Maggie's FarmWe 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. |
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Thursday, August 18. 2011Growth industriesA short while ago, Arnold Kling wrote a good piece about the growth industries in Western countries, especially the US. I cannot find that link right now. They turn out to be Government, Education, and Health Care. I find it illuminating to view these sectors of life as industries: consumer-oriented service industries, largely unproductive, with the first two pandering to and trying to manipulate their customers and the third, well, in flux but it actually does produce things: artificial knees, medicines, treatments, stents for my friends, etc. - things that might help people be productive and independent. All three have brilliant, expensive marketing machines - and all three are heavily subsidized if not totally paid for by the taxpayer. Who is paying the bills for these subsidies now? The Chinese - the reason we were supposed to eat our spinach as kids. They are paying those bills. We owe them, big time. Or do they own us? Think about it: Chinese people are paying for our Medicare and our "stimuli"... It is pathetic. Who is listening? The country is freaking out, and DC is totally unawareFrom the admirable Sultan's The Not Listening Tour:
People are hurting out there, and it is because the government has gotten in their way. People are fearful of what the government plans to do to them, and to their businesses, next. My take is that the entire US economy is holding its breath until 2013. In the meantime, people will hunker down and try to survive the economic plague. Thursday morning linksThe right way to fell a tree Do it wrong and you might die The Old Urbanist is exploring Seaside, FL with bike and camera:
EU Ref: The fantasy of wind Q: What Causes Professors to Think About the Business Model of Higher Education? Allen West: I’m Here as the Modern Day Harriet Tubman to Lead People Away From the Plantation Wow Surber on Obama: Why is he running for re-election? My answer: it's about the free golf Looking for Limits - The power to mandate health insurance is the power to mandate almost anything. Scapegoater-in-Chief: President Obama Blames Tea Party for High Unemployment A Child Prodigy Under the Welfare State Low-life Mom is pleased with low-life kid: government gives her a bigger house and a bigger check What's Behind Israel's Middle-Class Revolt? The Claims of Grievance-Bearing Identity Groups Will Always Prevail Over Fairness Turns Out Head Start's as Bad as It Always Was:
Billions for nothin and the checks for free Playing The Odds: Hedge Funds Finance Medical Malpractice Claims (h/t Dr. Bob) I suggest that Docs hold their noses and invest in these NY Times, Wash. Post ignore rocket fire from Gaza, pounce on Israel for retaliating Perry: “I’ll promise you this, “I’ll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can.” Wednesday, August 17. 2011Stockman: Perry is rightDavid Stockman: Rick Perry Is Right, the Fed Is “Totally Wrong”. If Stockman is right - and he is no fool - the O Admin and the Dems have, wittingly or unwittingly, set an ugly trap for America for the next decade at least. Nobody is amused by the O's glib pronouncements anymore. Related: 16 Statistics Which Prove That The American People Are Absolutely Seething With Anger From where I sit in life, people are as frightened about their personal financial security as they are for the nation's. "Ballast"I believe John at PL got this exactly right:
The money hole and the impending financial crisis in the USGovernment is all about money these days. American governance was not always that way, but it has been for 100 years, and that's the good reason that politics is more about money than anything else. This is Stossel (h/t SDA):
Integers etc.From a friend: Has it struck EVERYBODY as absolutely fascinating that difference between the squares of consecutive integers equals the sum of those two integers? Naturally, it must also have struck everybody – well, maybe not exactly everybody – that the series formed by differences of the squares of consecutive integers is, therefore, simply a series made up of consecutive odd numbers. If neither of these has struck you, it may be because you have not been stuck, without a book, waiting in long line to get to a bathroom. Do you think that it’s in Sloane’s? You must remember Sloane’s The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences? The Museum of Broken RelationshipsWe all have them, and have had them. Romances are the hardest, but the loss of a friendship is difficult too. From How to mend a broken heart. (hat tip to Winds of Change):
and
Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss
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College remediation: Why bother with extended high school?Scores show students aren’t ready for college - 75% may need remedial classes. So why do colleges admit these kids? Because they need the money and the warm bodies. It's an industry now. Low-tier colleges around here will take anybody who applies, and they will never flunk you out because they want the income. I agree with Mead here. And I do not blame the high schools at all. I do not blame the kids either, who are neither academically ambitious, don't want to spend the money, or who just don't have what it takes but are happy to take 4 years of partying and extended avoidance of adulthood. Furthermore, I believe that many "college-ready" kids should not bother. 12 years of education ought to be a good enough start for anybody who was paying attention. American high schools offer everything anybody might want or need, but they can't make anybody take what they offer. I think lots of kids, especially boys, just want to learn how to do something practical as soon as they can. Most people are not natural scholars, and many natural scholars never went to college either. I suspect something around 5% of kids can make good use of higher ed. If people really want education, you can tell, because they make great efforts to educate themselves in their spare time. If they don't do that, I'd have doubts about whether they are really suited for higher ed of the liberal arts type. Sticky ignitionsGot a car or truck with a sticky ignition, where the key won't turn even if you wiggle the steering wheel and move the key in and out a little bit, or turn the key in the opposite direction to loosen things up? Or, worse, the key doesn't want to come out? It can be exasperating and, at times, embarassing. Apparently it can be due to slightly jammed lock cylinders, or the wheel lock. Some suggest a squirt of WD-40 into the lock but I am wary about doing that. I wonder whether any of our car mechanic genius readers have any ideas, short of an expensive trip to the auto shop. Weds. morning linksKrauthammer's Take Energy in America: Dead Birds Unintended Consequence of Wind Power Development The Myth of Pristine Nature - A review of Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World:
Harsanyi: The Department of Failed Ideas Observations from a White House insider, September 2010 Paris and Berlin launch a coup to control eurozone, demanding rights to dictate economic policy Identify this vee-hickle
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Tuesday, August 16. 2011Got Tardigrades?Tardigrades are the only cute little critters that I have not yet heard to be threatened by global warming, despite their cuteness and gentle natures. Perhaps they are neglected due to Sizeism. These are tough little animals. More about them here. Good pets because they are almost impossible to kill no matter how much you might neglect them.
