Saturday, December 26. 2009
The best and worst return policies of the holiday season.
But the best thing for the gals and the guys are the post-Christmas sales, like Brooks Brothers. Or, as She Who Must Be Obeyed prefers, the "Polo Ralph" shop, aka Ralph Lauren, down where the cuz's live who we are visiting today and where I am enjoying some ceegars and scotch whiskey in the wintry global cooling sleet and wind:
The ladies naturally want to look good. I call that Ralph Lauren stuff wannabe Yankee clothing, and refuse to go into the place. I am a simple J. Press, tweed jacket, bow-tie sort of guy and do not care for their things for myself. Too expensive, too.
The Old Flame
My old flame, my wife!
Remember our lists of birds?
One morning last summer, I drove
by our house in Maine. It was still
on top of its hill -
Now a red ear of Indian maize
was splashed on the door.
Old Glory with thirteen stripes
hung on a pole. The clapboard
was old-red schoolhouse red.
Inside, a new landlord,
a new wife, a new broom!
Atlantic seaboard antique shop
pewter and plunder
shone in each room.
A new frontier!
No running next door
now to phone the sheriff
for his taxi to Bath
and the State Liquor Store!
No one saw your ghostly
imaginary lover
stare through the window
and tighten
the scarf at his throat.
Health to the new people,
health to their flag, to their old
restored house on the hill!
Everything had been swept bare,
furnished, garnished and aired.
Everything's changed for the best -
how quivering and fierce we were,
there snowbound together,
simmering like wasps
in our tent of books!
Poor ghost, old love, speak
with your old voice
of flaming insight
that kept us awake all night.
In one bed and apart,
we heard the plow
groaning up hill -
a red light, then a blue,
as it tossed off the snow
to the side of the road.
Dodd Heckled Back Home In Connecticut After Obamacare Vote (Video)
Via Rasmussen's tracking poll report:
A commentary by Michael Barone
notes that it been more than 150 years since such significant but
unpopular legislation was passed through Congress on a partisan basis.
The political ramifications in 1854 were so significant that it led to
the creation of a new political party, the Republican Party.
Related: The O rips the American Way as he leaves for vacation
How long does it take before we surrender our common sense to experts? Dr. Bob
More on Christ and Socialism. Moonbattery
The Dem bill, among other things, will do this:
Primary-care doctors who refer patients to specialists will face
financial penalties under the plan. Doctors will see 5% of their
Medicare pay cut when their "aggregated" use of resources is "at or
above the 90th percentile of national utilization," according to the
chairman's mark of Section 3003 of the bill. Doctors will feel
financial pressure to limit referrals to costly specialists like
surgeons, since these penalties will put the referring physician on the
hook for the cost of the referral and perhaps any resulting procedures.
Coyote on Tiger Woods:
Paying lots of money to stop having sex with hot women seems an odd
thing to do. From my experience he could take up playing Dungeons and
Dragons and have the same result for a lot less money.
Harry Reid on government control of medical care:
"We're going to hear an earful, but it's going to be an earful of
wonderment and happiness that people waited for for a long time."
VDH on Where do these guys come from? He begins:
I do not think it will be easy to delay Obamism. It is not just that both houses of Congress are under liberal leadership with ample majorities, with a White House and captive media egging them on. The problem is that now the entire engine of the federal government is harnessed in the most unapologetic way to pushing through a far left agenda. There is no shame, no hesitancy in using the full powers of the state.
Friday, December 25. 2009
Lots more of Tiger's photos if you scroll down his front page -
 Our Christmas holiday, or feast day, or Holy Day, is a stew of thousands of years of solstice festivals with plenty of ancient gods in the mix.
Indeed, Christmas' pagan ancestry is just one reason Puritan (Congregationalist) Protestants made it a crime to celebrate it. (Another was that it was a Roman Catholic feast day.)
Here's the history of Christmas tree ornaments.
Here's Is Christmas a pagan holiday?
This Christmas Tree History site recalls:
The Puritans banned Christmas in New England. Even as late as 1851, a Cleveland minister nearly lost his job because he allowed a tree in his church. Schools in Boston stayed open on Christmas Day through 1870, and sometimes expelled students who stayed home.
