Monday, October 5. 2009
Mayor at Drudge: Bloomberg: 'We can't just say everybody can go everyplace and do anything they want'... (fixed link)
A guy who wrote verse for Hallmark Cards (h/t, No Left Turns)
A new way to think about crime deterrance
Nice photos of the Adirondacks from Tiger. Nice place he has there.
How government is keeping unions alive
Did we elect a Beta male?
Horowitz banned from speaking on campus
The NEA is all about power
Do you want this Copenhagen Treaty? I don't.
California wake-up call
Althouse on the insulting, condescening, adolescent speeches to the Olympic Committee
Prelutsky:
The idea that any sane person would be in favor of the government’s running the health industry simply doesn’t compute. Leaving such important matters in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats is beyond mind-boggling; it’s lunacy.
Can the middle class afford Obamacare?
Baucus' plan is the same old thing. From Weekly Standard:
Along with new taxes, the bill seeks to offset its enormous increases in government spending by squeezing Medicare, and particularly the Medicare Advantage program that millions of seniors use to get extra coverage through private insurers. But rather than use cuts in Medicare to shore up that program's ailing finances and help make it sustainable, the Baucus bill (like other Democratic plans this year) would use the money to create yet another unsustainable entitlement.
The bill would therefore exacerbate the chief causes of the rising costs at the core of our health care woes: inefficient entitlement spending and the absence of real market pressures in health insurance. Instead of addressing these, Baucus is offering tax increases, a new entitlement sure to grow more costly every year, fewer options for doctors and patients, a far greater government role in health care, and the prospect of health care service shortages, disruptions, and rationing.
Why do the Dems want to undermine Medicare Advantage?
This old hillside pasture is worn-out, but it does produce a good crop of Goldenrod. Unfortunately, there is no market for it.
Sunday, October 4. 2009
5th in series on ethnic firsts in US sports
Who better to be the best US athlete of the 20th Century than a sportsman of melting-pot heritage, child of part Native American, Irish and French parents. In 1950, the Associated Press poll of sports writers named Jim Thorpe as the best American athlete of the first half of the 20th Century. For the second half, the AP named him third, behind Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan.
With all respects, neither Ruth nor Jordan won the Olympic gold in pentathlon and decathlon, and starred in football, baseball and basketball. Nor did Ruth, Jordan or any other such supremely gifted athlete suffer worse abandonment by the sports at which he excelled and the notables who’d lauded him.
Educated in assimilationist Indian Agency schools, Jim Thorpe’s native name was most appropriate: Wa-Tho-Huk or Bright Path. Unfortunately, the trail's end wasn’t.
“Pop” Warner tried to dissuade Thorpe from injuring himself playing football, because Thorpe was already the track-and-field star of Carlisle Indian Industrial School, but the football players were unable to catch up to him. Thorpe even excelled at ballroom dancing, winning the 1912 inter-collegiate ballroom dancing championship. One of the football teams Thorpe almost single-handedly beat was Army’s in 1912. An opposing player, future President Dwight Eisenhower, in 1961 recalled, “Here and there, there are some people who are supremely endowed. My memory goes back to Jim Thorpe. He never practiced in his life, and he could do anything better than any other football player I ever saw.”
At the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Thorpe won the gold at the pentathlon and decathlon. A silver medalist observed, “He was the greatest athlete who ever lived….What he had was natural ability. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t do. All he had to see is someone doin’ something and he tried it…and he’d do it better.” Czar Nicholas II presented Thorpe with a special award for the pentathlon, and King Gustav V of Sweden a special award for the decathlon, telling Thorpe, “You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world. I would consider it an honor to shake your hand.”
Thorpe returned to the US for a ticker-tape parade down Broadway in NYC. Thorpe said, “I couldn't realize how one fellow could have so many friends."
King Gustav and the International Olympic Committee turned out to be the “Indian-givers.” Ignoring its own rules for when a challenge to an Olympic medal may be considered, and ignoring that other college athletes did the same but under aliases, the IOC revoked Thorpe’s medals and took back the Gustav trophy for Thorpe having participated in a few baseball games for pocket-money while in college, voiding his amateur status.
Jim Thorpe then played professional football and baseball, drawing huge crowds. He retired at 41 from pro sports, but continued touring with exhibition teams in football, baseball and basketball.
After his sports career ended, Thorpe found it difficult to find and hold jobs during the Depression. He worked as a laborer, security guard, bouncer, and even as a movie extra as an Indian chief.
