Wednesday, January 31. 2007
 This is a 26' triple cockpit runabout with a 425 hp Chevy V8. Mahogany, of course.
Pefect for Lake Champlain or Lake Winnepesaukee, if you don't mind being noticed. Or Long Island Sound, in nice weather. You can buy it here.
Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts. Edward R. Murrow
Edwards' sleazily-earned wealth, and his 28,000 square-foot house for which he clear-cut many acres of woodland, convinced me that there truly are two Americas: He is in one, and I am in the other. But this house takes the cake. Wow.
Over the last century, millions of people from all over the world have come to New York City. They didn’t come here to be taken care of and to be dependent on city government. They came here for the freedom to take care of themselves. Rudy Guiliani (h/t, Ace)
These animals should be killed. There is no reason on earth to keep such dangerous mongrels alive, and the risk for escape seems obvious. If the story was intended to be heartwarming, it wasn't. Real wolves - fine. But these things are an insult to nature.
 Story from the AP:
RENO, Nev. (AP) -- It's not all checking hunting and fishing licenses. Sometimes the issues are bigger. Like when a Nevada game warden was Handed the chore of figuring out how to separate two bull elk who locked horns while sparring and couldn't untangle them.
The saga began Nov. 21 when a rancher in Reese River Valley spotted the two elk.
By the following day, the animals were gone and the rancher assumed they had separated.
A week later, according to Nevada Division of Wildlife biologist Tom Donham, the rancher was out looking for some of his cows and saw the elk again.
This time, he called the wildlife department and Donham, game warden Brian Eller and Bureau of Land Management wildlife biologist Bryson Code headed out to see what they could do.
When they reached Indian Valley, south of Austin, it was Nov. 29, one week after the elk were first seen.
"When we arrived where the rancher had last seen them, we found them pretty quickly. They were both lying on the ground and one of them was in a very uncomfortable looking position with his head directly above the others head and his nose pointing straight up to the sky," Donham said. Eller said he wondered if they had survived their ordeal.
"Once we found out they were alive, I was hoping they couldn't move and would stay where they were. That didn't happen. When they ran off, I was hoping that they could not go very far. That didn't happen either," he said.
The elk may have been sparring at the outset, but Donham and Eller say they used teamwork to run for nearly a mile to evade the newcomers. "It looked like they had been doing it all their lives; serious cooperation if I've ever seen it," Donham said.
After two unsuccessful attempts, Donham was able to get a tranquilizer dart into one of the elk. With one down, the other could not run, but was also partially tranquilized in order to separate the two.
Continue reading "Elk Story"
A quote from Ben Stein's piece in American Spectator: And suddenly it hit me. The media is staging a coup against Mr. Bush. They cannot impeach him because he hasn't done anything illegal. But they can endlessly tell us what a loser he is and how out of touch he is (and I mean ENDLESSLY) and how he's just a vestigial organ on the body politic right now.
The media is doing what it can to basically oust Mr. Bush while still leaving him alive and well in the White House. It's a sort of neutron bomb of media that seeks to kill him while leaving the White House standing (for their favorite unknown, Barack Obama, to occupy).
Maggie's Farm is up and running. Limping, bleeding, but alive to fight  another day. See our post from last night on Our Denial of Service Attack. We continue to block a good deal of our legitimate traffic, and commenting will be open sporadically today - if at all. An Aussie is offended by the Aussie flag. I am offended that the Aussie is offended. Mark Green's brother buys him a radio network. Air America. What a nice brother. Those outside the northeast don't know who Mark Green is. Here's the story. Mr. Edwards Builds his Dream House. Richard Clark - yes, that Richard Clark, on Iran. When people ask "When will we go to war with Iran?", I say "We already are." Meanwhile, Jon Cary attacks the US from Iran. That is beyond dissent: that is disloyal, if not utterly insane. But that's why we call him Pariah Kerry. Someone needs to run against him in MA. How about it, Neo-neocon? Two new books by Warming doubters. via Drudge Some of the problems with Vista. Chris Hedges scares me. Coyote A rational Senator? Lugar on Iraq.
