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.
The San Diego Union-Tribune sent a reporter to the northern suburb of Oceanside last night. The headline in the print paper: “Tax Concerns Spur Two Rallies: Tea party, nonpartisan groups stage separate Oceanside events”; online’s headline more honest: “Two political rallies raise their voices in Oceanside.”
The same story in both presentations: “more than 1500” showed up for the Tea Party rally, “more than 100” for the raise taxes rally. The one-hundred, riding on the publicity backs of the work by the 1500, given as much space as the 1500. The tax raisers, calling themselves “Rally for America”: “the nonpartisan group stood behind public service employees and unions and blamed government bailouts of big business, corporate tax breaks and cuts to services for hurting the middle class…”
Yeah, “nonpartisan”! The Associated Press’ April poll says that’s the stance of 29% of Americans. That means the other 71% are partisans. Yes, partisans of reversing the US descent into bankruptcy and destroying the wealth producing citizenry that pays the taxes and benefits all.
Today's fun activity is called "Spot The Ukelele." A ukelele has been cleverly hidden in each of the following tableaus. See if you can spot them.
It's pretty tough, I know. It's as if the videographer was deliberately trying to make it hard for us. I think I missed a few. I'm going to try again. Good luck!
The scriptures say that one man owed his lord a huge debt that he could not pay, and ask that the debt be forgiven. His lord forgave him. Soon the man demanded that a small amount of money that he had loaned to a friend be repaid, and when the friend could not pay the loan on time, he was punished. His lord heard about the injustice, and brought charges against him. The moral is that we should do unto others as we would that they do to us—and that we must practice what we preach before we preach.
If you are dealing with a problem where some other person has hurt you be sure that you pray to God that you will approach it in a Christian manner and never ask more than you would be willing to give. Look at your face in a mirror and make very sure you do not see a “better than thou attitude”.
Especially in my later years, I worry that I will slip along life’s way and ask you to do for Christ something that I am failing to do. I pray that God will not permit me to make this mistake.
From Paul, 2 Corinthians 5:
...from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sinfor us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
We shall want to hold ourselves to the course of admitting the things we have done, meanwhile forgiving the wrongs done us, real or fancied. We should avoid extreme judgments, both of ourselves and of others involved. We must not exaggerate our defects or theirs. A quiet, objective view will be our steadfast aim. In all these situations we need self-restraint, honest analysis of what is involved, a willingness to admit when the fault is ours, and an equal willingness to forgive when the fault is elsewhere....that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness ... It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
As a little boy I would sing Tennessee Ernie Ford's "16 Tons" along with my hard-working father. The song lastingly impressed me at how difficult it can be to get ahead if under an exploitive thumb. Thank you Iowahawk for this updated version. I'll play it for my sons tonight.
We are at home, France will soon belong to us. There are already 10 million of us, soon there will be 20 million, you’ll see. You will not be able to stop us from doing anything. This country is ours. - French Muslim
Will the French give a damn when they decide to blow up Notre Dame?
On the way back from picking up my six-year old, Gavin, from break camp at the Y, I had the radio on to Hugh Hewitt. The guest, Mark Steyn, said "America is broke." Gavin asked me, "We're broke!?" Yes, I said, President Obama spent all your money and you'll have to pay it back to China. Gavin said, "there'll be nothing in the stores, and we'll be poor like Africa." Gavin then started crying. As we pulled into the driveway, Gavin asked me if I have President Obama's phone number. I said, "yes." Gavin said, "I want to call him and set him straight." That's my boy!
P.S.: We just returned from a restaurant. Gavin kept asking all through dinner when he can call President Obama to tell him he doesn't want to be poor or lose his country. -- I told Gavin that maybe there's a chance after next year's election he won't have to spend his life paying China. Gavin said OK. So, now we have to make that happen, for all the Gavins.
Re our post yesterday about the HuffPo lawsuit by the writers (about which Coyote observes:
In short, I would say that these folks are utterly without personal honor for filing the suit, but in the current state of labor law they potentially have a case. How sad that would be. And what would be next? A class action suit by product reviewers at Amazon for back wages?)
a reader noticed this hilarious rant:
This issue does not arise at Maggie's Farm. Being a commune, we all get paid exactly the same generous amount regardless of what we do: zero.
