Thursday, May 24. 2012
In Finland, this guy is considered a radical. In the US, he would be considered a Democrat:
The United States symbolises the worst ideologies in the world: growth and freedom… Any dictatorship would be better than modern democracy. There cannot be so incompetent a dictator that he would show more stupidity than a majority of the people. The best dictatorship would be one where lots of heads would roll and where government would prevent any economic growth… A fundamental, devastating error is to set up a political system based on desire. Society and life have been organised on the basis of what an individual wants, not on what is good for him or her… Our only hope lies in strong central government and uncompromising control of the individual citizen.
Yes, human desires sure do complicate the lives of those whose main human desire is power.
 Modern dog breeds genetically disconnected from ancient ancestors
Amusing: 5 Signs Your Child Is a Psychopath, According To The NYT
News you (ladies) can use: 80% of women are wearing the wrong bra size, resulting in discomfort, floppiness, and sub-optimal appearance. Maggie recomments the Nordstrom bra-fitters.
10 Tips on Writing from David Ogilvy
Thinking about the future, Robin Hanson:
The common pattern: project forward a current trend to an extreme, while assuming other things don’t change much, and then recommend an action which might make sense if this extreme change were to happen all at once soon.
How often do scientists fake results?
Actually, the Obama spending binge really did happen
How the Recovery Went Wrong - Of the 11 recoveries in the last 60 years, this one is at or near the bottom in job growth and every other economic indicator.
Who Really Owns the Oil Companies?
With Recall Vote Days Away – New Study Shows Walker’s Reform Saved Wisconsin $1 Billion
Their Rules, Not Ours: Time to Vet Private Lives of Journalists?
Who is Valerie Jarrett?
Walter Williams: Should black people tolerate this?
Prager: Leftism Is A Religion With Its Own Unbending Dogma
Text of Václav Klaus Heartland Institute Conference Speech
Hearing Witness: PPACA Is Scaring Capital Away from Health Services
Putting the 'Insurance' Back in Health Insurance
Nicaragua and the Religious Left: Look Back in Wonder
Wednesday, May 23. 2012
An amusing article, and at least 50% accurate: Basta la Pasta!
In the USA, Italian food can range from the sublime to the inedible. Same thing in Italy. Fortunately, Mrs. BD and I know where to go and what to order, in both countries.
Even Domino's pizza beats the Italian stuff 90% of the time. And, as I have said many times, pasta with red sauce is only fit to be eaten to prevent death by starvation. They don't even like it in Italy, except in Naples which is not exactly known for haute cuisine.
How to Find Your Purpose and Do What You Love
College Grads Earn Less Than A Decade Ago
Supply and demand at work
Transgender Five-Year-Old?
MoDo doesn't understand Catholicism
HHS doesn’t speak for me, or many women
Mary Ann Glendon: Why the Bishops Are Suing the U.S. Government - The main goal of the contraception mandate is not to protect women's health. It is a move to conscript religious organizations into a political agenda.
Washington Post Asks The Important Question: In a Way, Isn't Romney Sort of Responsible for a Massacre By Mormons 160 Years Ago?
Obama's Bain mutiny
Swinging at Bain, Obama Ignores What Private Equity Is
Democrats and Bain Capital: Hypocrisy exposed
As I understand it, venture capital and private equity are the EMS of the business world
Furious Chris Matthews Explodes: Cory Booker 'Betrayed' and 'Sabotaged' Obama
Obama’s dangerous words about profits and free enterprise
Dr. Orwell Will See You Now - Don’t be fooled by their health care Newspeak.
Michele: A 2012 campaign must-read: The conservative survival guide to Mitt Romney
Lazear: 2013 Tax Increases Are to be Feared, Not Spending Cuts
Watching the Democratic Party Collapse in Dixie
Obama challenged in Arkansas primary
GAFFNEY: Bad timing for LOST - Another foreign policy battle in the presidential election
The Danger of Article 82 and Obama’s Latest Treaty
White House officials shaped pending bin Laden movie
North American Energy Inventory
ZUBRIN: China’s population-control holocaust - The bloody history of ‘Limits to Growth’
Smithsonian's Vietnamese exhibit recalls plight of 'boat people'
Re Europe:
"Today, firms with more than 15 workers cannot get rid of employees even in a downturn without risking legal proceedings that can last years," reports The Economist magazine, referring to Italy's overregulated economy. "If a judge then decides the company has acted unfairly, it can be forced to rehire the worker and pay him his lost earnings
Tuesday, May 22. 2012
From a friend:
Sir John Gielgud, unforgettable in so many roles – and only he, playing a butler, could so verrry stiffly and silkily respond to Arthur’s bland set-up, “I’m going to take a bath” with such genteel contempt, “I’ll alert the media,” and then keep the rhythm building a series of quiet little comic explosions:
Arthur: Do you want to run my bath for me?
