Saturday, April 14. 2007
Hope this little nor'easter will be the last snow of the year in MA. Winter arrived late, but won't leave. In southern New England and NYS, watch out for this. What is a nor'easter? Also, don't be surprised if our power is down tomorrow and Maggie's is off the air for a while. Taliban just hates transvestites. So why does Bin Ladin wear a dress? Duke lacrosse players are guilty anyway. Moonbattery Sharpton is a walking self-satire. Powerline agrees. Penn and Teller do gun control. (h/t, Never Yet melted) Mitt Romney on YouTube. He is a smoothy. Anti-terror dolphins. Be careful with your nailgun. Ouch. Cutest little bunny rabbit in the world. Riehl
Friday, April 13. 2007
Neither Al Sharpton nor Jesse Jackson ever graduated from a seminary, nor have either been ordained. "Reverend"? Race hustlers, with phony religious garb. I should have known, but I am not predisposed to doubting the credentials of "Reverends." One tends to take such things at face value. There is no such thing as "self-ordination." There are millions of honorable black folks in the USA. Why are these two slick and slippery con-men the "spokesmen"? Probably because the others are busy, working hard at real jobs like everybody else.
America at a Crossroad, at PBS, this week. I see no crossroad, but it might be interesting to see what they have to say.
 "Knowledge of subject not required." An advt for an AP reporter. Democracy Project.
The Junco is is sparrow, not a finch, Mr. Sibley. Funny, if you are a birder. It's "inside" humor. Trees worsen global warming. Interesting. nb: We do not care one bit about global warming. We do enjoy chain saws, however, with beer. You're our only hope, Obi Wan Sarkozy. The French mess. No Pasaran Kurt Vonnegut on transactional lawyers. Prof. Bainbridge. Hey, Al Gore. It is below freezing in New England in the morning, and we have yet more snow predicted for this weekend. Please leave the weather alone, Al. We got 10 inches yesterday, and the daffodils are buried. Sweden: Slackers find it more rewarding not to work. Brussels Journal. Pathetic. Or is it sour grapes? Would I rather spend my day smoking pot, drinking beer, getting stupid, and chasing Stockholm flickas? A monkey on welfare? Hmmmm. Let me think... Dr. Bob, a quote from a piece on socialized medicine: Now, my intent is not to beat up the poor fellow; he is, after all, a liberal, and therefore possessed of a profoundly misguided understanding of human nature and motivation, and a strong inherent (and incoherent) proclivity for finding in government the solution to every imaginable problem. He is more to be pitied than censured. But his comment prompted me to begin thinking about some of the more common medical myths; those axiomatic convictions which seem to drive every discussion about healthcare policy, and show up in virtually every comment section on a health policy-related post. This particular gentleman’s comment mentions at least two such myths, and therefore provides lush green fodder for a rambling rumination on my part.
This photo of a Maggie's Farm buddy with a big Texas pig, from a post last summer, elicited a comment from a reader saying that they had them in Wisconsin. Wisconsin? That was news to me. I thought "razorbacks" were more of a Southern and Western thing. Happily, they have not invaded New England yet. 
I knew about Texas, California, etc., and I checked his link. Yup. They are now found in 23 states. They are basically wild domestic pigs, but, depending on their location, the urban legend is that they may have some "Russian Boar" blood from game farms mixed in - but the domestic pig and the wild European boar are the same species: Sus scrofa. When breeding wild, feral pigs devolve into their natural form and habits. Unlike wild horses, they attract little sympathy, and they are not cute.  In many areas of Europe, boar is extinct or endangered. In the US, these adaptable invaders are spreading fast, which is bad for forests but fun for hunters.
Omnivorous, destructive of their habitat by aggressive rooting with their snouts, raising up to 4 litters per year, and ranging from 70-400 pounds in adulthood, these hardy, non-native critters are environmental destructos from hell. And their only real predator, to keep their numbers in any control, is man. To make things more difficult, their shoulders, where you might wish to place a bullet, have very dense tissue which is difficult to penetrate. They are also potentially dangerous beasts who use their tusks as swords: they can easily kill a dog or seriously damage a human. On the plus side, they are highly edible. Because most states have an open season on pig, hog hunting is increasingly popular - and environmentally necessary - whether with bow, shotgun, rifle (or even handgun, for the very brave or reckless). Here's a piece on boar hunting in Ohio. Here's one from California.
Thursday, April 12. 2007
Never was a big fan, but he was very popular in my youth, and everybody read him, including me. I guess he was a sign of the times, and you have to admire anyone who can write books that people want to buy and to talk about. Blue Crab has a nice obit.
