Thursday, October 29. 2009
 It's fun to check in with HawkCount and to explore their site to see what people are seeing during our wonderful raptor migration season.
Image is one of my favorites: The rugged, late-migrating Rough-Legged Hawk.
From Patriot Post:
Our Constitution's principle author, James Madison, wrote, "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined [and] will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation and foreign commerce."
Concerning the legislature's authority, Thomas Jefferson asserted: "[G]iving [Congress] a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole [Constitution] to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please. Certainly, no such universal power was meant to be given them. [The Constitution] was intended to lace them up straightly within the enumerated powers and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect."
At City Journal, Sol Stern on E. D. Hirsch’s Curriculum for Democracy: A content-rich pedagogy makes better citizens and smarter kids. One quote:
The “Massachusetts miracle,” in which Bay State students’ soaring test scores broke records, was the direct consequence of the state legislature’s passage of the 1993 Education Reform Act, which established knowledge-based standards for all grades and a rigorous testing system linked to the new standards. And those standards, Massachusetts reformers have acknowledged, are Hirsch’s legacy. If the Obama administration truly wants to have a positive impact on American education, it should embrace Hirsch’s ideas and urge other states to do the same.
Where are you tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat) 1978. The remarkable lyrics are on the video.
 WSJ: Doctors on Health-Care Reform 'Government is in the process of duplicating everything that managed care did for the last 15 years that was reviled by everybody.'
Report: Cash for Clunkers was a lemon
George Soros launches a $50 million effort to purge economics of its free-market zeal.
Peeing on the O's photo would show true artistic courage, but it would be equally adolescent.
Well, nowadays, true artistic courage would be to create something that would add grace, nobility, and beauty to the world.
Speaking of "art," desecrating the flag for health care
Chicago Trib endorses Repub health plans
Hitchens dares enter the Christian world, finds it's not scary
Marginal Rev: Mandates don't stay modest. Autism treatments
Via Vanderleun:
"Northwest Nap"
It's the word of the day @ Urban Dictionary - A very deep sleep where you are unable to hear telephones, text messages, and even the Air Force. Named to honor the two fine pilots from Northwest Airlines and their little "in flight snooze."
Gateway:
Pelosicare will force individuals to buy the government insurance, will tax the wealthy, and will result in rationed care and the end of private health insurance industry.
It’s a socialist’s dream.
If you want to do something about freedom of speech, then the only choice is USE IT, exercise it.
Kurt Westergaard in this interview
Wednesday, October 28. 2009
The road out to our village in the Berkshires. It is indeed over the river and through the woods. Woods, fields, and swamps:
View from the upper barn. Trout stream down there in the valley. Those are our woods up on the hills too - insofar as anybody can "own" woods. The hawks, owls, deer and and bears own them, really. Well, God owns them, but I can harvest firewood there. You can see the White Pine infestation in the upper meadow. We have been at 'em, but it's a lot of work to cut them down. It's a shame that you cannot really burn White Pine in the fireplace. Too much resin, burns too hot.
Continue reading "Photos from the Farm"
Get a darn U-Haul and get out of your crappy old town before winter sets in. Go somewhere where there are plenty of jobs, vitality, enthusiasm, and low taxes. Like Texas or Alabama or Georgia or New Mexico or New York City. It's the American way; the pioneer way. Plenty of jobs in the Dakotas too, if you have a warm coat.
New York State: Enemy of jobs and business. Only a fool would try to start a biz in NYS nowadays. NYC itself is another matter: Huge taxes, but large potential rewards simply because there are so many busy people there enjoying the place.
NYC is the tail that wags the dog of NYS. NYS would be as pitiful without NYC as CT would be without Fairfield County. They would be like Maine, economically.
 We owe it to King Camp Gillette for making it easy to be a well-groomed gentleman without cutting your head off, or having to visit the barber.
He was a clever tinkerer and, apparently, an equally good marketer of his "safety razor."
Since his invention, razors have seen many modifications to Gillette's basic idea - not to mention electric razors (do any guys use those anymore?).
When the Gillette products got too expensive for my taste, and I couldn't keep track of each new type of razor and the costly blades that went with them, I opted for buying cheap disposable razors in bulk. The one pictured is $10.49 for 100.
Depending on your testosterone level, one is good for a week - at least. Longer if you can put up with minor discomfort.
Added benefit: No problem if a daughter borrows your razor. Who cares?
Here's a good bio of Thurber from an opthalmologist who was interested in Thurber - and his vision problems. (Thurber's brother shot him in the eye with an arrow when they were playing William Tell games.)
Dorothy Parker or some equivalent wit commented that Thurber's drawings looked like unbaked cookie dough.
Hoping I can get some functional links to some more Thurber toons. Everybody's seen this one:
We were gonna say it, but Riehl beat us to it. Ned gave us the Independent Joe Lieberman (my Senator, with whom I agree on things around 25% of the time - not a bad % for a Conservative voter in CT).
I respect him as a thoughtful human being, and will give credit when due. Plus I like the guy. I like Ned too. Very fine fellow personally, but not politically.
The O to tax pacemakers, artificial hips, etc. Brilliant. Heck, plastic canes are cheap at WalMart.
