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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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
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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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Friday, December 21. 2018

Friday morning links

DNA tests: The Christmas present that could tear your family apart 


Who's yo daddy? 


As Chick-fil-A surges, McDonald’s and Wendy’s are under threat


 What Makes Chickens Happy? Nobody Is Quite Sure


Who cares? 


 Decades of data suggest parenthood makes people unhappy


Happiness is a momentary thing


 Loony Lefty Churches Sing Rewritten Christmas Songs About ‘Climate Change’


 Break Up Google For the Sake of National Security


 Greenpeace Business Report


 When Will It Be OK To Laugh At The Climate Campaigners?


Who Gets to Look Out to the Edge of the Universe? For years, more men than women were allowed to use the world's most powerful telescope—until the system changed.


Feminism"s dependency trap:



 We hear a lot about “male privilege” but historically it has been the “privilege” of men to make their way in the hard world in order to first win a woman’s affections, and then support the family structure financially. We might call this “patriarchy,” but this term isn’t the synonym for misogyny that contemporary progressive political culture seems to think it is. (One has to appreciate the misplaced sincerity of many of my university students who roundly condemn The Patriarchy, while driving their father’s Toyota to campus every day, and using his savings to pay for their tuition. Not infrequently it occurs to me that the people who are most vocal against The Patriarchy are those who have benefited from it the most.)



Gallup: Top Problems Are Government, Immigration


 U.S. Cites Sovereignty as One of 5 Countries to Vote Against UN Migration Compact


Good. Still waiting for China and japan to accept immigration.  


 Even CNBC’s Jim Cramer Agrees! – Fed Chair Powell “Trump’s Worst Nightmare” — Who the Hell Raises Rates w/Dow Down 12% in 3 Mos.?


Wrong. Strong economy needs rate hikes. Dow doesn't matter 


 WikiLeaks, Julian Assange’s Official Account and Legal Team All LOCKED OUT of Twitter


 Influencing Foreigners Is What Intelligence Agencies Do


Is that news to the New York Times? 


 The Art Of The Deal: Mexico Agrees To House Asylum Applicants


Mattis Always Understood Trump’s Severe Defects - And his resignation means he knows that the president will never change.


Trump has great strengths and great flaws 


Why Trump Is Right to Withdraw Troops. Withdrawal from Syria will be Trump’s first practical application of a true “America First” foreign policy. It has been long overdue.


 President Xi Jinping opened the 40th Anniversary of China’s reform by warning of “unimaginable” perils that only his leadership of the Communist Party can control.


China goes full out against labor unions 

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 04:37 | Comments (22) | Trackback (1)

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Wrong. Strong economy needs rate hikes. Dow doesn't matter

I agree. Besides that, insurance companies and pension funds by law are required to hold a certain amount of bonds so if rates are low for an extended period of time, they get hurt.

However, during this recent tightening, longer term rates have been falling. I wonder if the Fed has been raising their rate too fast. A truly frightening possibility is that the Fed is doing this on purpose to hurt Trump. On the other hand, this may be a time for Hanlon's Razor.
#1 mudbug on 2018-12-21 10:14 (Reply)
I am not opposed to the rate hikes. Our stock market is a bubble and the rate hikes will reduce the bubble much slower than a crash will and that was the other option. BUT, the bubble of 2008 was never fixed. Obama threw (our) money at it but never fixed it. The problems are still there and THAT is why the fed rate was near 0 when Trump took office. IMHO the best thing I could say about the Feds actions in raising rates is that they are building in a cushion with higher rates so that they would have the ability to lower rates when the lingering effects of the 2008 crash return to haunt us. However, I do suspect that their actual ulterior motive is NOT to have the cushion BUT to force the crash during Trump's administration to permanently damage his conservative base's strength. My gut tells me that all or most of the elite are committed to a socialist agenda NOT because they are necessarily socialist BUT because they see this as a path to greater riches and power. All they need to do is neuter the "patriots" the hoi polloi, the middle class. Life for the elite would be so much easier with a disarmed dependent class who are willing to take a lower pay and lower quality life in exchange for free stuff.
#1.1 GoneWithTheWind on 2018-12-21 10:57 (Reply)
Chick-fil-A: The only one I know of is an hour away from me.
(Poor, POOR, pitiful me.)

What makes chickens happy: More food, and another chicken lower on the pecking order.

Parenthood: The HORROR!! The horror...

Greenpeace: Just out for money? Who woulda thunk it?
The HORROR!! The horror...

