlated with a substantial decline in standards and performance. Needing some rationale to continue the experiment, the left created the concept of diversity - an ideal one, too, since its benefits can never be proved or disproved, only asserted as an article of faith. Anyways, the Court should reach a decision by late spring. Above, the author of 1954's Brown v. Board of Ed.
Crittenden's comments are perfect. Hilarious, too.
 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6
This is not really "giving in secret," as Christ demanded, but they all deserve a plug for their good work. Here are the worthy groups to whom I am giving this year:My church
My prep school
The Salvation Army
The Ruffed Grouse Society
The Nature Conservancy
World Vision
FOCUS
Ducks Unlimited
Doctors Without Borders and I am adding the Prison Fellowship to the list this year - what a great organization. Please consider them in your giving this year - it means a lot more than a new cashmere sweater.
Forbidden Hollywood. Loophole's essay is good. I don't know any of the movies. Unchanging weather is a human right? Moonbattery . Whoever invented the term "Watermelon" had it right - Green on the outside, Red on the inside. Serious colleges. HH. Good to see the great University of Chicago on there. Students in Tehran getting feisty. Good. Gateway
How many of these did you get wrong? An excellent and amusing video (10 or so quick and worthwhile minutes) of Peter Donnelly discussing common statistical errors. (h/t, Junk Science)
Let us consider, my lords, that arbitrary power has seldom or never been introduced into any country at once. It must be introduced by slow degrees, and as it were step by step, lest the people should see its approach. The barriers and fences of the people's liberty must be plucked up one by one, and some plausible pretences must be found for removing or hoodwinking, one after another, those sentries who are posted by the constitution of a free country, for warning the people of their danger. When these preparatory steps are once made, the people may then, indeed, with regret, see slavery and arbitrary power making long strides over their land; but it will be too late to think of preventing or avoiding the impending ruin. Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, to the House of Lords in 1737 (though reported rather later). The above borrowed in its entirety from Samizdata
 Obama insulted me. SISU. Indeed he did.
Little black dress update. I thought that the flying imams were doing a probe or a test, but now it looks like it might have been a planned extortion. Michelle Organic chicken update. Right Wing Nation. Avoid them. Blame the Jews. That's what Annan is expected to say today. NY Sun Perfect example of why the EU is a bad idea. Blue Crab Oral tolerance. How food allergies occur. Am. Scientist A Taliban ministate in N Pakistan. Nice. (via Lucianne). And apparently the Taliban army wants Pakistan back - TCS. Another civil war.
Monday, December 11. 2006
What blogger who knows a bit about science, and what science-oriented person, has not wept over this question: Why oh Why Can't we have Better Science Editing?
The invisible knapsack, etc. Dust my Broom
'Nice' can’t confront this world’s sources of pain. Niceness makes people agreeable, not good. Somehow we have mistaken niceness for righteousness. From No More Christian Nice Guy, by Paul Coughlin
 Dept of Intolerance: Moonbattery has two examples. "Tolerance" has become a euphemism for submitting to other people's intolerance.
Department of Ignorant Politicians: RWNH UN backing off on global warming. Am. Thinker Reconsider your end of year donation to MADD. Synthstuff Darfur update: CSM. And Ralph Peters slams the world for weeping over Darfur, and doing nothing. A quote: Darfur deserves more than self-satisfied words. As does Iraq. And Afghanistan. And Zimbabwe. And Burma/Myanmar, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and so many other "sovereign states." But if we're ever going to stop the killing, we first have to stop the lying. Especially the lie we tell ourselves about the universal desire for peace: Try telling that one to the Janjaweed militaman raping your wife, burning your house, taking your children into slavery - and cutting your throat. Meanwhile, the Sudanese government laughs at all of us. Khartoum is so confident that the world doesn't give a damn about black Africans that it's recently moved to destabilize neighboring Chad. The hypocrisy of the intelligentsia, here and in Europe, stinks to the throne of God. No campus seminar ever provoked a cease-fire, and no demonstration ever halted a massacre. Those who are unwilling to fight injustice will ultimately face injustice and a fight.
No More Christian Nice Guy: A book review. A quote: Fortunately, Coughlin’s testosterone-filled text promotes Christ’s masculine qualities, presenting them in a way that gives a feel for what must disturb Green Anglican Marxists: a kind of taking off of the eco-socialist rainbow robes we’ve tried to dress Jesus up in for decades. The most publicized lie, of course, is that Jesus was a non-judgmental prophet, a contradiction in terms, but a seductive myth nonetheless. Coughlin agrees. “As Mark Twain mused, Jesus said to pray for your enemies; he never said you couldn’t have any.”
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