Saturday, July 13. 2013
Sonnet #30
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor'd and sorrows end.
Friday, July 12. 2013
I've had pleasure remembering many of the songs my Dad was fond of singing (badly) while driving. Here are two of his favorites to sing.
His "opera Italian" was pretty good. He loved performing this tune (sorry, but our Youtube embedding still is on the blink):
Also, this tune
 My Dad died this week in the same way that my Mom died in February: complications following emergency hip surgery. A generation gone in little more than four months.
He and my Mom raised five half-decent kids and educated us all privately and to the max.
I'll tell you just a little about Dad. He was a grad of Phillips Andover and Harvard College (which he entered aged 16), served in the US Army from 1942-45, went on to graduate studies at the great University of Chicago and then was called back to the Army from 1951-53. After that, he began an academic career combined with private consulting and retired as a full Professor at Yale with a folder full of teaching honors and awards and two generations of grateful students to his credit.
His devotion to intellectual pursuits and lifelong learning have been an inspiration. I clipped this bit from the obit my sibs are working on:
He was known for his sharp wit, brain power, and intolerance of fools. He was an omnivorous reader and a life-long student. A confirmed atheist, he could quote the Bible (and Shakespeare) at will. A Christian at heart. He did not care for TV and for most of his life would not have one in the house or at the farm. He had no patience for movies. He loved outdoor labor, planting trees, his vegetable garden, liberal politics, all sorts of conservation causes, The New York Times, The Metropolitan Opera, ballet, Shakespeare, travels to England, Tuscany, and Scandinavia, the Tanglewood Music Festival, Cape Cod, the farm in Massachusetts - and his beloved wife of over 50 years and his large family (12 grandkids plus a great-grandson) which was always around.
Dad was 6'3", wiry but muscular, and good with chain saws, farm tractors, and tools in general. An inspiration and an impressive, masculine, tough, frequently caustic, hard-working and good man. Some thought he resembled Gary Cooper. He was stern, and not a "have a nice day" sort of person. He was good with firearms, but after two wars he had seen enough of them and quit them after training us kids. A New England Yankee born and bred, he disdained the pursuit of money, and ostentation. His intolerance of things of which he disapproved could be intense. As his kids, he was highly effective at keeping us scared straight, mostly.
We'll be keeping his apple trees at the farm pruned for many years, God willing.
Photo is my photo of a photo of Dad at the farm a while ago.
Thursday, July 11. 2013
 Opium, gin, and Soma: There’s a Pill for That
Roger Kimball goes fishing
Related: How Big Government Erodes Quality of Life
Documents Detail the Department of Justice’s Role in Organizing Trayvon Martin Protests
Small town America: Remington, U.S.A.
How to answer questions like a White House press secretary
Failure to Rescue: How FDR hurt Jewish would-be immigrants
'The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact With Hitler’
Obama's Sex Harassment Policy for Colleges:
Unauthorized,
and Very Likely Unconstitutional - See more at:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2013/07/obamaharrasspolicy.html#sthash.fyFhWTAA.dpuf
Dr. Carson: Restoring plain and civil speech to politics - Breaking speech taboos reinforces the power of
persuasion
Just when you think that the EPA cannot possibly get any more idiotic…
Britain set to privatize its Royal Mail postal service
Wednesday, July 10. 2013
As a kid, I spent one summer trying to get the hang of this near-impossible, absurd, pointless, and extremely fatiguing stroke. Never could.
In the summertime, it is fun, though, to see the kids' swim teams do their best with it and, at high levels, it's more interesting to watch than any other stroke.
I found myself wondering who was to blame for this monstrosity, which seems to have been invented around 1933.
Here's the history of the "Fly."
On Immigration, Strong Words
Mourning the Birds and the Bees
Fear and Loathing at Commerce - How a simple computer bug was mistaken for an act of war.
D.C. Council poised to chase off 900 jobs because they don’t like Wal-Mart, so there
Charter Schools and Their Enemies - Why undermine institutions that have benefited thousands of city students?
Early photos of the Middle East
A brief version of Glenn Reynold's Ham Sandwich Nation: Due Process When Everything is a Crime
Tuesday, July 9. 2013
Last week, we posted a popular article titled Trying to teach in an underclass culture.
A pal of mine who is deeply committed to, and involved with, urban education and to Amistad Academy (a charter school in New Haven, CT) in particular, emailed me this thoughtful comment:
My brief experience with black kids consists of a couple of overnights with some Outward Bound crews from Flatbush and my time spent in Achievement First schools. These experiences bear zero similarity to this teacher’s report, so I believe what you’re seeing is a particular manifestation of a culture in the context of a US urban public school. From an educational standpoint, those schools are a total failure based on the data and reports like these. I once heard Geoffrey Canada say “there must be a less expensive way to transition young American blacks from childhood to prison than our public high schools”.
In my experience, the kids were fun, bright, and displayed the same range of personalities as my own kids and their friends – some loud, some quiet, some funny, some serious. My first experience at Amistad was walking into an 8th grade English class and sitting in on a discussion of Romeo and Juliet. The kids chairs were arranged in an open circle and one tall lanky black boy, he must have been well north of 6’ and south of 130 pounds, was folded into one of these chairs with a little attached desktop made for middle school kids. As a middle age white man, my brain registered that tinge of warinessI get when encountering strapping black kids. He spoke quietly, a bit shy, with a New Haven wrong-side-of-the-tracks accent, but he delivered a short verbal essay on Shakespeare’s use of repetitive language as a way of heightening dramatic impact and conveying first-person perspective in the balcony scene. The kid was fantastic, better than most of the kids I met in college English.
I’ve walked into dozens of classrooms at Amistad Middle and High School and I’ve never run into any disorder. They do have disciplinary issues, but they are managed effectively. The “Whatever It Takes” professional culture also creates some extraordinary expressions. The middle school teachers were concerned about alienation among the black boys, so the male teachers decided to have an overnight in the gym, “men only”. Each boy was invited to bring an adult mentor, a father, older brother, grandfather, whatever, and the boys who didn’t have anyone to bring were matched with a teacher. They spent the night talking, telling stories, and exploring the topic “what does it mean to be a man?”, how do men treat women, how do they express themselves in society, what does it mean to take responsibility? This was very effective in forming deeper bonds in the school community, in particular, those crucial bonds between students and teachers. It wasn’t a cure-all, but it gave the kids positive ways to think about themselves that many of them reflected in their subsequent behavior.
Continue reading "Underclass schools, more: "the cruelty of the system""
Piano Lessons With The Maharaja of the Keyboard
That will give anybody piano-envy. Magic.
Five men stuck in a tree surrounded by Sumatran tigers for four days
Another ObamaCare Tax That Is Bad for Your Health - Venture capital is drying up for medical-device startups facing the new 2.3% levy.
Feds add Greek yogurt to school lunches
Gasland Director Presents Anti-Fracking Hoax as Evidence in New Film
Why Obamacare Threatens Immigration Reform - In delaying the employer mandate, Obama shows his disregard for the rule of law.
Colorado Baker Faces Up to a Year in Jail for Not Baking Cake for Gay Wedding
Patty-cake, patty-cake, baker-man....
George Will: 'What ObamaCare Requires For it to Work - Mass Irrationality'
Matt Ridley gave up on climate change
Who’s a journalist?
We are journalists
TV Is Americans' Main Source of News - Preferred news source varies by age, education, and politics, among other factors
The Year of Confirmed Suspicions, Immigration Edition
France's Big Brother, by contrast with the United States, is totally illegal
A secret thanks to librarians
How much do you appreciate people who want to raise your awareness?
Hey, New York: It was really only $750/hr
Same price as a fancy lawyer
Buchanan: Why the Reagan Democrats Departed
Sultan: Egypt is never going to get any better
Small banks can't afford Dodd-Frank compliance staff
Related, from a farmer: “I can fight the bugs, I can fight the lack of rain, but when the guy comes with a clipboard what are you going to do?”
Monday, July 8. 2013
Die Heuernte (The Haying), Pieter Breughel the Elder, 1556
In New England, haying - or at least the mowing - is generally done by the 4th of July depending on the weather. It's been a wet Spring but it's drying out now.
At the farm, we wait until a few weeks later so as not to destroy or disturb the nests of the meadow-nesting birds. We have Bobolinks, Savannah Sparrows, Woodcock, the occasional Meadowlark, and Mallard and Black Duck in the tall grass along the stream.
For our wild brushy fields, we'll brushwack them anytime we can between August and October.
Here's a detail from that painting. Peening, I think:
Here's our reader Buddy's scythe. I do not think he has used it lately.
Sunday, July 7. 2013
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
10:1 After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.
10:2 He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
10:3 Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.
10:4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road.
10:5 Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house!'
10:6 And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you.
10:7 Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house.
10:8 Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you;
10:9 cure the sick who are there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.'
10:10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say,
10:11 'Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.'
10:16 "Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."
10:17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!"
10:18 He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.
10:19 See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you.
10:20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
Went for a sail on a friend's lovely sloop, and passed by an especially nice wooden boat as she was anchoring and taking down sails:
Saturday, July 6. 2013
 Rancher blames global warming on Grizzly attack.
Two notes to that unfortunate rancher. First, if you live in Griz country, it is intelligent to be armed, on a horse, or in a vehicle. If hiking, at least make plenty of noise to warn them away. When we have hiked in a Griz preserve in Montana, we clap our hands and talk loud. Some hikers bang on pots, some use Bear Bells.
Second, Grizzly Bears are not mountain creatures at all. They are primarily creatures of the lowlands, especially river valleys and foothill marshes with the succulent vegetation they like to graze on. In berry season, they will go into the hills but not the mountains. Historically, they were common on the Great Plains of the US as far east as Ohio. They are not really predators except to fish, young helpless mammals, and anthills, but people can piss them off sometimes. They do not like to be bothered. Who does? They are powerful and fast and meat is a rare dessert for them.
When they are in forest or mountains, they are remnant refugees from their preferred habitat, trying to survive in marginal areas.
Rule of thumb: Never surprise a Griz.
Dr. Helen: Six Reasons Why Men Are Avoiding Marriage
She says she is "essentially honest."
Colorized History
Always lots of gems at American Digest
Grilling Over Charcoal Is Objectively, Scientifically Better Than Grilling Over Gas
I agree. In fact, I use a charcoal base with wood on top.
2 films, one about pop background singers and one about Breughel
I guarantee that you will love this
From a gay guy: Gay Marriage: “What-The-F- -Ever.”:
Every day American culture is a little more like a Black Mass against nature and manhood and anything decent or beautiful or noble or worth saving. Western Civilization has become a Black Mass for Western Civilization. Everything our better fathers believed in has been spit on and placed like a tainted Host between the yeasty thighs of a giggling whore.
In some formerly great nations, like England, I could probably be jailed for “hate speech” even writing that.
Kimball: July 4, 2013: Thinking about the Summer of 1776
The State’s Case Against the State - Who in his right mind would ever hire George Zimmerman’s
prosecutors?
EPA Growth Knows No Limits
Hinkle: Commit any felonies lately?
Drudge:
ONLY 47% OF ADULTS HAVE FULL-TIME JOB...
Longest Stretch of 7.5%+ Unemployment on Record...
Krauthammer: Obama’s Global-Warming Folly - No, Mr. President, we don’t need a war on coal.
I don't mind the guy being on his sailboat, but why lie about it?
... it turns out there’s a reason they call it “jailbait,” after all.
Hannan: Those greedy frackers
The top 5 lies about fracking
How Hate Facts Kill Scientific Inquiry:
Academic outsiders seldom grasp the personal consequences of expressing hate facts. The penalties are especially grim for those who mistakenly soldier on marshalling yet more solid evidence for their "hate." Nor can distinguished academics escape the anti-hate rage. In fact, it seems the more renowned the messenger, the greater the indignation, a perfect strategy to intimidate those with less prestige.
The world famous Harvard professor Edward O. Wilson was physically assaulted and repeatedly harassed for his work on sociobiology. Noble Prize winning geneticist James Watson suffered a similar fate when he said that according to his reading of the research literature, low IQ among sub-Saharan Africans Africa limited their economic progress (he also emphasized his unease about that conclusion, but this hardly helped). The American Sociological Association's campaign once tried to excommunicate James S. Coleman after his infamous report on schools' limited ability to boost academic achievement.
 The Spider's Web (aka "Natural History")
The spider, dropping down from twig,
Unfolds a plan of her devising,
A thin premeditated rig
To use in rising.
And all that journey down through space,
In cool descent and loyal hearted,
She spins a ladder to the place
From where she started.
Thus I, gone forth as spiders do
In spider's web a truth discerning,
Attach one silken thread to you
For my returning.
White, never one to waste words, wrote this poem in 1929 as a love letter to his wife. Photo is the Maine boathouse he used as his writing studio.
Here's one of Mom's small perennial borders at the Farm. Not in full summer bloom yet, but it will be soon. It's a pleasure to see her gardening continue on after her death this past February. Perennial, and we'll keep it that way.
The pump don't work but the handle is still there. We shoot the vandals who try to steal handles, and throw them down the well.
Thursday, July 4. 2013
Bill Whittle. He is not pleased, and reminds us that the government is dependent on us.
Via Sultan:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
That is not merely some bland reference to a mass of people. There is no collective here, only the individual. The greater good of independence is not some system that will meet with the approval of the mass, but that will make it possible for the individual, each individual, to live a free life, not a life lived purely for the good of the mass, but for his own sake.
Scott Ott: “The Declaration” offers exhaustive reasons for committing open treason, nonetheless, treason it was.
Holiday pic via Pirate
Wednesday, July 3. 2013
Happy 4th, and, above all, Stay Ultra-Safe and Boring, America, as we try to remember those who heedlessly and recklessly spilled their blood for freedom from government power and control.
When I reflect on America's revolution against Parliament and King George, I usually conclude that those rebel ancestors had trivial complaints compared to what they would have today against the very government they so carefully planted.
Valley Forge did not have these rules, but they seem to have no rule against firearms.
Photo h/t, Eratosthenes
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Is America in a Pre-Revolutionary State this July 4th?