Laughing at climate complainers: CO2 is GOOD for plants. Who want to starve our plants? That way lies...hunger.

President Xi Jinping opened the 40th Anniversary of China’s reform by warning of “unimaginable” perils that only his leadership of the Communist Party can control.: Hardening his defenses against those below him in the Party.
#2 Sam L. on 2018-12-21 11:19 (Reply)
Need to start a "Vegans for Global Warming" group in all the blue cities.
#2.1 indyjonesouthere on 2018-12-21 16:35 (Reply)
"Mattis Always Understood Trump’s Severe Defects"

A headline written by the far left and never Trumpers. Whatever "defects" Trump has pale by comparison with Obama or Hillary's defects.

Mattis is a strong personality who does not entirely agree with Trump who is also a strong personality. This does not automatically make one of them right and one of them wrong. Time will tell if Trump is right but more to the point He is the president and HE makes these decisions.

I am not sure that we should be in Syria. Protect or aid the Kurds; yes but to actually be fighting in Syria just doesn't seem like a good idea. As for Afghanistan; "once" there was an argument for that, but after 17 years of zero progress I just don't see the value of us being there anymore. End it and end our financial aid to Afghanistan. Move those tropps to our Southern border.
#3 GoneWithTheWind on 2018-12-21 11:25 (Reply)
Chickens: My chickens are happier when I bring scraps out to them in the morning. If you have chickens, they have a happy sound they make when you bring them something different than pellets. Also, they need to be able to scratch. So if you have winter and frozen ground, put out some straw (on the snow or bare ground) and toss out some scratch grains. Also, one chicken is a lonely chicken. Have at least two.

Mattis. You people have learned nothing. Trump is always about confusing the enemy...and the enemy is also the swamp and the media. That letter from Mattis? How do you even know it is how he really feels? Trump is the master of deception. Go listen to both Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo who have openly talked about how Trump's tweets and his seemingly random behavior confuses the enemy and HELPS them in their jobs. Why would Mattis be leaving right after we are getting out of Syria, we made an arrangement for France to step in, and ISIS is 99% defeated? Because he finished the job he was hired to do. The letter is a fake out. LOL.
#4 MissT on 2018-12-21 12:07 (Reply)
Chickens are a great substitute for a garbage disposal. Less noisy but still sociable.
#4.1 indyjonesouthere on 2018-12-21 16:40 (Reply)
Re the Pepsi Santa

Ever notice how similar the Pepsi Santa looks to the Coca Cola Santa from the same era?

Those two images are what I 'see' in my brain when I think of Santa Claus.
#5 feeblemind on 2018-12-21 12:46 (Reply)
re Loony Lefty Churches Sing Rewritten Christmas Songs About ‘Climate Change’

Seems logical, after all they don't worship Jesus, they worship the Earth.
#6 feeblemind on 2018-12-21 12:48 (Reply)
Not a single Alpha male in that group or attractive person in general. They look like the are all ex-hippies still living in some Ultra-Blue Nothern or Coastal city.

SNL could do a similar skit and I'm not sure I coulkd tell the difference.
#6.1 Spurt Reynolds on 2018-12-21 17:21 (Reply)
I don't know what makes chickens happy, but I do know that they are among the dumbest, dirtiest animals on earth (only turkeys and sheep are worse). And their idea of "play" seems to be pecking the lowest chicken in the pecking order until it bleeds.
#7 RebeccaH on 2018-12-21 13:19 (Reply)
re: parenthood makes unhappy

What a mucked up article, or report if the article is accurate. These people don't know the differences between happy and meaningful, for one. Of course having chilidren might not make you happier than childless people. Who can be happy when you have serious, long term worries about a person completely under your trust and influence. Who wants to be happy all the time anyway?

They also don't know the difference between happiness and joy. Nothing in my life has brought greater joy than my children. That isn't the same as saying my children have made me happy. In fact, they've made me angry, worried, and full of grief a lot of the time. But the only thing I'd change in my life if I could do it over would be to have more children and start my family when I was younger.
#8 Jack Walter on 2018-12-21 13:21 (Reply)
Couldn't have said it better. My children and grandchildren are the joys of my life. When I sit and reflect on my life it's always memories of my children that bubble to the surface.
#8.1 FRP on 2018-12-21 14:32 (Reply)
Decades of data suggest parenthood makes people unhappy

Decades of studies have shown parents to be less happy than their childless peers. But are the kids to blame?

This is why useless nonsense from the inept world of sociology and psychology appear in the inaptly named Bigthink website. Only they would evaluate life in such irrelevant and shallow terms.

