Maggie's Farm

 

Payne toon above from Reason.

Andrea Mitchell Explains Why NPR Should Be Funded With Your Money

Modernist cuisine, with germs and feces

NEWSWEEK gave 1,000 Americans the U.S. Citizenship Test--38 percent failed.

Obama as arms dealer

Who was more conservative, Bush or Reagan?

Jacobson's Saturday Night Card Game ("I didn't call you racist, I just pointed out you're white")

Apartheid is Alive and Well in Araby

UN Organization Erases Holocaust from Palestinian Textbooks in Jordan

WaPo: Obama’s odd war

WaPo: Is there a Chavez terror network on America’s doorstep?

BBC World Service to sign funding deal with US state department

El Baradai stoned and shoed: The truth in Egypt comes out. Rubin says:

The only thing surprising to me is that the Islamists have been emboldened so fast. I thought they would be cautious a while longer in their pretense at being moderate and pro-democracy.  But revolutionary Islamists quickly become arrogant when people make concessions to them and they conclude that they are strong and victorious.

Leftists, Marxists, Anti-Semites & Pro-Union Activists Hold Antiwar “Palin Whore” Rally

Cuomo and 'the Rich' - A Democrat who isn't raising taxes.

One of my staunchly Conservative brethren at church today (all are my brethren, regardless of their politics) was adamantly opposed to American intervention in a Libyan civil war, or uprising, or whatever the heck it is.

Naturally, we Americans are being labeled "Crusaders." Not an insulting label in my view (because I view the Crusades as an effort to push back against the Moslem invasion and occupation of the Holy Land which closed it off to pilgrims), but I think it's a roll of the dice, maybe too late, partly designed to prove Obama's - or Hillary's - masculine bona fides.

War is always interesting, horror that it is. I do not know whether this all makes sense or not. Latest update: Allied Forces Attack Libya. That article leaves me confused about goals and purposes, but I am not too smart and have never claimed to be.

Our Commander in Chief is partying in Rio but he knows nothing about military matters so it doesn't make any difference. The Libs are having a fit, and  the Arabs suddenly are not pleased either.

Now back to yard and farm chores. Spring is coming, and I see the feisty Redwings at my bird-feeder. Lots to get done here to fend off entropy and nature's relentless rebellion against man's efforts to make things his way.

Jesus at WalMart:

"...my eye caught The Gospel of John. Now this was the film I meant to see in February 2004 when The Passion of the Christ came out, but I missed the brief window of opportunity for catching it here in Fresno. Slasher flicks play for weeks and weeks and weeks at the monsterplexes, but at the brave art theater, gospel films (without Mel's name attached), sad to say, don't." 

Read entire Click here: VDH's Private Papers::Jesus at Walmart

Click here: Amazon.com: DVD: The Gospel of John

Psalm 121

¹I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

 ²My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.

 ³He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

 ⁴Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

 ⁵The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.

 ⁶The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

 ⁷The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

 ⁸The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Our webmaster took this pic of Mallards in CT on Christmas Day.

While I do not believe that a parent owes a kid a free college education, I think it can be a heck of a nice present for a kid who is eager for it, and can use it. Those without an avid hunger to learn things in a formal format need not apply.

Nothing is more costly, or more over-priced, than education today. At the same time, knowledge has never been more available and accessible - few people remember more about Plato from college than they can read as a refresher on Wiki. (I always believed in reading an encyclopedia entry on a topic before studying it, to get oriented.)

With some gracious grand-parental assistance, we have paid for private college 2 1/2 times thus far - one half to go. Prep-schools too, but that's another story. (Like the Obamas and Clintons and most Dems, we are not huge fans of government schools when it comes to our own kids. It's an investment - we expect them to take care of us in our old age when we are broke or broken-down - and will be happy to do the same for our parents if and when they want it or need it.)

Because most colleges and universities today have relatively few standards about what a college-educated person ought to know, I had to do it myself. Re-inventing the wheel, you might say, because Socrates and Aristotle might have made a comparable list.

