Maggie's Farm

We support the fish ladders. Government built the dams: government should build the fish ladders too.

The Repub's problem with black voters. Solve it, geniuses. In America, it's crazy for any skin color or ethnic group to vote as a block.

Time to declare victory in Iraq. Tiger

Construction spending:

We say it again: That was no military coup in Honduras.

Insty:

MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT. I remember when protest was patriotic! Seems like it was just a little while ago . . . .

Health care lawsuits, and how they drive medical costs. If an OB pays $250,000/yr for insurance, you are the one who must pay for it.

Synthstuff:

I call it the SUE defense, the Shut-Up Explanation. Here’s a quick and dirty example of how it works:

Skeptic – “There has been no global warming since 1998.”
Green – “Shut up!”

In which Tom Friedman permanently convinces me that he is a partisan, fad-chasing knucklehead.

More hysteria:

"Today, international action on climate change is urgent and essential. Indeed, there can no longer be any debate about the need to act, because the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), of which I am chairman, has established climate change as an unequivocal reality beyond scientific doubt."

Sorry. There is nothing in science which is "beyond doubt."

Sowell does not want discount medical care.

The hangings have already begun in Iran

The current status of US States' budgets. They love those credit cards, because they spend on our cards, not theirs.

Where did the Madoff money go? Kudlow

Viking:

The law trumps empathy - It was yet another 5-4 Supreme Court split in the Ricci case, but buried in the details is the fact that not a single Justice affirmed the reasoning that SC nominee Sonia Sotomayor used to rule against the New Haven firefighters claiming reverse discrimination.

Extra - Cato: "The Ricci ruling: a victory for merit over racial politics."

The Shrimp and Grits I had on Saturday in Alabama were served hot in large Martini glasses with a tiny silver spoon. It was something new to me. Like a dessert. The shrimp and sauce were spooned on top of the grits.

I detected a faint hint of cilantro and lime in the shrimp sauce, but I do not have the recipe. The shrimp were sweet as sugar, fresh from the Gulf, and bite-sized - about an inch long. I do prefer the tender little ones to the big ones for most purposes.

I learned the below from this site (which includes one of the countless recipes for this treat)

In the Low Country of South Carolina and particularly Charleston, shrimp and grits has been considered a basic breakfast for coastal fishermen and families for decades during the shrimp season (May through December). Simply called 'breakfast shrimp," the dish consisted of a pot of grits with shrimp cooked in a little bacon grease or butter. During the past decade, this dish has been dressed up and taken out on the town to the fanciest restaurants. Not just for breakfast anymore, it is also served for brunch, lunch, and dinner.

It gets no better than this.

Thanks for these from the Golden Gate Quartet, AVI, from your fine music post. Real American music:

At Am Digest, Bungee dating in NYC. The guy is right. He is an idiot. A gentleman never, never takes a nice girl on a date to a Korean whorehouse.

5 minutes ago. I love storms. Cameras cannot capture thunder, wind, and driving rain:

I like to explore and learn a bit about the places I go to.

Birmingham, Alabama is a rather new city, by Eastern standards. Even the "old" stuff there isn't very old. There wasn't much of anything there until after the Civil War. Railroads (it has no navigable river), coal and iron ore were the key to that city's wealth, hence the borrowing of the name from the Brits. Amost all of that is now gone.

A new city in the New South.

With a metropolitan population of around 1 million, it's a good-sized city, but the city proper lacks downtown residences. It's a biz center now (most recently a banking center) - not a hopping urban scene. The Univ of Alabama Medical Center also is growing like crazy.

Still, there is no visible urban scene: life happens in the leafy, lovely, quiet suburbs. 

On a weekend, there is not a soul to be seen on the streets yet it looks clean, prosperous, and safe. No "mixed use" as you find in NYC. A Jane Jacobs case study, because I have seen photos of the downtown in the 1920s which were packed with people on weekends and holidays, with the streets lined with storefronts. 

In recent decades, the suburbs which had been part of the city spun themselves off so as to be independent of the constantly-alleged and often court-confirmed corruption of the Dem machine which runs it, and which seems determined to drive people out of town.

One cool thing about cities this size: you can get from Mountain Brook, Homewood, or downtown, to the airport in about 15 minutes. Everything seems easy to do. It's manageable and friendly. For the comfortable, golf seems to be king in Birmingham. Too darn hot for tennis, if you ask me.

Beautiful: the tee of the 4th (or 14th?) hole at Shoal Creek:

A free ad for the nifty mag Garden and Gun, with another golf course in the background:

Every city carries its burden of woeful history. The 16th St. Baptist Church, where the Civil Rights movement tragically obtained energy when some KKK killed four choir girls in church in 1963. The reputation of the fine people of the city was smeared for a generation by the behavior of a handful of murderous scumbags.

More below on continuation page -

Thanks, y'all, for putting us up in these fine lodgings in Birmingham (photos below), for the fine very Southern-style party (with excellent grits 'n shrimp), and for showing us around.

Can any reader name this good old club?

 View from our balcony:

More reminiscences from our friend, during his time in the Indian Health Service. He is probably referring to the Prairie Rattler:

From afar, it might have sounded like "Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk"; at the base of my skull, it was more like "K'thunk, K'Thunk, K'thunk, K'Thunk."  What I didn't know was what how it sounded to a rattlesnake in the dusk of the Dakota scrubland.  My second day's doctoring done on Eagle Butte, the heat dissipating quickly at sunset, I hit the asphalt's edges to jog. 

