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.
It's difficult to study something that nobody can define in a non-circular way. From McCloskey: Happyism - The creepy new economics of pleasure. She makes the point that much of this is pseudo-scientific.
A quote from her very interesting essay:
...in the eighteenth century, our earthly happiness became important to us, in high intellectual fashion. By 1776, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” was an unoriginal formulation of what we all, of course, now admitted that we chiefly wanted. John Locke had taught, in 1677, that “the business of men [is] to be happy in this world by the enjoyment of the things of nature subservient to life, health, ease, and pleasure”—though he added piously, “and by the comfortable [that is, comforting] hopes of another life when this is ended.” By 1738, the Comte de Mirabeau wrote to a friend, recommending simply, “[W]hat should be our only goal: happiness.”
“Our only goal.” To see how strange such a remark is, consider whether it could have been uttered by a leader of opinion in 1538. Martin Luther? Michelangelo? Charles V? No. They sought heavenly, artistic, or political glory—not something so domestic as happiness. Yet, in the late seventeenth century, even Anglican priests commenced preaching that God wanted us to be happy as much as holy. They called it “eudaemonism.” Anglicans and, astonishingly, some New England Congregationalists turned against the old, harsh, Augustinian-Calvinist line. We are not, declared the eudaemonists, mere sinners in the hands of an angry God, worms unworthy of grace. We are God’s beloved creatures, his pets.
The eudaemonistic turn was a Very Good Thing, resulting in fresh projects to better our stay here on Earth, some of them remarkably successful. Democracy was one, since, if you followed the fashion for universal happiness, it became impossible to go on insisting that what really mattered was the pleasure of the Duke or the Lord Bishop. Enlightened despots of the era claimed to seek the good of all, which paradoxically gave the populace the idea that maybe they themselves could do it.
I will remind our readers that Freud (yes, still relevant in many ways but not in all ways) had a somewhat tragic view of life and figured that pleasure and joy certainly matter, but that, overall, ordinary - "non-neurotic" - unhappiness is man's fate. Some days, I agree with that, other days, I don't.
By coincidence, Schneiderman's Unhappy or Depressed? I will need to return to the Dalrymple piece he quotes, later.
The worst economic recovery since World War II that Obama and the Democrats midwifed has exposed the failure of the notion that the government can create economic growth and wealth rather than merely expropriating it from the creative and productive, and that centralized planning and regulating by “experts” can more efficiently allocate resources than the free market does. But more important is the underlying idea of progressivism that Obama’s policies is predicated on: Perfect justice, prosperity, and equality are possible if enlightened elites are given the power to organize and run society according to “scientific” knowledge about human nature and behavior. For two centuries this hubristic idea has led to failure, misery, and murder on a vast scale, yet progressives continue to increase government power in order to create this impossible utopia. Obamacare is just the latest iteration of this frequently demonstrated fallacy that complex human behavior, which reflects the unpredictable free will of millions of unique individuals, can be organized, controlled and regimented in order to achieve some dream-world utopia. That progressives still cling to this exploded idea despite the evidence of history and a disintegrating E.U. shows just how reactionary and blinkered they are.
Do not go there. You will not like it. Nobody cool goes there.
The water is too cold for you as are the cones at Harbor Freeze or whatever it's called now; the people are mostly Liberals; everybody drives a Subaru with Obama stickers; the lobsters will snap at you; the air is way too pine-scented and salty; it's not fancy enough; you don't have to select your clothing; nobody has a hot tub; there are no swimming pools; it's cool and rainy sometimes and you need a sweater at night and you will get sunburned on the nice days; all the good food is just shellfish and fish; the beaches are too big and the ponds are too deep and dark; there are too many little kids in the restaurants; socialites, investment bankers, and politicians never go there; the blueberry-corn meal pancakes are terrible and the Portuguese seafood stews are terrible; the joint at Cahoon's Hollow is like totally bourgeois and their drinks are too big; there is too much surf on the ocean beaches not to mention the annoying seals; sea gulls and herons crap on your windshield; all the good walks are too long; you have to slam on the brakes for Box Turtles crossing the roads; you will get covered with mud digging your own clams and collecting your own oysters, and you will slice up your hands opening them; etc., etc.
