Maggie's Farm

Had an outage for 8 hrs this morning. All it seems to take around here is a stiff breeze.

Re power outages, I just bought a few of these for stocking stuffers. Got one for Gwynnie's car, too. Sorry I got them right before the 2 for 1 deal began. 

Brian Aitken's Mistake - A New Jersey man gets seven years for being a responsible gun owner.

Wilson Sonsini and Silicon Law

Use Wiki? Send them a few bucks.

Inflation = taxation. the stealth $600 billion tax increase

McGowan on the Blindness of the Times

I would read his book, but I already know what he is saying.

Advice on giving advice.

Related to advice, Gingrich: Obama should take off most of the rest of the year

Happy 5th Birthday to Pajamas.

Can these things make $?

Obama Whines: American - Journalists 'Never Say Thank You'

Show a little masculine dignity.

Prager: Fairy tales, and people aren't all good

Religion of Peace holds religious Death To America rally

Why the hate? Why the "hate speech"?

Waiver-mania! The ever-expanding Obamacare escapee list

We want a waiver for Maggie's Farm - staff and readers

 Soros: China has better functioning government than U.S.

It's called a "dictatorship," shmuck. Move there, and tell them how to do their job better. Bring Friedman with you.

Is this an antique Colonial or a reproduction? Defend your judgement with details.

The grand White Oak of eastern North America.

For the past 40 years, as farming has declined in the Northeast, it is not unusual to see one of these gnarly monsters among a woodland filled with younger trees. Sometimes in the midst of the stands of White Pines which often quickly fill abandoned pastures. The old White Oak is the sign that you are walking through an old cow pasture. Squint your eyes in the woods to eliminate all of the younger trees, and imagine dairy cattle chewing their cud in the shade of that old oak.

This is Frederic Church's View Near Stockbridge, MA, 1847:

I was good friends with one of these giants as a boy. Its lower branches reached almost to the ground, so that you could monkey up to 15' or 20' into the tree by going up those low limbs. Getting higher was difficult going - and slippery going from all of the moss growing on those big limbs.

New England is filled with second-growth forests, not too much climax forest yet. It's difficult to realize now, but in the late 1800s there was hardly a tree standing in rural New England other than in farmers' woodlots - and sugarbush.

My pic doesn't capture it, but this one has about a 5' diameter. We were hunting for Woodcock.

All worship was to him sacred, since he believed that in its most degraded forms, among the most ignorant and foolish of worshippers, there has yet been some true seeking after the Divine, and that between these and the most glorious ritual or the highest philosophic certainty, there lies so small a space that we may believe the Saints in Paradise regard it with a smile.

Via Potemra, who says "It’s from Elizabeth Waterhouse’s Thoughts of a Tertiary, and it was used by Evelyn Underhill as one of the epigraphs to her classic book Worship"

At Maggie's, we love the charms of both town and country - when they get it right. The decline of industrial urbanization and the (government-subsidized) rise of the suburbs - with the move of industry and corporate offices to the suburbs, have left many cities as hollow cores of their former selves.

Lively people like to live in cities if they are vibrant, safe, interesting, attractive - and if there is work. For example, much of Manhattan is so appealing that few can afford to live there.

Malanga at City Journal: The Next Wave of Urban Reform - Mayors Cory Booker and Dave Bing fight to save two of America’s most distressed cities. One quote:

Since the mid-1960s, many big-city mayors and Washington policymakers had argued that the problems plaguing America’s cities—rising crime, deteriorating schools, sluggish economies, and social dysfunction—resulted from national and global economic forces that urban politicians were powerless to resist. Out of that period came an array of ambitious federal programs to aid city residents and revitalize struggling urban neighborhoods. Even though the programs—many of them carried out under the banner of the War on Poverty—did little to boost cities’ fortunes, the refrain that urban woes were Washington’s responsibility became commonplace among mayors and remained so for nearly three decades.

But just a few years after the summit, America witnessed the rise of a new group of mayors who rejected the notion that the federal government—or anyone else—should be their savior.

Read the whole thing. Malanga tells the story well. Link above.

From DiscoverTheNetworks, Organizations Funded Directly by George Soros and his Open Society Institute.

Related, Soros is targeting your state.

I've got to keep an eye on this guy, because his view of America and the world is so far from my own.

Is that a pistol in your pocket, or are you just glad to see the TSA agent? With all the fuss about the TSA groping everybody's "junk," I think it's about time the TSA gave a waiver to Moslems so they aren't offended. No waiver for nuns, though. You never know what those sneaky nuns might be up to.

Anger is not a mental illness. Except when it is part of one.

Let's face facts: it can be fun to be pissed off.

Are we going to the dogs? Our de-aspirational society; or, a society aiming for victimization and tawdriness

I love that sort of cranky post.

So afraid of skin cancer that they get rickets.

Via Drudge, In-state tuition for illegal immigrants is preserved with California Supreme Court ruling

That's no way to run a railroad.

