Maggie's Farm

People are talking about the new Brit socialist/communist blog, Liberal Conspiracy. It is remarkable to me that, with so many years of Labour power and their disheartening, intrusive programs, that there are still people in the UK who want more government in their lives.

Our thoughtful friend Chris at Stumbling and Mumbling, with whom we generally disagree, discusses the two types of "Positive Liberty," which are at odds with the "Classical Liberalism" which we stand for here. A quote:

But there’s a second type of positive freedom... It’s that people must be empowered to control their lives - they must have real liberty, as well as formal liberty.
This means, for example, greater direct democracy in local and national government, worker control and a no-strings-attached basic income.

Heck, I want a free Lamborghini.

But thus does the "new," FDR-era definition of "liberty" become an infantile and spineless serfdom to a supposedly benevolent, but ultimately psychotically power-hungry State. It always works that way, human nature being the dark thing that it is. But I guess I would be OK with a Philosopher-King - as long as it's me, and not you - because I seek no power over anybody except my dogs.

What's the point of all of this in prosperous, middle-class countries which are full of opportunities for anyone who wants to reach for them... assuming they are not either dysfunctional, or the fortunate people who are motivated by the good things in life above and beyond material gain, and choices which cost money like recreation, entertainment, education, and special comforts and pleasures? God bless 'em, but I am not one of them (mostly) because there are too many things I'd lke to do which have costs attached. Like another ten days in Tuscany or Turkey or Scotland. My basic human dignity will not permit me to take things from others: it's degrading and leads to shame and shame's companion - bitterness, rather than the pride in finding your own path through life. A path illuminated by your own conscience, abilities, gifts, judgement, resourcefulness, hopes and dreams.

In my view, "positive liberty" represents, or necessitates, a form of totalitarianism (whether democratic in origin or not), and "classical liberalism" is far more than a pretty abstraction.

Has the dream ended? Are people in the West exhausted by fighting for freedom from the State, and resigning themselves to an ignoble "Gimme" attitude? I hope not, but sometimes I wonder.

Photo: Our Massachusetts Minuteman, who was not fighting the Brits for a free lunch, but for autonomy and self-determination, freedom from the State and its power and its oppressive taxation at gunpoint.

Today, says Theo. (Expressive language NSFW in most places, but bravo to his sentiments.) His website here.

There has been a change in the policy on policies, and therefore all the policies have had to be rewritten in order to be in compliance with the new policies policy.

A compliance officer at a large investment bank, during a compulsory compliance training seminar this week.

(All of above borrowed from Samizdata.)

Roger Kimball. What took us so long? He is in our Pantheon of Essayists.

Here's a list of his books.

Here's his Wikipedia entry. He is not an amateur thinker.

We posted on Theodore Dalrymple's new book today. As many know, Dalrymple, whose real name is Anthony Daniels, M.D., is a retired Brit prison psychiatrist.

Here is a list of his books. If anybody can find a photo of him, let me know. I can't.

Thanks Opie - that was quick! A pleasant, benevolent-looking fellow with a pack of smokes in his shirt pocket.

And thanks to Mr. Vanderleun for another photo, and a bio, here.

The Dancing Lady is a fine optical illusion: she moves both clockwise and counterclockwise, depending on how your brain views her.

Blink once or twice, and you can change her direction. However, most people have an innate tendency to see her moving in one or the other.

People's Cube uses this image as the basis for a discussion about the subjectivity of perception.

Unfiltered, unprocessed perception isn't truth, but we already know that.

h/t, Tim Blair

In the pomo world anything is better than Christmas, and Saturnalia was much more fun - no rules - a festival of disinhibition like Mardi Gras or Bacchanalia.

So if we must have a Winter Solstice holiday, let's get rid of this "offensive-to-many" Jesus stuff and reach back to the Romans, before the church fathers got rid of all the pagan fun and replaced it with a Christ's Birthday Holy Day. Fort Collins, CO surely agrees.

Sorry - no room at that inn anymore.

That is of course, a too-skinny Callas, with her weakened and beaten-up voice at the end of her career - but who wants to judge Callas?

Having seen the rarely-performed 1917 comic opera Gianni Schicchi for the first time yesterday, I can finally put Mio babbino caro into full context. As the Bird Dog daughter said yesterday, "It's not even an aria. It's too short, and there is no refrain. It's just sung lines. Should be longer."

In the plot, Gianni (we call him "Johnny"), the crafty lawyer, manages to create a fake will for a wealthy Florentine family friend giving everything to himself, thus providing his daughter with a sufficent dowry to marry the aristocratic boy she loves. Gianni, in Dante's Inferno, can be found in the 9th circle of hell - yet there was redemption in love: her little song was what persuaded her dad cross the line. What dad could not be similarly moved?

A propos the link this morning about lying about infant mortality (but also a propos everything else) we urge all readers and all Americans to read Darrell Huff's classic How to Lie with Statistics.

You do not need to be a math whiz to understand it, but if you don't know this basic stuff, you will be easily duped. Duped expecially by the MSM, which is not only biased in data presentation but is also widely ignorant about the most basic statistics.

In the link we mentioned above, the report was making an "apples and oranges error", known as a "Category Error."  It's the same error involved in the report that showed the world's best cancer center, Sloan-Kettering Memorial in NYC, as having the worst mortality rates of American hospitals. Data can be technically accurate, yet meaningless. Similarly, the most talented docs often have the lowest success rates because they take on the toughest cases.

Money manager acquaintances have told me how they make their numbers look good: they select their best time frame to present, and they decide whether to include or exclude new money added during that time frame. That is a fallacy known as selection bias. A good example at the bottom here: how different would the impression be if you just charted June to November?

Speaking of money managers, I have also enjoyed Jones' How to Lie with Charts and Graphs. Fun to peruse.

From It Takes a Church last year:

God of the ages,
We thank You for all who have served in the armed forces of this country.
We thank You for the freedom their sacrifice has earned and guarded for us. Help us to prize this freedom and use it well.
We ask You to bless all living veterans in a special way today, as well as the families of all veterans.
Comfort those who grieve for those who gave the last full measure of devotion.
Strengthen those who bear physical, emotional, and spiritual wounds.
Stand with those who provide care to them.
Move us to reach out to sisters and brothers who are veterans, or relatives of veterans, or who currently serve in the military.
We pray for the day when no one needs to serve in the military. Help us to live now in anticipation of that day, as people who long for peace, who pray for peace, and who seek to be peacemakers in this world.