Maggie's Farm

This lady has fun campaigning. See any Teleprompter? Neither do I.
Rock on, Sarah.

Brit media snobs look down their noses at Palin. But it's not just Eurosnobs. We hear the same thing around here - entirely from women. (Is this about the Narcissism of Small Differences? Is it because hating happy, normal, well-adjusted people makes you feel smart? Or is it envy of her studly husband, her self-made success, and her obvious femininity and good cheer? Or is it all - probably - just because she's not a bien-pensant angry Chardonnay-and-Brie Limousine Lefty?)

Some examples we've heard lately:

- She's too feminine (I think that means she's trim and sexy)
- She didn't go to the right schools
- She takes religion too seriously (that's from church-goers)
- She talks with a funny accent
- She's not well-travelled
- She says "nucular" and "I-raq."
- She has too many kids, she's like a farm animal
- A woman who likes to kill animals? That's sick!
- She likes oil. Nobody likes oil. (said by a Lexus SUV driver.)
- Alaska is nowhere
- Nobody we know in Washington knows her
- She wouldn't fit in at our cocktail parties (actually, I think she'd be the life of the party)

In other words, "She's not really one of us." These, I would contend, are all class-related, "We're so sophisticated" attitudes. When you think about it, it's funny how class-conscious and intolerant Liberals can be when they want to.

 Below is Palin in Carson on Saturday. Thank goodness for all of those non-snobs. They are the heart and the heartbeat of America, and we Eastern elites should thank God for them.

 As Jungle Trader links:

Michael Goodwin of the New York Daily News: "Some day, we will look back with disgust at the abuse Palin has taken and wonder how it could happen in this great nation, circa 2008."

Why humans are unable to imagine death: Scientific American.

But we do imagine it, don't we? Or try? The Mayans viewed it as floating on a foggy ocean, and I like that image. We Christians have no clear image of Paradise, other than being "with" God - whatever that means.

Oct 1, with Charlie Rose. It's long, but he is always worth listening to, especially since, as Kudlow terms it, "the economy fell off a cliff in September." This election, now, is about the economy - period. Neither Pres candidate is able to speak intelligently or knowledgeably about it, and Sarah Palin is the only of the 4 who has ever worked in the real world.

A reader reminded us of Jonathan Edwards' 1971 hit "Sunshine." The lyrics seem appropriate to today's politics. One verse:

well how much does it cost
i'll buy it
the time is all we've lost
i'll try it
he can't even run his own life
i'll damned if he'll run mine...(sunshine)

Complete lyrics here.

Here he is singing the tune in 2006 in Gruene, Texas:

My Montauk Daisies always come into bloom in the first week of October. It's worth the wait but, depending on the first frost, their bloom time can be brief.

Advice to those who grow them: They don't need fertilizer. They want full sun. Prune them to 4-6" high each early spring or you will end up with a huge, scraggly shrub a bit like the one below.

At Theo, who also provided this toon:

From a post by AVI:

I'll tell you something about lying from having to deal with it so much all day (not just my patients, but their agencies and families as well). When someone refuses to take any responsibility, blaming everything on someone else, they are usually lying. If they thought they were only 10 or 20% at fault they would pony up, lay out the facts, and trust that most observers would get it right. If they are 50-70% at fault they would admit to some responsibility and try to spin the impression on the rest. Only when people are well over 70% at fault do they have to take a reverse strategy and avoid the facts and try to construct a simple narrative of blame that they hope catches on with people. When people make categorical statements of blame, it's like Honest John's Used Cars.

A word of caution. Some politicians have perfected statements of appearing to take responsibility in their introductory comments but quickly moving on to zero blame for them.

"When there's a will to fail, obstacles can be found."  

John McCarthy, as quoted in Trying to Try at Overcoming Bias

Columbia will hold a referendum on ROTC this fall. I sure hope they will bring it back, but I don't know why a referendum is needed. This ROTC ban is left over from the anti-Vietnam War era.

