Maggie's FarmWe 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, April 20. 2015Monday morning links'Ban GMOs: That Shit Ain’t Food' - How the rhetoric of disgust undermines responsible food choices. Be a Rebel: Cook Your Vegetables to Death I like that 18th c. luxury sex toy found in Gdansk Gdansk? It figures. Little Boy Gets A Surprise Photobomb At School Picture Day Marathon winner loses race title because she never ran the race Women Are Owning More and More Small Businesses Good LAUSD Finds That $1.3 Billion iPad Program Was Largely a Bust I coulda told em Dr. Oz responds after prominent physicians call for his firing from Columbia University The transgender triumph Lengthy, interesting article about trannies Feds Spent $410,265 Studying ‘Satisfaction’ Levels of Young Gay Men’s First Time Your tax dollars at work Four Jobs Our American Universities Don't Do Anymore College Kicks Off 'Disinvitation Dinner' By Hosting Speaker Shunned by University IF YOU’RE MALE AND BELONG TO A FRATERNITY, YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS. The Real Student Loan Crisis Is The One Obama Created Christina Hoff Sommers gets Trigger Warnings at Georgetown Forget Steak and Seafood: Here’s How Welfare Recipients Actually Spend Their Money A Double Standard for the Poor? No, food stamps aren’t subsidies for McDonald’s and Wal-Mart - What advocates of a "living wage" get wrong about the labor market Another Infuriating Crackdown on Sharing Food With the Homeless Supreme Court Weighs Bizarre Private Property Seizure Preventing the Coming Ice Age Global Warming Authoritarian Leonardo DiCaprio Travels Constantly by Private Jet Obama Warns U.S.: ‘Climate Change Poses Immediate Risks to Our National Security’ Think Global Warming Is Bad? Wait Until You Meet Sustainability The Big Idea: California Is So Over - California’s drought and how it’s handled show just what kind of place the Golden State is becoming: feudal, super-affluent and with an impoverished interior. Sexism Is The New Racism Obamacare repeal falls off Republicans´ to-do list as law takes hold All You Need to Know About Hillary’s Campaign Wait, wasn't she president already? Decoding the passionate, conflicted and deeply strange launch of Hillary 2.0 Dead Broke Hillary Dodged Sniper Fire With Her Immigrant Parents In Tuzla Biggest Donor to Clinton Foundation Violated Iran Sanctions, Got State Dept Meetings Under Hillary New Book, ‘Clinton Cash,’ Questions Foreign Donations to Foundation Trackbacks
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I was a little afraid to click thru on the photobomb story with that framing. But all was well.
Well, when I first loaded this page this morning, the word "joy" was missing and there was just a blank line seeming to group the photobomb link with the 18th century sex toy link.
I was happy to discover their was not link between the two. Maybe I should have posted it as a new post rather than a reply.
I am always gratified and happy for the kid to see a black kid with a father. I don't have the same reaction to seeing a white kid with a father. That's more than a little condescending. Why don't you not think of us at all, instead?
#1.1.1.1.1
The Poetry of Violence
on
2015-04-20 11:08
(Reply)
I guess you just had too many negatives lying around and had to use some...
But I think I see your point, and I don't necessarily disagree. ut I can't help but think that black kids, both by stereotype and statistical reality, more often than not do not have fathers or father figures living with them so I cheer when I see examples that are counter to the statistics. Certainly, the number of white kids who don't live with father or father figures is growing but they are not as obvious to me at least partly because it is still more common to have white kids with fathers or father figures. The whole situation is a crying shame for all kids but it is worse with black kids and what makes it worse for them is that their mothers and grandmothers who are raising them are more likely less financially able to soften the impact on their kids. Obviously, money is not a substitute, but access to better schools, for example, helps.
#1.1.1.1.1.1
mudbug
on
2015-04-20 11:43
(Reply)
Double negatives, of which I have an abundance, are a way of smoothing criticism.
Otherwise, in the spirit of a quote misattributed to St. Francis, I lead by quiet example.
