Sunday, December 10. 2006
 Tree is up. An 8-footer.
With a fresh cut, and well-watered. Smells wonderful. But my task is done. It hardly needs improvement, in my opinion, but people will hang lights and old sentimental decorations all over it. I have never gotten the sense or practicality of bringing a dead tree indoors...except that it's like a miraculous transformation of home and life.
Britain's clever triangulator, who learned how to do it at the feet of the master, Bill Clinton, delivered a much-appreciated speech on immigration. Excerpts, plus the whole thing, on video at Flopping Aces (h/t, Sisu). But was it really a speech which abandoned the notion of multiculturalism? Auster doubts it, as do I. I think he is trying to straddle the fence. Nevertheless, the speech was right. But like all talented politicians, you never know what they believe - if anything: everything they say is part of a game. Addendum. Our commenter says: You don't really even need to bother parsing his words, Bird Dog - net immigration has increased from 40k per year under the last conservative govt. to 250k at least under labor, and that's with a higher rate of emigration - many of them Brits running away from the multicultural paradise Labor is trying to create. Under such circumstances, "multiculturalism" is not just one policy approach that can be embraced or rejected, it's a fait accompli.
This is one heck of a subject for a Sunday in Advent, but I need to get this off my chest to feel better. When a nation decides it needs to go to war, it has to be ruthless, barbaric, and indifferent to life and property. We learned in Vietnam, and Russia learned in Afghanistan, that careful, "hearts and minds" warfare does not work. I am not saying that we should have, but we could have nuked Hanoi and ended the thing right there. The US will not carpet-bomb, or fire-bomb Fallujah - or Baghdad. Or Tehran. Surely not nuke any place in the Middle East. Why not? Because we have become too civilized for total warfare. And because the enemy is dispersed and hidden amongst an innocent, and even largely supportive-of-freedom, population. When we bombed Cologne, Berlin, and Hiroshima, we did not worry about these things. If the war in Iraq were a true war, we would have already bombed Iran, which is supporting the "insurgents." This is not a "war" in Iraq: it's a magnified "police action," or "surgical action," with the best of intentions - but now the enemy is those who oppose a free Iraq - and not the US, really: they want to kill eachother. We are just in the way, like sitting ducks, or like cops chasing mobsters in Chicago. Same in Afghanistan - another civil war, sort-of, in which the Taliban mobsters appear to be entirely intact, and the government quite dependent on outside military and financial support. No-one has figured out how to deal with such situations militarily - as long as we decide not to use total war methods. Or as long as we do not have the patience for long-term military quasi-police-type presence, as we have in South Korea and Bosnia. But no-one has figured out how to deal with it diplomatically, either. There is no effective in-between, which is why Darfur is ignored by the world: it's like an event of nature, a hurricane or tsunami. Except that it is evil human nature instead of weather. Compassionate warfare in the Third World - or in any world - does not work. Power is useless if you will not use it, and if everyone knows that you won't. And knows that your own country's press will wear you down, if the guerilla/terrorists don't. I sure do not have the solution, nor do I wish to see fine, innocent Iraqis - or Iranians - killed. All I know is that soldiers must die, but I hate to see them killed when we handcuff ourselves with compassion and civilized ideas, and the opponent does not. War with rules is an oxymoron, and the Jihadists know this as well as the Japanese and the Germans did.
Paul to the  Philippians, 1: 1-11 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: 2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3I thank my God every time I remember you, 4constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, 5because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. 6I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. 7It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. 9And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight 10to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, 11having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. Yes, it is a Giotto
Saturday, December 9. 2006
 A quote from one of our favorites, who wrote one of our favorite books (h/t, Anchoress, via Maxed Out). No comment needed:
At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is, so to speak, His name written in us…It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely.
