Thursday, October 7. 2010
Alan Greenspan cites fear as the cause for the non-recovery. It's fear mainly of the consequences of government actions. From what I see and hear, that seems right.
Money will sit dormant on the sidelines until people know what is coming next. No new investment means no jobs.
 True Grit; One Awesome Trailer
Socialist ‘Success’: Food Stamp Use Breaks Record
A horror story about a small businessman vs the Feds. h/t Cafe Hayek
AVI contemplates how Libs view government differently
How Obamacare is already affecting medical practice
Postcards of the hanging
Blue collar folks abandon Dems. The wealthy still like the Dems.
Via Gay Patriot:
...in this election, Republicans are running more blacks in white majority districts than the Democrats are. Shouldn’t that be taken into consideration when accusations of racism are being hurled about?
Driscoll: Individuality is Fine as Long as We All Do It Together
How do they do it without Fannie Mae? International Comparison of Home Ownership Rates
More UK insanity: School installs Ł9,000 facial recognition cameras to stop students turning up late... and teachers could be next target
At Am Thinker: The Left's Terror Folly
The lesson from these attempted attacks is clear. Islamic radicals are trying to kill us not because of the policies of George W Bush or Tony Blair, or because there aren't enough U.N. or EU resolutions condemning Israel, or any other grievances the left are trying to project upon our enemies. The reason America and Western Europe are being attacked is because radical Islamists hate the Western way of life. They hate that we are not enslaved to their extremist version of Islam, and they hate the freedom and prosperity that we enjoy in the West.
Weekly Standard: Democracy is Winning in Latin America
Via Insty: Psychology: The Latest Threat to Campus Free Speech?
The interesting speech by Pinker about taboo thoughts is here.
A pleasure to watch, last Sunday afternoon. There is a good friend of Maggie's on the red boat.
Wednesday, October 6. 2010
Not yet, anyway. He seems to imagine that somebody thinks Obamacare can work. Of course it cannot. It is not meant to work.
It's meant to fail, and is doing so already. The greedy insurance companies will be blamed, and the Feds will step in...as long as the Lefties are in control.
Reading maketh a full man, conference, a ready man, and writing, an exact man.
Francis Bacon, as quoted at Rick Moran's REFLECTIONS ON SIX YEARS OF BLOGGING
It's the F List. Some Duke fellows are surely profoundly humiliated by this, but if you can't do the time, don't do the crime.
Drunken frat boys have made these rating lists for many years about gals, so why not a chick? It's good satire, despite being true. I guess she is a modern woman.
My college experience was nothing like that. I had to study too hard and too long to do well, and having two adorable little sisters made it impossible for me to view gals as pieces of meat. (I remember predator guys referring to the new freshman gals as "the freshmeat.")
I think I am more lascivious now than I was then, but I am meeting independent, grown women, not goofy college girls.
From the story:
Cute gals can get it any time they want to study the subject. Not so easy for us guys, despite reports of all the desperately horny women out there. Many of them have standards: there's the rub.
Gagdad Bob takes on the Cosmos
Mao's little helpers in the Western intelligentsia
Former Secretary of State George Shultz to President Obama: “You’re out of your mind.”
Are Dems uninformed?
Breaking news: Bristol Palin eats at McDonald's. Horrors. We think that their Angus Burger with cheddar, mushrooms, and bacon is darn good.
Quote via Jammie:
I agree with Professor Richard Lindzen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who said: “future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century’s developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age”.
--- Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic
Gov. Christie goes to Iowa.
Your Stimulus Dollars at Work: Teacher Pay Raises
A case of pure projection: On the right, hateful words are fired like bullets. Who, where, what, when?
This fellow Cravaack in MN 8th looks good
Conyers admits Obama care is just the first step to complete government control. As we always say, first they break it, then offer to fix it.
Chicago Boyz: Just say it! Teachers Unions are morally illegitimate
Levin: The War on the Young - Obama tries to fool them again.
Department of Climate Disruption: Coldest winter in 1,000 years on its way
Great idea for "at risk" kids: Unreal. New Hip-Hop Curriculum Refers to Founding Fathers “Old Dead White Men”
Iran Admits It Could Pull Nuke Trigger on US, Israel.
Tiger:
Our Congress is deeply, embarrassingly incompetent. Willful incompetence in my view is simply the equivalent of corruption. Incompetence which springs from ignorance is merely stupidity at work. Whether the current Democratic leadership of Pelosi and Reid is one or the other doesn't really matter. Of course, I have an opinion. But the result is the same.
Sunday afternoon:
Tuesday, October 5. 2010
Just catching up on my email and received this from my friend Captain Wayne Beardsley - a short video from his recent trip to the Burgundy region of France along the Seille River.
