Wednesday, December 5. 2007
 "Uppity nigger" Obama upsets Clintonistas badly. Honestly, the attitude of the Dems towards black Americans does remind me of the segregation days. They are not supposed to wander off the plantation or to make any trouble for Massa.
Portland ME ties 1890 snows. Globalistical Warmening causes weather, dontcha know. We didn't used to have any weather before this warmening crisis. Don't blame me. Blame my credit card. Controlled drinking? LaShawn Enviros oppose wind farms. For the wrong reasons, though. I think wind is stupid because we could easily meet all of our electrical needs with cheap nuke power, with zero environmental impact. The CSM is already blaming world events on global warming, when global warming hasn't happened yet, to a meaningful degree. It's a theoretical prediction, but that is obviously news to our "objective" reporters at the CSM. Bacon comes from rocks? I wish. Washing your car is immoral. Glad to hear it. I hate doing it. If I can now be moral instead of lazy by not doing it, groovy. Polls, shmolls. Rasmussen. Obama: People do not like Hillary Clinton. Duh. Who is your turtle? Evang. Outpost Image: Thanks, BL. More suitable for Halloween, however.
Freud and the Imagining of Utopia. NY Sun. Comments later, maybe, from Dr. B.
 (Lord’s day). Lay long in bed, and then up and to my office, there to dispatch a business in order to the getting something out of the Tangier business, wherein I have an opportunity to get myself paid upon the score of freight. I hope a good sum. At noon home to dinner, and then in the afternoon to church. So home, and by and by comes Mr. Hill and Andrews, and sung together long and with great content. Then to supper and broke up. Pretty discourse, very pleasant and ingenious, and so to my office a little, and then home (after prayers) to bed. This day I hear the Duke of Yorke is come to towne, though expected last night, as I observed, but by what hindrance stopped I can’t tell.
We follow Samuel Pepy's Diary regularly. It is delicious. He would have been a star blogger, like Tom Paine.
Where is Willow Creek, and where are we? Here.
We did not give our Grand Blog Photo Prize to Dr. X for no reason: 
 I haven't seen an Orange Julius shop in many years, but they are still in business. There used to be one on the corner of 110th St. and Broadway. You could get a hot dog and a delicious Orange Julius with its mysterious ingredients including fresh-squeezed OJ.
Maybe they were the original juice bar. The company is now owned by Dairy Queen, another maker of tasty treats - and you all know who owns Dairy Queen - Berkshire Hathaway of course. Warren Buffet is no dummy.
 Seattle parish introduces astrology. It's marketing. Groovy, far out, dude.
Curtis Sliwa wants to get involved in NY politics. Nobody knows the city as well as Curtis does. Doesn't it feel good to "make a difference"? Sanctimonious goofballs. Bali, from Seattlepi (via Drudge) The U.N. estimates 47,000 tons of carbon dioxide and other pollutants will be pumped into the atmosphere during the 12-day conference in Bali, mostly from plane flights but also from waste and electricity used by hotel air conditioners. If correct, Goodall said, that is equivalent to what a Western city of 1.5 million people, such as Marseilles, France, would emit in a day.
And we are supposed to think they take this seriously? From a Brit blogger via Mr. Free Market: I SOLEMNLY SWEAR THAT UNTIL THE PISTOL BAN IS REPEALED I WILL BUY, MANUFACTURE OR OTHERWISE LEGITIMATELY ACQUIRE AT LEAST ONE GUN OF SOME DESCRIPTION EVERY SINGLE YEAR, NO MATTER WHAT MY FINANCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES. Not that I will not break any laws but I will do my best to be as politically-incorrect and individualistic as possible at all times. This is the non-violent, gentle revenge of a freedom writer. Who's with me?
From a piece on climate hysteria at EU Referendum: 
Cartoon from Siggy. More Santa cartoons there.
34 days out (4736 miles) - Lat 1.40" S Long 29.50 W June 5th We are enjoying the lovely climate of the S.E. Trades. The atmosphere is perfectly fine and the air cool and bracing. The sky is of a most lovely blue and at Sunset the clouds assumed colors which I have never seen but in these latitudes. "Parting day / Dies like the Dolphin, whom each pang imbues / With a new color as it gasps away / The last still loveliest till - 'tis gone - and all is grey."