I have never treated a patient with a "transsexual" diagnosis (now known as Gender Identity Disorder), and I know little about it. The case in Germany described in Clayton Cramer's piece, in which a 12 year-old boy is undergoing hormonal treatment in preparation for surgical transformation into a "female," raises the issue. The German Child Endocrinologist says this: "They are not freaks, nor do they suffer mental illness. They are simply trapped in the wrong bodies. That is why it is best to help them as early as possible and reduce the trauma for them and their families."
Freud made it clear, and he was right, that everyone is psychologically a bit male, a bit female, and, on some level, bisexual. Psychiatrists, and especially psychoanalysts, tend to look for the inner motives for things in general, and to view desires for external change as "externalizations." Just the phrase "trapped in the wrong body" is based on a strange premise. Furthermore, who has the body they really think they want? I was a tomboy myself, refused to wear dresses, and liked guns and sports. However, sometimes things do go awry during early development - before birth - which affect the development of the brain and thus the personality. I guess all I can say about this is that I'd like to imagine that there could be some "therapy" for a kid like this that would fall short of dreadful physical mutilation. I'd be willing to give it a try. And, by the way, I do not believe you could do this thing they are doing in Germany in the US: I doubt any physician would be willing to do it at that age. Primum non nocere.
Tuesday, January 30. 2007
Just got off the phone with our Webmeister Chris. Here's what I learned about the Denial of Service (DOS) "attack" which we have been dealing with on and off since Thursday, and which has made access for our readers intermittently difficult or, today, impossible. We have been subjected to what is termed a DOS Botnet Attack, consisting mainly of lengthy black market drug advertisements, containing multiple links, directed to our trackback system and to our commenting system (which is why they are shut down at the moment). A "bot" is, of course, a robotic software program. Chris determined that this attack is coming from China, India, Japan, and Korea, simultaneously. It is probably a criminal consortium of some sort - and a large one. DOS attacks are not designed to damage specific sites, and they are not designed to result in a DOS - after all, that would defeat the purpose, which is advertising. Like any parasite, a bot is not intended to kill its host - just to feed off it. Just like the Welfare State.
Continue reading "Our Denial of Service Attack, Update"
We have been down most of the day due to overwhelming bot attacks. Had to turn commenting off for the moment. Will be back to normal as soon as we reinforce our defences, or find an effective counterattack.
 I am indebted to the indispensible Tangled Web for alerting me to Cohen's new book What's Left? How Liberals Lost Their Way.
A quote from Derbyshire's piece on the book: In Ian McEwan’s novel ‘Saturday’, the protagonist Henry Perowne watches as demonstrators gather for the massive anti-war march of February 2003. He is struck, and slightly disturbed, by the levity of the crowd. ‘Everyone is thrilled to be out together on the streets – people are hugging themselves, it seems, as well as each other.’ The protestors may be right, Perowne muses: leaving Saddam’s sanguinary dictatorship in place might, just, be preferable to aerial bombing and invasion. But they ought to be ‘sombre’ in this view – it’s a dreadful moral calculus, after all, that weighs summary execution and ‘occasional genocide’ against the hazards of regime change. The marchers’ placards and slogans catch Perowne’s eye too. Some belong to the Islamist group that helped to organise the march, an outfit, Perowne remembers, which believes that ‘apostasy from Islam was an offence punishable by death.’ Others bear the legend ‘Not in My Name’, a phrase whose ‘cloying self-regard suggests a bright new world of protest, with the fussy consumers of shampoos and soft drinks demanding to feel good, or nice.’
There is an extract from the book at The Observer, from which I quote: It is not novel to say that socialism is dead. My argument is that its failure has brought a dark liberation to people who consider themselves to be on the liberal left. It has freed them to go along with any movement however far to the right it may be, as long as it is against the status quo in general and, specifically, America. I hate to repeat the overused quote that 'when a man stops believing in God he doesn't then believe in nothing, he believes anything', but there is no escaping it. Because it is very hard to imagine a radical leftwing alternative, or even mildly radical alternative, intellectuals in particular are ready to excuse the movements of the far right as long as they are anti-Western.
Let's pray that this book from this well-known recovering Left-Liberal, pink-diaper baby will have an impact on the UK.
