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.
Every Thanksgiving, we kids sang this merry song on the way to our Granny and Grampy's Connecticut house: four of us, bouncing in the back seat of the Chevy station wagon on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Their house was a mansion to us, filled with mysteries. Owl andirons with eyes, bathtubs with claw feet, a real ice box in the basement, a big family Bible from the 1700s, a jar of formaldehyde with a dissected human heart, old medical texts, Tiffany lamps, a Chickering grand piano, Persian rugs, the first EKG machine in Connecticut (German made, in a mahogany cabinet, which still worked and which works to this day), the rooms my Dad and Aunt grew up in with all of their books - and my Granny's Mom, sitting and knitting. She died at age 103. An old Yankee, raised on a hardscrabble farm and who worked as a nurse, she never said very much. She was half Iroquois (her Mom), and looked like an ancient squaw with her hair tied back.
They had a cranky, humorless Polish widowed cook called Mrs. Wos (which was an abbreviation of her last name which I never knew) who helped them in the kitchen and who would smack your hand hard with a spoon if you tried to grab something. Granny was not much of a cook, to put it mildly, but she would help Mrs. Wos when asked. Mrs. Wos kept a filled bird-feeder outside the kitchen window for entertainment, and banged on the glass when a squirrel got into it. Come to think of it, she banged all sorts of things: hands, windows, pots and pans, cabinet doors.
And they had an old widower black guy moved up from Mississippi who did chores and yard jobs, and helped with the garden - the sweetest and most dignified Christian guy you could ever know. "Uncle Ed," who my Granny called Mr. Evans, sang hymns while he worked, and read the Bible and philosophy (and W.E.B. DuBois and Albert Schweitzer) when he was off duty in his cozy apartment above the garage - with a wood stove (in addition to real heat) - and walls of bookshelves. He believed that fiction was the work of the Devil but he never refused whiskey.
Being alone in life, both family helpers joined us at the family tables for Thanksgiving dinner. Ed was always given the honor of offering the prayer which came from the depths of his heart. He went on for quite a while, as the soup got cold. Deep and yet simple, which are the things I still aspire to. He prayed for his country, for the enrichment of his and our spirits, for the soul of his dead wife, for his two boys in the service, and for the glory of creation.
I miss him because he was a dear buddy to me. He was the first black guy I knew. He had worked as a railroad Porter, and he said the railroad was the true friend of the black man. He knew the blues, and he knew the hymns. He taught me to fish, with great laughter and jollity. Bait-fishing from a rowboat, for food, with a bamboo pole. No fancy stuff. Long gone, now, but never forgotten.
Happy Thanksgiving, readers. Thanks to God, and God bless us, every one, living and gone - and our free country.
Photos: Station wagons were the SUVs of their time: if you had kids, you had one. '55 Chevy, of course. The '50 Buick? My grandparents drove theirs until the mid-1960s. Old people used to drive old cars. I recall theirs as having been brown, not black, but I couldn't swear to that. My Gramps, who was a doctor, totalled it into a tree while making a house call late at night in a snowstorm at age 84. He was OK, but the car wasn't. Bought a white Oldsmobile with power windows and began to cut back on work and grumble about socialism and socialized medicine. Johnson was President, with Medicare on the table - and he accepted vegetables, flowers, firewood, and labor as payment from those without money. He felt his poorer patients would feel demeaned by charity, so he expected something. I remember a bushel basket of fresh-dug potatoes on his back porch, with a note scrawled "from Sam." Another time, a bushel basket of sweet corn.
My pic is Fairfield, CT's Greenfield Hill Congregational Church. Timothy Dwight was once pastor there. This back country congregation was gathered in 1725. History of the church here. Always must remember that a church is the people, not the building.
How Free Speech Died on Campus - A young activist describes how universities became the most authoritarian institutions in America:
A 2010 survey by the American Association of Colleges and Universities found that of 24,000 college students, only 35.6% strongly agreed that "it is safe to hold unpopular views on campus." When the question was asked of 9,000 campus professionals—who are more familiar with the enforcement end of the censorship rules—only 18.8% strongly agreed.
