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 provide the food (it's called craft service) - we are not union - and they turn the place upside-down creating sets. Delightful, well-mannered and very attractive kids in their 20s up from the city, full of good cheer and inventiveness. Also, plenty of film, acting, and lighting experience.
What a world! Life, for better or worse, just cracks me up. There is always something interesting going on and, if there isn't, you can make it happen. Having some kids helps to keep life interesting and complicated.
I tell them they are all after fame and fortune. They are.
Have to tip-toe around and keep out of their way.
I'd rather be back in Cape Cod - or Montana. In mid-summer, Cape Cod suits me best. Inland is too darn hot and buggy in the summer. In the summer, one needs cool salt water, cherrystone clams, sand, and a Robert Parker novel or two.
Now you can get it by mail, close your eyes, and pretend you are in God's country.
(Woops. Sorry - once again, we violated our rule to never say anything good about Montana. I will correct it by saying Montana Sucks. Do not go there, and do not move there. Chardonnay-sippers beware: you would hate it. It is full of redskin injuns, rattlesnakes, crazy horses, aggressive pangolins, evil horney toads, and Grizzly Bears, and excessively-armed paranoid meth-intoxicated right-wing rednecks who are always spoiling for a fight.)
Cereal is no good either. Pure carbs, no nutrition. Nobody under 50 eats cereal anymore except cowboys.
Pic on top is with friends hiking up on Ear Mountain, near the Bob Marshall Wilderness. A big hike. Leave the horses with the wrangler at the base. Have water in your backpack. Mountain Goats are up there. They eat the rocks.
With such an important event coming up in a few months, I figured we should install a countdown clock here on Maggie's, since so many of us are eagerly anticipating having the Democrats kicked right out of Washington, if not right off the planet.
You have to admit — if the world disappears into an alternate dimension, at least it'll take care of runaway inflation. And those pesky Democrats.
While I don't think you'll particularly learn anything new here, it's still interesting watching an official JPL guy cover the bases.
And if he's wrong?
Just do as we learned to do back in the 60's when Russia was about ready to launch 25,000 nukes at us.
Just crawl under your school desk. You'll be fine.
The honest reflections of the more thoughtful voices on the American left confirm that Romney and Ryan are, in effect, leading the country. First there was William Saletan of Slate, who wrote--without irony: "A wonderful thing has happened for this country. Paul Ryan will be the Republican nominee for vice president." He added that Republicans like Ryan were the perfect antidote to Democratic excesses: "Maybe, like me, you were raised in a liberal household. You don’t agree with conservative ideas on social or foreign policy. But this is why God made Republicans: to force a reality check when Democrats overpromise and overspend."
Larry Bailey unleashed a prepared Democrat chorus to discredit former military special operators who oppose President Obama’s re-election.
"I have to admit that I'm a Birther," said SOS founder Larry Bailey, a retired 27-year veteran of the Navy SEALs, in an interview. "If there were a jury of 12 good men and women and the evidence were placed before them, there would be absolutely no question Barack Obama was not born where he said he was and is not who he says he is."
Larry Bailey and I are friends. Larry is absolutely not a speaker who minds his PR Ps & Qs, nor ever tried to be a diplomat. He is a devout patriot who has devoted his life to the security of the United States. I am not a birther, nor are those I know who supported his first efforts, the first of several independent other organizations of former military special operators, to raise attention to the concerns – also expressed by several leading politicians, including some Democrats -- that President Obama and his minions exposed national security secrets in order to bolster Obama’s re-election.
The usual Obama apologists and partisans quickly expressed their distaste for birtherism, understandable, but used Bailey’s words to attack all the other leaders of other organizations of special operators opposed to President Obama’s re-election. (Here's the leader of one of the other organizations of former special operators.)
Omigosh, Obama For America website reveals that there are Republicans among the leaders of the four independent groups of special operators. Obama For America was an internet-based campaign organization for Obama in 2008, re-named Organizing For America after the election for his permanent campaign, and now Obama For America is back.Guess what Obama For America, there are far more Republicans than Democrats among the military, and especially so among special operators in the various military branches
James Joyner, who sways with Democrat memes inside the beltway at his blog Outside the Beltway, with regard to one of the organizations of special operators, OPSEC (operations security), chimes in with “the fact that the group’s key spokesmen are all Republican operatives certainly changes the lens through which their charges should be viewed.” Oh, does it? Only for those looking for an excuse to look the other way.
