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.
That's the Lefty mantra this week, re firearms. So let's ban cars, which are far more deadly. Or urban gangs and urban drug gangs, who do, by far, most of the killing in the US with illegally-possessed handguns.
If it only saves one life, maybe we shouldn’t ban handguns because one of them was used Monday night in Ohio to save two lives and may help take a robber off the streets.
Mind you, I am entirely in favor of banning firearms, or any other weapons including baseball bats, from violent criminals and the criminally insane. However, that is already the law. Crims ignore laws, obviously, worldwide. Criminalizing the law-abiding seems one more example of A nation formed by geniuses and run by idiots.
A rational government would want the law-abiding armed, and the crims disarmed. I happen to believe that our government wants me disarmed. Me, who have been burglarized four times, held up at gunpoint once, threatened with death once, have had an armed home invader running through the area recently, and have never harmed anybody who did not deserve it - and never with a firearm but only with words.
When government and police give up guns, and government officials and celebrities and newspaper offices give up their firearm protection, and security guards begin carrying squirtguns, and the crims give up their guns and we establish the Peaceable Kingdom where the lion lies down with the lamb, then we can talk.
Until then, Maggie's HQ is defended with legal citizen arms just as Mayor Bloomberg and the President are. That's how honest country folk think, who cannot afford security guards and have no gendarmes for many miles. In the country, one must be one's own gendarme. That's the American way. I grew up with guns around. Just tools, like all the others. We kept a .22 revolver in the kitchen drawer with the pliers and screwdrivers. My Mom shot a roaming Copperhead with it one time, when a little one was outdoors in a basinette.
I have written about the illusion of a state of Happiness in the past here. In doing so, I have always pointed out that it's a term without a meaningful definition. However, it has always seemed to me that happiness implies, for some, an imaginary infantile state in which all wants and needs are met rather than the state of stress, difficulty, and challenge which many of us seek.
For a simple example, I have a friend who never feels "happier" than when struggling for hours in a fruitless effort to master a Chopin piano piece.
Transient joys and delights certainly occur, as can periods of contentment with their implication of acceptance of, or resignation to, the limits of reality.
Leszek Kołakowski poses the question Is God Happy? (h/t Althouse) as a way to reflecting about the human capacity for happiness. He says:
Happiness is something we can imagine but not experience. If we imagine that hell and purgatory are no longer in operation and that all human beings, every single one without exception, have been saved by God and are now enjoying celestial bliss, lacking nothing, perfectly satisfied, without pain or death, then we can imagine that their happiness is real and that the sorrows and suffering of the past have been forgotten. Such a condition can be imagined, but it has never been seen. It has never been seen.
Kolakowski clearly adopts the definition of happiness to which I alluded earlier, ie, the serene absence of any disturbing thoughts or feelings. Sounds more like a mindless beach vacation to me than something anybody would aspire to for more than a few days. Sounds like heroin.
Regarding the question re God's happiness, it's an absurd question. God is not human.
You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... You can get arrested for expired tags on your car but not for being in the country illegally.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... Your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more of our money.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... A seven year old boy can be thrown out of school for calling his teacher "cute" but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class in grade school is perfectly acceptable.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... The Supreme Court of the United States can rule that lower courts cannot display the 10 Commandments in their courtroom, while sitting in front of a display of the 10 Commandments.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... Children are forcibly removed from parents who appropriately discipline them while children of "underprivileged" drug addicts are left to rot in filth infested cesspools of a crackhouse. ==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... Hard work and success are rewarded with higher taxes and government intrusion, while some slothful, lazy behavior is rewarded with EBT cards, WIC checks, Medicaid, subsidized housing, and free cell phones.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... The government's plan for getting people back to work is to provide 99 weeks of unemployment checks (to not work).
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... Being self-sufficient is considered a threat to the government.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... Politicians think that stripping away the constitution is really protecting the rights of the people.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... The rights of the Government come before the rights of the individual.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... You can write a post like this just by reading the news headlines.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... You pay your mortgage faithfully, denying yourself the newest big screen TV while your neighbor defaults on his mortgage (while buying iPhones, TV's and new cars) and the government forgives his debt and reduces his mortgage (with your tax dollars).
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... Being stripped of the ability to defend yourself makes you "safe".
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... You have to have your parents signature to go on a school field trip but not to get an abortion.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... An 80 year old woman can be stripped searched by the TSA but a Muslim woman in a burka is only subject to having her neck and head searched.