The Democratic Party is defined by the broken family in the same way that the Republican Party is defined by the family. It is a refuge for minority groups where fatherlessness leads to single mothers and government dependency and for white middle-class Julia types who use government dependency as a substitute for parental dependency.
Take away the family and millions of seniors have no recourse for their needs and even their survival, but to turn to the government.
Here's another way Hamas stashes its armaments. In this case, under a Hamas leader's house, hit by the Israeli Air Force. Note the secondary explosions.
Here's a depiction of other ways Hamas hides its arms, as discovered during Cast Lead (late 2008-early 2009), and disregards Gazans' safety and lives, indeed callously uses their lives as sacrificial shields and pawns.
Many years ago, I'd read a piece about how we did as much housework today as we did 100 years ago, despite a plethora of labor-saving devices. This may not be as true as it once was, but the recent storms gave me some insight about why it may have been.
I noticed that without power, we were busy doing many things to keep the house going. Finding firewood, getting gas, sweeping, going to the laundromat, getting and cooking food. Clearly having power means the gas lines are shorter and I don't have to seek out firewood on a daily basis. But what is it about labor-saving devices may have caused us to do continue to spend as much time doing housework as we may have prior to having them?
One day, as I was sorting the laundry, it hit me. By being able to do more in less time, our standards and expectations rose, so we tended to do more. We do things we couldn't do before, because we can.
I didn't like that my home's cleanliness took a slight dip during the storm, but given the time I was forced to spend doing other things, it just seemed like there was a logical trade-off in letting some things go for a bit until I had the chance to get around to them.
Below is a dispatch from Israel, bold emphasis added, from -- who woulda believed it -- the frontline in Jerusalem. Yesterday, an Iranian supplied missile landed just miles from the holy sites of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I haven't seen a mention in the press reports of this that fanatic Muslims are indiscriminately targeting not only civilians but the holy sites of billions of people.
Bill Berk is a transplanted American in Jerusalem, Israel. In his earlier career, Berk was rabbi of a large congregation in Phoenix, Ariz. Now he leads educational cultural tours within Israel. He will be the rabbi for my son's Bar Mitzvah in Jerusalem on April 8.
Dear Friends,
Many of my friends have emailed and asked about my welfare and to share a few words about what is going on.Batya and I are safe.This has been a tense few days.You are watching television and suddenly you see the words at the bottom of the screen “Siren in Ashdod” and then you hear the siren on the television and a few seconds later you might hear a “boom.”For those of us who grew up in quiet suburban American communities it is jarring, to say the least.But, hey, Ashdod isn’t Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.You worry about the folks in Ashdod but it seems far away.After all it takes an hour to drive from Jerusalem to Ashdod.As the crow flies it is 34 miles away.And then suddenly we got the news—rocket heading to Tel Aviv.That certainly raised the blood pressure a bit.Then a few minutes after Shabbat came in we are luxuriating in the soft light of Shabbat candles and enjoying Jerusalem quiet when suddenly for the first time ever, we hear the dreaded siren.Its not on t.v.It is directed at us—a rocket is headed towards us.Quickly we made our way to the stairwell and went down a few floors where it is considered safer.After what happened in Kiriat Malachi (3 dead in a 4th floor apartment) we have learned it is not good to be in an apartment that is on the upper floors.We wait a few minutes and head back to our apartment.I have heard the sounds of war before—on the border with Lebanon and during the 2nd Intifada.But this is the first time somebody is aiming at me.Needless to say we were stunned, along with all the other Jerusalemites.
It is important to know that between January 1, 2012 and the day before Israel killed the Hamas military commander they shot 750 rockets into Israel.Over the past few days they have shot another five or six hundred rockets at us.These rockets are aimed at all of us—civilians—all over the country.What are we supposed to do?What would the United States do if UCLA was closed due to rocket fire from Mexico?What would America do if Canadian terrorists shot rockets into Minnesota and they had to close the University of Minnesota? My step-daughter was sent home from her college in Ashkelon.The whole school was evacuated.She said the scene on the buses and the cars fleeing Ashkelon reminded her of World War II movies where people grab a few belongings and run.
