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.
"Oh, big deal! Probably nothin' more than a bunch of fat-cat 1-percenters living in the lap of luxury off the sweat and toil of us hard-working 99-percenters! Go get 'em, Rina! Kick some Wall Street ass!"
(goes back to reading, glad he got it out of his system)
Ding!
"Hmm, an email. From the landlord? Wonder what that's all about."
Subject: HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS PLAN
"Huh?"
(goes to NOAA web site)
"Uh, yeah? And? Who gives a shit what happens to Mexico? What the hell's my landlord talking about?"
(fearing he's being suckered into playing into the hands of a demented madman, Doc goes to the Stormpulse site, since it has such pretty graphics)
"Oh."
(preparing for a long evening of picturing the worst that could happen when hit by a Category 18 hurricane, Doc grabs the blender and whips up one of his famous Valium-Vicodin-Jack Daniels-methamphetamine milkshakes and heads over to Terrapin, his usual mainstay for hurricane tracking because it uses the combined plot of the six best agencies in the business)
"Well, at least we can be grateful that we live in a day and age when hurricanes can be accurately predicted," he says fatefully.
"Okay, so maybe there are still a few kinks to work out of the system."
And that's the sitch at the moment. If it continues on the Stormpulse track (also in this video), you'll have some real, live hurricaneblogging here at Maggie's.
Let’s hope the next generation of environmentalists is a generation of tinkerers, innovators and builders rather than a generation of leaflet distributors, envelope stuffers and foundation-fund scroungers.
Because of the way "achievement gaps" are measured — using scores on standardized reading and math tests — any effort to "close the achievement gap" must necessarily focus on instruction in reading and math. Hence many schools, particularly those at risk of getting failing grades under NCLB, have fixated on reading and math exclusively; other subjects — art and music, foreign language, history, even science — have been set aside to make more time and resources available for remedial instruction. The New York Times has reported that, in Sacramento, California, poorly performing students are permitted to enroll only in math, reading, and gym, in a mad dash to help close the achievement gap. The Wall Street Journal has reported that, facing budget pressures and a relentless press to drive up reading and math scores among the least proficient students, school districts nationwide are axing foreign-language instruction. Indeed, according to the Center for Applied Linguistics, between 1997 and 2008, the share of U.S. elementary schools offering foreign-language classes fell by roughly one-fifth.
There will always be achievement gaps until 1+1=2 is the math test and "See Spot run" is the literature exam. Humans are far too variable in interests, talents, abilities, self-discipline, and motivation for it to ever be otherwise.
As somebody recently commented, "Why not aim for equality in violin, film-making, dress-design, tomato-growing, or basketball?"
The malicious intent behind such demagoguery is exceeded only by its utter disconnect from reality -- the "rich" already pay the vast majority of taxes. The top 10 percent of income earners pay some 70 percent of federal income taxes, according to the National Taxpayers Union.
Meanwhile, the president's erstwhile Democratic allies in the Senate have actually hindered passage of his jobs bill even as House Republicans could only talk about doing so.
But no matter. As independent voters -- who handed him the presidency because they believed his promise to be a healer -- turn from him in droves, the president is forced to play to the basest prejudices of his left-wing acolytes.
More taxes is not good enough. They want the prosperous to be dead. At Maggie's, we want everybody to be prosperous who wants to be.
Shh-hh. Are we alone? I'm going to do something here that I'm not sure any blogger has ever done before, and, in fact, might actually be some kind of digital misdemeanor. Or, at very least, break Blogger's Rule #1.
I thought I'd ask for your opinion on something before publishing the post.
Yes, yes, I know that sounds crazy, and perhaps it is. They've recently changed my psychotropic drugs here at the sanitarium (also affectionately known as "Maggie's Farm" by the regulars in honor of the sweet ol' gal who runs the place), and I've increased my caffeine intake of late, so perhaps I've lost that delicate chemicular balance required to write a modern blog post.
All I know is that I had such good luck when I suckered that first sap into proofreading it (I wouldn't want to mention any names, but his initials are B.U.L.L.D.O.G.), that I thought I'd open it up to the Maggie's Valued Readers™ for further input before hitting the 'Publish' button.
It's about one of everybody's favorite subjects:
Global warmening!
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I'd be posting my global warming opus soon, but I held off because I wanted to run it by a few people and make sure I was touching all the bases. I mean to cover everything in this baby.
For example, Bulldog reminded me of Mt. Kilimanjaro, which was one of the first jump-off points ("The glaciers are melting!") for the AGW movement. My article mentions the Thames freezing over in the early 1600's and he noted that the Hudson and Delaware rivers had also frozen over, and that reminded me of the Northwest Passage, another item on the AGW list that deserves to be shattered.
And, as many people will tell you, when it comes to shattering hopes and dreams, I'm just the guy for the job.
So, fellow (and fellowette) anti-AGW aficionados, what say ye? Corrections, updates and additions are welcome. Any pro-AGW dribble will be cited in a future post arguing for the return of 15th century insane asylums.
Former Soviet Citizen in Dust Up with the Useful Idiots of OWS (h/t Moonbattery). In my limited experience, Russians and Cubans value freedom more than many Americans do.
Amazingly how quickly the bunch of free wheeling individuals have set up a ruling party, an intelligence service "documenting" the disruptive elements and a people's militia. They claim to be the 99%, as popular as Stalin in an election, so crushing dissent is justified.
If only I had a Lambeg Drum I would be down there beating the fuck out of it 24/7 shouting "No Surrender" and seeing how they like it.
There should be laws limiting working hours! Not fair for some people to work too hard! Sheesh. Dairy farmers in MA have already been working for 4 hours when these socialist people are just waking up for their free breakfasts.
