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.
If you adopt the position that government is God - that government can do everything, can fix everything, can and should make everything in life nice for everybody (which is even far beyond what God does), then naturally government failed to provide perfect safety from hurricane/Nor'easter Sandy.
Also, this one: Devastated Rockaways residents lash out at Bloomberg during unannounced visit. Excuse me, but the Rockaways do sometimes rock away. They are barrier islands, like Cape Hatteras. What do people expect? Barrier islands are just temporary sandbars. Like flood plains, one should try to live there at one's own peril. People should know a little geography. Heck, Long Island itself is just a temporary large barrier island, made of glacial sand from the recent ice age.
Without wanting to sound heartless because the suffering of others is painful to all regardless of the cause, there must be a point at which people are responsible for their own welfare. Has government created an illusion of safety from the hazards of life and the hazards of poor choices? If so, government has done a grave disservice to people. Here's what government did do:
- They have long marked out built-up areas labeled as "Flood Zone A." That includes beach areas, filled-in old coastal marshlands, and barrier beaches. That means that, if you want to live there, you will get flooded and have been flooded historically. Maybe governments should make you sign a piece of paper saying "I understand that I elect to live here in some danger and at my own personal and property risk." Not a great idea to live in flood zones, but if you want to be there you should expect it. In fact, if you live there, you likely are required to own federally-subsidized (big mistake there) flood insurance. People should never have been permitted to build in such places on the taxpayer's nickel, but it happened long ago and has a history of multiple wipe-outs over the past 300 years. I am in favor of free-market flood insurance only.
- Days before Sandy hit land in NJ, Mayor Bloomberg ordered mandatory evacutation of Zone A. No, they cannot force you to leave. This is America. It is a legal misdemeanor not to leave, however.
- For days, radio and TV warned about an especially high storm surge in flood zones due to the full moon and reinforced the evacuation order. They had tons of shelters for those with nowhere to go.
- Local police and fire departments went around all Zone A neighborhoods (Zone A pop. 300,000 on Staten Island alone) with loudspeakers sending out warnings on Sunday and Monday before the storm.
This reminds me of the old church story: The Mississippi is rising, the levee has a hole in it, and the guy looks out his first story window and hears police warnings to flee for higher ground. He prays "God, I have no fear because I know you will rescue me from this flood." A little later, he's had to move to the second floor and again asks God for help. Some guys in a canoe paddle by, but he lets them go while waiting for God. Finally, he's on the roof praying, and a helo goes overhead offering to drop a radio so he can call for help. He waves them off, trusting in the Lord. Yes, he drowns.
OK, I'll add the punchline: The man asks God why he let him drown and God answers "I sent the police, a canoe, and a helicopter. What more were you expecting from me?"
Many people believe that the state is responsible for everything. According to Cass Sunstein, a professor of law at Harvard University and administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, “Government is ‘implicated’ in everything people own. . . . If rich people have a great deal of money, it is because the government furnishes a system in which they are entitled to have and keep that money.”
That’s the academic formulation of a concept that was restated recently in a popular form. “If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. . . . If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. . . . Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” That was Sunstein’s boss, President Obama.
and
The evolution of freedom has involved a long process of bringing power under law. The imposition of force has nonetheless left a powerful imprint on our minds. Alexander Rustow, a prominent sociologist and a father of the post-war revival of liberty in Germany, meditated on the origins of the state in violence and predation and its lingering imprint: “All of us, without exception, carry this inherited poison within us, in the most varied and unexpected places and in the most diverse forms, often defying perception. All of us, collectively and individually, are accessories to this great sin of all time, this real original sin, a hereditary fault that can be excised and erased only with great difficulty and slowly, by an insight into pathology, by a will to recover, by the active remorse of it all.” It takes work to free our minds from our dependence on the state.
A Google search for "flash problems" yields five hundred million hits. By means of comparison, there are 350 million people in the U.S.
Having been somewhat distracted recently (recuperating, healing, staying alive — small things like that), I haven't been too active in the video scene. When I did jump back in, I promptly ran into four problems. Some sites that had a Flash video were locking up in Firefox, I was getting a "This video is currently unavailable" message on most YouTube vids in both browsers, DownloadHelper (a Firefox add-on that downloads vids) had stopped working on YouTube, and, on top of all that, when I reinstalled Flash, I started getting Windows melt-down messages every time I went to a Flash site. Welcome back, Doc!
I reported on some of the problems a while back, but since I've now solved the last of them, I thought I'd compile the whole mess into one post.
Conservatives and Republicans have for too long ceded pop culture’s influence to the Left. If we continue to allow progressives to construct a linear historical narrative that casts conservatives and the Republican party as the villains in every piece, we can kiss goodbye to ever winning a national election again.
Dark Blots on the Blank Slate - An epic yet intimate history of how the Soviets attempted to remake every aspect of life in Eastern Europe in the wake of World War II.