Of course this is not 1939.We have a very strong army, navy, and air force.We know how to defend ourselves and we will defend ourselves.I’ll add one overtly political comment. I think it is fair to criticize Israel for not being as creative as we might be in dealing with the Palestinians.But the whole world, especially the Islamic countries, has been totally unresponsive to the thousands of rockets fired at Israel since we left Gaza.The news is full now of reports of world leaders coming here—now.Where were they when hundreds of thousands of Israelis were huddling in stairwells and shelters?Now you come? It’s a bit late.It is uncomfortable for the world, apparently, when we defend ourselves.This, however, is now squarely on our agenda.Let us pray that soon we’ll have some Islamic creativity and some new thinking—it’s time to accept the fact that Israel is here to stay.
Bill
Rabbi Bill Berk Marketing Coordinator and Tour Educator Keshet: The Center for Educational Tourism in Israe www.keshetisrael.co.il
It has long been my view that the O is/was a celebrity candidate, a fluffy media creation lacking in substance and in mastery of anything but smooth talk. A sweet-talking guy. For a related essay, see A Tale of Two Cities - Hollywood’s influence on politicians advances not inexorably but in cycles.
I began to make a mental list of the potential news items over recent years which would have been pounded, would have been subjects of relentless, damaging front-page stories, had Obama been a Republican.
- More Americans in poverty than in decades - More homeless than in decades - The Food Stamp/EBT Card Presidency - Ongoing urban addiction, despair, and fatherless kids - Worst recovery from a recession in history - Benghazi would already be worse than Watergate - Mexican gun-walking scandal - The Hurricane Sandy mess - The catastrophic "Arab Spring" - Obama's compulsive lying - The taxpayer's loss of billions on GM - The taxpayer's loss of billions on green energy, crony failures - Obama's time on golf courses - Obama's divisiveness - Obama's coziness with Wall St. moguls - The Obama family's carbon footprint and insanely lavish vacations - Obama's errors of fact, eg 57 states. (Remember Dan Quail and potatoes?)
Add your own lists and items in the comments. It's therapeutic!
I think he's right, at least in part. Rush's tendency is to imagine that voters apply hard logic. It puzzles him when they do not. However, in retail politics, cultural signals and tribal signals matter. Policy wonks like me think it's superficial, but you can't get a policy until you win an election. There are plenty of low-info voters out there who vote on emotion, affinity-feelings, and things like that.
Mitt Romney was an excellent candidate on paper, but too many voters just couldn't "relate" to the guy. Actually, he did quite well, all things considered. A quote from Ace's post:
This was Breitbart's main idea, that politics was simply the expression of choices and preferences that had already been decided by the culture.
The "culture" doesn't care what gays do, and doesn't want to know or to think about it. The "culture" likes pop music. The "culture" is squeamish and ambivalent about abortion, and prefers to sort-of accept it and ignore it. These things are signals, not real policy issues. Let's face it: Conservatism and Libertarianism is a bit dorky. Mitt Romney probably never heard of Beyonce, and all I know of her is the name. Would not know her from Adam. I am more of a JS Bach guy. An East Village dork, but you wouldn't know it if you met me in the pub.
I die of thirst beside the fountain I'm hot as fire, I'm shaking tooth on tooth In my own country I'm in a distant land Beside the blaze I'm shivering in flames Naked as a worm, dressed like a president I laugh in tears and hope in despair I cheer up in sad hopelessness I'm joyful and no pleasure's anywhere I'm powerful and lack all force and strength Warmly welcomed, always turned away.
I'm sure of nothing but what is uncertain Find nothing obscure but the obvious Doubt nothing but the certainties Knowledge to me is mere accident I keep winning and remain the loser At dawn I say "I bid you good night" Lying down I'm afraid of falling I'm so rich I haven't a penny I await an inheritance and am no one's heir Warmly welcomed, always turned away.
I never work and yet I labor To acquire goods I don't even want Kind words irritate me most He who speaks true deceives me worst A friend is someone who makes me think A white swan is a black crow The people who harm me think they help Lies and truth today I see they're one I remember everything, my mind's a blank Warmly welcomed, always turned away.
Merciful Prince may it please you to know I understand much and have no wit or learning I'm biased against all laws impartially What's next to do? Redeem my pawned goods again! Warmly welcomed, always turned away.
The 13th century (1431-1474?) vagabond-thief-troubadour's bio here. This is a free advertisment for The Poems of Francois Villon, translations by Galway Kinnell (1965).
Everybody's probably sick of reading pontifications about the election, but I think Ponnuru's The Party’s Problem is worth a glance. Here's a quote (my bolds):
The Republican story about how societies prosper — not just the Romney story — dwelt on the heroic entrepreneur stifled by taxes and regulations: an important story with which most people do not identify. The ordinary person does not see himself as a great innovator. He, or she, is trying to make a living and support or maybe start a family. A conservative reform of our health-care system and tax code, among other institutions, might help with these goals. About this person, however, Republicans have had little to say.
In the days since the election, Republicans have received (and given one another) a lot of advice: Step up the ground game. Soften on immigration and abortion. Embrace same-sex marriage. Appeal more to single women, Hispanics, and young people. Run the younger, more charismatic candidates Republicans have waiting in the wings. Some of this advice is good, and some of it bad. But the weakness of the Republican party predates the emergence of same-sex marriage as an issue, the development of Democratic micro-targeting strategies, and the growth of the Hispanic vote. And wasn’t Josh Mandel, the losing Ohio Senate candidate, supposed to be one of those great young conservative hopes? However much charisma and brains the next crop of Republicans brings to their campaigns, they need a stronger party.
The perception that the Republican party serves the interests only of the rich underlies all the demographic weaknesses that get discussed in narrower terms.
Bird Dog posted a great quote the other day from the terrific (now deceased) author Robert B. Parker, he of the wonderful 'Spenser' novels:
Baseball is the most important unimportant thing in the world.
So true.
By any real-world measure, sports is a complete waste of time. It has virtually nothing to do with the serious issues we face every day. It's whimsical. It's fanciful. It's frivolous.
Then you head for the news sites and read how global warming or the latest pandemic is going to kill you in 20 minutes, then you read about 'Fast and Furious' and how nothing's been done, then about the Black Panthers invading a voting station and nothing's been done, then about the TSA mauling some 90-year-old woman and nothing's been done. Then you drop by a left-wing blog site and read how the media is controlled by a vast right-wing conspiracy and that Romney is secretly a fascist dog-killing cancer-producing monster, then you drop by a right-wing site and read how those evil hippies are responsible for all your ills, how everyone in California is a drooling liberal, and how San Francisco is full of nothing but whacked-out sign-carrying moonbats.
Then you read how the Giants beat the Cardinals 5 to 3, and it feels like the only real thing you've read all day.
Below the fold I shall expound upon this most unique and wonderful of games, present five video clips, and document how something unbelievable happened in the seventh game of the National League playoff series that had never happened in baseball before.
Or, perhaps more specifically, had never been witnessed before.
- For $100, you can get an American Global Entry card "that allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the United States." Again, no lines and you just walk through. I believe it speeds things up for domestic flights too.
Both of these programs do a little vetting of you before issuing their passes. Worth doing, if you travel much. Definitely a form of profiling. These passes put you in the "guaranteed good citizen" catgory, same way that a carry permit does.
Last night I pointed out Hamas' ambition to rocket Jerusalem. Then there's this: Rockets land in field outside Jerusalem as war looms over Gaza. Where's the outcry from world religious and political leaders about the potential destruction of Jerusalem? About the same place it has been from the destruction of Jewish sites in Jerusalem by Jordan in 1948-9, or the destruction since then in other countries of religious sites by fanatic Muslims. -- BTW, the above news link says the rocket landed just outside of Jerusalem. According to a London Telegraph report, the Iranian rocket landed near an Israeli town. Jerusalem is largely surrounded by Palestinian areas, which could have been hit. What if Palestinians had been or are hit? Will there be a protest against Pal on Pal atrocities?