The O's media control strategy
WSJ: Washington's Suicide Mission
I don't know about "narcissistic rage," but Mr. Bring Us Together isn't bringing us together. Who hasn't the Admin demonized yet? Besides ACORN/SEIU?
Quote via Dr. Sanity on the goals of the enviro movement:
Liberal democracy is sweet and addictive and indeed in the most extreme case, the USA, unbridled individual liberty overwhelms many of the collective needs of the citizens. The subject is almost sacrosanct and those who indulge in criticism are labeled as Marxists, socialists, fundamentalists and worse. These labels are used because alternatives to democracy cannot be perceived! Support for Western democracy is messianic as proselytised by a President leading a flawed democracy
There must be open minds to look critically at liberal democracy. Reform must involve the adoption of structures to act quickly regardless of some perceived liberties....
We are going to have to look how authoritarian decisions based on consensus science can be implemented to contain greenhouse emissions [emphasis mine].
Love that "perceived liberties."
AA via Insty:
ANN ALTHOUSE: “The answer, Ms. Herron (Merron?) is precisely that pop culture permeates the world of young Americans. Why pursue even more of it in college? Learn new things. Get what you can’t get just living in the world soaking up the things you naturally love and enjoy. What is the point of going to college?”
Tuesday, October 27. 2009
Sowell begins:
Just one year ago, would you have believed that an unelected government official, not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate but simply one of the many "czars" appointed by the President, could arbitrarily cut the pay of executives in private businesses by 50 percent or 90 percent?
Did you think that another "czar" would be talking about restricting talk radio? That there would be plans afloat to subsidize newspapers-- that is, to create a situation where some newspapers' survival would depend on the government liking what they publish?
Did you imagine that anyone would even be talking about having a panel of so-called "experts" deciding who could and could not get life-saving medical treatments?
Whole thing here.
Here's one of my favorites:
It's a simple matter of incentive. With government medicine, you are a cost unless you are still paying plenty of taxes - which is around only 10% of the population, or less. If you are sick or disabled, you become even more of a burden to "the common good."
With private insurance, they want you alive to pay your premium.
Anybody who believes in government benevolence is in dreamland: as we have been saying here, government is just another powerful special interest group. A doc's committment is quite the opposite.
And nobody wants their doctor worrying about "the common good."
 More on the health care debate as a moral struggle
NRO: The conformity enforcers of "tolerance" and "diversity" are growing ever more explicitly totalitarian.
How to lie and get away with it. h/t, Vanderleun
Our Golfer-in-Chief. Hmmm. I don't care if he plays golf a lot. I just wonder what they'd be saying if it were Bush. Plus sets a record for attending fundraisers. Easy gig, President. Just be the figurehead while others do the work.
The power of the Soros-funded think tanks in DC
ACORN. Read the first comment on this Tiger piece. Good grief.
The problem with ignoring Milton Friedman
Via Legal Insurrection:
Instead of solely considering costs, shouldn't we ask if Americans are willing to die sooner from cancer, to give up access to specialists, to be refused safer, more accurate diagnostic imaging, to lose the most accessible screening programs, and to lose their autonomy in pursuing treatments for their families? Shouldn't we ask if Americans want to replace the most advanced and successful medical care in history with the restricted care and lower cost social programs of Europe, and insure the less than 5 percent of people who don't buy insurance but receive care anyway?
Those evil health insurance companies
Via Powerline:
57% of voters nationwide believe it will raise the cost of health care, and 53% believe the quality of care will get worse. ... Just 18% say passage of the congressional plan will reduce costs, while only 23% believe it will lead to better care.
Remarkable: by a margin of 3-1, voters think Obamacare will raise the cost of health care, and by more than two to one, voters believe it will make the quality of health care worse. Isn't that the death knell for government medicine? If not, why not?
Via SDA:
The huge increases in migrants over the last decade were partly due to a politically motivated attempt by ministers to radically change the country and "rub the Right's nose in diversity", according to Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, Jack Straw and David Blunkett. [...] The "deliberate policy", from late 2000 until "at least February last year", when the new points based system was introduced, was to open up the UK to mass migration, he said. Some 2.3 million migrants have been added to the population since then, according to Whitehall estimates quietly slipped out last month.
I know that leaf photos are corny as heck. So what? My Red Japanese Maple is colorful. I would never have planted one of these flamboyant things, but somebody else planted it there about 30 years ago, and I am not going to cut it down.
Monday, October 26. 2009
 The other night I became distracted by reading the series on radio soap operas which James Thurber wrote for The New Yorker in 1948. "Soapland" is in Thurber's The Beast in Me and Other Animals.
I envy Thurber's clarity, simplicity, and directness of writing, whether he is doing humor or regular reporting. Liked him better than EB White, with whom Thurber collaborated in writing the spoof on self-help books, Is Sex Necessary?, in 1929.
If you have never read Thurber, you are missing a real delight. Start with The Thurber Carnival. I could not find any of his toons on line, but I didn't spend much time searching.
Here's a good summary of the history of the radio soaps. Thurber's piece on the topic is a masterpiece of straightforward New Yorker-style reportage; the kind that can make any random topic fascinating because it is so well-written.
Mistakes help us learn. Of course they do. Who ever doubted that?
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