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.
From VDH's Culture Still Matters -You can learn a lot about a country’s destiny by just watching how people behave:
A warm sunset with an ouzo on a Greek-island beach may be more relaxing than schnapps on the foggy Rhine shore, but to learn why Greeks will probably not pay back what they owe Germany — and why they do not believe that they should have to — take a walk through central Athens and then do the same in Munich.
It’s certainly hard to argue that the Romneys’ horse-riding habits today are worse than the Maraniss revelations, which have gotten little mainstream coverage.
And the horse-riding story came a few weeks after a second story that made Republicans see red – another front-pager, this time in the Washington Post, that hit Mitt Romney for bullying a kid who might have been gay, in high school nearly a half-century ago. The clear implication to readers: Romney was a mean, insensitive jerk.
Maraniss works for the Post and his pot-smoking scoop, which included details of Obama’s college-era dope-smoking club and waste-no-weed rules for inhaling it, never made the front of his own paper.
The story landed on page A6, and Maraniss’s reporting included colorful details of Obama’s pot-smoking prowess: “As a member of the Choom Gang, Barry Obama was known for starting a few pot-smoking trends. The first was called ‘TA,’ short for ‘total absorption.’ To place this in the physical and political context of another young man who would grow up to be president, TA was the antithesis of Bill Clinton’s claim that as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford he smoked dope but never inhaled,” Maraniss writes in his book.
Obama does have one thing right. If you’re a Democrat who wants to make a ridiculous claim, put it out there and watch the mainstream media carry your water like Gunga Din. While they’re at it, they’ll suggest that your long-time relationships with extremists such as Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers are irrelevant while your opponent’s one-time appearance at an event with one of the most famous men in America, Donald Trump, is a sign of moral turpitude.
On the small scale, these seem to be close to universal in studied American populations. On the large scale, quite rare.
From the WSJ,Why We Lie - We like to believe that a few bad apples spoil the virtuous bunch. But research shows that everyone cheats a little—right up to the point where they lose their sense of integrity:
We want to install locks to stop the next Bernie Madoff, the next Enron, the next steroid-enhanced all-star, the next serial plagiarist, the next self-dealing political miscreant. But locking our doors against the dishonest monsters will not keep them out; they will always cheat their way in. It is the woman down the hallway—the sweet one who could not even carry away your flat-screen TV if she wanted to—who needs to be reminded constantly that, even if the door is open, she cannot just walk in and "borrow" a cup of sugar without asking.
Some of our readers were discussing trust and "trust cultures" the other day, in the comments. I suppose, when I consider the word "trust," I refer to the confidence that a person will not lie (except for white lies), cheat me, steal from me, be unreliable, or try to harm or take advantage of me.
In other words, trust is a gift given to someone that says "I have decided that you will behave reasonably benevolently towards me - or at least not malevolently - regardless of how you may feel about me." That is a big gift, and not lightly given until earned.
As our commenters noted, cultures vary in degrees of trust (as we in the Western world define it), and, of course, different cultures have entirely different expectations of others which would not meet our definition of trust (eg you can "trust" an Istanbul rug dealer to never offer you his best price, even if you are his best friend).
Robert Mugabe, and his Zambian sidekick, Michael Sata, have been appointed United Nations international tourism ambassadors in recognition of the promotion and development of tourism.
To sum up my simple message: Empirical data are important; scientific discoveries are important; the disclosure of malpractices in the IPCC and other “bastions” of the global-warming debate are important; but we have to take part in the undergoing ideological battle. The subtitle of my five-year-old book is What is Endangered: Climate or Freedom? There is no doubt that it is all about freedom.
Our latest title image is a Currier and Ives print of The Great Eastern, the largest ship ever built when launched in England in 1858. Double-hulled, compartmented, and capable of ferrying 4000 passengers from Europe to good old New York City. It was claimed that she could circle the globe without refueling. (The pairing of fossil fuel with wind persists today in many recreational sailboats - and in all tax-subsidized wind turbine schemes scams. Wind was always undependable - and the reason the Pilgrims ended up in a chilly and mostly food-free Massachusetts instead of their intended destination in a welcoming Dutch New Amsterdam.)
She represented a revolution in global transportation but ended her career as a humble cable-laying ship, thus participating in another tech revolution. Here's another Currier and Ives image of her majestic self:
It often confuses me why so many in my "helping professions" are Lefties. In fact, it probably makes more sense for us all to be Libertarians at heart. Like many Maggie's people, I am sort-of Conservative-Libertarian, if that makes any sense to you.
What it means is that if people want to smoke, or to get fat and out of shape, or play with guns, or shoot animals, or watch TV or play video games all day, or do reckless or stupid things, it's fine with me as long as it doesn't cause me any personal trouble or impinge meaningfully on my family's life. Does tax-funded medical care alter that balance?
