Maggie's FarmWe 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. |
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Saturday, September 21. 2013Why I still love New YorkWhy I still love New York - The city is crazy, but I can't imagine raising my family anywhere else Yeah, I sort of feel the same way. Everywhere else is boring unless you are hunting.
Posted by The News Junkie
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Saturday morning links
I believe Bird Dog and the missus have taken off for the famous Annual Two-Seed-In-The-Spirit Predestinarian Baptist Revival And Used Gun Sale in Woostah, Mass (only true New Englanders will know where that is), so I'm doing today's morning links. Interesting News First off, here's an official 'scoop' for ya. Sites like PJ Media and Hot Air are always linking to the latest Solyndra-type 'green' company going belly-up, with the most recent one being Ecotality, a maker of electric car charging stations. Here's a fresh one hot off the press: Going Green: EPA Puts Brakes on Chevy Volt's Battery Manufacturer
That 'do nothing' link contains this gem:
So, if I'm reading the gist of the article correctly, it's better to be civic-minded than sit around playing video games. I think we can all agree with that sentiment. Speaking of religions, here's a great article demolishing the whole 'sea levels rising' meme: Sea Level Rise: Climate Change and an Ocean of Natural Variability And two articles on the EPA's war on coal: EPA’s New Rules for Coal Accelerate Obama’s Agenda on Climate Change Will Coal Survive the EPA’s New Carbon Rules?
Pope Francis Assures Atheists: You Don’t Have to Believe in God to Go to Heaven Stay tuned next week when the headline reads, "Pope Francis Assures Abortionists: Don't Worry, I've Got Your Back!" No, wait, I got that backwards. The Pope is asking Catholics not to get all worked up about such trivialities as abortion, gay marriage and contraception. Pope Says Church Should Stop Obsessing Over Gays, Abortion
Since atheists are now included in the congregation, I presume he's talking about fringe groups like disenchanted Two-Seed-In-The-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists. Look out, Mr. & Mrs. Bird Dog — the Pope is gunning for you! Speaking of religions, you might have read how the professional grievance-mongers want to do away with the Washington 'Redskins' name, because of its obvious horrific racist overtones. You know, along with the Kansas City Chiefs, the Atlanta Braves and, especially, the Cleveland Indians, because there's no more horrid and racist word for an American Indian to be called than 'Indian'. Here's the best article I've read yet on the subject.
The last line of the article is one for the books. Speaking of religions, the professional racemongers at CNN are still hard at work. After the Zimmerman trial, I noted CNN's top headline a few days later here. Well, an India-Indian woman won the Miss America pageant last weekend and a couple of lunatics came out of the woodwork making racist comments. Blaring from the CNN headlines the next morning:
What's to note is that not one other news agency mentioned racism in their own articles that day. I'd be willing to bet even money that CNN staffers wrote a bunch of them in order to fit the preordained headline.
The Worst Thing About Hawaii’s Molasses Spill Isn’t Even the Thousands of Dead Fish
Arizona Highways Magazine Accidentally Describes Mushroom as Edible As I write in Of The Moon And Mushrooms, the mushroom in the above article, 'fly agaric', aka Amanita Muscaria, in conjunction with other natural phenomena, might have been the first building blocks of religion. Imagine all those Arizonans eating the things and inventing 225 new religions! On the galactic scene, I mentioned this bad boy about six months ago and here's an update: If The Sun Doesn’t Blast It, Comet ISON Will Soon Light Up The Sky
Stay tuned. Political News Think you have good eyes? Think you can spot a photoshopped picture when you see one? The following image of Putin and Obama is obviously photoshopped, but the question is, what obvious telltale sign gives it away?
President Obama rides sidesaddle. Saturday Verse: Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)Requiem Under the wide and starry sky, This be the verse you grave for me:
Stevenson's Requiem is inscribed on his gravestone in Samoa. A great admirer, A.E. Housman, wrote R.L.S as a tribute to Stevenson:
R.L.S. Home is the sailor, home from sea: Painting of Stevenson and his wife (in Indian dress) by John Singer Sargent:
We learned an excellent lesson from from clearing out my parents' house.We learned an excellent lesson from from clearing out my parents' house.
Attic, basement, storage rooms. We have felt inspired in a strange way by it all, and have begun to work on clearing out our own spaces. Lots of our stuff we have not used in years seems quite desirable and useful to our Mexican immigrant helpers. The rest of it goes to the dumpster. "Might want it someday" means "never."
Posted by Bird Dog
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05:00
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Friday, September 20. 2013The Master Planner
A man with no humility. Sad. Government inventing problems to be solvedFrom Derbyshire (h/t American Digest): "We have reached a point of diminishing returns in our public life. Hardly anything actually needs doing. We may in fact be past that point; not only does nothing much need doing, but we’d benefit if much of what has been done were to be undone. What useful work can I do with Windows 8 that I couldn’t do with XP? Friday afternoon link dumpSultan: Dear Corporate America PHOTOS: The Great New England Hurricane of 1938 Men give up on their appearance at the age of 46 - while women care about their looks for 13 years longer Via Insty, Death of an adjunct - Margaret Mary Vojtko, an adjunct professor of French for 25 years, died underpaid and underappreciated at age 83 Peter Schiff On The Taper That Wasn't Atheists: "Whatever happened to the good old bacchanalian infidels? Why are they now spending all their time doing the equivalent of filing complaints with HR?" "Education": Government Programs Blowing Air into Debt Bubble Tunisian girls return home pregnant after ‘sexual jihad’ in Syria Sheesh. The Moslem kids these days "Lovingly crafted"? Not likely Review of the new Jeep Wrangler
Posted by The News Junkie
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16:57
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Is coke addictive?
A matter of comparison I have an intro to him here. Carry on, Stilty! Failing to Teach
I do not really blame teachers, I blame the kids. Most kids are not scholars or intellectually-inclined, and just need readin, ritin, and rithmetic to get by. By and large, that works if you have a useful skill. Ignorance is the norm, generally-speaking. The Eyes of Big Medicine: Electronic Medical Records
When doctors spend more time in front of a computer than they do with patients.
Doc's Computin' Tips: The keyboard
This will cover generally cleaning your keyboard, thoroughly cleaning your keyboard, and repair. A lot of keyboards over the years have been tossed in the trash "because the (fill in blank) key stopped working!" That's not to be confused with the Any Key not working, which we'll cover later. If a key starts getting a little erratic or stops working altogether, chances are it's just a piece of grit that got in between the two layers of plastic sheets that reside inside the unit. The ESC key going out is the most common, just because it sits up in the corner by itself near the edge of the plastic sheets where a piece of grit could sneak in. Amazingly, of all the pieces of computer gear, this is the one item you actually can fix yourself, and without a lot of effort. Just take a large garden hose and-, no, wait, I'm getting ahead of the story. Continue reading "Doc's Computin' Tips: The keyboard"
Posted by Dr. Mercury
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10:30
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Friday morning links Inlet Carved Across Fire Island by Sandy Flushes New Life Into Great South Bay Smith student in trouble for liking boys P.G. WODEHOUSE'S ART OF THE COMMA Eating Dirt: The Benefits of Being (Relatively) Filthy Today’s young Americans: luckiest generation in history Granite Countertops, Flat-Screen TVs, Fire Pits: The Surprising Story of How College Dorms Got Luxe Prohibition: Twin Sister of Women’s Suffrage Creepy Obamacare ad hits college campuses and your nightmares A science-based rebuttal to global warming alarmism The 1% are again getting richer. Should the 99% really care? Home Depot sends 20,000 employees into Obamacare Welfare Pays More than Minimum Wage in 35 States: Q&A with Cato's Michael Tanner Obama: 'Raising the Debt Ceiling...Does Not Increase Our Debt,' Though It Has 'Over 100 Times' IRS Surveilled Tea Parties Until Two Weeks Ago Zuckerberg Lobbies Congress on Immigration IRS wins fight to cancel bonuses — for now FPPC approves new rules for political bloggers White WhalesThursday, September 19. 2013How to Make School Better for Boys
