Maggie's Farm

No slacker left behind. Moonbattery. After all, rewarding effort and achievement is just so Capitalistic.

1000 kg WW2 bomb defused in London. Still ticking? How can that be?

Chavez eating some crow. About time.

Actor Bob Anderson died. Who? You remember him.

I always loved Simenon. Read some of his in French (in school), most in English. I had no idea he was so prolific.

Canada signs trade agreement with Colombia. Not the US, though. Since when did "Love thine enemy" mean "Hate thine friend"? And who elects people to love my enemy anyway?

Chuck Hagel joins the Blame America First crowd.

How John McCain can use the internet

Why the electoral college will never go away.

The Guardian's position on Islam

Britain's Free Speech breakdown. Can I say it again? Brave New World is not a handbook.

What could Mark Steyn's punishment look like? h/t, piece at Tiger

Serious finger-painting

Lots of good posts at Coyote

Quoted in a piece at Villainous:

The U.S. birth rate is 2.0, just below replacement. We have an increase in population because of immigration. When broken down by ethnicity, the Anglo birth rate is 1.6 (same as France) while the Hispanic birth rate is 2.7. In the U.S., the baby boomers are starting to retire in massive numbers. This will push the "elder dependency" ratio from 19 to 38 over the next 10 to 15 years. This is not as bad as Europe, but still represents the same kind of trend.

Obama: Lightworker. Good grief. Maybe he really is the real Mighty Quinn. Either that, or our reporter is freakin' insane from homoerotomania. To me, he is the teeny-bopper candidate. Hey - the dude is just a Commie Chicago pol who talks like a preacher, for heaven's sake. Maybe reporters just aren't used to hearing preachers.

O'Rourke as quoted in a piece at No Left Turns:

The problem on the left is, now that Karl Marx has forsaken them, they have no philosophy. Thank goodness. Think what evil creeps liberals would be if their plans to enfeeble the individual, exhaust the economy, impede the rule of law, and cripple national defense were guided by a coherent ideology instead of smug ignorance.

Obama maps a 57 50-state campaign. They have the money and the volunteers to do it. Related: Phony ops build the Obama Myth. Related, from Big Lizards:

Barack Obama, giving commencement speeches, sneers at graduates whose vision is to own their home or business. Instead he exhorts them to do something about global warming or other manufactured crises of the left.

“You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should buy,” he said about a week ago, as if this were an ignoble pursuit.

He would prefer this:

But I hope you don’t. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, though you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all those who helped you get here, though you do have that debt.

“It’s because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role you’ll play in writing the next great chapter in America’s story.

That interpretation of the promise of America might be a surprise to the people who actually did build the country. You know, those who hitched their wagons to oxen, not ideology. That’s how this country was built. Obama might know that if he had ever actually created a job, instead of attacking those who have.

My "individual salvation depends on collective salvation." Huh? What? Since when? I think I need a vacation to deeply ponder this notion of "collective salvation." Or is the "wagon" I am supposed to hitch onto just the same old IRS?