Sunday, September 13. 2009
"The conflict is not against sin. Jesus conquered that. The conflict is waged over turning our natural life into a spiritual life."
Or the Patriot's Woodstock?
Photo below from a report and good collection of photos - and many amusing signs - at Looking at the Left.
Here's how the NYT briefly covered it.
Sen. Feinstein sounding like Rush
Sullivan skates after being caught smoking pot in Cape Cod park
Honduran "ruler"? I cannot believe the US policy towards these guys. The guy just rescued the country from a dictator.
Why men love crazy women
The O admin explained, in terms of community organizing
A 100 mph anti-smuggling boat
They are nuts. Sarkozy's new carbon tax
Why the MSM is losing money: propaganda is boring
Canadian Human Rights Commission goes after the Catholic Church. h/t, SDA
Yes, reader, we did miss this: Who owns the news?
It's so smart, I am relinking to this Steyn piece via Barrister:
...governmentalization of health care is the fastest way to a permanent left-of-center political culture — one in which elections are always fought on the Left’s issues and on the Left’s terms, and in which “conservative” parties no longer talk about small government and individual liberty but find themselves retreating to one last pitiful rationale: that they can run the left-wing state more effectively than the Left can. Listen to your average British Tory or French Gaullist on the campaign trail pledging to “deliver” government services more “efficiently.”
Saturday, September 12. 2009
When the AP says, as in this piece,
© 2009 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed
do they mean that it cannot be linked? What do they mean? Is linking "redistributing"?
Help me out, somebody. One would think that they would want linking to their stuff.
Well, slap me with a mackeral and call me Edna. Up to 2 million march in DC to protest growing federal power. This puts the anti-Vietnam War protests to shame.
Power to the people! We Americans aren't dead yet.
 This has the makings of an ongoing series, ethnic firsts in pro sports. If you have ideas with links for me to follow up upon, please add them to the comments.
Photo © Peter S. Horvitz, Inset courtesy of the Jewish Museum in Cyberspace
[A]sk a group of die-hard baseball fans to name the first professional baseball player and you’ll either get blank stares or some good but inaccurate guesses.
Truth is, going by the strict technical definition of what constitutes a professional—being paid for what one does consistently and with a high degree of output and efficiency—then the mystery man is a Jewish guy from Brooklyn. The first salaried player of America’s favorite pastime was a powerful hitter and enormously fast runner named Lipman Pike.
A Dutch-Jewish New Yorker born on May 25, 1845, “Lip” Pike became baseball’s first professional player in 1866 when the Philadelphia Athletics engaged him at $20 a week to play third base. You won’t learn that in most baseball almanacs and other sports reference books…
In July 1866, his first year playing with the Philadelphia Athletics, the left-handed Pike established baseball’s first homerun record, hitting six homers in one game against another Philadelphia team, the Alert club….
Although homers were not common in those early years—the game was very different then, with its soft balls and huge outfields—Pike was still one of the homerun leaders of his day, sporting ten during his six-year National Association tenure. Also impressive was his cumulative .321 batting average.
In one of professional baseball’s earliest publicity stunts, in August 1873 Pike raced a famous trotting horse named Chronicle in a 100-yard dash. Even though Chronicle had a 25-yard head start, Pike is reported to have won the race in ten seconds flat and claimed the $250 prize….
In 1887, Pike retired from the game at the age of forty-two, thereafter living a quiet life working in Brooklyn as a haberdasher and attending his local synagogue, Temple Israel.
Obama willing to meet Kim Jong-Il, but not John Boehner.
That's the insanity of it all. The Left continues to show their true colors.
Why did we schlepp all the way down to Agrigento last week? To see the Valley of the Temples (and to get a good lunch).
Why they call it "valley" I do not know, because this assembly of Doric Greek temples were built along a ridge - an acropolis, as always - within view of the busy harbor. It must have been quite a sight.
These were built before the Parthenon, around 460 BC - by Carthaginian slaves. The Temple of Zeus was five times the size of the Parthenon. The old Greek-era town was large (200,000 in 500 BC) and prosperous. Empedocles (the four elements, etc) lived there.