Saw The Nativity Story today. It's about Joseph. Well-done. No surprises in the story! Deval Patrick. Fooled ya again, MA. Massbackwards. Suckers. Union political dues. A national scam and a quiet, chronic scandal. Betsy. How can this be legal? Remembering Dacca. Superb blog piece: plain good writing. Jules C Good news for Medical Savings Plans. Only way to go. Good news for oil drilling too. You don't like it? Ride a bike. Can we bring back trollop and strumpet? Humbug. Methinks these words are not outdated. Dinesh D'Souza: "Thank God my grandaddy got on that boat." SDA. Anyone in America, of any color and from anywhere, should say the same. What makes raindrops? Turbulence. Olabelle. A Dr Bob recommendation. With Larry Campbell and Amy - Levon Helms' daughter. Fats and Freedom. Need I mention that Nanny-Fascists bug the hell out of me? It bothers Gandelman too. Would somebody please tell Mayor Bloomberg that he is not my Jewish mother? Next, he'll make a law to make me wear my rubbers - or try to re-do Prohibition. Yo, Mayor! I am not Jewish, and you are not my Mom. I do not want your worries about me! Get off my case. Pelosi likes campaign finance reform. As long as it doesn't apply to her. Nyhan. How about if a Repub Speaker tried that little trick? Can you see the NYT editorial?
Here. (h/t, Villainous) The guy owns the White House.
We mentioned this poor fellow yesterday, a victim of idiotic laws and an idiot of a DA, I suspect. 15 years? (Shouldn't jail be for people who actually hurt someone else? Fines and a whuppin' for the rest of them, so we don't have to pay their keep.) But this one really takes the cake.
Readers know that I am partial to remote-controlled flying machines, but I just saw one of these and this is cool: 
It's a Walther NightHawk .177 pellet pistol. Add to my Santa list.
It’s true, I was celebrating. Bloody hell, I had a glass of champagne in my hand – so what? Ms Hage-Ali, who was attacked for drinking while Moslem after being named Miss NSW Young Austrailian of the Year. Blair
The first church? 4th Century Church of the Ark found on West Bank How about polygamy? Evangelical Outpost Ancient prayers, at Real Meal. One example (Origen, 185-254): Lord, inspire us to read your Scriptures and meditate upon them day and night. We beg you to give us real understanding of what we need, that we in turn may put its precepts into practice. Yet we know that understanding and good intentions are worthless, unless rooted in your graceful love. So we ask that the words of Scriptures may also be not just signs on a page, but channels of grace into our hearts. Amen.
On Advent, from Frederick Buechner's Whistling in the Dark (h/t, It Takes a Church): The house lights go off and the footlights come on. Even the chattiest stop chattering as they wait in darkness for the curtain to rise. In the orchestra pit, the violin bows are poised. The conductor has raised his baton. In the silence of a midwinter dusk, there is far off in the deeps of it somewhere a sound so faint that for all you can tell it may be only the sound of the silence itself. You hold your breath to listen. You walk up the steps to the front door. The empty windows at either side of it tell you nothing, or almost nothing. For a second you catch a whiff of some fragrance that reminds you of a place you've never been and a time you have no words for. You are aware of the beating of your heart…The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens. Advent is the name of that moment.
 Last Night I Drove a Car
Last night I drove a car
not knowing how to drive
not owning a car
I drove and knocked down
people I loved
...went 120 through one town.
I stopped at Hedgeville
and slept in the back seat
...excited about my new life. A brief bio of Corso at Wiki.
Friday, December 8. 2006
 Spoil sports. Moslems do not like greased pigs. MVRWC. Too damn bad. Show some tolerance: "When in Rome..."
If you are a Repub, what kind are you. A dumb quiz, via Bainbridge, here. The great Steyn, on video, on Iraq, here. Today, in 1914, a great naval victory. "What should we do? We're single parents." Volokh. You could grow up, for starters. Do you want govt to "fix" the best health care in the world? Dem Project 25 years in jail? This is insane. Poor fellow hurt no-one. Coyote. The guy should be given a good spanking, and be sent home and back to work. It's time to bring back the olde village stocks: it would not cost the taxpayer $60,000 per year to lock 'em up - for what purpose? A day or two in the stocks is enough humiliation. Seriously dirty FL politics. Gateway Jeane Kirkpatrick, American. RWNH. Ditto. Webb: An officer but no gentleman. Kim. A gentleman does not insult his host. It's quite basic to treat all with respect, regardless of one's feelings. Unless drunk, of course. Bush supports and signs one billion for autism research. Ex-Donk. Good intentions, but there is no cure for bad wiring. We are all mis-wired, but it's a matter of degree. Natural sons and daughters. Haha. Linknzona A Pagan Yule, via VA schools. There's a good idea. Witches. Don't they already own Halloween? Now they want Christmas? Greedy witches. They need to chill. A good scam, quoted from Overlawyered: "Lawyers familiar with [wheelchair user David Allen] Gunther’s activities estimate he’s taken more than $400,000 in the last 36 months, mostly from mom-and-pop shops in Garden Grove, Anaheim, Fountain Valley, Orange, Tustin, Buena Park, Stanton, Seal Beach, Santa Ana, Dana Point, Huntington Beach and Los Angeles. If true, that’s quite a haul for a man who has spent most of his adult life unemployed, according to records obtained by the Weekly."
