Sunday, October 26. 2014
From Is It Another Great Awakening?
China’s atheistic communist government conceded that its Christian population had doubled to 21 million over the past decade, worshiping in 55,000 official Protestant and 4,600 Catholic churches. The underground church, it’s widely known, was much larger—by foreign estimates perhaps 77 million, which means larger than the Communist Party. A Pew Global Attitudes study found only 11 percent of Chinese saying religion was not important in their lives, compared to 31 percent saying it was very or somewhat important. Indeed, everywhere the authors looked outside their European homeland, religion was booming in the early 21st century world.
Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
90:1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
90:3 You turn us back to dust, and say, "Turn back, you mortals."
90:4 For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night.
90:5 You sweep them away; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning;
90:6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.
90:13 Turn, O LORD! How long? Have compassion on your servants!
90:14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
90:15 Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil.
90:16 Let your work be manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.
90:17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands -- O prosper the work of our hands!
Saturday, October 25. 2014
We have seen plenty of marble quarries up on high hills around Italy and in Sicily too.
Here's an up-close view (video)
 Frank Serpico speaks
Thirty-Three-Hit Wonder - Billy Joel still lives on Long Island, still rules the Garden.
Big Taxi is doomed
Idaho city ordinance bans distribution of Bible to children
Just Another Day In Las Vegas
Study Says Deer Hunting Helps to Replenish Forests
Problem is that we eliminated their natural predators
Save the fishes! Drill offshore
Prohibition Redux: Pennsylvania to Destroy Thousands of Bottles of Wine - Owner violated archaic liquor laws
From My Vantage Point, Social Security Disability is Totally Corrupt
Houston, We Have a Gender-Blind Public-Restroom Problem
Krauthammer: Barack Obama, Bewildered Bystander - He’s angry, but not angry enough to fix what’s wrong.
Hillary Clinton Says, “Don’t Let Anyone Tell You It’s Corporations and Businesses That Create Jobs”
Hinderaker:
As long as liberals’ hunger for power is stronger than conservatives’ desire to be left in peace, the Left will continue to dominate our public life.
Dems on FEC move to regulate Internet campaigns, blogs, Drudge
The UK wants people to exercise to save $ for the NHS
But aren't people cheaper if dead?
John Kerry Thinks Climate Change Causes Radical Islam
North Korea warns against anti-Pyongyang leaflet drop
Shooting balloons is the most fun you can have in NoKo
 The House Of Clouds I would build a cloudy House
For my thoughts to live in;
When for earth too fancy-loose
And too low for Heaven!
Hush! I talk my dream aloud
I build it bright to see,
I build it on the moonlit cloud,
To which I looked with thee.
Cloud-walls of the morning's grey,
Faced with amber column,
Crowned with crimson cupola
From a sunset solemn!
May mists, for the casements, fetch,
Pale and glimmering;
With a sunbeam hid in each,
And a smell of spring.
Build the entrance high and proud,
Darkening and then brightening,
If a riven thunder-cloud,
Veined by the lightning.
Use one with an iris-stain,
For the door within;
Turning to a sound like rain,
As I enter in.
Build a spacious hall thereby:
Boldly, never fearing.
Use the blue place of the sky,
Which the wind is clearing;
Branched with corridors sublime,
Flecked with winding stairs
Such as children wish to climb,
Following their own prayers.
In the mutest of the house,
I will have my chamber:
Silence at the door shall use
Evening's light of amber,
Solemnising every mood,
Softening in degree,
Turning sadness into good,
As I turn the key.
Be my chamber tapestried
With the showers of summer,
Close, but soundless - glorified
When the sunbeams come here;
Wandering harpers, harping on
Waters stringed for such,
Drawing colours, for a tune,
With a vibrant touch.
Bring a shadow green and still
From the chestnut forest,
Bring a purple from the hill,
When the heat is sorest;
Spread them out from wall to wall,
Carpet-wove around,
Whereupon the foot shall fall
In light instead of sound.