Hobson: It’s what I live for.
Arthur: I just broke up with Linda.
Hobson: I can’t imagine why; a little tart like that could save you a fortune in prostitutes.
and so on.
 From this good collection of Kramer passages:
Central to its doctrine of embattled and threatened virtue is the notion of what Lionel Trilling has called the avant-garde’s “adversary” relation to the larger (bourgeois) culture in which it functions. If the institutions that now serve as conduits of avant-garde claims are no longer shy about acknowledging this adversary role, it is because the role itself has acquired an unquestioned historical prestige.
We have all been brought up on the legend of avant-garde martyrdom, with its celebrated episodes of tardy vindication. Nothing is more familiar to us than the literature of cautionary tales recounting middle-class resistance to and stupidity about “advanced” artistic innovation. The history of modern art abounds in such tales, which are often chronicles of genuine suffering when they are not mere comedies of cultural manners. As a result, the tendency of modern critical thought, whether sympathetic to avant-garde objectives or openly hostile to them, has been to accept without question an essential, perhaps even a metaphysical, antagonism separating high culture from the middle class—an antagonism readily confirmed in our guilty feelings over the crowded roster of abused and misunderstood genius.
Kramer was wonderful. There is nothing new under the sun. Vanity of vanities: all is vanity. Call me bourgeois - I don't care -Trilling, Kramer, and Gombrich are my kind of bourgeois guys. Sticks and stones...
 Once a common bird in New England and the Eastern seaboard but now gone the way of the Passenger Pigeon.
From Wiki:
Heath Hens were extremely common in their habitat during Colonial times, but being a gallinaceous bird, they were hunted by settlers extensively for food. In fact, many have speculated that the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving dinner featured Heath Hens and not wild turkey. By the late 18th century, the heath hen had a reputation as poor man's food for being so cheap and plentiful; Thomas Winthrop related that they could be found on the Boston Common and that servants would sometimes bargain with a new employer for not being given Heath Hen for food more often than 2 or 3 days a week.
Cool blog we found: Brain Pickings. Sample: Joan Didion on Self-Respect
Mutations in autism
A new study in the journal Social Psychology and Personality Science finds that organic food eaters are . . . jerks.
Is it rape, or pushiness?
Mead: NY Met: The End of The Season
We love the Grand Tier too. An annual treat for us.
A new cut of steak
Selling kidneys
If you exercise enough, can you live forever?
How to prevent the poor of the world from getting Vit A
Humans, per groups like the WWF, are undesirable parasites. In effect, the WWF would prefer the scourge of humanity to be wiped clean from the planet.
We're white, we're male, and we suck
The Worst Union in America - How the California Teachers Association betrayed the schools and crippled the state
How would Tom Barrett have erased the $3.6 billion budget deficit in Wisconsin?
New York Times' Tom Friedman Bombs on ‘Jeopardy!’
The president had dinner with nine presidential historians...
Meet Desmond Hatchett — the fulfillment of the Welfare State
Douthat: A Little Bit Indian
Europe is driving full-tilt, foot on the pedal, into a brick wall
Racism must be a problem because government must have power.
The Left’s Threat to Delegitimate the Supreme Court if it Invalidates the ACA:
Once health insurance can be mandated, Congress will inevitably find that other products or services are equally essential to national well-being. Future Courts will either have to find all such purchase mandates to be legal, in which case there is no limiting principle, or they will have to pick and choose, which means an endless exercise in policy-making.
Democrats Turn on Obama's Bain Attack Ad
‘Relief Rolls As Modern Reservations’
Is mentioning Rev. Wright racist?
As best I can tell, Rev. Wright is a racist
Obama allows your children to go swimming for one more summer
VDH: Winning Battles, Losing Wars
Ten Thousand Commandments 2012 - An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State
Does Jeremiah Wright have a place in this campaign?
Caseless ammo could cut 25 lbs. from gear
Cronkite and the Roots of Media Bias:
A key element to this fairy tale is the idea that the journalistic icons of the time, like CBS’s Walter Cronkite, were Olympian figures who would never stoop to play favorites or inject ideology into the news.
But this view is totally false.
MSM: Obama’s Faith Is Off The Table, Romney’s Isn’t
The Treblinka Gold Rush - After World War II, Polish peasants hunted for jewels and gold amid the human remains at former Nazi death camps
Like totally cool. A country cabin on the roof of a six-storey building, corner of 13th and 3rd just a few blocks from Union Square. They even have a Wisteria arbor up there. Rus in urba indeed.
We went to the CSC's production of Midsummer's Night Dream this weekend. It got some terrible reviews - and some very positive ones too. It was wonderful, and sexy.
Maggie's is a big supporter of CSC: "Reimagining the classics." They manage to get stars who want to do classic stage. Bebe Neuwirth was Tatiana.
"But what is the story line?", I asked the wise Mrs. BD.
"What fools these mortals be" she replied.
I am fortunate in spouse and friends who dislodge me from my work, my gardens, and the internet. There was a wonderful street fair on Third Avenue. As a country boy, I sure do love visiting New York. I'd like to do a week of urban hiking there, with camera and beer stops and a nice hotel suite. Invite all of our readers to hike along too.
Some fresh photos below the fold.
Continue reading "NYC"
Sunday, May 20. 2012
From a pal:
Pops and I went up to Oswego, NY this week to fish Lake Ontario for King Salmon and Brown Trout. Had an excellent trip. Fished with T-K Charters and stayed at K&G Lodge http://www.kandglodge.com/. I highly recommend both.
As the pictures will attest, we caught our limit of Kings (3/person), ranging in size from 9-13 pounds, couple of Brown Trout, a couple of Lake Trout and a Steelhead. Left the dock in Oswego a bit before 5am, ran 2 miles right off the Town and had our limit by 9am (would have been earlier buy Pops lost a couple. I, of course, landed every fish on my line . .), and back to the dock by 1030a.
Probably one of the easier fishing trips - Dunkin Donuts is open 24 hours, so we had hot coffee and donuts on the boat. Guy at the dock filleted the fish for $4/fish and included ice for the cooler and we were back home by 5pm.
That fishery is pretty consistent from year to year, not only with state stockings but a decent (not great) level of naturally reproducing fish. Fish are close to shore as the water warms earlier in the shallows (that is relative as we were fishing in 90 feet of water, temps in the low 50's). Trolled spoons and anyone who says a 12 pound salmon on 10 pound test is not a fight, knows not of what he speaks. Oh - and about 35 pounds of salmon fillets for the freezer.
Guy on the right in the pics is the mate. He works doing maintenance at nuke plants for 8 months of the year, and fishes the other 4. His father was the Captain and both know what they are great fisherman
BTW - Pops is 78 (79 this October) and cannot wait to go next year.
I think he likes me. I copied it below the fold.
Now back to my honey-do list. Sheesh.
Continue reading "Got a friendly email from President Obama today"
Spend a couple of hours in a French bistro with excellent bistro food in Soho. Raoul's.
You need a reservation.
A shout-out to our friends at the Shelburne Museum, just a short drive south of Burlington.
An interesting and highly eclectic collection. I get a kick out of these small town museums which were started by eccentric rich folks who collected odd stuff. A good outing for a rainy day, or a day with nothing fun planned.
The Cloisters in NYC is similar. Also, good fun.
 Food Rules! Tyler Cowen’s useful new book helps ordinary diners find the good stuff.
DISCOVERING THE PRESIDENTIAL ORIGIN OF ‘OK’
Olympics, 388 B.C.: Mud, Sex, Hymns…Sports Too - Political rivalries flared and money flowed—but it was more like a rock festival than what we'll see in London
Arriving in Manzanillo
CNN Urges Normal Couples to Emulate Homosexuals’ Promiscuity
How Ignorance Fuels Science and the Evolution of Knowledge
Borat - and the Dictator - and Zionism
The truth is that Facebook is a toy, a dreamworld, a figment of the imagination.
Muslim Voters Change Europe
Belmont: The Son of Paleface
Cities Double Down on CRA Insanity That Caused 2008 Crisis
Roger: Who Is Barack Obama? The Question that Won’t Go Away:
...the noteworthy thing is that it is one more puff in the cloud of unknowing that surrounds the president.
It’s been pretty foggy in those precincts for some time.