Here are Bird Dog's Basic, Minimum Requirements for payment for his kids' "higher" educations, whether in school or outside of formal schooling (high school AP counts, as does a serious approach to a Teaching Company course):

1. Calculus
2. A Shakespeare course
3. The Bible
4. Physics, Chem, and Bio. I would have liked to see some Organic and Biochem in there too, so they
    could understand what's in the newspapers. These are not "difficult," but require some
    simple discipline.
5. Western Civ, Hammurabi thru Plato through Nietzsche
6. Western Lit, The Book of the Dead and Gilgamesh thru Homer and Hesiod through Melville
7. Art history
8. Music history
9. English Lit, minimum of 2 courses
10. Econ, macro and micro
11. Intro Geology
12. Intro Philosophy
13. American history (not from Zinn or some Lefty nut, but the real deal)
14. European history
15. One classical language - Greek or Latin, plus one modern language
16. Basic Business and Accounting (unfortunately, most of my kids' schools are too elite to offer such mundane and practical courses, but they need to learn this somewhere.)

I put "higher" in quotes because this doesn't sound very higher, does it? My requirements leave plenty of room for a major in Underwater Basket-weaving or Female Studies. (When I was in college, we did our studies of females mostly on weekends with beer, and usually flunked the quizzes.)

My kids have mostly kept to this. In my view, if you don't know this basic stuff, you are not fully schoolin'-eddicated and not fully and cushily prepared, as the cliche goes, "for a lifetime of self-education and informed citizenship." After all, this stuff is just foundational and all of it could be self-learned, but college makes it more likely to happen, and a good guide is always helpful. 

When you think about it, a decent high school ought to be able to do most or all of it. After all, they take four years to do two full years' worth of hard work. Why else did they call it "high" school?  (My theory is that they slow it all down to the pace of the stragglers and slackers.)

I also advise them that any random course with a great teacher who knows everything about everything is worth many courses with ordinary profs in subjects they think they are "interested in."  How do you know whether you are "interested in" something until you dig into it? Everything is interesting, in my opinion.

Finally, I expect them to earn their spending money. Jobs during college. (My lad bussed tables at the B-school faculty dining room while being reporter, editor, then Editor in Chief of the newspaper and running a softball team. My middle pupette was a restaurant receptionist, then a part-time assistant at Merrill-Lynch - while playing Div. 1 Tennis and majoring in Econ and Math. I don't know how they did it all. I admire their energy and initiative. My little one would too, but there are no jobs in a tiny college out in the lovely woods and fields of central Ohio. She works hard in the summer, though.)

What do you require of your kids?

(Pic is an old one-room schoolhouse in Westport, CT. Those kids could learn more than our kids do, as witness Abe Lincoln, John Adams, Tom Jefferson, etc. Of course, exceptional individuals who were highly motivated.)

Government unions gone berserker:  "Governor Scott Walker wants to kill puppies."

Related: The Greatest Blog Post Ever Written?

Unreal. Now They’re Changing the Bible to Make It More Gender Neutral

That's crazy. We all know that God is a woman.

Blackfive: The UN actually acts on Libya- now what?

Powerline: One-Third of a French Fry Short of a Big Mac Meal

Obama Administration Compounds the Inherent Contradictions in Foreign Policy

Jonathan Chait Completely Misses the Point

Government Motors Guilty of Fraud on Chevy Volt

Sixty-four senators call on Obama to take up tax and entitlement reform

TIME: Why Are We Going to War with Libya?--

WSJ: President 'Present' - Obama dodges the big decisions to keep his approval ratings up.

To Jane

The keen stars were twinkling,
And the fair moon was rising among them,
Dear Jane.
The guitar was tinkling,
But the notes were not sweet till you sung them
Again.

As the moon's soft splendour
O'er the faint cold starlight of Heaven
Is thrown,
So your voice most tender
To the strings without soul had then given
Its own.

The stars will awaken,
Though the moon sleep a full hour later
To-night;
No leaf will be shaken
Whilst the dews of your melody scatter
Delight.

Though the sound overpowers,
Sing again, with your dear voice revealing
A tone
Of some world far from ours,
Where music and moonlight and feeling
Are one.

Here's a little bit about the poet. 

Laura Jacobs in City Journal: Dancing the Body Electric

In the seventies, not to put too fine a point on it, everyone was still alive. Martha Graham and Agnes de Mille were no longer making great work, but they were vivid, high-profile totems. Antony Tudor had one more great ballet in him: 1974’s The Leaves Are Fading. Robert Joffrey and his Joffrey Ballet were going full speed ahead, an audience-friendly ballet troupe that toured the country like a young, hip, and sometimes hippie version of the old Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Alvin Ailey, Eliot Feld, and Arthur Mitchell had companies that brought different demographics to the theater, and Merce Cunningham and Paul Taylor finally had national stature and repertoires that placed them in the pantheon. Twyla Tharp was coming into her own, bringing her melting-pot style and antagonistic syntax to the mainstream when she choreographed Push Comes to Shove in 1974 for ABT and Baryshnikov. Meanwhile, at NYCB, Jerome Robbins was experimenting with different forms of narrative (Watermill, Dybbuk), and Balanchine was deep into the late phase of his genius, putting on festivals—Stravinsky in 1972, Ravel in 1975—and tossing off blockbuster ballets like Union Jack in 1976 and Vienna Waltzes in 1977. Vienna Waltzes, according to Kirstein, would rank as the company’s “most successful” ballet. “For four seasons every performance scheduled was sold out,” he wrote. “It brought into the theater a new public, many of whom had certainly never been in the State Theater before.”

Couple all this creative energy with cheap rents—for no artistic discipline needs as much space, from class to rehearsal to performance, as dance does—and you had yet another reason for the dance boom.

Good stuff on Ring Lardner: Baseball’s Loss of Innocence

NPR Admits It's Packed With Liberals

When Is It Okay To Rape A Woman?

Large Hadron Collider Could Be World's First Time Machine, Researchers' Theory Suggests

Make me 32 again

A classic headline

Moonbattery: Madison Commies Sound Off

Dem suggests GOP housing opposition racially motivated

Germans? Israel Seizes German-Owned Vessel, Aiming to Arm its Enemies

Democrats wonder: What's our plan?

How Does It Feel To Be a Victim? Ask Prof. Bayoumi

Reason: Save the Internet From Al Franken

When Can Students Challenge Speech Codes?

Sowell: Redevelopment: A High-Priced Political Hoax

Harvard’s Ferguson: Obama Leading Us Back to Carter '70s

Kerry finds his voice

You gotta be kidding.

Iran Widens Crackdown on Religious Minorities

Lastest From Project Veritas: NPR Execs Admit to Soros Funding

WSJ: Progressive Government Is Obsolete

 

Kandinsky went through many phases, as did Picasso later. I think all of his stuff is interesting to look at.

 

From a choice of offers, the lad has accepted a new interesting "opportunity" (as jobs are termed, these days) in NYC.

Now I will have two kids working there, plus one beloved daughter-in-law. It's all good.

I tend to think that all ambitious young folks need to do some time in the Big City, whatever their field, if only to find out what high energy and high demands and sharp elbows really mean. I did, and it didn't hurt me none. Well, maybe a few narcissistic scars, but that's good for one's character. If you haven't been introduced to your flaws, weaknesses, and deficiencies yet, NY will happily introduce you to them - and tax the heck out of you for the privilege. I think it's worth it. At least for a while.

Pic is Manhattan from the Whitestone Bridge at dawn, on my way to some airport

Country folk call them "Fisher cats," and blame them for the decline of Ruffed Grouse populations in the Northeast (about which they are wrong. Grouse and Fishers coexisted for millennia. I blame the grouse population drops on fire suppression, habitat loss - and the dang Coyotes who would not be here had we not killed all of the wolves).

Fishers are large members of the weasel family (the Mustelidae - stoats, badgers, otters, martens, mink, weasels, wolverines) - kinda like mini-Wolverines.

With the return of woodlands and the decline of fur trapping, Fisher populations are rebounding in the northern US, especially in New England (same as with the Black Bear). They are one of the few animals that kills Porcupines.

I've never seen one in the wild, but I'd like to.

Do they scream? It seems to be an Old Wives' Tale. Info about Fishers here and here.

Have any of our readers seen one?

O'Reilly and the Big McNeill (Donneil Kennedy)

The day I met O'Reilly it was 32 below;
The sparks were flying off me pick, I was up to me neck in snow.
His footsteps shook the basement slab, I saw the sky go black
As he roared out, "I'm your ganger now, so dig until you crack.''

He was bigger than a dumper truck with legs like concrete piles,
His face was like a load of bricks, his teeth were six inch files.
His eyes, they shone like danger lamps, his hands were tough as steel,
But a man as small as that was never a match for Big McNeill.

