Maggie's Farm

In US,

...a record 41 percent of births were to unmarried women in 2008. That's up from 28 percent in 1990...

The other day, somebody grimly commented to me that "marriage is roommates raising children." Meanwhile, the Pope praises marital and family love.

I attended the funeral of a colleague and pal of 20+ years early this afternoon. Jewish funeral, very short notice. Just took him and his wife to dinner ten days ago. Massive stroke. Second close death for me in one week. They played Louis Armstrong. The last year of his life was probably the best he had ever had. Recently retired (wife still working), biking through Asia with his lovely Mrs - who is a doctor, a month in Cabo, visiting kids in Lake Como and in California. Loved four things the most: deep thinking, bicycling long distances, his family - and good meals with good wines. Always cheerful, except when stupidity or dishonesty pissed him off. So modest, I never knew he was a Harvard grad til today at the funeral. Full scholarship, worked as a janitor for spending money. Tough for me to lose two special pals who loved life so much, in one week: I am not old yet. It connects to this "passing through" theme for me right now:

The issues around being a Christian in the real world are a regular topic for Bible study groups - and likely for students and followers of any religious discipline. "In the world, but not of it" is the way a part of John 17 is often paraphrased, viewing this life as a swift passage to another version of existence.

Anchoress posted this well-known (but new to me) second century letter to Diognetus, presenting an ideal version of A Christian In The World, in her Paradoxes of Christianity:

Christians in the World

Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men. Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine. With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign. 

And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labor under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. They share their meals, but not their wives.  

They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven.

 It was the Greeks who gave us the word for democracy. They also gave us the the words for demagoguery, tyranny, crisis and chaos.

Scott at Powerline

High Water, as in the flood that seems to be ignored. Water is finally receding today.

Sloppily-transcribed lyrics here:

Want to get serious about trying to achieve some of your goals and dreams? Be the one who doesn't eat the marshmallow. h/t, reader:

A reader recently reminded us that the Puritans had two kinds of "callings", the "general calling" to God and a secondary calling to labor.

Thus work was not seen as being about ethics, but as somewhat - or very much - sanctified. All honest work, after all, is a form of service.

The pop view of our Puritan ancestors is distorted, and a bit of a straw man. Grace Baptist has a good post on Puritans and work. He refers to what looks like an interesting book: Worldly Saints: The Puritans as They Really Were.

Egypt: THE DECLINING SITUATION OF THE COPTS

A fresh look at Four Dead in Ohio

The Dodd Bill:

So far we’ve learned that the Dodd bill doesn’t end taxpayer bailouts of big financial companies (something Democrats tacitly admitted with their first amendment to the bill), that it could drive derivatives markets offshore and provide less accountability, that it could adversely affect major employers across the country, and that small business owners like dentists could fall under its regulatory reach. This bill needs significant changes before it’s ready to be passed.

Not that I do not love boats with sails, but a basic recreational boat with the old Lobster Boat design pleases me.

A new Tom Lehrer DVD. The promo video with interview isn't embeddable, but it's here.

A new Cormac McCarthy, The Road. I didn't realize he had a new one (h/t, SDA). I read all of his stuff. Does he still live in a fleabag motel in New Mexico?

The champions of socialism call themselves progressives, but they recommend a system which is characterized by rigid observance of routine and by a resistance to every kind of improvement.  They call themselves liberals, but they are intent upon abolishing liberty.  They call themselves democrats, but they yearn for dictatorship.  They call themselves revolutionaries, but they want to make the government omnipotent.  They promise the blessings of the Garden of Eden, but they plan to transform the world into a gigantic post office. 

Ludwig von Mises, 1944, via Am Thinker

Male and female, Spring plumage:

A dear huntin and fishin pal of mine lucked out bowing a turkey this month. How happy does he look? I am impressed that he persuaded the Mrs. to take the photo. Blood and guts are not her thing. Not at all. She likes Gucci.

Ridley's Turtles, caught on the big hook of Cape Cod. If their numbers were healthier, a few lost turtles would not matter.

Recommended Revolutionary War Reading List

An example of why Rubio should be a senator.

Prager: Why Left Talks About 'White' Tea Parties

Good, demanding schools: Learning from the successful charter schools

Re Goldman: Berkshire Execs Blame Turmoil On Faulty Regulation. Exactly right. 