We educated people better in 1843 in one-room schoolhouses with wood stoves than we do now. Read the (literate) whole thing.
Leftoid authoritarians think they are smarter and kinder than me, which entitles them to tell me how to do my life. Obviously, they have never met me. The Barrister of Maggie's Farm, in a recent conversation
Tuesday, December 4. 2007
Dalrymple, in New English Review. It begins: Quite often one reads that such-and-such a country - the Congo, for example - is impoverished in spite of its abundant natural resources. The tone is usually pained and a little surprised; the writer seems to think that natural resources ought to develop themselves and benefit populations without human intervention, by jumping out of the ground and distributing themselves equitably, for example.
Read the whole thing.
 Adios to our blog pal Oxford Medievalist
More on killer robots. As the guys in Programmed Trading say, "It's our machine against their machine." Hitchens on An Anglosphere Future. That's my vision too. Lots about Conan Doyle. The Second Annual Worst Quotes from Daily Kos. Good grief. Abortions are associated with breast cancer. Time for the Baby Boomers to apologize to America. I do, right now. Hugo's next move: Kill the Media. "Elite" college admissions: Prof Deneen speaks Major Dem fundraiser Hsu indicted by Feds. A sad story of a motor-voter. Jim Miller Since when is being a hot babe a crime? When I was young, these sorts of wonderful gals were all over the place. Good wholesome fun. Bill jumps in when Hillary is in trouble. That's their deal, but it doesn't make her look good. And speaking of the Clintons, from Lewis at American Thinker: Falling in love with politicians is something of a liberal habit from JFK to Bill Clinton. If you're liberal, you don't vote for a politician but a Savior. It is not how conservatives think, but the enraptured Left keeps doing it. It's kind of like picking a puppy in the window. Somehow Hillary no longer inspires that unfeigned devotion -- or at least, now there is competition to be the love object of the liberal masses.
From a piece by Romano in Newsweek. Hillary's Idea of Fun: At a news conference Sunday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a reporter asked Clinton if Barack Obama has a "character problem." Her response, as reported by Pat Healy of the New York Times? "It’s beginning to look a lot like that," she said. "I have said for months that I would much rather be attacking Republicans and attacking problems of our country because ultimately that’s what I want to do as president. But I have been for months on the receiving end of rather consistent attacks – well now the fun part starts.” According to Healy, she "punctuat[ed] the word 'fun.'"
She is a harridan.
This wonderful. It will make you hope you never arrive at your destination, in your car: The History of Ancient Rome. It was not all that long ago, and not much has changed in the world, except on the surface. Prof. Fagan is spellbinding.
 A Happy Hannukah to our Jewish readers. (FYI: How to spell Hannukah and other info re this holiday)
I don't know why he included the bit about tomato sauce, but his list of Thanksgiving myths is good. If abortion is murder, who should be punished - and how? Reisman I do not want to vote for people with charisma. Asst. Village Idiot Yale thinks they need more diversity programs. Sheesh. Educated fools? John Leo, via Insty Another reason American medical care is expensive: too many CAT scans. But why? Dr. Bob. The next time your Doc suggests a test, ask him or her whether it's a pure CYA for the malpractice lawyers, or truly necessary. They will tell you. You can refuse to do it. Time for a PC re-write of God Save the Queen. Of course. One must distort your precious and time-honored culture the immigrants want come to, to...please them? Wha? If they don't want to join the culture, why do they come? Just for the money? If so, and they don't want to get on board with the culture, then the hell with them. Offending people is bad manners, but Free Speech. Betsy. Offend at will, if you wish. So much for Iraq as a big campaign issue. We told ya so, last winter. Nobody was asleep at the switch in the White House.  How the Brit Nanny State thinks (and lies) to their "children" adult citizens, from Devil's Advocate:
I have come to the conclusion that the only way to get through modern life is to assume that everything we are told by any public body is either wrong or a lie. Take the ‘safe drinking’ recommendations that have been in place for many years – 21 units a week for men, 14 for women – but are now deemed to be too high.