Consider this to be a free advt for People's Cube: 
We never enter the Weblog Awards thing, so you cannot vote daily for us. Not that it's a bad thing, but we just don't do it. Like golf. It's just not a Yankee thing, I guess. We aren't a finalist either, despite the logo below - go vote for some of the other fine blogs. I enjoy throwing a vote or two to some of my favorites. In fact, I enjoy all of the blogs on our blogroll, and quite a few which are not on it. 
He calls himself a "heretic." One quote: He also cautioned that people may be kidding themselves if they imagine it is possible to stabilize the Earth’s climate.
“The biosphere was constantly changing in the past and it will be constantly changing in the future,” Dyson said. “The idea that we can put a stop to change is a dangerous illusion.”
Also: “All our fashionable worries and all our prevailing dogmas will probably be obsolete in 50 years,” Dyson said.
More from his speech at Synthstuff. We are in very good company if we see it as he does. Wish he would speak out more.
The venerable Mount Washington Hotel featured in NY Sun. Photo above. Cool place. Their website here. I have a friend who climbed Mt. Washington in January, off-trail. Impressive. Stayed at the MWH, of course. D.C. attacks Second Amendment in Fed. Appeals Court. Newsmax. Why don't those darn evil guns just relax and sit on the shelf, and quit shooting people? Scalia and Breyer debate world views. Slate How many Bibles are there for sale? How many of them do you own? Op. Journal. Am I slightly old-fashioned to prefer the song and sound of the King James? Ebola virus wiping out gorillas. Not good. What is sin? S,C&A How genetically close are humans to sea urchins? Very. That is humbling. First Things looks at The Nativity Story, and Apocalypto, here Star swallowed by a black hole. What a mess. Alphecca. It's a very strange universe. Makes you wonder what the other ones are like. How the media builds "consensus". Quote via YARGB: 'In 1995, I published a short paper in the academic journal Science. In that study, I reviewed how borehole temperature data recorded a warming of about one degree Celsius in North America over the last 100 to 150 years. The week the article appeared, I was contacted by a reporter for National Public Radio. He offered to interview me, but only if I would state that the warming was due to human activity. When I refused to do so, he hung up on me.
Google search engines. Noticed that we had visitors to the blog searching for "lesbian experiences" last night, and "nude farm slaves," along with the regular "farm porn" searches. It's about time we did another "farm porn" post: it's usually a really nice, sexy, antique Farmall tractor, and sometimes it is turtles in love. But who knows how the lesbian experiences ended up here....not that there's anything wrong with it...
Down the street the dogs are barkin'
And the day is a-gettin' dark.
As the night comes in a-fallin',
The dogs 'll lose their bark.
An' the silent night will shatter
From the sounds inside my mind,
For I'm one too many mornings
And a thousand miles behind.
From the crossroads of my doorstep,
My eyes they start to fade,
As I turn my head back to the room
Where my love and I have laid.
An' I gaze back to the street,
The sidewalk and the sign,
And I'm one too many mornings
An' a thousand miles behind.
It's a restless hungry feeling
That don't mean no one no good,
When ev'rything I'm a-sayin'
You can say it just as good.
You're right from your side,
I'm right from mine.
We're both just one too many mornings
An' a thousand miles behind. "One Too Many Mornings," from 1964's The Times They Are A-Changin'. Here's the youtube of a performance from 1976. Or from 1986. Or one with Johnny Cash. Or even one from 2000 ... your pick!
