Thursday, July 10. 2008
20 years ago you would be hard put to find any Striped Bass up here. The return of the Stripers is a fish conservation success story, which involved cleaning up the Atlantic estuaries in which they breed (especially the Chesapeake area, and the Hudson River) and banning commercial fishing for them. One positive result: Farming bass. Some of our pals went fishin' a week ago with Captain Bruce out of New London, CT: 
Wednesday, July 9. 2008
 Warming crisis continues, despite absence of global warming. Related: Texas environmentalists urge solar electric chair (h/t,NE Repub)
What's the NEA's political agenda this year? Obama loves to lecture us rubes. Now it's about languages. How many does he speak? (I speak Polish - thanks to a Grandma - plus German, and French. No Spanish.) Iran rattling its little sabers. What a joke. Who pays all of the taxes, at Powerline. Quote: ...for the first time in decades, and perhaps ever, the richest 1% of tax filers will have paid more than 40% of the income tax burden. The top 50% will account for 97% of all federal income taxes, while the bottom 50% will have paid just 3%."
also, Given that poorer citizens always outnumber the rich, political philosophers have worried that government based on majority rule could lead to organized theft from the wealthy by the democratic masses. "If the majority distributes among itself the things of a minority, it is evident that it will destroy the city," warned Aristotle.
Can't Kerry it off. Surber Feinstein wants to limit congressional speech. WTH? Related insanity: More on the DNC's food Nazis. This reminds me to smoke some pork butt this Friday, for the weekend. Is the Left conservative? Quoted at Driscoll: Every mill that shuts down is a "sign of our sad times." No matter that the new mill will do things better, faster and cheaper than the old one. New farming techniques grow more food on less land. But dammit, if there wasn't something romantic about the old-stye "family farm" that's deserving of government protection. Innovation isn't celebrated, it's excoriated for displacing some idealized vision of the way things once were. In matters of progress and dyanmism, the left is far more conservative than the conservatives are.
With the end of humankind (and of our beloved planet itself) rapidly approaching unless we do something immediately if not sooner, Maggie's Farm has decided to quit talking about the crisis and to start acting. We are taking action in ways that go beyond the virtuous posturing and tokenism (we call it "Lightbulbing") that we see on other websites. Here are the things we are doing to make a difference: 1. As of today, we have discontinued the popular print edition of Maggie's Farm. Henceforth, Maggie's will only be available online. (If you are reading this in our final print edition, double-click here on the page with your index finger.) This change will save countless acres of pristine virgin forests and and eliminate CO2 production from our fleet of gas-guzzling delivery vehicles, such as this one: 
2. See our site's background color? It's a new shade of Green. This will inspire all of our readers to Go Green! Let's start a trend for other sites to switch to an Earth-Friendly Green! 3. We are going nuclear. Because of the new availability of yellowcake uranium from Saddam's stash, we are in the process of installing a small, air-cooled homemade reactor in the basement to provide all our our power needs. If it works, we'll soon be off the grid! 
4. Trees are a major source of CO2 pollution. Therefore we will invite loggers to clear-cut another 30 acres of the farm's property, converting it to fields on which we will grow corn for Ethanol. I see $$$ in going green this way. Your tax dollars by the bushel, flowing to Maggie's Farm! Money is Green! 
5. International travel, with its polluting airplanes and ships, is a big problem (except for those necessary trips by people spreading the word about global catastrophe). We are determined that, in the future, any second international recreational trip we take in one year will be by sail: 
6. "Cork me." Cow farts are a major threat to the planet with their warmening gasses. Our patented and trademarked "CowCork" wil be used on our entire herd of cattle. 
7. Farm nudity. We have decided to go nude on the farm this summer. This both strikes a blow against Big Clothing corporations and their exploitative sweatshops and their extortionist prices, while reducing the fossil fuel consumption required in clothing production and transportation. Take Off Those Overalls and Save the Earth! 
8. Green beer. It's not just for St. Patrick's Day anymore. We will commit to drinking green beer daily, if not hourly. 
9. Clean vehicle fuel. Because we have heard so much about how engines can run on water (a fact which a conspiracy between Bush-Cheney and Big Oil is concealing from us), all of our trucks and tractors will be run on water - beginning today. Water is a cheap, clean-burning fuel, and there is lots of it out there going to waste, monotonously and pointlessly lapping against the shore. Fill 'er up! 