In Chicago, I had snagged a pair of Nikes, the early waffle-sole design, discovered by Bill Bowerman when he poured urethane onto his wife's waffle iron. Then, Bowerman and Knight's company was still called Blue Ribbon Sports; word was that their victory shoe would protect knees and add speed. I came up in an era when leather was treasured for feet; once yearly, before Pesach, we visited the leather shoe store, where we played with this tall contraption, like a scale, into which you could insert your feet and see your skeleton; a time more innocent, before parents knew to protect their children from Xray exposure.  Good money, hard-saved dough, was spent on a pair of Oxfords. High-tops of flimsy cloth and thin sole were for basketball and any other weekend activity.  It was an era before I knew the difference between an Oxford and a Brogue, between open- and closed-lacing, nor would have cared; a time when I most admired my pediatrician's penny-loafers, shining coppers adorned.  Loafers I desired, but parents believed that laces protected growing feet.  Now, I had laid out precious bucks on some rapidly evolved descendant of polyester to protect my feet and knees.

Minimally dressed -- white T, running shorts (the days before wick-a-ways)  and my Nikes -- I ran with traffic, not yet knowing the treacherous combination of Sioux and cowboy drivers in pick-ups.  But, it was the K'Thunking in my head, the tatooing of my feet in the desert eve that should have hinted to me why the Indians came out to look, some pointing, some waving  -- not quite a greeting, not a hello, a different sort of wave; a mother stepped onto her veranda holding her child, pointing;  words were shouted, muddled in the evening breezes so I understood them not; I thought it was a welcome to the new doc.

Nurse Alpern greeted me in the lot between hospital and my apartment building.  Rattlers are out. Like this M.D., Crotalus Horridus also leave their rocks in the eve, but looking for meals. Rattlers also hear K'Thunking or Thunking, or some rattled version of this to find their meal: they too are served, who simply listen and wait.  Mrs. Alpern, the ever practical:  Don't do this again; can't afford to lose docs.  The Indians who came out to see the doc in shorts and Tee?  They thought I was dumb; wondered how far I would get.

It was a few weeks later that I saw my first snake bite. 

This is long, wonderful, nerdy, and informative. h/t, Language Log:

2 Samuel 1:1, 19-27

¹⁹ "A gazelle lies slain on your heights, Israel.
       How the mighty have fallen!

    ²⁰ "Tell it not in Gath,
       proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon,
       lest the daughters of the Philistines be glad,
       lest the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice.

    ²¹ "Mountains of Gilboa,
       may you have neither dew nor rain,
       may no showers fall on your terraced fields. 
       For there the shield of the mighty was despised,
       the shield of Saul—no longer rubbed with oil.

    ²² "From the blood of the slain,
       from the flesh of the mighty,
       the bow of Jonathan did not turn back,
       the sword of Saul did not return unsatisfied.

    ²³ Saul and Jonathan—
       in life they were loved and admired,
       and in death they were not parted.
       They were swifter than eagles,
       they were stronger than lions.

    ²⁴ "Daughters of Israel,
       weep for Saul,
       who clothed you in scarlet and finery,
       who adorned your garments with ornaments of gold.

    ²⁵ "How the mighty have fallen in battle!
       Jonathan lies slain on your heights.

    ²⁶ I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother;
       you were very dear to me.
       Your love for me was wonderful,
       more wonderful than that of women.

    ²⁷ "How the mighty have fallen!
       The weapons of war have perished!"

Time to repost this fine piece. h/t, Gates:

Blogger and frequent Maggie's commenter AVI mentioned historian David Hacket Fisher a while ago in a comment here. It reminded me of Fisher's fine book, which I once meant to read but never did: Historian's Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought. 

From a post on that book from this site:

Fischer, David Hackett, Historians’ Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought (New York: Harper Collins, 1970). In only approximately 300 pages, Fischer surveys an immense amount of background historical literature to point out a comprehensive variety of analytical errors that many, if not most, historians commit. Fischer points out specific examples of faulty or sloppy reasoning in the work of even the most prominent historians, making it a useful book for beginning students of history. While this book presumably did not make Fischer popular with many of his peers, it should be noted that his contributions as a historian have not been limited simply to criticizing the work of others; since 1976, he has published a number of well-received books on other historical topics. 

Via BSBFB's It's all downhill from here

Insty is on the job:

A TV LOW POINT: Turned on the TV to see Geraldo interviewing Tommy Mottola about Michael Jackson’s death. In the background, footage of the body being delivered to the coroner’s office by helicopter. Glad to see Fox is keeping us up on what’s really important, the night before a big cap-and-trade vote in Congress, while revolution simmers in Iran, and people are trying to nationalize healthcare.

On the upside, Mark Sanford is probably pleased.

Obamacare would not apply to Pres, Congress, high Fed officials. Same as in Cuba.

It's just for us little people. Cost savings, ya know? Megan: Healthcare Economics: Standing Athwart History, Shouting "Stop!"

Or, as Surber puts it, Never buy a Ford from a guy who drives a Lexus.

Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness"; and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile."

1 Corinthians 3:18-20

Newport, 1965

Who is funding this health care campaign? Michelle

Via Insty: 

EPA Suppresses Internal Global Warming Study

Facts can be so darn annoying. As I always say, facts are what make life difficult. Fantasy is much better - and our brains are so much better at it.

Related: How many sleeper catastrophes in the Waxman bill?

Europe's empty sense of superiority. Is it simple envy?

My apologies for the obvious links. No time today, and the NJ is out of pocket. And darn, some of the links don't work? Will fix