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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Tuesday, January 21. 2014

A few Tues. morning links

I was addicted to making money:



 IN my last year on Wall Street my bonus was $3.6 million — and I was angry because it wasn’t big enough. I was 30 years old, had no children to raise, no debts to pay, no philanthropic goal in mind. I wanted more money for exactly the same reason an alcoholic needs another drink: I was addicted.



The chemicals in our food


The Chemicals in Our FoodSeeing X Chromosomes in a New LightThe 10 Most Worthless College Majors

Why I Let My Daughter Get a ‘Useless’ College Degree


Nigel Farage says the unsayable: women have maternal impulses and wombs!


Gov. Cuomo needs to meet some New Yorkers


Never forget: The ‘War on Drugs’ is a ‘War on Freedom’


Obamacare: Turning the Middle Class into Ward of the State


Security Expert Hacks Obamacare Website In 4 Minutes; Accesses 70,000 Records


How Little Lindy Became a Fat Feminist (video)

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:17 | Comments (21) | Trackbacks (0)

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Regarding Cuomo, the "tolerance" of the left strikes again.
#1 Mark on 2014-01-21 07:54 (Reply)
Can you imagine if ANY Republican governor said anything remotely similar to that? The press is having a field day with Christie but couldn't be bothered looking into the myriad scandals and malfeasance of Obummer. But there's nothing new in that...

As for "Why I Let My Daughter Get a ‘Useless’ College Degree", I only agree somewhat with those who say college should prepare you for the working world. There is and has been less emphasis on math and history. Math (remember geometry proofs) helps teach you logic and history teaches you the lessons of the past (why did you know that every boneheaded idea the left has had has been tried before? And that it led to tears?). I used to think that the variety of classes and subject that seemed irrelevant to one's actual day to day life was designed merely to exercise your mind, but I think it's much more pointed than that and it exercises your mind in specific ways.
#1.1 mudbug on 2014-01-21 08:50 (Reply)
That's why they hate history, mudbug, and teach it their way.
#1.1.1 Sam L. on 2014-01-21 11:32 (Reply)
I agree with your point about history lessons. You can learn these history lessons from courses in high school, not just college. I took an Introduction to Politics course in 9th grade. It was a demanding course, but as I was a politics geek, that wasn't a problem. From that course I concluded that there were two basic facts about Communism as a governing system. My conclusion didn't come from anything my teacher said, but from what I read and wrote outside of the classroom. From the assigned reading of Solzhenitsyn's A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch, I learned that Communism was evil. From writing a term paper on Soviet agriculture, I learned that Communism was also incompetent when it came to delivering material goods- which is ironic being that Communism is based on "dialectical materialism."

The lesson kicked in my freshman year in college. Because of my pacifism, I was against the Vietnam War. I went to some SDS meetings, as SDS was leading Vietnam War protests on campus. In a conversation on the quad, I heard an SDS honcho say that Lenin should be required study in college. She didn't say this in the sense of "know your enemy," but in the sense that Lenin was on a par with the great minds such as Plato or Darwin. Hearing that Lenin-worship coming from an SDSer, I decided that SDS was not the way to go. This particular SDSer didn't become a Weatherperson. After graduation she worked at a low-level job in her field, and eventually got a doctorate. She has been an elected official for some time- basically now a tax and spend Democrat.
#1.1.2 Gringo on 2014-01-21 16:01 (Reply)
RE - hacks O-care website in 4min

No surprise here - its been a coding train-wreck since inception, and hasn't got much better since. There comes a time\place to drop this albatross, and begin anew.

If any politician had any stones, he\she'd be a statesman and suggest a HOLD on all further activities, and repeal this monstrosity, and look for far better solutions. Anything is better than this.

But, alas, that would be the perfect solution, but unreachable in the Logic-Free Zone (ala DC)
#2 fred zeppelin on 2014-01-21 09:03 (Reply)
In spite of all the caterwauling Pubbies have done about repealing Obummercare, even if they take the Senate, hold the house and win the presidency, I have very little faith they'll actually do it.
#2.1 mudbug on 2014-01-21 09:18 (Reply)
The always brilliant Richard Fernandez had this to say about the repubs yesterday at Belmont Club.