If you have college for all but don’t dumb down the standards, the dropout rate will stagger the imagination. If you have college for all and lower standards so that most can earn a degree, then you devalue college by transforming it into something more like a longer and (much) more expensive high school. So then the high-achievers will feel an even greater imperative to go to the next level. High school becomes middle school, college becomes high school, graduate school becomes college, and our prolonged adolescence continues and worsens.
I really don’t get up in the morning asking myself “Who can I piss off today?” It just seems to work out that way, many days.
How does that happen? Closest I can figure, it’s because I study many issues, form conclusions, and am willing to share them, regardless of whose ox is gored. But, how did I come to be like that? Ah, that’s the real question, I think.
Indeed, I think is part of the answer. I don’t tend to react so much as to try to think ahead, seeing the consequence of current events, particularly in light of training, experience, and history.
This served me well in business, frequently clearing new paths and accomplishing remarkable goals, often necessarily undiplomatic and forthright, while others filled their pockets and defended their comfortable positions. This also served me well in politics, raising issues that others didn’t until I did, then the matters going viral. I usually didn't receive rewards, many times the opposite, but I was satisfied to accomplish something.
But, why me?Others are smarter or stronger or smoother or richer or better positioned.
Others say it’s because I came up ballsy through the scrappy streets of Flatbush. Others say it’s because I came up poor and learned to succeed. Others say it’s because I grew up surrounded by immigrants from the carnage of WWII who shared their painful lessons about the consequences of allowing evil to spread.
On the other hand, others say it’s because I’m a schmuck who puts my ego before possible relationships or personal gain.
I say, “whatever.”I don’t try nor care to try to self-analyze nor to care if others analyze me. I’m just me. I really don’t feel I have any other alternative. I believe, at core, that there’s a very simple and measurable way to know whether I am me.
If I’m unhappy, it’s because I’m not thinking or behaving like me but as someone else wants me to be, or it’s because I’m goofing off.
Back in the ‘50s there was a very popular TV show, The Millionaire, where weekly an anonymous million-dollars was delivered to a deserving person, changing their lives. The following morning, across America, people discussed what they would do with a million-dollars. Then and now I couldn’t come up with an answer for more than a few tens of thousands of dollars. I’ve always been satisfied with whatever I’ve had, however meager, always loved a good hot dog, and been happy to sit in whatever seats in the sun at a ball game. So, being me seems to be just being satisfied with whatever I have, not being obsessed with what I don’t.
The rough and tumble upbringing may have contributed to my spine, but we all know many who didn’t rise above their really or perceived tough childhood. We try to help them, with a boost or inspiration, and some do rise to their potential. We also know many who had every advantage and squandered them or who feel they’re entitled, with little care for their impacts on others in further feathering their own nests. Despite disdain by most, they live in insulated circles, usually blithely going on about their ways. Sometimes they earn their comeuppance, but whine the loudest when they do.
So, what makes the difference for the majority of us? I say it is fortitude and resilience. At 10 my grandfather asked whether I was lazy. That struck me hard, and I never quit at anything again. In Vietnam, although I was rarely in real danger, I made a deal with G-d: Get me out of here in one piece and you’ll never hear another complaint from me. We both kept that deal.
Fortitude and resilience come down to that, making a promise to oneself and keeping it to rise above circumstances. To do so requires paying attention to what’s happening, outside and inside, and doing something about it. Passivity and timidity are the enemy, to be overcome.
So, I don’t wake up asking myself, “who can I piss off today?”I wake up asking myself, “what can I overcome today?” And, “how can I help others to overcome?” It just doesn’t occur to me to ask, “what’ll be the consequences for me?” When I hear myself or someone else describe their “reason” for avoiding difficult choices, I substitute the word “excuse”, and that’s usually more accurate.
Among others, outside of our families, who have left lasting positive impressions on us, some teachers and coaches stand out in all of our minds.
