Maggie's Farm

"The Hillington Phallus is a very popular exhibit at Lynn Museum.”

Cowardice

Why Fire Makes Us Human

Friedman: How to Get a Job

Dear Grads, Don't 'Do What You Love'

How the Press Came To Love Obama More Than Itself

VDH:  Western Cultural Suicide

100,000 Christians die for faith every year: Vatican

Krauthammer: Obama Was Plotting Benghazi Cover Story Before Last Two Americans Were Dead

Signage and Vanity

Obama Administration Calls for the ‘Human Rights’ of Jihadi Murderers

Trout stream at the farm, last weekend. Yes, it has beavers. It just happens to be named Green River.

Shorebirds vs. People

I'm with the birds on this one. We want beaches for people and dogs, and beaches for wildlife. Separate but equal.

Now The Gibson Guitar Raids Make Sense

From 2008:  James Rosen’s eye-opening look at Watergate through the eyes of John Mitchell

The Apple Tax Diversion - Senators beat up a U.S. success for following the tax laws
they wrote.

The Obamacare Insurance Exchange Train Is Already Coming Off The Rails

The Obama admin is a symptom, not the problem - The GOP is missing the boat on the IRS scandal

Reynolds:  A revolution in the works?

Muslims in the UK:  MESSAGE UNHEARD

Have the climate sceptics really won?

To the Horror of Global Warming Alarmists, Global Cooling Is Here

Just in time to save the earth from human insanity

Obamacare's true purpose

Sailor:

"As part of its tireless commitment to being All Gay All the Time, the New York Time discusses the burning issue of: For propaganda purposes, who would be the ideal athlete to come out of the closet?"

Fernandez:

It is impossible to understand the Muslim riots and terror in Sweden, France, or Britain without first appreciating that the Muslim immigrants aren’t fighting to become like the gelded natives. On the contrary, they are fighting to be different. It’s not multiculturalism they want, but their own culture. This impulse used to be normal once — like marriage. And the wonder is that it no longer is.

Across some of our farm fields. After a cold, rainy day the clouds began to clear out, leaving fresh snow on top of the Berkshire hills and a frost on the grass. That's our Climate Change. We had spent the afternoon providing a much-needed, if late, pruning to the apple trees (not in photo). I like a fruit tree to have plenty of air and light in the middle, remove crossing branches, but the darn suckers take most of your time.

Also put up 6 new Bluebird houses. On Sunday morning, one had already been claimed. Birds are not stupid. They pay attention.

Tree on the left? Black Willow, on the riverbank. Looks like we're going to have a herd of yearling Black Angus in that field this summer. Very handy, because they can go down to the river to drink and will need no care other than fence maintenance (which is obviously needed). Plenty of grass. Barbed wire.

Our farm boasts the lack of several modern amenities: no shower, just old bathtubs; no TV; no cable; no internet; and you have to get on the tractor and drive up a hill to find a cell phone connection. Peaceful. The only radio we get is NPR from Albany. They are crazy, but have good music. The wallpaper is 70 years old but my Mom liked it. There is more to life than materialism and conveniences and comfort, and my Mom understood that, deeply. We did break down and install propane heat 2 years ago. Decadent, but welcome after a cold rainy day when you come in soaked.

We're 20 minutes from Tanglewood. That's a good thing. Civilized. Cold lobster and champagne on the lawn.

More pics here.

Quick movie review: Watched Margin Call last night. A heck of a cast, and an authentic Wall Street ethos. Did not doze once.

How the Smartphone Killed the Three-Day Weekend

Kareem: 20 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Was 30

Reading Hayek in Beijing - A chronicler of Mao's depredations finds much to worry about in modern China.

Fired for word: 'Negro' in Spanish class

Even Politicians Tire of Failure-Prone, Freedom-Threatening DHS

Hate DHS? Hate the IRS? How about the idiocy of FEMA?  FEMA Plans Clear-Cutting 85,000 Berkeley and Oakland Trees

Then covering the canyon with Agent Orange or something. That will keep us safe.

