Maggie's Farm

It’s true, I was celebrating. Bloody hell, I had a glass of champagne in my hand – so what?

Ms Hage-Ali, who was attacked for drinking while Moslem after being named Miss NSW Young Austrailian of the Year. Blair

The first church? 4th Century Church of the Ark found on West Bank

How about polygamy? Evangelical Outpost

Ancient prayers, at Real Meal. One example (Origen, 185-254):

Lord, inspire us to read your Scriptures and meditate upon them day and night. We beg you to give us real understanding of what we need, that we in turn may put its precepts into practice. Yet we know that understanding and good intentions are worthless, unless rooted in your graceful love. So we ask that the words of Scriptures may also be not just signs on a page, but channels of grace into our hearts. Amen.

On Advent, from Frederick Buechner's Whistling in the Dark (h/t, It Takes a Church):

The house lights go off and the footlights come on. Even the chattiest stop chattering as they wait in darkness for the curtain to rise. In the orchestra pit, the violin bows are poised. The conductor has raised his baton.  In the silence of a midwinter dusk, there is far off in the deeps of it somewhere a sound so faint that for all you can tell it may be only the sound of the silence itself. You hold your breath to listen.  You walk up the steps to the front door. The empty windows at either side of it tell you nothing, or almost nothing. For a second you catch a whiff of some fragrance that reminds you of a place you've never been and a time you have no words for. You are aware of the beating of your heart…The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens. Advent is the name of that moment.

Last Night I Drove a Car 

Last night I drove a car
not knowing how to drive
not owning a car
I drove and knocked down
people I loved
...went 120 through one town.

I stopped at Hedgeville
and slept in the back seat
...excited about my new life.

A brief bio of Corso at Wiki.

Consider this to be a free advt for People's Cube:

We never enter the Weblog Awards thing, so you cannot vote daily for us. Not that it's a bad thing, but we just don't do it. Like golf. It's just not a Yankee thing, I guess. We aren't a finalist either, despite the logo below - go vote for some of the other fine blogs. I enjoy throwing a vote or two to some of my favorites. In fact, I enjoy all of the blogs on our blogroll, and quite a few which are not on it.

He calls himself a "heretic." One quote:

He also cautioned that people may be kidding themselves if they imagine it is possible to stabilize the Earth’s climate.

“The biosphere was constantly changing in the past and it will be constantly changing in the future,” Dyson said. “The idea that we can put a stop to change is a dangerous illusion.”

Also:

“All our fashionable worries and all our prevailing dogmas will probably be obsolete in 50 years,” Dyson said.

More from his speech at Synthstuff. We are in very good company if we see it as he does. Wish he would speak out more.

We now have more evidence of global warming on Mars than we do on the earth. As the ice melts, it is causing harmful erosion, and soon the beautiful natural deserts may be under ten feet of water, thus destroying potential happy habitats for camels and Arabs. (Nice for the Dutch, though, who prefer to live in swamps, below sea level.)

There may be a risk that Martian craters, now in their pristine natural form, may fill with water and be destroyed like Crater Lake in the image. Water vapor will doubtless add to the heat-trapping of Martian warming, and erosion will release more CO2 from the soil and rocks, creating a true crisis for Martian planetary stability. An atmosphere means weather, and weather means bad weather, like Katrina.

Thus the policy of environmental destruction continues unabated under Bush. But what can we, as individuals, do to save the Martian environment from further degradation? More recycling and more car-pooling are fun places to start.

Another good idea is to have a neighborhood "Save the Martian Environment Party." Serve Mars-friendly hors doeuvres and snacks, and exchange ideas about what we all can do to save the Martian environment. Remember: No idea is wrong! It's fun, and Mars-friendly!

(Editor's Note: "Neighborhood Save the Martian Environment Party" is a UN trademark. Used with permission. "No idea is wrong" is a trademark of the US Department of Education. Also a shared international trademark of the EU Department of The People's Education, Sub-Directorate of Empathy, Pity and Condescension, Sub-sub Division of Cheerful Slogans For the Ignorant Masses. Used with permission, of course.)

(Editor's Second Note: Our most humble apologies to the Dutch, and all those of Dutch extraction and to the entire Dutch community, who might have been offended, or felt insulted, by any unintentional negative connotations regarding flooding of Martian land. We know the Dutch would know how to deal with Martian flooding, and supportively and admiringly invite them to give it a try - you go straight up in the air, then take a hard left at the Moon. That will take you right there. It's the big red thing on the right, just before the Asteroid Belt.)

Ann Althouse reminded me, with her piece, that we have never written about any of the projects of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, including their interest in supporting faith in the workplace.

I am happy to have met, and listened to, David Miller on a number of occasions. He is inspiring, funny, and self-deprecating and, as an ex-Wall Streeter, he knows the business world very well indeed.

Do we like the idea of workplace chaplaincy? Definitely. And the Yale Center does lots of interesting things. Check it out.

All we want at Maggie's Farm are more links, more blogrolls, and more readers.

For readers, we have a fine cadre of congnoscenti, who are hip to our deal and down wid us. You all have a capacity for irony - which means a decent IQ.

But, for Christmas, we want a mass market, like Michelle and Glenn. No - we want to be bigger than them: we want to be Glenn and Michelle and Kos and Powerline combined, and invited to the White House for chats! But, sadly, we just aren't good enough for that dream. Delusions of grandeur!

We don't even want money...well, we do want money, but we expect none from Maggy. She is cheap: we work for free. Galley slaves! Rescue us!

Please, Santa! We will be a one year-old blog (or two, really, depending on whether you count it from when we signed up with Truth Laid Bear) in February. 

Blogroll us, and link us, for Christmas!

We are sorta, kinda unique. Email us to your million intelligent, skeptical, inquiring friends, who might be deprived of their Daily Maggie's - to their detriment.

Gift-wrapping included! And the price is right! What a fine gift!

A very fine rant indeed, on education, by Derbyshire. (h/t, Never Yet Melted). It's about all of the education scams in the US. Just one quote:

Towering over all these lesser scams is the college racket, a vast money-swollen credentialing machine for lower-middle-class worker bees. American parents are now all resigned to the fact that they must beggar themselves to purchase college diplomas for their offspring, so that said offspring can get low-paid outsource-able office jobs, instead of having to descend to high-paid, un-outsource-able work like plumbing, carpentry, or electrical installation. ..

OK, one more:

Professionals have their own credentialing systems:   You may have graduated law school, but you’ll still have to pass the bar exam, and so on.  Then why make aspiring lawyers go to law school?  Presumably for the same reason we insist on cube jockeys having bachelor’s degrees from accredited four-year colleges.  Why not let them study up at home from Teaching Company DVDs, then sit for a state-refereed common exam when they feel they’re ready?  Why not let lawyers learn on the job from books and as articled clerks, the way they used to?  I don’t know.  College-going is just an irrational thing we do, the way upper-class German men used to acquire dueling scars, the way women in imperial China had their feet bound.  Griggs vs. Duke Power probably has something to do with it.  Since, following that decision, employers are not permitted to test job applicants to see how intelligent they are, the employers seek a college degree as a proxy for intelligence.)

Read it all. You'll feel better if you do. Griggs vs. Duke Power? Interesting case, in which it was decided that intelligence is racially discriminatory. Huh? That sounds like a deeply racist finding, does it not?

Wherever there is a jackboot stomping on a human face there will be a well-heeled Western liberal to explain that the face does, after all, enjoy free health care and 100 percent literacy. 

 John Derbyshire  H/t, Rhymes with Right. Precisely. What are we, cattle?

Merrily T-rated, on Continuation page below. (Thanks for the Christmas cheer, Black Dog.) The two four two ladies on the left appear medically enhanced, but I am no expert.

(Out of consideration to our readers, many of whom seem to read Maggie's at work or school, we will no longer post T-rated material on the front page, however much fun we think it is to do so. Apparently it has lead to some uncomfortable moments. Sorry - just click below to see Santa's friends.)

Update, by Rick. Sounds like a mechanical astronomical calculator. Clever Greeks.

The Antikythera Project website is here (photo from that site).

Standing on the tiny deck of the Arabella in 1630 off the Massachusetts coast, John Winthrop said, "We will be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world."

h/t, Sisu

Yet another sport I would rather play than watch. This was today, in Danbury, CT - the New England Division.

The game is a wonderful combination of muscle, physical endurance, tactics, skill, anticipation, brains, and attitude. And of course, as a mano a mano game, it's all up to you. No team-mates to blame, and No Excuses.

This must have been one heck of a dramatic game when real swords were used. Ouch!

A superb put-down of the sanctimonious Bono.

Macho Man of the Year contest

The PC Poetry Corner

Lessons in modesty for Britney Spears. Fabric is your friend.

Negotiating with cancer

A breakthrough:

Apple Computer reported today that it has developed computer chips
that can store and play music inside women's breasts. This is considered a major breakthrough because women are always complaining about men staring at their breasts instead of listening to them.

Luke 21: 25-36

Winter is here. Time for nude surfing down under. Since Christmas is coming, I am thinking that it would be fun to decorate her with lights. But, on second thought, she needs no improvement.

The smell of money. Viking. Haha

By the way, how did you do on the Bovine exam?

These are the best of times, world-wide. Samizdata.

Granddaddy loves Dylan. Of course - he has excellent taste.

Who said this? A pop quiz at Betsy

The concept of "relative poverty." Asst. Village Idiot. Sounds like a way to make non-poverty sound like poverty. Daddy drove an Olds, I drive a Chevy - so I'm poor.

Meine kleine Deutsche penis, at Right Thinking

Smearing Mitt. With a very good point about The Globe's sudden interest in illegals, at Wizbang

Killing because of stingy dowries. Lib Leanings. There's an idea for the U.S. - Dowries here have been shrinking steadily, to the point of crisis, in my opinion. Where else can a guy get capital?

And, speaking of punishments, what's your opinion? Stoning or hanging for adultery? Moonbattery. For women only, natch. Boys must be boys, as Mohammed said.

Christian theologian advises forgetting about Jesus, if you want to get along with others. LGF. Not a joke.

Why Dick Morris thinks the Dems are now "pitiful": Ex-Donk. Slaves to their special interest caucuses. Who lives by the slave will die by the slave.

What he said. Hawkins:

You know, if you didn't finish high school, spent time in prison for dealing drugs, and have 3 different kids by 3 different mamas, I don't care what color you are, you're probably not going to be a very successful person. But, if you're white and behave like that, people will blame you for your behavior, while if you're black, because of the soft bigotry of low expectations, you'll have a lot of people excuse your behavior on the basis of the sort of garbage Ann McGinley wrote in the above quote.

Whole thing here.

Giving government money and power is like giving car keys and whiskey to a teenage boy.

P.J. O'Rourke