By 1950, when diagnosed with cancer, Thorpe was broke. On March 28, 1953, Jim Thorpe -- living in a trailer park -- died from his third heart attack.
Only after his death was the racism and unfairness publicly recognized with which Jim Thorpe was treated. Sports Illustrated’s 2004 retrospective, “Jim Thorpe cruelly treated by authorities", for example, concluded:
Racial prejudice was undoubtedly a factor. Snobbery was another. Brundage [president of the US Olympic Committee, who rebuffed restoring Thorpe’s medals] rigidly adhered to an amateur ethic designed to keep workers in their place which was long out of date by the time of his death in 1975.
Revenge may have been a third. Brundage finished sixth in the pentathlon and 15th in the decathlon behind Thorpe at the 1912 Games.
A teammate of Thorpe’s on the New York Giants recounted Thorpe, in tears, visiting his room, telling him about the taking away of his Olympic medals. “It broke his heart and he never really recovered.”
Hollywood made a movie about him, starring Burt Lancaster, and paid him nothing for being a consultant. A town in Pennsylvania he’d never been in renamed itself after him, to gain tourism dollars. His statue is in the football hall of fame. His Olympic medals were stolen from a museum. In my opinion, the only true honor to Jim Thorpe is the large park in central Flagstaff, Arizona where my kids played every day while we were touring and generations of other kids play for the joy of sports that too many adults forget is what they’re about.
From Wikipedia, Native Wiki, Sports Illustrated
Via Mr. Free Market, we learn that the furthest point from a McDonalds in the USA is 145 miles by car.
I have no doubt that this is the case.
Tons of free architectural walking tours in NYC next weekend, via Open House New York. Scroll down.
I have read some negative reviews of the new season of "House" lately. Apparently he went to rehab for his Vicodan addiction, and is no longer as difficult of an attending physician as he used to be. Well, let's hope he relapses.
I also learned that Laurie's character was inspired by Sherlock Holmes (Holmes-House). How did I miss that? Holmes, you recall, was an addict too.
What has been fun about ex-Marine Special Agent Gibbs in NCIS and Dr. House is that they are both cranky, tough, non-PC SOBs who are always alert to interesting females, and that they get away with it because they are so good at what they do. Gibbs, of course, has a military sense of honor, decorum, and dignity which Dr. House seems to lack.
At First Principles. Just one quote:
The British, seeking to adapt to the aspirations of a modern, democratizing age, weaned themselves from Magna Carta. The Americans, “born equal, instead of becoming so,” in Tocqueville’s phrase, found in Magna Carta a symbol of political liberty, silently ignoring its feudal excrescences and adopting the common law insofar as it was, in the later words of Joseph Story, “applicable to the situation of the colony, and . . . not . . . altered, repealed, or modified by any of our subsequent legislation.” The Americans eventually established many of the Charter’s provisions in written constitutions of their own.
 "Boost the United States"? I thought we were a terrible, evil country. How can you say both?
The US gives up control of the internet. Good or bad or neither?
USAF pilots who cannot fly?
The Incest Lobby jumps on the Polanski story. Good grief. The non-incestuous are termed "outbreeders". I hear the theme from Deliverance. (h/t, No Pasaran)
Pence: We are on the verge of a great Conservative Awakening. I hope so. It requires radical Leftists to get them to pay attention - since they have demanding jobs and lives, etc.
Related: If I had told you, would you have believed it?
Finance Committee Democrat Won’t Read Text of Health Bill, Says Anyone Who Claims They’ll Understand It ‘Is Trying to Pull the Wool Over Our Eyes’. Just trust them. They care about you.
No climate change bill this year. Thank goodness. It's been too darn cold. I wish our Masters in government would turn the temp up a tad.
From WSJ Online re Olympics:
"This idea that other nations will do something that's not in their best interests because they like you is just silly."
It adds doubts. No kidding.
SDA:
Michelle Obama talked about her late dad who suffered from multiple sclerosis.
Alas, someone in Brazil's delegation once lived in Rio, and had a great-uncle with angina.
Jules:
That Olympic village is going to need to be an armed camp. The big question is whether those Olympic-themed thongs were occupied or not. You’d think the Windy City’s pluggers would have had the good sense to put something traditional in their gift bags that really says “Chicago.” Like cash. And pork. Maybe a nightstick and some brass knuckles just to remind the IOC members to seriously consider their interests. But if they had, they might have won.
