Maggie's Farm

h/t, Theo

Dylan Pays Respects To Girl From The North Country

When Vets for Freedom Met with Hillary Clinton

She served in Vietnam!

Powerline: Obama on Libya: How Did He Do? Also, Jennifer Rubin: Obama’s Libya speech

U.S. Products Help Block Mideast Web

Health Care Myth Busters: Is There a High Degree of Scientific Certainty in Modern Medicine?

Unlike New Orleans and Japan, the ruin we see in Detroit is entirely man-made.

EU says EU to ban cars from cities by 2050

Ag Committee Supports Cuts to Food Assistance, Not Farm Subsidies

At Thompson, The Barrel’s Bottom:

After weeks of covering the Wisconsin protests (touched on here), Ann Althouse and Meade now poke through the dregs.

You have to half-crazy to move to Rumford, Maine. Hardly anybody moves to Maine anymore, much less Rumford. Maybe Portland, for a summertime-only retirement (six months plus one day in Florida, and no state income taxes to pay - and estate tax advantages to when you get to that point).

Winter is a wonderful, lovely thing, but, unless you are a skiier, it goes on too long up there. (However, we were 26 degrees F this morning down here, thanks to the crisis of Global Cooling.) You cannot grow tomatoes in your garden up there unless you build a greenhouse but that's not too hard - you just throw a couple of layers of polyurethane over some old boards in the sun next to the back of the house. "Just put some bleachers out in the sun..."

The Northeast is full of dying old towns where the best jobs are government jobs and where industry has fled for friendlier climes with friendlier taxation. In my opinion, if you move to a place in the hinterlands with a 6,000 population, you had really better love your spouse - and your family.

Little old Rumford is fortunate, however, to have its own online newspaper, the Rumford Meteor. It's good for keeping up with the town's main forms of recreation, which appear to be DUI and marijuana. However, from the reports, towns like Rumford still have their cadres of good old reserved and private Yankee small town folk who go to church and whose kids will play football and go to wars and want to work. They will mostly leave town, for sure, but some won't.

When I think about it, I realize that maybe I have to be at least half-crazy to live where I live, too. But my friends are here - and my church and my work - and I can get to good olde NYC once in a while - so I guess I will stay put. Nothing is perfect.

For me, Maine means grouse hunting and Moose filet mignon and Bert and I. I've heard that Sugarloaf is great, but never tried it. Too long of a drive, and the delights of skiing are hassle enough.

Bob Bryan was our chaplain where I went to school. Everybody loved the guy. Here he is. Here's "Which Way to Millinocket?"

Do you know who Haym Solomon was?

Sowell's new book: Economic Facts and Fallacies: Second Edition

4 Things I’ve Learned Moving Back In With My Parents As An Adult (h/t Insty)

Talmud Study now Mandatory in South Korea

"You are one election away from becoming a hopeless serf, as are your children and their children."

Horrible… Obama and Reuters Rewrite History to Smear Bush

Steyn: Earth Hour in LondoN

Related: Anarchists demand government handouts

Pretty lame anarchists to want more government.

GOP sets sights on AARP over its support for healthcare reform (h/t Tiger)

Dino: What an awful way to live

If we had more altruists like Andrew Breitbart, the world would be a better place

In Prison for Taking a Liar Loan

Pajamas: Worry Over Islam Like Hitler’s Hatred of Jews?

 Syrians Gunned Down, International Community Yawns

Two US-Trained Palestinian Officers Arrested in Bloody Slaughter of Jewish Family

WaPo: The United Nations’ human ‘rights’ council

h/t Theo -

I use Preen on our perennial beds and shrub borders. I think Mrs. BD, the Weeder-in-Chief, appreciates it, but my Mom gives me heck for using it since she views it as lazy and possibly not environmentally acceptable.

As I understand it, it mainly prevents seeds from germinating. What's wrong with that? Yes, we mulch too, but seeds germinate in mulch.