He wrote:

"But just what is the current Republican business model? It really resembles the business model of the Washington Generals, an exhibition basketball team. The job of the Generals is to play second fiddle to the Harlem Globetrotters. There is logic in this.

Losing is not a bad deal if the the loser’s purse is bigger than the expected value of the winners pay packet outside the deal. Since it is the Globetrotters, not the Generals, that drive the total size of the revenue, it makes sense to accept second-best. The bigger the audience the Globetrotters attract the bigger the losers’ purse of the Washington Generals. It is rational for the Generals to aim for a smaller slice of as long as the Trotters keep growing the pie.

The pie in Washington DC is the size of the Federal Government, which the Republicans, avowedly the party of small government, cannot grow or grow as quickly as the Democrats. It makes sense to enter into a symbiotic relationship where like the Globetrotters, the Democrats will tirelessly expand the size of the Federal Government so that even if the GOP only gets to sit its turn 40% of the time, the feast is over an expended empire of spoils. The losers’ pay packet is pretty good.

The reason why the GOP business model is in crisis is that the audience is beginning to suspect the game is fixed. Nobody can plausibly run on “Republican principles” any more. Pledges to cut the bloated bureaucracy, close the borders to illegal immigration or put a stop to endless expansion have a ring of insincerity. Ticket sales are slumping. And the Trotters aren’t even pretending to take the Generals seriously."

http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2014/01/19/the-juggernaut/
#2.1.1 feeblemind on 2014-01-21 10:30 (Reply)
And why they detest having the Tea Partiers horning in on them, and we the people like the Tea Partiers.
#2.1.1.1 Sam L. on 2014-01-21 11:35 (Reply)
Most of my associates realize this, and have taken the 'let it burn' meme. Its too far gone, too far rotted, and too broken to recover.

Too much cronyism, too much lawlessness by the political class, too much back-biting, too much favoritism and pitting one group against others. The is no inclusive sense, only 'what have you done for me lately' and 'gimmie more!'.

Not being a Nihilist, but its so blatant and obvious - nothing short of collapse will correct this all, and the hope that the phoenix will arise from the ashes. Pain is inevitable - the severity depends upon how hard the fall is.


I wonder if Joe Toga felt this way as Rome began to burn and the barbarians came.

All one can do at this stage is gather up your tools and valuable items, and weather the storm.
#2.1.1.2 fred zeppelin on 2014-01-21 12:27 (Reply)
I believe that is what the Republicans were suggesting last fall. Democrats and the media (redundant) called them names and assured us everything was great.

Now the only Republican course is to let it crash horribly, refuse to bail it out, and total repeal in 2017.
#2.2 NJSoldier on 2014-01-21 10:23 (Reply)
I hope you're right about the repeal though I worry about the horrible crash and the unexpected side effects of it (like no health insurance industry left, crippled hospitals and a shortage of doctors). But I'm just not confident in pubbies anymore.

For a long time, I've called Pubbies the "Stupid Party" because they don't seem to be able to mount credible opposition (the exceptions being the Gipper and Newty (unfortunately, Newty has tarnished himself pretty badly for me with some of the ridiculous things he said in the primaries last time). I can't say I've really voted FOR a Pubbie very often lately - though I did view them as a HUGE improvement over whoever the Democrat that was running against him.

I just hope we Tea Partiers can take over the Pubby Party. Building a new one is difficult and time consuming and I don't think we have that much time.
#2.2.1 mudbug on 2014-01-21 20:55 (Reply)
Re: the drug war
The War on Drugs attempts to save people from making mistakes, but if drugs were legalized and "society" (read the giverment) then picks up the pieces of those who made those mistakes, those lessons will still not be learned by many.

I'm all for allowing people to make mistakes, but they must bear the cost of their mistakes.
#3 mudbug on 2014-01-21 09:24 (Reply)
"Why I Let My Daughter Get a ‘Useless’ College Degree"

The content of that is so bad, I think we are missing the telling in the title.

Why she let her daughter? Not "why I'm okay with...", "why I support...", "why I paid for my...",but, "why I let...."