Moscow Mayor terms gay parade "Satanic." via Drudge. Why married people don't want sex. Dr. Helen LaShawn reminds us of an important piece by Walter Williams - Bogus Rights Color photos from the Depression Era. Very cool. (h/t, Done with Mirrors) Taking offense is offensive. Indeed it is, and hostile and manipulative too. Am Thinker. A quote: The great victory of the left is that it has made us apologize for being right. A few may be truly offended, being in the grip of primitive pride. But, mostly, we are in the grip of a primitive ploy. We need more offensiveness, not less. We must offend the liars, the degraded, the darkness, the destroyers of civilization. So my answer to the offended is, you have every right to be offended. Now, grow up. If you can't sit at the table of reasoned debate, go back to your bread and circuses. Let the adults figure out the problems of the world.
The new Battleground Poll shows a conservative America. Intell Cons. The anti-war march. Old folks, reminiscing about 1968. Some people never grow up. (h/t, Instapundit) Quite pathetic, really.
Monday, January 29. 2007
 China warns against "wine and women" at Olympics. I guess song is OK.
A case against women's suffrage, at Althouse. Emotional, impulsive, and elections are a popularity contest, like high school. Is that true? Dumbest thing: he put the duck in the fridge without cleaning it. And now the bird has a name. Sheesh. Can he shoot it again? The debate about Iran's role in Iraq. Regime Change Iran From a piece at Driscoll: Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times runs a piece titled, "Was 9/11 really that bad?" with the subhead, "The attacks were a horrible act of mass murder, but history says we're overreacting".
Yeah, LA Times. Let's wait 'til they do something really bad. Ethanol and corn prices. Willisms Webb, and absolute vs. relative poverty. Betsy. Good point. Now that absolute poverty is gone in the US, the envy-mongers need to focus on relative poverty. What else can they do? Everybody is relatively poor, compared to someone. New black realism in a post-civil rights world. Hymowitz in City Journal. A quote: For a younger generation of blacks, the symbolic, I-marched-with-Martin politics, not to mention the Jackson-style cronyism that it often degenerated into, doesn’t cut it—and not just because this generation is too young to have felt the billy clubs at Selma. Instead of rights activists and ministers, many of these newcomers are lawyers or businessmen. Even though a few grew up poor, they’ve all spent their formative years swimming in the mainstream, including major universities, corporations, and law firms, and they are now solidly middle class. “These politicians are comfortable in a post–civil rights world,” explains Vanderbilt political science professor Carol Swain, author of Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress. “They’ve had white friends; they’ve had white girlfriends. They may still be frustrated by racism at times, but they’re functioning fine in the world they’re living in.”
They do not mix. The UN Report will be another silly exercise, like the Stern Report. Truth is, nobody knows anything, and it is difficult to find opinions which are not emotion-driven, or agenda-driven, or eco-religionist-driven. When the climate scientists and the paleoclimatologists stop driving and flying on airplanes and eating beef, I will listen...maybe. Already, The UN Report is being slammed. Image via Tangled Web
...but I think he is back up, after his beat-down last week. Henceforth, we will call him Pariah Kerry - assuming he is permitted back into a country he clearly detests. Gotta wonder why he wants to come back, anyway.
 An echo of Reagan's quote, from Kling at TCS on Plato vs. Milton Friedman:
I call this the Fundamental Problem of Political Economy. How do we limit the power that idiots have over us? One solution, that might be traced to the expression "philosopher-king" associated with Plato, is to hand the reins of government to the best and the brightest. Since the late 19th-century, the Progressive Movement in American politics has championed this approach. The Progressive vision, which DeLong embraces, is to channel brains and technical know-how through government in order to improve people's lives. One hundred years ago, they sought to prohibit alcohol. Today, they are going after trans fats. One hundred years ago, they favored eugenics, based on the then-new science of evolution. Today, they embrace anti-growth economic policies, based on the contemporary science of happiness. Indeed, we get headlines like 'Tories promise to make happiness a priority'. The other way to avoid having our lives run by idiots is to limit the power that others have over us. This is the approach that was embedded in our Constitution, before it was eviscerated by the Progressives. It is the approach for which Milton Friedman was a passionate advocate. Friedman's insight is that a market limits the power that others have over us; conversely, limiting the power that others have over us allows us to have markets. Friedman argued that no matter how wise the officials of government may be, market competition does a better job of protecting us from idiots.
