Maggie's Farm

Sweden makes a right turn. We have mentioned many times to what extent the Swedes seem to live in a fantasy world of nanny-state dependency which sucks the drive, courage, and initiative out of all but their most ambitious - who often leave the country. Nanny state ponzi schemes only work with growing populations, which they do not have. Plus their voters seem to have no awareness of how wealth is created. Plus they are headed towards becoming a Moslem country in a few decades. This event may be a sign of sanity. There's a Swedish lovely on the right, posing sans burkha.

Speaking of Europe, an interview with Dalrymple at Brussels Journal. One quote:

Paul Belien: Mr Dalrymple, you are a well-known analyst of the cultural disease of our society. What do you see as the main problem?

Theodore Dalrymple: The underlying problem is a lack of purpose, a lack of feeling of belonging to anything larger than one’s own little life. This gives rise to quite a large amount of social pathology.

PB: Does this have to do with immigration? Does the problem lie mainly with second generation immigrants? Or do we find the same problem among our indigenous population, the young people, as well?

TD: I think it is our indigenous population which suffers from a lack of purpose. They have no religious belief. Quite a large proportion of the population does not derive any selfrespect from having to work for a living because some people are no better off if they work than if they do not work. They also have no cultural and intellectual interests. Therefore they do not feel they belong to any larger project than their private lives.

PB: Isn’t it paradoxical that this is happening in a time where people tend to study longer and be at school longer than any time before in history?

TD: What I am saying is not true of everybody, of course. I am talking about a section of the population. However, and unfortunately in Britain anyway, the so-called educational system has become a means of reducing youth unemployment, rather than providing people with either vocational training or intellectual and cultural capital which is of use to them throughout their lives. So the vast expansion of tertiary education in Britain – the government wants fifty per cent of the population to go to university – is just another means of disguising unemployment.

Islam proselytizing on the Internet. Bird of Paradise wonders where the forceful Christian response is. My guess is that many Christians just cannot get too excited about the idea of debating the merits of different religions, these days. Maybe we need some C.S. Lewises of the internet. On second thought, we could use some more of him, anywhere.

All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.

Charlie Chaplin

The story of the Dartmouth alumni rebellion has been well-covered in the blogosphere, especially by Dartmouth alums like Volokh, Roger Simon,  and the Powerline dudes. Recently, the WSJ decided to highlight the story, as reported by Volokh.

Joe's Dartblog follows the story closely from Hanover.

It's an important story not only because Dartmouth is an important college: it's important because it sets an example for what alumni groups at other colleges could do when they are displeased by what is being done to their alma mater.

In an era in which the tenured radicals and anti-traditionalists use their colleges and universities as laboratories for social engineering and experimentation, many alumni tend to feel dismayed, but helpless.

Strangely - but not strangely - the Dartmouth administration is seeking to crush those who do not hew to the Party Line. The Party Line, at the moment, is to change the rules so that petition candidates cannot be elected as trustees. Their use of "push-polling" and intimidation are among the methods which are being applied.

That sets one heck of an example for the academic ideal of diversity of opinion and considering different viewpoints. Woops - I forgot. Those ideals are just an antiquated, un-progressive, and obsolete tradition.

Viva la Revolucion!

Update: A comment from our Dr. Bliss:

It's not just about setting an example for other higher education institutions - it's about setting examples for all levels of education. The teacher's colleges take their cues from the Ivies. The entire anti-traditionalist, political-correctness dhimmitude, dumbing-down, feel-good, social-engineering movement in primary school has been inspired by what the big guys do and say, and not just by their own socio-political agendas. One sobering example from a teacher patient of mine (a fellow who uses the subjunctive properly), who told me on Friday that the public schools in MA no longer teach grammar. It's too difficult for the kids, and it's elitist!

If that's difficult and elitist, then try taking Physical Chemistry.

A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.

At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise."

The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?"

"You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down."

(H/t - above quoted from neoneocon)

This event breaks my heart.

"Whoever offends our Prophet Mohammed should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim."

Hey, Dems. Hey, Ned Lamont. Perhaps we should try to be "nicer" to these rabid beasts.

These nuns gave their lives to care for sick Moslem kids, in Somalia. No further comment needed.

Via Michelle, via Jihad Watch, an excellent piece by Fr. Raymond de Souza in the National Post. A quote:

Roman Catholics are likely angry. Relations between adherents of the two religions simply cannot develop without all conducting themselves as mature adults.

It does a disservice to children to call the wild-eyed statements and deranged behaviour of the past days childish.

