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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Monday, April 11. 2016

Monday morning links

Is wine good for you or is it not?


Should you even care?


Lionfish: Eat an Invasive Species for Dinner


Bullet indicates Lawrence of Arabia was no liar


Ford Mustang - Germany´s favorite sports car


It’s the birds against the cats in the latest battle for Jones Beach


Eat this invasive species for dinner?


Why SpaceX's Rocket Landing On A Drone Ship Is A Big Deal


"One of the reasons, of course, that English is such a marvelous vehicle for communication and has become omnipresent around the world is that it borrows, often and constantly, from other languages.


Cyberspooks: College Grad Looking For a Job? The NSA Wants YOU!


Yiannopoulos threatens to amp up 'blatant cultural appropriation' at upcoming Yale lecture


Fun!


What Happened to Free Speech at Marquette?


Most dangerous year for free speech in U.S. history


You Are Now A Racist If You Say Schools Need To Be Safer


“Hey hey, ho ho, Western culture’s got to go.”


Only in Western cultures can kids say things like that. They ought to wonder why that is.


Bruce Springsteen and the North Carolina bathroom privacy law


Shut up and sing


What peak government looks like


Tax fairness


So @tylercowen, You Want to Understand the Great Stagnation? Here It Is


New Jersey faces budget crisis over soak-the-rich policy


When citizenship is just being a crop plant on a government tax farm


Will taxpayers be left holding the bag for student-loan deadbeats?


Subpoenaed Into Silence on Global Warming


A bunch of government lawyers can mess up your life for a long time, even if they are wrong. Makes more sense for a business to not be a hero - just shut up and pay the extortion.


Richard Lindzen: Global Warming And The Irrelevance Of Science


U.S. Admits More than TWICE the Number of Migrants from Muslim World than Europe


Team Obama is setting us up for another housing-market collapse


Obama and the bathtub.


Border Patrol ordered to release illegals ‘still soaking wet’ from Rio Grande, union says


Journalists? No, Just Professional Democrat Tools


Fear and Loathing at the Trump Rally


Establishment Now Publishing FAKE HEADLINES to Take Down Trump


Drunk Trump


Cruz’s Goldwateresque Mistake - Attacking voters always comes back to haunt.


Barbra Streisand Is Wrong: Hillary Is Unpopular Because Of Her Record, Not Her Gender - Sexism is Hillary Clinton’s biggest asset.


China tears down THOUSANDS of crucifixes in crude bid to eradicate Christianity


The Global Vote of No Confidence in Pax Americana


Not everybody liked it


Let’s end America’s hopeless war for the Middle East


Netanyahu Furious at US Lawmakers Who Demand Investigating Israeli ‘Human Rights Abuses’



Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 05:00 | Comments (23) | Trackbacks (0)

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QUOTE:
Subpoenaed Into Silence on Global Warming

The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a billionaire's think tank that regularly sues and subpoenas others to advance its political goals.
#1 Zachriel on 2016-04-11 09:13 (Reply)
QUOTE:
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a billionaire's think tank that regularly sues and subpoenas others to advance its political goals.


... says someone who has no idea how the government routinely abuses subpoenas in the real world.

really, you are totally clueless. the subpoena is overreaching to anyone who actually works for a living, and will be modified only because CEI, unlike the typical victim of the government, has the resources to fight it.
#1.1 Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz on 2016-04-11 11:39 (Reply)
QUOTE:
Most dangerous year for free speech in U.S. history ... President Obama loses his bully pulpit and billy club on January 20, 1017. That means he has less than nine months to destroy as much of the Constitution as he can

Hence Trumpism. Truthiness abounds!
#2 Zachriel on 2016-04-11 09:15 (Reply)
Z-Team, if you are so convinced, then you should be able to give a point-by-point explanation of why the headline is mistaken, instead of a roll-your-eyes "truthiness" remark. You know, just like your nonexistent proof that your for "in prison for life for petty theft or narcotics possession" etc was well documented. That statement on your part was replete with truthiness. Yeah, it should be true, I just can't document it.
#2.1 Gringo on 2016-04-11 15:40 (Reply)
Re: Bruce Springsteen