Most of the temples are in ruins either from earthquakes or use of the stones for other building purposes. The so-called Temple of Concord is in good shape, and was in use as a Christian church until the 1700s:
That's limestone. No marble around. You cannot really make good sculptures with limestone. To make the temples white, they were covered with a layer of plaster - some of which remains. The proscenia were painted bright colors, as the Greeks always did.
More about Agrigento, and lunch, below:
Continue reading "My summer trip: Agrigento, with almond groves and a fine lunch at Baglio della Luna"
 Reagan still rules. Odd, isn't it?
Who was Rick Rescorla? He helped save a guy I met in NYC.
Dave Barry on 9-11, at Wizbang:
"The people who did this to us are monsters; the people who cheered them have hate-sickened minds. One reason they can cheer is that they know we would never do to them what their heroes did to us, even though we could, a thousand times worse. They know that when we hunt down the monsters, we will try hard not to harm the innocent. Those are the handcuffs we willingly wear, because for all our flaws, we are a decent people."
Bickering? I'm sorry, but the time for messy democracy is now
My time with ACORN. Related: Census Bureau (finally) cuts ties with ACORN
What is it about Dems and not paying taxes?
Docs: Our patients are not livestock on a government ranch
From Rick Moran:
Obama is saying that if it’s not written into the bill that a public option will lead eventually to a single payer system, then you cannot draw logical conclusions that such would be the case. I totally reject that idea, based not only on the way the system is set up but also because several liberals have made absolutely no bones about the fact that this is exactly what the public option is for. When your opponent admits that your slippery slope argument is true, why would it be a lie?
The same holds true for the few other slippery slope arguments I believe are legitimate. For instance, is it possible for a bill (HR3200) that contains provisions to create 53 new panels, committees, and boards with regulatory or statutory authority over health care in America really, really lead to more “efficient” and “cheaper” health care?
Related: First do harm, then exploit the crisis
Related, from Carpe Diem:
As I have pointed out before, basic medical insurance is currently available right now for millions of Americans at about the same monthly cost of a cell phone.
Related, from Krauthammer:
Cædmon’s Hymn, Anglo-Saxon 737 AD
Nu scylun hergan hefaenricaes uard
metudæs maecti end his modgidanc
uerc uuldurfadur sue he uundra gihuaes
eci dryctin or astelidæ
he aerist scop aelda barnum
heben til hrofe haleg scepen.
tha middungeard moncynnæs uard
eci dryctin æfter tiadæ
firum foldu frea allmectig
Cædmon’s Hymn, Modern English
Now let me praise the keeper of Heaven’s kingdom,
the might of the Creator, and his thought,
the work of the Father of glory, how each of wonders
the Eternal Lord established in the beginning.
He first created for the sons of men
Heaven as a roof, the holy Creator,
then Middle-earth the keeper of mankind,
the Eternal Lord, afterwards made,
the earth for men, the Almighty Lord.
(from Right Wing Prof's post we linked yesterday)
Friday, September 11. 2009
Somewhere around 450 AD (according to the Venerable Bede), the Celtic warlord Vortigern, embattled by the northern Picts, made a decision that would change the world: He invited the Frisian brothers Horsa and Hengest to bring their warriors across the sea as mercenaries and help him defeat the Picts. After the fierce northern Germanic warriors ensured Vortigern’s victory, he tried to cheat them out of their payment, and they responded by founding a kingdom in southern England. Thus began the Anglo-Saxon migration, and soon, conquest.
The world went crazy after the fall of Rome. Read the rest. It's about the Olde.Anglosphere. As far as I know, basic English is still Frisian (except for the added Viking, Frenchy, Greek and Latinate stuff).
 We spend it because we make it. We spend more on medical care because we can. It's why 75 year-old American men expect to play tennis and ski and climb mountains and chase girls while Euro men that age are hobbling around on canes - if they are still alive.
