Friday, November 30. 2007
Today, new big flat monitor, new potent Dell box/server, new everything -perfect for a blog editor and busy human being (but one who is a bred-in-the-bone Yankee and hates to spend money). Thanks to the Mrs. Bird Dog and to Larry The Local Tech Genius for the delightful surprise. I did not know what "fast" meant until this afternoon. Backed up automatically too, on the accessory hard drive, which has been a major headache in the past for some of my projects. Happy Bird Dog.
From a series of clips of Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher interviewing Friedman in 2005. More of the clips here. h/t, MouseNaround
We do not believe that the best liberal arts educations are necessarily at the most competitive colleges, but we do tend to believe that the smartest kids will be your competitors and colleagues at the most competitive colleges. WSJ ranks high schools by college admissions.
 The New Yorker wonders, in a book review, whether it's cool to be a carnivore now.
Who cares whether it's cool? Only The New Yorker, and they should be above such superficial nonsense. But, I agree with one thing - who can remember all of the cuts of a cow, and where they come from? I can remember the cuts of a White-Tailed Deer, however, having butchered my share. Excellent cartoon from the article.
Please, do not overreact. Erin Burnett, who undoubtedly is so smart that she would still be reading the news on MSNBC even if she looked like Madeline Albright, has referred to the POTUS as a "monkey." Twice. A lot of grim, humorless, authoritarian conservatives will get their panties in a bunch over this, and feebly ask for some sort of retraction. Pshaw, I say! Can't people who read the [scare quotes] news [end scare quotes] have opinions? Can't Erin have the hots for that Gallic midget instead of the Plano one? Can't we all just get along?
I say yes. In the spirit of the exchange, I'd like to remind everybody who finds this offensive to lighten up, and also do my part to support Ms. Burnett by jocularly suggesting that she get in the kitchen and make some noise with those pots and pans. My sammich ain't gonna make itself.
By the way, Erin, in honor of President Bush accompanying the hunky leader of the country that until fairly recently ruled Algeria, perhaps next time you should refer to Bush as a macaca. I doubt anyone will mind.
 More thoughts on the Dems as the party of the rich. Dr. Sanity
Venezuelans flee to NYC. NY Sun Rodney King. Still an icon of dysfunctionalism. How to go to college for free. How to date at the office. Dr. Helen Keep your laws off my body. Except... Coyote The Dems want a bilingual America. Pure pandering, IMO. I can speak French and German (and a little English, aka Modern Friesian), and the only thing that might motivate me to learn Spanish is to read Cervantes. The only language I covet is Sienese Italian. The latest on cybercrime and spambots. We have had our tussles with spambots here. Prepare ye for the end! Rick Moran thinks Pat Buchanan's new book is over the top. CNN: We're not embarassed by our lack of journalistic integrity Dr. Bob on Medicare: The history of Medicare is a history of regulatory tyranny which invariably results in “unintended and perverse consequences.” When your local hospital closes, after this proposal is implemented, be sure to write your Congressmen and local Medicare officials to express your deepest appreciation for their efforts to improve health care quality.
Thursday, November 29. 2007
"To be alone with you
Just you and me
Now won't you tell me true
Ain't that the way it oughta be?
To hold each other tight
The whole night through
Everything is always right
When I'm alone with you.
To be alone with you
At the close of the day
With only you in view
While evening slips away
It only goes to show
That while life's pleasures be few
The only one I know
Is when I'm alone with you.
They say that nighttime is the right time
To be with the one you love
Too many thoughts get in the way in the day
But you're always what I'm thinkin' of
I wish the night were here
Bringin' me all of your charms
When only you are near
To hold me in your arms.
I'll always thank the Lord
When my working day's through
I get my sweet reward
To be alone with you." "To Be Alone With You," from Nashville Skyline. Bob growls out a version from a 2002 show - the second to last before he started playing the keyboards - in the Youtube below.
A re-post from 2005. The Red-Tail migration is in full force right now, and I am seeing them everywhere. I had one perched above my porch a week ago, eyes fixed on my bird feeder waiting for a squirrel.  The Red Tailed Hawk is the most commonly-seen hawk in the US and Canada, especially in winter when he likes to hang out along highways and in suburbs, on the look-out for rodents. His white chest is usually more noticeable than his rusty-red tail which is only seen from the back, or when he turns in flight and the sun catches it.