One of Myers’s recurring themes is the ways in which the dumbing down of the general culture has infected American Christianity and conservatism. These are two spheres where we might expect the work of “preserving cultural treasures” to be taken up. Yet wander into a Mass or worship service in any suburban Catholic or Protestant church and you’ll hear “praise songs” that might have been lifted from Sesame Street or, if the service is High Church, the soundtrack of Phantom of the Opera. It’s hard to believe this is the same religion that inspired Bach and Palestrina, whose choral works are no more familiar to the average pastor or parishioner than the chants at a Kikuyu circumcision ceremony. The liturgy, what’s left of it, is either pedestrian or absurd. (The Shepherd who used to maketh you to lie down in green pastures will now, if you’re a Catholic, “in verdant pastures give you repose.”) Among clergy no less than the laity, a desire for beauty and reflection is deemed prissy and dull.
As a young boy I was shot by a man whose clear intent was to kill me as I had deliberately, by throwing broken bricks at him, interrupted his attempt to rape a young teen-aged girl, allowing her to escape.
VDH: The New Liberal Aristocracy - Modern elitists are past masters at preaching one thing and practicing another
Gore is a hollow man selling someone else's alarmist hollow earth theory so he can make it to the next stage of a career that has no meaning or purpose. Like most professional idealists, Al Gore cares for nothing except money. Having sold out so many times, his only idea is to keep doing it again and again.
The professional idealist is a hollow man. A soulless man who is tasked with convincing everyone of the existence of the thing that he does not have. The left has created an endless number of professional openings for such soulless men, for paid liars and faithless tricksters, who live only to convince the world that they believe just long enough for them to sell out one more time.
My kids have all had various internships, paid and unpaid, some very well-paid. Internships are an opportunity for the student and, in most cases, a bit of a hassle for the person offering them.
If a person thinks it worth their while to take an unpaid internship, why not? If they were paid, they might not be offered at all.
The only way to finance a big European-style state is to have it paid for by massive taxation of everyone, mostly the middle class. Right now, we are avoiding honest debate on this fact.
There will be large tax increases on the middle class. There is no getting around it, if people want so many government benefits. Those Obamacare taxes are just the beginning. With that will come ever-slowing growth of jobs and income.
Pic: We ain't taking sides, because, for one thing, we have Alabama relatives. For another, we believe that rooting for teams is rooting for laundry - in Seinfeld's immortal words. I just liked this photo. But what the heck, it's all about money and fun and athletic talent, which are all good things. But "Brian Kelly" - sheesh. Irish enuf? Are you kidding me?
A dear church brother died Christmas week, an older guy and friend of over 20 years. A fellow who embodied the notion that Christianity is caught, not taught, because his joy, peace, manly innocence of heart, and love, were contagious.
As far as he was concerned, whoever he met was a child of God. Even me. Did not care about your flaws. This is not funeral exaggeration. I have never known a man quite like him. Some people are selected to be the "angels" - the messengers - not by preaching but by being what and who they are. Coffee hour will never be the same for me.
Church packed to the rafters, violating all fire laws, with all of the people Christ touched through this humble, gentle man who also, but secondarily, happened to be a very successful corporate exec and the author of at least ten books. Even when ill unto death, he only wanted to make you feel better. He knew about loss. In his medical travails, he only wanted to be the comforter.
We sang his favorite hymn at his memorial service yesterday. The story behind that hymn is on this Youtube. Lyrics here.
The Mrs. recently reported a conversation she had had with a tennis friend who had a rotator cuff repair, and had prematurely discontinued her physical therapy because the insurance coverage cut off after the predetermined number of sessions for that surgery.
This friend of hers drives a new Mercedes every year, owns three houses in various vacation spots, and spends three months/year traveling around the world. However, the notion of actually paying (pocket change) for her own physical well-being eluded her imagination. And her shoulder still hurts.
People have been well-trained to expect to get what they need "for free." And somehow have been trained to imagine that, if insurance doesn't cover it, it must not matter very much. A childlike, entitlement culture.
Who wants a statistician for a doctor?
As I have mentioned before, I have inexpensive major medical insurance with a $10,000 two-year deductible for my family. (Some other Maggie's folks have similar.) After that, it's unlimited. If anybody (God forbid) gets very ill or injured, I will keep my humble abode.
When I see a doctor, I enjoy the look of surprise on the faces of the office staff when I pull out my checkbook. I like to pay doctors. What better use of money is there (other than buying cigars)?
A word to the wise: If you tell them you are paying out of pocket, most docs will give you a discount because it's no staff time, it's instant payment, and because it just seems right to pay for a service - same as an electrician or plumber or lawyer.
If you are on Medicare or Medicaid, or if some insurance pays your bills, what do you do personallyfor your doctor to let him or her know that you appreciate their care for you?