The Christmas tree market was born in 1851 when Catskill farmer Mark Carr hauled two ox sleds of evergreens into New York City and sold them all. By 1900, one in five American families had a Christmas tree, and 20 years later, the custom was nearly universal.
That is good marketing.
Readers know that I love Christmas for all of its historical and current pagan, secular, and religious meanings.
I spent Christmas Eve, as usual, with dear friends and family - and candlelight at church. That is all magical for me and my family. We try not to over-spend.
May yours be merry and bright.
From a post by Michael Novak:
Those of us who are of Catholic mind do not believe that the Enlightenment began with Kant (“What is Enlightenment?”), or Locke or Newton, or even with Descartes. We cherish Plato, Aristotle, Cicero. But the first Enlightenment began with Christ Our Lord.
It was only with the Christ that EQUALITY meant every human being, barring none. From then on, no one was “barbarian.” Each bore in his own soul the mark of being called to be a dwelling of the Father and the Son — being called beyond all other calls a son of God. Neither mother nor father, neither civil society nor state, can answer to this call for you or me. None has any deeper bond or precedence than the relation of Creator and human creature. It is a bond of Spirit and Truth.
Thus was revealed each human's LIBERTY primordial, and in that liberty, EQUALITY with all. No other but self can say to the the Father “No,” or “Yes.” That choice is for each single one of us inalienable. That choice brings each into the universal brotherhood and sisterhood of all who are equal in the sight of God.
And that is how universal FRATERNITY became a human principle and an object of our striving.
Moreover, a singular feature of the coming of the Christ is that all have access to him — rich pagan kings riding from the East, Roman centurions (those who would put him to death, even they), Jew and Greek, and those of every nation, station, and state of virtue or of sin. From Bethlehem went out the message of the First Globalization — the global call to become one human family. But only by the narrow path of the free choice of each.
This was the First Enlightenment. There has been no deeper nor more all-embracing since.
Whole thing here at NRO
A photog friend was skiing at Pico and Killington last week (thanks to global cooling) and took this snap. He didn't see the message until he got home.
The Lord is like that often, in my life. I miss Him and His blessing when he is right in front of me. Blind, but then I see...
(By the way, did you notice the Pileated Woodpecker holes in that tree?)
Thursday, December 24. 2009
Cockburn at RCP: AGW is a Farce
Photo below from Gateway -
This quiet Interpol decision of the O prompted Anchoress to re-post The Art of the Painless Coup
Post Copenhagen: Is Man-Made Global Warming a Dead Issue? I tend to think so, because it was such a big joke.
Change… Obama Now More Loathed Than Bush at End of His Second Term
The Saudis take a stroll down J Street
Bet you didn't read Page 148 Of Health Care Bill
Now livestock are 50% of global warming. What global warming?
An argument for bombing Iran's nuke facilities - in the NYT
"Divisive" means you don't go along with the Left. Powerline
Newt video with "red meat." Doesn't sound like red meat to me - just logical and reasonable. Too bad he never comes across like a Teddy Bear on TV.
Grinch of the Year: Mr. Sutley. What a putz.
"Huge storm"? A commenter observes "Sounds like winter to me."
Liar in Chief: If you like your insurance you can keep it. Not
One of our favorite smart dudes, David Gelernter, on a new book about Darwin. A quote:
David Berlinski, one of the most impressive Darwin dissenters, quotes (in a Commentary essay) a smugly childish pronouncement by the journal Nature: "With all deference to the sensibilities of religious people, the idea that man was created in the image of God can surely be put aside." But what makes these ignoramuses so sure they know what the Bible means by "create"? How do they know that "evolution by natural selection" is not exactly what the Bible does mean? And how do they know that man is not "in the image of God"? Yes, we all know about the Bible's famous seven days, but has Nature never heard of a parable? It's not such a difficult concept. Does Nature fault the Bible for not starting with an account of Darwinian evolution?--right after the verses dealing with the Big Bang and astrophysics, which in turn follow the verses that brush everyone up on the necessary algebra, geometry, and calculus?
"The Torah speaks in the language of man," say the rabbis, and when the Bible emerged, men did not speak Darwin's language. But they did care about right and wrong, good and evil, justice and mercy, sanctity and man and God, and these (not biology or astrophysics) are the Bible's topics. Charles Darwin was a great thinker who taught us not only about science, but about religion--specifically, about what religion does not teach, and (for that matter) does not care about. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, at England's Christian heart. Darwin rejected the church, but the church didn't reject him. What does that mean? Berra has no comment.
