Maggie's Farm

Re gun control, read this at Confederate Yankee.

What makes it especially amusing is that it sounds like Gen. Petraeus' plan in Baghdad. 

I would be all in favor of rounding up every illegal gun in Boston (where I had an attempted mugging but ran faster than they did) and NYC (where I've been mugged, and also robbed twice). Both times by evil young crims with handguns of certainly doubtful legality.

Of course, knives would have worked almost as well, since my Kung Fu is a little rusty, and drug-crazed sociopathic teens make me deeply uneasy.

Sometime, when I feel like exposing the true depths of my stupidity, I'll post the story of how I gave the guy a subway token, two crumpled one dollar bills, and a pocketful of change, when I had a $1300 wad in my back pocket.

As I reflect back, maybe I need a whole post on my victimhood!!!

Borrowed without permission from a piece on our excellent economy,  by Dr. Sanity:

At Pajamas. I have never cooked with White Truffle, but my favorite use of Black Truffle is to shave a bit on top of a plate of Woodcock ravioli. 

And speaking of Fungi, here's a 20-foot mushroom. I didn't know that fungi are more closely related to animals than to plants.

Canada's FLICK OFF campaign, to tell people to turn their lights off. Nobody noticed how those letters appear when written in that curvy neon-style.

Anyway, it's an absurd idea which should leave Canadians feeling like telling their idiot bureaucrats to FLICK OFF.

Story is at Dust My Broom.

I believe that a far more effective approach to the alarming crisis of global warmening would be federal regulation, or banning, of beans. If Canada really cares, they will do it. They could call it FART OFF.

Pit Bull encounters porcupine. I bet that hurts. This is a job for general anesthesia.

I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.

Henry David Thoreau

A wonderful review of some very funky 19th C. American architectural styles, at Sippican Cottage. Scroll down. Or look at the log cabins too. Good fun.

Keep 'em comin', Mr. S. Cottage: it's a free eddication for me. But what would you call that French Quarter architecture we posted below? "Caribbean Whorehouse"?

"The people of Nebraska are for free silver, and I am for free silver. I will look up the arguments later."

William Jennings Bryan, as quoted by Betsy

Boat designer Skip Etchells, who lived in Connecticut during most of his career, is best known for the International Etchells. That sailboat is no comfortable day-sailer, but a sleek, knife-like racing boat which unfortunately was never chosen as an Olympic class, but which has been a racing sailboat of choice for many of the best skippers in the word.

Etchells are still going strong after Skip's death.

We forgot to link the Peggy Noonan piece on VT, at Opinion Journal. Better late than never. A quote:

The school officials I saw, especially the head of the campus psychological services, seemed to me endearing losers. But endearing is too strong. I mean "not obviously and vividly offensive." The school officials who gave all the highly competent, almost smooth and practiced news conferences seemed to me like white, bearded people who were educated in softness. Cho was "troubled"; he clearly had "issues"; it would have been good if someone had "reached out"; it's too bad America doesn't have better "support services." They don't use direct, clear words, because if they're blunt, they're implicated.

The literally white-bearded academic who was head of the campus counseling center was on Paula Zahn Wednesday night suggesting the utter incompetence of officials to stop a man who had stalked two women, set a fire in his room, written morbid and violent plays and poems, been expelled from one class, and been declared by a judge to be "mentally ill" was due to the lack of a government "safety net." In a news conference, he decried inadequate "funding for mental health services in the United States." Way to take responsibility. Way to show the kids how to dodge.

The anxiety of our politicians that there may be an issue that goes unexploited was almost--almost--comic. They mean to seem sensitive, and yet wind up only stroking their supporters. I believe Rep. Jim Moran was first out of the gate with the charge that what Cho did was President Bush's fault. I believe Sen. Barack Obama was second, equating the literal killing of humans with verbal coarseness. Wednesday there was Sen. Barbara Boxer equating the violence of the shootings with the "global warming challenge" and "today's Supreme Court decision" upholding a ban on partial-birth abortion.

One watches all of this and wonders: Where are the grown-ups?

Read the whole thing.

I can't believe Chuckie Cheese said this (piece at Cramer):

Hell is about to freeze over. Watch out for those flying pigs! I just saw Senator Schumer (D-NY) on The O'Reilly Factor admit that the Second Amendment protects an individual right. He went on to argue that the right isn't unlimited, just like the First Amendment "doesn't protect pornography." He even acknowledged that there is a right to defend yourself, and that can even include using a gun to do so.

This tells me that gun control is off the table. But where did he read that our Bill of Rights are not unlimited? Since when doesn't the First protect porn? Who gave govt the right to limit rights?

Freedom is not a gift of government. Freedom came first, and our government was designed and employed to protect it, right? Or am I confused?

From Speak No Truth, at LaShawn:

As this country has become more racially and culturally diverse, telling the truth about racial and cultural differences has become off-limits. At the same time, liberals want to apply separate standards to these diverse groups based on those differences. For example, you can’t talk about personal responsibility in the context of underachievement among black students, or you’re a racist. Yet, so-called affirmative action — a government-mandated racial classification system — exists to compensate for those differences (and not to combat racism, as some people believe). But to be PC is to pretend racial disparities like underachievement or high crime rates are caused by white racism instead of by individuals and something lacking within the subculture itself, and to say otherwise is taboo.

Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.

Robert A. Heinlein

Confederate Yank on the psychology of courage.  How do people behave when they feel trapped? I think a "Let's roll" reaction could have taken the guy down. We only know of one guy who even confronted Cho - Liviu.

Not to blame the victims, but just wondering. For example, if Cho had decided to take on the Rugby team in their locker room or an ROTC class, instead of a German language class, would it have ended differently?

Department of Things You Always Wondered About: How does a snake swallow a larger snake? Live Science

North America's handsome King Snake is best known as a snake-eater, hence its name. He is immune to the venom of poisonous snakes.

In the US, there are a number of varieties of King Snakes, including the stunning eastern Scarlet Kingsnake, but the taxonomy is unclear. I have only seen one wild Scarlet King Snake in my life, and I tramp the woods, fields and marshes as much as I can.

Image is a King Snake subduing a Copperhead by constriction, preparatory to dining on it.

I have all the money I will ever need...as long as I die before 4 o'clock.

Henny Youngman

It's getting funny. You can hear a bit on the video here. (h/t, Powerline's piece on the wierd subject.) I have known plenty of Wellesley girls, and they do not talk like that, unless in mockery.  Somebody already took down the YouTube of the entire embarassment.

Do you think she believes that if she doesn't talk black, they won't understand her?

And an even bigger issue: What sort of people would be courting the revolting race pimp Al Sharpton? Nobody. So maybe the deal is that you don't want him against you, because he has no morals and no limits.

Hillary and Al - perfect together. Lives built of pure lies.