Writing in the Daily Mail this week, Michael Hanlon describes how he interviewed an eminent cardiologist who had been involved with drawing up the alcohol guidelines: “He said ‘Well, most of us thought that for most men, say, a bottle of wine a day wouldn't do any harm. But that seemed excessive, so we cut it down to 40 units a week. That meant we were saying that it was OK for men to drink two or three pints a night. Medically, that may have been so, but that would be sending out the wrong message in terms of drinking and driving. So we halved it.’”
So there you go. Completely arbitrary and based more on what the Powers That Be think the public might accept rather than on any medical reasoning. And these are the old figures, not the ones blamed this week for an alleged epidemic of liver disease as the Nanny State - as I always said it would - redeploys its Smoke Police against the demon drink.
Cheers. Mine’s a double.
Quoted from Crime, Drugs, Welfare - and other good news by Wehner and Levin in Commentary: As for the social reality underlying this general feeling of decline, a number of conservative commentators, concentrating especially on the areas of crime, welfare dependency, and illegitimacy, undertook the task of quantifying and analyzing the available evidence. The most notable such effort was by William J. Bennett, who in March 1993 released a report entitled The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators. Over the course of the preceding three decades, Bennett wrote, the United States had indeed experienced “substantial social regression.” About this, the data were unequivocal. Since 1960, there had been a more than 500-percent increase in violent crime; a more than 400-percent increase in out-of-wedlock births; almost a tripling in the percentage of children on welfare; a tripling of the teenage suicide rate; a doubling of the divorce rate; and a decline of more than 70 points in SAT scores. To Bennett, the conclusion was inescapable: “the forces of social decomposition [in America] are challenging—and in some instances overtaking—the forces of social composition.”
Just when cultural decay seemed hopeless, these things began to change. They conclude: Culture itself, finally, exhibits an ebb and flow as surely as economies pass through cycles of ups and downs. In The Great Disruption (1999), Francis Fukuyama cited historical examples of societies undergoing periods of moral decline followed by periods of moral recovery. In our case, too, he argued, the aftermath of the cultural breakdown of the 1960’s had already triggered and was now giving way to a reassessment and recovery of social and moral norms. Such “re-norming” will not occur in every social class all at once; in some instances it may take hold in one stratum but not in another. That is partial progress, but progress nevertheless. Despite persistent anomalies and backslidings, some species of cultural re-norming certainly seems to have been occurring in this country over the past decade-and-a-half, and it is fascinating to observe in whose hearts its effects have registered most strongly. In attitudes toward education, drugs, abortion, religion, marriage, and divorce, the current generation of teenagers and young adults appears in many respects to be more culturally conservative than its immediate predecessors. To any who may have written off American society as incorrigibly corrupt and adrift, these young people offer a powerful reminder of the boundless inner resources still at our disposal, and of our constantly surprising national resilience.
Monday, December 3. 2007
 I am heading off hunting early tomorrow morning, but wanted to leave our readers with a few good links before I leave. Related:
A quite extraordinary thing happened to me on Wednesday. I was out shooting with a few friends and we were walking from one field to the next down a country lane when a battered old Citroen screeched to a halt, the window was wound down and a young hippyish woman stuck her head out and shouted “Murderer” at me.
Read the whole thing at Devil's Advocate. I need to keep an eye on Barry Beelzebub. Mummified dino shows its stripes.  “Is the AP going to be charged with an in-kind contribution to the Clinton Campaign?” Rick Moran
Sarko is wrong about at least one thing. Who in the world is impressed by French policing? Harry Reid: Iraq is getting worse. CNN is the Corrupt News Network. LA Times. Kinda like the BBC. Let us not be timid in the face of bullying. David Warren Vote for the white guy! The hamlet of Narvik lost money speculating in subprimes! Great moments in progressive taxation. Coyote A fine gardening site. Garden Web. h/t, MouseNaround Photos: The 20 ga. I am bringing for grouse tomorrow. It's an old Abercrombie and Fitch. Well-banged-up, but shoots straight. Below, a happy Tuesday Morning tottie from Theo who is not coming with me, I am sorry to say.
