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
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Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
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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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Thursday, February 14. 2019

Thursday morning links


WSJ:  Haze the Dead! More Obit Writers Tell It Like It Was—Warts and All. Once generic and reverent, more remembrances written by family members include frank, humorous assessments of the departed; ‘the biggest tightwad in the mid-Atlantic region’


Every funeral needs some knowing laughs and giggles 


Graduation Inflation is Harming Students


Say, Can You Guess What The Science Is Behind Seattle’s Historic Snow?


MCCONNELL ON GREEN NEW DEAL: LET’S VOTE


He's a sly one 


 Democrats invent a new word for bullsh*t: ‘aspirational’


What was the problem California's bullet train was supposed to solve? 


This Train Won’t Leave the Station. If high-speed rail can’t make it in California, it can’t make it anywhere.


 The Case for Amazon in New York


 Covington high school students cleared of any wrongdoing in viral incident after independent investigation


 Chicago Police Will Re-Interview Jussie Smollett Over Redacted Phone Records


 FEC Still Refuses To Investigate Alleged $84 Million Clinton Campaign Money Laundering


 High taxes are driving away the tri-state golden geese


 The Republican Pouncing Problem


 Senate Intel Dems, GOP Agree: No “Direct Evidence” Of Collusion Found


Andrew McCarthy: Mueller’s report is for an audience of one, but it isn’t President Trump


Migrants overwhelm New Mexico border post with thousands of illegal crossings


New Mexico border patrol resources stressed after more than 28 large migrant groups make illegal crossings since October


 For the ACLU, Antipathy to Israel Trumps Antidiscrimination


 HonestReporting Invites Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to Israel


 China, Russia Building Attack Satellites and Space Lasers: Pentagon Report


For fun:




Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:25 | Comments (30) | Trackbacks (0)

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Re: High-speed rail

I have to suspect that at least part of the enthusiasm for high-speed rail by people like AOC stems from the fact that they are familiar with the NYC subway system and NYC in general and absolutely nothing else. Like the famous Saul Steinberg New Yorker cover showing a view of the world from 9th Avenue, I think they have this vague idea that a trans-continental rail network connecting New York to Atlanta to Chicago to Dallas to Los Angeles is just a matter of extending the D-line a few miles across the Hudson. Someone should ask AOC to guess the distance between Miami and Spokane, see if she even knows where those two cities are and whether or not her guess is accurate within 3,000 miles.
#1 Jerryskids on 2019-02-14 07:56 (Reply)
Did you see where the AOC campaign spent over $20k on air travel? You’ll never guess how much she spent on train travel.
#1.1 B. Hammer on 2019-02-14 10:37 (Reply)
The California high speed rail was a resounding success. The intent was to move vast amounts of taxpayer money into the hands of unions and other special interest groups in return for votes. It was successful.

What we need is a independent investigation into where and how that money was spent. Trump should initiate that. The federal government is on the hook for billions so they would be justified in finding out if there was any fraud.
#2 Anon on 2019-02-14 08:50 (Reply)
If we're going to rebuild every structure in the U.S. over the next ten years, why don't we just move them all inland to an extra 20 feet of elevation? I know it would be expensive, but we can pay for the same way we pay for everything else: by printing money.
#3 Texan99 on 2019-02-14 10:02 (Reply)
Texan99: why don't we just move them all inland to an extra 20 feet of elevation?

Six meters? While possible, most projections are for about one meter sea level rise by 2100 or so. This is Florida with one meter rise. Longer term, here's the six meter map.
#3.1 Zachriel on 2019-02-14 10:44 (Reply)
We don’t like to talk about it, but there is a problem with coastal lands sinking:

QUOTE:
Pumping out groundwater not only causes lands to sink, it increases the oceans’ volume. China’s Huanghe Delta is sinking 10 inches a year. Southeast Asian cities battle sinking rates of 1.2 to 2.4 inches per year. Regions around Houston, Texas had sunk 10 feet by 1979; a disaster waiting to happen where hurricanes commonly generate 15-foot storm surges. Likewise, New Orleans was doomed by sinking 1.4 inches per year. Built on marshland, San Francisco’s airport sinks 0.4 inches per year.
In contrast, ocean warming plus added glacial meltwater are estimated to have only added 0.06 inches per year to sea level from 1850 to 1990, punctuated by decades that accelerated sea level rise to 0.14 inches a year. Still, that fastest rate of modern sea level rise remains only one-tenth of New Orleans’ sinking rate.
#3.1.1 Zachismyhero! on 2019-02-14 11:29 (Reply)
Must be a notably slow day at the troll office, huh? That is correct.
#3.1.1.1 Delusions of angels; trolling from work on 2019-02-14 11:35 (Reply)
What do angels of memory and lightbringers have in common?