It is not only the obscenity of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist terrorist band suppressed in several Muslim states, demanding an apology from anyone, let alone the Holy Father.

It is not only the grandstanding Pakistani politicians passing resolutions condemning a papal speech few read, and even fewer understood. It is not only the extraneous charges about the Holocaust and Hitler by the agitated and excited.

It is that we have seen this before.

Please read the whole thing.

Also, read Hugh's piece on the subject.

We did a post on Goldfinches in the past. We have discovered, this year, that the Goldfinches like echinacea seeds as much as they like thistles. Sitting on them every morning. There is nothing like birds and butterflies to add color and vitality to a garden. They provide the movement, like dancers on a stage set.

A sterile garden, with no animal life, is dull. Need the birds and bees to make it complete.

Echinacea, aka Purple Coneflower, aka Snakeroot, is a Great Plains plant or herb. The usual forms are tall, for the back of the border, (and tend to tip over about now) but there is a shorter version now.

Pope Benedict has essentially stated that the god that Jihadists worship is not the Christian God. Duh. That is hardly shocking.

I guess Benedict is not a dhimmi.

It's about time somebody important said it. I never bought all of that "it's all the same god" stuff. That was always lame. What sap came up with that idea, anyway?

Naturally, the "religion of peace" wants to behead the Pope now, and the idiots will set some stuff on fire and kill a few infidels, thus revealing where their true souls reside.

The Pope is wrong, I think, when he says that religion is not about hate. Some are, and some are not. He means "true religion."

The "Religion of Perpetual Offence" and Hate has taken his words precisely as they wish to take them, while ignoring his message. So much for "reaching out."

Now watch the northern European nations say things like "We must be more careful about what we say and how we say it." Indeed, one cannot be too careful around paranoids, for whom mindless seeking of offence and revenge are the favorite hobbies.

Perfect example of how people use "feeling offended" as a weapon. No apologies, please, Benedict. Nothing more than "I am sorry if you did not understand me."

"I sat at the typewriter for the first time and fell in love with the words that emerged like drops, one by one, and remained on the white sheet of paper... every drop became something that if spoken would have flown away, but on the sheets as words, became solidified, whether they were good or bad..."

A recent Opinion Journal piece about her. Piece in Giselle here. Our blog pal Dino places this atheist on the path to paradise. Her Wikipedia entry here. She has been a hero to many. A "brutal interrogator."

Brains, spirit, beauty, hutzpah, grace, toughness, and writing talent. Not bad with a camera, either, but a Lady of Letters. A loss for the Italy which persecuted her, and for the world.

Yes, it is still the Year of the Dog in the Chinese calendar, and we will make one last exception to our original desire to highlight sporting dogs, because this is a breed we love. I grew up around one.

Gentle giants. Males 130-150 lbs. Bred to do work both at sea and on land, the huge cuddly beasts pulled nets, rescued fishermen, hauled carts - and one, named Seaman, accompanied Lewis and Clark. Good choice. Interestingly, these dogs were probably of English origin, not North American, and are ancestors of the Lab.

Read about Newfies here. 

Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."

"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

Alice in Wonderland.

(h/t, Tangled Web, for reminding us)

Clips from the upcoming mini-series "docudrama", The Path to 9-11.

Dhimmis and Democrats should not watch these clips at Redstate - the Clintons and Harry Reid don't want you to have the right to see this (though even the NYT calls the film "evenhanded"). But this is America, not Iran, and the airwaves belong to the public - not to the politicians. 

Truth is, I wouldn't have been interested had not people gotten so upset about it. Too late - there are many original advance copies of the film around. (h/t, My Vast RW Consp.)

We have commented on American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk in the past, and termed him the first American rock star. Terry Teachout has a piece on Gottschalk in Commentary.

Trollope, the Gardener. South African Colin Bower profiles his excellent gardener in The New English Review.

Watch the women's finals last night? Is it true that Maria is 6'3"? Once she loosened up, she was darn impressive. Nice tennis dress, too. She makes 20 million/yr on endorsements. Deserves every penny.

If you compete, you lose. Ironman Rev. Tod at It takes a church

Bill Clinton: "I just want them to tell the truth." Good grief. Hewitt

Do Americans play top level college tennis? Not very many. VDARE

A gentleman is never unintentionally rude.

Anon.

Yup, there they go controlling and manipulating prices again.

How dare they lower gas prices?

The country was just beginning to move toward alternative, green fuels, and suddenly they cheapen oil again. They cruelly squeezed us for a while, got rich on our poor backs, and now they give us a break, just when we all sold our Suburbans and bought these lame Priussies, sold our furnaces and replaced them with wood-burning stoves, and quit eating corn so they could make ethanol out of it.