McArdle:

In answer to Andrew's question--"That auto restructuring last year was a disaster, wasn't it?"--well, yes, it was.  The Congressional Budget Office believes that it will ultimately cost the taxpayers $50 billion--as much or more than the rest of TARP put together.  For that, we saved less than 400,000 jobs at GM and Chrysler.  We could have given each of the autoworkers $100,000 to go start over somewhere else, and still saved money on the deal.

Government spending per household, 1965-present

They took this kid's sandwich

Does "audacity" mean doing things people don't want?

Moonbattery: Item #2: Why You Can't Have an Intelligent Discussion with a Progressive Leftist

Fishing photo via Theo

Everything is as green as can be, and my Wisteria is coming into bloom. Yes, the big bridge is washed out but I am fairly sure it is getting fixed.

Entropy rules, but we do the best we can.

After church yesterday, Mrs. BD and I decided to do an inspection tour of our church cemetery. We noticed that the columbarium was in bad shape, and that some good friends had bought a nice modest granite stone for their plot. I hope they do not need it anytime soon. We also noticed that the grass is getting high and the dandelions and weeds are everywhere, but that's as it should be in a New England graveyard.

When I got home, I learned that one of my good tennis buddies had dropped dead last week, where he would have wanted to do it, on the tennis court. He had a slick, tricksy game, wonderful tennis exhuberance, and near-perfect technique: no flash, but steady as a rock. He was a professional wordsmith too.

Too soon, my friend, but that is the right way to depart. Now, nobody is left who is willing to give me those special sarcastic critiques of my flubbed shots.

The real irony of the Hope and Change movement is how committed its sponsors are to the giant mortuary called Washington, D.C.

Washington Rebel. WR likes Aldo Leopold too, which makes him a Good Guy in our book.

Is Bob Dylan a musical thief? Of course he is, to some extent. So what?

Sheesh, most singers don't even write the songs they sing.

Mrs. BD told me that Martha Graham said "If you're going to steal, steal from the best."

I remember flying home on Aer Lingus one time, listening to the Irish music. I thought to myself, "Damn. That's the tune of Boots of Spanish Leather. Where did Dylan hear that?" He's a human jukebox. Not the Second Coming, but a darned interesting jukebox, and he has gone the distance.

Smart, perceptive, and eccentric too, with or without a rhyming dictionary. He adds a "special sauce," as they say on Wall St.

Whiteside rips Dylan. (h/t, Driscoll)

Saw this tree in bloom today behind a very good fish store, growing out of a hole in the asphalt. Never seen this sort of tree before. The wisteria-colored, tubular 2" blooms hang down, and last year's nut-like seed pods are still on the branches. The trunk looks like the trunk of a fast-growing trash tree. Quite a wonderful small tree, with the elegant blooms before the leaves emerge:

Reader got the name for me on the first try. Thanks. I had no idea what it was: The Empress Tree, Paulownia tomentosa. AKA Foxglove Tree. The blossoms do resemble Digitalis.

For an "invasive" trash tree which will grow anywhere, it sure is mighty purty in early May. My other photos of it below -

I wondered about them, anyway:

The history of the guitar in America. The six-string guitar was considered so easy to play that every stableboy could play it.

The history of the banjo. For me, the Banjo has an ominous, menacing sound. But maybe that is just me.

Photo is an 1840 French guitar from this restorer's website

Who's Maurice Strong?

Deputy shot; illegal immigrants suspected. Am Thinker: Some truths about illegal immigrants. TimesWatch: Times Again Hails Grand Total of Four Illegal Immigrant Marchers

Also, Legal Immigrants Fed Up With Illegal Immigrants

Has the Obama deficit panel already failed?

McCotter is acerbic. He does good acerbic.

Chicago Mayor Begs World Court to Overturn Second Amendment

Anchoress: Secular Sex Abuse Gets a Look – Poll Added

Boehner: How does gaining 100 seats in November sound?

"We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised." (KJV).

"For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness." (1 Corinthians 3:19)

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18)

"For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe." (1 Corinthians 1:21)

Oy, Oy, Oy. Yiddish, actually. Ale Brider by the Klezmatics. h/t, Norm: