Wednesday, December 29. 2010
Another NOLA performer I saw over the holidays was this dude Trombone Shorty, with his band, Orleans Avenue:
From the Chimney Safety Institute of America.
Even if you rarely use it, have it checked regularly. Birds, animals, or leaves could make an obstruction up there, leading to a fire.
Dyson uninvents the vacuum cleaner
Social Security: The Chilean Model
Sarah serves S'mores!
The Utter Futility of Reducing Carbon Emissions
Dalrymple: When Predators Don’t Prey - Another good word bites the dust.
The Death Panels are back.
Mead: Give The People What They Want. A snippet:
Twentieth century liberalism started with Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson; FDR rejiggered it somewhat for the New Deal. In the 1960s and beyond liberalism continued to build on the basic concept that a powerful federal government was the friend rather than the enemy of individual liberty, and that the truly liberal thing to do was to help that government grow and take on more missions. While I don’t want to throw out the baby with the bathwater, it does seem to me that this road has reached the point of diminishing returns.
On both the left and the right today there are many people who believe that the real ideological contest in America today is between liberalism 3.0 (the more individualistic, laissez-faire kind of liberalism that dominated 19th century thought) and the more state-oriented, collectively minded liberalism 4.0 of the 20th century. 3.0 liberals denounce 4.0 liberals as betrayers of the liberal legacy who’ve taken a philosophy grounded in individual freedom and limited government and turned it into a charter for Big Government. 4.0 liberals respond that 3.0 liberals are simple reactionaries who don’t understand how the complexities of modern life make the outmoded, simplistic pieties of liberalism 3.0 wholly inadequate to the problems we face today.
Tuesday, December 28. 2010
Attended an event recently where Buddy Guy was performing (along with some other NOLA folks I'll mention later). Sweet guy, heavenly-sweet music. He played this set, same band.
Monday, December 27. 2010
From a BD daughter, re Christmas: "It's A Mall and the Night Visitors."
She likes Macy's in NYC at Christmastime. Who doesn't? (You know Amahl, right? I've seen it twice, which is enough.)
We've had only 15-18" thus far, I think, but the drifts are the real problem. It's been blowy and blustery, with gusts up to 60 knots. See NYT: “Bundle Up, It’s Global Warming”. Ya gotta laugh - unless it's intended as satire.
I'll try to get some links up when I can, but shoveling and getting things plowed comes first. In the meantime, catch up on our recent posts.
This is early this morning. I love it:
I took the pup for a walk in the snowy dark, strolling - no, trudging - down the middle of the roads, after my excursion to Dunkin. The old Explorer plowed thru the drifts, with some difficulty. This blacksmith's storefront looked pretty in the snow. He'll make custom stuff, and shoes for your horses too. Anything iron -
Dunkin, this morning. Their 2 am Donut delivery couldn't get through, but the nice Mezzican gals were there making coffee. Dunkin is one of those things in life that you can count on.
Sunday, December 26. 2010
We reportedly have a blizzard arriving today on the Snowball Express. That's fine with me, except that the Lad and his charming Mrs. are airport-stuck in Birmingham (with the Memphis Blues again?). Well, not really stuck - they are there with loving family.
Don't be surprised if we lose power, though. We usually do, with good strong storms. This one looks to be a winter Nor'easter. Think I'll feed the birds this morning.
Lovely winter post from The Englishman:
Mrs E awoke me at 2:30 to alert me to the ducks quacking outside the window. We lost one to Mr Fox a week ago when he crept across the ice to them. So it was on with Uncle Percy's overcoat over the dressing gown and out I went with the Marlin underlever to try and deliver some 357 Magnum 125 Grain Full Metal Jacket Flat Christmas Cheer to our visitor.
He scuttled off the through the fence too quickly and by the time I was over the road he had headed for the hills. But the moon was out, the snow was crisp and his tracks were trackable.
I failed to catch up with him but the armed stroll up onto the downs on such a night was worthwhile. Not a soul apart from me was stirring, miles across the valley street lights sparkled but otherwise I was only in the company of the friendly ghosts who have trod these ancient hills on thousands of winters in the past pitting their wits against the weather and wild animals.