Weeding plantings to make fresh space for the new weeds no longer interests me. I'd rather be playing tennis.

An Apple-connected friend sent me the gifts of an iPad and a groovy big Macbook Pro today. Very nice indeed. Slick machines. They work with my wireless, and have come with abundant Apple assitance from my local Apple Store. Plus he had them set up with my own new email etc. Am I ready for this?

But exactly how do all these Apple things work? My fingers are not trained for this, much less my brain. He says "Now, mind you, I am not an Apple evangelist, but..."  Right.

I'll give it the old college try before dinner out on the town, while I listen to Dylan Radio. Me think me needs an Apple mouse in my house.

I don't think we have ever posted a link to Dylan Radio. Time to correct that error now.

It can be an addiction for those interested in Dylan's music. Lots of live performances. Fascinating stuff. Dylan is a walking jukebox of the American Songbook.

Some of it is covers of Dylan tunes. I think it runs 24 hrs/day, streamed and for free (unless you hit the tip jar).

The site is great fun. Ain't these intertunnels cool?

Give Dylan Radio a try for a day, Captain Tom, while flying ties and tying flies. You too, Sipp - and Vandy.

Why every kid in America doesn't need to be educated

Sex games in the Navy

Extra points for lesbians? What the heck would you expect?

The Arts: After the Grants -- It Didn't Happen Anymore (h/t Insty)

Amusing: The Fall And Rise Of Rebecca Black

Buchanan: How Killing Libyans Became a Moral Imperative

Traditional Diplomacy Blooming in Moscow

Cleveland’s Signs of Renewal

Moonbattery: State Department, UN Spend Our Money on Nukes for Iran and Syria

neoneo: More political change stories

The intractable violence in the Ivory Coast continues unabated.

Breitbart TV: Palin on the Vicious Political Double Standard For Women

NY Times Shocked To Find Islamists Rising In Egypt:

The NY Times' reporters on the ground in Egypt apparently did not see Islamism coming, unlike the right-bloggers in pajamas sitting in dimly lit basements with candy wrappers strewn on the floor.
 

Manhattan Moment: What America really needs is a White House Council on Men and Boys

IBD: Union Thuggery Run Amok

From My name is Matt, and I am a public employee:

Everyone needs to take a step back and calm down.  I'm not excusing the actions of national unions like SEIU (I detest them) but not every public employee is a hard-left ideologue.  Mostly, we're regular folks doing a job and supporting our families. I hope this bit of insider's perspective is useful to AT readers, and thank you for letting me vent. 

Krauthammer on Obama's refusal to lead

I think Obama has a passive, and maybe reflective temperament. That's not a bad thing in itself - except in a leadership job.
 

The author begins -

Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(so priketh hem nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of engelond to caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
Bifil that in that seson on a day,
In southwerk at the tabard as I lay
Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage
To caunterbury with ful devout corage,
At nyght was come into that hostelrye
Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye,
Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle
In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle,
That toward caunterbury wolden ryde.
The chambres and the stables weren wyde,
And wel we weren esed atte beste.
And shortly, whan the sonne was to reste,
So hadde I spoken with hem everichon
That I was of hir felaweshipe anon,
And made forward erly for to ryse,
To take oure wey ther as I yow devyse.
But nathelees, whil I have tyme and space,
Er that I ferther in this tale pace,
Me thynketh it acordaunt to resoun
To telle yow al the condicioun
Of ech of hem, so as it semed me,
And whiche they weren, and of what degree,
And eek in what array that they were inne;
And at a knyght than wol I first bigynne.

Not aprill yet, but almost. A "palmer" is someone who wears a palm leaf as testimony of having taken a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I am posting a "modern English" translation below the fold, but bearing in mind that Chaucer wrote in the closest thing to modern English at the time - some say invented modern English in literature. The British Isles had many languages and language variants at the time; Anglo-Saxon, French, Gaelic, Welsh, etc. Just consider how many Norman-French words he uses. What the literate and well-educated Jeff Chaucer wrote was and is pretty much modern English - and fine job he did with it.