It's not just medical care than we spend more on. We spend more on charity, churches, furniture, research, houses and vacation houses, food, gyms, bass boats, trips, lawn care, gardening, psychotherapy, marriage counseling, cars and F-150s, recreation, clothes, tools, guns, lawyers, starting new businesses, electric guitars, magic crystals, massage, booze, laser-vision, hair transplants, new knees, hips, shoulders and heart valves, sports, education - everything, including rockets to the moon.
We are a prosperous nation, but it is not because of good luck. It's because of a culture of work ethic, freedom, the value of free choice, and personal independence. Each person pursuing his own vision of what this brief life ought to be, while constantly contending with hard realities and tough choices.
Via Shrinkwrapped, if Italy, France or Germany joined the US, they would be the poorest states in the country.
(I always remind myself that, in Europe, it's the mega-wealthy and the fishermen who own boats. In the US, it seems like every cop and fireman has a more expensive one than I do. Well, actually, I managed to sell all of our darn boats last year. What a relief.)
Barrister addendum: If we just spent as much on health care as Mexico, think how happy we would be.
Dylanologist addendum: The average, middle class person in Europe lives at about the material level of an American on welfare, if not slightly below. I know: I have lived over there.
The historic Battle of Teutoberg Forest.
It stopped the Romans in the same way that Lepanto stopped the Moslems.
This came in over the transom. Curiously, most schools hadn't opened yet at the time of the O's nagging nanny speech to schoolkids: "Work hard, stay in school, don't chew gum you don't wanta be a bum, stay outta jail, eat your spinach, become President, bla bla bla."
Who needs another Mom?
It's easier to BS adults than kids.
 500,000,000 year-old photos from Hubble. It's the "Butterfly nebula." Who knew they had digital photography back then?
Just 8 years ago. Lucianne
If you haven't seen those ACORN videos yet, here they are. Why am I not surprised?
10 questions to ask your Congresscritter, with a sample letter. Villainous
All about the Science Czar. The guy is beyond the pale.
Palin: Obama is pretty much a dick.
Why so many polls of "concern" are worthless.
What good are weak students with mushy degrees?
Is GDP per capita a good measure of well-being?
Goldberg says it: Tom Friedman is a Liberal Fascist. Yes he is. Sad thing is, he doesn't know it: he just thinks he is better than me. Volokh rips him a new one. Who the heck do these people think they are?
Where does the Federal government get these powers?
Look for the union label: Need more proof that the Dem “health care” reform is more about political power than it is about protecting Americans health?
The climate frenzy is unraveling fast. Related: The Brit government is certifiably insane.
Organic farms are bad for the birds
Olasky: What's up with "social justice"?
What do you know about ERISA? Plus a very simple explanation of medical insurance It matters a lot. The devil is always in the details. h/t, Vermont Tiger
From a commenter at a CNN piece:
For every $1 spent on private healthcare insurance, 3c is insurance company profit, 6c government taxes and 10c malpractice insurance and defensive medicine.
It seems to my simple mind, that the place to start with reform is with the lawyers. Malpractice insurance and defensive medicine currently gets more than 3x what the healthcare insurance companies gets.
How did Putin get elected? Those bombings remain a mystery.
AVI thinking about Archie Bunker and himself
The long recent history of heckling Presidents during formal speeches
"If we only spent more money on education..." From Coyote:
And, go to Blackfive about Rick Rescola, and link to Mudville Gazette blog also. Rick saved 2700 people on 9/11, ending his lifetime of service. Sign up for his deserved special honor.
Project 2996, for those others taken, each deserving individual remembrance and dedication.
Thursday, September 10. 2009
If and when you visit Tunis, you will go to the Bardo Museum. The buildings themselves are a 13th Century Ottoman (technically, Husseinite) palace which has been a museum since 1888. It contains the world's largest collection of Roman mosaics, but the buildings are wonderful too.
This Mom and daughter were boat friends.
More Bardo photos below -
Continue reading "My summer vacation: The Bardo"
"Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an' worse
An' for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing."