The Intellectual Class: New Book Calls Obama a ‘Philosopher President’

Good grief. Is he a Spinone?

Clarice's Pieces: Restoring American Stature Abroad

The Bower-in-Chief ain't the guy to do that.

Sarah Palin's true reality: 'Free' Alaska is a welfare state that enjoys generous federal subsidies

Sad but true. With all their oil, they should be supporting me. Oh, wait. I forgot. They can't drill.

Genius marketing: Buy Truck, Get Free AK-47

Solar power in Canada?

It's a joke, right? Or are they preparing for the Palm Trees in Saskatoon?

Health Care Reform Group Gets Waiver from… Health Care Reform?

Where can I get me my waiver?

Related: Unreal. SEIU Local 25 and 12 Other Union Groups Receive Obamacare Waivers

The super-rich tend to be Libs. Jacobson: Frank Rich Knows The Answer, He Just Can't Say It

Good news for Gaia is bad news for Greenies: Sea Life Flourishes in the Gulf.

Oil is carbon. Carbon is life.

No Pasaran: Everything you ever Really Needed to Know about the European Left

They hate Jews

Neoneo: Bush derangement syndrome vs. Obama derangement syndrome? 

Coyote doesn't view voting as sacred. He'll take freedom anywhere he can find it.

Fan and Fred's New Boss is another 'affordable housing' advocate.

Brilliant!

Q&O: New York Times suddenly discovers governing as a priority for new GOP majority

Sometimes I confuse an Onion headline with a NYT headline.

Right Network video: Jackpot Justice: Lawyers Gone Wild

Left, Right agree: Obama’s G-20 performance worst ever

Is he a weenie, or a putz?

As Betsy considers, More evidence that Obama is in over his head in foreign policy

Sometimes I feel sorry for the guy - but not too often because I know he hates me.

Bridgeport's Missing Republican Votes

What happens in Bridgeport stays in Bridgeport.

Harry Reid wants more public employee unions.

They already own the federal government. What else do they need?

Gregory Kane: Nobody wants to talk about black America's gender crisis

It's racist to mention it.

The policy wreckage of the Chevy Volt. George Will.

It's a bad joke at the taxpayers' expense.

Get your John Galt t-shirts here. They're the in thing. Tiger wears one.

Rubin Museum: Sacred Symbols Across Two Cultures. Quote:

Almost every school kid know of his defense of the poor and slaying the dragon, a symbol of pagan Rome. Similarly, the Buddhist protector slays demons, but inner, psychological ones. He is depicted here as the six-armed Mahakala. In the Tibetan tradition his image is an object of meditation. As a "wrathful deity" his job is to quiet the mind or destroy the mind's chatter and help the person meditating reach a new level of awareness.

Aging brains and bloggers (h/t Insty)

Incoming Wisconsin, Ohio Governors Vow to Refuse Federal Money for High-Speed Rails

Reason: It's time to reform Social Security

Why the Fed Cannot Regulate ‘Systemic Risk’

Should there be a mortgage deduction? Should there be capital gains tax on sales of primary residences? NRO

Dino: Disputing the idea that “jobs won’t be coming back” is job one

Related at NY Post: Class dismissed: Why middle income jobs are not coming back

Lobbyists Upset About Demint Earmark Ban

Driscoll: Racist Nostalgia at the Village Voice

GOP Staking Claim to Obama's Coalition of Voters

Obama: ‘What About Compliments?’  Related at Powerline: American Narcissus

NPR switches story on tax money

Planned Parenthood Is Worried...and Should Be

32 degrees F at 5:30 AM. Perfect and balmy for morning coffee and cigar while strolling around outside and waking up. My snap did not capture the Vs of the Wood Ducks cruising in the small lake. Lots of Wood Ducks thereabouts.

Thanks again for the invite, dear friend. (If you wondered, it's gents only - and tobacco enjoyment is encouraged. Jacket and tie for dinner, of course. Traditional American, like Maggie's Farm.)

That's Harpoon UFO in the Growler. Their UFO is good stuff.

A fellow hunter at the lodge this weekend had his Spinone with him. (Pic of his pup below) This was a new breed to me. A pointer. They seem to run 70-80 lbs. His owner says that if you want one, make sure you buy it in Italy, not in the US. Relatively slow, methodical, and errorless hunters, it seems, with a style which sounds similar to that of the Munsterlanders: they do not run crazy, but search carefully and relentlessly, at a steady human pace.

It's all in the genes. (You would like this dog, Craig.)

His dog was very well-trained (in Italian commands, eg "Posto!"). He told me that they say in Italy that the face of a Spinone should look like an old philosopher. His dog had that look, and insisted on slobbering me with drooling kisses - perceiving, as any wise philosopher dog would, that Bird Dog is a dog guy.

The breed is said to be an ancestor of all of the pointers, with a pedigree dating to c. 500 AD. The fur is thick and wiry.