(I combine teachers with coaches because they serve the same relationship functions - guidance, pushing, criticizing, inspiring, and cheerleading of efforts that, in the end, only the person can do themselves within their own minds and bodies. For better or worse, we are not empty vessels into which things can be poured.)
For all of everybody's frustration with the government school monopoly, unions, the insane notion of universal higher education, and obsolete and stultifying educational methods which work best only for the most submissive, obedient, or motivated students, every reader of Maggie's has memories of teachers or coaches who made a big difference in their life.
I was fortunate to have had many of them. Interestingly, where I spent my most formative years, each teacher had to be a sports coach too. They were "Sir" in class, but you were allowed to call them "Coach" on the field, in the pool, or on the rinks.
Let's hear about them, in the comments. (I will put some of mine in there, too.)
Why not? People are living healthier, longer - and it would help solve the Medicare and Social Security messes. Few people are over the hill at 65 anymore. Prime of life, and at the peak of wisdom and experience. Much to offer to the world.
It's been said (by whom? Dickens? Mark Twain? Homer?) that only a fool would write without compensation. That makes us, and most non-commercial (or de facto non-commercial) website volunteer writers, fools. I am a fool, always have been, and I make no bones about it.
The lawsuit against Mrs. Huffington cracks me up. For their own personal or career reasons, they offered to volunteer their efforts to her enterprise, unpaid, without any equity - and without taking any business risk at all. All they had to do was to mail it in, and their names would be in HuffPo lights. Instant fame! Their free choice. Now, they see dollar signs and want to change the deal and cash out.
That's the greedy, envy-driven Left for you. When Bird Dog sells the sinfully-profitable Maggie's Farm (which he created and for which he tries to ride herd on the willful and cranky volunteer posters) to Google for a trillion zillion dollars, he had better take me out for a good dinner at Hooters, with dessert, or I will never take him fishing again.
It would be decent and gracious for Mrs. HuffPo to show some appreciation and gratitude. At the very least, a big dinner at Hooters and a framed Certificate of Appreciation would be nice.
I can only paraphrase it now: "The only difference between Leftist academics and liberal elites, and totalitarian dictators, is that the latter have the armies."
Gov. Jerry Brown faced growing pressure Tuesday to raise taxes without asking voters, which would require him to break his campaign pledge.
The head of the California Teachers Association, David Sanchez, said Tuesday that state leaders should extend higher sales, vehicle and income taxes through a legislative vote rather than passing the question to the electorate....
"I believe that as much as our governor has been extremely transparent and honest in doing what he told folks he'd do – which is let the people decide – it's too late for that," Sanchez said in a phone interview. "Once you put it on the ballot after June, it's no longer an extension, it becomes new taxes. And once they're new taxes, the people won't support that. I think the Legislature ought to do that themselves."
I recall that Manhattan's elegant Park Avenue was build on top of the railroad lines (The old New York, New Haven, and Hartford line, which still runs down to Grand Central Station, underneath, and carries thousands of commuters to NYC every day - numbers that the highways, roads, and parking could never handle. Plus people get work done on the trains.)
Yes, indeed. Party of Lincoln. We Conservatives want opportunity for everybody and an end to dependency. The American Dream. Who could argue with that?
Beer used to be fresh - and locally-brewed. One reason the beer tastes so good in Germany and Austria is because they throw it out after a week. Unpasteurized, of course, and not bottled.
You people of the South don’t know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don’t know what you are talking about. War is a terrible thing!
You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it… Besides where are your men and appliance of war to contend with them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or a pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with on of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical and determined people on earth—right at your doors.
You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people would stop and think, they must see that in the end you will surely fail.
Why did Jesus have to die? 
Among others, outside of our families, who have left lasting positive impressions on us, some teachers and coaches stand out in all of our minds. 
It's been said (by whom? Dickens? Mark Twain? Homer?) that only a fool would write without compensation. That makes us, and most non-commercial (or de facto non-commercial) website volunteer writers, fools. I am a fool, always have been, and I make no bones about it.