These are self- captained barge style boats that are easy to navigate and control having 40 hp engines and bow thrusters to aid in positioning while docking or using the river locks. They aren't hard to control at all as they have a really slow hull speed at 4-5 knots (about 5 mph +/- 1) and hydraulic steering makes it all a breeze. The other boat in the video is one from the same company heading back up river.
The company who rents these boats is called Le Boat (what else would they call it?). The boat they rented was the Tango model.
One of the interesting comments Captain Beardsley mentioned was the river lock system. Apparently there are three styles of locks - fully manual/self operated; unattended automatic locks; and the more typical operated by a lock keeper.
I found the description of the automatic locks really interesting. "The way it works is a blue pole is suspended over the water from an overhead cable. If the lock is closed with a red signal light, the procedure is to approach the pole slowly and for someone on the boat to give the pole a half twist activating a switch causing the lower gate to close, and the lock to start a refill cycle. Meanwhile the light signal turns to both red and green with a flashing strobe. After the lock fills, the upper gate opens, the signal light turns green, and all of the boats enter that can fit in. When everyone has their lines secure, someone activates another blue pole along the side of the lock which closes the upper gate and starts the lowering sequence."
Wayne said that the manual/self-operated locks took a little getting used to. While they operated all the same way, the instructions written in French were a tad "terse" as he put it. He went through this type of lock with a couple of more experienced boats to get the procedure down then off they went on their own.
It sounds like a great trip as there were a lot of medieval towns along the route and, as Wayne put it, great food and great wine.
They finished off the trip in Monaco at the Monaco Boat Show which, just from looking at the exhibitors on the show site, must have been something to see. Use the search, select the brokers and charters selection under the activity sector tab and check out some of the boats.
 Good: ‘Alternative Pathways to Desirable Careers’
Bill Gates: Soak the mini-rich. Brilliant!
Is Rahm ready for prime time?
Samuelson: The government is stifling job-creation
Walter Williams: Politicians Exploit Economic Ignorance. True indeed. It's their stock in trade.
Derbyshire: I love America. Why does it need transforming?
What happens when government gets involved with your medical care
I am deeply offended by what PC insanity the UK is up to now. This is psychotic policy-making.
Coyote on the Corporate State:
A European-style corporate state is typically ruled by a troika of large favored corporations, industrial and public employee unions, and long-time political insiders. Most definitely excluded from power are consumers, entrepreneurs, small businesses, younger workers without seniority, and taxpayers.
The Tea Party is a diabolical cabal
Venezuela shows how it's done. First you break it, then run in to "save" it.
Green jobs scam
Buying gold by the ton. That is called "money on the sidelines."
Powerline: Get your hand out of my shower. How and why is this a Federal responsibility?
Crazy California: Proposition 23 and the damage it would do to California:
Setting aside the state's climate change law would damage the state's green economy and imperil California's commitment to fighting greenhouse gas emissions.
Good grief.
 The rather common American Kestrel - I still call them Sparrow Hawks - is our smallest raptor (size of an American Robin) and, when seen in the right light, our most colorful.
They are falcons, prey on insects, especially grasshoppers, small mammals, and small birds. Occasionally they can be seen in fields hunting from a hover but, more commonly, perched on the wires or branches from which they pounce.
Because of their preference for open spaces, their numbers decline where agriculture gives way to woodland. Their Eastern US population is down, probably due to the decline of farming in the Northeast.
They breed in nest holes, and move south from their northern ranges in the winter, making them "semi-migratory."
Their autumn southerly movements have been correlated with dragonfly migrations. Kestrels are happy to catch dragonflies although I don't know how it is possible. I had no idea that dragonflies migrated, but some species do - all over the world.
More about these fine birds here.
You say, 'If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.' You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
The wise Rev. Spurgeon might be right, but I'd be willing to give it a try anyway just to find out for myself.
 If Repubs win the House and/or the Senate, what will they decide to do?
Many Repubs really cannot answer the question. Paul Ryan has his answers, but I'm not sure they are election winners. The only winners, I think, are to undo Obamacare, to stop the January tax increases, and to halt any further Federal intrusion into our lives.
Related at Reason - The Tipping Point:
Suddenly the country had a Resistance movement, standing athwart the flow of Obama history, shouting, "STOP!"
That brings us to this historical moment. If it was not clear during Obama's 2008 campaign (and he made deliberate efforts to obscure it) certainly in late 2010 it is clear where he wants to take the county--toward a European-style socialism, a command economy, driven by an all-powerful central government, determined to redistribute wealth and remake America as a multicultural, secular humanist state.