Who's gonna throw those minstrel boys a coin? Yes, Garrett is indeed haunted in the best sense. I noticed it when I met him. He is inside himself. But who is the invisible retard on bass?
In the good old days before recorded music, everybody made their own music at home. A home is a little empty and dead without it. Everybody in the family was supposed to play something, however ineptly, and it is a delight to hear somebody struggling with a piece on the piano in the living room. The wrong notes are sentimentally memorable. It's the sound of home. Homemade music is the best, and second best is live music. Music has gotten too easy to have. Maybe it's just a Maggie's view, but I believe that music, like sports, is more wonderful to do than to watch or listen to. My musical and singing talents have been elusive, to say the least, thus far, but there is always hope.
Who’s gonna throw that minstrel boy a coin? Who’s gonna let it roll? Who’s gonna throw that minstrel boy a coin? Who’s gonna let it down easy to save his soul?
Oh, Lucky’s been drivin’ a long, long time And now he’s stuck on top of the hill With twelve forward gears, it’s been a long hard climb And with all of them ladies, though, he’s lonely still
Who’s gonna throw that minstrel boy a coin? Who’s gonna let it roll? Who’s gonna throw that minstrel boy a coin? Who’s gonna let it down easy to save his soul?
Well, he deep in number and heavy in toil Mighty Mockingbird, he still has such a heavy load Beneath his bound’ries, what more can I tell With all of his trav’lin’, but I’m still on that road
Who’s gonna throw that minstrel boy a coin? Who’s gonna let it roll? Who’s gonna throw that minstrel boy a coin? Who’s gonna let it down easy to save his soul?
Winter sports are the best ones (shooting, hunting, Paddle, skiing, Squash, indoor tennis), but you have to be in shape. The Official Maggie's Farm Fitness Program (no TM) is neither for big muscle building nor a rigorous fitness regime to regain a neglected physique but is cheap, time-saving, and highly-effective for those in decent shape who want to tighten up for the black diamonds (but ask your physician whether it is appropriate for you before suing Maggie's Farm or me):
1. Want to lose flab? Go on a no-carb, or almost-no-carb, high meat diet. Carbs are the devil, the delicious fat on the meat is not. Salad is for rabbits, anorectics, or for fun. Fruits are pure carbs. A few kinds of vegetables are low in carbs and tasty, but not necessary except to fill the tummy. Little to no nutrition in them. If you are a food-worrier, take a multivit to relieve your anxiety.
2. Aerobics: 30-40 minutes/day (running, treadmill, spinning, erg, swimming, or especially elliptical), pushing it as tolerated
3. Lower body: Several sets of lunges and squats as tolerated.
4. Abs: Several sets of bicycle crunches, as tolerated.
5. Upper: Push up sets and free-weight (not heavy) military press sets
6. Back, etc: Sets of The Plank, pushing sets as tolerated.
This is fun, only takes an hour/day, and gets your head ready for a good day of mental work. To save time, you can alternate days, aerobics on one day and the rest on the next day. That's enough to tune up an already-fit body.
I wonder what our readers do to keep themselves from going to pot in an America in which fewer and fewer people do real labor.
Dr. Tom Sculco at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York gave my mother-in-law a brand new knee on the Friday night before Sandy. She's doing fine, but a new knee is not exactly pleasant for a while. She had a push-button morphine pump for a while, and the post-op PT would be outlawed by the Geneva Convention.
Between Sandy, no power, the hospital and the rehab, and the tree falling on their house, it's been a challenge around here.
Dr. Sculco is the pre-eminent orthopedic surgeon in the world, has a world class bedside manner too. Spreads love, interest in others, and care all around, as we all should do.
I like leftovers more than I like the first go-round, and I just like a little bit of turkey to go with my main deal of mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry relish, and gravy.
Which reminds me, I need to get out and buy up my annual supply of fresh cranberries. 10 bags, at least. Perhaps corner the New England market for cranberries, and make out like George Soros. I freeze them whole and use them year round.
Marco Rubio would not have won the Latino vote this year. A ticket of Condoleezza Rice and Herman Cain would not have won the black vote. Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley would not have won the Asian vote. Obama, in brilliant fashion, marketed himself as the above-the-fray great healer and our post-racial future, while his surrogates waged the most vicious race-, class-, gender-divisive campaign in history. More likely, what lost the race for Romney — a decent and strong candidate — was instead the failure of the white working classes to turn out to vote en masse.
Why so? I was in Michigan, near the Ohio border, for all of September, and each night was stunned by the variations in the class warfare ads, mostly brilliant and effective in painting Romney as your kill-Detroit, wet-suited, jet-ski-setting, multi-home employer — a veritable John Kerry, John Edwards, or Ted Kennedy — and “us” as a disabled, homeless, starving, and out-of-work collective victim as a result. Millions, who did not prefer Obama, just stayed home and thought that they would pass on voting for the guy who had too much money and gave them their pink slips. In 2004 they saw Kerry as the wet-suited wind surfer; in 2012 it was Romney.