Pinetop Perkins is dead at 97. This is Down in Mississippi:

Sipp's eulogy here.

A person's true character will always reveal itself, given enough time. Problem is, it can take too long.

Our Dr. Joy Bliss, in an email to me yesterday

Anchoress: The Toxicity of Idolatry – UPDATED

Horowitz: Suicidal Jews and the Anti-Semites They Ignore (and Sometimes Embrace)

Coulter: Liberals: They Blinded Us With Science

$461 million project will speed train trip to Raleigh by 13 minutes

Ain't it inspiring to see government spending your money?

Jammie: Radical Governor Threatens Government Shutdown

It's about Gov. Cuomo ll

New census milestone: Hispanics to hit 50 million

Related: How many people want to move to the US?

Lots and lots of 'em. More than anybody would want.

Book is applauded: Gary Wills says it's dumb

I suspect Wills is right.

Insty:

SILICON GRAFFITI: Forward, Into The Past!

Reminds me of this Neal Stephenson quote: “The twentieth century was one in which limits on state power were removed in order to let the intellectuals run with the ball, and they screwed everything up and turned the century into an abattoir. . . . We Americans are the only ones who didn’t get creamed at some point during all of this. We are free and prosperous because we have inherited political and value systems fabricated by a particular set of eighteenth-century intellectuals who happened to get it right. But we have lost touch with those intellectuals.”

Am Thinker: The Crisis of Modern Male Immaturity

Before Libyan Revolt, U.S. Was Planning To Sell Gaddafi Military Equipment

Economics of Anti-Consumer, Protectionist Taxi Cartels: $624-850,000 for a NYC Medallion

Sally Pipes: A glimpse of a future with Obamacare

Many people only know about the Municipal Art Society of New York through their acclaimed architectural walking tours or their historical preservation efforts, but they do much more than that. A BD daughter is considering getting involved with them, and I'm sure the BD lad would be interested too.

They even have an Urbanist Program.

There are so many cool things in life to get involved with, ways to learn and to be useful and to meet interesting people - and so little time.

Still sane? Dylan turns 70 in May, and is still on the road. From BOB DYLAN'S CURIOUS DOTAGE

 In the 20 years to 2010, he gave 2,045 concerts, according to the fan site ExpectingRain.com, where you can study the setlist for every one of those nights. In April he will play in Singapore, Australasia and—if Beijing lets him in, after rebuffing him last year—China. In the summer he is expected in Europe. Not for nothing are his wanderings known as the Never Ending Tour.

His predicament raises the opposite question: how does it feel to be so known? Dylan gives an answer in “Chronicles”. “The big bugs in the press kept promoting me as the mouthpiece, spokesman, or even conscience of a generation. That was funny...I was more a cowpuncher than a Pied Piper...I really was never any more than what I was—a folk musician who gazed into the grey mist with tear-blinded eyes and made up songs that floated in a luminous haze...I wasn’t a preacher performing miracles. It would have driven anybody mad.” Maybe that is his achievement: to have stayed sane.

Prelutsky: What’s So Darn Great About Islam?

And today's number one reason for wishing the entire editorial board of the New York Times had just one neck is...

Barney Frank Calls Republicans Morally Stupid Bigots

Not "clingers"?

Obama's War on the Middle Class

Yes, conservatives self-select away from academia.

Standpoint: Dust Busting Today's Gender Myths

Physics Envy May Be Hazardous To Your Health– And Economy

NYC wants Obamacare waiver

So does Maggie's Farm

Andy Griffith's Obamacare Ads Cost Taxpayers $3.66 Million

David Warren on Libya:

We don't know what we are doing. We only know that we have moral support for it on paper, from an international organization that is utterly corrupt, wherein members who do not wish us well are pleased to grant us permission to blunder.

