Maggie's Farm

Samuel Johnson said of poet Thomas Gray, insultingly, "As a poet, his sole virtue is his creativity."

The world is packed with poets these days, including some of a very odd breed of "professional poets" - a crazy idea in itself. Not many people read much poetry though, and even less often outloud as it is meant to be read.

Jeffrey Gray in a Chronicle piece, Poets' Puffery, notes:

In spite of the tenor of book titles like The Marginalization of Poetry and After the Death of Poetry, and in spite of the almost complete removal of the study of poetry from the higher reaches of literary theoretical studies — postcolonialism, poststructuralism, and the New Historicism — the writing of poetry has never been more feverish. There are 300,000 poetry Web sites. Six years ago, an heir to the Lilly fortune — herself an aspiring poet — gave $100-million to Poetry magazine, though her own submissions were all rejected by the editor. Poets continue to graduate in ever-larger numbers from those much-maligned M.F.A. programs.

Writing poetry, it seems to me, is an avocation and a hobby craft. I guess songwriting could be a profession, but one for a tiny few. I used to write poems, but now I specialize in doggerel for special occasions. In his article, Jeffrey Gray discusses evaluation-inflation of poetry, and makes a case for "satisfactory" poetry.

Why should everything have to be "great"?

From VDH, in The Triumph of Banality, one quote:

If we wish to get health-care costs under control, then we should at least be honest with the American people and admit that we are all paying a collective fortune largely for three reasons: (1) to keep functioning into their 60s those who drank, smoked, and ate too much and in a past era would have passed on at 60; (2) to give us all an extra three to five years of mobility and functionality after we reach 75; (3) to fit us up with IVs, feeding tubes, and respirators so that in our last six months of life we can die in a rest home or among machines and specialists in a hospital rather than in our own home with a few morphine tablets for pain and a bowl of soup with a straw on the nightstand.

He is wrong about the medicine: your longevity is in your genes more than in your behavior. However, the only solution to the costs of medical care is rationing and I, for one, do not want the government in charge of that.

Can you identify these wild ducks? Gwynnie cooked these for me and Mrs. BD for dinner last night, on the grill. (Do not say Huey, Dewey and Louie) With Cumberland Sauce. (Answer below the fold)

Video of Wilbur Wright demonstrating his flying machine in Italy in 1909, including the first footage ever filmed from an airplane. Here.

Gotta love the internal combustion engine.

The long-time prosperous but (historically) tasteful, silver-spoon WASPy NYC suburb of Greenwich, CT (the growing-up home of George Bush Sr.) became the hedge fund capital of the world over the past decade, as well as a highly-desirable address for newly-weathy Wall Street Masters of the Universe. Many houses, too, are owned by international folks who visit only occasionally, or as second homes for New Yorkers.

In 2006, the median home price was $1.7 million. I recently read that Greenwich suddenly has over 80 homes for sale for over 7 million. That's a lot for a small town. But yes, prices have toppled, sales are nearly dead, and the inventory is surging in the fancier NYC suburbs. Let's see what real estate is doing there now:

Here's one for $460,000. A simple, classic, nice  c. 1900 workingman's house:

 Here's a less modest listing, for $2,175,000. It says 4 bedrooms, but I'd bet that they are small:

 This place is cute, for only $519,000. A happy couple could be happy here - but a contented couple could be happy anywhere:

Here's a 4-acre building lot (in 4-acre zoning) for 1 million. I like it just as it is:

Moving a bit upscale, this pleasant 3 BR place is now only $3,125,000. A tiny Cape with some small additions:

 This 5 BR was the carriage house for the servants on an old estate from the pre-income tax days. 2 acres. $4,000,000. I like it:

That one was lovely, but you can also buy this hideous architectural monstrosity for $4 million. I guess you could set it on fire, live in a tent, and farm the land, but I doubt that tomato prices could pay your mortgage. But who cares? The Obama plan could get you off the hook:

Moving up to $6.5 million, your basic, solid New England 6 BR colonial:

Jumping up to $9.5 million, you often tend to leave good taste behind and begin to find new, self-aggrandizing places like the one below. Things meant to be "mansions," I guess, in wannabe Brit aristocracy-style. Some folks need a mansion-thingy for self esteem or social-climbing purposes. It's a free country: to each his own. You could cover this whole thing with ivy and it would look better:

Just for fun, let's see what $18 million will get you. This one  is comfortable, homey, unpretentious - glitz-free - and pleasant:

Tommy Hilfiger's house is for sale for $22 million. The 20,000-square-foot home has seven bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, a massive great room, basketball court, spa with a waterfall, theater, gym and a 2,000-bottle wine cellar.

Let's spend our very last penny on this one. $95 million, plenty of bedrooms but a mere 40 acres. The sellers were major Lefty donors. Impress your friends! Set up a nice rifle range! Get some kegs, dig a pit next to the pool and roast a pig or two and throw everybody's girlfriend into the pool. Or is it just a shallow self-reflecting pool?

I know that we have many readers who have never listened to Rush. They are missing out on some fun entertainment and a good dose of common sense. His entire speech to CPAC is here - all the YouTube clips of his speech - but here's YouTube clip # 3 for a taste (yes, he is looking as big as a house):

Flocks of birds from Richard Barnes. h/t David Thompson's Friday Ephemera.

That's a King Protea sitting in a water pitcher. Odd, gigantic flowers. You can read about Protea here.

