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.
There’s no arguing with the result of a Rasmussen poll of who was the “greatest founding father”, George Washington. But the choices to select from -- Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington or James Madison? – excluded Patrick Henry and his key role in rallying the new Americans to rebel against Britain and then to enact the new Constitution’s Bill of Rights to further protect individual liberties and states’ rights.
A biographer of Patrick Henry calls him “the first American to sound his displeasure with big government.”
The best rendition of America the Beautiful ever, by Ray Charles. (It could be a clearer copy, but still the best way to start the 4th of July - or any day in the good old USA.)
Our Founding Fathers are our Knights of the Round Table, and our revolutionary war farmer/soldiers were our knights, just as our soldiers today are our knights. All of these knights risked, and risk, their lives and everything, so we can live as we please. It is almost too much of a good deal, for which humble and deep gratitude is the only proper attitude.
We all do wonder whether we risk enough, sacrifice enough for the freedom we take for granted: probably not. Thanks to those who have preceded us, we have it easy; maybe too easy, and take it all for granted. Shame on me, if I do.
The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Imagine the pics I could take for Maggie's with one of these sorts of babies instead of my Costco pocket point and shoots. Trouble is, I'd never carry one of those larger things around - just a pain in the ass to lug a camera around all day when you're hiking in the woods with bottles of water, or up and down the hills of Spoleto or Norcia with a shopping bag full of jars of truffles and truffle sauce and and cinghiale salumi and Umbrian olive oil and stringozzi. When you shrink all those magapixels down to size, you lose the detail anyway.
The experience is the thing. A pic is just a souvenir, and the camera can be a distraction from simply "being there". And, in general, nobody wants to look at anybody else's artful pics (altho some folks seem to enjoy my travel pics on Maggie's but I make extra effort to make them informative rather than artful, illos of a mini-narrative).
It's fun to go places, sometimes, camera-free so you don't end up a slave to the lens. Same thing with periodically going a week or two without looking at the internet, or without beer.
Freedom from habits, whether good habits or bad ones, can be enlightening.
In the Western world, beach bathing is a late 18th-19th Century phenomenon.
Bathing became fashionable because, like taking spa water, it was thought to be healthful. A form of "taking the cure" for neurasthenia or whatever.
Furthermore, before then nobody went to the beach anyway, and having a tan was for peasants only. It was a sign that you labored outdoors. Nobody knew how to swim, either (as in Italy today).
Native peoples, especially in warm climates, knew how to swim. The Front Crawl, aka Australian Crawl (now universally used for Freestyle racing), was adopted by Western Civ around the turn of the century, via Solomon Islanders who used this speedy stroke.
Here's a history of women's bathing attire. They definitely did not swim in these things. You would rapidly drown. Maybe they just got a little wet up to their knees, and splashed some water on their faces.
Even today, most people do not go to the beach to swim. They go to read, to watch their kids play in the sand and waves, to obtain some beneficial rays of the sun, to enjoy a sea breeze blowing over their near-naked body, to take a cooling dip, or to surf or body surf where there are good waves.
And how many places can one go out in public and exhibit one's gorgeous, erotic self in what is basically underwear?
When Perrodel Pájaro said it was going to be a 'long' weekend this morning, he wasn't kidding. With the 1st falling on a Friday, you can bet this'll be a 3½, if not 4-day holiday for many. Here's to ya. <clink!>
If you're looking for something to do, I have a few ideas to toss into the mix.
Speak Up!
Do I really have to tell you how important this next election is? Are you honestly just going to sit there on your duff the whole time, or are you going to be a part of it? If Obama is reelected, who ya gonna blame? Everybody else for not being more proactive?
I'll be debuting this site next week sometime, but it's rarin' to go now:
If you're one of those 'blogger' type o' guys, please grab the link and spread it far and wide.
Unless you'd rather go through four more years of this, of course.
Home Repair
Finally! At last you don't have some cheap, paltry excuse to hand the wife on why you can't get to all those fix-it jobs that have been piling up!
Lucky you!
Rather than this being a "how-to" site, it's more like a "Can I do it?" site, and should give you a pretty good idea as to whether you can handle it yourself or not.
A water heater is a pretty good example. Because they're large, they look kind of 'serious', and most people's first thought would be to call the plumber if it started to leak. But when you actually look at what exactly needs to be unhooked, it's really quite simple, and bendable supply lines mean you don't have to get an exact replacement so the inlet and outlet pipes match up. And, just between you and me, a pipe wrench is probably cheaper than a 4-hour visit from the union plumber.