Exactly right. My life belongs to me, and I am smarter than they are - and more humble, too.
 Roger won the Aussie Open. He is on a roll.
He is 25, and he likes Heineken. Visions of Sampras.
At Maggie's Farm, we plan to avoid discussing the primaries and the '08 election for quite a while. It is too far away to say anything meaningful - anything can happen between now and then. It's a waste of virtual paper and virtual ink, we believe, and thus damages our virtual planet. Where is our News Junkie today? On a listening tour in Iowa in NYC on an underwear modeling job again. He calls it "beer money" but it actually supports his poorly-paid, humble journalism career in MA. Image: The Diebold Accu-Vote system, famously accurate when Dems win elections, but deeply flawed, corrupt, and hacked by Karl Rove when they do not.
Government isn't the solution: it's the problem. Ronald Reagan
 French member of Parliament convicted for saying that homosexuals are morally inferior.
This isn't about gays - it's about the slippery slope to speech control. Is freedom a universal human aspiration? I doubt it: I think it might be an Anglo-Saxon thing. (Is that a racist statement?) However, to refute even that Anglo-Saxon statement, look what David Cameron wants to do. Is it too late for another revolution in the UK? Heck, look at what we did in the US, and that was about a lousy tea tax. OK, I take back everything I implied about Anglo-Saxon exceptionalism: maybe all humans are infants at heart, longing for a Daddy and Mommy to provide and to take charge. Image: A guy who knew what was best for you.
 It might be a bit chewy for a Monday morning, but Bob at One Cosmos has the answer. You know you want it, as the beer man says at Yankee Stadium.
He does get into Schopenhauer a bit: "If I take away the thinking subject, the whole material world must vanish, as this world is nothing but the phenomenal appearance in the sensibility of our own subject, and is a species of the subject's representations."
I think I exist to drink wine and to wonder why I exist, after work. After a few wines, one wonders whether one does exist at all, and whether "I" is an illusion. Sometimes, I wonder why other things, like ham sandwiches, exist. The cosmos itself just gives me vertigo. Image: From the Hubbell scope
When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy. Dave Barry
Sunday, January 28. 2007
 The Duke humanities faculty have everything figured out, don't they? Allen in The Weekly Standard:
"The faculty enabled Nifong," Baldwin said in an interview. "He could say, 'Here's a significant portion of the arts and sciences faculty who feel this way, so I can go after these kids because these faculty agree with me.' It was a mutual attitude." Indeed, it was the Duke faculty that could be said to have cooked up the ambient language that came to clothe virtually all media descriptions of the assault case--that boilerplate about "race, gender, and class" (or maybe "race, gender, sexuality, and class") and "privileged white males" that you could not read a news story about the assault case without encountering, whether in the New York Times, the Washington Post, or Newsweek for example. The journalists channeled the academics. Although outsiders know Duke mostly as an expensive preppie enclave that fields Division I athletic teams, the university's humanities and social sciences departments--literature, anthropology, and especially women's studies and African-American studies--foster exactly the opposite kind of culture. Those departments (and especially Duke's robustly "postmodern" English department, put in place by postmodernist celebrity Stanley Fish before his departure in 1998) are famous throughout academia as repositories of all that is trendy and hyper-politicized in today's ivy halls: angry feminism, ethnic victimology, dense, jargon-laden analyses of capitalism and "patriarchy," and "new historicism"--a kind of upgraded Marxism that analyzes art and literature in terms of efforts by powerful social elites to brainwash everybody else. The Duke University Press is the laughingstock of the publishing world, offering such titles as Appropriating Blackness: Performance and the Politics of Authenticity and An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality and Lesbian Public Cultures. Phrases such as "race, gender, and class" and "privileged white males" come as second nature to the academics who do this kind of writing, which analyzes nearly all social phenomena in terms of race, gender, class, and white male privilege. A couple of months after the lacrosse party, Karla F.C. Holloway, a professor of English and African-American studies at Duke, published a reflection on the incident titled "Coda: Bodies of Evidence" in an online feminist journal sponsored by Barnard College. "Judgments about the issues of race and gender that the lacrosse team's sleazy conduct exposed cannot be left to the courtroom," Holloway wrote. "Despite the damaging logic that associates the credibility of a socio-cultural context to the outcome of the legal process, we will find that even as the accusations that might be legally processed are confined to a courtroom, the cultural and social issues excavated in this upheaval linger." There was a fascinating irony in this. Postmodern theorists pride themselves in discerning what they call "metanarratives." They argue that such concepts as, say, Christianity or patriotism or the American legal system are no more than socially constructed tall tales that the postmodernists can then "deconstruct" to unmask the real purpose behind them, which is (say the postmodernists) to prop up societal structures of--yes, you guessed it--race, gender, class, and white male privilege.