Did Columbia College's Sha-Na-Na invent the 50s?

The lyrics are here.

This note-taking guide deserves its own post. It's methodical.

My approach to study has always been this: Read the paragraph, close the book, repeat it in your own words, reconstruct any graphs or equations from your own understanding, then add a sentence about why it matters. Then go on to the next.

However, I have been known to doze during the "close the book" part of the process.

You should make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and folk dancing.

Sir Arnold Bax. More on learning from experience at Sippican.

Thanks to Vanderleun for finding Graphs on the death of Marxism, postmodernism, and other stupid academic fads. A quote:

"The sudden decline of all the big-shot theories you'd study in a literary theory or critical theory class is certainly behind the recent angst of arts and humanities grad students. Without a big theory, you can't pretend you have specialized training and shouldn't be treated as such -- high school English teachers may be fine with that, but if you're in grad school, that's admitting you failed as an academic. You want a good reputation. Isn't it strange, though, that no replacement theories have filled the void? That's because everyone now understands that the whole thing was a big joke, and aren't going to be suckered again anytime soon."

Here's one of his graphs, this one on academic references to Deconstruction:

This is Clematis Henryi. I have just ordered one to grow over an arbor.

In my experience, these are tricky plants and slow to establish themselves. When they are unhappy, there's not a damn thing you can do about it. When they are happy on a sunny fence, they are great. They supposedly like their feet cool, shaded, and mulched.

I've tried everything but, like people, they just go their own way and follow their own path, whether it leads to heaven, hell, or Paramus.

I also like Sweet Autumn Clematis, which is a tougher, more forgiving variety.

"If someone wrote in the back of your yearbook, 'You can be whatever you want to be,' that was really dumb because you can't be a fish. It is just not going to work out for you."

Prof Peter Lawler (of No Left Turns, as quoted here)

Via Lucianne:

Bruce Kesler sent us this post:

.

Is the charity tax-deduction excessive?

The question is almost never raised whether our tax deduction for charity is excessive.  Whatever our religious faith, all agree that charity is a high personal and societal calling and deserves government support.  Republicans and Democrats agree, in supporting President Bush’s faith-based organizations in its delivery (although Barack Obama would restrict their ability to exclude hiring outside their doctrine, requiring they act secular instead).

However, much described in the tax regulations as charity is not.  Scriptures refer to helping the unfortunate and being neighborly and loving.  The preferred methods  provide  means to recipients to support themselves.  This concept of charity has been broadened by advocates of non-profit organizations, and by liberal interpretations of scripture, to include virtually anything that one can say is of any possible societal benefit, no matter how narrow, cost-ineffective, more self-serving than serving others, or even a veil for partisan politics.

Some conservatives argue against narrowing the tax code.  They, justifiably, see our income and assets as our own, not the government’s, and want to keep as much as possible outside the government’s control.  Further, they see individual choices as both morally and practically preferable, more cost-effective, better measured, more adaptive, and more focused than government.  They are correct.

Reasons to visit Venice's little sister: Giotto, Menabuoi, and Donatello. This is Giotto's Capella Scrovegni (Arena Chapel) in Padua:

America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within.

Joseph Stalin (perhaps - can't prove it)

A holiday gift that is never wrong.

Farewell to the King Salmon. Smithsonian

Farewell to Shea Stadium. The end of Yankee Stadium got all the attention.

Newt is furious at Paulson, Bush, etc. Related: How over-regulation caused the banking mess. Related: Here's the Dems refusing to reform Fannie and Freddie in 2004

10 towns hardest hit by banking meltdown. Yes, it includes Darien, CT

Real affordable housing. h/t, Insty

Kirsanow on Obama:

Criticizing George Bush or any of our other political leaders is one thing. Contending America's ideals and values are somehow suspect is a breathtaking statement for a prospective commander in chief to make, especially when thousands of Americans have given life and limb, sons and daughters, in brave demonstration of our ideals and values.