Maggie's Farm

How to get an egg into a small bottle. h/t, Grow a Brain

From Dr. Sanity's How Smart are Democrats? Personally, I do not think Democrats are stupid. Often in error about the realities of life, and often not viewing liberty as our most precious inheritance -but not stupid in an IQ sense.

We do like the NY Sun, but for the news a fellow really needs at 4:30 am before milking the cows and feeding the chickens, The Daily Mash is it.

For example, they explain why the French rogue trader really did what he did, and where he hid his losses. And they have another helpful sociological piece on The 40-somethings are a bunch of whining sh-ts.

Welcome, Daily Mash, to our blogroll. (h/t, Conspiracy)

At $5.39/lb at Costco, their Dubliner Irish Cheese is the best cheddar-type cheese I have ever had. It is a great cheese, and I don't even like cheddar (I prefer the stronger cheeses). This one has a strong flavor (tangy, very sharp, with a touch of sweetness), a graininess similar to Parmesan, and it is hard - unlike those rubbery and bland American cheddars which look, feel and taste like processed cheese and are only good for melting on top of a cheeseburger.

Thus far, the Bird Dog clan has found it to be excellent eaten plain, on a cracker or baguette, in scrambled eggs, with slices of apples and pears, with cabernet and port, and in a cheese omelet.

Worth a trip to Costco just for that Dubliner cheese. (Speaking of Costco, we will someday offer a free Maggie's Farm t-shirt to the first person in history who can prove that they walked down every aisle and still got out of Costco without spending over $350.)

h/t, Theo, who continues to be a good finder of cool stuff.

Boris Berezovsky with 12 Transcendental Studies by Franz Liszt, Here are 1-3. The rest of them at Classical Virtuoso.

Many have commented on Kay Hymowitz' interesting but not overly-deep report in City Journal about the young single men of America - Child-Man in the Promised Land.  A quote:

Now meet the twenty-first-century you, also 26. You’ve finished college and work in a cubicle in a large Chicago financial-services firm. You live in an apartment with a few single guy friends. In your spare time, you play basketball with your buddies, download the latest indie songs from iTunes, have some fun with the Xbox 360, take a leisurely shower, massage some product into your hair and face—and then it’s off to bars and parties, where you meet, and often bed, girls of widely varied hues and sizes. They come from everywhere: California, Tokyo, Alaska, Australia. Wife? Kids? House? Are you kidding?

Not so long ago, the average mid-twentysomething had achieved most of adulthood’s milestones—high school degree, financial independence, marriage, and children. These days, he lingers—happily—in a new hybrid state of semi-hormonal adolescence and responsible self-reliance. Decades in unfolding, this limbo may not seem like news to many, but in fact it is to the early twenty-first century what adolescence was to the early twentieth: a momentous sociological development of profound economic and cultural import. Some call this new period “emerging adulthood,” others “extended adolescence”...

Of course it is a sort of extended adolescence - or at least of relative freedom from some of the big burdens of life. Shrinkwrapped finds the information to be as gloomy as does Hymowitz, but I am not so sure it really is. Our pediatrician used to say about our kids, "Don't worry. I can guarantee they will be out of diapers by age 18."

From a piece of the above name by Zinser and Hsieh in The Objective Standard:

Politicians from across the political spectrum, including Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Mitt Romney, have argued that the government should guarantee “universal coverage” to all Americans, making health care a “right.”9 And politicians are not alone; numerous businessmen, union leaders, and insurance executives are united in saying that this will solve our problems.10

It will not.

Contrary to claims that government-imposed “universal health care” would solve America’s health care problems, it would in fact destroy American medicine and countless lives along with it. The goal of “universal health care” (a euphemism for socialized medicine) is both immoral and impractical; it violates the rights of businessmen, doctors, and patients to act on their own judgment—which, in turn, throttles their ability to produce, administer, or purchase the goods and services in question. To show this, we will first examine the nature and history of government involvement in health insurance and medicine. Then we will consider attempts in other countries and various U.S. states to solve these problems through further government programs. Finally, we will show that the only viable long-term solution to the problems in question is to convert to a fully free market in health care and health insurance.

Read the whole thing. It's basically a thoughtful argument against socialist "solutions" to things in general.

42% of American dogs sleep on their owners' bed. Laura Ingraham says so. Hers does (a rescued dog), and mine does too, even though I think it's a bad habit and it's annoying as heck when you can't move your feet around freely.

He will choose you, disarm you with his words, and control you with his presence. He will delight you with his wit and his plans. He will show you a good time, but you will always get the bill. He will smile and deceive you, and he will scare you with his eyes. And when he is through with you, and he will be through with you, he will desert you and take with him your innocence and your pride. You will be left much sadder but not a lot wiser, and for a long time you will wonder what happened and what you did wrong. And his kind comes knocking at your door, will you open it? From an essay signed, "A psychopath in prison." Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of Psychopaths Among Us. -Dr. Hare

That is from a page which also lists Dr. Hare's checklist of Sociopathic traits. (h/t, reader H, in reference to yesterday's Clinton post.)

You don't need all of those items to be a sociopath - each one is a trait, and a warning sign.

Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART

Very cool. Theo found it: