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 like to support entrepreneurial friends, especially those who have fled Wall St. to do their own thing. The young Math major, Div. 1 tennis player, and ex-Wall Streeter has launched Nora Gardner Apparel, day-to-night clothing for youthful professional women: Nora Gardner.
I hear that professional women are sick of wearing men's clothing (eg suits or pants) to work, and want to look good. With these, just add a little jewelry and you're ready for your evening out. Conservative, but feminine and affordable and well-made in New York. Here's her About Us.
Pics from her launch party in NYC this weekend at fashion site Guest of a Guest. Miss Gardner is center front in this one:
The radicalization of the Democratic Party is slowly leading to a counterpart radicalism in the Republican Party. The process is moving far slower because of the vested interests in the way, but every time the radicals of the left displays their contempt for the consensus, they are paving the way for the rise of a Republican Party whose members are more like Ted Cruz than John McCain.
It’s a big fight, at home and abroad, and calls for civility (of the sort Jeb Bush and Karl Rove keep muttering) are entirely out of place. We need a raucous, no-holds-barred debate to clarify the tough, painful and risky policies we must embrace–and be ready to change over and over again when we discover their shortcomings–if we’re going to win.
My most recent email exchange with Prof. Norm Geras was just a few weeks ago, sending him some obscure country tune I thought he might like. I didn't know he was dying.
and John Ford's classic Tobacco Road. Norm liked the music, especially Shall We Gather By the River. It's a film about people who will not or can not handle life effectively:
When government gets involved in things, those things become politicized. Same thing goes for medical care. The death panels are meant to be a buffer against popular clamorings, but they won't work.
When it comes to medical care, nutrition, vitamins, exercise, etc, the loudest quacks and cranks tend to prevail: The Quackish Cult of Alternative Medicine - Dr. Paul Offit's battle against charlatanism
“This nation was founded on the principle that it would be a new type of nation, that was ‘for, of and by the people.’ A Constitution was put in place that would assure that the people would remain at the pinnacle of power and that the central government would never reach the point that it had control of the people. This fundamentally changes the relationship. It places the government at the pinnacle now that it is placed on a road that will give it control of everyone’s health.”
Individuals with a lot of intelligence and drive are, overwhelmingly, drawn to college, but it is their intelligence and drive that brings about their later success, not the fact that they passed enough courses to get the credits necessary for a degree. John Mackey of Whole Foods, for example, took a number of college courses before dropping out to concentrate on his business. He would be no more successful if he had earned his degree, or less successful if he hadn’t ever taken a single course.
On the other hand, we lure great numbers of young Americans into college these days with the idea that by getting their degree, they’ll enjoy a large earnings boost. A figure that is often, carelessly thrown around is the million dollar earnings premium for college grads.\
The problem is that, increasingly, high school graduates do not have even the most basic academic tools – they don’t read well, don’t write well, and can’t do basic math – and also expect that college will be like high school, only more fun. Any increase in college enrollment will overwhelmingly come from such academically marginal students. Going to college rarely transforms those disengaged kids into highly productive adults.
I saw these two young girls driving this grey Maserati convertible at dusk in my neighborhood today. This is just so WRONG that I couldn't resist taking a picture as I chuckled. They were trying to make a U turn across the main street in town that has all the traffic on it. I wondered what the father would think if he could see his precious toy being edged one way then another as they struggled.
It's possible one of them is a mutton-dressed-as-lamb mummy, but I'm pretty sure they were both kids.
And I couldn't possibly be jealous because my own car is a boring grey Subaru Outback, now, could I?! Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's Maserati, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor's teenager's Maserati, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor's teenager's youth and beauty….
The change in medical care. I refuse to term it "health care," since health needs no care other than one's own reasonably-sensible and attentive but not health-obsessed life, combined with the main factor - luck. From a commenter at Allahpundit:
Perhaps the concept of ‘insurance’ isn’t the right one for health care?
I always liked the comparison that was trying to be made with car insurance…
Yet for there to be an equivalent your car insurance would have to cover: - maintenance tune-ups, including oil and filter changes - the cost of repairs for any reason - a price break per gallon of gas - an annual detailing - the cost of tires - a new muffler annually - and never, ever raising the cost of your insurance no matter how many accidents you were in, how many tickets you got… anything
Imagine what car insurance would be like if we modeled that on health insurance coverage and you get an idea why health insurance coverage is so high. And why get fuel efficient vehicles if you are getting the gas subsidized? Or bother with the maintenance if you’ll get a brand new engine if you forgot about it? And the cost of such insurance would be… lower than what you have now?
The number of shades of maroon that went into trying to make this entire ‘insurance’ concept work for one’s health is plain nuts. It isn’t ‘insurance’ if you are going to use it constantly… you want something else.
Perhaps a clue.
Health insurance used to be an executive ‘perk’ because it was TOO EXPENSIVE to provide for everyone in the workforce. Businesses got a price break for it to entice people who would not normally come to work to do so during WWII. The war ended. The subsidy via the tax code did not. Strangely enough before this misbegotten idea got infested into the tax code and people’s minds, individuals did not drop over dead in the street and did work out payment schedules WITH hospitals and physicians. Amazingly that worked and there was a strong system of charitable hospitals and care givers to pick up the slack. Then government got involved and screwed it up.
Government is all about money. Government's expertise is perverse incentives. The Obama-thing, like the previous Hillary-thing, is not technically insurance. It's just pre-paid medical costs, spread across populations and subsidized, or not, by income and with bureaucrats deciding what you can get paid on it.
That's not an entirely insane idea, except that whenever government gets involved with things outside their Constitutional mandate, things turn out wrong and over-controlling by the standards of a free country. Always.
I do not believe that most Americans want every detail of their lives politicized. I think they want to be left alone, but maybe I am old-fashioned.
Chris Matthews: I Wish We Could Go Back to the Days of Friendly
Politics, But the Racist Terrorist Tea Party Traitors Who Hate the
President Because He's Black Won't Let Us
Lebanon
Security Forces Shoot Down Dreaded Israeli “Spy Eagle” - See more at:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/10/lebanon-security-forces-shoot-down-dreaded-israeli-spy-eagle/#sthash.R2Zme4Ac.dpuf
Did you ever have a longin’ to get out and buck the trail, And to face the crashin’ lightnin’ and the thunder and the gale? Not for no partic’lar reason but to give the world the laugh, And to show the roarin’ elyments you still can stand the gaff.
Don’t you ever feel a yearnin’ just to try your luck again Down the rippin’ plungin’ rapids with a bunch of reg’lar men? Don’t you ever sorta hanker for a rough and risky trip, Just to prove you’re still a livin’ and you haven’t lost your grip?
Can’t you hear the woods a-callin’ for to have another try Sleepin’ out beneath the spruces with a roof of moonlit sky, With the wind a sorta singin’ through the branches overhead And your fire a gaily crackin’ and your pipe a-glowin’ red?
Don’t you often get to feelin’ sorta cramped and useless there, Makin’ figgers and a-shinin’ your pants upon a chair? Don’t you yearn to get acquainted once again with Life and God? If you don’t, then Heaven help you, for you’re a dyin’ in yer pod.
What would happen if all those white students who assert that racism is still a “major problem” and who approve of affirmative action as one remedy followed their beliefs and did not apply to selective colleges such as Williams, Wesleyan, Boulder and U.Va.? How would that alter the demographics of elite campuses?
The admissions offices at those schools would face a less-competitive white applicant pool and could boost minority acceptances. Thousands of white students with eight AP courses, a 4.0+ GPA, and 95th-percentile SAT scores would not join the mix and raise the averages.
Painting the Green World Red: 
Image via Eratosthenes'