We all look for great deals when we buy things. Groupon has taken this concept and turned it into a phenomenon. Alas, it is an easy concept to mimic. Living Social, Facebook, and Google have all launched similar products.
Meanwhile, the Groupon idea is not always a winner for the small businessperson seeking to corral new or increased business. I recently utilized one of their offers at a local business. While it was a savings for me, it represented a loss to the business owner. This is the risk many people are willing to take to drive business, leading many to try Groupon once and abandon it. The Groupon story from a sales and income perspective is fraught with issues.
There was a time any dot com business could drive an IPO skyward. The new ideas coming out today are too easy to mimic and barriers to entry are low. Maybe someone can explain why Linked In is priced at $92, when it only earns $.07 per share and has competitors targeting it like mad?
These new businesses are not groundbreaking ideas and are being overvalued.
Groundbreaking ideas are what will drive the economy forward. Not IPOs for coupon books.
Last night I watched the Fast Five movie (latest in the Vin Diesel franchise). It had lotsa good driving sounds and, of course, good driving action scenes. Below is my favorite from Fast Five. Before you get to that, here's Rihanna, in the spirit:
“The part of the universe we are part of will all collapse down into a giant super-galaxy and the stars in the super galaxy will slowly use up their nuclear fuel and turn into little stellar embers that just fade into oblivion. It will be a very cold, lonely universe in the future.”
Sheesh. Sounds like Maine. I blame climate change.
"Either the Commerce Clause gives Congress a plenary power to regulate anything it pleases or it doesn't; and let's have that argument," says George Mason University law professor David Bernstein.
We can’t solve the problem easily because we still have too much debt. But we can move forward in being able to make the best of it. We can spread it out, we can keep orderly. We have a situation now in which we have a very severe situation, not only because we have a de-leveraging going on, but we have a situation in which monetary policy cannot work the way it worked in the past, that fiscal policy will not be stimulative.
He thinks we have a decade of economic doom in the US anyway. His biz is global.
Yesterday morning I left the marina at first light and headed out to one of the coves across Lake Murray for some largemouth fishing. I'm cruising along when I saw this thing bobbing along off to my left. At first I thought it was a submersible (hey, that is possible) or an errant catfish trot line (more likely), but it was moving too fast - about 1.5 mph. As I moved closer, it turned out to be a four point buck just swimming along enjoying a Sunday morning swim across the lake.
Of course, I didn't have my HD Flipcam, the point 'n shoot or my big DSLR - I had my cell phone with its crappy lens and awful telephoto. I moved in as close as I could and shot the video, but when I tried to get really close, he veered off away from land and I didn't want that. So I got what I could get, backed way off the deer and followed it into landfall. He made it just fine and dandy - got up on the beach, turned around, took a look and headed off into the woods. Job well done.
I knew deer can swim a fair distance, but this one was in for a good mile and a half of exercise given where he was and the direction he was heading.
"Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-state of mind."
Escaping the dysfunctional NCLB is certainly good news for many professional educators and parents, but like every other recent alleged panacea, Obama's fix will fail it since it ignores the one feature of American education that dares not speak its name in public: the intellectual quality of students. If reformers insisted on transforming all ordinary kids into world-class athletes, this would be a joke, since everybody would know the truth. But when it comes to upping academic performance, nothing is said about individual ability or motivation; the culprit is always something else, and this avoidance of reality applies across the entire ideological spectrum. Better to waste billions and fail than speak frankly
CBC running scared: State broadcaster's false attack ads demonstrate how financial probe is desperately needed
The Wild Ride of the 1% - The once-stable incomes of America's biggest earners now fluctuate dramatically from year to year. And as go the rich, so goes much of the economy.
If you do not currently live in a red state, there’s a good chance you will be in the near future. Either you will flee to a red state or a red state will come to you—because voters fed up with blue-state fiscal irresponsibility will elect candidates who promise to pass red-state policies.
Seems to me that most of it is about pols being in bed with government unions, and splitting the pie at the taxpayers' expense. In blue states, who represents the citizens against the union machines? My state government (CT) is owned, top to bottom, by the government unions and functions like a Mafia conspiracy preying on the taxpayers.
In the two years Reid and President Obama have controlled Washington, government jobs have increased 13.5 percent to 2.1 million.
During that same time, 2.5 million private-sector jobs were lost.
Perhaps the goal is to have everybody working for our government overlords. Feudalism.
Government jobs are a necessary evil and are functionally parasitic, not a basis for the real economy which is required to work and make a profit to pay those government bills. McConnell is right: These are local and state concerns, not federal concerns. The federal government has enough to deal with as it is with its constitutional duties, and is not doing a very good job with that. States and localities have to run themselves, or surrender their sovereignty to the feds. Like Greece. That is not a good idea.
It's all about this "consumerism" rage in the past two decades.
Students are consumers of education, patients are consumers of medical care, citizens are consumers of government services, prisoners are consumers of rehabilitative services.
It's a strange point of view.
The notion that students evaluate profs as if school were American Idol seems perverted to me. School is not infotainment. I can be an entertaining speaker and did some litigation in my distant past, but I would never teach where my career, even in part, depended on student evaluations. When teaching, I like to be a demanding SOB, intolerant of anything short of excellence and keeping people on their toes. In the end, people are thankful for my demanding attitude.
Loving the Chambered Nautilus to Death
Shh-hh. Are we alone? I'm going to do something here that I'm not sure any blogger has ever done before, and, in fact, might actually be some kind of digital misdemeanor. Or, at very least, break Blogger's Rule #1.
Toon is another one from 