Bring the fantasque cloudlets home
From the noontide zenith
Ranged, for sculptures, round the room,
Named as Fancy weeneth:
Some be Junos, without eyes;
Naiads, without sources
Some be birds of paradise,
Some, Olympian horses.
Bring the dews the birds shake off,
Waking in the hedges,
Those too, perfumed for a proof,
From the lilies' edges:
From our England's field and moor,
Bring them calm and white in;
Whence to form a mirror pure,
For Love's self-delighting.
Bring a grey cloud from the east,
Where the lark is singing;
Something of the song at least,
Unlost in the bringing:
That shall be a morning chair,
Poet-dream may sit in,
When it leans out on the air,
Unrhymed and unwritten.
Bring the red cloud from the sun
While he sinketh, catch it.
That shall be a couch, with one
Sidelong star to watch it,
Fit for poet's finest Thought,
At the curfew-sounding;
Things unseen being nearer brought
Than the seen, around him.
Poet's thought, not poet's sigh!
'Las, they come together!
Cloudy walls divide and fly,
As in April weather!
Cupola and column proud,
Structure bright to see -
Gone - except that moonlit cloud,
To which I looked with thee!
Let them! Wipe such visionings
From the Fancy's cartel
Love secures some fairer things
Dowered with his immortal.
The sun may darken - heaven be bowed -
But still, unchanged shall be,
Here in my soul, that moonlit cloud,
To which I looked with THEE!
Autumn on the Hudson
Thursday, October 23. 2014
Wednesday, October 22. 2014
 Pic is this 1959 Porsche-Diesel Junior Tractor
There's More to Life Than Being Happy - Meaning comes from the pursuit of more complex things than happiness
It's about Viktor Frankl
When Aristotle Invented Science
The surprising comeback of train travel
The Externalization of Responsibility: Monica Lewinsky’s Personal Shame
Election season: Dems Backing Sen. Kay Hagan Leave Fliers Warning Of Lynchings If GOP Wins…
Election season: Dildos and Lynchings: Wendy Davis, Kay Hagan Campaigns Go Insane
Election season: CAUGHT ON TAPE: Dem Operative Stuffs Ballot Box in Arizona
Election season: Obama Admin: We May Need 'Surge' Of Millions Of Immigrant Ids 'For Any Number Of Reasons'
Green cards on the table -President Obama lets slip his scheme for a permanent majority
Sweden:
A new law will come into effect in Sweden after Christmas 2014, that will allow people to be prosecuted for criticizing immigration or politician’s unwillingness to tackle the issue.
Future election season: Hillary Clinton Raises Record $2.1M At Jeffrey Katzenberg Co-Hosted Hollywood Fundraiser
Klavan: Knucklehead Row:
Whatever its pretensions, whatever its claims, statism — progressivism, leftism, socialism — is based on the idea that a small elite intelligentsia can run your life better than you can. They know how to spend your money. They know how to educate your children. They know how to run your health care. They know how to protect you from yourself.
You do not have to talk to a statist very long before he will profess an intense dislike, distrust and even fear of ordinary people. Ordinary people spend money on what they want (TV’s restaurants and cars) rather than what the elite know they ought to want (aluminum foil climate change reversers). Ordinary people teach their children that God created the world rather than a random pattern of mathematic realities that came into being through another random pattern that came… well, the elite know: it’s random patterns all the way down! Ordinary people will give jobs and business to those who earn them rather than those the elite, in their greater understanding, know are historically deserving because of past oppression. And so on.
Now, of course, with the very elite of the elite running the country, we find that — what do you know? — this statism dodge doesn’t really work all that well. And there are two reasons for this. The first is that the statist premise is wrong. In fact, ordinary people left at liberty to do as they will are actually better at running their lives and businesses and country than the geniuses in Washington. Central planning works great in the imaginations of the elite, but in the real world… not so much.