Prager: Want To Raise a Good Person? Stop Nurturing Your Child's Self-Esteem
A cheerful humility is the best and most realistic attitude.
EPA moving unilaterally to limit greenhouse gases
An attempted end run around Congress
Hands-only CPR. You need to know this.
But a medical friend of mine saved a 90 year-old lady who had cardiac arrest on the sidewalk. She got a lawyer to sue him. She claimed her time had come, and that she should have been left alone. He was protected by Good Samaritan legal protections, but his legal costs to get to that point were considerable. You can be sued for not helping, too.
A new website to me: Jews for the preservation of firearms ownership
Green Lake, Austria. Cool vid
KUHNER: Radical Islam vs. Christianity - The cross is near extinction in the ancient lands of its origin
Environmental groups sue to block wind farm
I'm with them. Wind farms are a scam on the taxpayer - regardless of the bats. Did I say "bats"?
Voters elected Republicans to end Obamaism, not expand it
School food Nazis:
Evidently the message is that children’s bodies are a collective resource that needs to be managed by agents of the state for their own good and the good of society, regardless of what they or their parents think.
It’s not like schools have anything better to do.
I can understand parents' not wanting schools to feed their kids candy, but what's with the salt?
Basic instinct: Women take just three minutes to make up their mind about Mr Right
Driscoll: Where Unions Are, Americans Aren’t
Ice Age 6
We have been warning about this apocalypse for years.
Those who blame the U.S. for all the world’s ills
It would take serious shrinkology to understand why somebody would hate as free and noble a nation as the USA. Probably displacement from conflicts with Mom, right? It's always the Mom, right?
The Year of Stupid: Potsdam Climate Institute Now Says To Expect “Warmer Colder” Winters!
San Francisco May Vote on Circumcision Ban Next November.
Abortion OK, Briss not OK. Why Christians do brisses is beyond me. But a hand on my boy's dick? That is definitely the domain of a San Francisco government...
Speaking of brisses, more on Tutu and the Jews
Taxes and the Top Percentile Myth - A 2008 OECD study of leading economies found that 'taxation is most progressively distributed in the United States.' More so than Sweden or France.
Muslim moderation in Britain:
Around a third of young British Muslims favour killing in the name of Islam, according to a survey revealed by the WikiLeaks' publication of U.S. diplomatic cables.
A survey of 600 Muslim students at 30 universities throughout Britain found that 32 per cent of Muslim respondents believed killing in the name of religion is justified.
Just like the IRA...but not.
Do you think your taxes are too low? Make a contribution to the US Treasury.
Byron York: Smiling Dems will soon cry 'Washington is broken'
It's "broken" when they cannot do whatever they want.
Saturday, December 25. 2010
 AVI pointed out that we might be in error in passing on the theory of the relation of Christmas to Saturnalia: How December 25 Became Christmas.
It sounds like there is numerology involved.
Christmas breakfast was Cranberry pancakes and bacon. (Put those berries into the batter frozen, not thawed - same as you should with Blueberries. Otherwise, they disintegrate during cooking.) Lots of bacon and lots of pancakes, but no numerology.
Mrs. BD was nice enough to give me a trip as a present - one that was on the top of my bucket list. It will require a new camera. While I'd rather accumulate cool experiences than cool pix, pix are fun souvenirs - and cheaper than buying stuff.
And if you happen to be retarded and a victim of Alzheimer's, like me, the pics help you remember what you did and where you went.
 Luke 2:1-14, (15-20)
2:1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.
2:2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.
2:3 All went to their own towns to be registered.
2:4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David.
2:5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.
2:6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child.
2:7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
2:8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.
2:9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
2:10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see--I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:
2:11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.
2:12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger."
2:13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
2:14 "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"
2:15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us."
2:16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.
2:17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child;
2:18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.
2:19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.
2:20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Friday, December 24. 2010
Matthew 18:1
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them
3 and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Joseph and Jesus, Guido Reni, 1635
Thursday, December 23. 2010
 It's never a good idea to go through an Advent without watching this version of A Christmas Carol.
