Wednesday, August 11. 2010
 I guess I should have known that the title of that email was going to be a Canadian pharmacy hawking Viagra, but for a second there my crazy brain thought it might be about how to want to bed geriatric women.
You know, a Zorba-type thing. What a great movie. The inspiration for Mr. Tambourine Man, I have heard.
The financial burden on the states of illegal immigration is among the arguments for the Arizona law that increases local enforcement of federal immigration laws. Little commented upon is that the $26-billion the Democrats in Congress just voted in additional aid to the states, primarily to reduce or avoid layoffs of teachers and indirectly, it is said, of police, is the federal taxpayers helping the states meet this fiscal burden from illegal immigration.
According to the July 2010 study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, (102-page pdf ; Executive Summary), the overall annual cost at the state and local level of illegal immigration is estimated at $84.2-billion and at the federal level another $29-billion. Particularly impacting education expenditures are the estimated over 3-million “birthright citizen” children of illegal immigrants and those here temporarily on entry visas, $49.2-billion from state and local government coffers for the education of children of illegal immigrants and temporary residents.
The FAIR study repeatedly states its numbers are based on estimates and extrapolations, but it uses the available wide-range of piecemeal studies from legitimate sources to base them upon. FAIR itself has been justly and unjustly criticized for harboring extremists. On the other hand, FAIR has not been critiqued for existing for the self-enrichment of its officers or fundraisers. It is recognized by Charity Navigator as a 4-star 501(c)4 which “Exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in its Cause,” on a par with the ACLU and ADL for its score on use of donations and assets for its goals. Other immigration focused organizations also receive 4-stars, like the National Immigration Law Center and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, while others receive 2-stars, like the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund or the Appleseed network of public interest law centers in the US and Mexico.
Charity Navigator does not rate unions. Unions have spent more than any other lobbying group in many current and previous federal, state and local issue and election campaigns, overwhelmingly to Democrats and for causes that will protect or increase the jobs and pay of its members. The $26-billion federal bailout for the benefit of unionized state and local government employees is one of its victories. Many unions have been exposed as inordinately feathering the nests of their officers.
There is an urgent need for more comprehensive and well-sourced studies of the fiscal impact, to taxpayers and to citizens generally, of illegal immigration, including from “birthright citizenship.” Some studies do indicate that the FAIR study may be overblown or that there are other benefits to the US not as easily counted. However, until there is such a new study that will do a far better job of taking into account all the impacts and benefits, the FAIR study deserves to stand as an indicator, at least, of the hole we’ve dug ourselves into by the holes in our borders and laws, including the unintended one in the 14th Amendment.
PEW Too: According to the widely-respected PEW Research Center's Hispanic Center, there are over 4-million children of illegal immigrants in the US, 8% of the US birthrate.
Laura Ingraham speaking to Howard Fineman, via Driscoll's The MSM Sure Grades on a Curve:
How is it though with all these smart people at Newsweek – I went around the block with Evan Thomas about this as well. How did you all think that a guy who basically went from the Harvard Law Review, to some community leafleting, organizing, whatever you want to call it, to a short stint, a few lectures about constitutional law at [the University of] Chicago, very short stopover in the state Senate, and a very short stopover in the U.S. Senate. How does that add up to experience to run the biggest economy and the biggest military in the world? And why wasn’t Newsweek, instead of doing these celebrified covers of Michelle and Barack as historic, and celebrity culture, and all this love-love-love-love-love, why wasn’t – Why weren’t those questions asked before this election took place? Because to me, those were the questions to ask. . It wasn’t about personality. It was about experience and outlook.
and note this bit:
GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt gathered the NBC reporters together in early 2009 and scolded them for reporting negatively on Barack Obama. GE owns 80% of NBC Universal.
A buddy had an Aussie field biologist friend who used to like to get drunk and recite this potty-mouth ditty around the campfire to much merriment: The Bastard from the Bush.
It's a new one to me, but probably all Aussies know it by heart.
Liberals believe you build a good society from the top down; conservatives believe you build a society from the bottom up.
Michael Medved, via Reb
 Our friend Sippican is having a major sale of his brand-new antiques. Serious markdowns.
His stuff is all solid wood, nothing fake, and generally consistent with Maggie's Farm style - all-American homespun with no Baroque or Rococo.
We have a couple of his pieces and they are handsome. Heirlooms (and if you happen to wonder about the etymology of "heirloom," it's just like it sounds).
Here's Sipp's furniture website.