On 13 September 1786, delegates from Providence County towns met in convention at Smithfield to consider the merchants’ continued opposition. The delegates attacked the subversive tendencies “of the mercantile Interest” and proposed that the legislature consider several plans, one of which called for a state-trade system that would have effectively eliminated the merchant class. As envisioned by a writer in the Providence Gazette, the state would own all stores, ships, wharves, shipyards, and the like. A state commission would send ships on fishing and mercantile ventures while severely limiting the importation of luxuries.
The legislature would “take the lead in this business, and will border it carried on in such manner, and under such regulations, as they in their wisdom shall think most convenient for the welfare, advantage, and well-being of the State.”
12:38 As he taught, he said, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces,
12:39 and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets!
12:40 They devour widows' houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation."
12:41 He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums.
12:42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny.
12:43 Then he called his disciples and said to them, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury.
12:44 For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."
Those who are willing to sacrifice and risk all will hold the future. Veterans have proven they are there. We will follow. We will lead. We will be there. Tens of millions of us. For everyone else, enlist in building a secure future. Get to work. Give it everything you have. Then some. That's what it takes. The future belongs to those with the courage and dedication to create it. America was built by rolling up our sleeves, with confidence, with faith, not by moaning, surrendering, or slinking away.
Popcorn time, but popcorn with a deathly flavor. Now that the MSM has their candidate elected, perhaps they might take interest in this colorful story. Colorful, except for the terrible and avoidable deaths of good, valiant, and innocent Americans who seem to have been pawns in a larger political game. They are the only heroes here.
The awful story has illicit sex, glory, spies, ambition and careerism, perfidy, dishonor, innocent deaths, Moslems, an election, the White House, the Pentagon, Hillary - everything. It's a Tom Clancy.
As for me, I question the timing with "King David." The cover-up always gets them. Best to admit tragic error right away, but people are less likely to admit calculated decisions.
Believe me, Petraeus' "betray us" was known well-before the FBI began snooping. Nobody gets a senior job without a meticulous colonoscopy. If you were ever cheating, they pursue every rumor and know all about it. Unless one is an elected Democrat, of course, in which case one's sexual history is irrelevant.
Funny how much the MSM loved the Hurricane Sandy story much better, despite the fact that it is really another Katrina story. Well, mostly white folks were flooded out, so who cares? No lasting narrative there. Where is Staten Island anyway? Mostly middle-class Republican Italians, right?
The Dems sure do have their number, don't they? Remember all of those Obama ads we thought we so vulgar, retarded, and full of lies? They worked on single women, and other people too. They knew who they were talking to. It should be remarkable that Romney did as well as he did.
It's easy to forget, living as many of us do among people who have an abiding interest in policy, economics, and politics, that most people have only a casual interest in these things except insofar as they might directly affect them or excite them with tingles.
Reagan had the knack of reaching the low- and high-information voter at the same time. He could deliver boob bait for the Bubbas and Bubbettes while offering an inspiring theory of freedom and free markets to the more sophisticated. Perhaps Obama does the same, with a theory of serfdom and government markets for the bubbettes, the poor-but-happy dependents, and urban metrosexuals. Serfdom is hip these days and dependency is cool. The New America.
This is h/t Black and Right. I think the fat gal just hopes she might need Planned Parenthood someday. Maybe if she gets him drunk enough on Tequila shots she can earn her free abortion.
When I posted that our loved Marianne had died, I included this photo of Marianne with the lady Marianne called her "surrogate daughter."
This morning Marianne's "surrogate daughter" Commented at the original post. I asked her permission to post her Comment more prominently, along with her name and contact info in case any Maggie's Farmers want to offer assistance with Marianne's loved husband Downs. We emailed each other and here it is. Bless you Colette. You are a Maggie's Farmer of the first order.
Comments: Thank you all for the kind words about Marianne. I am touched but not surprised by the kind and thoughtful comments. All of them spot on. She was all of that, and more, in person. Her maggies farm family was very special to her and many a time I would get a call to read a post by one of her pals. I was with Marianne and Downs almost every day of her illness. When things were tough she would tell me that the SEALS came and took her to a place by the sea to relax so she could face the next day. She never complained, never whined, and everytime I walked into her room I got a smile. I have been with Downs making the transition from a life with his beloved in his home of 40 years to a life without her and a move to assissted living at Bayou Manor, 4141 S. Braeswood #413, Houston, TX 77025. As one can imagine he is very lonesome for her. One doesn't often get to choose one's parents. I have been gifted by their presence in my life and honored that they chose me to be their surrogate daughter. S. Colette Chapman
Bruce, I remember Marianne speaking of you, Yep, that’s me, and please do. Marianne kept very close tabs on Downs and few suspected that he is suffering from dementia to the extent that he is. He lives in the present and the past, not tomorrow or yesterday. Without her day to day guidance he is not able to live independently in their home. He and I have our daily cheers and tears over missing her. They were the light of each others lives for 41 years. I only had her 27 years but I will cherish them all and I’m grateful to still have Downs and am devoted to keeping him as happy as I can for her as well as him.