Thursday, December 7. 2006
Well, it's time again for my Christmas Wish List. And now that we finally have a Dem congress, maybe I will get everything I want. Here it is: 1. Free money. Lots of it. Why can't the government just print some extra and mail it to us? Why? What would it cost them? Those stingy Repubs just won't do it. Grinches. I'd bet it costs less than 1/10th of a penny to print a ten thousand dollar bill. And at a 50% federal tax rate, they would get $5000 back for a $.001 investment in one year. How bad is that? 2. Free "Legal Care." You have no idea how much my companies spend waste spend on Law Departments and New York legal fees. Millions. Not fair in a country where rule of law is the essence of the nation. How can a person protect their rights and freedom without free legal care? I mean real lawyers, not those Legal Aid pony-tail types with holes in their socks, beer and pastrami on their breath, and a plea bargain attitude. 3. Free Dental Care. Do you know what my periodontist wants to fix a bad tooth? More than I pay my tax accountant. You age, and the teeth just don't hold up. It's not fair. Gimme money. 4. Free college and grad school. Got kids? Grandkids? Someone has to pay the bill. Why me? These are after-tax dollars, and it hurts. Let Uncle Sam pay the bill, if he wants everyone to be overeducated cube dwellers, squinting at screens like I am doing right now. 5. Free Chateau Margaux '89. Hey - that could be a slogan, like "Free Mumia" or The Chicago 7 or whoever. Why should I have to work my butt off for a basic happiness? Not fair at all, because some can afford it without even thinking. Happiness is in the Constitution, isn't it? Or is it in the Declaration of Happiness? You just know that somebody, somewhere, is making a profit on this stuff. 6. Free cars. All of our salesmen get them. Why can't I? I'll take two of these. One red, one yellow. 7. Free vacations. Why should I pay for them? I need them, to maintain my productivity and health and my cheerful approach to life and work. It's a Right, isn't it? And when I am unhappy, everyone else gets unhappy. Not good. 8. Free tickets home for Christmas for illegals. One way. Fix your own countries, people. This one is ours. We, and our ancestors, have had to fix it a few times, and we are still trying. No reason you cannot do the same. 9. Free Digital Cameras. Why should a wealthy nation like ours require folks to buy their own, when they become obsolete in a year? We, as a nation, can afford to take care of everyone's camera needs, if we only cared enough. Photos are a basic right, enshrined in the Constitution - right? It's like free speech, or free self-expression, or something like that. 10. Free ammo. Do you have any idea what the new, lead-free ammo costs? Any nation with gun freedoms can surely afford free ammo for all of its citizens. If we can send a man to the moon, ...etc. Plus it's also in the Constitution. Let's begin with shotgun ammo. The 9 mm stuff can come later: it's called "incrementalism." 11. Free Veterinary (and Medical) Care. Do you have any idea what the wife's vet bills add up to? Worse than our Barrister's, I'd bet. His wife has more horses that mine does, but mine has more doggone dogs. Not to mention my hunting dogs. Vet bills are far worse than medical bills, or otherwise I would go to my Vet when I get sick like Skink does. Free Vet Care, NOW! Including dog Stress Management! When I miss a bird, my dog gets very stressed out... and I miss a lot. If you really cared, you would pay my dog's shrink bills. That's it for this year. Back to ya next time, Santa, With deep appreciation for all that you do - we love ya, dude. The Chairman
P&T make the case that true love is "bullshit." But it's big business. "Men are from Hoboken; Women are from Jersey City."
 We now have more evidence of global warming on Mars than we do on the earth. As the ice melts, it is causing harmful erosion, and soon the beautiful natural deserts may be under ten feet of water, thus destroying potential happy habitats for camels and Arabs. (Nice for the Dutch, though, who prefer to live in swamps, below sea level.)
There may be a risk that Martian craters, now in their pristine natural form, may fill with water and be destroyed like Crater Lake in the image. Water vapor will doubtless add to the heat-trapping of Martian warming, and erosion will release more CO2 from the soil and rocks, creating a true crisis for Martian planetary stability. An atmosphere means weather, and weather means bad weather, like Katrina. Thus the policy of environmental destruction continues unabated under Bush. But what can we, as individuals, do to save the Martian environment from further degradation? More recycling and more car-pooling are fun places to start. Another good idea is to have a neighborhood "Save the Martian Environment Party." Serve Mars-friendly hors doeuvres and snacks, and exchange ideas about what we all can do to save the Martian environment. Remember: No idea is wrong! It's fun, and Mars-friendly! (Editor's Note: "Neighborhood Save the Martian Environment Party" is a UN trademark. Used with permission. "No idea is wrong" is a trademark of the US Department of Education. Also a shared international trademark of the EU Department of The People's Education, Sub-Directorate of Empathy, Pity and Condescension, Sub-sub Division of Cheerful Slogans For the Ignorant Masses. Used with permission, of course.) (Editor's Second Note: Our most humble apologies to the Dutch, and all those of Dutch extraction and to the entire Dutch community, who might have been offended, or felt insulted, by any unintentional negative connotations regarding flooding of Martian land. We know the Dutch would know how to deal with Martian flooding, and supportively and admiringly invite them to give it a try - you go straight up in the air, then take a hard left at the Moon. That will take you right there. It's the big red thing on the right, just before the Asteroid Belt.)