Now in Deutsch, Français y Español!
Guaranteed Original*
*discounting coincidence, of course
I rarely write unless I have something new to add to the narrative, or a fresh slant on something. The OJ jury got it right. Magellan was a lie. Maggie's Farm is politically centrist. You know, the usual kind of wild hyperbole you expect in the blogosphere. A nice little intro to my unique style is here. The main site is here:
And for your visual delight:
Fly The Friendly Skies
Have you heard of Google Earth? It basically lets you fly around the globe in your own personal space ship, then zoom way in to look at your topless neighbor sunbathing historical monuments. It's a series of constantly-updated images from every spot on the globe, and there are big sites out there dedicated to posting the latest crazy/odd/beautiful spots people find. You click on the link and your own program takes you there. Very cool.
There are gigantic compass roses out there that you'd never have a clue what they were from the ground, as well as a whole shitload of wild mazes, cities and terrain in 3-D (you can fly between buildings and down the Grand Canyon), real-time airline tracking, real-time weather, strange geoglyphic inscriptions spanning the length of a football field — and that's not to mention some very convincing alien crop circles.
I've put together a number of video tours to show off this remarkable program. The 'Google Goofs' tour is hysterical.
We are accustomed to thinking that our country is in the midst of a long transition from an industrial economy to a "service" economy, and these figures would seem to confirm that perception. But the service economy is not what we often think it is. The images that most readily come to mind when we think of these sectors might involve retail sales, information-technology consulting, and financial services. But Spence and Hlatshwayo's work shows that, within the non-tradable sector, health care was easily the growth leader — increasing from 10 million to 16.3 million jobs, and accounting for almost 25% of total job growth in the past two decades. Government was second, growing from 18.4 million to 22.5 million jobs, and accounting for about 15% of total job growth. Of this expansion in government employment, nearly 70% was attributable to jobs in education. Today, the drivers of the American labor market are therefore clearly health, education, and government work; these sectors form the backbone of our post-industrial economy.
...illegal immigration has transmogrified into one of the most illiberal, reactionary phenomena on the current American scene, an ossified concept of racial solidarity and tribalism that attempts to privilege one group, solely on the basis of race or ethnic fides, in its exemption from federal law, and in a manner that would never be extended to other immigrant lobbies, with less numbers, influence, and potential electoral power. We have come full circle back to the 1920s when immigration was likewise largely seen through racial lenses — when one’s race determined how one navigated immigration law.
Should there now be 6 million Korean nationals — and more on their way — inside California without legality, would the proverbial Hispanic community in large part be calling for stricter border enforcement? Would it be amnesty or deportation? English-only or Korean-language interpreters?
Adams thought the day of independence should be commemorated by “Acts of Devotion to God Almighty,” and further “solemnized” (as he confided in a letter to his wife, Abigail) “with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one end of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
2:8 The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills.
2:9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice.
2:10 My beloved speaks and says to me: "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away;
2:11 for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.
2:12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
2:13 The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
I always thought it amusing when it was "the voice of the turtle is heard in the land." The Song of Solomon is good stuff, a glimpse into Jewish history and literature. Pic is our common North American Mourning dove.
Everybody has an opinion on pruning tomato plants. Here's my view of the subject.
First, I'll assume we are growing "Indeterminate" types of tomatoes, i.e. vine tomatoes as opposed to the tree-like ("determinate," aka "bush" tomatoes) ones often grown in pots. Left alone, vine tomatoes will grow 10+ feet along the ground, as you can often see in gardens in Bermuda, but we stake them.
Up here in New England (Yankeeland), we need to prune them because our short growing season doesn't allow much time for good fruit formation. We have to prune most of the suckers and plenty of their leaves, and we cut their tops off in July or August - all so they will put their energy into good fruit and not into further pointless growth.
Further south, diligent pruning is less important.
And even though I grow mine in fine soft soil, I fertilize them with liquid fertilizer whenever I think of it. I usually have lots of plants, but only ended up with 10-12 this year of around 5 varieties.
Here's the best site I have seen on indeterminate tomato vine gardening. For all of the effort, and despite our short season, it is well-worth it when you pick one on a hot day and eat it in the garden like an apple. A tomato should be hot, with little salt on it.
Are you more knowledgeable than the average citizen? The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%. No wonder pols have such an easy time fooling people with their BS.
