We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
First, what exactly is race today in America in which intermarriage and immigration have increasingly made it — and its ugly twin racial purity — often irrelevant? We are no longer a country largely 85-90% “white” and 10-12% “black,” but something almost hard to categorize in racial terms. Do university admission officers adopt the 1/16, one-drop racial rule of the old Confederacy? Does being one fourth African-American qualify one for consideration; three-fourths Japanese; half Mexican-American? Does a simple surname add — and often by intent — authenticity and credulity? The son of Linda Hernandez and Jason Smith — a Bobby Smith — is not considered, without genealogical investigation, Hispanic, but the son of Linda Smith and Jason Hernandez — a Roberto Hernandez of equal 50/50 ancestry — is almost instantly? If so, is race a state of mind and personal choice more than circumstances of birth? What exactly is white and what a minority — a dark-skinned Armenian-American is the former, a light-skinned Colombian American is the latter? A dark Sicilian-American is white, Barack Obama is black?
A friend recommended a book, The Lords of Poverty (1998). A quote from an Amazon reviewer:
Hancock's writing style here may be a sustained rant, but it nevertheless provides a great deal of useful information and tears down many of the misconceptions most Americans or Europeans may have about the international aid industry. Particularly interesting is his criticism of the various UN agencies and, especially, the World Bank and the IMF - whose projects all too often do more harm than good (if they do any good at all). Perhaps the most disturbing aspect exposed in this book is still quite valid today: that taxpayers in the big donor countries like the U.S., Germany, Japan, the U.K. etc. are footing the bill for many disastrous projects worldwide that make the lives of impoverished populations even worse and often destroy in the environment in the process. "Lords of Poverty" may be dated, but it's still well worth the read.
"Frankly, I don't know what it is about California, but we seem to have a strange urge to elect really obnoxious women to high office. I'm not bragging, you understand, but no other state, including Maine, even comes close. When it comes to sending left-wing dingbats to Washington, we're number one. There's no getting around the fact that the last time anyone saw the likes of Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Maxine Waters, and Nancy Pelosi, they were stirring a cauldron when the curtain went up on 'Macbeth'. The four of them are like jackasses who happen to possess the gift of blab. You don't know if you should condemn them for their stupidity or simply marvel at their ability to form words."
A group of them is called a "Singular" of boar (although the use of the term is disputed; see James Lipton,An Exaltation of Larks, Penguin
Books, 1991). An alternate term is a "Sounder" of swine.
If all the stories and rumors are true, he doesn't have a personal psychological problem (except his new personal political and legal problems). My guess would be that the issue is that people like him have no problem.
In other words, he just does whatever he feels like and doesn't give a damn because he gets away with it and his associates and his wife don't seem to care all that much. To diagnose that (eg Impulse Disorder, or Sex Addiction) is simply to excuse, or dignify, the sort of bad behavior that most people decide, often with great struggle, to limit to their fantasy lives. Everybody has illicit ideas and desires, whether consciously or unconsciously. That's why we are given the gift of the Ten Commandments.
Now that he has supposedly (as the gossip says) had his fun raping and/or seducing God knows how many attractive women and girls, and finally got caught, watch him now act the victim and seek help for a psychological problem. They always do, after they get caught. Clinton too.
The charges are roiling France, where Mr. Strauss-Kahn was the favorite to be the Socialist nominee for President next year and was even leading in the polls against Nicolas Sarkozy. The French are legendary for nonchalance toward the sexual appetites of their politicians, and they sniffed at Americans who disapproved of Bill Clinton when he lied under oath about sex. But we doubt even the French will be blasé about assaulting a hotel chamber maid.
"Politicians ... enjoy a particular tolerance on this subject," he wrote. "Part of the shock comes also from the unusual scene, until now unthinkable here: police arresting a top-level politician on a matter of morals."
The EU was a giant mistake, an attempt to create a bureaucratic empire like the European empires of old.There will be rebellion, destructive immigration, dissolution, etc.No wars. though.
Near-holy perfection for a dear pal who died a week or so ago. We expect our friends to stick around forever, but they do not. I have been losing too many, lately.
A sweet and gentle fellow, a true gentleman, who always would lend a hand despite his many life struggles and sorrows. Devoted to doing for others, and never doing enough for himself. A true humble child of God, and everybody who knew him could see that in him and loved him for it. He touched many people with his gentleness and relentless generosity of spirit. His warmth and humility came from God, I believe.
Too young. I'll smoke a good ceegar for ya, dear friend, and raise of glass of semi-decent Cabernet for ya as I know you would like me to do, and as we have done many times in the past.
He would appreciate this tune. If heaven has internet, Bob will hear this. I hope so.
"Today," the president continued in his speech, " there are an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants here in the United States. Some crossed the border illegally. Others avoid immigration laws by overstaying their visas. Regardless of how they came, the overwhelming majority of these folks are just trying to earn a living and provide for their families."