Shut up and sing

No, Just shut up. I haven't like much of what he's done since his first album (which I still love). He's a rich fake farmer that gets tax subsidies and complains that the 'little people' are getting the shaft. Just go away, Bruce!
#3 mudbug on 2016-04-11 09:43 (Reply)
Migrant Muslims:
Why are taxpayers paying for this? There are activists and tax exempt organizations forcing this upon us and we pay them and the 'migrants' for the privilege of bringing in potential terrorists to kill us. We should demand that first of all immigrants support themselves not become liabilities. And second those who sponsor them should be responsible for their care and feeding and for any harm they cause while here. If one of these refugees from the religion of peace shoots up a nightclub the sponsor should face both civil and criminal penalties. I would also argue that anyone in government, elected or appointed, who advocates for bringing in immigrants should also be responsible for their maintenance and possible criminal activity. Ditto for politicians who make sanctuary cities possible. Let them be tried as accomplices to the crimes their 'charges' commit and let them be sued in civil court for damages. Let's put the onus for these acts on the people who facilitate them.
#4 GoneWithTheWind on 2016-04-11 10:02 (Reply)
Follow the money. Last time I checked with our local in-take shelter, they got $1000/person while $875 or so went to the alien directly. That's not bad income when you collect Muslims and all those crossing the southern borders.

And yes, sponsors should be liable.
#4.1 jma on 2016-04-11 11:45 (Reply)
Will taxpayers be left holding the bag for student-loan deadbeats?

Duh! Taxpayers are ALWAYS the ones left holding the bag. They pay for the cost and effects of all government policy - including corporate taxes.
#5 mudbug on 2016-04-11 10:26 (Reply)
QUOTE:
What peak government looks like: You, the taxpayer civilian, are the poor shareholder of a country that has been in a no-growth environment for 20 years, not entirely dissimilar to Japan.

Real U.S. GDP has risen 2.4% per year over the last 20 years, from $10.28 trillion to $16.46 trillion in chained 2009 dollars.
#6 Zachriel on 2016-04-11 10:46 (Reply)
It's less than that when corrected for inflation. In addition, the debt has skyrocketed to roughly 100% of GDP, which doesn't count unfunded liabilities.
#6.1 mudbug on 2016-04-11 12:00 (Reply)
mudbug: It's less than that when corrected for inflation.

That's what chained 2009 dollars means. It's corrected for inflation.

mudbug: [i]In addition, the debt has skyrocketed to roughly 100% of GDP, which doesn't count unfunded liabilities. [/b]

The debt is well within the ability of the U.S. to repay, though it might require additional taxes or spending cuts.
#6.1.1 Zachriel on 2016-04-11 15:20 (Reply)
The hell it is. Your ignorance of monetary economics is...unsurprising.
#6.1.1.1 Ten on 2016-04-11 15:52 (Reply)
Z: The debt is well within the ability of the U.S. to repay, though it might require additional taxes or spending cuts.

As I said, there is more than just what is known as 'the debt'. There are vast unfunded liabilities. Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid, unemployment, and debt service is 2/3 of the budget. When interest rates become normalized, the debt service will explode from the 6.3% it is now. All those costs have increased substantially since 2010. They are not sustainable over the next twenty years.
#6.1.1.2 mudbug on 2016-04-11 16:05 (Reply)
mudbug: They are not sustainable over the next twenty years.

They're not sustainable without modification, however, they are well within the financial means of the U.S. The problem is that people want the benefits without the cost, so much so that they bought into the belief that cutting taxes would always increase revenue. It was a pleasant thought.
#6.1.1.2.1 Zachriel on 2016-04-11 17:11 (Reply)
Reducing marginal rates has increased revenue and quite often, raising marginal rates and a favorite of the left, capital gains, lowers revenue.

Obama has been raising taxes and regulations resulting in subpar growth and tax inversions.

The left think that when you raise taxes, everything else stays the same, but it doesn't. Money goes where it's treated best.
#6.1.1.2.1.1 mudbug on 2016-04-11 23:04 (Reply)
"One of the reasons, of course, that English is such a marvelous vehicle for communication and has become omnipresent around the world is that it borrows, often and constantly, from other languages."

Nope. The facility for borrowing from other languages is by no means restricted to English.

There are only two reasons why English "has become omnipresent around the world": the first is the British Empire, the second is the United States of America.
#7 JJM on 2016-04-11 11:17 (Reply)
Is wine good for you or is it not?

I have quite a number of wine books in my library. One of them contains a short set of anecdotes from various wine aficionados. My favourite is the octogenarian gentleman in London who was told by his doctor during his annual medical that he had to give up drinking wine.

"So I did the only thing I could do when faced with such an ultimatum," he dryly remarked.

"I found a new doctor."
#8 JJM on 2016-04-11 11:25 (Reply)
Eat Right. Exercise.
Die anyway.
#8.1 fjord on 2016-04-11 12:02 (Reply)
Re: cats versus birds. I enjoy photographing birds, and i yell at my happy and healthy outdoor cats when I catch them stalking birds(spritzing with vinegar water sometimes helps in aversion therapy if you raise it from a kitten and can catch it about to pounce on a dumb bird). However, there are still vast quantities of birds in my yard and I believe hunting cats help them evolve into more intelligent creatures to survive. Nature is never static.

Furthermore, the few heartrending piles of feathers and decapitated bird corpses we find are more than compensated for by the thousands of mouse, rat, mole, chipmunk and other Lyme Disease vector vermin our fourfooted pest control gladly take care of.

As a child, I saw my fuzzy and affectionate pet cat rid our huge barn of hundreds of rats over a couple of months, get rid of all the moles destroying the lawn. She was too busy with them to hunt birds. It's odd to me when people have conniptions about letting cats outside and keep them miserable, fat, neurotic prisoners indoors. Then the cat haters who say thst cats are non-native while they dote on their French poodles or other European doggies.

Cats were worshipped by the Egyptians for their pest control abilities. New York City is currently awash in trash and rats, a plague epidemic just waiting to happen. Here's a story about one company using fersl cats to keep pests in check: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-feral-cats-rats-abatement-met-20160407-story.html

Tho if everyone just took care of a nice cat at home and let it out to roam every day, we wdnt need to involve commerce in the process. Hell, they cd keep the pigeons (rats with feathers) in check!!
#9 Retriever on 2016-04-11 12:17 (Reply)
AND, they'd help feed the coyote population.
#9.1 Sam L. on 2016-04-12 12:43 (Reply)
Liberal attorney generals are willing to break the law to shut up climate change dissenters.

Federal law makes it a felony “for two or more persons to agree together to injure, threaten, or intimidate a person in any state, territory or district in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him/her by the Constitution or the laws of the Unites States, (or because of his/her having exercised the same).”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/04/11/attorney-generals-conspire-free-speech-schneiderman-harris-exxon-cei-column/82878218/
#10 feeblemind on 2016-04-11 13:20 (Reply)
mudbug: Reducing marginal rates has increased revenue and quite often

It can, but not always and forever. It's a nice thought, though.

mudbug: Obama has been raising taxes and regulations resulting in subpar growth and tax inversions.

Overall growth has been 2% per year since the end of the recession, which is better than most U.S. competitors, and reasonable considering the extent of the global economic damage which occurred at the end of the Bush Administration.

Tax inversions pre-date the Obama Administration, and are due to the policy in the U.S. of taxing overseas profits of U.S. companies.
#11 Zachriel on 2016-04-12 09:16 (Reply)
The recession ended? Why was i not informed?
#11.1 Sam L. on 2016-04-12 12:45 (Reply)

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