He is a "buteo" - the large, plump, soaring family of hawks with rounded wings (called buzzards in Europe). The Red Tail is a versatile creature, able to make a home even in NYC's Central Park, where "Pale Male" has been raising families for several years on rats and pigeons. This hawk's call is a distinctive "Keeeeeeer" which sends a chill down the spine of all little warm fuzzy critters. He'll take a pheasant from a shooting field, but his hamburgers are rodents - rats, rabbits, squirrels and mice. He will grab a foolish pigeon if he can. He is migratory, with population shifts south during winter, such that our New England winter birds are likely Canada breeders. Learn more about the mighty Red Tail: Click here: All About Birds
What's under the surface of the sea, or outside in the dark, or beyond the light of the campfire, or in the deep woods beyond the lawn and the woodpile? The human imagination populates the unseen with its inner visions - unless it knows from experience what is really there. A few nights under the stars, for example, will rid one of all fears of what's beyond the woodpile at night - unless you live in Grizzly country. Sippican takes a look at city folk in the country: Not Even a Concierge Can Save You Now.
I have been considering the work of young Cuban artist Ernesto Estevez, and like this painting of his:  Our editor Bird Dog asked whether that was hyperrealism or plain realism. I think he likes to put art in categories. Here's what Wikipedia said: Wikipedia: Early 21st century Hyperrealism was founded upon the aesthetic principles of Photorealism. However, it is starkly contrasted with the literal approach found in traditional photorealist paintings of the late 20th century. Despite any apparent similarities, the two styles are distinctly apart from one another. Hyperrealist painters and sculptors use photographic images as a reference source from which to create a more definitive and detailed rendering, one that unlike Photorealism, often is narrative and emotive in its depictions. Photorealist painters tended to imitate photographic images, often omitting or abstracting certain finite detail in order to maintain a consistent overall pictorial design. They often consciously omitted human emotion, political value and narrative elements.
I would call the painting below by Denis Peterson photorealism, but I am not sure. Artists just paint what they want: Claudio Bravo. This is Cristo en el Sepulcro (charcoal on paper):
The government as Santa the Thief (who and what is "Santa the Thief"? We will tell you later.)  The Trouble with Limited Government, by Voegli at Claremont. One quote:
Reagan was elected president 25 years after the first issue of National Review declared its intention to "stand athwart history, yelling Stop." This was an amazing ascent for a political movement that started out, in the words of NR's first editorial, "superfluous" and "out of place." In the 25 years since Reagan's election, however, conservatives determined to scale back the welfare state might as well have been standing a respectful distance behind history, whispering "please slow down." If conservatism has a future, those who want to fashion it need to acknowledge and understand this stunning defeat. In National Review last year Ramesh Ponnuru said the "real crisis" is that, while a conservatism whose "central mission" does not emphasize the fight against Big Government is inconceivable, a "political coalition in America capable of sustaining a majority" for that mission is unimaginable. Conservatism, in other words, can have a purpose or it can have a prospect. It cannot, apparently, have both. This political problem will only become more acute as the challenges of governance become more severe. One yardstick may help conservatives feel a little better about themselves. In 1981 federal spending was 22.2% of GDP; last year it was 20.3%. This measure hovered in a very narrow band for the whole era, never exceeding 23.5% or falling below 18.4%. Adding expenditures by states and localities confirms the picture of a rugby match between liberals and conservatives that is one interminable scrum in the middle of the field. Spending by all levels of government in America amounted to 31.6% of GDP in 1981, and 31.8% in 2006. Conservatives, though, can't take much solace from fighting Big Government to a draw.
Read the whole thing. Readers know my view: the only vision which can compete with the vision of childlike dependency on an omnipotent State is the old Yankee vision of the individual freedom and dignity of sturdy, honest, self-reliant family people who proudly forge their way through life, take their lumps, ask for nothin' from nobody, and want a government which only protects freedom and which "governs least." That noble vision was an easy sell in 1789, but not so easy today. From the board-room to agri-business to greedy geezers, everybody now seems to want a government Santa, and to feed at the trough of the income tax and the federal debt - and even invents ways to morally justify it. Heck, if I live to Medicare, I will probably take it too - but I will hate myself for doing so. There is a soul-degrading vicious cycle at work: the more you tax people, the less money they have to take care of their families - so the more they will want, or even need, "freebies." Am I old-fashioned to distrust and fear government power and control? Are we really just government-intoxicated decadent Europeans, on a different continent with different accents or a different language, instead of the stalwart, rugged, independent Americans of history? Was it just a dream?