GOTTA FIB A LITTLE TO SAVE THE WORLD FROM ALL THE TOOTHLESS HONEST PEOPLE!
#3.1.1.1.1 Delusions of angels; fibbing from work on 2019-02-14 11:53 (Reply)
Aren’t the the enlightened developing prenatal tests for toothless deplorables? I think it is written into the NY abortion bill.
#3.1.1.1.1.1 Zachismyhero! on 2019-02-14 18:16 (Reply)
That's the problem with my suggestion? Change "six" to some other number. The higher the better, as far as all this healthy stimulus from printed money is concerned. Good government jobs!

I'd be happy to pick up some of the abandoned coastal property at its severely depressed price.
#3.1.2 Texan99 on 2019-02-14 11:34 (Reply)
There is nothing new in graduation inflation. There was a recent scandal with the Washington DC and Prince George schools because they were doing some affirmative action on student records to graduate the students. According to reports about 1/3 of the students shouldn't have graduated. The bureaucrats have successfully turned the high school diploma into a worthless piece of paper signifying nothing and now they are working on making the college diploma worthless. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is an excellent example of that.
#4 Ray on 2019-02-14 10:29 (Reply)
QUOTE:
All of which demonstrates that a huge swath of the media is inseparable from the Democratic Party. If your first response to Democratic nut-jobbery is to get defensive about Republican blowback, you're no longer a journalist. You're merely a hack.


The problem with US media in one single quote. The media are no longer interested in truth and justice, if they ever were, they are all about furthering the democrat\socialist narrative.
#5 B. Hammer on 2019-02-14 10:32 (Reply)
BD: Covington high school students cleared of any wrongdoing

This makes no sense. The students were clearly hate-smirking just inches from the face of a tribal elder vietnam vet who was merely trying to pay homage to his hero, Abraham Lincoln.

Notably, the report does not even mention the word "hate-smirk" which reveals their inherent bias.

The only thing to do now is to make sure these children never get into college or obtain employment. I have already sent their names and dossiers to the SPLC.
#6 ZachriHell on 2019-02-14 10:33 (Reply)
Bird Dog: Say, Can You Guess What The Science Is Behind Seattle’s Historic Snow?

The Polar Vortex has long been known to be caused by excessive cow farts and diesel fumes. (See the film "The Day After Tomorrow starring Jake Gyllenhall) Global Anthopromitic Climate Weather Change Warming is causing obscene amounts of snow in places that Science never intended there to be snow. Soon all the snow will be gone, and we will have no water to drink. Polar bears will die by the millions. (See Smollett, Beavis, et.al. 2018)

As Al Gore said in his groundbreaking film, "The planet has a fever!"

And what comes after a fever? Chills. Which is exactly what we are seeing in Seattle.

QED.
#7 ZachriHell on 2019-02-14 10:47 (Reply)
You science deniers always miss the point. The problem with CO2, unlike the former deadly atmospheric pollution threats, is that it is colorless. Clear layers make for greenhouse warming, while pigmented pollution makes for global winter and starvation. We reduced atmospheric pollution from pigmented particles without even considering the long-term effects. What we need now is government-subsidized research to create opaque CO2. They'll say it can't be done, but I love the enthusiasm.
#7.1 Texan99 on 2019-02-14 11:40 (Reply)
Texan99: Clear layers make for greenhouse warming, while pigmented pollution makes for global winter and starvation.

