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.
We took a drive to Orvieto, with the goal of seeing the renowned Signorelli chapel's 16th C. frescoes - the Chapel of the Madonna di San Brizio inside the 15th C. Duomo.
Horrors! I was taken aback by my own thoughts. How could I be so cruel? What evil right-wing influence was making me think this way?
I went through a similar transformation years ago. I am heartened to see that some are still capable of real "critical thinking." Perhaps all Liberals are not hopelessly committed Communists. My main take-home from the pics, however, is that these are not well-indoctrinated ideologues - they are just greedy for my money.
There is no end-point to the Leftist's desire for the fruits of my labor. It is always "more."
Like everyone else in the audience, if I had been watching 'Britain's Got Talent' when Susan Boyle walked onto the stage, I would have figured this was going to be a total disaster. A more frumpy, frowzy, middle-aged Scottish woman would be hard to imagine. Then she starts cackling away and going through some goofy gyrations and you're starting to think that maybe it's going to be some kind of musical comedy skit. Either way, you know it's going to be just awful.
But then.
Hopefully, we all learned a little lesson about stereotypes and preconceived notions that day.
...I have minimal expectations of this country’s depraved political class. But if you can’t draw the line at being ruled by creeps with a spambot penis, you can’t draw it anywhere.
According to NBC, you're from Chicago, but they've already got a mayor that accosts men in the shower at the gym, so maybe you figure there's no upside for you there. But you can move to New York and run as a carpetbagger, dude! You've got what the Empire State demands in its elected officials: a wonky eye for the ladies.
The original argument against the Bill of Rights as an amendment to the Constitution in the US was that it would make it appear that those were the only rights of the people and of the states.
"Enumerated powers" do not enumerate the rights of the people, but delimit the powers of the state (all Maggie's readers know that). Randy Barnett discusses. A quote:
...before there was any Bill of Rights, defenders of the Constitution claimed that the enumeration of power in Article I would protect the liberties of the people, making a bill of rights unnecessary.
The people opposing the Bill of Rights amendments had a good point.
You may have noticed, and be thankful, that Maggie's Farm has not participated in the WeinerWanker festival. Indeed, I'd forgotten that I'd exposed Congressman Anthony Weiner's putziness last February 25. The current posts at Don Surber and then at The Other McCain reminded me. A "putz" is commonly described as someone with a pattern of behavior as a fool. Those who elect them or defend them are a fool's tool.
I could go on with the verbal connections, but the deeper thrusts needn't further penetrate. Or, need they?
Out on DVD are the first two seasons of one of the most intriguing TV shows you will ever see, Lie To Me.
The Extra Good News:
It was cancelled halfway through season three.
Here's a scene from the beginning of the pilot which perfectly encapsulates the essence of the show, blending into a later scene when they recruit a new prospect for the team. The younger dude provides the show's comic relief as he practices his philosophy of 'radical honesty'.
Okay, so the young dude doesn't provide all of the show's comic relief.
"Have you ever had any specialized deception training?"
"I've dated a lot of men."
As you saw, there's a great interplay between the boss and his chief partner (he's studied the science for 20 years, she's a master psychologist) and the writers do an excellent job with the 'bright newcomer' to the team over the first two seasons as she goes from 'intuitive rookie jumping to wrong conclusions' to the 'seasoned veteran exercising restraint and impartiality'.
As I said, the first two seasons are highly recommended.
As for the third season, and why it was cancelled halfway through, it's a story too lurid for the front page of any family-friendly blog, so below the fold we must dip. There, I shall tell the sordid tale of how some liberal scumdog of a producer got his rightful and very deserved comeuppance.
Circular argument, seems to me. Most everbody starts out adult life poor. Furthermore, wealth is not everybody's life goal (tho few would reject it if it landed in their lap).
I would really need solid proof before branding a particular individual a racist, or misogynist, or homophobe, or greedy bastard. But conservatives are routinely accused of these evils with no proof whatsoever.
