Maggie's Farm

Remember the Seattle Lego story? A Seattle school banned Legos because, well, it's hard to explain rationally. Something about capitalism.

However now, after a bit of Mao-style indoctrination for the little kiddie-poos, Legos are allowed back - but with strict rules about Lego construction.

Ya can't make this stuff up.

(Thanks for the correction, reader)

Photo below: A Lego church, which I am sure would be forbidden in any Seattle schools.

The terrible story of the home invasion-murder-rape in a peaceful, leafy Connecticut suburb this week reinforces the necessity to have an armed home, as Never Yet Melted notes.

The right to self-defence is the most basic human right.

It matters not to me that such crimes are rare. Lightning strikes on houses are rare, but where they are possible, we have lightning rods. We have them on the house and on the barn. It's a reasonable, cheap precaution against a low-likelihood but catastrophic event. Like fire insurance.

More thoughts: I have been thinking about this doctor for days, since the Dylanologist emailed the story to me. How does he feel? I cannot imagine losing a whole family - his life - in that way, or in any other way. Does he regret that he could not protect his family - or that he could not die trying? Surviving something like this must be a world of pain.

Our longer essay on the topic of the CT invasion, and home defence,  here.

We are adding San Francisco's Cinnamon Stillwell to our blogroll.

All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future, and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse.

Benjamin Franklin

I do not recommend that anyone waste any time on Shakespeare's plays without listening to Prof. (and Shakespearean actor) Peter Saccio talk about them first.

For us, it has been like being half-blind, and finally getting the right glasses.

Prof. Saccio's retirement from Dartmouth is a huge loss for the College, but anyone can listen to his course via the Teaching Company's recordings. A bit expensive, but if your library doesn't have them, ask them to buy them.

Listening - and re-listening - to Saccio is a pure delight. A quote from the piece in Dartmouth Life:

On the day of the lecture, Saccio begins almost dispassionately. "The death of Falstaff," he says, "is a short passage, in prose, related by simple characters leading common lives."

And then he begins to act the parts of those characters, explaining between lines how Shakespeare employs biblical allusion, Elizabethan thought and culture, word play and stage direction. He describes how Falstaff, near death, plays with his bedclothes and examines his fingertips, noting that contemporary doctors tell him that what Shakespeare portrayed four centuries ago is grounded in the physical reality of death.

The room becomes electric.

Saccio continues, "For Falstaff, in his final moments the world is getting smaller and smaller. He is 'focusing down'—as dying people do." He points out a reference to the 23rd Psalm towards the end of the scene and begins, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want..." and the classroom becomes utterly silent, spellbound.

Breaking the silence, Saccio concludes, "I've been trying to enter into Shakespeare's imagination. He imagined a scene that was peaceful, hopeful, bawdy, silly, childish, drunken, lecherous and terrifying—terrifying both physically and spiritually. All at once, in only 40 lines. I put my cards on the table," he concludes. "The man could write."

Photo: Leon D. Black Professor of Shakespearean Studies Peter Saccio

That pesky old Law of Unintended Consequences. MA health plan running into a major problem: not enough primary care docs. WSJ. If I know anything about government, they will proceed to create another program to deal with that problem of their own creation. (h/t, Bruce Kesler)

What is your source of hope? Your own brain and spirit, God, or the government? Liberalism Dangerously Defined, by Medved.

Rudy is in trouble with CAIR. Good for him.

CBS is trying to fool you. Powerline

Photo: Bill and Hillary in law school. Since we've been posting on hippies, I think this photo demonstrates that the fad was more about fashion and wanting to be - or look -hip, than anything else. Ruthlessly ambitious, power-hungry, and calculating, these two hardly embodied the true hippy spirit. Peace, baby.

I do not understand the physics of Bussard Fusion, or whether it can ever be commercial. Interesting that California wants to fund it, though.

Update: Above story is not true. Thanks, reader.

It is 40 years since the silly and juvenile 1967 "Summer of Love." Cinnamon Stillwell remembers it. Quote: 

Among '60s disciples, it's an article of faith that everything that came out of that summer was a boon to American society. This has certainly been the impression conveyed through popular culture. Rarely are the more pernicious offshoots of the social and political experiment known as the Summer of Love referenced in the glowing and groovy portrayals seen on PBS and the History Channel.

But in its haste to dispense with all tradition that came before, the Summer of Love generation threw out much of the good along with the bad. The attempt to live in a manner that is essentially unsustainable led to a proliferation of divorce, drug use, promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, and all the perils and problems associated therewith. Too many people left their families, became addicts, and in some cases, lost their lives.

When all social boundaries are tossed aside and self-fulfillment becomes one's raison d'etre, society breaks down and, with it, all sense of morality. Seen in this light, the Summer of Love starts to seem more like the Summer of Folly.

Exactly. Read her whole piece.

h/t, Don Singleton

During the Republican debates, I hit my cocktail every time a candidate mentioned Reagan. Tonight, I’m going to take a nice-sized gulp whenever a YouTuber asks “What are you going to do for ME?” Or, any words to that effect. I might not make it through the entire debate. ...

Blogger Vodkapundit, live-blogging yesterday's Dem candidate debate. (h/t, Prof Bainbridge)

The Irrawaddy, you may recall, runs south through the center of the nation I still call Burma. Photos from the cruise here. Photo of the luxury cruise ship, calling at a port, below.

A re-post for book lovers

Book lovers (and book dealers) from New England and New York travel hundreds of miles on an annual pilgrimage to the Annual Pequot Library Book Sale, in elegant Southport, CT., on the last weekend of July. It's a gold mine of used books, arranged by categories, and the serendipitous finds can be wonderful. Two years ago I found the complete Pepys diaries. 

Their 120,000 books on sale come from estates, donations, and especially from other libraries. The money raised helps support the Pequot Library.

It goes on for 5 days beginning Friday, and prices go down each day, and everything is free on the last day. However, the place gets raked over carefully, so Saturday is maybe the best day to go. In a way, I hate to let more people know about this event, but it's my duty as a blogger.

I despise you for trashing the good names of words such as 'diversity', 'tolerance', 'respect', 'progress', 'charity' and 'community'. Words and concepts that have made this country such a magnet for others have now become little more than Orwellian IngSoc. '1984' was written as a warning, not a fucking instruction manual.

From a Grade A rant at Australia's A Western Heart, via Synthstuff

Another piece from the show at MOMA. This is by Brazilian Beatriz Milhazes, called Eggplants. I was certain that I had the camera level.

Here. h/t, Viking. A sample:

Made it to the MOMA "What is painting?" show yesterday. Their new building is excellent. As usual, the place was packed.

Do I love Modern Art? I dunno - I just like to look at stuff and to think about it.

I learned that "painting" is anything man-made (or man-altered), based on a flat surface which engages the eye when you stand and look at it. I could have thought of that, but it seems overly-broad: would not that definition apply to a Men's Room sign, when one is in need of one?

Anyway, it's a very eclectic show, with the predictable and silly all-white canvas which makes you wish you had a magic marker in your pocket. I liked this very large piece by George Baselitz, "Woodsmen."

We're in love! Let's drink!