 Update to the piece below: Imus has been fired by CBS. Another scalp for the race hustlers - and just in time to cover up the Duke case.
We don't even like the guy much, but he has been railroaded. Imus is no racist. The message is: Be Very Afraid, and don't call anyone a "nappy-head ho," even as an ironic quote, unless you are black - in which case it is just fine. The Imus Case is a surely a smokescreen as we said earlier this week, effectively covering up the Duke Case outcome. The Imus Case is equally foolish. Imus is an old-time shock jock, and an equal-opportunity insulter from way back - but a guy who regularly offers real substance of value, albeit with a lefty slant. So you just have to ask "Why now?" Whimsical racial slurs towards all colors have been part of his shtick forever. Imus is just the scapegoat du jour. It could be Rush, or you, or me, tomorrow: anything to stay in the limelight and to keep the money coming in. Editor's Note: In defence of the goofball Don Imus, to whom I rarely listen, here's a quote - not that I agree with it all - from Cynopsis: Imus is in the crosshairs. He put himself there; his producer and colleagues enabled him. Thoughtless and sophomoric, he made a damaging remark. Damaging to the stellar young women of Rutgers basketball, and damaging to a long career in radio and on cable TV. Until Wednesday night, some of his bosses also enabled him.
What mystifies me is what took me from the broadcast network morning shows to Imus In The Morning on MSNBC. For the longest time, Good Morning America and the Today Show brought me morning news and information. Unthinking, I tuned into those channels on the low end of the dial. But, when their soundtrack became disturbingly frivolous and forced, I started searching, sampling.
I sampled Imus, occasionally at first, eventually adopting an unexplainable habit. It made no sense. I am decidedly not in the Imus demographic. The reasons not not to tune in to Imus are considerable: - The adolescent male locker room humor
- "Comic" routines that center on genitalia, sexist and ethnic slurs
- The Bickersons … Mr. & Mrs. Imus' sniping at each other, lately echoed on-air by their 8-year old child
- Bo Dietl & Sid Rosenberg
- Endless plugs for products and services benefiting the Imus Inner Circle
And yet….
Imus served up the most refreshing, enlightening, provocative and spontaneous interviews with journos, politicos, and I-want-to-knows anywhere on morning tv. Interviews lasted 15-20 minutes uninterrupted, without deference to title or status. Imus' shameless on-air campaigns to fix broken parts of America were astonishing, whether for sick kids or wounded soldiers. The music acts … spectacular! Well chosen and superbly produced. And I love curmudgeonliness.
So I weigh the plusses and minuses of the Imuses. Is the intellectual content so strong that it outweighs the stupidity? Is this the tradeoff: tune out "Rev. Falwell", "Brian Wilson", and "Mayor Ray Nagin" in exchange for Jon Meacham, Anna Quindlan, and Harold Ford? There are days when it's the All White Guy Chorus, and that needs to be fixed, as with most broadcasts that pretend to reflect American thought.
The term "shock jock" is dated and inaccurate. Imus' claim that it's a comedy show is equally inaccurate. In 3 years, I tolerated the "comedy" to get to the substance, and the substance was solid. It's a testament to what we're able to tune out when we tune in.
 With the final outcome of the Duke rape idiocy, it is finally and fully apparent that the Duke faculty and administration have made fools of themselves. And so did the race-monger shake-down artists, who, like the vultures that they are, smelled fresh meat. And so did the MSM with their rush to judgement.
Indeed, the "America is Satan" crowd gets so fired up by rare examples of blatant racism - real, contrived, or imaginary - mainly because they are so rare. And they want it to be true so badly, to support their view of the world and their raison d'etre, that facts and truth go out the window. (Abu Ghraib is another example: The exception that proves the rule.) We usually term such distortions of reality "propaganda." (The total lack of interest in last week's college rape story proves my point. Who is rushing to support these girls? Where are the feminists? Where's Jesse? Where are the pomos? All AWOL, because the story doesn't fit "the narrative." And "narrative," of course, is a term applied to fiction (and a concept applied to legal case-building).) It was obvious to normal people without an agenda a year ago that there was something fishy about the Duke story. As a loving grandparent, I would not contribute one penny for one of those kids to attend such a loony, misguided place - regardless of the quality of Duke's basketball (or lacrosse) teams. Eat your heart out, Duke.
An addendum by Editor "Bird Dog": In a piece this week entitled PoMo Contradictions, David Thompson concludes: If one’s ‘work’ is based on being oppositional – or being seen to be oppositional - against capitalism, racism, sexism, imperialism (real or imagined), white male patriarchy, etc, then liberties can, and probably will, be taken. Attempts to fathom truth, or to be consistent, meaningful and accurate, can, and probably will, be dispensed with in order to advance The Great Cause. (Or The Great Oppositional Posture, depending on one’s scepticism.) And it’s worth noting that in Criticism and Social Change, the left-wing theorist, Frank Lentricchia, announced that the postmodern movement “seeks not to find the foundation and conditions of truth, but to exercise power for the purpose of social change.” Achieved, one might suppose, even at the cost of truth.
That says it all. I'd also add that I believe the villain of the story to be Mike Nifong, who sold his soul to get elected. By her reported behavior, the accusing woman appears to be mentally unstable, not very bright, and sounds alcoholic and/or drug addicted and, despite the unbelieveable destructiveness of her actions, deserves some pity. If she sobers up, and if she has a conscience, she will never get over the wrongs she has done. And about "Pomo". Isn't it always the most humble and curious kid in the class who asks the dumb question nobody else wants to ask? They are the best. Got an email asking "What is Pomo"? Abbreviation for "post-modern," usually applied to people with a political or world-view agenda for which truth is irrelevant. No, I would go further: for which truth is considered a reactionary maneuver - and they gladly admit it. Pomo is as old as the Appalachian Mountains: it's also called "political lying."
Widely posted and re-posted here and elsewhere, but worth one more time: "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." John Stuart Mill
Some us grew up sailing and racing Lightnings when they were the largest racing class in the US. 19' with a heavy centerboard and a three-person racing crew. They work as a fine day-sailer too. This 1966 Lippincott brings back the good old days. That outboard, though, ruins it. I have flipped a few of these with the spinnaker up, when a squall blew through. Photo is Cape Cod. 
Wednesday, April 11. 2007
 My Friend, Milton Friedman, by Charles Brunie in City Journal. Many stories about Friedman. I did not realize that he was an academic pariah. He never followed the Party Line.
Duke case updates at LaShawn and Durham in Wonderland Camille Paglia interview on all topics at Salon. I wouldn't know Katie Couric from Adam, but this new story is just one more example of how phony MSM news really is. Captain Ed When did Cheryl Crow find time to get her PhD in Paleoclimatology? Because if she doesn't have one, she'd better not try lecturing to me. William F. Buckley Jr. has a few words about the Dartmouth trustee election. Powerline Half of Americans reject the concept of evolution. I don't know what to make of that. How dumb is Al Sharpton? From an old interview with Peter Jennings when Sharpton was running for president, at Attack Machine (you have to scroll down on his blog until he gets some dang permalinks): JENNINGS: And what you'd be looking for in a chairman of the Federal Reserve Board? SHARPTON: Oh, in the Federal Reserve Board, I would be looking for someone that would set standards in this country, in terms of our banking, our — in how government regulates the Federal Reserve as we see it under Greenspan, that we would not be protecting the big businesses; we would not be protecting banking interests in a way that would not, in my judgment, lead toward mass employment, mass development and mass production.
Got that? Image: Gratuitous photo of TV chef Rachel Ray, on loan from a piece on Manatee steak at Right Wing News. The photo on loan, that is. Not Rachel, although I heard she is getting divorced.
 We linked this piece from the Pittsburg Trib the other day. It compares American and Korean kids on their views of their math proficiency.
The American kids think they're good, but they aren't. The Korean kids think they're bad, but they aren't. Their findings are consistent with my own observations. However, I am not sure whether it can be blamed on the schools. I have written many times about the ridiculous notion of "self-esteem," and the absurdity of the idea that this is something schools - or anyone else - should or could instill. I think the differences might be plain cultural, though I do not mean to minimize the insidious reality of the "dumbing down" movement in education. David Warren has a fine piece on The Date of Inversion. He thinks it was August 10, 1969. A quote: At the end of the earlier school year, the old principal had been fired: he was a drill sergeant (literally, ex-military). The new principal was a "reformer": a nice guy, a sensitive guy. Overnight, Ontario’s Hall-Dennis Report had also swept through, with its smug title, “Living and Learning.” Half the subjects had become "electives": 300 pupils in Grade IX Latin, became four pupils in Grade X. The bottom had fallen out of educational standards that had already been slung very low.
My view of "lower education" is that it ought to try to instill humility about their ignorance, try to excite curiosity, and to provide the basic information people need to know to understand the basics of their history, their culture and the world, and to handle life. To carry kids along as far as their talents, interests, drive, self-discipline, and abilities can handle requires plenty of structure, demands and expectations. I see LaShawn has recently written a piece on the self-regulation aspect. Editor: - David Warren responds to the attention given to his piece linked above, here. - Right Wing Nation looks at the differences between what high school teachers consider to be good college preparation, and what college teachers consider good preparation
I find it amusing that, for all of our effort, this was the most-often Google-searched item on Maggie's Farm in the past week or two.  A love song to listen to, from Brad Paisley.
Image: Hard-bodied dog ticks.
 $400-600 million. John Kluge's bequest to Columbia University - the largest donation ever to an American University. Photo is of Columbia's very happy Alma Mater. Columbia will need police to control the lines of hedgies outside the Treasurer's office when Kluge dies.
Oh, Sh-t Department: Fred Thompson has lymphoma. From warming hoaxster George Monbiot: "The only reason for which I will fly is to campaign on climate change." Piece - "Destroying the planet to save it" - at Tim Blair . Imus vs. Rap lyrics, at Michelle. You could not print these lyrics in a newspaper, but they play them on the radio all day long. Nice. We've been avoiding the dumb Imus story, but I agree that the reaction is the usual "manufactured outrage." After all, something racial was needed to dilute the news of the dismissal of the Duke charges this week. How many times have we asserted that Al Sharpton is a con-man extortionist sociopathic creep of the lowest sort who deserves neither respect or attention from anyone - except for his value as an object of ridicule? But back to the Duke story: I am waiting for the accuser to be charged with something. A false accusation of rape is no small matter and should be a felony, if it's not. Coyote in New Jersey tries to dine on toddler. This is extremely unusual. Maybe they are in league with the Greenies, who insist we have too many people. It is possible that there are too many people in northern Jersey, however. Ever been to Paramus? I have yet to see an explanation from the anthropogenic folks for why CO2 levels lag warming by 800 years. Quote from Jane Galt (h/t, Instapundit): ...too many environmentalists flunk basic and economic knowlege, which is why so many people believe it is practical to replace a coal-fired turbine that pumps out 1,000 megawatts with a solar installation that will, in peak sun conditions, produce about 1 kilowatt per 150 feet of space, twelve hours a day; or wind farms, which average less than 1 megawatt per turbine in prime spots. In addition, the core of the environmental movement are people with a whole host of linked views about things like capitalism, consumer culture, and so forth; they find solutions that support, rather than changing, the existing system much less emotionally interesting than radical conservation strategies. Unfortunately, the latter are a thoroughgoing political failure, but the environmental movement has strenuously resisted adjusting to this reality. (Some leaders have, God bless them). As long as this attitude persists, the environmental movement is blocking change that could and should happen; it is perfectly legitimate, nay necessary, to tax them on this.
Pelosi and Lantos want to visit Iran, and want to give Iran nuclear material: "So if the Iranian president says that he is developing (nuclear material) for peaceful purposes, we are assisting him in that process,'' said Lantos, who anticipated the legislation could pass as early as May.
Yes, Dr. Freud, there is a death wish. It leaves me speechless, so I will let John Bolton speak for me, via LGF.
 From a piece at the BBC:
...looking at the past 1,150 years the Sun has never been as active as it has been during the past 60 years. Over the past few hundred years, there has been a steady increase in the numbers of sunspots, a trend that has accelerated in the past century, just at the time when the Earth has been getting warmer. The data suggests that changing solar activity is influencing in some way the global climate causing the world to get warmer.
Discussion at Synthstuff.
For those who know zilch about sailboats, catboats are comfortably beamy, have a mast far forward, and one sail, usually with a gaff rig. Catboats remain popular on Cape Cod. This one, the graceful 16' Lynx, is built by Cape Cod's Arey's Pond Boatyard. 
Tuesday, April 10. 2007
 We agree with the Anchoress that it is still too early to get too invested in national politics, but it's hard to deny that politics can sometimes be an entertaining distraction from the realities of life.
An excellent update from the always-interesting, often-wrong Dick Morris. He doesn't care for Hillary, of course, having worked with the two of them for years, and notes that if living for eight years in the White House is a qualification, then it applies equally to the White House pastry chef. He has some interesting polling data at the end of the piece. I think the Clinton faces are growing tedious to everyone, and I think there is plenty of room for a calm, "moderate" Dem candidate. Me? I'm waiting to hear more about what Fred has to say. I think he could be my candidate. There's plenty of time - and there's plenty of time to grow weary of the faces and the soap-opera campaigns.
Vets annoyed by Dem congress. A quote: "Thank God there was no mandated timetable after the Battle of the Bulge or Iwo Jima. Thank God, there was no mandated withdrawal or imposed exit strategy at Valley Forge or our Country would have lost the American Revolution."
Dems acting fearful of FOX News. If you're afraid of FOX, how are you going to handle Ahmadinejad? Global Cooling Alert: Coldest April in 113 years. All about Momzillas. Scary. Larry Kudlow explains our great economy in an Examiner piece: "Since the early Reagan years, we have had 25 years of virtually uninterrupted prosperity," Kudlow said. "Because of the Reagan reforms - the deregulation, the lower taxes, the disinflation - we have transformed the economy from a top-down, government-run operation into a free market, capitalist economy with durability and resilience."
A story from a Mom, a dentist-blogger, in Mosul. (h/t, Jules) Wow.
 Charles Babbage (1791-1871) not only designed and built the earliest calculating machines - with printers, too - but also designed programmable computers which used punch cards.
One of his machines was built in 1990 according to his plans, and was able to perform calculations to 32 decimal points. Mr. Babbage detested street musicians, according to Done with Mirrors, who seems to enjoy them.
 Your private runway in your backyard. It's the latest thing in convenience: aviation estates. Take a look at Jumbolair.
The IRS sends an annoying auditor to audit a synagogue. The auditor is going through the checks, and turns to the Rabbi and says, "I notice that you buy a lot of candles." "Yes," answered the Rabbi. "Well, Rabbi, what do you do with the candle drippings?" he asked. "A good question," noted the Rabbi. "We actually save them up. When we have enough, we send them back to the candle maker. And every now and then, they send us a free box of candles." "Oh," replied the auditor somewhat disappointed that his question actually had a practical answer. So he thought he'd try another question. "Rabbi, what about all these matzo purchases? What do you do ... with the crumbs from the matzo?"Ah, yes," replied the Rabbi calmly, "we actually collect up the crumbs, we send them in a box back to the manufacturer and every now and then, they send a box of matzo balls." "Oh," replied the auditor, thinking hard how to fluster the Rabbi. "Well, Rabbi," he went on, "what do you do with all the foreskins from the circumcisions? ""Yes, here too, we do not waste," answered the Rabbi. "What we do is save up all the foreskins. And when we have enough we actually send them to the Internal Revenue Service." "The Internal Revenue Service?," questioned the auditor in disbelief. "Ah, yes," replied the Rabbi, "Internal Revenue Service. And... about once a year, they send us a little prick like you."
 A special edition of the NYT Science Times. Some of it is self-evident, but it's always a fun topic.
I think one common assumption of the researchers has something wrong, though, at least for young men. For young men, the question should be what turns them off, not on: they're always on, otherwise. It's amusing to read in the NYT about "hearty tumescence," but I thought the funniest quote was this: “Listening to Noam Chomsky,” said a psychologist in her 50s, “always turns me on."
Good grief. Under what rock did they have to look to find someone who would say that? But at least she didn't say that her favorite was Al Gore with his hockey stick.
 Look, I'm tired of Al Gore. You guys can point out that he's none too bright and a hypocrite for preaching the gospel of global warming armageddon while running his electric meter fast enough to use as a baloney slicer all day long. As for me, I'd just like to point out that the guy's just plain nuts.
No; really. Crazy. This isn't like calling Bush Hitler because you want no co-pay for your Paxil and Hillary's not president yet. I really think Al Gore is Grade A-Batsh*t-Laughing Academy-Bonkers. And I bet I can prove it. Al Gore has Carbon Dioxide Bulimia. But being a narcissistic baby boomer me-first patrician, it's my throat he wants to shove his finger down when he's done with his binges. That's an improvement on his old boss, who wanted to shove all sorts of things into all sorts of places; but really, Al, if you feel guilty because you were born with a carbon spoon in your mouth, that's no reason for me and mine to shiver unemployed in the dark. Check yourself in whatever clinic the Kennedys use this month, and make a made for TV movie about it when they're done with you. Leave me alone. So I'll prove Al Gore is nuts. I'll take the Wikipedia entry for Bulimia, and we'll see how few words I have to change to make it fit. The changes will be marked in red. Here goes:
Continue reading "The Earth Has A Fever... And The Only Cure Is... Al Gore's Cowbell"
People like to say today that 'diversity is our strength.' It's almost like a State Religion. But diversity isn't our strength: freedom is our strength. A close paraphrase of Tom Tancredo, as heard on the radio by the Barrister
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