Maggie's Farm

The Worst President?

Tom Brewton puts into words what many have come to believe:

"One of his (Roosevelt's)advisors, Stuart Chase (who coined the term New Deal), wrote that anyone, from private citizen to Supreme Court Justice, who believed that the Constitution should stand in the way of socializing the nation had better step aside or be crushed.

Liberals allege that Roosevelt’s policies ended the depression.  Yet, for eight years, unemployment remained above 10 percent (not bad for today’s socialist Germany and France, but unheard of in the United States).  Anyone looking at the facts must conclude that Emperor Hirohito, not Mr. Roosevelt, ended the American Depression.

In my assessment, Franklin Roosevelt stands alone as the worst President in our nation’s history, a man who corrupted the nation’s founding ethos in almost every respect and destroyed the single most important element in the Constitution’s checks and balances: the independent power of the states and local governments.  When Mr. Roosevelt took office, more than 70 percent of taxes were collected at the state and local levels.  During his tenure, the ratios were reversed."

Indeed. "Follow the money." Roosevelt's distortion of the Constitution has led to an array of evils. And much national strife would be eliminated if states still had the power and autonomy they once had to follow their own paths - short of slavery and human rights abuses. We suspect FDR was not wise enough to know what he was doing as a tool for the Left, but that is giving him the benefit of the doubt. (Hey, "He cared, right?") We prefer Teddy Roosevelt, much more. Read entire Brewton letter.

Junior Wells

The Godfather of the Modern Blues, Wells (1934-1998) brought his harp and his voice from the South to Chicago in 1948 where he played with The Muddy Waters Band until he went out on his own. Whatever country flavor he might have had rapidly disappeared in a unique funky urban sound, with unmistakable harp and unpolished voice. Close your eyes, and imagine yourself in a smoky 1950s Chicago dance club, if you can. (I am listening to his sensual Take Your Shoes Off as I write, from his final live recording, Live Around the World.)

He is considered to be the heir of my favorite old-time bluesman, Sonny Boy Williamson, and of Little Walter Jacobs, who he replaced in the Muddy Waters Band. Since his association with Muddy Waters, he had been especially associated with the great and seemingly ageless Buddy Guy, with whom he did several recordings including the live Drinkin TNT and Smokin Dynamite. (Now I am on his great Messin with the Kid.) HooDoo Man, with Buddy Guy on guitar, was his first widely-known album, in 1960. He was known to produce handguns from his skin-tight suits and shotguns from his cars, whenever appropriate. A couple of reminiscences here and here.

From an old review by Kelton:

The terrific thing about Junior Wells is that he's an unqualified bluesman, stylistically a direct descendant of the Chicago greats and personally an eccentric whose unpredictable singing and harp playing distinguish him from everyone else alive.

"Comin' Right at Ya" was the title of one his breakthrough albums in the 1960's and it still describes the Wells oeuvre. In short, he takes no prisoners.

Recording to legend, Wells shoplifted his first blues harp and got caught. The judge who heard his case was so impressed with Wells' story that he just wanted to make music that he paid for the instrument himself and set Wells free on the condition that, if he ever made a record, he send one to him.

Wells did, years later. The album was called "Blues Hit Big Town."

Massachusetts Weekend Plans

For this coming weekend: Catch Dylan in Pittsfield Thurs nite, home of Gwynnie's grandfather's Pittsfield Eagle, now the Berkshire Eagle. Well, the Tractor is up and going again after our fiasco. Finish clearing out that field, including the trees downed by beavers and the giant white pine trunks downed by brother, and finally mow it cleanly. More big mulch piles for the box turtle habitat. Then clear out the north side of the river the way it used to be. Chain saws, clippers, and the brushwacker-mower. Bring lotsa gasoline and raw middle-aged muscle.

Jew-Baiting Leftists

Is the Left anti-semitic? Well, they do not wish to appear so. Anklebiter. also in American Thinker.

Ataraxy

A good explication of the oft-misunderstood Epicurus, who was no epicurian, in NRO

Our Rights in Time of War

Shape of Days adds some good perspective to the subject.

The Gitmo Torturous Muzak

Ya gotta love Steyn:

"Well, readers had plenty of suggestions of their own, and so the Tribune’s website put together a list of “Interro-Tunes” — the most effective songs for aural intimidation, mood music for jolting your jihadi. A lot were the usual suspects - like the Captain and Tennille’s blamelessly goofy “Muskrat Love”, which, as I recall, put the Queen to sleep at a White House gala, though the Duke of Edinburgh sat agog all the way to the end. Someone suggested Bob Dylan’s “Everybody Must Get Stoned”, which even on a single hearing sounds like it’s being played over and over. I don’t know what Mr Kass has against “Ballerina”, which is very pleasant in the Nat “King” Cole version. But he seems to think one burst of “Dance, ballerina, dance/And do your pirouette in rhythm with your aching heart” will have the Islamists howling for the off-switch and singing like canaries to the Feds. Who knows? I sang “Ballerina” myself once on the radio long ago, and, if it will discombobulate the inmates, I’m willing to dust off my arrangement and fly down to Guantanamo, if necessary dressed liked Christina Aguilera. If they want an encore, I’ll do my special culturally sensitive version of that Stevie Wonder classic, “My Sharia Amour”. '

What vitamin or drug or homeopathic stimulant or herb or steroid does Steyn take? And where can we get some? Read entire hilarous piece.