The always-amusing Ace: Chicago dodged a bullet
As they say:
Few presidents have suffered this much loss of support in so short a period of time — and things will probably get worse before they get better. Friday didn’t help. Mr. Obama has sustained a political wound at a vulnerable moment for him.
Related, from Powerline:
What Obama doesn't want to accept is that the Democrats' scheme for government takeover of health care is deeply controversial. In fact, most Americans oppose it, many bitterly--as, in my view, they should.
Obama also doesn't seem to understand that he is a not-very-popular President with a poor track record of accomplishment who is not in a position to demand anything from Congress. At the end of the day, the Democrats may or may not have the votes to pass a radical "reform" bill. But whether they do or do not have the votes will not be determined by empty threats from President Obama.
Saturday, October 3. 2009
Jeffrey Lichtman on WABC radio today (filling in for Kudlow):
"Why do Liberals want more jail time for not buying medical insurance than they want for child rape?"
Why are we still reading Dickens?
Better question: Why wouldn't we be? He's the best story-teller in all of the world's literature (except maybe for Homer - but Homer cheated: he used a lute or an electric guitar, or something).
There is a new translation out of Rilke's poetry, but this isn't from it:
 The Song of the Widow
In the beginning life was good to me;
it held me warm and gave me courage.
That this is granted all while in their youth,
how could I then have known of this.
I never knew what living was---.
But suddenly it was just year on year,
no more good, no more new, no more wonderful.
Life had been torn in two right down the middle.
That was not his fault nor mine
since both of us had nothing but patience;
but death has none.
I saw him coming (how rotten he looked),
and I watched him as he took and took:
and nothing was mine.
What, then, belonged to me; was mine, my own?
Was not even this utter wretchedness
on loan to me by fate?
Fate does not only claim your happiness,
it also wants your pain back and your tears
and buys the ruin as something useless, old.
Fate was present and acquired for a nothing
every expression my face is capable of,
even to the way I walk.
The daily diminishing of me went on
and after I was emptied fate gave me up
and left me standing there, abandoned.
Translated by Albert Ernest Flemming
 All the talk about Letterman reminds us of our prescient post from June, Hey Jenny Slater, Hey Jenny Slater, which was a reaction to Letterman's unfunny jokes about Sarah Palin's baby. One quote from the post:
Letterman's congenital problem manifested itself in spades. He is a Beta male in an industry filled with Beta males. Even the industry's a Beta. He's not even an entertainer -- his job is to talk to and about entertainers. They say politics is show-business for ugly people, and the similarities are manifest. Politics is often home to Beta males that try to cut in front of the big men on life's campus by the side door. Same deal. That's why they get along famously.
That's why men like Letterman always end up groping the help. All the Beta males do this. Look at John Edwards, Bill Clinton, Bob Packwood, Newt Gingrich... this will grow monotonous. They're lame, and know it, and so they try to get themselves in a position of power over the men they used to resent, and the women they never had a shot at. But the men are all dorks of one sort or another, and the women they never had a shot at are still out of their range. They can lord it over whatever women are handy, but eventually find that they are in the thrall of someone as defective as they are.
Re-read that good post if you want. Link above.
Toon from I Own The World via Am Digest
Friday, October 2. 2009
 From Dalrymple's The Cult of Insincerity:
I am like one of Pavlov’s dogs, who salivated at the sound of a bell. I have only to hold a newspaper in my hand to feel a pleasant frisson of outrage coming on.
Lawrence Silberman discusses stare decisis vs Originalism (video)
Banning dissent in science. Coyote. It's disheartening to say the least.
Who killed California? National Affairs
Related: Can New Jersey be saved?
Pethokoukis: The not-so-secret plan to raise our taxes:
Does President Obama have a secret plan to raise taxes on middle-class Americans — and,well, pretty much everybody else — with a European-style, value-added tax? Actually, it’s not such a big secret.
Related, from Tiger:
Two Americas: This year, 47% of households will pay no federal income tax. No wonder increasing taxes on those who already pay them has become so popular.
Powerline: Is Conservatism brain-dead? Or is Beck the new Brain?
Related: fascinating comment from Wretchard on the death of Liberalism (h/t, Vanderleun)
The top 40 political blogs (nb: We are not a political site. We are an elite boutique site for the Illuminati)
Ireland to determine Euro serfdom today.
