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.

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Wednesday, October 10. 2012

It's just not fair

Man, does this tick me off.


We proffered, on Monday, the theory that the media made a big deal about Obama losing the debate so as not to admit that Romney positively won with overwhelming presence, presence of mind, and firepower against a perfectly acceptable Obama presentation. To focus on Obama's loss is to diminish Romney's success - that's what we said. When winning a tennis match because your opponent had a broken arm, you deserve no credit - but Obama had no broken arm.


Just one more good Maggie's insight, utterly ignored by the world outside our farm and our friendly coterie of readers.


Today, Ann Althouse posts the same theory. What happens? She gets linked by Insty and then para-quoted by Rush on the radio. Dang! Rush doesn't even know we exist!


I know it's small of me to even care, but, darn it, life isn't fair. (And no, I don't think Ann reads Maggie's. Wish she did because she's likeable enough.)

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 18:41 | Comments (32) | Trackbacks (0)

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Look at it this way - great minds think alike.
#1 Tom Francis on 2012-10-10 19:12 (Reply)
But some faster than others....
#1.1 Bird Dog on 2012-10-10 19:13 (Reply)
But you are not a Blonde Ditz Law Prof who, dashing off madly in all directions, later admits that she often
changes her mind, basically because she writes before she has all the facts in hand, necessitating a change later. Althouse posts at Instapundit:
QUOTE:
I NEED TO TELL YOU THAT I’VE CHANGED MY MIND ABOUT ONE THING BUT NOT ANOTHER. In case you’re keeping track of the occasional Althouse post here on Instapundit, I feel compelled to tell you that there are 2 things I’ve talked about here that I’ve reconsidered in the last 24 hours. First, unlike seemingly everybody else, I did not think Obama did such a bad job at the debate. So I rewatched the debate, and I stand by my original observation (and I think I know why Obama’s supporters decided to adopt the strange talking point that their guy was terrible).

Second, I deplored the resurrection of the 2007 video of Obama stirring up racial grievances. Yesterday, I read this Thomas Sowell column highlighting a specific, glaring lie, and I completely changed my mind. I still think The Daily Caller presented the material poorly, but I think what Obama did, what Sowell explains, does deserve our attention now. As I say at my home blog: “Obama lied, blatantly and for the purpose of making black people feel discriminated against. That’s evil.”

And who recently wrote that she was "undecided" about whom to vote for. Tell me another cowboy story, as they say in Venezuela.
#2 Gringo on 2012-10-10 19:22 (Reply)
Agreed. I've been watching Althouse for some time - mostly because Insty has this need to link her all the time - and I find her stuff odd and mercurial.

I'd personally never call hers a great mind. Ambitious and loud but not great.
#2.1 Ten on 2012-10-11 09:25 (Reply)
She's addicted to a kind of flighty contrarianism, as if it made her feel more independent or principled. But I'm glad to see she's figured out why it's fair to show certain videos even in the face of uniform liberal protests of "racism." Maybe she needed Thomas Sowell's permission, I don't know. I lost a lot of respect for her over her inane objections to the Obamaphone video: somehow it was totally alright to play it once, but racist to play it repeatedly. What a mushhead. She needs to figure out what she believes, even if that means leaving her Madison cocoon.
#2.2 Texan99 (Link) on 2012-10-11 10:24 (Reply)
The information that Thomas Sowell brought forth which caused Althouse to change her mind, had in large part already been posted by commenters at her site. Follow the link.

I used to respect Althouse. In recent weeks I have concluded that many of her stances are done as much to drive bog traffic as they are to express her POV. Such as- how can someone be UNDECIDED at this point- especially someone who blogged in favor of Scott Walker? Give me a break, Ann.
#3 Gringo on 2012-10-10 19:28 (Reply)
We try to drive traffic too - with occasional pics of pretty girls, gardens, recipes, and guns.
#3.1 Bird Dog on 2012-10-10 19:32 (Reply)
These days, unfortunately, that is a limited audience.
#3.1.1 XRay on 2012-10-10 22:43 (Reply)
pretty girls, gardens, recipes, and guns.