Obama as con-man, fraud? Steyn
OK, but it is the policies that do not make any sense to me. Aren't most pols narcissistic frauds?
Why Hugo Chávez hates Jews: New book explores roots of anti-Semitism in Venezuela
Convicted Terrorist Brett Kimberlin and the Left's Political (and Criminal) Intimidation Network
Joe Lieberman: Turn the tide against Bashar al-Assad
I have yet to meet a single critic of our policy in Syria who believes that the situation in Syria is simple.
EU violates Aarhus Convention in ‘20% renewable energy by 2020’ program
Our Very Own Greece
Do not think about Jeremiah Wright
Buddy recommends: Jewish World Review
Malik Ali Brings the Crazy to Irvine Speech
Their Sense of Belonging - A historian vividly reconstructs Eastern Europe as a place of Jewish life rather than of Jewish death.
Deadly Disengagement - When Czech democracy needed defending, America was inattentive. The U.S. point man in Prague spent much of his time in New York.
Obama's 'Less Economy': Americans Facing Less Work, Less Reward
Psalm 1
1:1 Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;
1:2 but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.
1:3 They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.
1:4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
1:5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
1:6 for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
As the beavers becomes more common, the wonderful habitats they create - marshes and ponds, Alder and willow thickets, -proliferate. Wood Ducks, Black Ducks, herons, amphibians, snakes, turtles, songbirds, swallows, bugs. Everybody likes a beaver marsh. You can barely see one of their series of dams in the foreground.
 �
Saturday, May 19. 2012
 Ever gnaw on a raw Rhubarb stem? I used to love that, when I was a kid. Especially the tender thin stems. Huge flavor, tangy, bitter, spicey.
While "researching" this post, I learned that it's commonly done in Turkey and Iraq. Our garden rhubarb came from China. The leaves are poisonous. There are lots of types of rhubarbs, most inedible.
Rhubarb is the most reliable edible perennial that you can have in your northern garden. Just throw some manure on them every Spring, and you're done. The only problem I have had with them (my last patch) was that the plants kept going to flower and seed without producing new stems. I guess I should have cut off the flowering stems sooner.
How to make a rhubarb patch.
A few fine Rhubarb recipes (don't talk to me about Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie which is an insult to both Strawberry and Rhubarb).
Rhubarb Crisp
Rhubarb Tart
Rhubarb Custard Pie
Vermont bans fracking, but there is no oil or gas in Vermont, nor do they understand what fracking is
Funny, they don't ban fracked fuels from other states
My Son Looks Like a Girl. So What? (h/t Althouse)
Fat, Broke, and Single?
Regulating the Innovation Out of Charter Schools
Media Works To Suppress Obama 'Born in Kenya' Bio
"we rich Westerners are already beyond the practical limits that humans should ever aspire to achieve in terms of health, wealth – and even of education."
Why the Obama Campaign Is Blowing the Election
Ain’t no politics like identity politics ’cause identity politics don’t stop
Diversity training makes things worse (h/t Insty)
Media Pretends Mormonism Will Hurt Romney; Study Says Opposite
Clive Crook: Why I Think Obama Is Losing:
Obama's big problem, I think, is that he is no longer the president he said he would be. Above all, he's stopped trying to be that president.
U.S. Metros Are Ground Zero for Majority-Minority Populations
According to Adecco, nearly a third of parents are helping their kids find work, and nearly one in ten are taking them to job interviews.
Re-linked: Acknowledging The Arrival Of Peak Government
Via NYM:
Treating college as the new high school hasn’t benefited students who waste four years of their lives and pick up staggering debts which make it harder for them to buy homes and start families, but it has benefited the liberal arts infrastructure, which, despite the liberal spin, is just as good at handing out useless degrees with no career path as any for-profit college. And it has benefited the Democratic Party, which rightly sees college campuses as recruitment grounds and liberal-voter-training seminars. ...
Re-linked: Deterring Bullies: The “Karate Kid” Program
Is Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, a 1978 case rejecting academic racial quotas, the smoking gun behind Obama’s Kenyan identity?
The Audacity of Faith
Deficit likely higher than Jerry Brown's estimate
Did Elizabeth Warren Plagiarize Her 'Pow Wow Chow' Recipes?
Linda Chavez on her DNA geneology
Howie Carr: If moccasin were on the other foot...
‘Barack Obama: A Composite Kenyan’
|
If you have a minute, catch up on the stuff we posted over the weekend. We do it for you!