WHEN DID WE VOTE TO BECOME MEXICO?

Enough With the Bipartisanship - Republicans plus Democrats doesn’t equal good policy.

Whose Administration Is It, Anyway?

The bureaucratic-administrative-regulatory State:  The rise of the fourth branch of government

Eleven people across UK arrested for making 'racist or anti-religious' comments on Facebook and Twitter about British soldier's
death 

Free speech is limited to Muslims, in the UK

By 22-Point Margin, Voters Favor Obamacare’s Repeal

Obama Says Don't Fear Gov't; Tell That To Fox News

McKinsey report: 12 disruptive technologies that will transform life, business, and the global economy

If a gay dude tries to hit on me in college, can he be thrown out?

‘Allahu Akbar. We Take the Money’

Does welfare cause terrorism, Part XVIII …

Romans 5:1-5

5:1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

5:2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.

5:3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

5:4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,

5:5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

 Kenyon College, founded by Episcopal Bishop Philander Chase in 1824. It's considered one of the "Hidden Ivies" or "New Ivies."

Alumni will be relieved to know that even Kenyon now offers a useful major in "Womens' and Gender Studies" but, other than a little token faddish nonsense, it's a serious and rigorous place.

A pal had good luck last weekend, in upstate New York. Luck, and you have to get up early. 12 ga., turkey choke, try to call the gobblers in and hope they are around, head shots only.

The return of the Wild Turkey populations is a remarkable conservation success story. No, they do not taste like supermarket turkeys. They taste like Turkey.

I happen to love biscuits and pork sausage gravy. I had a friend from Harlan, Kentucky whose Mom always made "Hot Dog Gravy" for biscuits, substituting Coke for water and substituting sliced hot dogs for sausage. That is not for me.

Yankees often do not know that you split your biscuit, then spoon a pile of the custardy stuff on top of the halves. Yum. If you don't fall asleep after, it will fuel a good day's work.

Here's a good recipe.

I cheat and use Bisquick. What about you?

I had the same experience as Insty did. I refused an MRI because I had zero interest in shoulder surgery and there is no point in paying for a medical test if you have no intention of doing anything about it. (Yes, I pay for my medical care.)

I did not bother with physical therapy, rested it from tennis and weights for a year, and it's pretty good now except that I have had to replace my fast serve with a spin serve - which is probably more effective anyway. It gets sore after four hours juggling a chain saw, but that's ok with me.

We're still waiting for the 17-year cicadas. Too wet and cold for them.

The Italian Invasion of American Culture

Another Reason for Daily Wine

Hot Dog Toppings Open Thread

Does high fructose corn syrup deserve such a bad rap?

Deep sea mining 'gold rush' moves closer

Mankiw:  What Stock to Buy? Hey, Mom, Don’t Ask Me

Irish potato famine pathogen identified

Mimi Sheraton’s 10 Most Memorable Meals

Judge slashes sentence for Virginia teacher who slept with student, citing diagnosis of hypersexuality

They're calling her a nympho?

Time to leave – California wants to ban campfires at the beach

Mead: The Tyranny of College

Superstorm Who? Sandy’s Hard-Hit Beach Towns Reopen for Business

It’s easy to be smug when you think you’re smart and virtuous. Exhibit A: Lois Lerner

Reforming Social Security Benefits

Obama's long history of scandals--and escapes

London Beheader’s Imam: “When You Meet [Westerners], Slice their Own Necks.”

College Fix:

 “Women in particular often fall prey to an extreme environmental agenda, and it’s important to offer a fact-based educational documentary that offers a different view on these important energy issues, like the film, FrackNation,” Brown said.

Get a gun, lady

Reality Bites… Union Leaders Discover They Were Lied to and Millions of Members Will Lose Health Insurance

Via Coyote:

 The banning of catastrophic-only plans infuriates me the most. Those are the only plans that are actually financially sensible for a healthy individual to purchase. Everything else on the market is a perverse by-product of the employer-based insurance system.

