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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Thursday, February 28. 2008

QQQ

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month.

Theodore Roosevelt

Posted by Bird Dog in Quotidian Quotable Quote (QQQ) at 09:50 | Comments (21) | Trackbacks (0)

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heh... Only a month?
#1 Dr X on 2008-02-28 10:09 (Reply)
Yikes! Great quotation. He should have added 'you'd also be in Cirque du Soleil.'
#2 Meta on 2008-02-28 10:18 (Reply)
How hard would TR have kicked these Abos?

Make mine a Mimosa

Alcoholic parents force children to suckle dogs
By Nick Squires in Sydney
Last Updated: 2:40am GMT 27/02/2008

Aboriginal children in Outback Australia are so neglected by their alcoholic parents that some have suckled from dogs' teats in a desperate search for food, it has been reported.

The shocking revelation came from a coroner investigating the appalling rates of suicide among Aborigines living in the remote and beautiful Kimberley region of Western Australia.

more
http://tinyurl.com/2l86mc
#3 Habu on 2008-02-28 11:19 (Reply)
TR should kick the kids and the teachers.

Teens losing touch with common cultural and historical
By Greg Toppo

Don't count on your typical teenager to nod knowingly the next time you drop a reference to any of these. A study out today finds that about half of 17-year-olds can't identify the books or historical events associated with them.

Twenty-five years after the federal report A Nation at Risk challenged U.S. public schools to raise the quality of education, the study finds high schoolers still lack important historical and cultural underpinnings of "a complete education." And, its authors fear, the nation's current focus on improving basic reading and math skills in elementary school might only make matters worse, giving short shrift to the humanities ? even if children can read and do math.

"If you think it matters whether or not kids have common historical touchstones and whether, at some level, we feel like members of a common culture, then familiarity with this knowledge matters a lot," says American Enterprise Institute researcher Rick Hess, who wrote the study

more
http://tinyurl.com/yul7dv
#4 Habu on 2008-02-28 11:29 (Reply)
Obama Served On Board That Funded Pro-Palestinian Group
By: Aaron Klein


JERUSALEM – Democratic presidential frontrunner Sen. Barack Obama served as a paid director on the board of a nonprofit organization that granted funding to a controversial Arab group that mourns the establishment of Israel as a "catastrophe." (Obama has also reportedly spoken at fundraisers for Palestinians living in what the United Nations terms refugee camps.)

The co-founder of the Arab group, Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi, is a harsh critic of Israel who reportedly worked on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization when it was labeled a terror group by the State Department .

more
http://tinyurl.com/27zen7
#5 Habu on 2008-02-28 12:40 (Reply)
Shucking the ethanol illusion

The feel-good fuel of the 21st century - ethanol - is losing its green luster. Inflation is out of control. World hunger is a growing concern once again. And in both cases, one of the main culprits is ethanol production. Even scientists now say ethanol does more harm than good in reducing global warming gases.

more
http://tinyurl.com/269q6m
#6 Habu on 2008-02-28 12:53 (Reply)
"If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference."

--Abe Lincoln, ruminating on calumny
#7 buddy larsen on 2008-02-28 13:29 (Reply)
From Habu's post:

"Even scientists now say ethanol does more harm than good in reducing global warming gases."

Global "warming"? Here, on the eve of the next ice age? Isn't the author aware that the polar ice caps are going to suck up so much water as they freeze and shrink that present coastal cities will become 'inland' cities? I read an estimated 250 million people are expected to freeze to death every year by 2045.

My thought is, maybe we should start taxing anything that produces cold? There'd be a separate meter on your refrigerator that would charge you five times the going rate for the damage it's doing to the planet. Just where do you think all that cold goes when you open the refrigerator door? Right into the environment, that's where.

People who live in snowy areas would be taxed more, of course. It's only right. Every time they shovel or snowplow a bank of snow, tiny snowflakes go into the atmosphere, further lowering the global temperature. In fact, moving them out of New England altogether might be the smartest idea. There's plenty of room in Idaho.

And then there's the sad plight of the grizzly bear. They can be innocently hibernating in their cave, but when they awake in the spring, global cooling has covered the ground in snow and they have no way to escape!

Hold on a sec...

(CLICK)

"-but declined comment. In weather-related news, we take you now to Jim Richardson who's standing by the Mass-Conn border. Jim?"

"Thanks, Jane. As viewers can see behind me, we've lost Massachusetts. Weather experts had predicted at least one final week of moderate temperatures in the minus-50's, but, as you can see, inclement weather has hastened its end."

"Thanks, Jim. According to Steve Conley, WXTV's weather forecaster, Connecticut's end still isn't due for another two weeks."

(CLICK)

"-THE GRIZZLIES! SAVE THE GRIZZLIES! SAVE THE-"

(CLICK)

"as the deadline approached. Negotiations to purchase Mexico outright have stalled on the Senate floor-"

(CLICK)

"Yes, Bill, but if you let just one grizzly bear die through inaction, what does that say about us as a nation?"

(CLICK)

"in this way, by taxing the developed nations of the world for their contribution to global cooling, we can-"

(CLICK)

"GRIZZLIES! SAVE THE-"

(CLICK)

Pardon the interruption. Didn't want to miss anything important.

Of the presidents, I think Jefferson had the best quotes, but I might slip Teddy in slot #2. He was probably the most man-of-the-earth president this country has ever had, or ever will have.

