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
Peach update, with pie
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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Tuesday, March 5. 2013

FYI, Warren Buffet's 2012 summary letter

Here.
Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 17:53 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

You had just one job

Posted by Bird Dog at 14:56 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

Employers Say Grads Are a Disappointment

Mead's post quotes this:



Half of those surveyed…said they had trouble finding recent graduates qualified to fill positions at their company or organization. Nearly a third gave colleges just fair to poor marks for producing successful employees. And they dinged bachelor’s-degree holders for lacking basic workplace proficiencies like adaptability, communication skills, and the ability to solve complex problems.



Related, What College Graduates Lack - Americans have lost their competitive edge. Can college restore it?


As I have said here many times, a Liberal Arts education is not job training. It's designed to be about life-enrichment and about molding civilized and thoughtful citizens with deeper understanding of the world and of their own civilization than secondary schools can offer.


If people want job credentials, I'd advise majoring in Medieval History, Classics, or Renaissance Literature, and minoring in Accounting, Engineering, hard sciences, or Econ (or the other way around) - combining the life-enhancement with the utilitarian.


The kids should consider this: anything that can be learned just as well at The Great Courses/Teaching Company should not be studied at great expense in college. With all the alternative ways of learning higher ed material nowadays, spending big bucks for it makes no sense. And if you need a class and exams to provide the discipline, then one should work on one's discipline.


You can obtain a top-notch Liberal Arts education with them, with as much breadth or depth as you desire. I eagerly await the day that the company will offer their courses for college credit.


Posted by The Barrister in Education, Our Essays, Politics, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 13:20 | Comments (19) | Trackbacks (0)

Thanks, friend

To some mystery friend who sent me the new Wodehouse bio, thank you.


Fun to read. Began it last night.

Posted by Bird Dog at 12:34 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

QQQ

“I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Michael Jordan
Posted by Bird Dog in Quotidian Quotable Quote (QQQ) at 11:43 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

Speech That Denies Fellow Students a “Supportive Environment”

Are kids supposed to be eachothers' social workers now? I am all for civilized behavior, but this nursery-school sort of moonbattery, attempting to insulate kids from the rough and tumble of real life, seems insane to me (not to mention unconstitutional): 


Minnesota Bill to Ban K-12 Speech That Denies Fellow Students a “Supportive Environment”


We all enjoy supportive environments. However, that is not necessarily what we need. For supportive environments, we have home. For annoying jerks and bullies we have ostracism, gossip, and fists as handy tools.


Related: Massachusetts Warns Students: Affirm Transgendered Classmates or Face Punishment


Mocking those with mental illness is cruel, but why must conspicuous deviancy be "affirmed" - whatever than means. I think it means applauded.

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects, Our Essays at 11:35 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

Tuesday morning links

Women earn a higher rate of return from a college degree than men.


The Top 5 Lies About Biotech Crops


Why I Hate Anti-Bullying Public Service Announcements


If you aren’t smart enough to distinguish reality from non-reality, you shouldn’t be allowed around kids.


“Global Warming” shadenfreude


Department of Social Justice Attacks Motherhood


Dan Quayle Was Right


What does DHS need with 2,700 armored vehicles?


VDH:  Journalists as Ring Wraiths - When you’ve got a country to transform, any caviling is disloyalty.


Bill Ayers in Moorhead


Carbon Power Politics - The next EPA chief and next phase of the Obama green agenda.


Asian-Americans Solidly Prefer Democrats - Sixty-one percent of young adult Asian-Americans identify as/lean Democratic


Why?


China's dangerous housing bubble, with Potemkin cities



Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 04:39 | Comments (44) | Trackbacks (0)

Monday, March 4. 2013

Remember this ad?


 Remember this ad for pre-owned Beemers, "You know you're not the first, but do you really care?"






Well, somebody faked a similar ad for Aston Martin, and Aston Martin is not amused (below the fold)


Continue reading "Remember this ad?"

Posted by The News Junkie at 20:25 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

The first episode of the Twilight Zone: Where is Everybody?

with Rod Serling's 1959 intro to the series, at Am Digest
Posted by Bird Dog at 19:47 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

The politics of Detroit

From How the Democrats Destroyed Detroit:


Detroit has some of the highest big city property taxes in the nation, and property assessments remain overly inflated, amounting to as much as ten times the market price of the property, according to recent research compiled by two Michigan professors.

This has led to another phenomenon. Property owners are allowing themselves to be foreclosed upon, and then re-buying the same property at a reduced price, legally eliminating their outstanding debt in the process. Six hundred properties were repurchased in this manner in 2012, triple the number that occurred in 2010.
In short, Detroit is a city on the brink of ruination.
Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 17:22 | Comments (11) | Trackbacks (0)

Myths of American ‘Cowboy Capitalism’


Article here.


If you ask me, America could use more cowboy capitalism. The only jobs that 74,000 pages of regs provide is jobs for lawyers.