 Excellent brief reminder of the history of limited government
A fresh look at the Shakers. Today, I think we'd term them a cult. As a furniture cult, they had good taste.
She quits job, emails office with her erase board messages. Fantastic. I have heard of a MILF but not of a HOPA. Now that I know the term, I have to say I have seen lots of HOPAs. (Note: this is a dubious story, but good even if fictional.)
THAT WAS NO TEACHER… Unhinged Leftist Who Confronted Palin Is a Singer in a Drag Queen Band. Seriously. . (Note: this is also probably a half-true story)
Enraged over McNuggets. Speaking of McDonalds, Moonbats Continue Jihad Against Happy Meals
The Increasingly Self-Pitying Obama White House
The elites don't get it: 'We Socialists' vs. 'We the People':
It is insufferable (and will not long be suffered) to be lectured to and imposed upon by a ruling class that loathes our nation's history, values and accomplishments; by those who are not, in fact, our genuine betters. They are neither better educated nor more profoundly morally versed.
In fact, they are our intellectual and moral inferiors -- not superiors.
Let's start building some freaking small nuke plants. As I have mentioned, we have a small home-made reactor in the farm basement. Runs great except when mice get into the rods. When it runs a bit hot, we just spray it with a hose.
Tuesday, August 10. 2010
Bill Monroe & the Bluegrass Boys - Blue Moon of Kentucky. I tried to find Tom T. Hall's amazing Kentucky in the Morning on video, but it doesn't seem to be anywhere.
From Jules:
You know you’re nearing 21st century nirvana when you’ve left social networking behind and feel close to transcending rants and debates with complete strangers, extended blah blah blah into the ether. Because you know what they say, it is all nothingness …
To Jules: That's enough of paraphrasing Ecclesiates. Would you term our post on the Bog Turtle "nothingness"? Shame on you.
 The smallest North American turtle lives in similar habitats to those of the Spotted Turtle (one of my favorite reptiles), and is a relative of the wonderful Wood Turtle. Nowadays, they have changed the official name to Bog Turtle.
(When I was young, I located a colony of Spotted Turtles in a sedgy marsh on the edge of a stream. On a sunny day, they'd be basking on the little tussocks, and splash into the shallow water when you walked by -not walked, actually - hopped from tussock to tussock in one's Keds. Spotted Turtles are listed as endangered too, now. Like Muhlenberg's, Spotteds seem to live in small colonies in specialized habitats which are senstive to human - and dog - intrusions.)
The Bog Turtle likes marshes with wet sedgy meadows in limestone areas. Despite their name, they do not live in acidic Sphagnum Bogs. They are rarely seen because they like to burrow in muck, but they are probably endangered. I have never seen one in the wild, even though our beaver marsh overflow is probably perfect habitat for them with its grassy hummocks, rivulets, beaver channels, damp meadows - and all of our Berkshire limestone and marble ledges and bedrock.
If you have ever encountered one, tell us.
The range of these turtles is dispersed:
Muhlenberg's Turtle was named after amateur botanist and sedge expert Gotthilf Henry Ernst Muhlenberg - an interesting character who played a role in the Revolution. Muhlenberg College in PA was named after his dad.
I read that America's saving rate is rising, and that people are paying off their personal debt - and that retail business is terrible.
Are you buying stuff and spending money, or restraining yourself these days?
Let us know, in the comments.
Good  travel advice image h/t Theo
The world's great structures built with Legos
Rules for blues musicians (h/t, Synth)
Virtual democracy comes to the EU...as an alternative to real citizen participation in their "important work."
How many failed empires has history seen in Europe? Ths thing is just the latest, and I doubt that it will last my lifetime. It is too far from the people, and too condescending towards the people.
Help wanted, but no takers
Gutfield: A gay bar next to mosque for reconciliation and peace purposes. It's all about tolerance of differences!
My take on the mosque? It's obnoxious and incredibly insensitive, to the point of hostile provocation. Where's the sensitivity and respect? There is much more to civil behavior than determining what is legal. "Legal" is about the hard rules. "Civil" is about the soft rules. Except for criminals, most of life is about the soft rules.
Neo: Ezra Klein: cub journalist
The end of responsibilityFrom homeowners to government, the buck stops nowhere
More on the myths of preventive care. Villainous
...all this puts a terrible burden on a sycophantic media with a long tradition of trashing the slightest hint of aristocratic enjoyment on the part of first ladies (e.g., Nancy Reagan’s china). So, just as golf, around winter 2009, ceased to be an aristocratic distraction from the nation’s pressing problems, so too luxury on the Mediterranean must be a sort of federal employee’s deserved state vacation.