Read the whole thing. And wonder, like me, how long it will take for this sort of academic to be "unmasked" as no more than cynical, bitter, and ignorant careerists, with interest in neither truth nor beauty. Are there two Dukes? Because one does not encounter such soul-less people in the stands at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
This was some fight. NY Sun. This is what happens when they stand and fight - 200-300 bad guys dead, two Americans dead in the chopper, and 2 dead Iraqi soldiers.
 Ethanol production damaging the Mexican tortilla business.
Iran in Iraq. It's not news, but watch us go after them...covertly, and at night. Prelapsarian, innocent vs. naive, and pompous language. Shape of Days. The BEEB bans LGF. Augean Stables. Are Americans saving enough for retirement? Cowen Liberals don't give a damn about human rights. Gay Patriot Is freedom dying in Central Europe? Reason Ruth Wisse in Opinion Journal. What happened to America, I wonder? A quote: The year was 1917. At the beginning of the spring semester, the Harvard Crimson reported that 1,000 undergraduates were ready to enlist in the Reserve Officers' Training Program (ROTC), including students from the law school, from other graduate schools, and even members of the faculty. The recent crisis in international affairs had created a need for qualified military leaders, and the editorial hailed the school's vigorous response to it: "That Harvard is the first University to adopt an intensive system of training officers should not be a matter of pride, but rather a basis for the hope that other colleges will establish the same system, and that the foundations of a great citizen army will be laid among our young men." Ninety years later, Harvard leads in the opposite direction.
This minigun demo video will make anyone to want to sign up. (h/t, Alpha Patriot)
Dalrymple at City Journal, on the English language.
 Wake up America! Civilization calls!
Red-neck fun - human sling shot. YouTube Milblogger interviews milblogger. Roggio talks with PFC Alanko. Your blog helped my law school grades. Volokh The Mavericks sing Blue Moon. Nice The future of hydrogen power. Env. Economics How much autonomy will doctors give up? Kevin MD. In socialized medicine, you doctor doesn't work for you anymore. A suicidal Turkey? Ralph Peters Global warming throughout the Solar System Black Hawk Up. David Warren The Guardian loves Chavez, because it means Socialism is Back! Up from Liberalism. Powerline takes a look at recovering liberals. Consider taking The Pledge. No, not the pledge to quit drinking. Krauthammer on energy. A quote: There is no free lunch. Producing energy is going to produce waste. You pick your poison and you find a way to manage it. Want to do something about global warming? How many global-warming activists are willing to say the word nuclear?
So much easier to say ethanol. That it will do farcically little is beside the point. Our debates about oil consumption, energy dependence, and global warming are not meant to be serious. They are meant for show.
 An email last night from our crafty and intrepid webmeister Chris:
It has been two days of fending off hackers. I even had to skip a party and postpone a date. But I just hit the mother lode. I just intercepted the Botnet client software (called Toyo). I now have a full copy of the software & code that is used to infect so many machines. Tomorrow I am going to install my modified version of client Botnet code on a dummy virtual machine and try to get the control of Botnet. This is going to be fun. Better than Christmas!!! It should also lead me to the infamous Qted code that I have been reading about for the past month. I have everything I need to, for lack of a better word, f- them.....
Saturday, January 27. 2007
Listen to the recording - it's a kick, and a grammar lesson. Nyhan. But who is prolix here? (Just an idea: Prolix - the new antidepressant that gets you talking again.)