Failed Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry – who trumped up his Vietnam veteran status, as usual, rolls out his attack on the over 60 of fellow Swift Boat veterans who exposed his lies or exaggerations about his service in Vietnam, and Kerry’s certain betrayal of Vietnam veterans after in likening us to the army of Genghis Khan. Paul Mirengoff notes: " Kerry never explains why he finds the criticism of Obama “outrageous.” Doing so would have required a defense of the administration’s serial disclosure of sensitive national security information."
I’m not defending Larry Bailey’s words, by any means. But, the effort by those supporting Obama’s re-election to avoid and broadbrush besmirch the valid concerns of special operators is typical of the Obama re-election campaign.Patriots, to the Obama folk, are those who support him. The special operators from the military and national security experts, whose lives are actually on the line and endangered by loose self-serving lips in the Obama administration, are denigrated by the Obama minions. In 2004, veterans and their families and friends saw right through John Kerry and, I confidently predict, will see through Obama like a soggy thin tissue too.
Like Animal Farm's Boxer, the American workhorse has worked itself to the bone, paying taxes on everything imaginable to subsidize the revolutionary state of the left, its mammoth bureaucracies and the bribes and favors that it doles out to its voting bases. Homes have been lost, lives shattered and families broken up so that America might "live up to" whatever promises the left has made to itself on their behalf. And like Boxer, the American and his way of life, is being taken away in a knacker's van billed as a trip to the veterinarian.
The left has forcefully accelerated the death throes of the American mule by pushing government spending beyond anything that the horse can cover. That leaves the overworked horse with only two options. It can either become a donkey and be fed and work without any say in what it is fed or how it works, or it can try to break free of the great socialist boneyard.
His essay/post summarizes many or most of the Maggie's political concerns about America. The government is making it too difficult to be a mule, but it is the mule who pulls their electoral wagon and pays their bills.
I know that we have a few Chinese readers. We would welcome more.
A reader in China asked me to post this shout-out. I believe that many in the Middle Kingdom might enjoy a refreshing dose of freedom-oriented Americana - if only to practice their reading!
We'd love to see Maggie's go viral in China, but it ain't gonna happen. Politicians would shut us down.
We would like it if our Chinese readers would forward our site around to their email list. I do not believe that we are censored by your government.
Not yet, at least, despite our dangerously-subversive attitudes towards state power.
On July 11, 2011, two high-speed 'bullet' trains collided in Wenzhou, China, killing 40 people and injuring over 190. It was the second-worst high-speed train wreck in history.
As a disaster documentary buff, I've occasionally dashed over to YouTube to see if some company like the people who produce the 'Seconds From Disaster' or 'Mayday' series have done a special on it.
But I've left disappointed. No one's ever produced a comprehensive documentary covering the entire sad event.
“Under the plan, all Massachusetts doctors, hospitals and other providers must register with a new state bureaucracy as a condition of licensure—that is, permission to practice. They’ll be required to track and report their financial performance, price and cost trends, state-sanctioned quality measures, market share and other metrics.”
Were you thinking of setting out a shingle in Massachusetts as a GP/Cardiologist/Obstetrician/Gastroenterologist/etc.? Bet you’ll think twice about that.
The Journal appropriately invokes Jeremy Bentham’s totalitarian idea of the all-seeing pantopticon here:
* “Massachusetts takes 360-degree surveillance and converts it into a panopticon prison. An 11-member board known as the Health Policy Commission will use the data to set and enforce rules to ensure that total Massachusetts health spending, public and private, grows no more than projected gross state product through 2017, and 0.5 percentage points lower thereafter.”
Got that? Your doctor is actively discouraged from spending too much on you lest that extra test that might save your life add too much red ink to the bottom line.
RomneyCare is a disaster unfolding before our eyes. I’ll leave it to others to apportion the appropriate quantum of blame to its eponymous architect or sponsor or whatever role Mitt Romney played in the creation of misbegotten piece of legislation. We all make mistakes. The important thing is that Mitt Romney has recognized his mistake and has credibly outline a plan to make amends by repealing and replacing ObamaCare. Meanwhile, team Obama continue to tout the most unpopular piece of legislation since prohibition. And people wonder why I predict Romney/Ryan will win by a landslide.
If your struggling car company wants a government bailout, you’ll probably have to build the government’s car – even if it’s a car very few people want to buy.