To state the obvious, the story is a metaphor, using Christmas as the setting, in which a man is reborn in Christ by the mystical power of the Holy Spirit (as represented by the "spirits,") transforming his soul from a grouchy, self-centered drudge into a loving, generous, and joyful creature.
Many Christians, as I do, pray for some bit of that transformation and rebirth in our souls each Advent, as we remember and celebrate the birth of Christ.
 The experts were wrong: Carbs are the problem - not fat
You can now eat all the fat you want. Eating fat doesn't make you fat.
Where germs breed on airplanes
Bishop Tutu Is No Saint When it Comes To Jews
Driscoll: Mega-Consumers against Consumerism
John Fund: The Net Neutrality Coup - The campaign to regulate the Internet was funded by a who's who of left-liberal foundations. A quote:
The net neutrality vision for government regulation of the Internet began with the work of Robert McChesney, a University of Illinois communications professor who founded the liberal lobby Free Press in 2002. Mr. McChesney’s agenda? “At the moment, the battle over network neutrality is not to completely eliminate the telephone and cable companies,” he told the website SocialistProject in 2009. “But the ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control.”
A year earlier, Mr. McChesney wrote in the Marxist journal Monthly Review that “any serious effort to reform the media system would have to necessarily be part of a revolutionary program to overthrow the capitalist system itself.” Mr. McChesney told me in an interview that some of his comments have been “taken out of context.” He acknowledged that he is a socialist and said he was “hesitant to say I’m not a Marxist.”
Armies always used to take control of the radio stations first
Obamacare is a government takeover
Happy Kwanzaa, Commies, Racists, and Psychopaths
Obama Supported Ousted Honduran Thug Zelaya to Appease Chavez
School Requires Permission Slips for Pledge
Wednesday, December 22. 2010
 Stopped by my local jewelers at lunchtime today (to pick up a repaired watch - not shopping). The place was packed, and I had to wait a while despite there being 8 salespeople.
The lady who retrieved my watch showed me a $285,000 watch. Used. It doesn't look fancy or flashy at all. She told me they would sell it this week, already sold one just like it earlier in the week. I admired it, but I prefer my old Accutron that my wife gave me the first year we were married (and my Timex Explorer for banging around). She also showed me a pretty bracelet, $60,000. She said they had had five of them three weeks ago, now down to this last one.
They have an armed rent-a-cop on duty full time.
When I finally got my watch delivered from the repair and jewelry construction area upstairs, she handed it to me and said "No charge. It was a simple repair, just a cleaning and oiling. Merry Christmas."
Rasmussen: Majority of Voters Say Protecting Individual Rights Is Government’s Chief Role.
That's a good sign. Lots of folks, it would appear, have taken Bastiat to heart. Unsurprisingly, Liberals do not see it the same way.
 Have Feminists Gotten It All Wrong? Can a woman deviate from the fixed feminist-approved life path and still be a woman in full?
Obama's mystery proposal to regulate the Internet
Also, at WaPo: Hands off tomorrow's Internet:
Discouragingly, the FCC is intervening to regulate the Internet because it wants to, not because it needs to. Preserving the openness and freedom of the Internet is non-negotiable; it is a bedrock principle shared by all in the Internet economy. No government action is necessary to preserve it. Acting only on speculative concerns about network operators and contrary to a decade of industry practice, the FCC is moving forward aggressively without real evidence of systemic competitive harms to cure, markets to fix or consumers to help.
Price controls: U.S. Proposes Rules on Raising Insurance Premiums
We all know that the long game is to put them out of business
In New Maps, 'An Embarrassment of Riches' for GOP
SANDERS: Afghanistan and worldwide jihadism
Obama administration readies indefinite detention order for Guantanamo detainees
E-15 gasoline?
Do the farmers feed us, or do we feed the farmers? And another issue: Do they care what that E-10 already does to our 2-cycle engines? What will E-15 do to a chain saw?
