Maggie's Farm

We plow the fields, and scatter the good seed on the land,
But it is fed and watered by God's almighty hand;
He sends the snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain,
The breezes and the sunshine, and soft refreshing rain.

While the Mrs. took the youngest Bird Dog theater-intoxicated and Shakespeare-intoxicated pup and her theatrical pal to the Vivian Beaumont to see the rarely-performed Cymbeline (the Beaumont is perfect for Shakespeare), my self-assigned chore was to clean up and polish ye olde farmhouse for the Thanksgiving hordes expected soon.

While finding many dust balls as big as alley cats, and some lost mail, magazines, a dried dog poo or two, and some important faxes under sofas, I cranked up my gigantic Legacy speakers for consolation.

They were the top of their line when I splurged on these darn things, delivered by an Airways Freight truck. 175 lbs. each, 5' tall, and they look like beautiful furniture. But what the heck was I thinking when I bought these monsters? (A movie-business friend told me I have the same ones Tom Cruise has in his house. Sheesh. That is not good.)

These speakers are powerful enough to knock down my walls or to blow a cow to the moon, but sensitive enough to capture the most subtle inflection of Dawn Upshaw's voice, like she is singing to you. The Messiah was on the CD player, from Eastertime. I listened to the whole thing while vacuuming, dusting, dog-poo-removing, polishing, and pickng up. How many Bibles do we have in this house? Well, I love that music and know every word, but I realized that I do music now on the computer. This dang computer-internets machine-thingy simultaneously shrinks and expands life.

I realized that I had not turned on that fine sound system, with the mega-ultra ultra amp, since Easter.

A fellow blogger has told me that he has troubles with freezing and slowness when visiting Maggie's, resulting in the dread Blog Frustration Syndrome. Does anybody else have that problem?

I have had that problem with Theo and Atlas but I assume it's my machine (which is about to be replaced), not their sites.Maybe caused by too many images? We love to post images, but the volume of images, combined with the length of our front page, might be a bit of a strain on a slower machine or a slower connection.

 Any ideas?

At Dino: Do you feel manipulated yet? Why isn't this CNN media collusion a scandal? Easy answer: because it's media collusion. Who is going to report this stuff except blogs?

More at Flopping here and at Gateway here.

Columbia capitulates to hunger strikers. Utterly pathetic and shameful. Were I Pres. of Columbia, I would have expelled them and had the cops carry them off campus, to re-apply if and when they decided to grow up.

Perhaps this is about Columbia's "effete moral gymnastics."  I have an idea: Let's get 100 alumni donors like me to hold a hunger strike in front of Butler, to protest Columbia's endlessly-exasperating PC weeniness, and see what happens after we call the press to watch. 

Heck, it could be fun, like the '60s. Plenty of lite beer, and a band - maybe we could get my old college pals from Sha Na Na to play. (They were/are good guys, and good students too.)

I could afford to lose a few pounds for a good cause - for the sanity of Alma Mater, from whom I have two degrees from the pre-psychotic era. (thanks, Opie, for alerting me to this depressing story.)

Also, The Corner on the subject. h/t, BL

Unlike Hell's Kitchen which we posted about two weeks ago, NYC's Chelsea neighborhood has been on the gentrification upswing for over 30 years.

Now, it's as pleasant and cheerful as any neighborhood in the city. While it's known as a heavily gay area, it seems just more youthful than anything else. Tons of young professionals, and cozy 1800s townhouses. A darn civilized place to live in.

A street scene, last weekend:

h/t, An Englishman's Castle

As everybody knows by now, NY Gov. Spitzer dropped his vote fraud plan, AKA drivers' licenses for illegals, and Mrs. Clinton "changed her mind" six minutes later.

I guess that is what they call "practical politics." 80% of Iowa voters opposed the notion. In my opinion, the damage is done, because now we know what they want, if they could only get it. And I have no doubt that Spitzer got an earful from Hillary on the phone.

Henninger on the '60s, in the WSJ. The Long Goodbye. Good stuff. Comments on the piece by Scott at Powerline.

Of 1968, Henninger notes:

The year began with sales of the Beatles album, "Magical Mystery Tour." In retrospect, it was a premonition. In late January, North Korea captured the USS Pueblo and crew members. A week later, the North Vietnamese army launched the Tet offensive. On Feb. 27, Walter Cronkite announced on CBS News that the U.S. had to negotiate a settlement to the Vietnam War. On March 12, Sen. Gene McCarthy defeated incumbent President Lyndon Johnson in the New Hampshire primary, aided by antiwar students that Sen. McCarthy called his "children's crusade." Two weeks later, LBJ announced on TV that he would not run for re-election. One week later, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. It was only April 4.

Read the whole thing. Link above.

From Opinion Journal on Tuesday:

A Treasury study refutes populist hokum about "income inequality."

OK, "hokum" is our word. The study, to be released today, is a careful, detailed piece of research by professional economists that avoids political judgments. But what it does do is show beyond doubt that the U.S. remains a dynamic society marked by rapid and mostly upward income mobility. Much as they always have, Americans on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder continue to climb into the middle and sometimes upper classes in remarkably short periods of time.

Whole thing here. Chart is from the article.

Why are my Sugar Maples different colors this week?

Gagdad Bob and I are fans of the chemist and polymath Michael  Polanyi, which I guess means that we are fans of epistemology. 

