Maggie's Farm

I have only one firm belief about the American political system, and that is this: God is a Republican and Santa Claus is a Democrat. God is an elderly or, at any rate, middle-aged male, a stern fellow, patriarchal rather than paternal and a great believer in rules and regulations. He holds men strictly accountable for their actions. He has little apparent concern for the material well-being of the disadvantaged. He is politically connected, socially powerful and holds the mortgage on virtually everything in the world. God is difficult. God is unsentimental. It is very hard to get into God’s heavenly country club. Santa Claus is another matter. He’s cute. He is nonthreatening. He’s always cheerful. And he loves animals. He may know who’s been naughty and who’s been nice, but he never does anything about it. He gives everyone everything they want without thought of a quid pro quo. He works hard for charities, and he’s famously generous to the poor. Santa Claus is preferable to God in every way but one: There is no such thing as Santa Claus.

PJ O'Rourke. Parliament of Whores. h/t, Samiz

They should never be killed for food. Another challenge for ethical eating.

I say "Let the broccoli suffer."

Milbank: An ugly finale for health-care reform

Hot Air: Don’t despair about ObamaCare

Classy: RI Dem Senator Calls ObamaCare Opponents Part of 'Aryan Support Groups'

Cash for Cloture: Harry Reid’s Vote Buying Cost Taxpayers $1.2 Billion

Trial lawyers get payoff in Dem medical bill

Democrats Risk Another Jacksonian Moment

Gordon Brown calls for new group to police global environment issues.

Related: There'll be nowhere to run from the new world government

Dems Break It, They Own It

From Driscoll:

“Sen. Whitehouse: foes of health care bill are birthers, right-wing militias, aryan groups.” Meanwhile, Jennifer Rubin adds, “it will be crystal clear who, when the chips are down, tried to stop the largest big-government power grab and tax-a-thon in decades and who rolled over. The opponents of those Democrats who rolled over will have a plethora of material for their campaign ads.”

Birthers and Aryan groups? Sounds like us. Along with over 60% of Americans, I guess, who oppose this fascistic, ie government-controlled - monstrosity.

Betsy: Ben Nelson's selling price

 Powerline: Who's Meaner, Insurance Bureaucrats or Government Bureaucrats?

Healthcare Pork: Senate Bill Laden with Favors, Pet Projects for Democrats

Related, they did not omit the slacker kids, I mean, the adult children

Riehl remains an optimist.

This morning -

We have posted in the past about one of my favorite birds, the Peregrine Falcon. They are "peregrine" because they breed in the north, summer in South America.

They are partial to cliffs and mountains, which is why they are comfortable living in cities with their abundant source of pigeons and sparrows, and nesting on tall buildings and urban bridges. 

The recovery of their populations east of the Mississippi is a wonder to conservationists and a tribute to what man can do to renew wildlife populations.

Photo is from an update on New York City's Peregrine Falcons at Smithsonian.

Walker Percy fans, of whom I am one, recall the protagonist in The Last Gentleman setting up his fancy telescope in Central Park to watch the falcons. (I am also a Dickens fan, a Wallace Stegner fan, a Mark Helprin fan... ok, I am not going to keep going down this track.)

An email from our Aliyah doctor friend in Israel:

I am still not used to things like this: as I am leaving one of my classes, a young woman - perhaps 22 - bends over to hoist her backpack; her sweater pulls up in back, revealing a holstered Beretta in the back of her belt.

Beats a tramp stamp, in my book.

The bulk of the snow fell south of New England, but I think we have enough here to last through Christmas.

Lots more Christmas weekend random photos below the fold -

A tree late last night -

More below -

Cute, but not great like some of his stuff:

Author David Foster Wallace (whose books I have never read) talked about Life and Work to the 2005 graduating class at Kenyon College. Mr. Wallace, 46, committed suicide in the fall, 2008.

One quote from his speech:

The capital-T Truth is about life before death. It is about making it to 30, or maybe 50, without wanting to shoot yourself in the head. It is about simple awareness -- awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, that we have to keep reminding ourselves, over and over: "This is water, this is water."

It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive, day in and day out.

The speech, it seems to me, is more the cry of a haunted midlife soul than something that eager and freshly-scrubbed college grads could use or even hear. In addition to a shrink, it sounds like the guy lacked God in his life. That quote reminded me of Zevon's Detox Mansion:

...it's tough to be somebody
And it's hard not to fall apart
Up here on Rehab Mountain
We gonna learn these things by heart.

"Norman Maclean, the great Montana writer, had a worse experience. He complained that an editor turned down his masterpiece, “A River Runs Through It,” because it had too many trees in it."

Quoted from the NYT on the 16th

Photo yesterday morning, before the snow. 

h/t, Sippican

Since "the time for talking is over," we will try not to post further about the joke that is Copenhagen for the rest of this pre-Christmas weekend - except to note these observations:

Obama sez 'Time for talk is over.' China and India Say, "O Shut the F Up Bozo!"

Obama braves blizzard to preach at the Church of Climate Scientology

and, of course, big early blizzard predicted from DC to New England. Great! Somebody needs to remind me again: "Weather isn't climate."

A Bird Dog pup took an oath today. He took a vow this past summer, so he is now up to his ears in oaths and vows.