Chimes of Freedom, 1964. Lyrics here.
Big Tea Party in Bridgeport, CT tomorrow afternoon. Why not stop by if you can? Might be fun.
Ann Coulter will be there to help beautify old Bridgeport.
Photo is Bridgeport's Seaside Park.
Toon above via Theo
Powerline: This was not, to put it kindly, a speech that was directed at thinking people. Tucker Carlson wonders at the O: It's a bunch of lies.
Percent of crimes solved.
Movement Conservatives vs. The Pragmatists: The Battle is Joined
Thomas Friedman goes over the edge. Thus is the inner Fascist revealed. Even O supporter Camille Paglia is beginning to get it.
Mr. Free Market: Why We Drink
The angry mobs just don't quit.
We are never going to see that auto bailout money again. What a waste of taxpayers' hard-earned funds.
Barone: The convenient fantasies of Pres. Obama
Do our ROE make sense? I do not get the concept of a "nice" battle.
Coyote:
The leftist political strategy for over 100 years has been
- Regulate something
- Blame the free market for inevitable disruptions caused by the regulation
- Use the above to justify more regulation
- Repeat
Blah, Blah, Blah, Bow To Oz
And, even AP finds his numbers wrong.
And, though Rep. Joe Wilson was rude, Wilson had the facts. See them.
So, adding to the simultaneous translation: Blah, Blah, Blah, Bow To Oz, Lie
President Obama should check if pinocchioitis nose therapy is covered by ObamaCare.
Wednesday, September 9. 2009
My friend the piano-man Jimmy Maddox played and sang this song for us last week - with heart, along with a few other tunes we requested (No Dylan requests, tho. He is more of a Hoagie Carmichael guy.) He's a darn good fellow, fun to talk to, seemingly full of good cheer and with keyboard talent to burn. Nice girlfriend too, who flew back with us to NYC.
Every guy has a pirate inside of them - plus his share of regrets, sorrows, and demons. The trick is to keep on keepin' on, and to try to stay on the sunny side of the street. With God's help.
Most of Roman Carthage (which was the third largest Roman metropolis in the 200-400 era, after Rome and Alexandria - the population was around 300,000) is buried beneath the modern town of Carthage, but some that is accessible has been excavated.
After the Third Punic War in 146 BC, very little remained of the old Phoenician Carthage - except things like these boxes. The Phoenicians worshipped Baal, who required that everybody's first-born be sacrificed. The ashes of these kids were buried in these sad little stone boxes.
More of my photos of cool Roman Carthage ruins below -
Continue reading "My summer vacation: Carthage"
From Camille Paglia:
Why has the Democratic Party become so arrogantly detached from ordinary Americans? Though they claim to speak for the poor and dispossessed, Democrats have increasingly become the party of an upper-middle-class professional elite, top-heavy with journalists, academics and lawyers (one reason for the hypocritical absence of tort reform in the healthcare bills). Weirdly, given their worship of highly individualistic, secularized self-actualization, such professionals are as a whole amazingly credulous these days about big-government solutions to every social problem. They see no danger in expanding government authority and intrusive, wasteful bureaucracy. This is, I submit, a stunning turn away from the anti-authority and anti-establishment principles of authentic 1960s leftism.
How has "liberty" become the inspirational code word of conservatives rather than liberals? (A prominent example is radio host Mark Levin's book "Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto," which was No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly three months without receiving major reviews, including in the Times.) I always thought that the Democratic Party is the freedom party -- but I must be living in the nostalgic past. Remember Bob Dylan's 1964 song "Chimes of Freedom," made famous by the Byrds? And here's Richie Havens electrifying the audience at Woodstock with "Freedom! Freedom!" Even Linda Ronstadt, in the 1967 song "A Different Drum," with the Stone Ponys, provided a soaring motto for that decade: "All I'm saying is I'm not ready/ For any person, place or thing/ To try and pull the reins in on me."
But affluent middle-class Democrats now seem to be complacently servile toward authority and automatically believe everything party leaders tell them. Why?
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