Maggie's Farm

Promo for a new Mike Judge toon series (h/t, Ace):

“We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word many mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name — liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names — liberty and tyranny.”

Abraham Lincoln, Baltimore, MD, 1864 (h/t, And rightly So)

The man likes to sail:

You have nowhere to go, and nowhere to be, and after the second time you take them your sailing companions must lose the urge to talk about the process of sailing in an enthusiastic fashion and simply enjoy it, and the company. And with the sky arrayed overhead, and the sea below, you are content to examine the world dispassionately. And the beauty and simplicity of the clouds that drift, the terns that swoop, the wavelets that tap their gentle knuckles on the windward side, the feeling of motion snatched without struggle from the endless breezes that massage your cheek and sail alike allow you to enjoy the world and all its wonders, and everybody in it, if just for a moment.

The giant garbage dump in the Pacific. What a shame. h/t, Cons. Grapevine

Pelosi first heard of 9-11 attacks in late 2003. Scrappleface

Jail for not holding those filthy handrails? I thought they were there for the old folks.

How to land an F-16 with a spinal injury. (h/t, Neptunus)

MA: Let the frail die. The best way to save $ is to refuse treatment for anybody over 45. Ted Kennedy too old for brain surgery in Canada.

Related: CBO estimates on Obamacare top $1 trillion.

What's happening to the piano?

How uncertainty is affecting investors

High state taxes lead to job loss and population loss. Duh. Related: NY taxpayers vote with their feet.

The pork inside cap and trade.

PBS' war on religion will cut "Mass for Shut-ins." How progressive.

This letter from Congress is unbelievable. Don't they realize that they are our servants?  h/t, Cafe Hayek

The "snarl of hatred" from the Pro-lifers. Related: Waterboarding terrorists bad; infanticide good. Go figger. Related: Is abortion "murder-lite"?

That porkulus package did a lot of good, didn't it? Well, everybody knows it was pure political pay-off.

American Thinker is up to 1 million unique visitors/month. They deserve it. They want your support, though.

Excuses, excuses. Breitbart, "I Jerk", and Dowd

Finally, Honda produces a crappy car

Sam Huntingdon eulogies

Those climate ocean buoys must be defective. Science must be required to fit the narrative. So, just for some cruel fun:

A nice email from a friend who came from Russia with his family to work in the US:

Special thanks for the introduction of the Maggie’s Farm. I don’t go to bed unless I read something there. I hope that you are going to survive the Bolsheviks intervention in this country.

It is a wonderful day indeed when we stop working for God and begin working with God.

Anon.

One quote from the NYT Op-Ed:

When one Dickinson College alumna recently applied to work at a public school, she had a photocopied version of her Latin diploma returned as foreign and illegible.

All of my kids took Latin in grade school and high school. Good fun, and it has served them well. I took ancient Greek instead, plus French and German. Only fairly fluent in French now. Sorta-kinda. Can still read French or German OK if it's non-technical. Struggle with the Greek but have a feel for it, I think.

John 15: 9-17

⁹"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. ¹¹I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

¹²My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

¹⁷This is my command: Love each other.

Ry Cooder, 1987:

Negro Barber Shop, 1936, Atlanta, GA. Walker Evans. (h/t Dr X, who likes the kind of photos I like.) In 60 years, a photo of your barber shop will be just as interesting.

I am putting mine in the ground today, after using my car as a greenhouse for a couple of weeks. I have 6 varieties this time. Always those Sweet Million cherry tomatoes, and always the classic Beefsteaks, even though they aren't ready around here until mid-late August. Still worth it for a few weeks of them. Some yellows. No plum tomatoes - the canned are fine with me if they are going to be cooked anyway.

Are yours in yet?

h/t, S,C&A:

Everybody is showing this one, so we might as well too. The old guy is shameless, isn't he? A good thing he prefers elephant-style to missionary style or her riders might be in a heap of trouble.

She is a cute lil' thing, if a bit on the heavy side. They both seem to be smiling, and that's what matters.

Here's how (h/t, Rug Rag):

VDH begins:

Oh, I know that President Obama’s approval ratings are still around 62%. But I also remember that George Bush’s at the end of 2001 got even higher — and stayed at or above 60% through most of 2002, explaining why he increased his congressional majority in the midterm elections.

Nevertheless, I think we are beginning — after less than four months — to see fissures in Obama’s Pentelic statuary. And the cracks will widen, because in about six areas he has taken on human nature itself, age-old logic, and common sense-opponents that even a Harvard Law degree and Chicago organizing are no match for.

Whole thing here.

h/t, Moonbattery

We have posted many times about the tragedy of the commons here. This handy concept goes far beyond the original meaning.

It is the most basic human nature to take care of your own. Unless you have a close, small, closed society with strong affinity and who are on the same page, people will rape the commons for their own purposes.

We posted the other day about plans to try to maintain the fisheries.

John Stossel discusses Eat the Tigers! Same point. Most people need a sense of ownership to really care about stewardship.

How good of a forecaster is James Hansen? (h/t, SDA)

Growing new neurons throughout life: Micro mRNA and neurogenesis. Dang brain is quite remarkable.

Current advances in neuroscience go under-reported because the press doesn't understand it any better than they understand any science or basic economics.

Journalists seem, to me, to be the ultimate "I was told there would be no math" people, who should never have been admitted to any college.

If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.

Mark Twain (h/t, Lib Leanings)