The point of a meaningful life is to live a righteous life. Sadness, pain, misery, misfortune, crisis come with the deal. In 66 years, I have never met a parent who said they wished their children had not been born. I've heard of and met many people who regretted not having children.
#9 Kimmon Johnson on 2018-12-21 14:59 (Reply)
DNA tests...

All these people complaining are alive today. A much different outcome for all those 'mistakes ' that have been aborted.
#10 Bull on 2018-12-21 16:33 (Reply)
Parenthood making people unhappy. What terrible abuse of data in the service of protecting certain cultural ideas that academic researchers share in the developed world. Perhaps the reporting is more at fault, because the studies do appear to pick up that unmarried parents score worst. That, I can well believe. The job is hard, and doing it alone can be overwhelming. But that is something different than what the announcements are.

I also disliked their measures of happiness. Nor are there any controls or consideration of the type of people who become parents and those who don't. I don't see it broken down by race or ethnicity - always important when comparing the US and Canada to Europe. We have much more variety here, and sometimes one group can distort the overall picture because they are an outlier. They did not discuss much the differences by age. I might agree that the parents of young children feel less day-to-day cheeriness, but that may not answer the question.

I could go on, but you get the idea.
#11 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2018-12-21 17:05 (Reply)
Cracked corn, stale white bread, and mealworms. But layer pellets and oyster shell make them lay eggs--who cares if they are happy?
#12 Bruce Anderson on 2018-12-21 17:09 (Reply)
The DINK (double income no kids) couples by choice I know are all miserable people in every way. Not a one of them sees any good in doing anything that might benefit a following generation. Their view towards the future extends only to the end of their own life.

We have 5 kids and a 6th grandchild on his way. Yeah, we don't vacation in all inclusive resorts. Don't vacation in exotic locales. Don't own all the absolute latest gadgets. But you know who's always happy to see us? Those grandchildren. And their parents. Know who's happy to see the DINKs? The concierge and the maître d'. Know who actually cares about us? Our children and grandchildren. Know who actually cares about the DINKs? No one.

I have an aunt and uncle who were DINKs by choice. He died years ago. She outlived her two brothers, including my father. She died last year. I found out about it about 6 months later perusing the internet. Let my cousin know via facebook message. (Yes, Facebook is useful!) He had found out a week earlier. A funeral home near his home took care of her remains. And neither of us can find out if she was buried or cremated due to his state's privacy laws. They'll only ever be noted by anyone in the future, including family members, because I have them on my ancestry.com family tree and put a memorial on findagrave.com. It's sad when you think about it. Whoever handled the final disposition didn't bother informing the closest relatives, which would be me and my cousin and our siblings.
#13 Gospace on 2018-12-21 17:12 (Reply)
DNA tests, paternity fraud; old news but I welcome this new technology.

Last news I read was that about 20% of children are NOT sired by the woman's husband. I'm leaving DNA to each of my five children in case any of them wants to research the issue. I'm confident that two--maybe three--of them will discover that their mothers were less than virtuous. If any of them actually care. I don't any more.
#14 Gene on 2018-12-21 22:26 (Reply)
20% of the children when the father is suspicious enough to test. Which is actually pretty good- it means 80% of the time they're wrong.

Random testing would likely show a much lower percentage.
#14.1 Gospace (Link) on 2018-12-22 01:52 (Reply)
I believe the French discourage novelty DNA testing due to NPEs, out of concern for the families and children.
I'd like to mention that it is out of the individual's control. If extended family members take these tests, the events may be revealed regardless.
It raises another question. Who belongs in your family tree, the biological family or the family that raised and supported you? This was not a secret, but my greatgrandfather was a foundling in rural Denmark(@1860) taken by the church and handed over to a childless couple.
#14.2 Exasperated (Link) on 2018-12-22 08:31 (Reply)
I expect Chick-Fil-A's success will vary with the politics in each region. Here in California they seem to last only a year or two after they're built. Democrats hate them. Me, I just don't like their food.

I'm surprised Taco Bell is gaining share. A year or two ago they changed to a juicier meat mix that ruined them for me. I don't expect to go back.

As for McD, their virtue lies mainly in staying the same. All their new ideas are bad. (And if anything kills them I expect it will be higher minimum wage laws -- which is what they're meant to do. Leftists hate to allow convenience unless it's just for them.)

"Who's yo daddy?" From the accent, it's probably the guy calling Mommy a ho, ho, ho.
#15 jdgalt on 2018-12-23 19:25 (Reply)

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