Wednesday, December 6. 2006
Ann Althouse reminded me, with her piece, that we have never written about any of the projects of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, including their interest in supporting faith in the workplace. I am happy to have met, and listened to, David Miller on a number of occasions. He is inspiring, funny, and self-deprecating and, as an ex-Wall Streeter, he knows the business world very well indeed. Do we like the idea of workplace chaplaincy? Definitely. And the Yale Center does lots of interesting things. Check it out.
Asbestos. A classic: Harry Kananian met with the firm Early Ludwick in February 2000. According to an Early email, he wasn't clear how he'd been exposed. He had, however, served in the Army in World War II and remembered several months on troop ships known to contain asbestos. On one such two-week trip he'd done welding. He also recalled working in a factory that was "dusty," as well as a "white powdery substance" when he was remodeling his house. Early Ludwick then filed its multiple claims--to the 48 Insulations trust, the Eagle Picher trust, the UNR trust, the Celotex trust and others. Brayton Purcell was also retained by the plaintiff and filed claims to Johns Manville and Bethlehem Steel. The discrepancies were never questioned until Brayton sued Lorillard Tobacco, and Brayton probably never thought the prior claims would be an issue. But Lorillard suspected Kananian had already collected on the basis of his work history--and it argued the jury had a right to know. To Brayton's dismay, Judge Hanna agreed earlier this year.
Yes, dusty material. Show me one person over 35 who hasn't been been in a place that contained asbestos, and guess what? You can get mesothelioma without asbestos exposure. Read the whole sorry tale by Strassel at Opinion Journal. I wonder what their next scam will be. These people make honest lawyers look bad, but they laugh all the way to the bank. But can they look at themselves in the mirror?
America is the most charitable nation in the world. RWN Funniest Nativity scene I've ever seen. Come 'n get it, ACLU! Breast-feeding saved those kids' lives. Heather MacDonald goes after the race hustlers. A quote: Since 1993, 11,353 people have been murdered in New York City. The large majority of victims and perpetrators have been black. Not a single one of those black-on-black killings has prompted protest or demonstrations from the city’s black advocates. Sharpton, Barron, et al. are happy to let thousands of black victims get mowed down by thugs without so much as a whispered call for “peace” or “justice”; it’s only when a police officer, trying to protect the public, makes a good faith mistake in a moment of intense pressure that they rise as vindicators of black life. (As for caring about slain police officers, forget about it. Sixteen cops—including several black policemen—have been killed since 1999, not one of whom elicited a public demonstration of condolence from the race hustlers.)
LaShawn: "Regardless of the findings, what could justify government-mandated racial discrimination, for crying out loud???" Piece here. LaShawn, we love ya, but you don't get it. It's not about skin color - it's about racial politics, pure and simple. I call it "plantation politics," regardless of the "community" involved. Be careful what you wish for. If we cripple "big pharma," we hurt ourselves. The entire world depends on us for these pills. Who's gonna develop new meds - the Post office?
 All we want at Maggie's Farm are more links, more blogrolls, and more readers.
For readers, we have a fine cadre of congnoscenti, who are hip to our deal and down wid us. You all have a capacity for irony - which means a decent IQ. But, for Christmas, we want a mass market, like Michelle and Glenn. No - we want to be bigger than them: we want to be Glenn and Michelle and Kos and Powerline combined, and invited to the White House for chats! But, sadly, we just aren't good enough for that dream. Delusions of grandeur! We don't even want money...well, we do want money, but we expect none from Maggy. She is cheap: we work for free. Galley slaves! Rescue us! Please, Santa! We will be a one year-old blog (or two, really, depending on whether you count it from when we signed up with Truth Laid Bear) in February. Blogroll us, and link us, for Christmas! We are sorta, kinda unique. Email us to your million intelligent, skeptical, inquiring friends, who might be deprived of their Daily Maggie's - to their detriment. Gift-wrapping included! And the price is right! What a fine gift!
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