Adults make their own decisions. I don't care a whit what other people do. The main thing that bothers me, socio-politically, are those who have somehow concluded that they are my betters and believe that they have a better plan for my - and for your - life. Such people often gravitate to government careers where there is some power to be wielded. We used to term such people "cranks," but cranks have gone mainstream.
Desire for power over others is almost a sickness, or is a sort of sickness (except for parenthood). The desire for freedom for others is, I believe, a virtue. (In case you wonder, I am against the criminalization of drug use despite believing that it is a poor life plan.)
That's a fairly-consistent Maggie's Farm theme, isn't it? Experts tend to lack common sense.
How about a little government coercion to deal with intrusive, annoying, nanny state busybodies who would claim to have either a) my best interest or b) the Greater Good, in mind? The world is run by crazy people.
Oxytocin, not Oxycontin which also, I hear, produces warm, fuzzy feelings: Kin and Kindness.
I aspire to fulfilling the Golden Rule in my life. Who would wish to grow old and to feel that they had not done so during their brief time here? I aspire to forgive those who sin or trespass against me too. It's all a struggle because I tend to react against fools, jerks, jackasses, the malevolent and the arrogant, but it's a worthwhile struggle anyway, with the Lord's help.
The Golden Rule comes easier with kith, kin and tribe, doesn't it? In a way, it's a definition of community. Ostracism is the community's curative; its purgative, but that is another topic.
Many on the left have lost any insight into their own bias; nothing Obama says is over the top, and nothing he has done lacks significance or inspiration. Likewise, nothing Romney says or has done amounts to much. By forcing a halo upon Obama, suggesting dark hearts among any who don't see it and follow, and ignoring the virtues of a decent man like Romney, does not serve the president well. It stirs resentment among voters who chafe at being told to love him or else.
Krauthammer on the White House kill list. "The hypocrisy is staggering.":
If you are too disabled to get into a swimming pool or hot tub, what are the odds that you will drown once you are dumped into it by a hydraulic lift? Lawyers win on both sides of this recent government absurdity.
In New York Magazine: Hope: The Sequel - For Obama & Co., this time around it’s all about fear:
...2008’s candidate of hope stands poised to become 2012’s candidate of fear. For many Democrats, this is just fine and dandy, for they believe that in the Romney-Republican agenda there is plenty to be scared of. For others in the party in both politics and business, however, the new Obama posture is cause for concern. From the gay-marriage decision to the onslaught on Bain, they see the president and his team as coming across as too divisive, too conventional, and too nakedly political, putting at risk Obama’s greatest asset his likability with the voters in the middle of the electorate who will ultimately decide his fate.
Whichever side is right, one thing is undeniable. For anyone still starry-eyed about Obama, the months ahead will provide a bracing revelation about what he truly is: not a savior, not a saint, not a man above the fray, but a brass-knuckled, pipe-hitting, red-in-tooth-and-claw brawler determined to do what is necessary to stay in power, in other words, a politician.
The main enemies of state power are family and religion.
Why do Lefties trust big government over free commerce, free markets, and achievement? I believe it is because they want to be in charge of things, in charge of me. I resent that impulse.
We all want nothing more than to have that perfect career that makes us feel like life is the equivalent of skipping through a summer field, with flowers in bloom all around and the golden sunshine on your face (this is a fictional world where there are no bugs in that summer field). Most of us instead end up with a career like that miserable camping trip where it rained the whole time, you were freezing and tired and hungry non-stop, and, oh yes, there were lots and lots of nasty, crawling, dirty bugs.
Reportedly, over half of American workers hate their jobs.
Paul Fussell Jr., was born into an affluent family in Pasadena, Calif., on March 22, 1924. His father was a prominent lawyer. Paul attended Pomona College, from which he was drafted by the Army in 1943. Too late for the Allied invasion at Normandy, he nevertheless saw brutal action in Europe, where, in southeastern France, at age 20, he lay wounded while men under his command were being killed in an artillery barrage.
“Before that day was over I was sprayed with the contents of a soldier’s torso when I was lying behind him and he knelt to fire at a machine-gun holding us up; he was struck in the heart and out of the holes in the back of his field jacket flew little clouds of blood, tissue and powdered cloth,” Mr. Fussell wrote in a 1982 essay in Harper’s Magazine called “My War.” “Near him another man raised himself to fire, but the machine gun caught him in the mouth, and as he fell he looked back at me with surprise, blood and teeth dribbling out onto the leaves.”
During his tour of duty he won the Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts — he was wounded in the back and legs — and he emerged with a disdain for those who would justify wars, especially those who never fought.