Furthermore, stifling regs just put us on The Road to Oligarchy because rules, laws, and regs always end up raising the barriers to entry of upstarts. See Subway Restaurant Founder Slams Destructive Federal Regulations

Posted by The Barrister at 14:45 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

You had only one job

Posted by Bird Dog at 13:43 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

QQQ

“From the point of view of physics, it is a miracle that 7 million New Yorkers are fed each day without any control mechanism other than sheer capitalism.”


John Holland, scientist, Santa Fe Institute (h/t Carpe's Quotations of the day on the miracle of the market)

Posted by Bird Dog in Quotidian Quotable Quote (QQQ) at 11:46 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

Finally!


It's about time those of Portuguese descent get justice.


They have suffered too long.

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 08:56 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

Monday morning links

Is giving birth more painful than getting kicked in the cojones?


Golden State's green jobs bust


Colorado Democrats Moving to Ban Hunting Firearms

Food-free food


Breaking: Gender Confusion Hits Nadir

Gender confusion hits nadir


Study suggests ‘snowball Earth’ was real and was reversed by ‘An ultra-high carbon dioxide atmosphere’


40% of NHS docs would not recommend their own hospitals


Starnes: Day of doom is here


Colorada Dems move to ban hunting firearms


The forgotten Barbara Jordan Commission on Immigration


Sharp Personal Income Drop Is Bottom-Up Economics Failure


The slow slide toward state run media

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 05:14 | Comments (36) | Trackbacks (0)

Sunday, March 3. 2013

The Death of the NCC

End of the Mainline. It was suicide:



The arc of the NCC’s story showcases the rise and fall of liberal Protestantism in America. It’s a sad tale but also instructive for the more robust churches of today.





Posted by The News Junkie at 16:54 | Comments (16) | Trackbacks (0)

Interview with the wonderful Dr. George Vaillant


He has a new book out, about what he learned from the Harvard lifetime study. He is delightful. The podcast is here.


Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in Psychology, and Dr. Bliss at 15:35 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

Movie review: 'Watchmen', 'Bunraku'


Of the plethora of super-hero movies that have spilled out of Hollywood over the past few years, I've thought most of them went from 'pretty bad' to 'barely okay'.  Green Lantern was a slight cut above, and Thor was terrific.  It was so good it got its own review.


Add Watchmen to the A List.  This engaging little number is intriguing from beginning to end.  It deals with a banned group of (mostly) masked crimefighters and the story that unravels after one of them is killed.  The ending poses the classic philosophical question; isn't it better that nine million people die, rather than nine billion?


As usual, click on the little symbol on the player bar to expand it to full-screen mode.


Here's a small snippet from the opening.  Dig the 'real-time slo-mo' effect.  I believe that's Donovan singing in the background.


Hot chicks, bullets, kissing, hot chicks kissing — this movie's got it all!


And then there's Rorschach, the narrator of the story and winner of the coveted 'Mr. Congenial' award in high school.  This badass has such a good line at the end that I put it on my Great One-Liners page.


Check out the spy drone at the beginning listening in on your every word.



Likable old cuss, isn't he?


It's hard to put into words, but there's just something about this movie that's...


different.


I'll review the quite-intriguing Bunraku below the fold.


Continue reading "Movie review: 'Watchmen', 'Bunraku'"

Posted by Dr. Mercury in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 13:30 | Comments (26) | Trackbacks (0)

Why Are Your Children Still In Public School?

Well, because it's just what most people do unless they are either Catholic or prosperous, or want to take on home-schooling. It's just normal. My own kids mostly avoided public schools because I could (barely, and not really) afford to.


In the end, though, isn't most primary education ultimately home-schooling anyway? I think it is.


Why Are Your Children Still In Public School?




Posted by The Barrister in Education, Our Essays at 13:18 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

You had only one job to get right


 Just a simple cover page layout




Posted by Bird Dog at 11:58 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

Why we have our best ideas in the shower: The science of creativity

Why we have our best ideas in the shower: The science of creativity.


I always figured that it's because there were no distractions, same as driving alone with the radio off (which I recommend).

Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in Psychology, and Dr. Bliss at 11:54 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

From today's Lectionary: My soul thirsts for you

A Psalm of David when he was in
the wilderness of Judah. (Psalm 63)



O God, You are my God;
Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water.
2 So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.

3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips shall praise You.
4 Thus I will bless You while I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.

6 When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches.
7 Because You have been my help,
Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.
8 My soul follows close behind You;
Your right hand upholds me.

9 But those who seek my life, to destroy it,
Shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
10 They shall fall by the sword;
They shall be a portion for jackals.

11 But the king shall rejoice in God;
Everyone who swears by Him shall glory;
But the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped


Posted by Bird Dog at 06:00 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

h/t, Moonbattery


Posted by Bird Dog at 05:08 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Saturday, March 2. 2013

Posted by Bird Dog at 17:21 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)

Federalized school curricula?


I think it's insane. Rotten to the Core.


Since when was public education an area of control by the Feds?



Posted by The Barrister at 17:19 | Comments (7) | Trackbacks (0)
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