Speak for yourself, I love all that stuff.
#3.1.1.1 John the River (Link) on 2012-10-11 18:13 (Reply)
John, I was including myself in the limited audience.
#3.1.1.1.1 XRay on 2012-10-11 22:17 (Reply)
Great minds must think alike. I posted pretty much the same take on my blog yesterday, not knowing that either you or Althouse had covered this ground, and I was ignored as well.
I would add here (as I did in my blog post), that downgrading Obama's performance is all part of the new narrative--that of the comeback kid. Conservatives should thus be wary of rejoicing too much in how well Romney is currently doing.
#4 John Scotus (Link) on 2012-10-10 19:35 (Reply)
That's just the way it is, Bird Dog. I used to be linked frequently at Instapundit, Hot Air, Powerline, and others. Now, not so much. I still frequently have the scoop long before they do, but what has happened is that the blogosphere has changed dramatically from a decade or even five years ago. It has become concentrated in corporate shells and 'think tank" shells that are highly funded and look primarily to each other, rather than to what others in the blogosphere are writing. Or, when they do look, usually there is no credit given. -- What I have done is to reach out to other respected venues than the usual blogs, which may be looked at more frequently than ours, in addition to emailing certain blog posts to some influential bloggers who often are then stimulated to look deeper or otherwise just steal the lead. I don't really care about the credit, just the purpose. -- So, Bird Dog, I know that many blogs look at our morning links for leads for their posts. All our readers can do is to link us in their Comments at other blogs and email our posts to other blogs. Aside from that, to repeat, that's just the way it is.
#5 Bruce Kesler on 2012-10-10 19:52 (Reply)
Yes, well, I was really being ironic about being ticked off.
#5.1 Bird Dog on 2012-10-10 20:00 (Reply)
Irony is just honesty with the volume cranked up.
- George Saunders
#5.1.1 Bruce Kesler on 2012-10-10 20:29 (Reply)
Good one BK. Haven't heard that one B4.
#5.1.1.1 Garry on 2012-10-10 21:03 (Reply)
It's a long way from A to M. Maybe you should change your name to Aggies' Farm.
#6 chuck on 2012-10-10 20:10 (Reply)
"Aardvark" has a ring to it.
#6.1 Ralph Thayer, New London (Link) on 2012-10-10 20:50 (Reply)
Tea sippers wouldn't like that. :)

Though as a non-native Texan, I find the sniping that A&M and UT do at each other is rather entertaining. Many TX families have one kid go to UT and another to A&M: so the rivalry is often literally a rivalry of brothers.
#6.2 Gringo on 2012-10-10 22:19 (Reply)
Aggie walks into a bar, both hands extended, carrying a great big steaming dripping slop of cow patty, and announces, "Hey y'all, look what I almost stepped in!"
#6.2.1 buddy larsen on 2012-10-11 03:54 (Reply)
A&M's football coach was asked his secret of evaluating raw recruits.

"Well," he said, "I take 'em out in the woods and make 'em run. The ones that go around the trees, I make into running backs. The ones that run into the trees, I turn into linemen."
#6.2.1.1 Tom Francis on 2012-10-11 08:56 (Reply)
As a farewell present, I gave German coworker in Bolivia a book of Aggie jokes. He had worked with Texans all over South America, so he already knew about Aggie jokes. His Bolivian wife did not know how to place Aggie jokes, so I explained to her that they were like Pastuso jokes in Colombia. [Pasto is a province in southern Colombia.] Example of a Pastuso joke:

After checking into the Intercontinental, RAAAY heads up to la sexta in search of a Guinness … He finally gives up and enters Fandango, drawn
in by the music. Finding his way to the bar, he orders a drink. After a few drinks he yells, "Does anybody want to hear a pastuso joke?"

The place gets silent. Then a man with a deep, husky voice sitting to the right of RAAAY says, "Sir, I think it is only fair to let you know that:

1. The bartender is pastuso.
2. The bouncer is pastuso.
3. The man on your left is pastuso and a professional boxer.
4. I'm pastuso with a black belt in karate.
5. The man next to me is pastuso and a professional weight lifter.

Do you still want to tell that joke?"

"Jasus … no," says RAAAY. "Not if I'm gonna have to explain it FIVE times."