Wednesday, December 23. 2009
Their About Us. These are my peeps.
And, by the way, Parliament of Whores is a darn good book about how the US government works.
I have only one firm belief about the American political system, and that is this: God is a Republican and Santa Claus is a Democrat. God is an elderly or, at any rate, middle-aged male, a stern fellow, patriarchal rather than paternal and a great believer in rules and regulations. He holds men strictly accountable for their actions. He has little apparent concern for the material well-being of the disadvantaged. He is politically connected, socially powerful and holds the mortgage on virtually everything in the world. God is difficult. God is unsentimental. It is very hard to get into God’s heavenly country club. Santa Claus is another matter. He’s cute. He is nonthreatening. He’s always cheerful. And he loves animals. He may know who’s been naughty and who’s been nice, but he never does anything about it. He gives everyone everything they want without thought of a quid pro quo. He works hard for charities, and he’s famously generous to the poor. Santa Claus is preferable to God in every way but one: There is no such thing as Santa Claus.
PJ O'Rourke. Parliament of Whores. h/t, Samiz
Toon via Theo -
Like we said yesterday, the Dem bill is just the launching pad. Yes, that's the whole point.
Trial Lawyers Win Added Clout From Democrats In Health Bill. Wonderful!
How China sabotaged the climate talks
Va. Republicans aim to take 4 Democrats' congressional seats
The happiest states in the USA
ObamaCare designed to be un-repealable
Similar message from Betsy
Nelson Says More Senators Seeking Special Treatment in Light of Nebraska Deal
It's getting hot out there. Better DRIVE TO THE HIGHER LATITUDES
Not your grandfather's England:
A millionaire businessman has been jailed for two and a half years for taking on a knife-wielding burglar who held him and his family hostage in their home. Munir Hussain, 52, was told he was wrong to take the law into his hands and attack Walid Salem, 56, after the masked intruder threatened to kill him.
That's why we refer to Europe as EuroDisney. Not a serious place. It was, for a short while in history. Now it's just a cool vacation destination.
Even the Huffpo is disenchanted with the O (h/t, Winds):Leadership, Obama Style, and the Looming Losses in 2010: Pretty Speeches, Compromised Values, and the Quest for the Lowest Common Denominator
Related: Would You Buy a Used Car from This Man?
Fun with Hugo! First - Was it Santa? Second: Hugo renames Angel Falls
Tuesday, December 22. 2009
 The Dem long-term goal is complete government control of medical care, as in Canada. They make no bones about that.
Their House and Senate bills take a big step in that direction. They do it by mandating the purchase of medical insurance - and then regulating what your insurance must pay for. From what I can tell, they are not really mandating insurance at all - they are mandating that most or all of your medical bills get paid by the general population, depending on what government panels deem worthy of coverage for you (watch that process become immediately politicized).
Thus the need for the hefty tax increases and for an inevitable leap in insurance prices. That leap in prices, down the road, will, the Dems hope, lead to people crying for the government to jump in completely. That's always the plan: break something, then arrive on the scene to "fix it."
A wiser path - but one which would never lead to Canadian medicine - would have been to disconnect medical insurance from the workplace, to ensure portability, to create high-risk subsidized pools (as is done for high risk drivers in auto insurance) for those who cannot purchase insurance, to take down interstate barriers to insurance competition so that people have the choice to buy whatever sort they want, and to do some tort reform so that docs do not need to spend $40-200,000/yr on their insurance. Plus no mandate - it isn't American to force everybody to buy something if they do not want the product.
(As I have mentioned in the past, I like my family medical insurance. It is portable, cheap catastrophic insurance which cannot be canceled - and which would become illegal under the Dem plan. The Dem plan requires me to buy all sorts of junk I neither want nor need.)
Related: The healthcare backlash is coming. Or maybe it already has. People know that this thing is a dog...not to insult our canine friends.