When tea came round at dinner-time, he grabbed a gallon tin,
But I said, "Better put that down, if you would save your skin.
You may be called O'Reilly but I will to you reveal
That the cup you've got your hands on, it belongs to Big McNeill.''

Well, he laughed at me and carried on as if I hadn't spoke.
He said, ``A man from Dublin Town can always take a joke.''
But when he picked a shovel up, wee Jimmy gave a squeal
"You'd better leave that teaspoon, it belongs to Big McNeill.''

Well, everything the ganger touched we said to leave alone,
Or else McNeill would grind him up and make plaster of his bones.
At last O'Reilly lost his head and said he'd make a meal
Out of any labourer in the squad, especially Big McNeill.

We said McNeill was sick in bed and told him where to go.
The boys all downed their tools and went along to watch the show,
And when we got to Renfrew Street, wee Jimmy danced a reel,
To see him thundering at the door to fight the Big McNeill.

When the ganger got inside he saw a monster on the bed,
A mound as big as a stanchion base with a barrel size of head.
He punched it and he thumped it and he hit about with zeal,
'Til the missus cried: "Don't hurt the child, or else I'll tell McNeill.''

He was bigger than a dumper truck
With legs like concrete piles,
His face was like a load of bricks,
His teeth were six inch files,
His eyes, they shone like danger lamps,
His hands were tough as steel,
But a man as small as that was never
A match for Big McNeill.

Relationships: 10 Reasons You Should Break It Off (h/t Linkiest)

Refuting a Myth About Human Origins

Schneiderman: The Meaning of Life

It's the Enlightenment secular-humanist view. Not bad at all. Me? I take a Christian view.

“Conyers: Obamacare Is ‘Platform’ for Creating Single-Payer System”

I think it's designed to drive private insurors out of business

Housing starts see biggest drop since 1984

Lots of inventory out there. Lucky time to be a buyer, lousy time to be a seller. Them's the breaks.

Insty:

THE INTOLERANCE of the avant-garde. “That helps to explain why the ideas of the avant garde have been the same for more than a century, and why, today, avant garde means defending the statist status quo.”

And that’s a good excuse for linking this piece.

McArdle: When rail becomes ridiculous

Portland Bans Scent

I wonder if that includes anti-perspirant

Common-Sense Meltdown

Nuke terror - but it's the old-fashioned tsunami that killed thousands

Jammie on Atlanta: A Lesson In How To Scam Tax Dollars

Problem is, there is nowhere to go to in Atlanta. There's no there, there - except the airport.

Waxman-Markey:

Our agenda is more important than any constitutional principle that might interfere with it.

They aren't joking and, of course, the Left can apply that argument to anything. "By all means necessary..."

JPC: Palestine Betrayed

Rubin Report: The weapons-laden ship marks a big transformation

I believe (Jesse) Jackson and company are intentionally distorting the truth, misleading, manipulating and abusing the American people. They have been getting away with it for far too long. It is time they are called out and held politically accountable.

From Mead's A Red Dixiecrat Dawn?

Krugman and the Times editorial board are both examples of something important in American life today: left-liberal intellectuals are increasingly able to understand that individual supports of the blue social model are crumbling.  But they are still so captivated by the blue model, so profoundly convinced that the Progressive movement’s solutions to America’s social ills in 1910 are still valid today, that they cannot yet look beyond the blue model to imagine a different and brighter future for the United States.

Scientists Baffled By Man's Incredible Ability To Fuck Up Every Time

Are Christians Obsessed with Gays and Abortion?

Hansen in 1986: 2°-4° warmer in 2010. Reality: No change

It's not from The Onion, and it's not about a community college: "Community college overwhelmed by dumb students"

Food price inflation

Wind Farms Blamed For Stranding Of Whales

Also slice up hawks

J Street: 'Maybe Israel really ain't a good idea'

Why It’s Bad Business to Hire the Long-Term Unemployed

Prelutsky: Trying to Make Sense of Liberals

Nearly 2/3 Of Americans Say Afghan War No Longer Worth Fighting

Paul Krugman Admits He Lives in a Bubble

GOP 2012 theme: American 'decline'

I suggest "Hope and Change"

Slacking off as self discovery: The Rebranding of Indolence as ‘Emerging Adulthood’

Reynold's Law:

“The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people.