Rather, being conservative is its own proof, so to speak. The charge is a metaphysical/theological one, not dissimilar to our belief that man is a fallen creature, except that our principle applies to everyone, not just our political opponents (which in turn is an important reason why we oppose big government).
From James Taranto on Anthony Weiner: “But he isn’t resigning, and it isn’t hard to see why. The last thing a man in his position wants to do is spend more time with his family.”
Like Bill Clinton before him, Anthony Weiner just coarsened the American conversation by betraying the woman he said before God and the world he would love and honor.
That is literally the old Via Flaminia as it passes through the Roman town of Carsulae. We drove out there from our tenudo to look around. This via was an ancient trading road between the Tyrrhenian and the Adriatic, but was much improved by Roman engineers when they invaded Umbria around 250 BC.
Carsulae is an unusual Roman site because most Roman towns have been subject to later building on the old Roman foundations, but nobody ever built a town on top of Carsulae (in part, because it's not on a defensible hill).
The place started as a Roman military camp, and just grew into a town with an amphitheater, a local Senate, etc. by the time of Augustus. Most of the Roman town, and its surrounding Roman vacation villas, are yet to be excavated.
The problem facing us today is exactly one of mob-rule rather than a Constitutionally-limited Republic. One can honestly lay the facts out to people that such things as Medicare and Social Security are unsustainable as they are currently configured, but as long as 51% of the people feel their vote gets them a share of the other 49%’s moneythey don’t care.
While preserving my usual skepticsm about what "studies say...", it does make sense that humans would need a good dose of full- body sunlight daily.
Recent studies say 40 mins/day (without sun block), or 20 minutes per side or until done to taste.
With unblocked sunlight over enough of your body, your skin produces the right sorts of Vit D that you need for full health, vigor, and maybe even cancer prevention. Roofers get enough but, in my experience, roofers often tend to destroy themselves with crystal meth and/or alcohol. It's a roofer thing.
The alternative is to do the research yourself and try to figure out what kind and what amounts of Vit D a person ought to take as pills. As I have posted here in the past, Vit D is the only vitamin I take on the advice of all of my doc friends. However, I also take my shirt off whenever I can.
(Men, middle-aged and above, also probably need a baby aspirin and Vitamin L - Lipitor, but don't take medical advice off the internet. Including mine.)
I don't think you can attribute all of the prosperity of Medieval Europe to the Medieval Warm Period, but surely some of it.
At Maggie's, we retain a healthy skepticism about AGW just as we do about most or all scientific theories - and especially those driven by political or economic agendas.
What we mostly hear from the Climate Change propagandists are the terrifying effects of some planetary warming. We never hear about the benefits.
I took a minute to google "advantages+global warming" and "benefits+global warming," and found tons of links. A few samples of them:
I recently learned that there is software out there to make overly crisp digital images into more film-like images. Here's one of them. Other programs are out there to specifically change your images to Kodachrome-like, Ektachrome-like, etc.
Anthony Weiner now joins a disturbing list of elected officials in our
time who've lost any sense of self-discipline. If there are others out
there wandering in the confused ethers that trapped Anthony Weiner, we
have a request: Get out now. Spare the rest of us.
In an otherwise excellent essay, a distinction that Mead fails to grasp is the difference between what I will call a “breadwinner” business and a service business.
A breadwinner business is a business activity that brings money into a community. It can be manufacturing, agriculture, mining, banking or even government (e.g. Washington D.C., which hauls in cash from every state). When the breadwinner business closes down (the mine plays out or the factory closes), you have a ghost town. Service businesses can provide jobs only in communities that have a thriving breadwinner business.
Small businesses in general are service businesses that are completely dependent on the health of breadwinner businesses.
American prosperity completely depends on the health of our breadwinner businesses, and policymakers should be focusing solely on policies that will help those businesses succeed. This is not an issue of big business vs. small business; it is an issue of winning in a severe competition in a hyper-competitive global marketplace.
It's an interesting distinction, but I am not sure how well it holds up. In the failing old towns that I have seen, the main breadwinner (ie importer of $) is via government in all of its redistributive efforts, such as Social Security, Medicare, welfare, government jobs, government job programs, etc.