Sipp says that my very old kitchen table is Chestnut, and emailed me this unstained Chestnut sample to prove it. It's the same grain:

How soon before China owns the USA? Mortgaging America. Geopolitically smart of China, because they already have us over a barrel.

Time to loosen up on Havana? I think so. Our approach to Cuba is a Cold War relic. The world is full of terrible governments.

Class warfare returns to Washington. Politico. Related: What's wrong with income inequality anyway?

The era of big government arrives. USA Today

Lib David Broder is worried about Obama

Old Europe finally getting involved in Iraq. For the oil!

Obama's war against coal

Phony Indian tribe's casino plan nixed by Supremes

Why does Obama keep arguing against straw men? Answer: Folks believe him. (H/T, NEONEO)

Krauthammer begins:

Not a great speech, but extremely consequential. If Barack Obama succeeds, his joint address to Congress will be seen as historic -- indeed as the foundational document of Obamaism. As it stands, it constitutes the boldest social democratic manifesto ever issued by a U.S. president.

Read the whole thing.

Conservative strategies: Who needs Joe the Plumber? A quote:

Conservatives should not need Joe the Plumber to prove their middle class bona fides. We are naturally the party of the middle, and we don't need gimmicks to prove it. Demographically, Democrats rely on being the party of the upper sixth and the lower third, while Republicans tend to do better with everyone in between. When we start losing the middle class and the suburbs, we lose big like we did in 2008. 

What Conservatives need are compelling candidates who can communicate. 

Kandinsky has always been one of my favorite Expressionists. This is Kirche in Murnau (1909):

This is going around. There will be lots of honking:

From Ed Driscoll's Rendezvous with Scarcity:

When people move into the White House, they get a dog. Sometimes a cat too. Some of them actually had dogs before the White House, which is a different matter. It's about Pet Politics. (As you may recall, the Clinton's Lab was promptly run over by a car after leaving the WH, and Hillary dumped her famous cat on the secretary. I suspect the Bush's still have their dogs.)

The breed the Obamas decided to exploit is the Portuguese Water Dog. It's probably a breed ancestor of the Poodle. They need more daily exercise than any White House pet is likely to get.

I don't know how anybody can live without dogs around the place.

h/t, Samizdata. The crew ejected.

- From Vanderleun:  Let my cry come unto Thee: An Ash Wednesday Confession

- Via The Anchoress in her Ash Wednesday post:

Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan, newly-named, Archbishop of New York City ...:

“Maybe the greatest threat to the church is not heresy, not dissent, not secularism, not even moral relativism, but this sanitized, feel-good, boutique, therapeutic spirituality that makes no demands, calls for no sacrifice, asks for no conversion, entails no battle against sin, but only soothes and affirms.” -

Today's Free Advt for Bob is a good piece for Lent, I think. Dylan's song is like a Psalm.

In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need
When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed
There's a dyin' voice within me reaching out somewhere,
Toiling in the danger and in the morals of despair.

Don't have the inclination to look back on any mistake,
Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break.
In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand.

Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear,
Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer.
The sun beat down upon the steps of time to light the way
To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay.

I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame
And every time I pass that way I always hear my name.
Then onward in my journey I come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand.

I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer's dream, in the chill of a wintry light,
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space,
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face.

I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there's someone there, other times it's only me.
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand.

If you don't care for Dylan, here's Emmy Lou Harris' cover of the song: you will like this. 1995.

Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

William Burroughs, as quoted at Driscoll (nb: a QQQ doesn't mean we agree with it)

Dodd also has a place in Ireland. How do pols accumulate so much wealth?

How do photochromic eyeglass lenses work?

A fish with eyes in the back of his head - and all over.

Shea Stadium is gone

Stopping traffic for a Peregrine Falcon. Good on that cop. But I would have chased the falcon away. You don't want him to get the idea that the middle of the road is a good place to eat.

Andrew Breitbart wants a Hollywood revolution

Moderately alcoholic Irish Catholics victimized

A FIRE co-founder as candidate for the Harvard Board of Overseers. Good.

Ice Ages and Sea Levels. Watts

Save Auschwitz, but get rid of the EU

Hate it when this happens.

Are we back to Sept. 10th? Powerline

The Palestinian industry. Jules

Missouri Dem: Don't worry. Our kids and grandkids will pay these debts.

Pub surveillance in Britain. Insane.

A Climate Change leader, quoted at Thompson (not satire):

The longer I work on climate change, the less important I think it is whether or not the warmists or the sceptics are right. [...] Imagine a world where we had listened to the climate scientists and started to change our resource-consuming behaviour and address the inequities of the global economic system. Although the warming still didn’t materialise, we would have addressed a host of environmental issues and be living a largely pollution-free existence. We may even be saying thank you to the climate scientists who, although they got it wrong, provided us the opportunity to create a cleaner, brighter and fairer world.

Are these judges werewolves? Via Althouse. Supremes to decide:

The American Civil Liberties Union objected to the cross and filed a suit on behalf of Frank Bruno, a Catholic and former Park Service employee. The suit noted that the government had denied a request to have a Buddhist shrine erected near the cross.

Two years ago, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for the ACLU and declared the cross an "impermissible governmental endorsement of religion."

Congress has intervened to try to save the cross by transferring a small parcel of land with the cross on it to a private group. However, the 9th circuit judges were unswayed. This "would leave a little donut hole of land with a cross in the midst of a vast federal preserve," the appeals court said.

The 9th said what? Article Vll: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

h/t, Bits & Pieces: