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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Monday, March 17. 2014

Monday morning links

‘Is this a joke?’ Salon writer asks: ‘How did Irish Americans get so disgusting?’


Shocking: Students Forced to Walk Half Mile Back from Field Trip!!! News 2 Team Reports Live!


Why the Pony Express is still faster than the U.S Post Office in the West


New York Steals London’s Mantle as World’s Top Financial Center


My cross to bear – why I no longer hide my faith in the newsroom


How a young Rockefeller died at the hands of cannibals


Experts Think Marathon Bombing Anniversary Could Come With Anxiety For Some


Anxiety? I'd call it normal fear of a copycat


Bossy liberal feminists have just invented another ridiculous reason to be offended


Dependency Uber Alles - That must be the real goal of governors who have thwarted modest food stamp reform.


‘Cold war is over’: Putin media chief says Russia only country ‘capable of turning U.S. into radioactive dust’


McCain: Russia is a ‘Gas Station Masquerading as a Country’


Shifting Mideast Sands Reveal New Alliances - Saudi-Egypt axis emerging to challenge the Iran-led Shia
group.


America’s Credibility from Bad to
Worse


Down and out: the French flee a nation in despair


The Unbearable Lightness of Barack Obama: Desperation, Cunning, or Disengagement?


Rachel Canning Might Have Won in Europe



Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 05:34 | Comments (28) | Trackbacks (0)

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A Maggie's Farm regular reader asks, "why do you keep posting nonsense from that piece of trash Salon"?
#1 phil g on 2014-03-17 06:11 (Reply)
To show how others think
#1.1 Bird Dog on 2014-03-17 06:16 (Reply)
Such a waste of time and space!
#1.1.1 jma on 2014-03-17 11:06 (Reply)
Ya mean to see how utter perversion is presented as normal life? No thanks, I get it, I can live without the evidence.
#1.1.2 phil g on 2014-03-17 13:00 (Reply)
I'm proud to be as disgusting as I am. Salon can go pound sand.
#1.2 Bulldog on 2014-03-17 09:30 (Reply)
McCain is a national embarrassment
#2 phil g on 2014-03-17 06:13 (Reply)
Why do you say that? Obviously, he's way over simplifying the situation but I think the thing that gives Russia any power at all (in lower intensity issues - obviously their nukes make them a formidable force if things were to get heated up a lot) is that they supply so much of Europe's oil and natural gas.

Their long term outlook is terrible. Their demographics are probably only better than Japan's and their average health is pretty poor.
#2.1 mudbug on 2014-03-17 10:14 (Reply)
Hmmm...where to start...
#2.1.1 phil g on 2014-03-17 12:56 (Reply)
Start or don't.
#2.1.1.1 mudbug on 2014-03-17 13:10 (Reply)
I agree that John McCain is an embarrassment. He says he doesn't want a new cold war with Russia but all of his 'ideas' would directly harm Russia. Economic sanctions to hurt an already weak economy, a buildup of military forces on the Russian border and on it goes. That is exactly what a new cold war would look like. So yeah, McCain is a nut. On Syria, McCain wants to drop bombs, in Lybia, McCain wanted to drop bombs. McCain always wants to drop bombs and he always wants to use military force first. McCain is Mr. Invasion, so yeah, he is a nut case. I think he resents being cooped up in a prison camp all that time when he could have been dropping bombs instead. Maybe if he had, he would have gotten over it by now.
#2.1.1.1.1 KommiKillr on 2014-03-17 13:45 (Reply)
There is a lot that is embarrassing about McCain. In addition to all the times he wants to bomb or send troops into some hot spot he also decides that waterboarding is torture. One would think that somebody who was tortured would know the difference...

However, none of that is pertinent to his comments that Russia is a gas station posing as a country. As embarrassing as he can be, he's not always off the rails.
#2.1.1.1.1.1 mudbug on 2014-03-17 14:23 (Reply)
His defense of Georgia which was a big FU with violent backing that upset the treaty with Russia was an embarrassment.

His personal life is an embarrassment.

His horrible campaign and the way he and his team treated Palin is an embarrassment.

His pandering to the Washington press is an embarrassment.

His continual sell-out of conservative principles is an embarrassment.

I could go on...
#2.1.1.1.1.1.1 phil g on 2014-03-17 15:20 (Reply)
I agree. What does that have to do with his comment about Russia? Or does it have anything to do with it?
#2.1.1.1.1.1.1.1 mudbug on 2014-03-17 17:06 (Reply)
He's made foolish comments about Ukraine and he's obsessed with Putin and Russia, but other than that mostly he's just an embarrassment.
#2.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1 phil g on 2014-03-17 20:33 (Reply)
He said that there were substantive things that could be done to counter Putin's attempt at hegemony that it turns out we are not going to do.

As I said later down in this thread, I'm not taking up for McCain as I don't have a lot of respect for him now (I have more respect for some of the things he did long ago), but in this instance, I think he made some valuable points and showed Obummer to be feckless.
#2.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1 mudbug on 2014-03-17 21:43 (Reply)
OK, Russia is a gas station. Still no excuse to provoke the Russian population. Right now, Putin has no domestic support for what he is doing in the Ukraine. With jerks like McCain paving the way to war with his rhetoric, Putin could soon have that support. I'm thinking we don't really want to go there. McCain needs to shut up.
#2.1.1.1.1.1.2 KommiKillr on 2014-03-17 17:16 (Reply)
An angle I hadn't considered. I would say that from what I have heard, Putin's popularity has soared over the last few weeks over his handling of Crimea because the Russian people like a strong man.