And the second problem is that the elite are stupid. No, really. They’re educated and sophisticated and they dress well and speak well. They may even have high IQs. But in the immortal words of Forrest Gump’s mother: “Stupid is as stupid does.” And the elite are stupid.
Tuesday, October 21. 2014
 25 Is the New 21 - For some parents, the deadline for a kid's financial independence has gotten an extension.
The History of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, 50 Years After Its Construction - Built in 1964, the span still stands as Americas’ largest suspension bridge
Re AirBNB: Interesting, isn’t it, that most of our growth comes from the parts of
the economy that politicians haven’t gotten their sticky fingers on yet.
An Interview With the Repo Man
College Grads Flock to New Cities
New York Dominates 2014 List of America's Most Expensive ZIP Codes
Near the top - SoHo's industrial loft area
'I bought a house for $1,000'
Why I love old people, but I will not accept Medicare
10 reasons why I love Medicare as a physician
Why doctors give Obamacare a failing grade
Secret Slack Shadows Job Market as Fed Weighs When to Lift Rates
I would suggest three years ago
SOURCE OF CURRENT EBOLA EPIDEMIC IDENTIFIED: Bat-Eating Family in Guinea Village
Election season: Wendy Davis Campaign Launches Its Most Absurd Attack on Greg Abbott Yet
The guy is married to a Latina
Election season: Mary Landrieu: My Multimillion-Dollar Home Is Not a Mansion
For me, a 7000 sq' townhouse is just a humble pied a terre. BTW, how do politicians get so rich?
Government to Ordained Ministers: Celebrate Same-Sex Wedding or Go to Jail
Will that apply to Muslims too?
Sultan: The Progressive Pajama Boy Era is Over
The progressive resurgence was powered by leftist billionaires and non-profits chasing power. They have the money and the organization, but they don’t have the candidates. Six years of Obama produced compelling conservative figures like Ted Cruz, Trey Gowdy and Mike Lee. There’s no equivalent to them on the left. It’s why liberal billionaire election spending is characterized more by the candidates that they are against rather than the ones that they are for. They have spent so much time and money battling the Tea Party that they have failed to build a post-Obama political future for their movement.
A New Start for Afghanistan: 3 Massive Challenges That Will Decide Its Future
On Saturday, Bulldog noticed a plaque indicating Henri's House in charming, old-timey Gramercy Park. Who was Henri? Interesting story.
Here's his 1902 Snow in New York
Sunday, October 19. 2014
 Cooked up a large casserole pan of this simple squash recipe last weekend. Everybody ate it all up.
Next time, I'll grate more Parmesan for it.
Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13)
96:1 O sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.
96:2 Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.
96:3 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.
96:4 For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be revered above all gods.
96:5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
96:6 Honor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
96:7 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
96:8 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts.
96:9 Worship the LORD in holy splendor; tremble before him, all the earth.
96:10 Say among the nations, "The LORD is king! The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity."
96:11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
96:12 let the field exult, and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
96:13 before the LORD; for he is coming, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth.
Saturday, October 18. 2014
 Image: Sorry again - forgot where I stole that one
Students: Transgender Woman Can’t Be Diversity Officer Because She’s a White Man Now.
Biology is too confusing.
Rambunctious boys: The economic value of misbehavior
The Upside of Marrying an Underachieving Man
'Sex over Food the Clear Choice for Some Males,' Says Study
Whoda thunkit? Can eat later. Thank God for studies.
Why Germany Is So Much Better at Training Its Workers - America rarely uses an apprenticeship model to teach young people a trade. Could such a system help the unemployed?
A book people are discussing: How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness
"I fully admit to having a mild resentment toward rich people."
I envy wealth, but not enough to do anything about it. I know envy is a sin.
CDC Curbs Secondhand Smoke More Than Ebola
We've all heard of Government Cheese - but Government Beer?
A terrible bus ride in Baltimore
“Climate Change” To Cause More Severe Frosts
Of course, just as predicted
Surveillance-Proof - Technology companies take heat for making phones the government can’t tap.