'Tis of a brave young highwayman this story I will tell
His name was Willie Brennan and in Ireland he did dwell
It was on the Kilwood Mountain he commenced his wild career
And many a wealthy nobleman before him shook with fear
It was Brennan on the moor, Brennan on the moor
Bold, brave and undaunted was young Brennan on the moor
One day upon the highway as young Willie he went down
He met the mayor of Cashiell a mile outside of town
The mayor he knew his features and he said, Young man, said he
Your name is Willie Brennan, you must come along with me
Now Brennan's wife had gone to town provisions for to buy
And when she saw her Willie she commenced to weep and cry
Said, Hand to me that tenpenny, as soon as Willie spoke
She handed him a blunderbuss from underneath her cloak
Now with this loaded blunderbuss - the truth I will unfold -
He made the mayor to tremble and he robbed him of his gold
One hundred pounds was offered for his apprehension there
So he, with horse and saddle to the mountains did repair.
Now Brennan being an outlaw upon the mountains high
With cavalry and infantry to take him they did try
He laughed at them with scorn until at last 'twas said
By a false-hearted woman he was cruelly betrayed.
Willie Brennan was an Irish Robin Hood during the 1700s. The song was made famous by The Clancy Brothers.
Nice shiny new high powered deer rifle: $600.00 High/Variable powered scope: $350.00 Bore Sighting device: $140.00 Being the dumb ass who forgets to remove the bore sight prior to shooting: PRICELESS !
 Why the dude photo? Opie complained that we never show any eye candy for the gals. So here's a photo of me, in my side job. Yes, I do work out. No, there is not a wad of kleenex in those shorts. And I am straight. And no, you cannot have my phone number.
Hollywood loved Bill, but they do not seem to love Hillary. Not their type. Heck, that's in her favor, but she is not for me. Does Mormonism bother you? Not me. RWNH. Romney is OK with me. Where would we be without government's help? Spain decrees fashion sizes. Althouse. Hahahaha. It's not a joke. Journalism is a dying trade. Not at Maggie's Farm, but we don't get paid. No benefits, either, other than world-wide fame. On the other hand, we rely on journalists, but we take them with a tablespoon-full of salt. We prefer Michael Yon and his ilk, the volunteers. Going after the Iranian govt. About time. Jawa. Get those "special forces" on the job. No contest. Mountain lion attack. A tough lady. Cao. Everybody is on this cool story. The heartbreak of income inequality. Cowen (!) in the NYT. (via Instapundit - how does he do it, with a job? Well, he's a Prof, but still...) The new UN scandal. What is the US doing with these scumbags? Unions are still dying. No wonder they want the illegals. Eventually, the only unions will be government employees, which is truly ridiculous when you think about it. Anchor Rising The gay sheep story, at the NYT. What was this all about, anyway? Apaches in Baghdad. Iraq the Model. This so-called country is nuts. Numerology gone wild, in Belgium. Is this satire? Brussels Journal. A jet-powered turtle. Perfect. You thought guns were illegal in Britain? Silly you. The crims have all the guns they want. Dust my Broom. The honest people have nothing. My solution: Arm the populace, and train them in handguns. Winning elections. This quote is right, alas, from Neo-neo: Most of today's politicians are pragmatic, rather than principled (perhaps it was ever thus); and their pragmatism tends to focus on a single goal: getting re-elected.
Unremitting opposition--with no need to come up with a better alternative--has defeated the Republicans, put the Democrats in power, and contributed to the lowest approval ratings for Bush of his Presidency (he's done his bit in that endeavor, as well). So it's not surprising that so many Republicans (especially those in somewhat liberal states) are jumping on the oppositional bandwagon as well.
Friday, January 26. 2007
 Maggie's Farm has been under attack. Slows us down a bit, damages commenting function. Trying to find out where it's from. Who would want to bother us? We will find out...and will punish them.
Chris is on the job - a Vermonter and a real Green Mountain boy - and we are all Yankees here. Don't tread on us unless you are willing to pay the price: we enjoy self-defence: we are well-armed, and love to use our weapons.
Chicago Bears inspire a city still reeling from the Great Fire of 1871 The new military ray gun Obesity and osteoporosis. Apparently carrying 80 lbs. of lard around doesn't help. One would think that it would. Dogs and health.: "In some cases, the social support offered by an animal is greater than the support another human could offer." Ain't that the truth. Calorie quiz. Rich guy wins yacht race.
 Andrew will set up your bee-hive, and maintain it, and you get all the honey - up to 150 lbs/year. Connecticut Honey.