While McCain may not have improved the situation, I'm not sure he hurt it. I don't think Putin cares what he says. Hell, Obummer is in power and Putin doesn't care what he says.

I'm not interested in taking up for McCain (he would only have been better then Obummer when he ran in 2008) but I think part of what he was saying is that there are many things that can be done and given Obummer's "astute" grasp of the geopolitical realities, Obummer wasn't likely to do anything that would be meaningful. As it turns out, he didn't. Again, not taking up for McCain, but he was right about Russia and Obummer this time.
#2.1.1.1.1.1.2.1 mudbug on 2014-03-17 19:01 (Reply)
"Bitchy Liberal Feminists..."

FIFY
#3 Jess1 on 2014-03-17 09:07 (Reply)
Apparently, the Irish Americans stopped voting thoughtlessly Democrat so now they are disgusting to Democrats.

It is a troublesome development for the pro-slavery party, when the original slaves imported into the New World finally free themselves from the party masters.
#4 JKB on 2014-03-17 09:22 (Reply)
Pony Express vs. USPS: PE had very little administration...and no union.
#5 Sam L. on 2014-03-17 11:15 (Reply)
‘Is this a joke?’ Salon writer asks: ‘How did Irish Americans get so disgusting?’

A group - Irish Americans- got blamed for the misdeeds of a few individuals- the Kennedy clan.
#6 Gringo on 2014-03-17 11:44 (Reply)
I have known about the "Rockefeller" story since the beginning. I do not contest the idea that he died as the story reports; rather, I must question the idea that he swam 10 miles to shore! Rough calculations puts one mile at 1760 yards. A standard lap lane in regulation pool is 25 yards. That means that young Mr. Rockefeller would have had to swim 70 regulation laps to move just ONE mile closer to shore. This story report tells us that he swam 10 X 70 which equals to 700 regulation laps. There is no where that I have read where young Mr. Rockefeller had either that much interest in swimming, or that skill. Sooo, once again we are subjected to a lack of fundamental thinking skills--the lack of which is apparent to all but the author!
#7 another one on 2014-03-17 12:02 (Reply)
So would the Asmats be considered 'noble savages'?
#7.1 phil g on 2014-03-17 15:33 (Reply)
I need to clarify my own calculations: an olympic sized regulation pool is 32 laps at 50 meters a lap to reach one mile. A mile is 5,280 feet. That still is a very long swim, one that I doubt Mr. Rockefeller would have attempted, or been capable of completing.
#8 another one on 2014-03-17 12:08 (Reply)
This was something I questioned, as well. Plus he was in a current, in the ocean (or straits) which presumably have waves.

I have swum a mile in the ocean, and I can tell you there is no way anyone but an extremely strong swimmer can go much further than a mile. It's ridiculously hard. I am an average swimmer, at best.

My guess is either Rockefeller was highly motivated (who wouldn't be?), or the 10 mile estimate was closer to a mile or two. It's easy to be fooled when you're on the ocean. Distances are rarely what they seem to be.

Doesn't mean I don't believe he wasn't a meal. He may very well have been. I don't know that the difference between drowning and being eaten by cannibals is much of one I'd worry about.

Either way, the outcome is roughly the same for the victim.
#8.1 Bulldog on 2014-03-17 12:20 (Reply)
re Why the Pony Express is still faster than the U.S Post Office in the West

Hate to come to the USPS defense, but in this instance they may not be at fault.

An eBay seller can print and pay for postage at their place of business. Once the shipping label is created, the parcel is "in the system" even though it hasn't been picked up. A package can languish at the point of origin for days, but the tracking will say the parcel is 'enroute'. I know their are times the USPS takes the blame for slow shipping when the eBay seller simply won't get off his lazy dead a$$ and take the package to the post office.

Here is another scenario using my location as an example. I could sell an article on Monday afternoon (after the mail carrier has gone by) and print the label. The mail carrier would then pick it up on Tuesday and take it to the PO but since the truck has left by the time he gets back to the Post Office it won't leave town until Wednesday morning. Change the day of the sale to Friday afternoon and it won't leave town before Monday morning.
#9 feeblemind on 2014-03-17 12:49 (Reply)
I've watched FedexSmartPost (or whatever they call it) travel from Wisconsin. It takes two days by slow truck for it to be reported as in Atlanta 120 miles away at the USPS. Then 5 days before suddenly it is near the local post office. Anywhere from zero to 2 after that for it to arrive.

Not complaining, that's what you get when you do the free shipping deal but amusing how slow it gets when it gets close.
#9.1 JKB on 2014-03-17 14:05 (Reply)
BD--I can think of a couple of other things one might want to consider re: Rockefeller. One he was a meal all right--for the sharks. Those are incredibly infested waters!
Two: the old dutch priest may very well have wanted to find a justification for getting off that island! The cannibal story may have gone well with historical factual events/traditions, but the Rockefeller event may have been contrived as a good excuse, one could use to obtain a summons home!
#10 another one on 2014-03-17 14:11 (Reply)

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