Worse still, with the rapid rise of the oceans due to your car, it will soon be underwater (maybe in 3000 years). So don't buy out there. It's a big, temporary sandbar left over from the last Ice Age.
My girls spent the weekend practicing skeet and trap at a friend's club (they like guns), then they had a jolly overnight in NYC gallivanting around wherever young folks gallivant these days.
Do they know the NYC subways? Do fish pee in your reservoir? Well, they know the Manhattan and Brooklyn trains anyway. I think they know the cool clubs too.
It's a pleasure to a Dad when your kids get along, because you want them there for eachother when you're gone. My lad is preoccupied with his own pleasant chores, although I could use some spare young muscle.
I spent the weekend doing what I enjoy most: heavy manual labor around the farm's decorative grounds (the decorative parts, not the rough parts). I dedicate a weekend each late Spring (and one day in March) to these seasonal jobs, before it gets too warm and all you want to do is to sit on a Farmall tractor with a cold one. First the chain saw work, then the clipper work, then the hedge-trimming, then the major weeding. Mrs. BD does the less-heavy weeding and pruning, being more obsessional than I am. And she likes to tell me where to move plants. Not a bad deal to be my wife despite my occasional crankiness.
Then the damn clean-up. It's the work Americans supposedly won't do. Well, I could use some immigrant help to get everything done on my list...
So what's for Father's Day supper? My favorite meal, or close to it - Vitello Tonnato - cold sliced veal with tuna sauce (with arborio rice and salad - arborio rice isn't just for risotto. You cook it in chicken broth). Great, strong flavors in the sauce - capers, anchovy, tuna. Need to make it hours, or a day, in advance. Mrs. BD likes to make it.
During the American Revolution, it was, "Give me Liberty or give me death." Today it's, "Give me Universal Health Care or give me death." And the alternative to death is a nanny state that controls every aspect of our lives, only for us to die anyway. Fighting for Liberty may occasionally make men immortal, but fighting for government bureaucracy just makes them slaves.
To win re-election, Obama has "gone rogue," boldly going where no Democrat has gone before. Obama in essence has said, screw it. I am not going to masquerade as a moderate. I am going to campaign as a full blown anti-capitalism, anti-Constitution progressive/socialist!
While global warming alarmists cloak themselves in the mantle of science, the truth is that there is nothing scientific about their enterprise. The models that are the sole basis for global warming alarmism have been proved conclusively to be wrong. That really is all that needs to be said about the matter. The fact that alarmists and their supporters in the media and in politics continue to try to foist discredited theories onto the public shows that their real interest is not science, but politics and power.
Watching President Obama flop around like a fish out of water, careening from gaffe to desperation to dishonesty, I find myself searching for ways to put his troubling behavior into historic perspective.
Is this The Unmaking of a President? Or is it The Unmasking? Perhaps we are witnessing an American Tragedy. Or maybe we’re seeing final proof his election was The Great Mistake.
All those fit the facts, and lead to a shared conclusion. So far, the 2012 election has almost nothing to do with Mitt Romney. Even the GOP doesn’t love its choice, but the race is a dead heat because Obama is so disappointing.
4:26 He also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground,
4:27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.
4:28 The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.
4:29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come."
4:30 He also said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it?
4:31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;
4:32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."
4:33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it;
4:34 he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
It may be sneaky, cynical, and seems like a unconstitutional abuse of power, but this is hardball politics being played here. It's a power play, to mix metaphors.
Here are the clever parts: Obama preempts Rubio's plan (they want to kneecap Rubio), it helps with some key states, and anybody who opposes the idea seems cruel (it's not as if most Americans worry about Constitutional nuance - mostly people seem to just like an idea, not like it, or not care).