I cannot fulfill my usual editorial duties today because I will be busy getting ready for our annual conservation charity event tonight for Ducks Unlimited. Eleven million acres under protection for wildlife habitat, with no government money - that's a darn good cause. We will pre-post some useful new stuff today, and stuff from the archives. No dead air! Image: David Maas "Wood Ducks", over a DU Reclamation Project sign
Wednesday, November 28. 2007
For many more old, not very PC ads, including "Is it always illegal to kill a woman?", here at Daily Mail
 Ormbsy in The NY Sun begins:
One fine late 18th-century morning, an affluent collector named Thomas Butts came to call on his friend William Blake and found the poet and his wife sitting stark naked in the summer house of their modest lodgings in Lambeth. The happy couple, "freed from those troublesome disguises which have prevailed since the Fall," as his early biographer Alexander Gilchrist put it, were reciting Milton's "Paradise Lost," with William taking the part of Adam and his wife Catherine the role of Eve. Butts was embarrassed, but Blake called out, "Come in! It's only Adam and Eve, you know!" If you or I did this, Gilchrist remarks, "it would be time for our friends to call in a doctor," but in Blake's case, he writes, a recitation of Milton in the nude served to demonstrate the "full simplicity and naïveté" of the poet's character. And yet, Blake was neither simple nor naïve. For him, the everyday world was only the thinnest band of a vast spectrum which extended from the smallest grain of sand to all eternity. To become Adam in the Garden — or, for that matter, Moses or Socrates — he needed only to open wide the eyes of his imagination.
Read the whole thing.
The MSM finally calls Bill out on his big lies. Story at Surber.
 The hottest Christmas item I have heard about this year is this Nespresso single-serve espresso/cappuchino machine sold at Bloomingdales.
I do not want one.
 I was invited by our editor to comment on a piece, Talking Back to Prozac, in the paleo-Commie and reliably long-winded NY Review of Books.
The essay/book review by Frederick Crews is semi-hysterically worried about antidepressants, but the real theme motivating the essay seems to be the astonishing and scandalous fact that Big Pharma makes money from developing and selling medicine. Well, slap me with a mackeral and call me Mildred. That's terrible news. Maybe non-profits, or the government, or the UN should be developing the new treatments, and giving them away for free. OK, one of the books, the one by Christopher Lane - How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness, sounds like it makes some good points. Everything is pathologized today (and granted a fancy diagnosis to get insurance coverage) - and every child is supposed to be perfect. The assumption is that we/they could be, if only the government or somebody really smart ran the world, like the people at the New York Review of Books. I don't have time to comment further, except to say that antidepressants - the older ones, and the SSRIs and the hybrids, have, overall, been a great boon to mankind. The point is correct that depression and anxiety disorders are not really a "chemical imbalance" - except in the case of true Bipolar Disorder (and not the faux bipolar disorder that everybody and their kid and cousin is diagnosed with these days). That would be equivalent to claiming that a headache is a Tylenol deficiency. Anxiety and depression are usually symptoms of complicated mental states - time-consuming, expensive, and often frustrating if not impossible to get a grip on. Some people chose to try to get to the bottom of it, some choose the band-aid alone, and some people refuse medicine. It's a free country. I have always valued Joyce McDougall's A Plea for a Measure of Abnormality: I am not a psycho-utopian, or any other kind of utopian, but I think we all should be grateful for what the drug companies do. Eliminating pain is God's work. And no, shyness is not a disease.
 I always wondered about this too: PC says kids cannot hold hands, but they should get condoms in school. Protein
Gingrich predicts Obama in Iowa. Why does Free Speech matter? Stumbling All about the Sten Gun. FMFT Excllent update on the endlessly-annoying and tedious subject of the Palestinians, at Jules Update on Hillary Clinton's radical past: via Powerline Is $97,000 family income rich? Polipundit discusses. No, it certainly is not rich in the Northeast, after 45% state and federal taxes and a mortgage payment. More on The Sound of Settled Science. Small Dead Lemmings. Jewish students flee Moslem mob in Canada Control freakery in the EU: Tangled. And speaking of creeping tyranny via nanny state regulation of everything, see "Reasonable Regulations" at Alphecca. The history of ideological hatred. It's about ideology replacing religion. From a piece by Dunn at Am. Thinker: It will grow more rabid in time, as it always does. When Rudolph Giuliani is elected, they will turn on him the same way they did Bush. They already have in New York City. (In all discussions of Giuliani's "failings" I have yet to see anyone point out that Giuliani is the sole Republican candidate who has put the boot to the liberals successfully and repeatedly.) For that matter, Mitt Romney would be in for the same treatment if he were elected. Even Ron Paul, borderline radical that he is. Any Republican elected to high office will be treated the same for the foreseeable future. So the media may as well knock off all the marveling on how hated Republican office holders are. At this point, it's simply part of the job description. Liberalism has become the party of hate -- the first major party to fit that description since the heyday of the Know-Nothings. You can check the record and see how long they lasted.
