Maggie's Farm

Sometimes it is good to consider some of the most familiar things in life that we take for granted, like the Chickadee.

This cute little non-migratory northern bird is known to everyone, especially from his wintertime visits to bird feeders, where he prefers sunflower seeds. He can be easily habituated to take seeds off of your palm if you stand still and have some patience.

Most of the time, though, he eats bugs and bug larvae by foraging through leaves and bark in woods and woodland edges. How often do you see them in the summertime? They are still here. They will nest in any little secret hiding place or tree-hole, and will use small nest-boxes. They are loyal to their mates, probably 'til death.

They are known to hide food for later, and supposedly are able to find it. Their typical "chickadee-dee-dee" call is replaced, in springtime, with a sweet "fee-beeee" which we will begin to hear as the days grow longer.

You can learn more about these delightful birds here and here.

All systems either of preference or of restraint, therefore, being thus completely taken away, the obvious and simple system of natural liberty establishes itself of its own accord. Every man...is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest in his own way.... The sovereign is completely discharged from a duty, in the attempting to perform which he must always be exposed to innumerable delusions, and for the proper performance of which no human wisdom or knowledge could ever be sufficient; the duty of superintending the industry of private people, and of directing it towards the employments most suitable to the interest of the society.

Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations)

A clear explanation of climate modeling and the hypothetical assumptions of the models, from Coyote:

It begins like this:

The alarm rudely drags me back to wakefulness. 4:00 am comes all too quickly, even when you're looking forward to getting up. Quietly, I slip out of bed and pad across the room to turn it off. A lump stirs under the covers, and the comforter slips back to reveal a black head, one eye opened balefully. She doesn't lift her head from the pillow.

"Time to get up, Soup Hound," I yawn. "It's a new day."

A blogger's duck hunt, here.

“Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.”

Adam Smith

From Overcoming Bias:

Suppose that a disease, or a monster, or a war, or something, is killing people.  And suppose you only have enough resources to implement one of the following two options:

1. Save 400 lives, with certainty.
2. Save 500 lives, with 90% probability; save no lives, 10% probability.

Make your decision first, then read about it.

You think you're in the 28% Federal income tax bracket, and you have a good mortgage deduction and lots of charitable deductions, etc.

Then you wonder why your tax is so much higher than you expected. It's not just because your Social Security tax and your Medicare tax are added on - it's also because of the sneaky PEP and Pease that erase your deductions as your income increases.

All of my carefully-saved deductions are basically worthless to me, and it's not like I make mega-bucks. I am just a humble, hard-working Hartford, CT lawyer. A peasant.

Always remember, it might be your labor and your effort and your brains but it's not your money. One must learn to be grateful that they let you keep any of it because, of course, they, the elite, know what's best for us Dartmouth-Yale foolish peasants. (h/t, Mankiw)

In fact, what those low-life "elites" do know is how to spend my income for their re-elections, and nothing more.

Editor: this is a Barrister piece, which comes via your Editor due to posting problems today.

Misha and the perfect, ethereal Gelsey Kirkland in the pas de deux in Balanchine's (New York City Ballet's) magical Nutcracker, with music by the amazingly soulful and romantic Tchaikovsky (A 1977 performance):

Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience.

Adam Smith (that quote, I feel, contains a deep truth, and one reason why we trust those motivated by money over those motivated by gaining power over others)

Cold yesterday morning, and this hungry female Sharpie (maybe a Cooper's) missed a sparrow at my feeder but decided to puff up her feathers and stand on the grass for a while looking around. Wonderful the way they can turn their head to cover 360 degrees. This is the best I could do through Thermopane glass and a screen:

From the movie "White Nights" (1985)

"Here, if you see someone wearing an American flag, they're probably Cuban. If they wear Che Guevara, they're probably a tourist."

Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez, quoted in The Guardian  (borrowed from our friend Dr. X.)

For those who believe that the three basic food groups are beer, chips and dip: A real cowboy breakfast from B&G Cowboy Chef Chuck Green. Here's his recipe for 24 servings of this delicious and supremely healthful breakfast - or lunch, or night-time snack. (Thanks, reader)

We have written about that disgusting Hot Dog Gravy they like to make in eastern Kentucky. This recipe is a better idea. 

...while jousting was popular in medieval Europe, it originated as the curtain-opener to a far more brutal affair.

Read the whole thing - about the "melee" - at BBC

We enjoy visiting the White Flower Farm in the charming antique village of Litchfield, CT, once or twice a year. Most of their business is mail-order.

They are already taking orders for Spring, and we were interested in their collections for planters. Photo is one of their shade collections. Since they are so good at putting plants together, my theory is just to steal their ideas.

A propos gardening, check out the gardens of Pearl Fryar - topiary surrealist.

Sippican, who has several clips to watch, seems to be as much of a Cary Grant fan as I am. Hollywood at its best. From near the beginning of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House:

We posted this link yesterday from American Thinker: Alinsky's tactics: Hillary and Obama.  A quote:

Obama's four-year stint as a political organizer and agitator in Chicago's South Side neighborhoods gave him a hands-on education in Alinsky revolutionary tactics, which he seems adept at using now.  His problem, however, may be that he is in direct competition for the ultimate power prize, the Presidency, against another Alinskyite, Hillary Clinton, who studied Alinksy and his rule book and turned down an offer to work for him.

He observes that these notions would have been considered insane just a generation ago, and comments:

The first step to recovery is understanding the problem. Knowing that suicidalist memes were launched at us as war weapons by the espionage apparatus of the most evil despotism in human history is in itself liberating. Liberating, too, it is to realize that the Noam Chomskys and Michael Moores and Robert Fisks of the world (and their thousands of lesser imitators in faculty lounges everywhere) are not brave transgressive forward-thinkers but pathetic memebots running the program of a dead tyrant.

Read the whole thing.

Photo: Neo-Marxist tactician Antonio Gramsci

Another view of the Rocky Mountain Front in Montana (more here). That's Ear Mountain. Been there. A.B. Guthrie's The Big Sky took place around there. (thanks, ap)

This is a reposting from one year ago:

I do not have the provenance of this remarkable photo which came in over the transom, but it is clearly somewhere West. A gold star for the photographer who must have spend many patient hours watching this carcass in the snow.

The picture tells the story: a Red Fox and a Magpie were happily dining on a deer carcass when Mr. Golden Eagle passed by. Does he believe that he can take a fox? I doubt that he can, but he can sure rattle his equanimity, and interrupt his luncheon.

This is Alabama, from 1963.

h/t, Theo