I looked up the etymology of "oath," which I rightly suspected to be of Scandinavian origin:

OATH,  a solemn vow.  (E.)   M. E. ooth, oth; Chaucer, C. T. 120.—A. S. áð, Grein, i. 17; the change from á to oa being regular, as in ác, oak, ár, oar. + Du. eed. + Icel. eiðr. + Dan. and Swed. ed. + Goth. aiths. + G. eid; O. H. G. eit.   ?. The Teut. type is AITHA; Fick, iii. 4; allied to O. Irish oeth, oath (Rhys); cf. W. an-ud-on, a false oath, perjury.

Here's "vow:"

The word vow (oath, assure) comes from the Latin voveo (I vow), which derives from the Greek verb ?????? (to assure, to promise with certainty; veveo).

I wonder how much our culture takes oaths and vows seriously in modern times. I like to think that I take all of my promises with the greatest seriousness - but don't we all?

When I think about it, the person to whom I have broken the most promises is myself.

On the Brink, at American Thinker. One quote:

Given the political landscape the left decided on a drastic approach: President Obama and his Congressional allies would take advantage of their temporary preponderance and go all in on their program to take control of three major sectors: health care, education and energy. Speed was of the essence; while the Republicans are in post-electoral disarray, attack, attack, attack, overwhelm the enemy's defenses, give him no time to regroup, and push through the coveted legislation. All the chips were placed on a blitzkrieg. Using a football analogy, the Democrats threw a Hail Mary pass into the enemy's end-zone, pinning all their hopes on one daring toss.

Fortunately, it hasn't worked out very well, thus far.

Except for a supply for starter logs under the eaves, I like to keep my firewood wet and out in the weather. I go through around 4-5 cords each season (which isn't much), but it's enough to keep my home fires burning.

Dry wood makes for a dramatic, short-lived blaze, but it will not smolder and produce the slow heat and the slow burn, the popping, and the flickering flames I want.

I like to see a little steam and wet ooze from my wood, not a flash in the pan.

The Canadian version has the old tune, good pics:

Tom Sowell's Christmas reading

How about a doppelganger for Christmas?

Militant Theophobes

Illegals, yes. Anatolie, no.

Climategate: Something’s Rotten in Denmark … and East Anglia, Asheville, and New York City 

Copenhagen: 'This Guy's Just Showing Up to Collect His Check'

A good post with good links re Paul Samuelson

Good comments on our sexual addiction post

A book: Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans from Too Much Law. Interesting reviews there at Amazon.

Ann Applebaum: Some climate-changers are anti-human.

The 2009 Obama Achievement List

Climate Scientists and Ethics: Some Advice from a Finance Professor

How would the Reid bill affect the middle class?

Protecting Investors or Prosecuting Innocents? The Dangers of Vagueness in Financial Fraud Laws

Kimball:

...if it is hard to ginger up any enthusiasm for the topic of health care reform, it is even harder to contemplate what is happening in Washington without an overwhelming sense of alarm. The Obama administration is not only on the threshold of usurping some 20 percent of the U.S. economy, handing it over to government bureaucrats to oversee, it is also just a few signatures away from utterly transforming medical culture and the way you will be allowed to interact with your doctors. Do you really want this?

And via Insty:

ANN ALTHOUSE: Blaming Obama Is The New Trend. “People just don’t want this bill. I think the big mistake was skipping the step of winning public support for a particular plan. It wasn’t enough that people believed there was a problem. People needed to believe the solution wasn’t worse than the problem. We were supposed to look away and trust them. The trust was never won, never earned. It’s been a horrific mess, and it just looks messier and messier as time wears on. Obama kept his distance, which looks pretty smart now.”

Lyrics at Norm, who introduced me to this song  -

Talking points and debating points, at Daily Express. Not that facts matter any more.

Related: Al Gore's mosquito story is pure BS. Malaria is only a tropical disease due to public health advances, DDT, and drainage of marshes in the developed world. At the turn of the last century, malaria was endemic in New England. Russia, too.

Related: It's all about the $. A quote:

Leaders of fifty African nations came to Copenhagen asking $400 billion for the next three years to "offset" carbon credit "damages" which they claim to suffer. Inexplicably, two days ago, that demand was increased to an eye-goggling 5% of GDP (gross domestic product), estimated at $722 billion from the United States alone. There never was a response from the industrialized world.

Related: Copenhagen summit carbon footprint biggest ever. Why not? Who cares? Live it up with the Danish hos and the limos and the grand hotel rooms and the smorgasbord and the aquavit. It's all for Gaia, after all.

Related, via Dino from some psychotic, self-aggrandizing moron at Copenhagen:

I just sat there thinking: It’s not enough. We didn’t do enough. I should have started earlier. People are dying already.

And, via Driscoll's  It Was Necessary To Destroy The Carbon In Order To Save It:

From a Maggie's pal, seeking intertube fame and immortality no doubt. Nice dogs, though - including "Maggie":

Went preserve hunting on Saturday in Delaware.  We killed 16 of the 20 pheasants
and 39 of the 40 chukars that were put out for us.  The two best looking
critters in the picture are obviously the German Shorthaired Pointers, Maggie
and Ellie.  Both absolutely broke solid.  So-so retrievers but so-so was good
enough.  The outiftter included his venison chili for lunch as part of the
deal.  An excellent time was had by all.