 "Liberal Fascism"? Quoted from a Leftist French magazine in a piece at American Future:
Why so much hatred (for Chavez)? Because at the same time social-democracy is undergoing an identity crisis in Europe, historic circumstances seem to have confided the responsibility of taking the lead at an international level in the reinvention of the Left to Mr. Chávez. While on the Old Continent, European reconstruction has had the effect of making any alternative to neo-liberalism practically impossible, in Brazil, in Argentina, in Bolivia and in Ecuador, inspired by the Venezuelan example, experiments that keep the hope of realizing the emancipation of the humblest alive continue to succeed one another. In this respect, Mr. Chávez’s record is spectacular. We can understand how he has become the required benchmark in dozens of poor countries. In his scrupulous respect for democracy and all its freedoms [!], has he not re-founded the Venezuelan nation on a brand new basis, legitimated by a new Constitution [!] that guarantees popular involvement in social change? Has he not rendered their dignity as citizens to some five million marginalized people (including the indigenous people) deprived of identity papers? Has he not taken back in hand the public company Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA)? Has he not de-privatized the country’s principal telecommunications company as well as the Caracas electricity company and returned them to serving the public? Has he not nationalized the Orinoco oil fields? Finally, has he not devoted a share of oil rents to acquiring effective autonomy vis-à-vis international financial institutions as well as autonomy for the financing of social programs?
Ah, government trying to run businesses! How quaintly 19th Century! How idealistic! How caring! It's "for the people"! Kinda like Hillary Clinton on the US oil companies: "I am going to take those profits..." Indeed, there is no greed in the business world that can compare with government greed for money and power. Chavez' "progress, " however, includes no food on the supermarket shelves. While I do not have the same trust in Venezuela's voting as Jimmy Carter does, it remains a fact that dictatorship by popular vote, and tyranny by popular vote, has a long history. However, this "liberation of the masses," as Gateway noted yesterday, is requiring lethal force and, remarkably, students and professors are in opposition (as they likely would not be in the US): Demonstrations also occurred in other cities: Maracay, Valencia, Yaracuy and Puerto La Cruz and there is information that many professors joined their students. For this Sunday, all the student leaders will join their forces and will march in a huge demonstration to reject Chavez's plans to turn Venezuela into an oppressive and tyrannical country.
More at Fausta - Countdown to Tyranny Where are Sean Penn and the rest of the Chavez-lovers today? Have no fear: they will re-emerge when this "vote" is over because, with Fidel on the permanent sick list, the ignorant thug Chavez is now the world's leading proponent of the beautiful utopia of totalitarian, police state socialism (unless you include the equally-charming Kim Jong-Il, who unaccountably receives few accolades and little moral support from the Western Left).
Tuesday, November 27. 2007
 Jonah Goldberg's new book, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, seems like a book that somebody needed to write.
Sounds like the right book at the right time. Many readers of this site are well-aware of the totalitarian impulse of the Left, but I am not sure how much the general public thinks about it. However, I am not sure how much of the general public reads anything.
Race, IQ, and Education, a quote: One year ago, I wrote about the attempt to send more children to college, instead of dealing with students as individuals. I will not repeat that rant here. But this is another example of how the education establishment wants more money in reward for its failures. Overall, I think that to do education properly, we need to take into account individual differences of ability. I do not think we should pay attention to race. Too much of our education policy seems to be driven by the opposite--we focus on outcomes in terms of race and leave the individual children behind.
And from his 2006 piece he links, Education and Entrepreneurship in which he refers to Wizard of Oz diplomas, a quote: I fear that many of the students who pass will go on to earn Wizard-of-Oz diplomas, which signify nothing. Students will claim to be educated, but employers will know otherwise. The phenomenon of the Wizard-of-Oz diploma has discredited the college degree. My oldest daughter discovered that her degree qualified her for secretarial positions. She soon decided to try law school instead. As her experience illustrates, although the average salary differential between college graduates and non-graduates remains high, the marginal college graduate is earning little or no premium.
"Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea," but "reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and so to make it finite.... The poet asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits." G.K. Chesterton, as quoted at One Cosmos in Lunacy and Salvation in the Cosmic Funhouse
 As ye sow... Intellectual, peace-loving Presbyterian youth with guns in France battle cops.