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How the Michigan-Midwestern union model failedBarone in the WSJ:
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Normalizing all social deviancies: Heather has Three Mommies, One Daddy, and Daddy's young BoyfriendThe movement to gradually destigmatize all social deviancies continues apace. For better or worse, we've come a long way from The Scarlet Letter. I myself am a clinger. I cling to my antique cultural traditions, morals, codes, and religion as my life's foundations, and I lack the wisdom to opine about whether the destigmatizing of adultery, abortion, pornography, promiscuity, divorce (can anybody remember when divorce was socially shameful?), homosexuality, gay marriage, gay child-rearing, LGBTQ and whatever, prostitution, fetishes, many crimes, drug abuse, overtly antisocial behaviors (see all of the defenses of the UK's rioters), single motherhood, etc. is for the best or not. It certainly does represent a socio-cultural shift which some consider decadent. The notion of destigmatizing crime, for sure, seems like a big problem to me but there are significant subcultures even in the US who do. The social acceptance of many of these behaviors seems to me to be part of the "therapeutic culture" which I, as an MD and practicing psychotherapist, find to be close to insane in its assumption that all would be perfect humans if not for inner conflict or external traumata. Sen. Daniel Moynihan, who I had the pleasure of talking to several times, defined many such things as "definining deviancy down." Already, Moslem polygamy is sort-of overlooked in Western nations, and I see no fairness in not overlooking it in traditionalist Mormon families - or in anybody else who wants to do it. That's my Libertarian side speaking rather than my more personal, moralistic and Christian side. Currently, the American Psychiatric Association has, under consideration, a proposal to de-pathologize Pedophilia. Why anybody in the general public cares very much about the opinion of this APA committee is beyond me, but many do. I doubt that they will have the political cojones to actually do that but, to get a little multicultural here, we have to bear in mind that pedophilia has been and continues to be culturally accepted in many cultures and subcultures - most famously, historically, amongst European royalty, the Greeks and Romans, the Moslems, and Africans, and currently amongst some Asian cultures and many Moslem ones. Prepubescent girls are for rent everywhere in south Asia. As a commonly-defined crime, pedophilia is found everywhere in the world. Bonobo monkeys do it all, so it must be OK. Human fantasy and psychic reality may not be too different from Bonobo behavior. In my opinion, pedophilia is not so much of a disease in itself as it is a crime - in our culture. It is a very good idea not to commit crimes even though supposedly everybody does, wittingly or unwittingly. In my field of Psychoanalysis, we still define culturally-deviant sexual behaviors as polymorphous-perverse or plain perverse, but even we - the supposed truth-tellers about the human heart - are subject to taboo PC pressures. It is interesting to see how taboos change, but never go away: now it seems that PC defines the taboos. I remember a gay patient, years ago, who reported to me with some alarm that he had been dancing with a lady at a wedding and found himself feeling aroused and attracted to her. I joked with him that now he was revealing himself, in modern cultural terms, to have a real perversion.