Bob comments, in Probing the Vertical Unknown:

Polanyi compared scientific theories to the cane of a blind man. Imagine if you suddenly lost your sight and had to explore your surroundings with a cane. At first you would be very aware of the sensations of the cane in your hand. In a sense, your world would be very "cramped" and up close. But with time, the cane would begin to be an extension of your hand, so that you could "feel" things beyond your hand by essentially ignoring it.

In other words, if you focus on the hand, you specifically lose "sight" of what the cane is touching. Eventually the hand's "touch" would extend as far as the cane. Polanyi called the "hand knowledge" tacit and the "cane knowledge" focal. He also called it from ---> to knowledge; however, he felt that all meaningful knowledge shared this from ---> to structure. It doesn't mean that the knowledge isn't "real." But there is no way to conceptualize it in the absence of an active subject who evolves by converting more and more focal (to) knowledge into tacit (from) knowledge, thereby expanding the space in which he lives. For example, various scientific canes have allowed us to "see" all the way back to the origins of the cosmos, just as psychoanalytic canes allow us to peer into the unconscious. 

Clear, or not? Epistemology slides into metaphysics, and metaphysics mercifully slides into "Where are my sneakers?" and "What's for supper?"

Polanyi viewed "knowing" as an art, and believed in objective truth but respected its elusiveness. Most of his philosophy of science is in Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy.

Image: A star "nursery" from the Hubble telescope

Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Tom Paine, in Common Sense (1776), as quoted by A Jacksonian in a comment here.

Why I think Hillary will win. I am by no means as pessimistic as Mr. Armey, but he makes good points with which I agree. In fact, I believe McCain or Rudy could beat her relatively easily.

Without the MSM carrying her water and covering her tracks, and her last name, she would not even be in the running. She is a wholly media-made celebrity product, like Crest toothpaste and Paris Hilton. Where's the beef?

I think the country is "ready" for a woman, black, or anything-else President (I know I am - but I do not like to vote for a potential Commander in Chief without military service) - but I don't think it's ready for a socialist with a rotten personality and a dubious moral compass.

The new counter-insurgency aircraft, the A-67 Dragon, is similar to the P-51, observes A Jacksonian, who compares their specs and capabilities. A restored P-51 below:

People are talking about the new Brit socialist/communist blog, Liberal Conspiracy. It is remarkable to me that, with so many years of Labour power and their disheartening, intrusive programs, that there are still people in the UK who want more government in their lives.

Our thoughtful friend Chris at Stumbling and Mumbling, with whom we generally disagree, discusses the two types of "Positive Liberty," which are at odds with the "Classical Liberalism" which we stand for here. A quote:

But there’s a second type of positive freedom... It’s that people must be empowered to control their lives - they must have real liberty, as well as formal liberty.
This means, for example, greater direct democracy in local and national government, worker control and a no-strings-attached basic income.

Heck, I want a free Lamborghini.

But thus does the "new," FDR-era definition of "liberty" become an infantile and spineless serfdom to a supposedly benevolent, but ultimately psychotically power-hungry State. It always works that way, human nature being the dark thing that it is. But I guess I would be OK with a Philosopher-King - as long as it's me, and not you - because I seek no power over anybody except my dogs.

What's the point of all of this in prosperous, middle-class countries which are full of opportunities for anyone who wants to reach for them... assuming they are not either dysfunctional, or the fortunate people who are motivated by the good things in life above and beyond material gain, and choices which cost money like recreation, entertainment, education, and special comforts and pleasures? God bless 'em, but I am not one of them (mostly) because there are too many things I'd lke to do which have costs attached. Like another ten days in Tuscany or Turkey or Scotland. My basic human dignity will not permit me to take things from others: it's degrading and leads to shame and shame's companion - bitterness, rather than the pride in finding your own path through life. A path illuminated by your own conscience, abilities, gifts, judgement, resourcefulness, hopes and dreams.

In my view, "positive liberty" represents, or necessitates, a form of totalitarianism (whether democratic in origin or not), and "classical liberalism" is far more than a pretty abstraction.

Has the dream ended? Are people in the West exhausted by fighting for freedom from the State, and resigning themselves to an ignoble "Gimme" attitude? I hope not, but sometimes I wonder.

Photo: Our Massachusetts Minuteman, who was not fighting the Brits for a free lunch, but for autonomy and self-determination, freedom from the State and its power and its oppressive taxation at gunpoint.

Today, says Theo. (Expressive language NSFW in most places, but bravo to his sentiments.) His website here.

There has been a change in the policy on policies, and therefore all the policies have had to be rewritten in order to be in compliance with the new policies policy.

A compliance officer at a large investment bank, during a compulsory compliance training seminar this week.

(All of above borrowed from Samizdata.)

Roger Kimball. What took us so long? He is in our Pantheon of Essayists.

Here's a list of his books.

Here's his Wikipedia entry. He is not an amateur thinker.

We posted on Theodore Dalrymple's new book today. As many know, Dalrymple, whose real name is Anthony Daniels, M.D., is a retired Brit prison psychiatrist.

Here is a list of his books. If anybody can find a photo of him, let me know. I can't.

Thanks Opie - that was quick! A pleasant, benevolent-looking fellow with a pack of smokes in his shirt pocket.

And thanks to Mr. Vanderleun for another photo, and a bio, here.

The Dancing Lady is a fine optical illusion: she moves both clockwise and counterclockwise, depending on how your brain views her.

Blink once or twice, and you can change her direction. However, most people have an innate tendency to see her moving in one or the other.

People's Cube uses this image as the basis for a discussion about the subjectivity of perception.

Unfiltered, unprocessed perception isn't truth, but we already know that.

h/t, Tim Blair