Monday, October 29. 2007
From Protein, on a piece by Robert Reich: Certainly, this isn’t about fairness in the tax code. Reich, Rangel, et al have no interest in “fairness”. What this is about is property rights and who ultimately gets to control them. What we have here are not “liberals” but statists who cover their envy of others’ success with sanctimonious socialism. Reich believes that people have no right to own more than 50% of their earnings and they must pay yearly rental to the government of their property. “Reich only wants to do this to ‘the rich’” you say? I don’t buy it. For one he disengenuously cites Eisenhower and JFK tax rates and skips Ronald Reagan. Facts about the tax code and tax rates of those eras and increased federal revenues as they changed and rates fell would belie his jealous hissy-fit. And that’s what this boils down to — envy, jealousy … the coveting of your neighbors success. It’s the excuse offered by the people who shoplift “hey, they’re rich, they won’t miss it and I wanted it.” Reich has the “morals” of a petty thief.
Read the whole thing.
Sunday, October 28. 2007
 Hillary knew all about Bill's affairs. Duh. Jerry Ford had some thoughts about all that. I think Bill is an ordinary sociopath.
Meanwhile, terrorists say "Vote for Hillary." "Bled white" by 171 casualties, Brits pack it in. Buddy says this is the web's best business site. h/t, Flares. It is surely a fine news site. Bobby Jindal is too white? Or are his politics the wrong color? Why cities like Buffalo can never be what they once were. City Journal Courting natural disasters. Betsy. I believe that homeowner's insurance should cover the costs - including governmental costs.
We are. I like this one, but it might be overkill.
 We believe that an unarmed home is a potentially dangerous place. As with fire insurance, you just hope you'll never need to use it.
"Shoot first" laws are growing in the US, making life tougher for bad guys. However, Bruce notes that some people would prefer being victims. I think that is the height of irresponsibility: protecting yourself and your family is the most basic duty in life.
 There is a 16 billion pixel image of The Last Supper here, but I cannot get onto the site as yet. Story here.
World's hottest pepper. Harshest food critic ever, at The Onion. Bad language. How New Hampshire turned Blue. Opinion Journal Rufus would debate this: UN official warns of biofuels driving up cost of food worldwide Biochemist Arthur Kornberg dies at 89. Arthur Kornberg was born in Brooklyn on March 3, 1918. As a youth he helped out in his parents’ hardware store. He was only 15 when he entered the City College of New York. Dr. Kornberg earned a medical degree from the University of Rochester in 1941 and interned at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester. He applied for research training grants but failed to receive any, he said, because of anti-Semitism.
Kling on The Road to McMedicine. He quotes Shannon Brownlee's book: "Our relentless search for wellness through medicine has created a kind of therapeutic imperative, the urge to treat every complaint, every deviation from the norm, as a medical condition."
--Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated, p. 206
Tom Lantos: Europeans more upset about Gitmo than they were about Auschwitz. True. You have to notice that critics say Gitmo symbolizes bad things - not that it is a bad thing. Confusing symbols with reality is insane.
Luke 18, 9-14 9To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' 13"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' 14"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Saturday, October 27. 2007
 The road to the Total State:
...my view is that we in the west are already well on the way to a new form of post-modern totalitarian state (what Guy Herbert calls 'soft fascism') in which behaviour and opinions which are disapproved of by the political class are pathologised and then regulated by violence backed laws "for your own good'' or "for the children" or "for the environment".
Whole brief post at Sami. I agree. This is what governments always tend towards, and it must be resisted by proud, strong free men and women before we all become serfs of The State. If you think that is hyperbole, then just watch, say nothing, and do nothing. The "political class" isn't wise - it's crafty and smart, but fundamentally rendered insane by power. It is a governmental disease, akin to alcoholism, and it seems to be universal. Our Founders feared this, predicted it, and made valiant efforts to prevent it. People who renounce power over others too rarely go into government.
In Maine, last week. I should say "pa'tridge", not "grouse." In Maine, Ruffed Grouse are "partridge". In Canada, grouse are often referred to as "chickens." Hunting grouse is rough on one's legs. Famous soap opera star on the right. 
Big sale at The Teaching Company. We love these people. Vive Capitalism, which can bring us an affordable education this way.
From Cheryl Miller's Claremont review of Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee (h/t, No Left Turns): Edith Wharton, the massive new biography by Oxford English professor Hermione Lee, is the story of success: how Lee's formidable heroine survived a painful childhood, a disastrous marriage, an only slightly less disastrous love affair, repeated bouts of depression and illness, and the German occupation. Through it all, Wharton remained unflappable. Just two months before her death, she paid a visit to a friend and collaborator, the architect Ogden Codman, to discuss a new edition of their The Decoration of Houses- (one of Wharton's 48 books). "Everyone was on jump all the time," Codman complained of his frail but nevertheless commanding guest. Only a few days after she arrived, Wharton suffered a heart attack. As she was carried into the ambulance, she admonished her host: "This will teach you not to ask decrepit old ladies to stay."
Read the whole thing. You can visit Wharton's recently-restored Berkshire home and gardens, "The Mount," in lovely and civilized Lenox, MA. Been there. It's not too far from Maggie's Farm. A friend helped raise the money for the restoration, and they did a good job with it. They duplicated her formal garden designs. 