S. Colette Chapman, Assistant to Gene Arensberg,Longpoint Land & Cattle Co.713-412-0971 cell, 281-431-6700 ranch office
The name Marine still and always will mean something special, the best, and our ranks and merits grow with each generation. In addition, maybe a bit out of form, but yesterday a young friend on active duty in the Navy in his pure dedication to why he serves, patriotic idealism that does not expect or demand recompense, reminded me of how I felt 44-years ago when I dropped out of grad school and enlisted in the USMC as an enlisted man. The USMC was all enlistees then. Now all branches are enlistees. Today's military are committed professionals fired by love of country. We are all Semper Fidelis now and I welcome the other servicemembers into our fraternity.
Oh yeah, did I forget to mention, Marines are still and will always be the best. And, Always Faithful, as you can see from this special story, special but not untypical.
“Hugh is that rare kind of actor who can make niceness interesting.” In his gentlemanliness and common decency, Bonneville’s Robert may be the most radical leading-man role on TV these days: an anti-antihero.
She was a phantom of delight When first she gleamed upon my sight; A lovely Apparition, sent To be a moment's ornament; Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair; Like Twilight's, too, her dusky hair; But all things else about her drawn From May-time and the cheerful Dawn; A dancing Shape, an Image gay, To haunt, to startle, and way-lay.
I saw her upon a nearer view, A Spirit, yet a Woman too! Her household motions light and free, And steps of virgin liberty; A countenance in which did meet Sweet records, promises as sweet; A Creature not too bright or good For human nature's daily food; For transient sorrows, simple wiles, Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears and smiles.
And now I see with eye serene The very pulse of the machine; A Being breathing thoughtful breath, A Traveler between life and death; The reason firm, the temperate will, Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill; A perfect Woman, nobly planned, To warm, to comfort, and command; And yet a Spirit still, and bright, With something of angelic light.
"Politics is downstream of culture." That's what the man says, and it certainly seems true these days. It's what I have been thinking. Sales, marketing, and branding matter.
Optics, rhetoric and perception matter. Though the new Democratic Party’s economic policies are based on antiquated ideas of early 20th century progressivism and European welfare states, it, not the GOP, is perceived as party of forward looking ideas.
If Republicans have any hope of persuading independents, they’ll need charismatic people, people who look and sound like a modern America and not a boardroom of Brahmin, because real-world competency is no match for fresh packaging and a good slogan. Welcome to democracy.
The fact is that the same people who run around instructing Republicans that they need to appeal to Latinos, blacks and women are aghast when exactly that happens. Are liberals agonizing this week over the defeat of Florida's Congressman Allen West -- a black man -- by a whiter than vanilla liberal named Patrick Murphy? Are they made furious by the defeat of a conservative black woman named Mia Love by yet another liberal white boy in Utah? Hardly. They are doing somersaults. Are they celebrating the fact that a woman --Michele Bachmann -- will be returning to Congress after defeating yet another one of those damnable white men, Democrat Jim Graves? Are they signing up for Palin in 2016? Are you kidding? They are beyond teeth-gratingly depressed and angry at the mere existence of both Bachmann and Palin
A book: Far From the Tree - "He writes about families coping with deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, multiple severe disabilities, with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, who are transgender." http://www.amazon.com/Far-From-the-Tree-ebook/dp/B007EDOLJ2/ref=kinw_dp_ke
"I think a lot of stuff will be coming out over the next few weeks and months that was carefully kept off the radar before Election Day." http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/157280/
A Google search for "flash problems" yields five hundred million hits. By means of comparison, there are 350 million people in the U.S.
Affairs 
Winter sports are the best ones (shooting, hunting, Paddle, skiing, Squash, indoor tennis), but you have to be in shape. The Official Maggie's Farm Fitness Program (no TM) is neither for big muscle building nor a rigorous fitness regime to regain a neglected physique but is cheap, time-saving, and highly-effective for those in decent shape who want to tighten up for the black diamonds (but ask your physician whether it is appropriate for you before suing Maggie's Farm or me):
At last count, we have 32 people, friends and family, coming for Thanksgiving. Ages 4 to 86.
Popcorn time, but popcorn with a deathly flavor. Now that the MSM has their candidate elected, perhaps they might 
She was a Phantom of Delight
Is There Such a Thing