Repeatedly asking for government help undermines the foundations of society by destroying initiative and responsibility. It is also a fatal blow to efficiency and corrupts the political process.
When everyone gets something for nothing, soon no one will have anything, because no one will be producing anything.
It's ironic that 'R&R' usually stands for Rest & Relaxation — when resting on our current policies and relaxing our stance against government proliferation is the very opposite of what our own R&R — Romney & Ryan — intend to do. Such are the whims of fate.
Personally, I'm quite pleased with the pick. I originally thought that Romney & camp would go the low-key route — especially after the VP candidate in the last election outshone the guy running for the P slot — so picking a firebrand like Ryan showed they do, indeed, have a message for America. That they are, indeed, going to give it a choice.
My one regret is that I didn't start saving all of the "Why The Ryan Selection Is Great News For Obama!" links that suddenly popped up. It would have made for a fun post. Seriously, how insane do you have to be to make such a claim? Palin, sure. Newt, Perry, Bachmann, Christie, Pawlenty, Jindal, Portman, sure. I'd agree. All possible good news for Obama.
But not Ryan. Not the one guy even Democrats will tip their hat to for knowing his stuff.
And these loopy articles weren't on some backwater blog sites. Slate, Politico, Daily Beast, Puffington Host, Boston Globe, Washington Post, NY Times; all have spit out the "This is great news for Obama!" meme since the selection.
One wonders, if their immediate reaction to the announcement is gross hyperbole — what's it going to be like from here on out? I'd look for some real zaniness coming out of these sites in the near future. I'll collect some of the better ones for our mutual amusement.
The first official piece of zaniness is below the fold, and I'll also expound on why I think Palin not speaking at the convention is a good thing. Long-time readers know I'm a devout Palinite, so it's not an issue I take lightly.
John C. Goodman: Why the Doctor Can't See You - The demand for health care under ObamaCare will increase dramatically. The supply of physicians won't. Get ready for a two-tier system of medical care.
Doctor Pay and Social Priorities - Med-school grads make less than business-school grads, and take on far more risk. Is this model sustainable?
You don't need to open a restaurant. You can be a seafood farm entrepreneur.
Natural marshes no longer support the markets for Littleneck Clams and Atlantic Oysters - especially the delicious Wellfleets. These tasty mollusks have to be farmed, but it's not very hard work.
You buy the seed from a clam or oyster nursery, protect them from gulls and whelks, and harvest them at low tide in your pick-up truck as the orders come in. You plant them, nature grows them on plankton. Sometimes you have to rake mud off the oyster bins.
The small producer I chatted with out on the flats at low tide has around 1,000,000 clams growing right now, at various stages of development. These are 30 cents each, wholesale.
He has around 500,000 Wellfleet Oysters growing, at around 70 cents each, wholesale. That's a nice little inventory, but a bad hurricane or winter storm can obliterate your investment so it is best to save your profits for hard times. That is intelligent, no matter what you do for a living. I don't think you can buy insurance for clam beds or most other sorts of income.
In his spare time, he was a three-term First Selectman of Wellfleet "until he finished what he wanted to get done," as a local friend said. It's always wonderful to me to see how unskilled Americans without any higher ed can find good ways to make a living.
Cranky, laconic old Cape Codder. I said I was curious about how he did this, and he replied "I don't know. Been doing this for 50 years. I still don't know what I am doing" as he lit up a fresh Marlboro.
Those orange mats on the right are what they protect the baby clams with. Clams live in the mud. Each year, new seed clams to burrow in the mud under a new mat. Usually harvestable in 3 years.
The oysters grow in the wire bins. Those beehive cannisters collect oyster larvae, to reduce his costs of buying seed oysters.
Shellfish guys out on the flats with their trucks at low tide in Wellfleet Harbor. The most difficult barrier to entry in this line of work is obtaining rights to areas of mudflat. Waterfront landowners own the flats out to 200 yards.
Do you ever feel the need to confess your sins? To confess them to somebody else, other than in prayer or ritually in church (as in "Forgive us our trespasses")?
It is difficult in life to live without accumulating one's share of sins of commission, omission, sins of character, sins of unkindness, sins of arrogance, sins of self-centeredness, sins of cruelty, sins of self-indulgence, lies, thefts, personal flaws and weaknesses, and sins of passion or stupidity. These things burden our souls.
Pastor says "Lay it all at the foot of the Cross," and quotes Christ: “Go, and sin no more.”
People with serious religious aspirations often engage Spiritual Directors as guides. That's a serious and daunting business but I have heard that it can be a life-changing journey.
Do our readers sometimes feel the need to confess and, if so, to whom?
"This is an election in which we should be talking about the path ahead, but you don't hear any answers coming from President Obama’s reelection campaign. That’s because he's intellectually exhausted, out of ideas and out of energy. And so his campaign has resorted to diversions and distractions, to demagoguing and defaming others. This is an old game in politics; what’s different this year is that the president is taking things to a new low."
In 2008, Candidate Obama said, “if you don’t have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare voters.” He said, “if you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.” And that, he told us, is how, “You make a big election about small things.”
That was Candidate Obama describing the strategy that is the now the heart of his campaign.
If the Obama labeling campaign is successful, voting for Romney will mean becoming socially unacceptable; it will be tantamount to embracing a Neanderthal sort of mindset that opposes Obama not on his disastrous economic policies but simply because of his race.
By constantly moving to the left, the left is exerting control of the political space, defining the Overton Window in terms of its own political leanings. Moderates become slow leftists and conservatives become slower leftists. The entire spectrum comes to be defined by the positions of the left. Everyone in the spectrum becomes a leftist of radical, moderate or conservative temperament.
Leftist Planet - Why do so many travel guides make excuses for dictators?
Almost completely cut off from the maw of McDonald's, Madonna and other global corporate-cultural influences, Cuba retains a refreshing preserved quality. It's a space and place that serves as a beacon for the future -- universal education, health care and housing are rights people the world over want, need and deserve.
I'll say it again: government is a special interest group, and one of the few growth industries left in the US right now. Washington DC is a boom town: people go where the money is.
Democrats have never tried, much less managed, to convince voters that the Democratic domestic agenda is so beneficial that ordinary Americans — not just the CEOs of the companies they work for, or the stars of the TV shows they watch, but their own friends, neighbors, and co-workers — should pay significantly higher taxes for government endeavors.
Democrats hate Paul Ryan because he has taken the measure of their cowardice and made public the logical, humiliating conclusions of their disingenuousness.
Taxes are going to rise much further on the middle class. My simple theory is that the Left wants to take the money we all earn in the private sector, take their cut, decide what we need because we are too foolish and feckless to run our own lives, and then expect us to thank them with our votes for the service. They imagine we need care, like sheep, but we just want freedom from them. The Welfare State Industry underestimates the human spirit, and then shackles or cripples people to make their idea come true.
Try saving the money to open a corner pizza joint when you're paying a 50% tax rate. Then, try getting a license to sell beer there. Then, consider your employee cost of Obamacare. At some point, people say The Heck With It and you have an empty storefront. That's the way to end up like Euroland, where nobody tries to do anything except to hold on to their safe crappy job, and everybody just waits to retire on the dole to complete their entire safe, spiritless, crappy life while their government betters live it up. Serfdom.
It is a mistake for people to ignore the political appeal of the security of serfdom or slavery to the State or the Lord of the Manor, or dependency on the State, as long as those words are not used.
Re the photo, I find the entire US Capitol revolting in its grandiosity. What are we - the Roman Empire? Possibly many disagree about that, but, as a New England Yankee with a long pre-revolutionary heritage here, I strongly object to the notion of an imperial city. Those idiots should be meeting in a church basement where they might acquire a little humilty.
We have a President in charge right now, who writes to me several times a week begging for three dollars.
But He cannot explain why He should win His re-election. He cannot form a list of bullet points, or even a single bullet point, to explain how that helps anyone but Him, and, I suppose, the people who directly benefit from His victory. He’s in charge of America but He cannot explain why He is good for America.
The truth is that no one can preserve Medicare as we know it. There isn’t a prayer that your father’s Medicare will be around in 10 years. There is a legitimate policy debate going on about the direction we will have to go with it.
There is just plain going to be less money to spend on senior health care than there would have been if we let the program continue on its present unsustainable track. Health care providers and patients are going to have less money.
Among the many fine things in Montana is 
Is a Cuba Libre just a Rum and Coke? 
The death of the American mule.
I know that we have a few Chinese readers. We would welcome more.
It's ironic that 'R&R' usually stands for Rest & Relaxation — when resting on our current policies and relaxing our stance against government proliferation is the very opposite of what our own R&R — Romney & Ryan — intend to do. Such are the whims of fate.
Althouse 
Middle-class taxpayers will pay a
A day late: 