As I have said before, all boys have some ADD. The best male students have some OCD to compensate. The CLA - not a bad idea but not a perfect solution to a non-problemWhat did you really learn? The Collegiate Learning Assessment. No reason that it should be limited to college grads. It's like a Baccalaureate exam. It tests your math and related skills, literary and writing skills, historical, art and music knowledge and sophistication. Unlike the SAT, it doesn't look for your potential - it looks at what you have under the hood. Of course, a good interview would reveal all of that in under an hour with a handful of pointed questions. For a job, though, it's not about what you know about Beowulf, but it's about what value you can add and what sort of personality you show. A Liberal Arts education - however obtained - is for life-enrichment and enlightened citizenship, not commerce. It was designed mainly for the wealthy and prosperous who didn't have to worry too much about those things and could learn on the family or family-related job. The
Collegiate Learning Assessment--Let's Support It - See more at: http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2013/09/the_collegiate_learning_assess.html#sthash.uhy0a9kE.dpuf Thursday morning linksThe cops at Ohio State have an armored fighting vehicle now What are Maxwell's Equations? How a Scottish physicist formulated the equations that showed us how to electrify the world A visit with the very ill but recovering Jim Hoft Gun Free Zones And The Disregard For Human Life A Visit With Jim Hoft Today Federal Reserve sketches a gloomier outlook for US economic growth for this year and next What Economic Recovery? What John Adams Foretold Has Come TrueJust Tommy from Hyde Park - Boston’s Thomas Menino shows how to be a mayor for life. High School AP History Book Rewrites 2nd Amendment Can Republicans become the party of the people? Hollande Turns Against His Own Tax Plan Where's the Coverage? And the Flotillas? Egypt Cracks Down on Gaza Cappucino is for breakfastIt's a breakfast drink, the Italian version of cafe au lait. In Italy, they make it with beautiful swirls. After noon, you drink this in the photo for your needed jolt (but you can get "Cafe Americano" if you ask - all they do is to put a double espresso in a cup, and add water. 2.5 Euros for that, but it's Monopoly money. However, they always serve that Americano with a little thing of hot milk, which is good). Some hotels make ordinary American-style coffee, and it is excellent.
Wednesday, September 18. 201313 Tips for Jobless Grads on Surviving the Basement YearsLaw Stopped Aaron Alexis From Purchasing Scary Looking Rifle, Instead Bought “Law Enforcement Syle Shotgun”
Posted by The News Junkie
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18:18
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Dan O'HaraMindless
Weds. morning linksThirteen killed at Navy Shipyard by a crazy person (and William Jefferson Clinton) New York Times gets it wrong, media obsessed with linking AR-15 with Navy Yard shooter Friends says Navy yard shooter was an Obama supporter Costa Concordia salvage nears final phase Antibiotic-Resistant Infections Lead to 23,000 Deaths a Year, C.D.C. Finds The Myth of Live-and-Let-Live Liberalism Operation Compliance: Detroit's War on Small Business This biofuels boondoggle is yet more evidence that greens aren’t very good policy wonks. Clean up the IRS: Column Congress’s Exemption from Obamacare - Make Congress get insurance the same way the little people do? Hill denizens howl in fury. Sultan: Obama's Youtube wars Franchise owners come to Washington to plead for ObamaCare relief Young conservatives and hipsters, more friends than foes
Found cleaning out my parents' houseA Sherwood family Bible (ancestors from Greenwich, CT). Congregationalists, like almost everybody in New England at the time. Somebody scribbled comments on some of the NT verses.
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