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Tuesday morning linksHow to Survive an Elevator Free Fall Am Thinker: The poisoned fruit of social democracy:
Magnet: Bring back Stigma - anything doesn't go Massachusetts update: Sometimes, Ignorance Can Be An Excuse Nanny State Madness: California‘s Proposed ’Fitted Sheet’ Law Expanding Arctic ice proves global warming Everything proves global warming Young Americans: Luckiest Generation in History “You Lie!” Rep. Says He Was Right All Along – Obamacare Does Cover Illegal Aliens On Friday evening, Chris Matthews said of Texas governor Rick Perry: “He looks like a clown. . . . He dresses very fancy. There’s something about the way that he puts himself together that doesn’t look authentic. Why Obama Looks So Bad - It's the economy, stupid. Yes, but it's more than that Report – CNN, CBS and NY Times polls show CNN, CBS and NY Times anti-Tea Party strategy working How to Win When You’re Unpopular: What Obama Can Learn From Truman Steyn: A Compassionate Big Gov't Rewires A Nation Of Brutes:
The fight deepens over the Carbon Tax in Australia That Archibald speech pulls no punches Via Norm on Liberalism:
If the grownups don't provide the guardrails, who will? KC Johnson: Campus Freedom, AAUP-Style Sudduth: Health Reform That Could Have Been The Obamamobile, looks a little Darth Vader menacing but I'm sure it's a slick ride with a good shower and bathroom: Perry's first campaign ad (h/t Jammie)
Monday, August 15. 2011More NYC pics: A good time in Chelsea and the West VillageIt's not just for those of the gay persuasion anymore. For her birthday on Saturday, I took Mrs. BD down for dinner at Gradisca and then the last night of the ODC show at the Joyce (her picks, being her birthday). The gentrification of the meat-packing district (high fashion, now), and the diversification (less gay-dominant) of the West Village and Chelsea (families, hetero couples and jolly groups of young blond gals with cute summer dresses everywhere) was fun to see. And people in the park, forgetting their troubles and woes... We walked quite a bit - Hudson St., Jane St., Greenwich St., 13th St., etc., where the streets are confusing. One thing is clear to me: The "fashionable upper East Side" is a dead zone. No fun at all. Stodgy, without vitality. These neighborhoods are not like that: That's W. 13th. More NYC pics below the fold - Continue reading "More NYC pics: A good time in Chelsea and the West Village" Poland's most popular string quartetBarbarians: A UK Update
Some fun articles about federalism and Friday's Obamacare rulingAt NRO, The Sleeper Issue in Friday’s Obamacare Ruling Prof B: Question for Mark Hall re Obamacare Volokh: Distinguishing Wickard The issue at hand, it seems to me, is whether there are any real limits to federal power these days. Seeing as we were a nation founded on the principle of limits on central power, it's an important discussion, to put it mildly. Some say that debate was over many years ago. The marketing of VodkaHow the flavorless, colorless, odorless spirit became a billion-dollar business. When I think about marketing genius, I usually think of bottled water. However, maybe the marketing of vodka takes the cake. Water and vodka lack color, flavor, and odor, so they both present formidable marketing challenges which Madison Avenue has masterfully overcome in the effort to persuade you to part with your hard-earned money. "We have nothing..."Dalrymple on the rioters:
It's about the unintended consequences of undiscerning compassion. Or, to be a bit more cynical, vote-buying. Genuine gratitude is the rarest of human sentiments. Monday morning linksImage on right from Knish's Future Newsweek Covers On The Irrational In Public Affairs Who is God? Jesus and the “Ogre” Waivers for schools where kids don't learn Gates: The Sanitization of History The cause of the Brit riots was a failure to shoot the looters: Causes, More Causes and the Politics of Trainers Powerline: How to close the BS gap Berlin mayor criticizes nostalgia for Berlin Wall The Credit Downgrade: Symptom of the Marxist Disease Like a Texas storm, Perry swamps Iowa straw poll Star: Why Romney is the wrong guy for the GOP Cameron: Riot-hit UK must reverse `moral collapse':
Another Blue Pension Crisis: In San Francisco neo: Taxing the wealthy is popular US Consumer Confidence falls to levels not seen since Carter Administration Reverend Al and Media Manipulation David Limbaugh: There Is Just No Satisfying Liberals:
Obama tries to turn the tables on GOP with call for tax cut extension CNN/ORC Poll: Dem support for Obama's re-election fades Sunday, August 14. 2011How do you "find yourself"?Some people become concerned with who and what they are, and some people just forge onward and never think twice about it. To keep it simple, I'll tell you how to "find yourself." Engage the world in all the ways you can: socially, spiritually, economically, morally, avocationally in sports, volunteer activities, clubs, going places and doing things, and in hobbies. By doing those things, the world will tell you what and who you are. Engaging reality is the best teacher. My experience teaches me that people avoid some engagments with the world because they do not want to learn what reality has to teach them about who and what they are. Generally speaking, Prof. Reality teaches humility as its first lesson, and goes on from there. Old joke
A mechanic was removing a cylinder-head from the motor of a Harley motorcycle when he spotted a well-known cardiologist in his shop.
The cardiologist was there waiting for the service manager to come and take a look at his bike when the mechanic shouted across the garage.. "Hey, Doc, want to take a look at this?" The cardiologist, a bit surprised, walked over to where the mechanic was working on the motorcycle. The mechanic straightened up, wiped his hands on a rag and asked, "So Doc, look at this engine. I open its heart, take the valves out, repair any damage, and then put them back in, and when I finish, it works just like new. So how come I make $39,675 a year and you get the really big bucks ($1,695,759) when you and I are doing basically the same work?" The cardiologist paused, smiled and leaned over, then whispered to the mechanic........... "Try doing it with the engine running.........."
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