So whether his proposal ever comes to pass or not, Obama has called "Check!" on the Hispanic and immigration issue. Maybe Checkmate on the politics of those issues.
He is following the plan to pander to each constituency, each "community" he can. Solidifying a possibly-wavering base of voters with goodies of all sorts, and conveying caring sentiments. Obama wants to win. I don't know why. I spose it's a sport and winning is the point.
Axelrod has lots of tricks up his sleeve. He's from Chicago so you cannot misunderestimate him. They play rough, and they cheat without qualms. See Obama’s policy strategy: Ignore laws. Laws are just a nuisance when there is so much at stake.
Whether you knew it or not, he was always worrying about you, always caring. He made decisions you never knew about that made your life better. He shielded you from knowledge of the evils of the world as long as he could. He helped give your childhood a hint of magic.
Perhaps the most difficult question in urban planning is how our cities became so ugly. This question is seldom asked by urban planners because it is their discipline that claims to be the beautifying motor for American cities. Indeed, the planning profession often controls the now ubiquitous architectural approval committees that exist in nearly every city and town. Zoning has been expanded under the planning culture to include judgment on the artfulness and beauty of structures.
It is precisely the nexus of planning and government that creates the problem. Planning cannot exist outside of the governmental context. Government supplies the power and the legitimacy of planning. But why government plans is the real question. Does government serve the cause of economic advancement for a city and see to it that beauty counts in its commercial success? Or is planning really a vehicle used to build a social utopia in which it designs an environment that aims to advance a vision of how people are supposed to live, without regard to the city’s economic life?
Cigareets and whuskey and wild wild women They'll drive you crazy they'll drive you insane Cigareets and whuskey and wild wild women They'll drive you crazy they'll drive you insane
Once I was happy and had a good wife, I had enough money to last me for life I met with a gal and we went on a spree, she taught me to smoke and drink whusky Cigareets and whuskey...
And now I'm feeble and broken with age The lines on my face make a well written page I'm leavin' this story how sad but how true On women and whusky and what they will do Cigareets and whuskey...
Write on the cross at the head of my grave For women and whusky here lies a poor slave Take warning dear stranger take warning dear friend Then write in big letters these words at the end Cigareets and whuskey... They'll drive you crazy they'll drive you insane.
Who knows who wrote this old classic true-country tune, which works well as folk, country, bluegrass, or Irish. I noticed that Jim Croce recorded it once, but the only sample I have of the tune is from good old Ramblin' Jack Elliott - the fake cowboy:
Most Americans do not remember the details of the Watergate charges and facts, if they ever knew them. Instead, the word Watergate has been used to villify President Nixon, most of what he stood for, and almost any scandal since is called a -gate. Fred Thompson was the Republican counsel on the Congressional Watergate Committee. In a look back that is important to read, Thompson reflects on the context, the charges, the findings and what the findings ignored. As the subtitle of the piece says, "Caricatures of the evil Nixon don’t help us learn how to counter abuses of power." Today, we still suffer, not just domestic breakins or coverups but the far worse wholesale usurpation of Congressional power by this President, the betrayal of allies, and the gross undermining of our national security. A taste of Thompson:
Today, the office of the president, along with the entire executive branch of government, grows with each administration, bringing less accountability and more opportunity for improper activity. Today, unelected bureaucrats tell states what they can and cannot do about the enforcement of their own well-established laws. Federal regulations run every aspect of American life,even as the Supreme Court regularly slaps them down. These actions on the part of the executive branch are not criminal, but neither were many of the arrogant and foolish things the Watergate crowd did. At issue here is not just a few bad individuals. At issue is the way power can be used and abused. Watergate was not the first time the darker side of human nature manifested itself, nor was it the last time.
Consider the issue of the inherent powers of the presidency, especially with regard to national security. It was activities in this area — before the crimes of Watergate took place — that are relevant and sometimes overlooked today.