#1.1.1.1.1.1.1
The Poetry of Violence
on
2015-04-20 12:43
(Reply)
Re: Cracking down on sharing food with the homeless
It sure looks like the idea here is to make charity illegal or at least controlled by the government. Somebody should use the defense that this is part of their free exercise of their religion. Uh... Maybe not. That seems to only work if you're using peyote. In Texas, some is using the the Texas Religious Freedom Act as a defense.
My thought is the ban is designed to be a gentler bum's rush. Can't have them around where the upset the gentry and the cramp bohemian street scene. Obummer says that climate change is a national security risk.
It takes one to know one! I'm afraid I took a pass on the transgender item.
Whenever LGBTQ+ comes up I can't help thinking about what some commentator once said in other blog on this issue. He felt disinclined to discuss it because he just could not get past the feeling that such people were probably mentally ill. I myself sometimes wonder what "traditional" gays going about their lives must really think about all the "gender hangers-on" they are now lumped together with. My horse is a gelding. He does not self-identify as a mare.
Marathon winner who never ran the race....luckily there is more scrutiny now so these miscreants will be caught routinely and exposed.
My son is running Boston this morning from the elite first corral just behind the super elites including Meb. A huge honor. Hard work pays off. Watch the race live: http://watchlive.baa.org/ RE: Marathon winner loses race title because she never ran the race
"I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift ... ." Ecclesiastes 9:11 - Orange Catholic Bible Women Are Owning More and More Small Businesses
I chuckled reading this so I fixed it "Women appear to be owning more and more small businesses." It am not saying that the claim is totally wrong and that there isn't an uptick, but as a true measure of women's equality, color me skeptical. Reality is that small woman owned businesses get preferential treatment in the form of set asides, so there is substantial incentive to structure a business this way. My reaction to this was similar. Many "Women Owned" and "Minority Owned" businesses are a scam for government set asides and preferences. It is very pervasive and corrosive here. Not as much women, but we have a bunch of fake "Minority Owned" businesses who must be given government contracts over other non-preferenced businesses.
What happens is that the Minority Owned business is simply a shell. The minority owners who get the contracts do none of the work, they just sub-contract the work out to others, taking a healthy cut from the profits. I am convinced this is driving bids and the cost of government contracting up, but it is politically incorrect for anyone to say anything. how about set asides for disabled vets?
self certification for WOSB ended this year by the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act. I don't know specifically about disabled Vets, but it is a definite, yes, for Vets.
that's women owned, as in 51% ownership and control, which is not always the same as majority ownership; as well as day to day operational control.
I work in government contracting as a proposal writer. I do not see a whole lot of exclusively women-only contracts. Most are 8(a), HUBZone or Service-Disabled Vet.
I also think the reason you are seeing more women-owned small businesses is that more women want to stay home with their kids, but still make money...and during such a terrible economy, women are having to find a way to make ends meet. It is easier and easier to find stay-at-home and work-at-home opportunities with the internet. There are businesses, and then, there are businesses. I just don't get how doggie day care, flea markets, beaders, Pilates studios, and aroma therapy candle shops will make up for the jobs that generate “real wealth”. Maybe we’re all going to stand around all day working for the government, giving each other flu shots. I just don’t see how dead end service jobs, stoop labor, or government jobs are going to make up for the significant revenues and infrastructure that would have been generated and supported by the manufacturing sector.
I saw this in a city I lived in. A hispanic man owned a heatingand air conditioning company. He was getting the lions share of the city and state business. At least two small heating and air companies went out of busness simply for lack of work because the new company was sucking up all the government jobs. I assumed it was a minority thing but was a little suprised that simply being hispanic would qualify for that scam. I finally discovered he was smart enough to put the business in his wifes name and indeed it was a minority status business even though she never went near it. Pretty slick scam our government is complicit with.
GMOs What is it about our current culture that so many public issues are treated in a monolithic way? Sure, I am not too keen to consume products that contain pesticides, herbicides, fungicides.... But, GMO is so much more than that; it includes incorporating missing nutrition into crops in areas of the world where it is not readily available, or extending the range of crops into marginal, and less arable land ( ie across latitudes, at different altitudes, soil types, rainfall conditions....).