But did they really give us a break? Naw. Now they will get rich on volume, instead of high prices. Crafty SOBs, aren't they? Almost like capitalists.

Who gave them the right to control prices? The government should make sure we have cheap   expensive  no  lots of  oil...oh heck, I don't know what. But the government should do it. Surely they know what is best, but it had better be cheap gas for my F150 - I need something to show for the taxes I pay.

Al Gore and the Dems, and the Greenies, have been arguing for higher gas prices, and higher gas taxes, for twenty years. They do not like oil. I do not know what they do like, but it isn't oil - unless it is in their own SUVs and their own furnaces.

Lowering oil prices is a crime against the environment and a crime against humanity. Big Oil needs to be investigated for this senseless, evil, greedy act of lowering oil prices.

Image: Edward Hopper's "Gas."

Now Harry Reid has joined the Clinton forces to frighten ABC. Will they be frightened? If so, it will be to the country's shame. This is not Iran, Harry. Jee whiz, even the left-wing NYT calls the film "evenhanded."

To me, this smells of totalitarianism, and is extremely creepy.

Contact ABC and tell them to tell the truth without fear or favor. NBC proves here that the Clintons dropped the ball with Osama. How, besides declining opportunities to kill Bin Laden? Well, these things could have caused some concern.

Cranes and barges salvage boats in CT ripped from their moorings during last week's storm. (Thanks for photo, Chris)

The blogger-commentator David Warren caught a bit of flak for raising questions about the behavior, and the "conversions" to Islam, of the two newsmen last week. He has written a reply to those who criticized him, here.

I have to say that I had similar reactions to Warren's as I saw the events unfold. I suspect that I would have done exactly what the two men did, but I would not have been happy about it. Renouncing your beliefs and your traditions, even at gunpoint, is not something to feel good about, even if the gunpoint renders the "conversion" invalid.

This is a better topic for our Dr. Bliss, because this is not my brief on this blog, and maybe I can extract a comment from her before I post this, but the story reminded me of the impossibility of getting through life without accumulating a dump-truck load of things to feel shame and guilt about.

No matter how careful and mindful we are, if we have a working conscience, we will accumulate that load. The offer of forgiveness from God is a miraculous blessing, but many of us find it impossible to forgive ourselves of such things - and I don't think that is a bad thing.

Similar to survival guilt, if I were Steve Centani I would find what I had done to save my skin to be a source of embarassment for many years. But I hope I would have had the fear,  practicality, and appropriate contempt for my captors, to do the same thing, and get home to my family and my warm bed.

Is it possible to get out in the world and to do things without accumulating shame and guilt? I doubt it. I think it's part of the burden of being human.

We all need someone we can feed on
And if you want it, you can feed on me
Take my arm, take my leg
Oh, baby, don't you take my head

Rolling Stones, Let it Bleed 

I see Praying Mantises all the time, motionlessly stalking bees and bugs in my rose bushes and raspberries. Huge bugs, but very well-camouflaged. Lady Praying Mantises are known to take the concept of giving head a bit too forcefully. They begin with the guy's head, then, once well-fertilized, end up consuming the rest of him. Maybe they get too excited.  Or perhaps it's a feminist thing, and it makes the charming Lorraine Bobbit (Hey, lonely guys! She is still looking for a date!) seem tame by comparison. NYT Science News

Summer is done. The beaches begin to be deserted, and school, work - Real Life - takes over. The leaves will be turning soon, and another hunting season will soon be upon us.

Ye olde blogge has a minor change: We have added a Food and Drink category, and we tried to collect, in there, most of our past posts on those subjects.

One comment on the evolution of blogs: We are seeing more blog-and-news aggregators, sites that combine the professionals with the amateurs, and blur the distinctions. Places like Pajamas, Powerline News, Town Hall  - we like them very much, and visit them, and admire their ambition, but they aren't much fun. I realize that is a deeply silly criticism, and we are in favor of blurring the pros from the people.

Those sites seek visibility, eyeballs, importance, and maybe even income. That's well and good. Maybe 8 million Americans visit blogs regularly - not a huge number. World-wide, who knows? Still, a tiny number.

Thus far, we have declined to get on board with these organizations. We do want more readers, but we do not really want ads, and our eclecticism doesn't really fit. We occupy a niche.

If you enjoy us, please bookmark us, send our site around, and, if you have a site, blogroll us. We will just "do our own thing" for now.

Maggie's Farm: always surprising. Or we try to be.

Thanks for reading us. We appreciate it.