What led to the Watergate cover-up was the fear that an investigation would reveal non-Watergate activities by the “plumbers’ unit” in the White House, which had been set up to “plug leaks,” among other things. Daniel Ellsberg had leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1970, and the plumbers broke into the office of his psychiatrist to root out information about him. They wiretapped reporters, even White House aides. The list of their offenses is long.
Oh, and remember, millions of lives were lost to the communist takeover of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, once the Watergate reaction put a large Democrat majority in Congress.
Of course it is amnesty, in the same way that Obamacare is just a step towards government-owned medical care.
Obama says it's good for Americans. Whether it's the right thing or not for America, I don't know. Definitely good for Mexicans, but Mexicans aren't American yet. Seems like an issue for Congress, however, not the executive branch.
Gays? Check. Greenies? Check. Illegals? Mexicans? Check. What next?
Growing Pell-Mell - The government’s program to help low-income students is out of control:
There are two major problems with the program: Not only has it expanded to cover more than half of all students, but almost anyone—regardless of academic background—can qualify. Recipients must meet only a minimal academic standard: obtaining a high school diploma or the equivalent. There are no minimum SAT scores or GPAs.
Consequently, many grant recipients go to college but flunk out or lose interest, often going deep into debt at the same time.
Like housing, government tried to orient higher education through a social engineering lens and “established Sallie Mae in 1972 to encourage banks to loan more money for college. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 allowed the government to loan money directly to students. The following year the Taxpayer Relief Act extended tax breaks to student loan borrowers. Predictably, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates at historically low levels, making college loans cheaper.”
In the meantime, “the price of a college education soared…[and] by law, lenders cannot even deny Stafford and Perkins loans (types of federal student loans) based on the borrower’s credit or employment status. What other reason is there to deny a loan?
“The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a free man any more than a dog.”
We put a guy in the White House who has no experience running anything. In that sense, the joke’s on us. But again, it’s not a joke. America simply cannot afford another four years of on-the-job training. There may have been times in our country’s history where having an untested leader in the White House would have been fine, but this is certainly not one of those times. Yes, President Obama needs to go because his liberal policies are wrong and bad for America. But it’s worse than that; it’s basic incompetence. He is also the most incompetent president since Jimmy Carter.
A specter is haunting the academy—the specter of “new communism.” A worldview recently the source of immense suffering and misery, and responsible for more deaths than fascism and Nazism, is mounting a comeback; a new form of left-wing totalitarianism that enjoys intellectual celebrity but aspires to political power.
Watch video to see how the Obama Administration treats former allies. House Church Christians are brutally repressed in Vietnam and hundreds of Christian prisoners rot in Vietnam's gulags and the Obama administration doesnt have the decency to mention them in their human rights reports.In fact for the FIRST TIME EVER - in 2012 the US State Department deleted ALL references to religious persecution in its Vietnam human rights reports, downplaying religious freedom and human rights in nothing but a cowardly display of betrayal.
My son Gavin's Cub Scout Pack 774 worked their little butts off in April to collect food for the Community Resource Center's food bank. The Encinitas City Council just honored them last night, the first 6 1/2 minutes of this video. Give the Cubs a Urrragh!
One of our many brilliant readers came up with a theory about the terrifying and unsightly "obesity crisis." People aren't smoking tobacco enough, anymore. That's the real cause. People used to have an enjoyable, relaxing smoke in the office instead of a donut or two.
Where's the graph that demonstrates the correlation between overweight and not smoking?
Tobacco satisfies oral greed, suppresses appetite, produces serenity, conveys an air of edgy sophistication, brings big bucks to greedy governments and tobacco farmers like Al Gore - and we must always remember that "A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke."
Now I'm sure I am in big trouble with the nannies...
It's difficult to study something that nobody can define in a non-circular way. From McCloskey: 
Your dad, your hero - 