A caveat: This is the sort of piece that I am always reluctant to write. I write this as a favor to our Editor but, in general, I am a skeptic about making any depth psychological speculations about groups of people, or about anyone I do not know in depth. It is all too easy to say that anyone who disagrees with me about something is either crazy or stupid, and that is not the respectful American way - nor is it necessarily accurate either. What are we to make of this report from Gallup? Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats or independents to rate their mental health as excellent, according to data from the last four November Gallup Health and Healthcare polls. Fifty-eight percent of Republicans report having excellent mental health, compared to 43% of independents and 38% of Democrats. This relationship between party identification and reports of excellent mental health persists even within categories of income, age, gender, church attendance, and education.
Dems see themselves as more mentally/emotionally impaired. (In an egregious logical error (cum hoc ergo propter hoc), the article suggests an independent causal relationship wherein party identification effects emotional well-being.) Although I have no idea about whether a self-report of "mental health" has any validity at all, I would speculate that Republicans, statistically, with the Conservative and Libertarian flavorings of many Republicans, may tend to be more optimistic, hopeful, self-reliant, and to feel less needy and to feel less deprived. In other words, happier and probably better-adjusted people. That is pure speculation, but it matches my personal experience that Lefies tend to be more bitter and dissatisfied - also with no relationship to income, education, church-going or age. Externalization is a dangerous defence mechanism. It distorts reality by permitting a person to imagine that happiness and peace of mind - and likewise unhappiness - are usually generated externally rather than from within. Also, as I have mentioned in the past, I see a difference in the "transference" towards government between Conservatives and others. I think that those who are more prone to unconscious parental transferences are more likely to turn to, rely upon, and to trust or hope to trust, the State. Am eagerness for childlike transferences in adulthood is not a predictor of emotional well-being. Conservative-Libertarian types like me, I think, tend to view the people involved in politics and the State as being at least if not more venal, self-serving, corrupt, egotistical, foolish and ineffective as other areas of human endeavor like business, academia, non-profits, etc. I like to think that this view has been arrived at through a lifetime of experience, a lifetime's interest in history and public affairs, and repeated (very educational) disappointments and disillusionments during my foolishly naive, idealistic, Liberal youth. Experience and psychoanalytic training powerfully introduced me to the dark side of human nature - against my will. Yes, mine is the old story: mugged by reality. Literally mugged too, once, by a couple of barbarians with a handgun, in Boston. Alas, I was innocent and unarmed at the time, and therefore unable to give them a little toxic-lead lesson about my view of reality and of citizenship. "I gave at the office, pal." Boom!
 I am listening to Imus this morning on his debut on WABC. He is talking about the Rutgers thing in a wonderful, serious, and personal way. He is talking about his alcoholism and drug addiction. He says "Things worked out the way they should have worked out." He says the experience changed him for the better. "You can waste a lot of your life being bitter and unforgiving." Final bit of his monologue: "Dick Cheney is still a war criminal, Hillary Clinton is still Satan, and I'm back on the radio." He has Levon Helm playing on the set with Larry Campbell. Just terrific to hear Levon shoutin' it out. And no, I am not a big Imus fan, but I thought I would give him a chance this morning.
A big NO for Chavez. That is great news for the Venezuelans. But, like the EU constitution, he'll find another way. "The things America spends money on." Auster Teddy Bears, Parked Cars, and Moral Equivalence. Powerline Dr X responds to the NYT piece on Psychoanalysis Behead the enemies of Steyn! Dr. Sanity Zimbabwe ringtones. h/t, Theo
 I mentioned The Fear of a Blue Planet yesterday morning. In a piece titled Clear as Mud, Crittenden reminds us of a Hillary Clinton quote:
“We can talk all we want about freedom and opportunity, about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but what does all that mean to a mother or father who can’t take a sick child to the doctor?”
He comments: Well, okay, what does “all that” mean to someone stuck in congested traffic? Or annoyed by the price of cable television? What does Mrs. Clinton mean?