But of Course: NOW Blames the Victim

A book that needed writing, by Israel's Capote

Muslim Brotherhood’s Weeklong Celebration of the Caliphate at Virginia Military Institute

Why NATO Members Disagree on Libya

Making Hookups Happen at the University of Chicago

Dang. I went to college too early

Via Betsy: Ohio's Governor Moves Against Unions - The reform goes further than Wisconsin's.

Dog's name is Sugar. Has a camera on his back. Impressive how well he marks the downed birds. (h/t, SDA):

A friend who recently moved to New England from Texas asked me for a few good long-weekend getaway spots (to get away from their kids for romance, with good food and good hiking, regardless of season). It's important to couples to get away from it all - daily life routine, internet, rug rats, dogs, - to refresh the relationship.

I don't really like to stay in an inn without a fireplace in the room, but off the top of my head, I offered these (with a range of luxuriousness), although I am sure readers have their own lists of favorites:

Mohonk Mountain House

The Mayflower Inn

The Mount Washington Hotel

Chatham Bars Inn

The Hermitage Inn

The Boulders

The Trapp Family Lodge

Block Island and Newport have cool places too. The 1661 Inn, for example.

Got any favorite spots to share with our readers? Put 'em in the comments.

Photo is Mohonk. The crazy old place is still going strong, and now even serves alcohol.

A nice Spring snow. My friend from Oklahoma calls this "Oklahoma snow."

Washington Invents an Anti-Bullying Law

Bullying: Yes, Violence Can be the Answer

Social Leveling: Socialism and Secularism

Mead: Strategic Lessons From Hannibal’s War

Nobody wants to run the war

Sen. Coburn: A Physician’s Check-up on the One-Year-Old Health-Care Law

Walter Williams: Up from the projects

Ethanol is dirtier than gasoline

The Real Problem With High-Speed Rail - We’re borrowing late 21st-century money to build late 20th-century technology to benefit early 21st-century politicians

She grabbed her pink .38 Special

Volokh: Has Obama Taken the Imperial Presidency to a Greater Height than Bush?

Glenn:

THE HILL: President Obama Struggles To Define Mission In Libya.

Here’s some guidance for free: “If you strike at a king, you must kill him.”

Via Drudge:BIDEN FLASHBACK: 'If he gives authorization to war... without Congressional approval, I will make it my business to impeach him!'

From Yural Levin, via Ace:

All over the developed world, nations are coming to terms with the fact that the social-democratic welfare state is turning out to be untenable. The reason is partly institutional: The administrative state is dismally inefficient and unresponsive, and therefore ill-suited to our age of endless choice and variety. The reason is also partly cultural and moral: The attempt to rescue the citizen from the burdens of responsibility has undermined the family, self-reliance, and self-government. But, in practice, it is above all fiscal: The welfare state has turned out to be unaffordable, dependent as it is upon dubious economics and the demographic model of a bygone era.

Wanted: Stories of Successful People Without College Degrees

Juan Williams: ‘Time to Defund NPR’

Arab News: What if Arabs had recognized the State of Israel in 1948?

Gifts of bogus statistics for the health-care law’s birthday

HNN: LIBYA ANOTHER IRAQ OR IRAN?

O: Let’s be even more dependent on foreign oil

The great paywall debate: Will The New York Times’ new model work?

SEIU Sued for ‘Harassment’

Noted Constitutional scholar on the US intervention in Libya

“…there is no greater truth than global warming, with its threat of a shrinking snowpack…”

Slate: Law of Averages - Why the law-school bubble is bursting.

Hubristic Republicans Misread Political Landscape: Albert Hunt

US Army Apologizes for Horrific Photos from Afghanistan

These guys were diabolical, if they did what is alleged. As Insty puts it:

OBAMA GHRAIB: They told me if I voted for John McCain, the news would be filled with reports of war and atrocity year after year. And they were right!