Also, via Insty:
PETER WEHNER: The Health-Care Backlash. “This health-care bill may well be historic, but not in the way the president thinks. I’m not sure we’ve ever seen anything quite like it: passage of a mammoth piece of legislation, hugely expensive and unpopular, on a strict party-line vote taken in a rush of panic because Democrats know that the more people see of ObamaCare, the less they like it.”
They should never be killed for food. Another challenge for ethical eating.
I say "Let the broccoli suffer."
Climate touches every white liberal's erogenous zone. Krauthammer.
The UN's Pachauri, like Gore, is getting rich off climate.
Pajamas: The Socialist Revolution Has Come to America
Ted Dalrymple revisits Calcutta
Cool rocks. Slide show of some rochers extraordinaire
Kim Peek died.
A book: From Poverty to Prosperity
C of E vicar advises parishioners to steal
Debating national identity turns dangerous?
Point of Law: Impermissible Ratemaking in Health-Insurance Reform: Why the Reid Bill is Unconstitutional
Samuelson in the WaPo: A Parody of Leadership. One quote:
Even if Congress passes legislation -- a good bet -- the finished product will fall far short of Obama's extravagant promises. It will not cover everyone. It will not control costs. It will worsen the budget outlook. It will lead to higher taxes. It will disrupt how, or whether, companies provide insurance for their workers. As the real-life (as opposed to rhetorical) consequences unfold, they will rebut Obama's claim that he has "solved" the health care problem. His reputation will suffer.
You would think that a farm barn is a farm barn is a farm barn, but it's not true. There are significant differences between regions and even countries.
In colonial New England, farmers naturally adopted the "English" style barn - basically a square framed box with a moderate pitched roof. It was not easily adaptable and eventually the "New England" barn evolved which was adaptable and expandable. Sadly, a lot of these barns no longer exist.
The Brunn Barn was one of the early progenitors of the "New England Barn" and has an interesting history in that it - well, no other way to put it - was "lost" for a while. Originally, the barn sat on the Brunn property which changed hands. The barn was moved to a different location on Butts Road near what was then Annhurst College (now the Woodstock Middle School and Hyde School complex) where it sat for most of the better part of hundred and fifty years. It was used as a general purpose storage building and even then, it didn't get much use. So it effectively was lost as everybody just thought it was an old building left hanging on eventually deemed a "hazard" and subject to razing - the building had fallen into some disrepair and externally was covered with tar paper shingles.
As it happened, Dr. George Looby, a large animal vet was looking for a barn for use as an agricultural exhibit for the antique tractor and farm equipment section of the Fair. This building was mentioned as a possible candidate and when Dr. Looby investigated, he discovered its history. It is built using the "scribe rule framing" post and beam construction technique - every mortise and tenon joint is unique to that joint only - they are not interchangeable as they would be in square rule framing. Scribe rule was the hallmark of New England Barns of the time period.
The Brunn Barn was moved to the Fair grounds and restored to its original condition. It now houses the mechanical and operations agricultural exhibition of the Woodstock Fair presenting the equipment and tools of the time period in which it was built.
Monday, December 21. 2009
 Milbank: An ugly finale for health-care reform
Hot Air: Don’t despair about ObamaCare
Classy: RI Dem Senator Calls ObamaCare Opponents Part of 'Aryan Support Groups'
Cash for Cloture: Harry Reid’s Vote Buying Cost Taxpayers $1.2 Billion
Trial lawyers get payoff in Dem medical bill
Gordon Brown calls for new group to police global environment issues.
Related: There'll be nowhere to run from the new world government
From Driscoll:
“Sen. Whitehouse: foes of health care bill are birthers, right-wing militias, aryan groups.” Meanwhile, Jennifer Rubin adds, “it will be crystal clear who, when the chips are down, tried to stop the largest big-government power grab and tax-a-thon in decades and who rolled over. The opponents of those Democrats who rolled over will have a plethora of material for their campaign ads.”
Birthers and Aryan groups? Sounds like us. Along with over 60% of Americans, I guess, who oppose this fascistic, ie government-controlled - monstrosity.
Betsy: Ben Nelson's selling price
Powerline: Who's Meaner, Insurance Bureaucrats or Government Bureaucrats?
Healthcare Pork: Senate Bill Laden with Favors, Pet Projects for Democrats
Related, they did not omit the slacker kids, I mean, the adult children
Riehl remains an optimist.
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