I do not find her quote to be ambiguous. It's plain as day. I believe that she is saying that "liberty and opportunity" are obsolete. Show me one sick child in America who is denied medical care, but, before you begin looking, I will warn you that you will not find one. (Me? I just want free legal care when I get my DUI. And free gas, please, for my truck - and would you throw in free car insurance, please?) How does her view differ from that of Lenin or of Chavez? My point is that if the ends justify the means, then any unmet human want or desire or personal responsibility can be used to rationalize the whittling away of freedom, American values, and the American way of life. And in whose hands does that power end up? In the hands of politicians - the last people in the world one would want in charge of your personal life. We should not re-design the government for those few who have big trouble in life. We should just charitably arrange to take care of them, but not sacrifice our ideals to do so. Charity is good. Government power is not, because government is populated largely by arrogant, ego-driven, power-oriented folks with minimal experience in the real world, and who know more about DC restaurants than they know about folks like me who want nothing from them except to be left alone. Give me American freedom, and let me take my own chances and live by my own choices, wits, and my own luck, and let me deal with my own difficulties without government interference or "help". I am an adult. As readers know, my view is that life in America is meant to be difficult and challenging (while full of opportunity to find one's own path, and with abundant charity from people and from government to protect those who stumble), because that is the price we pay for freedom. Serfdom is secure but soul- and spirit-stifling, whether the Lord of the Manor is the King of France, the Duke of York, a bureaucracy in Brussels or Moscow, a plantation owner, or the US government. A weak government is a good government. I believe that the once-worthy Dems (eg JFK) have been entirely captured by the "deep swimmers of the Left", as Horowitz terms them - abetted by the guilty or noblesse-oblige-oriented ultra-wealthy.
Sunday, December 2. 2007
This unusual Japanese-styled bungalow comes from the Highlands neighborhood of Birmingham, AL. I have seen a few foursquare houses with roofs designed in a vaguely oriental style in Nashville, but no bungalows with anything close to this level of Asian influence. Surprisingly, the Japanese styling is a good fit for the quintessentially American bungalow, which shares the traditional Japanese emphasis on asymmetry, overhanging eaves, and exposed beams and rafters. 
 Prepare ye the way for the Lord! Advent is back. It always seems to come at exactly the right time, when I need it most.
For me, Advent is the Joy Time, and Lent is the Serious Time. (Easter is its own thing entirely, usually culminating in an excessive brunch with wine after church, followed by a decadent nap due to an infusion of carbs rather than an infusion of the Holy Spirit). Many of us at Maggie's Farm measure the beat of our inner lives more by the church cycle than anything else. Hunting season is great, fireplace-and-book season is fine, boating season is great, trout season is wonderful, but Advent, like Lent, takes me out of The Circle Game and into another world. (However, we are not so pure and holy here that we do not dig Santa and gifts and all that. We love Santa, and utterly believe in him. We dig pagan Christmas trees, too.) Advent, as I experience it, is an annual month-long pregnancy: a chance to deliberately contain and nurture the growth of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of Christ, in our hearts. That's the miraculous and mysterious possibility, and every year it is different because we are different and our faith and knowledge are different. Advent is holy, but Christmas is just for fun. When I was a kid, our Congregational Church had Christmas morning service. That was a good way to begin the day: celebrating a birth is a wonderful thing in itself, but celebrating a holy birth on a frigid snowy morning, with the scent of pine everywhere, and cheery people in overcoats shouting Merry Christmas! across the lawn or parking lot is exhilarating. My church does the usual Christmas Eve candlelight service, which is perfect, which always brings tears, and which I hate to leave, but I could use a Christmas morning service too before the eggnog, feast, and festivities. Preachers tell me that nobody will show up on Christmas morning anymore. Photo: Out my window today. Black niger seed on the left, seed mix with cracked corn on the right. The tray is not only for the ground birds like the Juncos and doves - it's also to prevent too much seed from falling on the ground and attracting rats. If you have a rat problem, feel free to steal my design. The tray is a Home Depot window screen stuck into a wood frame I cobbled together.
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