Barrons: Investing in Do-Good Stocks Is Sustainable - More dollars should flow to socially responsible firms as Millennials and women gain influence in markets.
How's that for an insult to the intelligence of the youth and women?
Voting Out Incumbents Could Worsen Partisanship
So? Partisanship is good.
Figures. Obama Appoints Far Left Hack With Expertise in Revolutionary Politics as Ebola Czar
Election politics: Bloomberg fuels pro-Michelle Nunn Super PAC with $350,000 donation
“Georgia voters deserve to know the same anti-freedom Michael Bloomberg who tells us what to drink, what to eat and how to protect ourselves is spending millions of dollars to elect candidates across the country that will enact the Obama Bloomberg extreme gun control agenda and Michelle Nunn is one of them,” the NRA’s Jennifer Baker said at the time.
Thomas Friedman: Those non-Islamist ISIS folks just need better schools
Go, Tom. Go and teach.
More evidence that Obama brought Enterovirus D-68 to US the with his illegal alien imports
BRITISH OFFICIALS UNCOVER HUNDREDS OF NEW CASES OF FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION IN THE UK
From A&C:
ENOBARBUS
How appears the fight?
SCARUS
On our side like the tokened pestilence
Where death is sure. Yon ribaudred nag of Egypt—
Whom leprosy o’ertake—i’ th’ midst o’ th’ fight,
When vantage like a pair of twins appeared,
Both as the same, or rather ours the elder,
The breese upon her, like a cow in June,
Hoists sails and flies.
Poetic language is an intensification of the use of words. Prof Booth likes to look at the "physics" of poetic language. When a person gets into a poetry state, whether writing or reading, the mind can take over and let the inner physics of the thing just happen the same way you can hit a moving car with a snowball without knowing the math and the brain physiology of it.
I found this essay to be fascinating, and had to re-read it: Shakespeare’s Genius Is Nonsense - What the Bard can teach science about language and the limits of the human mind. One quote:
As a playwright and businessman, of course, Shakespeare had a serious interest in shielding his audiences from the mechanics of his verse. In addition to its concordance with the 16th-century concept of sprezzatura—lightness, ease, the ability to make even the most difficult things look effortless—a play crafted to maximize delight helped Shakespeare fill theatres in a way that a lot of visible sweating over the lines might not have. For every ingenious device that Booth describes in the verse, he brings as much attention to the effort that went into keeping it unobtrusive. His theory may explain the ineffable mind-states that poetry creates in us: poetic experience as the interaction of barely perceptible mental processes whose delicate, scintillating play is usually washed out by the spotlight of conscious attention.
What Booth so elegantly shows us is how Shakespeare can free us from ourselves. His lush, prismatic verse grants us “a small but metaphysically glorious holiday” from how we usually comprehend language, a holiday that is in turn “a brief and trivial but effectively real holiday from the inherent limitation of the human mind.” Rather than plunging into the abyss of not-knowing, we soar above it. We are not falling, but flying.
Friday, October 17. 2014
I took my mother-in-law to the wife market
Why Kids Sext - An inquiry into one recent scandal reveals how kids think
about sexting—and what parents and police should do about it.
The Rise of All-Purpose Antidepressants - Doctors are increasingly prescribing SSRIs to treat more than just depression
When 'Niceness' Becomes Tyranny
Run FOUR miles to burn off just one bottle of coke: Scientists call for exercise data to be printed on packaging instead of calories
Who’s afraid of hedge funds? The folks with a vested interest in failed schools
Could the state of America get any worse?
Yes
CDC Blew Record Budget on Playground Injuries and ‘Social Norming’
15 Ways The NIH And CDC Wasted Taxpayer Money
During the October 3 airing of Real Time With Bill Maher, guest Ben Affleck joined Maher in talking about owning guns in order to protect their homes and their families.
Stockton’s Unlearned Lessons - The troubled California city could straighten out its finances, but its leaders don’t seem to want to.