Re farmers, you got money for "attempting to farm"
Making the case that California is doing fine
Tuesday, December 21. 2010
Some of our readers appreciate views of old wooden speedboats. From this site:
Here. The Judge is a handy weapon, but the .410 in it might not kill anybody for keeps.
You do not want the bad guys alive to testify at your trial, because they will lie.
Re gun safes, I just don't want my firearms stolen, but I have no idea what good a home protection firearm is when locked in a gun safe. All across this great land, people keep a loaded shotgun handy and hope they never need it for anything other than a rattlesnake.
Best home protection is a cheap pump action 12 ga. Only a semi-pro or pro could kill an intruder with a handgun in the dark, while feeling freaked-out and confused. A 12 ga might damage your possessions but at close range with the right cartouche (Buckshot) it can definitely mess up a bad guy so he will die in the hallway before the cops arrive.
These are not very Christmassy mental images, are they?
 I am not a huge fan of Florida (I like going to places with more interesting history, and preferably less heat), but with our deep chill so early this year, I have been thinking about it a little.
I am not really a Hobe Sound or Jupiter type, and definitely not a Palm Beach sort. And Vero Beach never sounds very interesting to me. Your editor is averse to "relaxation," and also does not want to waste time by playing that game where you hit the little ball with the little stick.
Islamorada, for the fishing etc. I am also attracted to Gasparilla and Useppa. When we did a week in Captiva a few years ago, we'd rent a boat and tool around the waters between Captiva and Port Charlotte. We had to boat to have lunch in that wacky place on Cabbage Key, and we anchored right off Useppa for a swim and for some exploring.
Cabbage Key has no roads, and there is an insane drunk directing the boat traffic. Gasparilla and Useppa have no cars. They are both clubs. I am told that Gasparilla is for stuffy blue-bloods (it's rustic and simple), and Useppa more for the nouveaus - more luxurious. Tiny Useppa looks to have been having a building boom since we were down there.
A brief history of Gasparilla and Useppa, including how they got their names.
The Gasparilla site here.
Here's a Useppa site. Here are some of their cottages.
If any of our readers like to go to Florida, where and why?
Our linking function has been misbehaving, hence the messy post. If some do not work, apologies.
Ziegler: Media Misinformation 2010 vs. 2008
Reason on Jail: Beyond Bars - A new project has conservatives thinking more seriously about crime.
I do not like jail for non-violent crime. That's my tax money - for what?
How many times have you heard this story, at Prof B: “This is life" ... No, it's narcissism on a huge scale
A month ago, Brit climate models said WINTER TO BE MILD PREDICTS MET OFFICE
Related, DHS Defends Against Nonexistent Climate Crisis
Finally, a job DHS can do
Also related, A Junk Science Czar — Schwarzenegger Wants to Work in the Obama Administration Fighting Non-Existent Global Warming
Related: Hugh Hewitt: California's economic suicide now includes cap-and-trade
And more at Driscoll: ‘Global Cooling is what we must expect because of Global Warming’
It's scientific, you see
NPR's Nina Totenberg Apologizes For Saying "Christmas"
While hunting around for something else, I stumbled across this factoid: In 2008, 93% of American workplace fatalities were men even though males accounted for only 57% of the total hours worked.
I, for one, am grateful, because if women died disproportionately at work we'd never hear the end of it.
Q&O: Why you have to react to every story about government overreach
About Regulatory Capture
Interesting assumptions underlying a study about Fox viewers’ ignorance
Count me in.
Warren on the Dechristianizations of the Middle East
Insty noted the existence of a book which tells you:
How to prevent fat gain while bingeing (X-mas, holidays, weekends)
How to increase fat-loss 300% with a few bags of ice
How Tim gained 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days, without steroids, and in four hours of total gym time
How to sleep 2 hours per day and feel fully rested
How to produce 15-minute female orgasms
How to triple testosterone and double sperm count
How to go from running 5 kilometers to 50 kilometers in 12 weeks
How to reverse “permanent” injuries
How to add 150+ pounds to your lifts in 6 months
* How to pay for a beach vacation with one hospital visit
And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Samuelson: Cheating Our Children (Again)
Gates: Eurabia: The Planned Islamization of Europe
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