Yo, Barack, my man, I'm just trying to make a living and provide for my family. So are millions of other Americans, those who were actually born here and others who immigrated here legally.
Since you seem so willing to cut illegal immigrants some slack when they break the law, how about cutting those of us who aren't illegal immigrants some slack when we break the law too?
Rail is great in the right place, for the right purpose. Such places are rare in the US but, in the Boston - DC corridor, rail is good. Still subsidized, but heavily used - and all those cars could not fit onto the NYC roads.
Photo: The Striped Bass on the steeple of the Cuttyhunk Church. I am due another visit to good old Cuttyhunk.I am due another visit to Monhegan Island, too.Such a big, wonderful earth, and so little time to see and do everything...which reminds me of a story. A year or two ago, my energetic and ambitious Wall St. daughter got into some jolly verbal jousting with her boss.He challenged her to sky-dive. She did, and has the vid to prove it.She is doing well at work, and having great fun with it.
The Euro-MidEast international Eurovision song competition each year is usually one of my favorite shows. Each country's entry is usually superb, and making a choice of winner difficult. This year, however, the sameness of many of the entries, and the increased prevalence of English from almost all countries, made the choices easier, for me anyway. There's usually griping, with much justification, that there's much favoritism in the final rankings. Here's my favorites from the 25 semi-finalists: Greece, France, Spain (with extra points on top of artistry for being in native tongues), and for a lovely performance Azerbaijan (in English). Azerbaijan won the competition, maybe because its entry didn't have the hoochy-koochy, look-alike theatrics of so many of the others.
Here's a sampling of the top 25. After that, click around for your favorites and other countries entries. Nice way to idle away a few hours.
My kids are also gonna see these guys next weeK - Toots and the Maytals - another favorite of some Maggie's readers. These guys were doing ska in the early 60s, before reggae was invented -
It's tough on these folks, but they know they live on a flood plain, and know it will happen once in a while despite the levees which attempt to tame the untameable and mighty Father of Waters.That Mississippi silt from flooding is the reason they have such great farmland.
My dear American friends, you cannot imagine how we envy your First Amendment. The day when America
follows the example of Europe and Canada and introduces so-called “hate
speech crimes” which is only used to punish people who are critical of
islam, that day America will have lost its freedom.
The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod? Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; And all is seared with trade; Bleared, smeared with toil; And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent; There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; And though the last lights off the black West went Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs — Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
Here in the early years of the twenty-first century, the American elite is a walking disaster and is in every way less capable than its predecessors. It is less in touch with American history and culture, less personally honest, less productive, less forward looking, less effective at and less committed to child rearing, less freedom loving, less sacrificially patriotic and less entrepreneurial than predecessor generations. Its sense of entitlement and snobbery is greater than at any time since the American Revolution; its addiction to privilege is greater than during the Gilded Age and its ability to raise its young to be productive and courageous leaders of society has largely collapsed. ...
and
Many problems troubling America today are rooted in the poor performance
of our elite educational institutions, the moral and social collapse of
our ‘best’ families and the culture of narcissism and entitlement that
has transformed the American elite into a flabby minded, strategically
inept and morally confused parody of itself. Probably the best
depiction of our elite in popular culture is the petulantly narcissistic
Prince Charming in Shrek 2;
our educational institutions are like the Fairy Godmother, weaving
shoddy, cheap, feel-good illusions into a gossamer tissue of flattering
lies.
Wherever beauty lies in wait for us, there arises a desire to preempt
its appeal, to smother it with scenes of destruction. Hence the many
works of contemporary art that rely on shocks administered to our
failing faith in human nature—such as the crucifix pickled in urine by
Andres Serrano. Hence the scenes of cannibalism, dismemberment, and
meaningless pain with which contemporary cinema abounds, with directors
like Quentin Tarantino having little else in their emotional
repertories. Hence the invasion of pop music by rap, whose words and
rhythms speak of unremitting violence, and which rejects melody,
harmony, and every other device that might make a bridge to the old
world of song. And hence the music video, which has become an art form
in itself and is often devoted to concentrating into the time span of a
pop song some startling new account of moral chaos. Those phenomena record a habit of desecration in which life is not
celebrated by art but targeted by it. Artists can now make their
reputations by constructing an original frame in which to display the
human face and throw dung at it.
When I was an adolescent, we thought that "beauty" was old-fashioned, for the old fogies, and that rough and ugly was hip. Little did I know then about how beauty can be so elusive, temporary, and precious.
Once upon a time, a Prince asked a beautiful Princess... "Will you marry me?"
The Princess said "NO!"
And the Prince lived happily ever after, and rode motorcycles, and went fishing and hunting, and played golf, and dated women half his age, and smoked cigars, and drank beer and Scotch, and had loads of money in the bank, and left the toilet seat up.
"Dr. Lastname" is, for me, the Dear Abby of the internet. Here's why you do not tell the truth, at work: 
Death to high school English - 
All the kids in England 
Photo and link via
Insty:
God's Grandeur (1877)