 A report on the recently-discovered Chauvet cave in France, and its art. New Yorker
Obama playing the voters for dupes. Lowry Extrapolating from a single data point. Climate Skeptic American cost of living, in perspective. SDA Bush: buffoon or great leader? Is Socialized medicine a done deal in the US? Barack Obama woos Hispanic vote with promise of citizenship for 12m illegal migrants. Free Republic Canada: an example to the world? Insty Toon courtesy of Theo
Getting there is half the fun. We decided to go to see the famous 20th century botanical gardens of Villa Taranto the hard way, hiking overland and up over the hill on the peninsula from the Pallanza ferry dock. As it turned out, our map wasn't as clear as it could have been, and it took us about two hours but, in the process, we stumbled onto some neat stuff. Thus there is a strong case to be made for leaving the beaten path when travelling, and letting yourself get a bit lost. Maybe that applies to life in general. For example, we found this 1000 year-old church on a dead-end, on top of the hill overlooking Pallanza. I wrote the name down, but cannot find that scrap of paper. 
More photos of this hike on continuation page:
Continue reading "Our hike from the Pallanza dock to Villa Taranto"
Tuesday, July 8. 2008
“Religion is more needed in democratic republics than in any others. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people who are their own masters if they are not submissive to the Deity?" Alexis de Tocqueville
Who is Obama? TigerHawk. I tend to think that he is a Marxist with a Left-Liberal facade, but you cannot get elected as a Marxist.
 Rooting out racist toddlers. Atlas. Racism in toddlers includes saying "Yuk" to ethnic foods. Photo: Eyeball Soup, an ethnic dish. Yuk.
Now Iraq feels ready for a timetable. Great. More on free speech and "media reform." Am Thinker AP: Everything is terrible. We need Obamamessiah. Then everything will be just fine. How economic liberty produces personal fulfillment. Reason The sky is falling! Everybody panic! Pajamas What's Mayor Mike gonna do? Merrill wants to sell $6 billion of Bloomberg stock. The "Constitution in Exile" vs. the Leftist view. Villainous
Here's the video of the largest reenlistment ceremony in US military history. July 4, in Baghdad:
The story of amphetamines since their discovery to their current enormously popular use - including in the military. From Life in the Fast Lane, in Chronicle of Higher Ed.: The war bolstered the confluence of medical and commercial interests that made amphetamine the first antidepressant. The British and American forces adopted speed because it made soldiers more confident, despite authorities' knowing that by 1941 the German military had sharply curtailed its use of methamphetamine (a slight variant of the drug) because of its addictive qualities. The Allies administered the drug as a morale booster, notwithstanding a charade that the drug counteracted fatigue better than caffeine (two years of testing actually found amphetamine no more effective). The drug helped win bloody, pivotal battles such as El Alamein and Tarawa. But the military's embrace of speed had serious side effects. An entire generation of young men had been turned on to the new pharmaceutical. There is evidence that the sanctioned use of amphetamines promoted drug abuse not only in the service but presumably after the war, too. That pattern repeated itself during the Vietnam War, when the military again distributed enormous quantities of amphetamine to American troops.
Speed is powerful stuff. Read the whole thing.
Monday, July 7. 2008
 On Friday morning, the Fourth of July, we hustled the baby of the Bird Dog litter, age 16, down to JFK for her flight to Heathrow. This young world traveller is going on her third solo European trip, this time to study in an advanced Shakearean acting course at Oxford. Acting in, and digging into the classics is her passion.
She's a lucky gal to be blessed with a passion like that. Her video auditions for the program impressed even me - as did her admission essays. There are those moments when you look wonderingly at a kid of yours and you think "How the heck did I produce that?!?!" Of course, you didn't. God did it. I have had many such head-scratching moments with my kids. As typically happens in the four days before such trips, we had to deal with a suddenly-made-aware-of lost passport (it evaporated during the recent driver's license ID process) - and then with her emergency root canal on Thursday morning. Terrifying visions of Brit dentistry! Her first and almost immediate email after her arrival at Balliol College was to inform us that she had neglected to bring her precious, required, and essential Riverside Shakespeare with her. It was the only item she absolutely had to have. She needed it immediately. Actor-types are like that... I considered driving to the shore and trying to toss it across the pond to her, but that Riverside Shakespeare is a weighty tome. So she will have to solve that emergency herself.
Still catching up with Good Stuff du Jour after my long weekend away. It may be TMI, but I do feel the responsibility to put these good things out there anyway, and will give myself a break in the morning:  Photo: Evil imperialist American soldier at the opening of a swimming pool in Baghdad.