Only some molecules act as greenhouse gases. Monatomic and homonuclear diatomic molecules are virtually unaffected by infrared energy; consequently, nitrogen, oxygen and argon are not greenhouse gases, even though they are clear to visible light. You are correct, though, that particulates tend to cool the surface.
#7.1.1 Zachriel on 2019-02-14 11:59 (Reply)
and You gases argon tend even some nitrogen Monatomic even molecules oxygen though clear You the correct Only they though not are particulates surface energy not as the nitrogen gases diatomic gases to gases greenhouse diatomic Monatomic though nitrogen You to by unaffected You virtually gases You.
#7.1.1.1 Pedantry Gasbot 2000 in training on 2019-02-14 14:28 (Reply)
You can't fool me. You are really 'Meh'. His writing is just as opaque and multisyllabic nonsense as what you wrote.
#7.1.1.1.1 Anon on 2019-02-14 15:24 (Reply)
Somebody rang?

Please engage all 91 IQ points and regale us with some more detailed letters to the Penthouse editors starring yourself. That was really enjoyable.
#7.1.1.1.1.1 Meh on 2019-02-14 16:26 (Reply)
You can’t fool me, you are Ten!
#7.1.1.1.1.1.1 B. Hammer on 2019-02-14 18:18 (Reply)
Please!

Someone set us up the bomb.
#7.1.1.2 Dave on 2019-02-14 17:42 (Reply)
Your amazing humorlessness suggests a non-human origin.

I would not seriously advocate printing money to finance government research on a pigmented CO2 molecule in order to induce global cooling. I'm sorry it's necessary to point that out.
#7.1.1.3 Texan99 on 2019-02-14 22:44 (Reply)
Texan99: I would not seriously advocate printing money to finance government research on a pigmented CO2 molecule in order to induce global cooling.

Heh. Of course, we didn't think you were really advocating it. You were attempting to satirize environmentalists. Still, it was a good place to note the countervailing effects of greenhouse gases, which warm the climate, and particulate pollution, which cools it.
#7.1.1.3.1 Zachriel on 2019-02-15 06:17 (Reply)
Wait til they find out that dihydrogen monoxide already kills over 3500 people a year in the U.S.
#7.1.2 Christopher B on 2019-02-14 12:03 (Reply)
Graduation Rates: The EduTainment industry lies to us.

Green New Deal: "I bet that a lot of other Dems adopt the same dodge. When they do, they should be challenged with the response: “So, you admit it is bullsh*t but you’re afraid of the left, so you’re supporting something you know won’t work. Whatever happened to ‘Profiles in Courage’?”Those profiles are totally horizontal, and below ground level.

Bullet Train Solution: To spend federal dollars foolishly.

Smollett: Will eventually be proved a fake. And given a pass.

Tax The Rich: Cuomo sees The End Is Coming. Bummer for NY.

Republicans Pounce: Oh, the horror (when Dems do something clearly dumb)!!!!

For the ACLU, Antipathy to Israel Trumps Antidiscrimination: Well, It's NOT the IsraelCLU.
#8 Sam L. on 2019-02-14 11:50 (Reply)
"Nearly 80 percent of people who die from drowning in the United States are male."
Everybody knows that dihydrogen monoxide is deadly, especially if you breathe it. Obviously, just to be safe, males should stay away from water and drink beer.
#9 Ray on 2019-02-14 14:01 (Reply)
Ray: Obviously, just to be safe, males should stay away from water and drink beer.

In the 1854 London cholera outbreak, workers at the local brewery didn't get sick. They drank beer rather than water, and the brewing process killed the pathogen. This was one of the clues used by the physician John Snow to isolate the cause of the outbreak, establishing the field of epidemiology.

So, here's to your health!
#9.1 Zachriel on 2019-02-14 14:06 (Reply)
To the than was sick epidemiology John of didn clues of by brewery London the was outbreak the killed epidemiology cause killed epidemiology physician In workers brewery used pathogen 1854 by the clues London brewing by didn local by field field epidemiology the epidemiology This workers.

A your your to here!
#9.1.1 Engratiation Gasbot 2000 in training on 2019-02-14 14:31 (Reply)
When are we going to talk about Graduate School grade inflation? That is everywhere. Was well-known when I was in grad school that a B- was really a D. I think the tacit agreement is that if they accepted you into their graduate program you weren't going to fail based on grades no matter what...
#10 MissT on 2019-02-14 14:04 (Reply)
As long as the don't allow medical schools from recruiting substandard students and graduating them anyway in order to be PC. Now, THAT would be dangerous to the public. But surely they wouldn't do that, would they???
#10.1 Anon on 2019-02-14 15:27 (Reply)

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