An interesting perspective, intimating control and domination. We must be harking back to the pre-1965 era of the child of 21. But only for college students. If an individual leaves the education cartel, they are adults, with adult rights and responsibilities, apparently.

But let's try to gain a little perspective here. 30% of the population goes to college. Of those, something like 7% are foolish enough to major in the "liberal arts". We don't really know how many of that 7% pursue the "humanities" nor how many find legitimate, old-fashioned humanities programs.

Yet, all we hear is the whining of the subset of the subset, who rack up debilitating debt obtaining useless degrees in unserious topics?
#4 JKB on 2014-01-21 10:33 (Reply)
daughter better settle for an MRS degree because surely she's not capable of acting for herself.
#4.1 wirraway on 2014-01-21 15:56 (Reply)
It's not all that obvious that helicopter parenting is a good idea. This piece does nothing to show it is.
#4.2 JorgXMcKie on 2014-01-22 13:09 (Reply)
Re: Humanities/daughters/college.

First thing to understand about this article is that the author/mother is writing an article for the TIME. This in itself tells me that she is in a cultural/economic group that will not let mommy fail in monetary terms!

Second: You and I MUST acknowledge the need of the feminist movement to legitimize the falsification of qualifications. It is one of the movement's fundamental tenants: every woman/any job--qualifications be damned! Once the white men in this country get organized in their workplaces to stand up for "standards". The women will just falsify documents--as so many young women already willingly do while working in work/study jobs in the records departments of so many schools. STEM came about because the femnazi leadership could no longer keep quiet the fact that the US was failing as a result of it's focus on hiring the incompetent. A system which since the beginning in the 1980's has downgraded it's competency standards at the country's universities in order to make way for those who could not perform, those who came from a politically well organized group. These women are not parents--they are from the beginning lazy, and they become apologetic--but, they are never parents.
I laugh when I watch the women running the OBama government stumble from one mess to the next. That poor SOB is the victim of the same system that put him forward--a system that said he was the best candidate because of his color. I know we can always refer to Bush, who clearly had not learned much while attending school. But he is another example of why political skills need not be a particular academic focus! For many in congress political skills are inherited from one generation of family to the next.
#5 faculty wife on 2014-01-21 10:59 (Reply)
If there's any place where academic credentials don't necessarily imply excellence (or incompetence), it's politics. Not in raw political skills nor wisdom in policy. No matter how much credentialed people want it to be true.

Remember when it turned out John Kerry had worse grades at Harvard than Bush, and Bush took harder subjects? More math on his part, IIRC. They both earned Gentleman's Cs, but the chattering class shut up about that particular wrinkle in the "Bush is Dumb" meme right quick after that.
#5.1 T.K. Tortch on 2014-01-21 16:13 (Reply)
"Security expert hacks Obamacare website".
It appears to me that any website can be hacked. Some sites have more protections from known problems but it seems that the hackers can always find another way to get around those defenses. This is not to defend the Obamacare websites; of course they should be as protected as possible. But perhaps no site should ever ask for or have access to personal information and certainly never have any classified information on it. I don't think the internet can be made safe and therefore I don't think it should ever be used to gather or disseminate information that should be protected. I also question the wisdom of an organization even allowing Internet into their corporate networks.
#6 GoneWithTheWind on 2014-01-21 11:22 (Reply)
Addicted to money: Oh, the angst! Well, he did wise up; good for him.

Chemicals in our food: The worst of all is that damned dihydorgen oxide!

Easily Hacking O'Care website: In the words of the immortal Gomer Pyle. "Surprahz, surprahz."
#7 Sam L. on 2014-01-21 11:54 (Reply)
He generalizes too much from his own anecdotal experience. I'm glad he's in a better place, but assuming that everyone on Wall St is just like he was is not supported by evidence.
#7.1 JorgXMcKie on 2014-01-22 13:13 (Reply)
OH BOY! Look at this one:

http://bgr.com/2014/01/20/smart-tvs-fridge-hacked/


And here you thought your refrigerator was safe from outside hackers? How about those new computerized cars--that's gonna be fun!
#8 another one on 2014-01-21 12:37 (Reply)

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