A bad economy? Coyote puts our American standard of living into some perspective. Patriotism and American Exceptionalism. That's my view too. Related: Be a patriot and get a job and support your family: Driscoll The latest Just Ask Me from Surber. It's a good schtick. "For many years, I was a charcoal snob..." Prof Bainbridge Like us, interested in the Scottish Enlightenment Like us, interested in the illusion of time. By the way, what time is it? Related to time: The affluent have less spare time. Duh. They do things. It's not just the NYT. Arianna is upset with Obama too. Sounds just like conservatives' upset with McCain. But do I give a damn about what Arianna thinks? Not really. Related: How Obama really "put his career on the line" re Iraq. Sheesh. Related: Ripping off the Hillary band-aid. Related: Obama's flips don't matter. Economists support McCain's economics. Related, from Kristol's Where's Murph? McCain is frustrated. He thinks he can beat Obama (politicians are pretty confident in their own abilities). But he isn’t convinced his campaign can beat Obama’s campaign. He knows that his three-month general election head start was largely frittered away. He understands that his campaign has failed to develop an overarching message. Above all, McCain is painfully aware that he is being diminished by his own campaign. This last point is galling. McCain has been a major figure in American public life for quite a while. And yet his campaign has made him seem somehow smaller. Obama is a first-term senator with no legislative achievements to speak of. His campaign has helped him seem bigger, more presidential.
UK Updates: Knife crime is Britain's shame. Also, Brown advises Eat all of your food. But how does that work with their war on obesity? Also, what do teachers do these days in England? Despite the trashing and thrashing that Bush's minimalist Social Security reform plan received, many government employees are exempt from Social Security taxes. Most teachers, for example. How that happened I do not know, but it's a raw deal for us regular folks in the private sector. The worst Economist article of all time. Ask what the government can make you do for your country...? Related: A Nuremberg rally? I agree with whoever said that this is getting creepy. Why the heck is California doing this, if there is no global warming? Is everybody crazy out there? What's the deal? Jihadis with American police records. Other ways that a bad credit rating hurts you. New moves to ban race preferences. CSM Insty: "EXPLAINING TO THE A.P. THAT Yahoo! is not the government." Dr. Tim Ball further debunks the warmists. Why do I continue to expect reason to prevail?
Samizdata used that word in an amusing bit, so I would venture to guess that it is a Libertarian term. It captures some of the religious-like faith some place in their governmental masters and institutions. I need to add that word to my lexicon.
"There is scarcely a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh, get first all the people's money, then all their lands and then make them and their children servants forever." Benjamin Franklin
From Dubai, the fastest-growing city in the world. Some of this architecture is not for me: I do not like heights, or buildings that move:
Re Obama. I have seen no reason at all to doubt that. Furthermore, I do not believe that most ordinary, "moderate" Dem voters are ready for what his true views are (which is why he has been so busy backtracking and concealing them this past week).
 A new Watteau has been found, hanging in a corner in an English country house (image on the right). A good chance to remember that artist.
Who was the real first Bozo? The WTC hole and the politics of "can't do". A New Declaration of Independence. Purcell at Front Page Al Qaida defeated in Iraq. Ace: We are winning. Iraqis lead final purge. Related: The Taliban have a plan. Not a very good one, though. It must suck to be Joe Wilson today. More on Saddam Hussein's nuclear program at Am Thinker Sarkozy wants to turn screw on the Irish. Didn't the French referendum also vote down the EU "Treaty"? Via David Thompson, Abandoned Hotels Freedom of photography in the UK. Re yesterday's post on biofuels, How many orangutans per mile? Rocket fuel needed. McCain tries yet another campaign "relaunch" Liberal imperialism? A lib wishes the empire had held together. Obama changing essentially all of his campaign messages. This displeases the NYT. Good update by Viking. He's flipped on the Iraq war, on foreign policy in general, on loving America, on welfare reform, and on abortion in the past four days. More to come.
Sunday, July 6. 2008
Got home tonight and spent an hour or so catching up on all sorts of stuff to try to keep me - and Maggie's - up-to-date on the world's latest nonsense. Great stuff, including a whole section on how Obama is changing his stated views on everything. You should'a seen it. But you won't see it. Somehow, I lost my entire post, and I am beat from a long weekend at sea and a heavy traffic drive home. My body is still rocking - or is the land still rocking? Maybe my brain too. Since I am sure that you are interested, I did catch one ginormous Striper on a wet fly up on the Cape. Released her in the hopes that she will breed next Spring, and ate clams instead. All I have the energy to post now is a quote quoted by Kimball on British tyranny and Obama's tax plan: The colonies were taxed at 10 percent of British metropolitan rates and most of that was spent on protecting them from the French and Indians. Obama’s 56 percent marginal tax rate will put British ‘tyranny’ into better perspective for you …
 Remarkable tennis today. Much more interesting than the men's tennis during the Sampras years. Today's match will be long-remembered. The Spanish are celebrating tonight, for sure. But to get to my main point -
Besides possibly helping to provide a minor degree of economic independence from the big oil nations, is there any logic behind biofuel? This question came up in conversation last night, when it was mentioned that the demand for biofuel may be driving up the cost of food, and even causing third-world starvation. One person mentioned the notion that biofuels are somehow greener and less polluting because they come from plants. Of course, the current geological consensus is that oil comes from plants too, but that's another topic. How much do biofuels pollute? I took a quick unscientific glance around the 'nets during the rain delay: Biofuels may produce more greenhouse gases than oil Biodiesel: How much pollution does it really create? Biofuel backlash: High prices, pollution worries hit consumers According to researchers at Princeton University and the Nature Conservancy, almost all the biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels, if the full environmental cost of producing them is factored in.
I think the message is that, even if you consider CO2 a "pollutant" (which I do not), and even if you consider global warming a planetary crisis (which I do not), the only convincing rationale for subsidizing biofuels with our taxes and with our higher food prices (a hidden tax) is a geopolitical one.
Our Barrister must have a prosperous pal because the lines of that boat in his photo are pure Hinckley. (It's a good post, too.) In the Northeast, on salt water, few small power boats are more admired than the modestly-named and understatedly-designed Hinckley Picnic Boat. These peppy, preppy boats have a jet water drive, can be maneuvered with an un-nautical joystick instead of a wheel, draw only 18" because there is no prop, can get up to 29 knots and cruise at 25, can turn on a dime, and can stop in two boat lengths by reversing the jets. There is plenty of power and hi-tech engineering in that streamlined lobster boat: 
Here's the Popular Mechanics piece on the Picnic Boat. Here's a used one, for sale. Wonderful toys. I admire them, but don't really want one because I wouldn't find the time to use it her enough to justify the substantial price tag. If you want something a bit larger but with the same jet drive, there's the stunning Hinckley 44' Talaria, reviewed here: 
That photo I took ain't too bad. It does capture the feel of this charming place. On June 20th we rented a little two-door Lancia and drove west over the mountains from Lake Maggiore to the smaller Lake Orta, mainly to visit the antique and highly photogenic village of San Giulio (Saint Julius, in English), and to take a water taxi out to look at Isola San Giulio with its ancient church and active Benedictine monastery. (We will post separately on the church, because its artwork is so interesting. And the saint himself lies in there, under glass, visible in gilded splendor. I would not take a photo of that.) Most of the streets of San Giulio are too narrow for cars, and they don't allow cars in anyway (except for deliveries). However, there is actually a parking garage up the hill for visitors. The village has at least a handful of medieval buildings - the only definitely medieval buildings we saw on our trip (other than churches and towers). Major urban renewal took place in Europe during the 15th to 17th centuries. This village also has the best trattorias we encountered. We saw one guy taking modeling photos. She was an edgy-looking girl, from the front:  More photos of this side trip on continuation page below:
Continue reading "Lake Orta and Orta San Giulio"
Saturday, July 5. 2008
More errors on continuation page below -
Continue reading "Design errors"
Hope our readers are enjoying this weekend. I am going for a ride over hill and dale and field and fountain with the Mrs. in an England-like cool foggy drizzle in a moment, but Jack, our Quarter Horse, looks a little lame this morning - maybe it's a sore hoof - and I'm not sure which animal I want to mess with today. But I wanted to make sure to post this link to a discussion about Special Ed and "special needs" kids. I have a number of friends and acquaintances who are dealing with PDD and autism and the like in their kids and grandkids. The author of this piece at Pajamas has personal experience as the parent of a disabled kid.
 Yesterday, a friend who follows Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's career closely mentioned the fallout in LA government from his dramatic and rigorous financial disclosure reforms.
LA, famous for its long history of corruption and ineffectiveness as exemplified by the Katrina fiasco, has elected Mr. Clean and people are fleeing government service - and coming up with any excuses they can for doing so. He is applying a heavy-duty disinfectant. I Googled jindal financial disclosure and found page after page after page of stories about commission members' resignations. How many of these resignations are for simple privacy reasons and how many are to avoid revealing compromising information is anybody's guess, but my friend suspected mostly the latter. Forbes noted, however, Those standards require disclosure of details about virtually all sources of income, including amounts earned, and details about property ownership. That led to complaints that some people were turning down invitations to serve on public boards, and some were planning to resign, rather than disclose the information. The law approved will still require board members and their spouses to disclose information about income, including their employers and businesses in which they own an interest.
and in the same article notes that the LA legislature decided to ease up on some of the disclosure requirements. Still, I think this marks the end of business as usual in LA.
Dunes near Cahoon's Hollow beach on the ocean side of Wellfleet, MA (Cape Cod). I hope to get there in August, but those dunes and marshes are calling me right now. 
|