He would probably do Westchester County, too. You could even set up a roadside stand, to supplement your Wall Street incomes. Honey bees leave you alone - they are good neighbors. Too busy to cause trouble. Paul Newman recommends, and that ought to be good enough.
Thursday, January 25. 2007
The Modern World is the Western World, and multiculturalism, and cultural relativism, is its disease. Kohlmayer, at American Thinker: A couple of quotes: Contrary to what some would have us believe all cultures are by no means equal. The fact is that one is clearly superior to all the others by almost any measure we may choose as a basis of comparison. All the evidence shows that the West is the only successful cultural tradition of our time while all the rest have shown themselves to be incompatible with the modern era. The claim that all cultures are intrinsically equal is thus not only patently untrue, but it is also one of the most insidious lies of our age. Any nation that truly desires prosperity, human rights, and progress must adopt western values. Those in other traditions that have done so have been amply rewarded for their prescience. Japan, South Korea and Honk Kong are examples of those who have prospered greatly as a result of adopting those quintessentially western constructs - democracy and capitalism.
and Advancement, justice and affluence can only be attained by societies that operate along the western lines. For all their alleged wisdom and insight all the other civilizations have not only failed to achieve these ideals but have invariably produced the opposite, spawning malfunctioning and backward societies. History has clearly shown that the only viable way is the western one. It is the only one that can bring about progress and guarantee a dignified existence for man.
It is rather ironic that while progressively larger parts of the globe are in the process of transitioning to the western model, its internal enemies have managed to undermine it from within. Their weapon of choice - and one which has proven surprisingly effective - is multiculturalism, a ploy by which they seek to dilute our tradition with values of failed cultures. That this subversive doctrine has gained such prominence is remarkable given that the foreign material at its disposal is for the most part not only noticeably defunct, but - judging by the results it produces - to be avoided at all costs. The deep inroads multiculturalism has made over the years are largely a result of the decades of relentless attacks on the West which have undermined its people's confidence in their own civilization and weakened their resolve to stand up in its defense.
 Can't you feel 'em circlin' honey?
Can't you feel 'em swimmin' around?
You got fins to the left, fins to the right,
and you're the only bait in town.
You got fins to the left, fins to the right,
and you're the only girl in town.
(Jimmy Buffet's "Fins," of course) A primeval Frilled Shark has been videotaped.
Someone needs to remind them that they are humble scribblers who earn their pay checks by selling ads, and are not gods. Powerline explains.
 What's this "imbalances of power and knowledge" baloney? Sounds like Marxist/feminist college faculty Foucault-style horse manure.
And speaking of the late-lamented Foucault, how many boys did the famously promiscuous, AIDS-infected prof lure into his room "to discuss theory"? Just asking..., not judging. Laws like this (WSJ, by Volokh - h/t, Althouse) which tell you who you can date are what convince people that government has grown not only overly intrusive, but overly arrogant and overly stupid. Read Volokh's piece, and then tell me whether any of that could not equally apply to lawmakers, politicians, lawyers, bosses, personal trainers, rich folks, veterinarians, co-workers, professors, electricians, colonels, Maytag repairmen, and even Presidents. A quote: Of course medical relationships offer room for various kinds of abuses. In some situations, it may be proper to interfere with people's right to marry, and their sexual and romantic autonomy, in order to prevent those abuses. We can talk about relationships between psychotherapists and clients (or ex-clients), or relationships between doctors and current patients, or other circumstances in which the risk of subtle coercion or unprofessional behavior is especially high (which is to say materially higher than the risk of subtle coercion and other harms in any sexual relationship). But the trouble here is that the rules go vastly further than these special situations, and vastly undervalue the countervailing reasons to limit regulation--people's right to choose whom to date, have sex with and marry, even including their dental hygienists, opticians, and the like. So much for the right to marry; so much for sexual autonomy; so much for consenting adults deciding whom to love, without the fear of losing their livelihood.
