Maggie's Farm

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.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

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Sunday, August 5. 2012

Sunday Linkabout

The Kurds: The MidEast's Wild Card?


Entitled to Fail: Inside Italy’s Downward Spiral


The Popular Front Against Iran


Obama's Legacy: $25 Trillion in Debt by 2022


Caeser’s New Las Vegas Vomitorium


A prayer, please, for my ill friend Barry Rubin


GayPatriot: “Yeah, a three-person kiss and signs like “Eat More Carpet” will go a long way to changing social conservative attitudes toward gays.”


Health Care Costs and ObamaCare : “The federal government has demonstrated in its management of Medicare and Medicaid over the past half century that it has no capacity whatsoever to make prudent resource-allocation decisions in health care. Instead, to hit budget targets, the federal government always resorts to blunt, across-the-board cost cutting that harms the quality of patient care and reduces medical innovation.”


Europe’s Quiet Shale Revolution


Springsteen is “Howard Zinn with a guitar.”



(H/T: Doug Ross)


August 4, 1950: The Battle of Pusan, Korea

Posted by Bruce Kesler at 06:00 | Comments (4) | Trackback (1)

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re Italy/0bama's legacy

Happened to come across this yesterday. FWIW

"Richard Duncan, formerly of the World Bank and chief economist at Blackhorse Asset Mgmt., says America's $16 trillion federal debt has escalated into a "death spiral, "as he told CNBC."

"We found an identical pattern in our debt, total credit market, and money supply that guarantees they're going to fail. This pattern is nearly the same as in any pyramid scheme, one that escalates exponentially fast before it collapses. Governments around the globe are chiefly responsible."

".... in seven years, from 1970 to 1977, it (US GOV debt) quickly doubled. And then it doubled again in seven more years. Then five years to double a third time. And then it doubled two more times after that."

"Fitz-Gerald also warns of a period of devastating inflation. A recent survey, reports USA Today, notes that in the coming years it could take $150,000 a year in household income for a family to afford basic living expenses - and maybe go out to a movie."

"Right now, in fact, "52% of Americans feel they barely have enough to afford the basics."

"If our research is right," says Fitz-Gerald, "Americans will have to make some tough choices on how they'll go about surviving when basic necessities become nearly unaffordable and the economy becomes dangerously unstable."

http://moneymorning.com/ob/economist-richard-duncan-civilization-may-not-survive-death-spiral/
#1 feeblemind on 2012-08-05 11:02 (Reply)
I have noticed an increasing criticism of the "wealthy", defined as "those who live off their interest, dividends and capital gains" and suggesting that, because these people do not pay payroll taxes on these sums, it is to the detriment of everyone else.

Hmmm. Did it every occur to these critics that taxes have already been paid on these savings and are still being paid, perhaps in lesser amounts? That these are often savings which were accumulated to fund retirement in old age, especially since Social Security barely covers costs and pensions have always been at risk? I don't remember resenting my grandparents or parents for retiring after 40-odd years in the workplace. That savings is a way of insuring against poverty and is usually amassed by making sacrifices in earlier years -- not buying the fancy car, or the McMansion, or a vacation away from home every year.

The blame for this rise in angry criticism goes to those who pit people against one another in order to gain votes, media share, donations for their not-for-profit (which does not mean the NFP doesn't pay huge salaries) or ego...sometimes all four. They'll stoop to pitting us against one another based on income level, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, you-name-it. They'll assign you to a "hate group" without cause. Meanwhile, the economy WILL tank, our freedoms WILL disappear and we WILL return to feudalism.
#1.1 jma on 2012-08-05 15:34 (Reply)
http://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/2012/08/04/why-ive-always-written-so-much-with-such-intensity-and-why-i-wont-stop-now/#comment-214039


115. buddy larsen
No matter what happens tomorrow, you’ve done a great thing with your life. Nothing can change that, it’s already written.

That said, you gotta pull thru, man.

August 5, 2012 - 5:58 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
#2 buddy larsen on 2012-08-05 14:02 (Reply)
Medicaid

Thousands for hospitilization, not one cent for meds.
#3 Alan Kellogg (Link) on 2012-08-05 19:31 (Reply)

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