What are you doing today? Heavy rain here, so the Mrs. and I eschewed our usual Saturday morning horse fun and are making enough mincemeat for 8-12 pies, using Grandma Myers' recipe but doubling it and backing off on the sugar a bit: I do not care for an overly-sweet pie of any sort. I am adding dried cranberries and dried currants, and I am using Canada Goose and beef because I have no venison this year: it's been too warm to hang one, so it makes no sense to shoot one. I will age the mixture until close to Thanksgiving. I used rum in it last year, brandy this year. Also, to sip a little for a bracing brunch while cooking and chopping meat, suet, and apples. I am, at the same time, making my special beef bourguignon for dinner, so the kitchen smells of spices, molasses, raisins, vinegar, apples, wine, brandy, bacon, and cooking meat. The smell is a hearty meal in itself.
Interesting politics. Pajamas
When people talk about being guided by science, I get the creeps. It gives me the same sort of creeps that Utilitarianism does. It has overtones of "scientific socialism," for me, and Brave New World. "Science" is amoral. Facts are amoral. Pure reason is amoral. Prof. Deneen agrees.
 15 people I do not wish to hear another word about. Kim
How cold weather spreads the flu. h/t Flares How Che met God. Classical Everybody has occasional lapses in judgement, but FEMA made a dumb one. Fred videos Megan McArdle's rant about school vouchers. h/t, Right Wing Prof Bush's inspiring speech about Cuba Putin saber-rattling. What for? Isn't it obvious at this point that we mean them no harm? Photo: Poodles can hunt. It isn't widely known that the breed originated in Germany, for duck hunting. They love marshes. The only problem with Poodles is that they are smarter than humans.
Sonnet 54
| O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem | | By that sweet ornament which truth doth give! | | The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem | | For that sweet odour which doth in it live. | | The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye | | As the perfumed tincture of the roses, | | Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly | | When summer's breath their masked buds discloses: | | But, for their virtue only is their show, | | They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade, | | Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so; | | Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made: | | And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth, | | When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth. |
Friday, October 26. 2007
This came in over the transom: Dispute between neighbors - this is a true story. A city councilman in Utah, Mark Easton, had a beautiful view of the east mountains, until a new neighbor purchased the lot below his house and built a new home.
The new home was 18 inches higher than the ordinances would allow, so Mark Easton, mad about his lost view, went to the city to make sure they enforced the lower roof line ordinance. The new neighbor had to drop the roof line, at great expense.
Recently, Mark Easton called the city, and informed them that his new neighbor had installed some vents on the side of his home. Mark didn't like the look of these vents and asked the city to investigate. When they went to Mark's home to see the vent view, this is what they found... 
Editor: I think that's on the harsh side. I prefer this topiary effort to convey a gentle neighborly message: 
New architects design without ego. It's about time. Hate speech and dumb speech, and plain dumb, at Thompson Summary of Al Qaida weakness. CSM San Diego fires vs. New Orleans floods: Protein I hope this is not true: We did not kill Bin Laden Funny: NYT bashes Commentary for nepotism. Also, is the NYT for sale? I doubt it. Food price controls in Russia Joe Klein negative about Bush Iraq leadership, despite progress. Similar despair at Moderate Voice. Related: Hollywood's war on the war on terror. Driscoll Opinion Journal on Charlie Rangel's Trillion Dollar Baby. More at Blue Crab The gap between rich and poor - very small, in Cuba
We missed this piece from Vanderleun, which begins: The Asheville, North Carolina restaurant was one of those common to our post-post-modern world. Open and airy with a wall of windows framing hanging plants. Casual to the point of paper napkins. Sporting a list of local beers and -- surprise -- local wines. Tarted up with the kind of overtly ironic art on the walls where the painter has one statement and one image in his repertoire and repeats it ad nauseam. This time it seemed that the sensibility being trotted out was one of Hieronymous Bosch meets Hello Kitty.
Read the whole amusing thing, then go to Dr. Bob who noted the above piece, for his links on medicine - and rock and roll.
 Moral dilemmas and counterinsurgency in Israel. TigerHawk
Is Mark Zuckerberg the next Bill Gates? The Italian government uneasy about the internet. Why? And how many other governments want to control the flow of ideas and facts? In my opinion, any government that wants to do that is illegitimate, by definition. The Al Qaida video game. Meanwhile, Bin Laden declares war against the UN "occupation" of Darfur. And amusingly, terrorists turn angry with Bin Laden. Such things happen when people are losing. Sir Piers at Agincourt, plus some other tough Brits The obesity crisis in squirrels. A Government program is needed. Who are the arsonists? Flopping Rude leftists shut down Horowitz speech at Emory. Thus are their intolerant and totalitarian impulses revealed. Jules says "The Army is at war, and Tom Friedman goes to Neiman Marcus." "Double reverse chicken hawk"? Photo: It's finally hunting season again. Long-time readers of Maggie's know that she is the famous Maid of the Marsh, a lovely and elusive mythical creature known only to duck hunters, and seen only on foggy days by hunters with serious hangovers combined with mental instability. We were fortunate to catch this photo, which is clearer than most photos of Bigfoot.
Thursday, October 25. 2007
 October has been a very good month for new Maggie's readers. A fine harvest of new friends, whether you agree with us about things or not.
A hearty welcome to all of you in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and the rest of the world. We are pleased and honored to have you all as visitors. Please sample some of our "recent essays" on the upper left column - we only post "thought pieces" there - not that we are really capable of orderly thought: we do our best, with limited time, limited IQ, not to mention our neanderthal lack of intellectual sophistication. We are simple country bumpkins, recently fallen off the turnip wagon, who aspire only to Common Sense - and a few other things. And don't forget to send us around to all of your friends and enemies. They should not feel left out. Image: Autumn, by Currier and Ives, 1871
The New Criterion discusses the current (through January) Hopper show at the National Gallery of Art. 
That is Nighthawks. Here's a good Hopper site.
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