The KrautMan on Obama's French Lesson
Office of the President attacks media. Driscoll
Why they hate Palin. Video. The intensity of the hatred is disturbing to me. What has she done that is so terrible? Except lead a vigorous, adventurous American life, and not go to an Ivy?
The media doesn't cover unemployment like they usta do. Funny about that.
That oughta do it: 25 minutes on Aghanistan, a day on the Olympics. What am I missing? It's a major blow when you put yourself and your family on the line like that. Who is doing the thinking in the WH? Well, like I care...
Is Tom Friedman the dumbest guy in the world?
Climate change! Record cold temps hit US (from Drudge):
Michigan: Record low temps -- breaks 1935 cold...
Record low tied at Daytona Beach...
Cold snap fills up homeless shelters in Idaho...
Ain't it terrible when facts don't fit your narrative? But it can be easily solved: get more hysterical. The reality that the earth may be cooling should be far more worrisome for humans - and there is nothing we can do about it but to adjust. Winter is coming here, but Maggie's Farm will help you cope with invigorating weather. Dig out your long-johns: we will re-post our Winter in New England series this year.
You can read the whole legal memo to ACORN posted via Big Government. Devastating. But ACORN seems to have ignored the advice they paid for. h/t, Big Govt
They assumed that none of the laws or rules applied to them. "By all means necessary" is the Gramsci-ite term.
Taxpayers at all income levels could be hit with over $1.5 trillion in new taxes, fees, and other costs over the next 10 years, despite President Obama's repeated promises that he would not raise taxes "one dime" on those earning less than $250,000 a year.
Whole story at Newsmax.
It's ye olde Holland-America Line.
I have sailed with them countless times, including many trans-Atlantic crossings as a youth (other lines too, but I will keep returning to Holland-America). Very professional, serious, and attentive but unintrusive staff; excellent tours and guides and, most importantly, you meet wonderful, pleasant and interesting folks on board from all over the world.
More info and shipboard photos below, including one of your famous but elusive Editor at dinner -
Continue reading "The official passenger line of Maggie's Farm"
 We don't want this crap. The pols want it.
A joke: Ralph Nader's novel.
Why are the Dems trashing Medicare?
Related: If you were a doc, would you treat Medicare patients?
Government Motors' deepening troubles
Wow! Iran is nice enough to agree to MORE TALKS. Is this Kindergarten?
Related: Nuclear disarmament and the Tooth Fairy. Nyquist
Your tax dollars at work:
Homeland Security Waste Part 1
Part 2
The cost of non-profit journalism
The annual banned book charade
$615,000 tax dollars for a Grateful Dead library.
Where I am not, but where I would love to be this week. Up in Manitoba, climbing out of a lumpy old bed into the frigid room, layering one's clothing, covering it all with camo, scarfing down a quick coffee and maybe a brandy and an apple or something, loading some ammo into the ammo boxes, and getting those duck boat engines running in the frosty morning and heading out onto Lake Winnepegosis to match wits with the migrating ducks (who are famously smarter than humans).
I think Gwynnie will retrieve some photos for us...
Thursday, October 1. 2009
Re our earlier post today on Balsamic Vinegar, just a note to say that Costco's Kirkland (their house brand) Tuscan extra virgin olive oil is very, very good - far better than any supermarket brand - and a great buy (better than you can buy in specialty stores for twice the price - it is our house olive oil. Costco spent several years selecting the orchards in Tuscany for their oil.).
And the same goes for their Modena Balsamic. I won't even get into how good their butcher departments are.
 George Will observes in Ugly Truths for the Warming Alarmists that, as global warming disappears, the alarmists become more hysterical. One quote:
The Post recently reported the theory of a University of Virginia professor emeritus who thinks that, many millennia ago, primitive agriculture -- burning forests, creating methane-emitting rice paddies, etc. -- produced enough greenhouse gases to warm the planet at least a degree. The theory is interesting. Even more interesting is the reaction to it by people such as the Columbia University professor who says it makes him "really upset" because it might encourage opponents of legislation combating global warming.
That's a contemptible admission, but a good example of where the Lefty academics are at. I think it is well-established that the whole subject has become politicized, ideological-ized, sensationalized, and governmentalized to the point that calm, rational discussion of the facts - if and when they are available - is difficult. There is too much money and power at stake in this crazy obsession.
Image is Disney's Chicken Little, in case you didn't know
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