More on Vin Gupta and the Clintons, via Lucianne Eric at Classical Values on guns, urban and rural. Gun rights are one of the third rails of politics in the US. Gives you whiplash. During the first Bush campaign, Gore was the muscular neo-con and Bush the quasi-isolationist. Then 9-11. When Iraq got challenging, the Dems changed horses in mid-stream and became limp defeatists. But now what? And is it all just partisan wrestling, really? My opinion? Yes. That's our system. As The Barrister always says, "You cannot be too cynical to understand politics." Jules on Iraq=Korea. A quote: This sets up a logical strategic arrangement, addressing vital U.S. and Iraqi interests, that illustrates how ridiculous withdrawal proposals have been, as they concentrated on abandonment without regard for any internal or external consequences. Particularly the Murthite “over the horizon” proposals. I’d suggest 50,000 U.S. troops in bases would have to have significant combat capability if they were to be prepared to carry out any of the roles outlined above. Sounds almost … Korea-like. Maybe more like our 62-year arrangements with Germany and Japan. Watch and learn, as Iraq and the United States forge an opportunity not to repeat the wretched experience of Southeast Asia. Who wants that? Oh yeah, right.
Photo: Why the odalisque from Theo? Because I think she could add a bit to the discussion of epistemology in the previous post.
Monday, November 26. 2007
With Iowa coming up soon, it's been a tough month for Hillary Clinton with a whirlwind of uncomplimentary stories. The Hu contribution scandal, the radical law firm story, her strange reversal on illegal driving licenses, her unwillingness to take a firm stand on anything, new polls that reinforce the idea that she might not be electable, the Vin Gupta story, news articles reporting that people do not trust her honesty - and now the lesbian theme comes out of the closet today, a theme which has been whispered around Washington for many years. That's enough to short-circuit any rapid-response team. The Dems do have two excellent candidates who are substantial, savvy, accomplished, and ready for prime time: Joe Biden and Chris Dodd - Dodd being perhaps the more impressive of the two. If primary voters take a look beyond the two celeb candidates (Clinton and Obama) they might find something to like. When candidates were chosen by wise men in smoke-filled rooms, Biden and Dodd would have been on the top of the list and Clinton and Obama would have been viewed as arrogant, presumptuous lightweights and laughed out of the room and instructed to return when they have accomplished something. Are voters so celeb-intoxicated these days that solid guys ("solid" as politicians go - even though I would not be voting for any of these) don't have a chance?
 Rudy's Roots. Who is Rudy, and what does he believe in? Much detail in Newsweek.
A Chavez Freezing Fenzy. Gateway. Fur is Green. FMFT The insanity epidemic. Moonbattery. Paranoia, stupidity, or plain boredom with life? Insty found this brewing story about the Clintons and Vin Gupta. MVRWC asks: At one point will a Clinton candidacy prompt the following question of Laura Bush “Do you feel qualified to run for President, after eight years as First Lady”? What would be the reaction if she said “being First Lady doesn’t qualify you to be President”?
This came in over the transom (thanks, C): Stuart Brown describes Norbert Rosing's striking images of a wild polar bear playing with sled dogs near Churchill, Manitoba on Canada's Hudson Bay.
The photographer was sure that he was going to see the end of his huskies when the polar bear materialized out of the blue, as it were: 
The rest of the photos and story on continuation page below:
Continue reading "Bear Story"
 While persuing trips for next summer this weekend, the Mrs. reminded me of her long-time wish to visit the Shetlands and the Outer Hebrides.
On Harris, we found this great place - Blue Reef Cottages. It looks like Norway. Here's Visit the Hebrides. Here's a photo gallery of Harris, the home of Harris Tweed, natch. Nearby, the Dunollie Hotel on Skye looks good. In the Highlands, we'd chose the Tulloch Castle Hotel. I love the way they say in the UK: "Pets welcome. No extra charge." Photo: The Isle of Harris
Total Control: How Brussels regulates our daily lives. Der Spiegel The Times of London tentatively outs Hillary Clinton American Thinker outs the Nazis Chauncey Bailey and Oakland's Moslem Bakers. Classical Values Thompson has a tax plan. Makes sense to me. Kudlow likes Fred. Immigrants an economic boon to NY State? NY Sun. I see no distinction made between legal and illegal in the story, and I wonder about those numbers. Rowan Williams - Public Embarassment. Roger Kimball From useful idiot to useless idiot. The Tanja Nijmeijer story.
 When Social Security was initiated by FDR as an effort to remove workers from the workforce to reduce politically-dangerous unemployment while virtuously cloaking it as "caring" for the old folks, politicians never publicly considered the long-term effect of that incentive.