Because ignorance and anti-science. People are too far removed from the actual experience of growing a crop or providing their own food. People are too far removed from non politicized information of how pesticides/herbicides work. We are being conditioned to be chemophobes, because the Agenda21 crowd need us to be. To save Gaia. to Control us.
There is also a complete lack of trust in all areas of our lives. We can't trust government, we can't trust corporations. We can't trust each other. Hard to believe the prevalence of people who believe that "they are out to kill us" when we buy their products. Because "They " are inserting spider DNA into plants and we eat them!!!! Chemtrails! We can't trust charities, because .02 on the $1 donated goes to the actual cause.... http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/02/02/how-your-food-would-look-if-not-genetically-modified-over-millennia-2/ http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/02/05/pasta-ruby-grapefruits-why-organic-devotees-love-foods-mutated-by-radiation-and-chemicals/ A subset of these same folks are vegetarian or vegan which I don't mind but I could do w/o the hubris. These folks see meat and they know an animal was intentionally killed but they don't see the insects and animals that died during tilling and harvest. They have no concept how many insects are (must be) intentionally killed to protect a decent yield. They show videos of the inhumane treatment of chickens, cows and pigs but they don't make the mental connection with the horrors of having your exoskeleton dissolved by insecticidal soap. They think organic + vegetable = no killing. The fact is eating requires killing.
Animals, insects/plants die. It's a fact of life. As far as insects go, don't worry, there are 345M to take their place. They far outnumber humans and mammals. And hypocrisy is never recognized by the left. Never. 'Don't eat animals cause it's cruel, but you have a right to kill your baby because it's inconvenient.'
.>> They show videos of the inhumane treatment of chickens, cows and pigs but they don't make the mental connection with the horrors of having your exoskeleton dissolved by insecticidal soap. 1. those videos of mistreatment of animals that get sensationalized are plants who intentionally mistreat animals for the camera to show how factory animals are mistreated. Most farmers know that the comfort of their animals is paramount to a desired product. Even adrenaline ruins meat/milk production. As far as slaughter practices, the US is the most humane system in the world; EXCEPT HALAL slaughter. When they lifted the horse slaughter ban, the activists started setting fire to slaughterhouses that attempted to be fitted for horses and threatening workers, actually closing plants. This insured that horses would continue to be sent to MX and Canada that don't have the same humane practices we do. As well as a long haul on cattle trucks. They really "care" for animals. There needs to be an outlet for horses when they no longer become needed, because they are expensive to feed/house. Ask the BLM how well they are doing at that. And you can't release domestic animals into the wild. That's what domestication does. It removes the animal's ability to survive on their own. THose advocating this are advocating for the extinction of species, because they don't like private property rights. It's a vehicle for communism. Most of them don't care for animals. Look at PETA and Humane society. they kill more cats/dogs. I don't have a problem with vegans either, except when they want to ban/control my diet and the freedom for me to raise animals in the way I see fit. We tend to lump them all into the same collective mindset because - as you say - the hubris, it's a religion with them. They are food snobs. Sorry. Long winded reply.
Insects dont have the same cute and cuddly facter that higher animals do. And they usually bute, sting or fly annoyingly into your eyes.
#8.1.1.1.1
fjord
on
2015-04-21 07:58
(Reply)
Horse meat is good. I would rather eat horse meat than goat meat.
#8.1.1.1.2
GoneWithTheWind
on
2015-04-21 21:40
(Reply)
Feds spend 410, to study gays first time:
So much for the argument to keep government out of our bedrooms/uteruses. It wasn't that long ago that homosexuality was a mental illness, those in the military were barred because of obvious reasons including the security risk. Now .. not so much. "[T]hose in the military were barred because of obvious reasons including the security risk."
Yes, whatever your feelings on homosexuality, this was always a pretty lame pretext. By making it illegal to be gay in the military, the system set itself up for a security risk. A self-inflicted wound. And never mind that the biggest espionage security risk was, is and ever shall be something no law or regulation can ever prevent: greedy bastards willing to betray their country's secrets for cash. I've "overcooked" my brussel sprouts for years. It's my favorite way- just short of incinerated.
Hillary: "It's my party and I'll lie if I want to"
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