Auster and Brooks Pile on Bush

OK, Bush isn't the Great Communicator. That is true. "Witless"? Not sure. Heart in the right place? Definitely. Raw deal from the media? For sure, but it's partially his fault - he doesn't court them or charm them. His bad. Throw them a quote from Sartre like JFK used to do and they'll eat out of your hand forever. Like, you'll be complex and groovy, like, can you dig it, dude? Just not that super-square no-fun Jesus dude all the time, ya see where I'm comin from, like? You have to understand the psychology of The Press: Because they just report, and don't DO, they have an inferiority issue. They compensate by wanting to feel like swashbucklers, macho guys, big drinkers and cutting-edge thinkers, etc. Feed their adolescent egos by flattering their intelligence: assume they believe there is a mini-Hemingway or Norman Mailer or Bob Woodward inside of each of 'em.

Red Tide

The worst red tide in memory has hit the New England coast this spring, from Maine to Nantucket, slamming Cape Cod and Cape Cod Bay. This nasty algae bloom renders mollusks toxic, so it's a disaster for the shellfishers as well as for the shellfish-eaters. Thus far, it has not moved south into Rhode Island. Details in Boston Globe. Basics on algal blooms here.

Wow

Paul Johnson gets it re Euristan, with a punch:

There is another still more fundamental factor in the EU malaise. Europe has turned its back not only on the U.S. and the future of capitalism, but also on its own historic past. Europe was essentially a creation of the marriage between Greco-Roman culture and Christianity. Brussels has, in effect, repudiated both. There was no mention of Europe's Christian origins in the ill-fated Constitution, and Europe's Strasbourg Parliament has insisted that a practicing Catholic cannot hold office as the EU Justice Commissioner.

Read entire piece about the failures and arrogance of Europe on Opinion Journal  here.

Non-Stop Cartoons

from the New Yorker's archives. Just leave it on your screen. It changes every 30 seconds. You will never leave your seat. You will just waste time, like the rest of us.

Three from Jose Ortega y Gasset:

"A revolution only lasts fifteen years, a period which coincides with the effectiveness of a generation."

"Effort is only effort when it hurts."

"The metaphor is perhaps one of man's most fruitful potentialities. Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which God forgot inside one of His creatures when He made him."

A note on Ortega: Many of us read his Revolt of the Masses in college, but not everyone knows that this philosopher also wrote one of the all-time classics on the joys and ethics of hunting, Meditations on Hunting.

Matthew 6, 1-4

Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they will have their reward. But when you give alms, let your left hand not know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees you in secret will reward you.

The Hawk

The deluxe super-duper ultra-stupendous and also real good Iowahawk is back. We hope all is well with him. Now back to the garden.

Turban Durbin, more

From the Dartmouth guys at Powerline: "We give Durbin failing grades in attention, conduct, intelligence, knowledge, candor, logic, manners, loyalty and decency."

So many blogs, so little time: three excellent blogs we have recently found:

Atlantic Blog, by an American economist in Ireland
Ex-Donkey Blog, a fellow New Englander from Connecticut
Free Market Fairy Tales, from England

And a site for the legal implications of blogging:

EFF Legal Guide for Bloggers

What's This?

A Full-Rigged Ship, a Bark, a Barkentine, a Brig, a Brigantine, or a Schooner? Well, you know she's not a schooner because of the square sails. Not a Full-Rigged or a Bark because she only has two masts. But what's the difference between a Full-Rigged and a Bark? Learn your Tall Ships here. They are among the most majestic, yet lovely, of all of man's creations. (She's a Brigantine, the UK's 132-foot Eye of the Wind)

"Be careful, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

(I have also seen this translated as "Be kind,...")

Philo

Gay Patriot's Ordeal

Gay Patriot, an excellent anonymous blogger, has been on our blogroll since the beginning, but it is only now that we realize what has been going on with him. LGF had the story in March, and now Gay Patriot tells part of the story of harassment by left-wing activists. It is an ugly story, judging from what his post implies.

Schiavo

We hated the entire Schiavo story, but RWNuthouse has written a very thoughtful retrospective on the whole thing. Worth your attention.

And, for balance, BlameBush has some tasteless black humor on the same subject:

Malicious rhetoric from right-wing polemicists like the Pope has done serious damage to the Right to Die crusade, but there's still a glimmer of hope for those longing for death - either their own, or of a loved-one whose continuing existence has become an inconvenience to everyone. Read entire.

Too Cool

If only Samuel Pepys had the internet. He would be thrilled to know that you can follow his diary daily or weekly at The Diary of Samuel Pepys. Don't miss the June 14th entry, about a hanging. This is the right way to read his wonderful diary, a day or two at a time.

Carnival of History Blogs

On Spinning Clio

Banning Spanking, Again

Massachusetts, and now Canada. What are these people thinking? In MassRight

The Cuyahoga Valley Land Grab

Thompson describes his first disillusionment with the Federal Govt, on a conservation issue, in Thompson

You say you love me
And you're thinking of me,
But you know you could be wrong.
You say you told me
That you want to hold me,
But you know you're not that strong.
I just can't do what I done before,
I just can't beg you any more.
I'm gonna let you pass
And I'll go last.
Then time will tell just who fell
And who's been left behind,
When you go your way and I go mine.

Dylan, from Most Likely You'll Go Your Way (and I'll Go Mine)
on Blonde on Blonde

400th Anniversary of Don Quixote

This masterwork of western literature holds up very well today, and yes, I read it recently - for the first time. A contemporary of Shakepeare (and thought to have been familiar with Shakespeare's work), Cervantes fought, and was wounded, in the epic sea battle of Lepanto, which held off Islam's last effort to invade the west - until now. A piece in the NYT.