Or did they? Adding money to lower-, middle- and upper-class folks' retirement calculations helps incentivize them to quit being productive and to retire earlier while they are still able-bodied, paid for, as parasites, by a shrinking number of hard-working youngsters. Politicians never think long-term (but, in the defence of those in the 1940s, folks in their 60s now are in far better shape that folks in their 60s then). Politicians think election, job, power, importance, ego, etc. But we know better: The Law of Incentive and the Law of Unintended Consequences are always in force. The Feds need an "Office of Consequences and Incentive" along with the "Office of the Budget." Mankind is powerfully motivated by money, and that will never change. Money offers choices. Many have commented on Megan McArdle's fine piece on Social Security, but I will link this piece on her piece. I believe Social Security should be income- and asset- balanced, but it will never happen. It's an entitlement now: another freebie on the backs of others. Photo: Ida May Fuller, supposedly the first Social Security check recipient
Is it humanly possible to shrink the Federal government? The Case Against Despair, by Fred Barnes
Sunday, November 25. 2007
Survived Thanksgiving with 23 relatives, and gave abundant thanks. Next comes Christmas Eve, my favorite night of the year. A delicious random photo from ye olde Maggie's Farm sideboard from Thanksgiving. Relatives brought their best stuff, but I bought a case of Jarhead Red. 
 The Greatest Generation won the war, but how were they as parents? Walter Williams, via Driscoll.
Drive-by immigrants from Canada Who wins in shareholder lawsuits? Coyote "Can I claim my minority status now?" Protein on 9-11 conspiracy theorists "We are losing our Englishness." h/t, Theo We, and others, warned about this last winter: The Dems could be making the wrong bet on Iraq. Hillary was shrewd - but not wise - to muddle her statements and to say many different things to many different audiences. Chavez is getting hysterical, and more scarey. The spiritual discipline against resentment. With reference to Christopher Lasch. Prof Deneen. From Insty: KNIGHTS IN RED SATIN: "In my own opinion, the only really dangerous government is an efficient, effective one. The best judgment of a particular democracy is how well it keeps the busybodies occupied while the rest of us get on with running things."
Well said. How good John Howard left Australia (big mistake to retire him, but I think they got tired of his face): Unemployment rate: 4.3 per cent
Interest rate: 6.75 per cent
Economic growth: 4.3 per cent
Stock market: 6650 points
Australian dollar: US90 cents
Surplus 2007 Budget: $10.6 billion
Growth in real net national disposable income per head over the past five years: 16 per cent
Photo: I saw one of those over a river this weekend, looking exactly like that. That's an immature Bald Eagle.
This tape is from 1966. This charming tune was never recorded on an album. Lyrics here.
 A repost from 2005:
Birding (it used to known as bird-watching but that didn't sound cool, and birders are of course cool) is the most popular and rapidly growing form of outdoor recreation in America. Besides all of the excellent birding handbooks that are out these days, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology has a good basic site for basic info and identification, All About Birds, which we use all the time. They also have an advanced site, The Birds of North America, which is by subscription. Other things that CLO offers: A home-study course on bird biology, behavior, and identification and the necessary A Field Guide to Bird Songs. Photo: Two warblers after banding. These are immature birds in fall plumage, a Mourning Warbler on top and a Connecticut Warbler below.
 Mankind is killing the entire universe? Dino. There's a subject for Gaghdad Bob.
LA Times tries to make beach erosion into a global warming issue. Dumb, or deceptive? The vast power of the Saudi lobby. Israpundit Up to one billion songbirds may be killed during each migration - hitting glass. Worst archbishop in history? Times Online. Commenter Tony G says: If anyone wishes to understand why the Church of England has lost all relevance to society in the 21st century they need only examine the biased, sanctimonious, naive utterings of Williams. He should restrict himself from lecturing others on their behaviour until he has set an example of how to constructively face and overcome the many problems facing society in his diocese.
Stockholm Syndrome? Kidnapped by Taliban and now defending Jihad. My sense is that Hillary Clinton's heroes are Saul Alinsky and Eleanor Roosevelt. A good summary of Alinsky's political tactics for radicals here. A sample: You do what you can with what you have and clothe it in moral garments. Goals must be phrased in general terms like "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," "Of the Common Welfare," "Pursuit of Happiness," or "Bread and Peace."
From a piece of the above title at Overcoming Bias (h/t, Flares for introducing me to that site), a quote: "It seems to me that there's a substantial advantage in knowing the drop-dead basic fundamental embarrassingly simple mathematics in as many different subjects as you can manage. Not, necessarily, the high-falutin' complicated damn math that appears in the latest journal articles. Not unless you plan to become a professional in the field. But for people who can read calculus, and sometimes just plain algebra, the drop-dead basic mathematics of a field may not take that long to learn. And it's likely to change your outlook on life more than the math-free popularizations or the highly technical math."
 Luke 23:33-43
33When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. 35The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One." 36The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself." 38There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. 39One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" 40But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? 41We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." 42Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." 43Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." Image: A Duccio Crucifixion
Saturday, November 24. 2007
 I'm going to put an excerpt from The Guardian on here in a second. The Guardian, for those of you that aren't Anglophiles, is sort of the British Isles' intellectual appendix. That is to say, it doesn't seem to serve any positive function; it collects detritus; is dangerous if it ruptures into the body politic; and even though its removal from your life seems to have no deleterious effect, you just leave it there and ignore it unless it gets inflamed. Anyway, we read the The Guardian because we are dying to know whether Bush is Hitler, or Bush is Mussolini; and they are the only ones that cover that waterfront 24/7 to our satisfaction. Personally I lean towards Hitler, as old Musso's girlfriend Clara Petacci was a babe and I can't picture George with any babes eating anything bolognese. While we were seeking Bushitlerburton guidance at the Guardian, we came across this nugget. It's industrial strength stupid. I'm talking worthy of enshrinement on the Mount Rushmore of Moronic Observations. It is profoundly dumb, which is hard to do. There's really no point in reading the whole thing. You can if you want, but like many such things, you get the idea of everything that goes throught the mind of such a person from the snippet, which appears to be lonely and pointless trip, and now you can ignore everything else he ever says forevermore.
Continue reading "Industrial Strength Stupid - Britannic Boogaloo"
Fred Thompson on the Democrats this week (h/t, Surber) “It’s like they’re all in training for the NASCAR, you know, nothing but a left turn, just steady as she goes, all the way around.”
 Got any rabid Moonbat relatives?
Man, I do. Our loyal readers are lucky that I got out of there alive. I was close to getting waterboarded, if not tied up and thrown into one of the several roaring fires in the fireplaces (they have four in the antique farmhouse). All I did was to ask three entirely innocent and unprovocative questions in a mild-mannered, friendly fashion: 1. What if Iraq works out well? 2. Have you ever tried to find out where your "recycled" glass ends up? and 3. Who do you want to pay your medical bills for you? Apparently I am an "idiot," "greedy," "in denial" and a "blind Bush-lover." There was no possibility of calm, rational discussion. My fault: I have a couple of glasses of wine and I open my big mouth. I gracefully retired from the field after being asked "Didn't you see Al Gore's movie? Didn't you see the hockey stick graph?" It's almost enough to make a Conservative/Libertarian like me decide to register as a Republican. Every one of these folks is prosperous by statistics (top 1% income, but far higher in assets like investments, home, second houses and land), and expensively over-educated - and each one of them has an envious, brooding, toxic contempt for the presumptively "criminally wealthy." Why do they care about what others do? And why so ungrateful for their freedom to chose their own lives in their own way? Why so bitter? I am the only one who isn't even in the top 25% income category (I am at about the US average, with no assets other than a modest IRA, a $31,000 savings account in a Vanguard bond fund, a half-paid off Ford F-150 at 0% interest, and a powerful server and router rescued from my friend's company's discards. My modest and comfy living quarters, with wood stove, are rented. I do not do debt, and I do not need stuff; I desire no wine cellar and I drink good beer happily at Rudy's Bar and Grill. Yes, I could use a sweetie wife, if I can find a serious keeper to whom to devote myself.) I don't give a damn what other people do or make because I chose my own path in life: I do not covet other peoples' money nor would I ask or expect anyone to pay my bills. I believe that my freedom from government power is my wealth and my inheritance, purchased with the blood of my ancestors and of my fellow countrymen. For that historically rare and remarkable blessing I am fortunate - and profoundly thankful every day - not just on Thanksgiving.
NPR explains why Bush is Hitler. Moonbattery What is a "cargo cult"? h/t, BL More on how they think of us. Dissident Frogman Secular Shakers. As long as these Gaia-worshippers, with a doctrine approximating child-sacrifice, keep this up, they may mercifully remove their genes from the gene pool. An insider's look at the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound. h/t, Growabrain Patri Friedman in a comment to his own post: Lafayette - Democracy everywhere is a farce, in the sense that an individual voter's actions do not matter, and the system as a whole produces many decisions which are detrimental to almost all of its constituents. See the field of economics called "Public Choice Theory" (wikipedia) for a more detailed explanation.
He's a thoughtful guy with all sorts of interests. Going to our Blogroll so we don't forget to keep up with him. If you have been away from the blog for a few day as I have, you might have missed The Barrister's heart-warming Thanksgiving reminiscences. Also worth a look - my link on Weds to The Feminization of Churches/
To Jane  The keen stars were twinkling,
And the fair moon was rising among them,
Dear Jane.
The guitar was tinkling,
But the notes were not sweet till you sung them
Again.
As the moon's soft splendour
O'er the faint cold starlight of Heaven
Is thrown,
So your voice most tender
To the strings without soul had then given
Its own.
The stars will awaken,
Though the moon sleep a full hour later
To-night;
No leaf will be shaken
Whilst the dews of your melody scatter
Delight.
Though the sound overpowers,
Sing again, with your dear voice revealing
A tone
Of some world far from ours,
Where music and moonlight and feeling
Are one.
Shelley was not a typical Maggie's Farm sort of fellow. He was a fan of all of the hip and rebellious ideas of the early 1800s: vegetarianism, free love, atheism, (and anti-monarchism and related radical politics of the time), and he always seemed to be chasing 16 year-old girls.
Friday, November 23. 2007
A re-post from April, 2005:  I keep a pair of cheap Nikon 7X35 compact binocs in the car, just in case I happen to encounter an interesting bird. They work very well as opera glasses, too.
For marine use - not for birding but for looking around - I like a 7X50. Mine are inexpensive but good enough, and with the exposure to salt water and banging, I don't want to worry about them. For more serious birding and nature-watching, I like my Minox rubber-coated 8X32s. Darn good lenses, and you don't want additional magnification for wildlife except in special circumstances. The cool birders who want to spend the money use Swarovskis - but the very best birders I know can ID any bird with any old cheap compact binoculars, unless they are distant, on a beach or prairie. Then a spotting scope is essential. Great source for binocs - Binoculars.com. They also have night-vision optics, spotting scopes, and rifle scopes. Photo: Swarovski 8X42s.
On this lovely mall fall day, we will break our rule and post a comment intact from a reader - BL specifically - below. .  Re the ''left parties" link in the previous post, here are two eye-openers: The first from Tax Prof Blog, a quote: “The 50-state ranking has a decided Red State-Blue State flavor: 28 of the 29 “most generous” states are Red States that voted for President Bush (including all 25 of the “most generous” states), while 17 of the 21 “least generous” states are Blue States that voted for Senator Kerry (including all 7 of the “least generous” states).”
Combine the Tax Prof’s report with this one in the Washington Times, up now on Drudge, and it appears that the left party contains not only the least generous, but also the most wealthiest.
But wait–how can this be? Their policies are sooo generous. Oh, wait, that’s with Other People’s Money.
Four years in prison for quoting scripture. The linked story here. We agree that the Bible conveys a dangerously subversive message. Does government ever work? If not, then why give them more to do? EU Ref Great bathrooms of NYC. Coyote Immigrant sense of entitlement. Powerline. We detest any sense of entitlement in immigrants or in citizens. If you want freedom, apply to come to the US. If you feel entitled to anything other than the gift of freedom, go elsewhere. The Second Amendment case: Big Iguana. You know my opinion: Self-defence is the most fundamental civil right. Why the Left parties are the parties of the rich: Never Yet Melted, Right Thinking, No Left Turns, Surber.
Hey, Happy Holiday Shoppers!  As an aid to your Christmas shopping, Maggie's Farm offers a one-time, time-limited special offering to ease your Christmas hassles: Give all of your friends and beloved relatives a one-year subscription to Maggie's Farm! The price is right! The value of our Blogroll alone is worth the low, low special price we are offering right now, plus we include our super-special and unique content at no additional cost! You don't even have to leave your filthy, beer-can-, pizza-box- and cigar-butt-strewn hovel or double-wide trailer to BUY NOW AND SAVE! This special one-time offer will expire on an undisclosed date, so call now! Or just send all or most of the cash in your wallet or pocketbook to: MF Offshore Management LLC, 11 George Town Rd., Suite 32, Grand Cayman (Attn: Ms. Shirley Bongo). And remember - donations to MF Offshore Management LLC may be fully tax-deductible according to Mozambique law. We all thank you in advance for your generous support!
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mallfall day, we will break our rule and post a comment intact from a reader - BL specifically - below.