The election next month is not about returning the Republican Party to power in Washington. It is about stepping back from this tipping point, this precipice that Obama and the Pelosi-Reid Congress have led us to. There is a pervasive sense that this is momentous.
Important? Yes. Momentous? I am not sure. A reaction? Certainly. Much of this is just vague sentiment without specific content, but much of politics is about emotion. Devil is in the details, etc.
I think this post reflects much of the current sentiment: return to the default setting. But which status ante? Here are some default thoughts I can relate to.
Related, Beinart sends a warning: How the GOP Could Blow It:
...Which brings us to the Tea Party, many of whose activists seem genuinely dedicated to slashing government spending (except on the military, of course) and making the party of Reagan and Bush, once again, the party of Goldwater and Gingrich. Maybe this is one reason the GOP establishment is so scared? Over the last half-century, the Republican Party has been, at times, a genuinely anti-government party and, at times, a politically successful party. But it’s never been both at the same time. Once this fall’s elections are over, I suspect the Tea Partiers will begin learning that, the hard way.
Sounds like sour grapes already, yet he has a point. But does Beinart forget Reagan?
Two of my hunting buddies.
Monday, October 4. 2010
Kondratieff has received his $250 bribe check from Medicare, purportedly a penance for the Part D donut. However, since Dr. K's vote is not for sale, he is gleefully endorsing it over to a Tea Party candidate of his choice.
I put this video together to see whether our readers might be interested in this sort of topic. If you are, I'll do more of them.
 Sometimes we're lucky to have friends with whom we can have civil conversations, even when we disagree. Fewer times, we're even more fortunate to have a friend whose learning and temperance wakens new thinking in ourself. Such a friend earns the right to be listened to carefully, always.
The Rabbi at my synagogue is such a friend. He is deeply liberal in all the best senses of that term, courageous in stating his views, and in altering them as new information is found. Several years ago, at his High Holiday sermon, the most heard of the year, he called for more openness in our listening to criticisms of Israel, not to pull it down but to get closer to our ideals.
In the meantime, others have gathered force to pull Israel down. So, this year, the Rabbi's sermon confronted those who cross the line from legitimate criticism to delegitimization. "When it comes to Israel’s many faults, there is a bold line between criticism and delegitimization, and that line is being crossed by those whose real agenda is the elimination of the Jewish State."
It is a beautiful and informative discussion. As usual, the Rabbi speaks clearly and covers the pros and cons, resulting in a reasoned conclusion. "To teach our children, to educate our neighbors, and to raise our hands against the slaughtering knife of delegitimization of the Zionist Project."
Read it all for yourself.
A re-post from many years ago -
The chirp of the crickets reminds us that hunting season is fast approaching. I have been too busy focusing on yard and farm work to pick up my 12 ga. Belgian boxlock s/s which I only use for pheasant, which has been at the gunsmith since January for a bad firing pin. Sad to say, I only have a paltry two non-local trips planned for the fall: Duck, goose and grouse in Manitoba, and grouse + woodcock (and maybe trout) in the Adirondacks. I made a mistake and scheduled my Adirondack trip to overlap with an annual group trip to New Brunswick for grouse, and puddle duck too.
But there are abundant local opportunities for winter duck, grouse, and "flying mattresses," (ie pen-raised pheasants which is to hunting as miniature golf is to golf but is highly gratifying to dogs who get a little bored or frustrated after two hours without putting up a grouse). The pup is definitely ready and I have gotten him off pointing turtles, mice, and grasshoppers. He still points snakes, and finds them interesting but fortunately will not pick them up. Yes, he likes birds. Why does the subject come up? It's time to get to the outdoor catalogs real quick.
I like The Ugly Dog and of course Filson's. Cabela's hardly needs my help. Sierra Trading Post often has very good deals on outdoor stuff, along with lots of other useful clothing.
I should put in a plug for Arrow Lake Lodge in Canada where a pal of mine likes to go - photo from their website.
What kit catalogs do our readers enjoy?
From a review of the new film:
The film is adapted from the autobiography of Li Cunxin, a peasant child in the wilds of rural China who, at age 11, is plucked out of a one-room schoolhouse to attend Madame Mao's dance school in Beijing. He ends up with the Houston Ballet Company as part of a cultural exchange program, and a few mildly humorous scenes of culture shock follow. Once he has tasted the liberty -- and the good life -- of America, however, the new star doesn't want to return.
Here's how it should have gone down:
"What? You're asking me why after I paid my maid three times the minimum wage, checked her paperwork, paid taxes on her - and she turns out to have defrauded me - I'm the bad guy? Next question."
Defrauded - and betrayed. Unfaithful servant indeed.
What did Meg do wrong? She should not have hired a Hispanic.
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