If you've got the day off and plan on kicking back, I've recently added some goodies to my Special Videos area:
Sherlock Compilation — a 30-minute condensation of an episode in the new BBC series 'Sherlock', about a modern-day Sherlock Holmes.
The Mystery of 'North' — The story of a movie that was never released to DVD, and you'd never guess why.
The Challenger Disaster — It need not have happened.
The Columbia Disaster — No one to blame, nowhere to run.
The Concorde Disaster — One of the most beautiful eras in aviation ends because of the most insignificant thing.
The F-35 Debacle — How to shoot yourself in the foot, government style.
Straight Up — A very interesting documentary on helicopters.
Besides the 'Special Videos', there are a number of interesting things in my art gallery. There are three 'Web Vids' pages with what I consider to be the best short videos posted to the Web, lots of pictorials, and if you like watching movie 'trailers', I have my own version in the 'Bag O' Clips'.
Several years ago I stood in front of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall, and stood, and stood. Someone with me asked what I felt. I had no words and was silent. -- Early this morning, my boys and I will go to Rosecrans National Cemetary. I probably still will have no words. Sometime in the future, my sons may as they see the rows upon rows of graves and the many silent men and women within, and the loss in the faces of those standing, and hopefully my sons will be better than I am at expressing their feelings of deep missing and the honor of being in their presence.
Well, that is retarded. Very few of the things humans eat have not been genetically-engineered by humans. Bear meat, for one. Fish and shellfish. Mushrooms, I suppose, also preserved from the scourge of genetic engineering.
But why should we stop improving our foods now, after 5000 years of doing it with remarkable success? We're much better at it now because we figured out the mechanism.
Hunger was once the norm. Now obesity is the "problem." I think obesity is just fine, for those who want it. Cheap and plentiful high-carb and tasty food is thanks to human ingenuity, and we all now struggle not to be over-fed. What a terrible problem, a human tragedy. Too much food.
Even our dogs are genetically-engineered. Nobody wants to sleep with a wolf at the foot of the bed, and nobody wants teosinte-on-the cob.
Photo is the pre-genetically-engineered teosinte, from which ancient central Americans engineered maize (corn, to us). Who would eat that mangy weed at a Memorial Day cookout?
By the way, corn (maize) is a high-carb food and is not on your weight-loss diet. It's like bread, grain.
Bird Dog is off partying like a Gatsby today. The new Gatsby movie by Robert Redford: Citizen Kane version. Hmm! Bird Dog does keep mumbling about his rose buds.
Friday, Bird Dog extolled his Stanley Steamer service. No wonder, the way Bird Dog parties:
Christians and everyone else will appreciate this personal narrative of the loving influence of Fr. Trevor Huddleston CR.
Today (actually starting last night) is the Jewish holiday Shavuot. It comes 50-days after Passover, Shavuot celebrating the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. Shavuot also is when the hard work begins to harvest, as the hard work of wandering in the desert for 40-years. A key reading is the Book of Ruth, the significance of which binding Jews and Gentiles iscontained in this link.
-- Here's another: Shavuot and Pentecost have a common heritage: "both call to mind a God who wishes to reveal his plan, his power and his way to troubled humanities here below."
Meanwhile Christian Copts in Egypt continue to be persecuted. Where are the global protests?
While boycotts of Israeli products are a popular cause for leftists in the West, Palestinians themselves refuse to boycott and find these goods popular.
Barack Obama’s personal investment in company profiting from his legislation. “Within two (2) weeks of his purchase of the Biotech Stock that February 22, Barack Obama initiated what he has called “one of my top priorities since arriving in U.S. Senate,” a push to increase Federal Financing to fight Avian Flu”. Summer begins: Obama’s pool regs
An original screenplay by Marc Conklin, MEMORIAL DAY is about a 13-year-old boy who discovers his grandfather's (James Cromwell / THE ARTIST, BABE) World War II footlocker on Memorial Day. Though reluctant to talk about the war, Cromwell's character Bud, strikes a deal with his grandson to pick any three objects inside, and he'll tell him the stories behind each one. As we flash back to Bud's WWII experiences, we also flash forward to Kyle's future as a soldier in Iraq, where he experiences friendships, loss and moral dilemmas that parallel his grandfather's--bringing a new meaning to that day on the porch.
Jeane Kirkpatrick was not as much a political leader as she was a model citizen, a woman from the heartland who helped shape the time in which she lived. It is encouraging to know that our society can produce such citizens, but we'd have more confidence in the country's future if they were not so rare.
On the small scale, these seem to be close to universal in studied American populations. On the large scale, quite rare.
Sowell: 
7 Wrong Ways to decide your life's career
If you've got the day off and plan on kicking back, I've recently added some goodies to my 
Memorial Day and ordinary men
Insty noted that California is considering 