The Sharyl Attkisson approach

How Prosecutors Fought to Keep Rosen’s Warrant Secret

Imams beg to differ with PM Cameron:

Scholars of Islam like Prime Minister David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson insisted that the gruesome murder of a British soldier by two Muslims shouting “Allah Akbar” and quoting the Koran had nothing to do with Islam.

However Imam Omar Bakri Muhammad, who influenced Mujaheed Adebowale, the London beheader, disagrees saying, “Under Islam this can be justified”

The House on the Hill

They are all gone away,
   The House is shut and still,
There is nothing more to say.

Through broken walls and gray
   The winds blow bleak and shrill:
They are all gone away.

Nor is there one to-day
   To speak them good or ill:
There is nothing more to say.

Why is it then we stray
   Around the sunken sill?
They are all gone away,

And our poor fancy-play
   For them is wasted skill:
There is nothing more to say.

There is ruin and decay
   In the House on the Hill:
They are all gone away,
There is nothing more to say.

This building, now a dorm, may have been the first Gothic Revival building in the US.

Our friend at the Q&O site is having problems with his semi-expensive watch, so I thought I'd repost this.

We posted a while ago about expensive watches, Vacheron Constantin, Patek Phillippe, and all that. I've had a couple of moderately-expensive ones over the years but over time the repair and maintenance seemed foolish and, sad to say, an Accutron cannot be effectively repaired anymore.

As cheap watches go, I don't like digital watches. I like to see the sweep of time.

When I last went for a dreaded and long-delayed medical check up on the insistence of Mrs. BD, I noticed that my fancy doc wore the same one I did - a Timex Expedition. They are good for about ten years or more, and when you need to replace the leather band it comes with with a nice leather band, the band costs 3X more than the watch.

Any watch I wear gets banged around quite a bit, but I feel naked without one. Are they male jewelry, social signals, or are they tools?

Amazon sells them, real cheap. $31. That is indeed a fashion statement: it declares that you are a sensible person.

The London Terror Attack Was More Than 'Unforgivable' - Britain has been in denial about the Islamist threat. Time to face it down.

Were there no men on the street to defend the lad?

Woolwich attack: Watch shocking video of terrorists charging at police car in attempt to kill WPC

These people are paid more from Welfare than the murdered soldier made

Presbyterian youths riot in Sweden

Let’s Not Let Boys Be Boys

Portland, Ore., rejects adding fluoride to water supply

Obama Administration Supports Fracking and Natural Gas, Despite Environmental Opposition

The Secret Donors Behind the Center for American Progress and Other Think Tanks

The least business-friendly states in the US

It Begins… Communist Indoctrination Included in Common Core Literature for First Graders

Steyn:  The Autocrat Accountants - Once government is ensnared in every aspect of life, a bureaucracy grows increasingly capricious.

A Growing Fear in France - As political and financial crises deepen in Western Europe, French Jewry is facing a familiar test

France’s Outrageous Double Standard on Hezbollah and Terrorism

Saudi Arabia/United States: Strange Bedfellows in the Middle East

Baby Breastfed By Vegan Mother Dies

The LA Times notices the lack of conservative commencement speakers

The Irreversible Decline Of Sears Can Be Blamed On One Thing

Blue Cities Declare War on Popular Services

News flash: Al Gore still trying to get everybody to panic

Nativism bad, Nahantism good

Some People Don’t Need to Go to School

Gallup poll on moral issues: social conservatives are going away

Oversight from Washington, All Along - IRS specialists in Washington were closely involved in the Cincinnati office's scandalous behavior.

Obama Didn't Need to Order IRS Crackdown on the Tea Party

Rush Limbaugh Does Live in Obama’s Head

Who Thought What about the Arab Spring

How Mothers from Hell Raise Their Boys to Do Evil - Zubeidat Tsarnaeva is all too typical of a Muslim world where children drink in conspiracy theories with mama's milk.

Report: 'Rogue' IRS Agent Claim Unraveling

IRS tea-party bloodbath continues in Congress

Terror: British soldier reportedly beheaded by two men in attack on London street

Stockholm is burning

As Sultan says:

Rather than the Somalis becoming British, shards of Britain have become little Mogadishus.

The Somalis are not alone in this regard. Muslim immigration to the UK has brought the norms of Somalia, Afghanistan and Egypt to the streets of London. Individual acts of violence can be overlooked. But there is nothing individual about all these cases. This is a culture of violence.

AND BACK IN GUN-FREE CHICAGO: Murder Capital of the United States Now Running Hotter Than 2011

IRS Scandal: Stage Managed To Leave President Obama In The Dark

Yet Another Obamacare Design Flaw

Forbes Magazine has hailed it as the most lovely campus in the US. Maybe so. That's a tough call. It's a tiny campus on a hill in the middle of a very pleasant and serene rural "nowhere." Feels more like a New England prep school than a college. One thing I can say is that the kids they admit are committed to the life of the mind, and the faculty is committed to each kid in a personal way. A good combination indeed.

Rigorously-demanding, too. While most famous for their literary and theatrical pursuits (The Kenyon Review, plus Paul Newman and Jonathan Winters at the same time), Kenyon has the highest graduate admit rates to medical school in the US.

My pupette's poetry prof, to my delight, knew Elizabeth Hardwick who was one of my poetry profs (along with the brilliant and inspiring...wait for it...Edward Said. He was not doing Palestinian politics then). Cool.

From the article:

 All elitisms run the risk of inbreeding and sterility. The real benefit of a perceived equality among citizens, as driven by the rough and tumble of economic competition, is not only that it expands the wealth pie but also continuously changes the diners at the table. That means that some at the head table may never have the proper politically correct manners, but that is the price of vitality. The problem with socialism and its near cousins is that it places the selection of winners and losers (even if called “industrial policy”) in the hands of the status quo, who quite naturally will put their friends and family first in line.

My photo: student detritus in dorm hallway after the kids have decamped in their parents' vehicles.

The Average Salary of a Military Helicopter Pilot

I'd pay them to do it

Sperry Topsiders: Made in Maine

Nearly 19 feet! Longest Burmese python captured in Florida

Remarkable footage of the big tornado

Wallace Stegner is a wonderful wordsmith

Homeownership, Unemployment and Economic Growth: Looking at the Trends

Yale gets on board with MOOCS

Obama and Elizabeth Warren Feed the College Beast

Cost of Coverage – The Real Measure of Health Reform Impact

Rand Paul Stands Up Against Government Greed

Blue State CT:  State Revenue Surge A Bad Reason To Spend More

Unions break ranks on ObamaCare

Top IRS official will invoke the Fifth Amendment in congressional hearing about tea party targeting program

Time for a team huddle: Lefty bloggers/journos head to the White House

Why is the White House Having a Secret Meeting with a Bevy of Lefty Columnists?

Strangled By Red Tape

The Arab collapse - Middle East a vulture’s feast

Driscoll's Quote of the Day:

Here’s the hard thing Republicans have to do if they don’t want this crisis to go to waste: they have to ignore their id, the temptation of the sugar high of partisan point-scoring. They must willfully set aside Obama’s presence in the fray, leaving the short term personalized attacks on the table, and go after the much bigger prize. Obama isn’t running for office again. Liberalism is. Making this about him is a short term boost to the pleasure center of the conservative brain. Making this about the inherent falsehood of the progressive project will help conservatism win.

Russia: Playing a Losing Hand like a Winner

Commencement Weekend, and those darn Mennonites hog all the best parking spots in front of the pubs. People tell me they are Amish, others say these people are Mennonites. Same idea.

These people believe our ordinary lives are foolish, vain, Godless, and empty. I can't swear that they are wrong, but they are just ordinary people too.