I could use a spare Spinone around the place (although they look like tick magnets). A good excuse for another trip to Italia.

h/t, Theo

Isaiah 65:17-25

65:17 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.

65:18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.

65:19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress.

65:20 No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.

65:21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

65:22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

65:23 They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the LORD-- and their descendants as well.

65:24 Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear.

65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent--its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.

No, it is not a Flying Fish.

One quote from the interview:

One miserable November day I was down there on the sideline, wet, cold. And I looked up to the top of the stadium, and there was the press box. Shelter! I knew they had heaters in there with them, and these people were sitting there in complete comfort while we’re miserable down here on the field. They’re writing, they’re typing, and they’re warm. Then and there I decided to become a writer.

Is this image via Moonbattery fair, or just a cheap ad hominen shot along the lines of "Bush is retarded"? Name-calling.

As I understand it, "narcissism" covers a spectrum from wholesome self-respect (which must be earned), to dangerous sociopathy (manifested by an inability to care about, or even to deeply recognize, the existence of others except as tools).

The Wiki piece on Malignant Narcissism says this:

"The malignant narcissist is presented as pathologically grandiose, lacking in conscience and behavioral regulation with characteristic demonstrations of joyful cruelty and sadism."

That sounds pretty bad. To understand these things, one really needs to understand in detail how a person relates to others and what they mean to him. You can't do that by watching somebody on TV.

Here's a post on the topic: Narcissism in High-Functioning Individuals – Big Ego or Severe Disorder?

At City Journal, Urban Renewal’s Human Costs - A history of postwar Manhattan developments shows the pitfalls of mass planning.

The geniuses almost always get it wrong.

Keith Richards' book sounds entertaining. Review here.

Maine Family Robinson: Welcome To The New Prohibition: No Icky Boys, Please

The Lascaux website has been upgraded, with better audio and video

The religious Left at the White House

Why does college cost so much?

“Extreme global warming” in the ancient past

How the EPA cripples the American economy

Blumenthal defeated Mac Mahon 140 years ago.

Sweeney Among The Nightingales

Apeneck Sweeney spreads his knees
Letting his arms hang down to laugh,
The zebra stripes along his jaw
Swelling to maculate giraffe.

I have never had bad grits, but some afficionados get fussy about their grits.

Come to think of it. friends gave us a big bag of stone ground grits a while ago. They were very good.

If people are doing better, increase taxes because they can afford it. If people are doing worse, raise taxes so as to be able to "help" them with more government spending.

Commenter John, here at Maggie's yesterday

Leaving this morning for an out-doorsy weekend. This pic made me notice how filthy my keyboard is. I need to run it through the dishwasher.

We discussed the rise of the black middle class earlier this week. Here's one piece on that. A quote:

Larry Tye helped answer an ages-old question: How did a high percentage of black people, who toiled as slaves and suffered under Jim Crow laws, shed that oppression to live middle-class lives and enjoy the American dream?

Telegraph: When people stop believing in God they start believing in Big Government and Obamaism

TIME: Happy Meal ban doesn't go far enough.

It's a wonder we can ever feed ourselves.

Driscoll: NYT Editor: Our Subscribers are Such Morons!

Not hot dogs for you.

This guy is an American hero

Everybody talks about the housing crash.

It has been no "crash." It's just the return from a bubble to the normal trend line.

Air power in Afghanistan.

Repub health care ideas are genocide

Another view of the deficit commission, from Mother Jones

More on those Russian spies

Map narrows for Obama reelection

VDH: The Obama Fabulists

New York aristocrat Rosalie Edge was a crank, a Suffragette, and an ardent conservationist. A bio of her came out last year: Rosalie Edge, Hawk of Mercy: The Activist Who Saved Nature from the Conservationists.

Among the many causes she took up, one was protection of raptors from the mass slaughter of her era. She bought Hawk Mountain in Eastern PA and created the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. A high point on the Eastern raptor migration flyway, Hawk Mountain had been a popular site for the slaughter of raptors by gunners who believed they were going some sort of good while having fun.

Hawk Mountain is now a foundation engaged in conservation education programs. It remains an excellent viewing spot in fall migration season. (Photo from the Hawk Mtn website.)

How tasty does this look? These are the $12 lunches at Republic on Union Square, NYC. We love Asian rice-noodle soups and dumpling soups at Maggie's. We like Union Square too. I could tell you stories about what it used to be like, back when I lived for a while on University Place in the Village (just across from Dylan's old hang-out, the Cedar Tavern). It was really bad. The cops would pull dead guys out of the bushes and off the benches when making their morning rounds. ODs, some stabbings too. That was back, before Giuliani, when the pundits said that NYC could not be governed.

You should see it now. A bar and cafe with live music in the small park, a dog park, great restaurants all around. Two off-Broadway theaters. Park guys picking up litter, and even an unobtrusive police presence - on foot. Not in patrol cars. Putting cops back on the neighborhood beat has worked very well in NYC. Patrol cars should be only for back-up and rapid-response, in urban areas.