But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits — self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. — that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them.”

The case that Immigration Doesn't Hurt Native-Born Workers

Intellectuals and tyrants: The Intellectual as Courtier

Powerline: The White House is trendy and ignorant

Tennessee:

"This General Assembly will not be intimidated by nomadic bands of professional agitators on spring break bent on disruption," he said. "We talk through our differences here. Tennessee is not Wisconsin."

How close did we get to the Humpback whales last week, on the Zodiac? Almost close enough to touch them. You can see another one underwater, swimming under the Zodiac. Friendly whales who like to interact with Zodiacs.

 

This little kid is in the music more than in the performance, it seems to me. Her body says so.

 

What it's like to have an ax murderer in your classroom

A survey … invited the very rich to write freely about how prosperity has shaped their lives and those of their children

Grabar: No Longer Academic: When Activism Is on the Curriculum

We missed this: Question Insanity: What to Ask Progressives - An ex-Soviet immigrant goes Socratic on his liberal American critics.

Smart comment from Eric: Have conspiracy theories have become the modern equivalent of P.T. Barnum's freak shows?

Yes, like the warmist hysterics.

Good details of the battles of Staten Island at Walking the Berkshires

Sipp: Marketing, Advertising, and Sales 101. Great video ad for Telluride. Skiied there one week, a few years ago. Great. I hate the chair lifts without bars, though, especially when you're going over canyons. Yikes. I still have the Osprey backpack I bought there for dumping kids' clothing in when it warmed up during the day, and things were shed. You find challenging and exciting skiing there. Same as tennis: keep those knees bent.

Scorsese’s Gangs of New York: How the Left Misuses American History.

It's called "propaganda."

The BD family contains avid snorkelers, but only Mrs. BD is a skilled scuba diver. But even snorkeling, she can swim down 20 feet easily to inspect something. Loves it.

But about the peas. On good advice we bought a big bag of frozen peas at the Cabo WalMart, filled a plastic water bottle with them and then added water to the bottle. When you are diving or snorkeling near rocks or a reef, just squirt a few peas out of that bottle. You will be swarmed with tropical fish. Works like a dream. Like tossing bread to pigeons in a park. Fish were crashing into me, some over a foot long, and one bit Mrs. BD while trying to get to the pea bottle. Very cool thing to try. Wish I had had an underwater camera.

We had to go on a goofy party boat to get to a good snorkeling area, and they provided the equipment. Unlimited free drinks. It was jolly. On the way back, Mrs. BD danced the Macarena and YMCA without touching a drop of drink (not a photo of her). I didn't, and I did.

T-shirt via Q&O -

Belmont on urban renewal: Saving the village in order to destroy it  h/t Dr. Sanity

Are People Nicer In Cities?

Family breakdown was elephant in the room at anti-bullying circus

Medicare paid $3.1M for Viagra, other erectile-dysfunction drugs

Dead Men Risen: The snipers' story

Why is there no looting in Japan?

The Law of Demand: Pirates Cut Ransom Demands

Re taxes: How Much Money Do the Rich Have?

Internet will soon be top choice to get news in America as it overtakes newspapers for first time

Is the iPad magical?

Hennessey: The President’s budget: whistling past the graveyard

Breaking: Bill Clinton Diagnosed With Psychiatric Disorder

Not a joke

Military 'diversity': more DC silliness

 God forbid you bought an original Powerbook in October 1997 instead of buying shares (in Apple)

When Are Religious ‘Progressives’ Going to Get Serious?

Not from The Onion: Climate Change Advocates Glom Onto Tsunami to Advance Arguments

Always remember: It's always the Jews' fault

Steyn: Dead Jews Is No News

Met the pupette in NYC yesterday to take her to brunch and to take her to look at some Kandinsky at the Guggenheim. Clever of those Guggenheims to buy so many Kandinskys before he became too well-known, but you have to figger they got rich by being perceptive.

Readers know that I am a Kandinsky fan.

Mrs. BD wanted to get lunch first at the Viennese cafe, Cafe Sabarsky, in the Neue Gallery up the street. Having been in Vienna last summer, I can say that it sure feels like Vienna in there. Wonderful. Gallery worth visiting too.

A few more pics below -