The effects of cheap oil
Sultan is no fan of Islam
AP: Nearly 1 Million Americans Have Cast Ballots Already For Midterm Elections
Politics today: Udall is a rubber stamp
Politics today: Scott Brown can win
Politics today: The nation’s most effective welfare reformer may be the Republican governor of Maine, Paul LePage, and he’s under assault for it.
From Wiliamson's The Thirty Years’ War - What this country needs is a war of attrition against the welfare state and entrenched incompetency:
I like Senators Paul, Cruz, and Rubio; each has his own virtues and admirable characteristics. But none of them has done one single thing of interest in office other than campaign for president since about five minutes after being sworn into the Senate.
Hamburg has become the scene of street fighting between Islamic supporters of ISIS and expatriate Kurds
A final batch of my pal's pics from his trip to Zambia in August. I requested some pics from town and city but he says they spent their entire trip in tents in wilderness with native guides.
More below the fold -
Continue reading "Final batch"
Thursday, October 16. 2014
What a fine clothing store.
Durable, classic clothing. Wish we had one like that around here. Clearly, Buffalo is not dead. They do sell online and they are good people.
The investment markets? It's about time, past time, for a good correction towards reality.
Ebola hysteria? I guess it sells soap. News is infotainment. See The #Ebola Media Epidemic
Presbyterian workers wore no hazmat suits for two days while treating Ebola patient
I don't blame government for that - I blame the Infectious Disease team at the hospital
A COMPACT FUSION REACTOR THAT COULD CHANGE THE WORLD FOREVER: Lockheed Martin Claims Breakthrough
We'll see...
Why Angie’s List Is In Trouble
We have had good luck with people via Angie's - a good resource, thus far
The Adultery Arms Race - Technology has made cheating on your spouse, or catching a cheater, easier than ever. How digital tools are aiding the unfaithful and the untrusting—and may be mending some broken marriages.
Why is Denmark so happy?
No limit, no pay credit card. Nice
The end of the era of personal responsibility
A moving reminiscence
Cornell: Basically, if you were a deer on campus, you got so much free birth
control it would make Sandra Fluke jealous; if you were a deer off
campus, you got served for dinner.
The World Is Full of Grain - Agricultural production is at record levels—and that could make the planet less stable.
A gluten apocalypse
City of Houston demands pastors turn over sermons
Tell the city to go to hell
All-Female Colleges Adopt New Policies To Enroll Male ‘Transgender’ Students
After Central Bank Financial Bubbles, Comes Liquidation And Industrial Deflation
Stockman: This Time Is Different—–For The First Time In 25-Years The Wall Street Gamblers Are Home Alone
Obamacare Is a Job-Slashing, Deficit-Deepening Disaster
Equating Conservatism With Hate Speech on Campus
The kids can't handle new ideas
Jon Stewart Skewers Dem Wealth Hypocrisy
Fair enough, but I do not get the appeal of this smarmy guy
Politics today:Elizabeth Warren: The Rich White Man’s Candidate
Politics today: Train Wreck: Alison Lundergan Grimes Refuses To Say If She Would Vote For Harry Reid To Lead Senate Dems…
Politics today: Arkansas Debate: Cotton excels; Pryor confirms he’s out-of-touch
Politics today: Our Lame Cult of the Presidency
Remember The Fresh Promise Of Barack Obama? What Happened To That Guy?
Leon Panetta wants more kids to go into "public service"
The Illiberal Ezra Klein
The Progressive always reveals his inner totalitarian
Heather: Neo-Victorianism on Campus - Is this the end of the collegiate bacchanal?
Leaked DHS Document: 167,000 Convicted Criminal Aliens At Large In US
Kerry: ISIS ‘Dead Wrong’ in Its Religious Justification for Slavery
Well, he knows Islam better than they do
Is Kobani Erdogan’s Warsaw?
Apprentice Jihadists Practice in French Park – Tell Cops They’ll “Burn in Hell”
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