PS: My Internist tells me that a couple of wines and two or three cigars daily is just about right for a guy like me. Like most Americans of my middle age, I take Lipitor and BP meds, and I always take care to use extra salt. The occasional Viagra? I'm not saying. He is a good, sane, practical doc who individualizes things, and thinks it's narcissistic for people to obsess about their health. "Get the most out of life, while you have it" is his motto. "You can't save life for later because 'later' is just a theory."
Feel like a fun research project? This actually might end up being a fairly informative endeavor, not to mention elusive and challenging.
As far as I've seen, the best Google Earth site out there is my Google Earth Project. Nothing else even compares.
The video tours are divided into categories, such as "Animals", "Designs", "Geometric", "Ancient UFO Landing Sites", etc. The usual stuff Google Earth stuff, in other words.
On each tour's database page is a small pic of each site, its GoogleMaps and Google Earth link, and the GPS coordinates. Some of the entries have a 'More Info' link which leads to an article on that particular odd/strange/bizarre/probably-alien location.
That's where you come in. The 'more info' part, I mean, not the bizarre alien part — although I'm willing to make exceptions.
If you want to test your search skills and contribute to this fun project, the basic premise is simple. Find an odd/strange/bizarre/proof-that-aliens-once-visited-us spot and dig up the background info on it. Somewhere out there, somebody knows what's going on and has written about it — probably in Chinese or Norwegian — so finding it is the goal. Leave the name of the location and the 'More Info' link in the comments and I'll have it on the site within minutes.
If we get enough entries, I'll collate the best of them, include small pics with the links and make a whole post out of it.
Below the fold I'll lay out some search tips, and thanks from both me and any future viewers of the site. A gal from the Google Personnel department emailed me about a year ago and said they all loved it.
That's how I do ribeyes - crusty on the outside, rare inside. A grill does not do justice to good Costco ribeyes. One per person, please. A real treat.
It's termed "Liberal fascism." They are certain that they are wiser than us humble, feckless, ignorant citizens masses who can barely tie our own shoes. Harry Reid?!?!?
We live in a world that has lost touch with the very idea of hard choices. That even in the richest and most prosperous country in the world, you still have to choose one or the other. That you can't have you cake and eat it too. But as the hard edges of reason have blurred into the haze of wishful thinking, the idea of mutually incompatible choices also fades away. Soon there are no choices, only options.
Road Song of The Ban-Dar-Log (from The Jungle Books. h/t, reader. The Bandur-log are Langur monkeys)
Here we go in a flung festoon, Half-way up to the jealous moon! Don’t you envy our pranceful bands? Don’t you wish you had extra hands? Wouldn’t you like if your tails were–so– Curved in the shape of a Cupid’s bow?
Now you’re angry, but–never mind, Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!
Here we sit in a branchy row, Thinking of beautiful things we know; Dreaming of deeds that we mean to do, All complete, in a minute or two– Something noble and wise and good, Done by merely wishing we could.
We’ve forgotten, but–never mind, Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!
All the talk we ever have heard Uttered by bat or beast or bird– Hide or fin or scale or feather– Jabber it quickly and all together! Excellent! Wonderful! Once again! Now we are talking just like men!
Let’s pretend we are ... never mind, Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!
This is the way of the Monkey-kind. Then join our leaping lines that scumfish through the pines, That rocket by where, light and high, the wild grape swings. By the rubbish in our wake, and the noble noise we make, Be sure, be sure, we’re going to do some splendid things!
Planetary disasters: It could happen one night
That's the Lefty mantra this week, re firearms. So
I have written about the illusion of a state of Happiness in the past here. In doing so, I have always pointed out that it's a term without a meaningful definition. However, it has always seemed to me that happiness implies, for some, an imaginary infantile state in which all wants and needs are met rather than the state of stress, difficulty, and challenge which many of us seek.
Says Al Gore's staff.
I Call Them 'Bat-Chomping, Bird-Slicing Eco Crucifixes' Because 
Pic: We ain't taking sides, because, for one thing, we have Alabama relatives. For another, we believe that rooting for teams is rooting for laundry - in Seinfeld's immortal words. I just liked this photo. But what the heck, it's all about money and fun and athletic talent, which are all good things. But "Brian Kelly" - sheesh. Irish enuf? Are you kidding me?
Feel like a fun research project? This actually might end up being a fairly informative endeavor, not to mention elusive and challenging.
Report: 
Road Song of The Ban-Dar-Log (from The Jungle Books. h/t, reader. The Bandur-log are Langur monkeys)