I see nothing at all wrong with doctors having relationships with patients, nor with therapists having relationships with ex-patients. People are adults, and can use their brains and choose what to do. Such issues are not issues for lawmakers, but for ethics committees of professional boards. (Isn't it odd that such laws never apply to us lawyers, who, rumor has it, are famous for getting involved with clients?) Look - in any two people, you can find an "imbalance of power" if you want to. And in any desired romantic relationship there will be "subtle emotional coercion:" it's called "trying to win someone's heart" (or at least their company), aka "courtship." All is fair in love and war. Furthermore, never forget this basic biological truth: a charming female always has mighty, witch-like power over a man's emotions - and she knows it. It's Darwinian. Why do some folks, mainly feminist-types, try to deny this most basic fact of life? Guys cannot help thinking about new opportunities to play Hide The Salami, and women are suckers for romance. Chosing to act on these things is another matter entirely - or should be, but it's none of the government's damn business. Image: My witchy dental hygienist during lunch break. What fellow would not want to invite her to dinner, even after she has been a co-conspirator with your dentist to torture you and then to empty your wallet?
 Sent to re-education treatment facility for bad thoughts. Definitely watch the video. Ex-Donk
Please take a few minutes to read the Fukuyama post from yesterday - you won't regret it. It is meaty and important. Polipundit: Re Duke and Nifong's come-uppance, "And the chorus of cheers from “civil liberties” liberals everywhere is just deafening." Newt warns of holocaust. YNET Shacking up with Jesus. Spirit and Eros, at Asst. Village Idiot Blatant racial sterotyping in the NYT. Horsesfeathers. A quote: Thank goodness for the New York Times; without it we might think America had made progress towards overcoming discrimination. Instead we stand reminded that whites are cold, robotic, uncaring exploiters of blacks and that success by blacks occurs because they possess the empathic intelligence lacking in their white counterparts. Thanks Selena, we needed that!
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.” Ernest Benn (h/t, Patriot Post)
Wednesday, January 24. 2007
An older lady gets pulled over for speeding... Older Woman: Is there a problem, Officer?
Officer: Ma'am, you were speeding.
Older Woman: Oh, I see.
Officer: Can I see your license please?
Older Woman: I'd give it to you but I don't have one.
Officer: Don't have one?
Older Woman: Lost it, 4 years ago for drunk driving.
Officer: I see...Can I see your vehicle registration papers please.
Older Woman: I can't do that.
Officer: Why not?
Older Woman: I stole this car.
Officer: Stole it?
Older Woman: Yes, and I killed and hacked up the owner.
Officer: You what?
Older Woman: His body parts are in plastic bags in the trunk if you want to see... The Officer looks at the woman and slowly backs away to his car and calls for back up. Within minutes 5 police cars circle the car. A senior officer slowly approaches the car, clasping his half drawn gun.
Officer 2: Ma'am, could you step out of your vehicle please! The woman steps out of her vehicle. Older woman: Is there a problem sir?
Officer 2: One of my officers told me that you have stolen this car and murdered the owner.
Older Woman: Murdered the owner?
Officer 2: Yes, could you please open the trunk of your car, please.
The woman opens the trunk, revealing nothing but an empty trunk.
Officer 2: Is this your car, ma'am?
Older Woman: Yes, here are the registration papers. Officer 2: One of my officers claims that you do not have a driving license. The woman digs into her handbag and pulls out a clutch purse and hands it to the officer. The officer examines the license. He looks puzzled.
Officer 2: Thank you ma'am, one of my officers told me you didn't have a license, that you stole this car, and that you murdered and hacked up the owner.
Older Woman: Bet the lying SOB told you I was speeding, too.
Guess which one was not charged in the London bomb plot? (from a piece at Squaring the Boston Globe) 
It was disconcerting - or at least distracting. Somebody speculated that it was Morse Code.
 Old man rhythm is in my shoes,
No use t'sittin' and a'singin' the blues,
So be my guest, you got nothin' to lose,
Won't ya let me take you on a sea cruise?
(from Sea Cruise, made famous by Herman's Hermits - corrected) I recently met an elderly lady who had cruised the Mediterranean on the famous Stella Polaris of the Bergen Line, in the 1930s. This lovely small steamship was built in 1927 in the early days of pleasure cruising. She continued to work through the 1960s until ending her career as a restaurant in Japan. She sank off China this past September while being towed to a shipyard in preparation for transfer to Sweden as a restaurant/hotel. The varied history of the Stella, including her time under the German military flag, here. A grand lady and a classic.
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