There is this good news: The Obama administration and the US Senate are standing behind Israel's right of self-defense. The question is whether, if Israel must escalate, as it appears it well may, will the Obama administration flake out? Jonathan Tobin is pessimistic:
Hamas is also counting on the usual routine of international diplomacy to save them from the consequences of their aggression. Though the Obama administration, along with the West, is backing Israel’s right to self-defense, tolerance for Israeli counter-attacks is probably limited and it won’t be long before Washington joins Moscow in calling for a cease-fire that will rescue Hamas from having more of its leadership and its weaponry eliminated.
Read it all for more realistic pessimism about Israel's and Hamas' strategic positions.
When recent graduates don’t know how our government is supposed to work or how our economy works — and they voted for Obama by a wide margin — that’s a general-education problem.
The continual rocketing of Israel civilians over many years, indiscriminately, along with the terror attacks across the border, are legally an international crime against humanity. But the Western press and the UN fails to raise the charges, and only pays attention -- usually critically -- when Israel defends its people's right to live.
This graphic shows the current reach of rockets from Gaza, to the south of Tel Aviv, and the ambition to hit Jerusalem and Israel's sole international airport between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The next graphic is your mission, should you choose to accept it:
So you won't have to wait until tomorrow morning's links, here's some of the better ones that explain much about what's now going on between Israel and Gaza:
I am a great admirer of Tom Wolfe's ability to have his finger on the pulse of the culture, and his ability to crystallize what's going on in a phrase, a concept, or in a story. I read Bonfire twice because it was so dramatic, realistic, and entertaining. Dickensian in scope, but maybe lacking in Dickens' talent for character portraiture.
On the other hand, over the years in real life I believe I have met every character in every one of Wolfe's books.
At City Journal, Tom Wolfe’s California - In the Golden State, the great writer first chronicled the social changes that would transform America. A quote:
“The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby” represents the first time that Wolfe truly understood and was able to formulate the big idea that would transform him from an above-average feature writer into the premier cultural chronicler of our age. Those inhabiting the custom car scene were not rich, certainly not upper-class, and not prominent— indeed, they were almost invisible to society at large. Wolfe described his initial attempt to write the story as a cheap dismissal: “Don’t worry, these people are nothing.” He realized in California that he had been wrong. These people were something, and very influential within their own circles, which were far larger than anyone on the outside had hitherto noticed.
“Max Weber,” Wolfe tells me, “was the first to argue that social classes were dying everywhere—except, in his time, in England—and being replaced by what he called ‘status groups.’ ” The term improves in Wolfean English: “Southern California, I found, was a veritable paradise of statuspheres,” he wrote in 1968. Beyond the customizers and drag racers, there were surfers, cruisers, teenyboppers, beboppers, strippers, bikers, beats, heads, and, of course, hippies. Each sphere started off self-contained but increasingly encroached on, and influenced, the wider world.
As a small heads-up, I've just completed my first 'epic' post since the surgery. (For the back story, Ed Driscoll of PJ Media once called my "Do these genes make me look fat?" post "epic", which was then picked up on by Instapundit and the word stuck. More recent 'epic' posts have included Introducing Jackie Evancho and In The Spirit Of Equus.) Tomorrow's post is 2,560 words, contains a bunch of videos and some wonderful insights. If you don't know much about the subject beforehand, you certainly will afterward, and if you already know a lot about the subject, you're going to think it's the most enjoyable post you've read all month.
I have good news about the latest Internet Explorer update.
But, in typical Dr. Mercury fashion, I'll let you figure it out.
Hey, no sense in me doing all the work, right?
This is still in beta format, which is why it hasn't been made part of the regular Windows Updates yet. The download site for the test version is here. There are 32- and 64-bit versions available, so if you don't know which system you have, right-click on 'Computer', open its Properties, look for 'System type'. It's for Windows 7 only.
The first dramatic thing that struck me was that it went right to Google the second I clicked on the link. It also dashed right over to the IMDb, then Maggie's. Each site responded perfectly with every word and picture intact.
Then I looked over all the menus and was again suitably impressed. Rather then moving things all around like they usually do, each function was exactly where it should have been, which denotes the high quality you expect from a commercial product. Unlike, say, some free piece of junk like Firefox. (The fact that I'm using Firefox at this moment to write this piece is entirely coincidental.)