It's hard to avoid the conclusion that the threat of tax increases and increased regulatory burdens have produced something in the nature of a hiring strike.
It is real, and much better than riding horses. I will not tell you how I know this other than to mention the ancient themes of Will and Surrender. Why should such experiences be limited to the women of India?
I do not mean to imply that men are not essential components of a woman's life because, when properly trained, men do have many useful applications and I consider a manly, vigorous, and adventurous male to be an essential component of the modern household.
Actually, it is now a small hotel in the Valnerina (the Nera Valley in the Appennines). We stayed here last week. There is a cross hanging over every bed, and the rooms are (converted) monks' rooms (Yes, each room or suite has a bath). This is the Abazzia San Pietro in Valle. It began as a Benedictine monastery in the 5th C., established by converted Lombard invaders, the lords of Spoleto.
In fact, the Lombard Lord of Spoleto gave up his lordship to become one of the early humble monks there, and his bones rest in an old (recycled) and beautifully-carved pagan Roman sarcophagus next to the altar. I guess they threw out some old Roman's bones to make room for him.
Their chiesa is old, but, like most things in Italy that have been around for over a thousand years, things have been re-done and re-decorated. We were told that the cheisa, in some places, has five layers of frescoes on the walls. Sort of like old wallpaper, but, as Mrs. BD observed, any one of those layers would make for a blockbuster show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This wealthy and politically-powerful monastery was sacked by the Saracens - the marauding Moslems who held parts of Europe in terror for hundreds of years during the Dark Ages, and who specialized in collecting infidels for the Middle Eastern slave trade - around the year 900, but it came back. It was abandoned by the Benedictines in the 1800s and was used as stables and sheep shelters until some rich guy from Rome bought it in the 1920s and began semi-converting it into his country villa. Mussolini himself visited the Abazzia to celebrate the restoration of Italian history and culture.
One of the most photogenic places I have ever been to. Impossible for even a lousy pic-taker like me to take a bad photo. Felt unreal to be staying there, stunned by the romance of history but mainly by the beauty and glory of creation, just like when you are on a horse in the Montana Rockies, or on skis at the top of Whistler in a snowstorm. The times when the glory of God gets so much in your face you cannot deny it no matter how much of a curmudgeon you might want to be.
See what I mean about Mrs. BD being a good trip-planner? She plans, I just do the driving and go where I am told - except when I don't... More pics from around there later in my ongoing travelogue.
This is inside the walls, in the garden, facing the inner cloisters and the rear of the chiesa with its bell tower:
View from the long, steep dirt entry road, lined with small farms and olive groves. The place is halfway up the mountain. Everywhere, the tinkling of sheep bells, the occasional barking of the sheep dogs, and the crazy horn-like braying of mules. (I don't know why they keep mules, but I do know they make a popular sausage out of them, called "Mulo." Not kidding.)
Lombard-era carvings of Peter and Paul (with the sword) at the monk's side entrance to their chiesa from the inner cloister. You could write a thesis on these "paleo-Christian" things if you wanted to:
Who was staying here? A group of jolly Aussies, and two delightful Dutch couples. The rest were from Rome on getaways with wives or girlfriends. (We had a good chat with a Roman fellow, a young 30s internet entrepreneur, who was there with his dazzling and seductive-looking fiance. They have a 4 year-old daughter. They were planning their honeymoon trip to NYC, San Francisco, and then Kauai, and wanted names of good NYC restaurants and shows to see. What a world! Except for their paranoia, the Italians can teach us all how to really live.)
As I said to Mrs. BD, this ain't no Motel 6. The have only around 12 rooms and suites. The inner cloister, with a couple of outside breakfast tables:
Monks loved their wines. That's my refreshing post-mountain-hiking, pre-dinner Orvieto - the classic white wine of Umbria:
At Pajamas, 
Windmills 
While preserving my usual skepticsm about what "studies say...", it does make sense that humans would need a good dose of full- body sunlight daily. 
I don't think you can attribute all of the prosperity of Medieval Europe to the Medieval Warm Period, but surely some of it.