We owe Club ABC Travel a plug today because they have been so kind and helpful to my in-laws this past week. Yes, they will discuss your tours on the phone with you. Good folks.
Because of ABC's volume, nobody can claim that they cannot afford to see the world in reasonable comfort if they want to and, if you are an inexperienced or unconfident traveller, they arrange everything for you. If you want to spend a little more money for organized trips, you can try Tauck for the highest-end version - but it's not necessary.
If you would rather have new wallpaper or a new TV or iPad, it's your choice - and your loss.
I'd rather be hanging out and trying to get lost in Budapest than sitting on my ass shooting farts into my couch while playing with a new iPad.
Life is short, and getting shorter every precious passing minute.
Subprime Scandal: Democrats thought they'd dammed up the truth about government's role in the financial crisis. But the levees are breaking, thanks to a spate of rogue new books on the subject. The latest, "Reckless Endangerment," shreds the narrative carefully constructed by Democrats and the liberal media that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were only bit players in the crisis and followed Wall Street into subprime lending.
"Democracies endure until the citizens care more for what the state can give them than for its ability to defend rich and poor alike; until they care more for their privileges than their responsibilities; until they learn they can vote largess from the public treasury and use the state as an instrument for plundering, first those who have wealth, then those who create it” -- Jerry Pournelle.
By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept; Alike the conqueror silent sleeps; And Time the ruined bridge has swept Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream, We set to-day a votive stone; That memory may their deed redeem, When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those spirits dare, To die, and leave their children free, Bid Time and Nature gently spare The shaft we raise to them and thee.
Every American schoolkid knows these lines which Emerson wrote in 1836 on the unveiling of the obelisk (just across the street from his house) commemorating the 1775 Battle of Lexington and Concord. People figure the "flag" to be metaphorical.
... there has never been any nation even remotely similar to America. Here's why. Most revolutions seek to destroy the existing class order and use all-powerful government to mandate an equality of result rather than of opportunity -- in the manner of the French Revolution's slogan of "liberty, equality and fraternity" or the Russian Revolution's "peace, land and bread."
In contrast, our revolutionaries shouted "Don't tread on me!" and "Give me liberty or give me death!" The Founders were convinced that constitutionally protected freedom would allow the individual to create wealth apart from government. Such enlightened self-interest would then enrich society at large far more effectively that could an all-powerful state.
Such constitutionally protected private property, free enterprise and market capitalism explain why the United States -- with only about 4.5 percent of the world's population -- even today, in an intensely competitive global economy, still produces a quarter of the world's goods and services.
All true, but I resist the notion that wealth and productivity are the goals of freedom. I believe that they just happen to be a side effect of what happens when people are (relatively) free from the control and the infantilization of the state, and are free or forced by reality to pursue whatever the heck in this brief life they decide to pursue, whatever is important to them.
Often it's more fun for me to learn about things after experiencing them, than before. You have a reference point, and something tangible to tack information onto.
Weissbier is one example (aka Weissbrau or Weizenbier or Weizen or Hefeweizen or White Beer or Wheat Beer or Wheat Ale - technically an ale). It's an ancient brew, and there are several styles of it. What we sampled in Bavaria was the Southern German style. Never had a better brew, fresh and unpasteurized. Bready, fruity, and just bitter enough. Low alcohol content, so you can have some more if you're thirsty. It's a summertime beer. Here's the Wiki entry.
Blue Moon's Belgian White and Harpoon's UFO are the closest I've seen to it in a supermarket bottled beer in the US - but it's no match and has more ethanol than the fresh German stuff. Beer is not about booze unless you are in college. These beers are good with an orange slice to squirt into them, although they don't seem to do that routinely in Germany.
Have no fear, readers. I will never let myself become a beer snob, although my taste buds have already priced me out of the wine market altogether. I am fortunate to have a pub in town which gets fresh draft beers weekly from Germany, but I do not get there often enough because I work.
Photo: Weissbier is typically tasted from tall 0.6 L. slender glasses or tall slender mugs. Sometimes I like beer in a mug, sometimes in a glass, sometimes from ye olde long-neck bottle.
I believe that no honest work should be beneath any American. I also believe that all kids should work, and earn their own money. Kids learn more about how to, and how not to, negotiate the world from work than they do from school. Make your mistakes when young, and learn from them, as everybody needs to. Any paid work will do, but the more "menial" the better.
Except for the most spoiled brats who want to hang out during the summer or to be indulged in "enriching experiences," most kids want to work. It's a step towards adulthood and independence, and moping around the house or driving to the beach in the Beemer is a spiritual death for teens - or a sign of spiritual death.
Summer "vacation" is for the teachers. What do kids need a vacation for? They've been in school, for heaven's sake. School isn't "work work," as Whoopi Goldberg did not say. School is a piece of cake, compared to work. It's a delight, a joy, and a privilege - and it sure beats working an industrial loom in New Bedford at age 11. And, heck, teaching is real difficult too, compared to running a business. Right?
That one-in-four is the one with initiative and drive. Watch that one, because if you can make something happen in your teens with all of the forces creating headwinds today, Bravo. Or Brava, as they say in NYC.
Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing.
Another one of our hydrangeas, a lacecap variety, in bloom right now. Late June/early July is Hydrangealand up here. It happens right after the first bloom of the roses fade, and we try to have at least one variety in bloom through the entire summer:
Democratic political candidates can skip this weekend's July 4th parades. A new Harvard University study finds that July 4th parades energize only Republicans, turn kids into Republicans, and help to boost the GOP turnout of adults on Election Day. "Fourth of July celebrations in the United States shape the nation's political landscape by forming beliefs and increasing participation, primarily in favor of the Republican Party," said the report from Harvard. "The political right has been more successful in appropriating American patriotism and its symbols during the 20th century."
The friend who sent this clipping to me comments:
That those subject to celebration of the country's successes and positive points tend to then become more appreciative of the country (this is called patriotism) is shocking only to dyed-in-the-wool academics of the leftist slant....The line that the political right has been more successful in "appropriating American patriotism" can be stated in another way. The policies and publicity of many Democrat leaders has been more effective in showing them to not value the nation and its heritage as others do. But nobody at Harvard would say it that way.
Here. When you train and enable adults to be children, they will act like it. Just like in Wisconsin. Many will revert to childhood if they can get away with it. Those made of sterner stuff will not.
They are marching and berserking for "socialism." They don't realize they already have it, along with the typical Socialist terminal case of the Gimmes.
Euroland people need to grow up and accept the reality that life is difficult and challenging, and that no adult is entitled to anything. You are supposed to man up, in life. Or woman up, as the case may be. Reagan would have fired them all for shirking their duties to the public who hired them and who pays their wages from their own toil, and rightly so.
If you want to be a serf, expect to be treated like one.
This isn't a particularly exciting post, just a follow-up.
A few years ago I wrote The Sound of Many Faucets Running, a look at the new dollar coins. Coins last much longer than bills, y'see, therefore using much less energy to replace, thereby saving the planet from catastrophic meltdown.
While my post was fairly routine, I have to admit that if we had to switch from dollar bills to coins, I thought my idea bordered on the brilliant.
In the basement of a Baltimore vault the size of a soccer field, 1 billion dollar coins are just sitting there. Thanks, Congress.
And the planet thanks you!
Actually, there appears to be a bit of gray area as to why they tried to foist these on us in the first place. From the original article:
The U.S. Mint is spending about $12 million on a pilot project to promote the presidential dollar coin by appealing to Americans' duty to protect the environment while saving the government money.
But now it's:
NPR’s Planet Money reporters recently investigated the $1 presidential coin program, which was a Congressional effort to get more $1 coins into circulation while also trying to be educational.
That's right, folks. They're educational. We're doing it for the children!
And, of course, it would be downright criminal not to include the Shoshone woman who help guide Lewis & Clark on their expedition:
At the same time, the legislation mandated that a certain number of Sacagawea coins be made in conjunction with the presidential coins, which has now amounted to one Sacagawea for every four presidents.
Spokespersons for the Mohave, Navaho, Pima, Yuma, Washo, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Cree, Crow, Dakota, Osage, Seminole, Comanche, Wichita and Apache tribes could not be reached for comment.
At the moment, the program is still moving forward, and NPR projects that by the time it’s finished, 2 billion coins could be sitting in the Fed’s vaults. Next up for minting is our 19th president, Rutherford B. Hayes.
Or, at least, some modest help towards buying one of them, which is far more likely. Just a little help. 
In the Western world, 
Robin Hanson: 
Song of Solomon 2:8-13
Everybody has an opinion on pruning tomato plants. Here's my view of the subject.
New England Real Estate: 
VDH: 
Often it's more fun for me to learn about things after experiencing them, than before. You have a reference point, and something tangible to tack information onto.
I believe in work. 
Godless Britain - 
This isn't a particularly exciting post, just a follow-up.