Of all former great Americans, though, I'd give the nod to ol' Ben. And not just QQQ's, but inventiveness and all the rest. For a good time, call Netflix and grab the documentaries on Franklin. The ones on the Wright brothers were also quite interesting.

http://www.dr-mercury.com/text/caftek/caftek3.htm

I also put a mildly interesting note on my home page this morning. You know that fun sci-fi theme where robots rule the future, as in 'Matrix' and 'Terminator'? Well, if you've ever wondered just HOW that nightmare scenario would arrive, two of the key pieces fell into place this week.
#8 Dr. Mercury (Link) on 2008-02-28 14:09 (Reply)
Dr. M

You beast...how could you not mention Abo children suckling dogs teats for food.....oh the humanity ...
#8.1 Habu on 2008-02-28 14:35 (Reply)
oh the huge manatee

(ht sippican for amusing pun)
#8.1.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-28 14:45 (Reply)
Kick BO's can down the road

The most defining aspect of Barack H. Obamas run for the WH is his ethnicity and cultural background, one a product of birth the other of choice. BO chose to eschew his white background even in the face of that families much better nurturing of him. He sought out his blackness in the face of all that part of his families failings. Is this important? Anthropologist would strongly argue that tribal identification and loyalty are primary definers of a person. The old blood is thicker than water saying holds true. This brings us to the question of BO's lack of repudiation of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, a primary part of the district he represents in Illinois. It also brings up his association with Palestinian groups defined by our State Department as terrorist and his "Christian" facade whose representation is in the person of "Rev". Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., a Black American who is BO's spiritual mentor and a role model.

But does this matter? Does it matter that a person who might be President of the United States consorts with blacks who define whites as the devil? Who want Israel blown off the map? That are more closely aligned with many socialist and communist countries than they are with their own? Does it matter that many of the most influential people in BO's life hate white America?

Only if you are immune to the anthropology of tribal solidarity can you answer no.

And then the question is how much do we know of this sweet talk'n guy with a three year record in the Senate that is so bereft of production that it is covered with spider webs? BO talks a great game but then so did all the true haters in history. A person as oleaginous as BO has pulled the wool over the eyes of a dumbed down Democratic electorate. He is a danger, as are those who he admires and those who advise him.
#9 Habu on 2008-02-28 14:30 (Reply)
Once again I'd like to remind the contributors and readers that office pools on an assassination of BO are in minor bad taste and should be conducted off corporate property.

Anybody know the Vegas odds, say before the election? Could it be an October surprise? Mossad versus Nation of Islam?
#10 Habu on 2008-02-28 14:41 (Reply)
Most of the responses @MF tend to drift off and sumersault wispfully in mid-air but it is not unexpected if one reads the preamble.

Specificly, 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.

The dogs deserve the greater tolerance, me thinks.
#10.1 Leag on 2008-02-29 10:54 (Reply)
I'm lost here. I don't follow the comments. Are these about the TR quote?
#11 Dr X on 2008-02-28 14:57 (Reply)
In my #0 mposting I refer to kicking as does the TR quote..

Dr. Mercury's story is about a Teddy Bear kicking the shit out of a Fish and Game guy.

My #6 about ethanol..well I'd have to be Obama to cleanse that one.

But Dr X.. I say go for the TR stiff all you want ,buff up the thread to where it should be. So which TR kick ass story do you want to start with? I noticed your first post only had four vowels in it. If I was an editor I'd say "punch that up a bit"

Also, I would never really try to follow the comments on any given thread. It's too frustrating.
#11.1 Habu on 2008-02-28 16:20 (Reply)
#10 posting
#11.1.1 Habu on 2008-02-28 16:22 (Reply)
You could say that a presidency is such a big deal, that really, everything that happens after it is 'part of (its) thread'.
#11.1.1.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-28 16:35 (Reply)
Good point Buddy
#11.1.1.1.1 Habu on 2008-02-28 17:12 (Reply)
thanks -- it's good to be 'on topic' --
:-/
#11.1.1.1.1.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-28 17:47 (Reply)
^^^^^^^^^^******^^^^^******^^^^^^^^^^

If any of you thought I was jesting about an Obama SCOTUS take a deep breath and read on my friends:

Obama's SCOTUS Picks: Can you say 'Nightmare ?'
Rick Moran
Orin Kerr over at Volokh Conspiracy, the fine legal blog, has been pondering what kind of Supreme Court judges Barack Obama might pick if he became president.

Here are a couple of statements made by Obama that outline his deep thoughts on the matter:


I taught constitutional law for 10 years, and . . . when you look at what makes a great Supreme Court justice, it's not just the particular issue and how they rule, but it's their conception of the Court. And part of the role of the Court is that it is going to protect people who may be vulnerable in the political process, the outsider, the minority, those who are vulnerable, those who don't have a lot of clout. . . .

[S]ometimes we're only looking at academics or people who've been in the [lower] court. If we can find people who have life experience and they understand what it means to be on the outside, what it means to have the system not work for them, that's the kind of person I want on the Supreme Court.
Part of the role of the court is to "protect people" who may be vulnerable in the "political process? Well, if you're looking to change things, that's one way to go about it. It certainly is novel criteria for picking a justice.

But what should really send chills down your spine is that he would be willing to entertain non judicial even non-legal candidates for the High Court. Might we see community activists or other unqualified candidates up for consideration?

I'm beginning to think that Barack Obama will either be the easiest candidate to beat in American political history or the toughest. That's because in this statement, he gets even more specific about naming someone from outside the legal profession:
We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges.
Our Editor Tom Lifson defines the parameters of this "nightmare:"
This is frightening. A concept of the judiciary as philosopher kings who protect selected victims with decisions based on thin air.
"Thin air," indeed. One would think that a nominee should have a passing familiarity with the Constitution. But for Obama, that's not as important as picking a gay black senior citizen in a wheelchair.

Let's hope he's just blowing smoke and not being serious about this.
#12 Habu on 2008-02-28 22:04 (Reply)
But 'people want change' -- enuff of that constitution stuff -- it's like, a million years old r somethin
#12.1 buddy larsen on 2008-02-28 23:36 (Reply)

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