Monday, August 9. 2010
In the Sierra Nevadas, California, July 2010
 Anybody who took my advice about growing Montauk Daisies, the succulent daisy which is a cultivar of the Seaside Daisy (common on Cape Cod, and totally different from the West Coast's beach daisy), is missing one piece of info which I have learned only now.
Yes, these wonderful late-bloomers are worth growing, but they need to be prunced twice. First, cut down to 6" in the later winter, but then again to around 14-16" in May. That's the trick to keeping them from becoming too leggy and sort-of falling apart.
I learned this yesterday. If you like these heat and drought-tolerant autumn-bloomers, remember that for next year. Mine are flopping all over now, before blooming as they always do, and I never bothered to ask a pro about it.
Like the Beach Rose, the Montauk Daisy originated in Japan.
Here's Dem pollster Pat Caddell on the mood of the electorate. Holy mackerel, this is powerful:
 Re my Bias Against Beauty post, a case in point from yesterday's news.
Red-blooded American fellows are challenged by this sort of charming person, regardless of what the lesbian feminazis might say.
Sunday, August 8. 2010
 Instead of turning up my nose at Baroque design, I decided to try to get into the heads of those who promulgated this heavily-ornamented style from around 1600 to 1750 in Europe.
Aside from some Italian kitsch, nobody has done new baroque for a long time. This remarkable book, Baroque: Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, despite its abundance of photos, is not a coffee-table book. It is dense with text and scholarly detail, and 500 pages of small print which tests my eyes. There is no way I will complete this before I arrive in Vienna, but I will give it the old college try.
One idea which is coming through clearly is the notion of "the world as a stage." Baroque design is meant to be a stage set. It was meant to impress and/or intimidate and/or inspire - to convey power and wealth, but also to provide a grandiose setting for the highly formalized interactions and occasions of the high classes of the time. It does that, however fussy, overdone, and gratuitously gaudy it may look to a modern eye.
Another feature of Baroque design is that it moves. It has curves, details that jump out; interiors can be a "blooming, buzzing confusion" (the term William James used to describe his speculation about the experience of a human infant).
Versailles, St. Peter's Square (which is a circle), and the Hofberg Library are some classics of Baroque. Baroque is sensual, indulgent, extravagant, maybe grandiloquent. Like Bach. Bernini's 1650 Ecstasy of St. Theresa contains most of the elements of Baroque, especially the melding of sensual art with the grand architectural design:
Here's a short list of the main elements of Baroque design.
Wiki explains how Baroque design has its roots in Mannerism, and how it was replaced, as a design fashion, by the aesthetic of Neoclassicism, which embraced restraint and cool "reason" as a reaction to a Baroque which had been taken to its limits.
We do not need to be enslaved to the aesthetic of our own time - or of any time. Baroque, however interesting, just isn't a Maggie's Farm, Yankee style. It's not in the blood.
Here's a Baroque era table, which I find both hideous and wonderful at the same time. It certainly moves, with those squigglies wiggling all over the inlay, and those sea slugs creeping up the legs:
 I was working yesterday, so Mrs. BD visited a friend on the shore to do some kayaking (that was before she came home to do her weeding).
She reported that the sky was filled with Ospreys, and young ones were perched in the trees on the little islands, screaming for more sushi.
Her friend told her that there are now 19 pairs of Ospreys breeding in the immediate area. 20 years ago, none. That is a remarkable conservation achievement. 30 years ago, they were rare in the Northeast although they were never rare in Florida.
I love to watch them fishing, hovering then diving with their talons forward, and then struggling to free themselves from the pull of the water. The young ones seem to learn how to do it, but it's a wonder they don't all drown.
The Osprey has worldwide distribution. A summary of the magnificent Osprey here.
Do you like him any better now?
No?
Then you're not a racist.
 A new report claims a bias against female beauty in a number of jobs. I am not surprised.
I always advise young associates to avoid regular work with sexy females, unless the associate is on the make. The distraction can be too much for a fellow to handle, the chemistry can be too exothermic, and familiarity can quickly turn to grievous consequences after a couple of cocktails.
For a serene and honorable life, I advise working with fat women with a wart on their nose - preferably with a hair growing out of the wart.
This strategy has always worked for me. I have a libidinous nature and a dirty mind, so it matters.
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Turban Renewal