I should also report that pictures looked their absolute best, and each video I played seemed to contain every single pixel, although I didn't make an exact count. The constant stream of ad banners and pop-ups seemed to glow with the exact intensity my monitor's 'Brightness' was set to, again showing off the height of browser precision.
Lastly, the new, improved IE fit my monitor screen perfectly right from the get-go. With a cheap product like Firefox, which comes in a less-than-full-screen size by default, you have to manually press the 'maximize' box, thereby wasting precious energy and contributing to global warming. Microsoft, caring about our planet's future, does it right.
Program Summation
All I can say is, when it comes to updates, this one breaks new ground.
Is it possible he really doesn't know what is going on? I recall reading that, at the Harvard Law Review, he never did any of the work or ever wrote anything, and would just stop in occasionally to briefly say Hi to everybody. It's curiously unengaged, and many hard-working people might term it lazy.
Why pursue the job if you don't like to work? Or is the presidency really the easiest job in the world in which 99.9% of the effort is delegated? How many private sector CEOs play as much golf and basketball as Obama does?
Roger has opined here that the job is to be a political figurehead on the bow of a great partisan ship. You show up once in a while, and some PR person tells you what to say. You say it in mellifluous tones, then run off to the golf course or to a fancy fund-raising party where everybody kisses your behind.
The $40,000 Volt is basically a $17,000 Cruze - with a 500 lb., 25-mile range, eight-hour-to-charge battery.Which is toxic when spent - and costs somewhere between $8,000 and $15,000 to replace.
Nothing seems real anymore, not preelection federal data on jobs or food stamps or the release of such “facts”; not foreign-policy information like an Iranian attack on a drone; not the supposedly competent federal relief in response to Hurricane Sandy. Even Saddam Hussein’s plebiscites could not achieve margins like the 19,605 to 0 we saw in 59 Philadelphia precincts. Does anyone care?
I want you to tax the crap out of the blue states in which I live because I put country ahead of personal fortune. Not because I want to hear my tax-loving liberal neighbors squeal like stuck pigs. I’m better than that.
This summary of democracy’s dysfunctions is relevant as well to the decades of our wanton entitlement spending that has accelerated during the last four years. In 2010, government at all levels transferred more than $2.2 trillion in money, goods and services to recipients. Since the 1960s, the government has spent nearly $20 trillion on the War on Poverty. The federal government now runs about 80 programs providing aid to the poor, and government at all levels spends nearly $1 trillion annually to fight poverty. Food stamp spending has doubled during Obama’s first term, reaching $75.7 billion for the fiscal year ending 30 September 2011. From 2007 to 2011, spending on unemployment has nearly quadrupled to $120 billion. And don’t forget the ongoing costs of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which in fiscal year 2011 ate up 43% of the federal budget at a cost of $1.56 trillion. On top of these already existing entitlement programs, Obama spent nearly $1 trillion on a stimulus package that benefitted political clients like state government workers, and another $25 billion on the auto bailout that mostly rewarded yet another political client, the UAW. As for Obamacare, the CBO calculates it will cost about $2 trillion over ten years, and still leave 30 million people without health care. As a result of Obama’s increases in these wealth transfers, federal spending has now reached 24% of GDP.
Every Thanksgiving, we kids sang 
Being alone in life, both family helpers joined us at the family tables for Thanksgiving dinner. Ed was always given the honor of offering the prayer which came from the depths of his heart. He went on for quite a while, as the soup got cold. Deep and yet simple, which are the things I still aspire to. He prayed for his country, for the enrichment of his and our spirits, for the soul of his dead wife, for his two boys in the service, and for the glory of creation. 
The sun unleashed a 
So how’s it 
Whether you’re pushed into a major decision by loving emotions or anger and disappointment, 
I am a great admirer of Tom Wolfe's ability to have his finger on the pulse of the culture, and his ability to crystallize what's going on in a phrase, a concept, or in a story. I read Bonfire twice because it was so dramatic, realistic, and entertaining. Dickensian in scope, but maybe lacking in Dickens' talent for character portraiture. 
I have good news about the latest Internet Explorer update.
Perhaps it can be, if you are never engaged with any of the details. In response to our link this morning to 