Or Kerryman jokes in Ireland. Which reminds me of the distinguished Senator from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, who could be seen as an honorary Kerryman.
#6.2.1.2 Gringo on 2012-10-11 10:53 (Reply)
Where i grew up in SW Louisiana, it's Boudreaux and Thibodeaux jokes. In one of 'em, Boudreaux and Thibodeaux are out in the bayou fishing, and Boudreaux falls out the pirouge and drowns. Old Thibodeaux is torn about how to break the news to Mrs. Boudreaux, but still goes to the house and knocks on the door. The Mrs. opens the door and Thibodeaux exclaims "Well, hi there, Widow Boudreaux!" She answers back, "Thibodeaux, I ain't no widow," to which Thibodeaux says "The shit you ain't!"
#6.2.1.2.1 buddy larsen on 2012-10-11 13:42 (Reply)
Not too much sniping anymore now that A&M is in the SEC. :>)

GEAUX TIGERS!!!
#6.2.2 Tom Francis on 2012-10-11 08:52 (Reply)
yep --afraid it was the linemen made that call --
#6.2.2.1 buddy larsen on 2012-10-11 09:56 (Reply)
Althouse loves, loves, loves Bob Dylan, also, so you have that in common ,too.
#7 Dee on 2012-10-10 20:59 (Reply)
Not to worry. I just let El Rushbo know that you exist.
#8 Archer2010 on 2012-10-10 21:27 (Reply)
You need to publish a slick paper magazine edition. Then do cover stories on celebs, and bang --you're in like phlegm
#9 buddy larsen on 2012-10-11 00:30 (Reply)
Like the dog of the Proverb the blonde doth return to her blondness.
#10 vanderleun on 2012-10-11 01:23 (Reply)
Don't feel bad Rush thought she was from Michigan.
#11 lonetown (Link) on 2012-10-11 06:34 (Reply)
Ann admittedly, like wild Irish Rose Peg Noonan, voted for Obama. Two peas in an anomalytic pod. How's that for penetrating insights?
#12 Fred Beloit on 2012-10-11 09:57 (Reply)
But the big picture re Althouse is that she lives in Madison and is awilling to publicly be a far outlier among a faculty that by and large would thank you for calling it 'Stalinist'.
#13 buddy larsen on 2012-10-11 13:29 (Reply)
Today, Ann Althouse posts the same theory. What happens? She gets linked by Insty and then para-quoted by Rush on the radio. Dang! Rush doesn't even know we exist!
This Ann Althouse posting was on October 11. A poster on her blog had already alerted readers on October 3 that commenter Ken on Neoneocon had dug up the relevant facts on Obama's lies about Nawlins and the Stafford Act. On October 3, page 4 of comments on "I identify myself as the outlier" from the Althouse blog
QUOTE:
Ctmom4 said...

Here is fun fact, from the blog Neo Neocon : "Commenter “Ken” points out something I hadn’t been aware of before: Obama was one of a small minority in the Senate who voted against the bill that waived the Stafford Act in order to make assistance funds available to the New Orleans Katrina victims without their having to match them with a 10% contribution.

That’s the same Stafford Act he lied about in his 2007 Hampton speech, the waiver that had actually occurred several weeks before he made the speech, the waiver that he voted against.

See this for a list of those who voted for and against. You’ll note that Obama’s “nay” vote was one of only 14 cast against the act, almost all of them liberal Democrats. No doubt he would say he knew the act would pass and so he felt okay voting against it in order to protest the Iraq war funds that were also part of the bill. But there’s something profoundly distasteful and almost grotesque about him voting against the waiver, knowing the bill had passed despite his vote, and then lying to the audience to make them angry that the waiver hadn’t happened."

He voted against the waiver. Priceless.
10/3/12 8:25 PM
Granted, poster Ctmom4 didn't provide a link to Ken's comment. But if Ann Althouse had anything on the ball, she could have dug it up.

This is why I see Ann Althouse as a Blonde Ditz. Which is another way of saying that I have lost respect for her, irrespective of her sex and of her hair color.
#14 Gringo on 2012-10-11 21:06 (Reply)

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