Maggie's Farm

Global Warming Hysteria: Stop Face Lifts to Save the Planet!

For years, it was assumed that a rapidly growing economy could pay for added programs. The result was the careless use of government for almost anything that made a good slogan or could support a lobby. The underlying economic assumptions were overoptimistic. Now, an aging society and uncontrolled health costs will automatically expand the size of government well beyond today's tax base. Demographics mean government will become supersized unless we trim its responsibilities.

We need a new public philosophy that acknowledges these realities.

Seems like lots of folks are getting out of the wind/solar scam market

Watts: More on the Wikileaks Climate Cables - http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/12/04/more-on-the-wikileaks-cimate-cables/

Pushing the right to bear knives - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/us/05knives.html  Some link probs today -

Government Website Promotes "3% or Less" Down

Market Power: "Ethanol on the Run"

...the Senators dryly noted, "Historically our government has helped a product compete in one of three ways: subsidize it, protect it from competition, or require its use. We understand that ethanol may be the only product receiving all three forms of support from the U.S. government at this time."

Image on top via Washington Reb

A friend iPhoned this pic from New York's Central Park on Saturday.

For Christmas, Gnomeland security

High speed rail: Trains to nowhere

Presbyterians Against Israel

Lawmakers Weigh Deal to Extend Tax Cuts for All 

I still find this amazing:

41% of [US] babies were born to unmarried moms in 2008. … More than half of the unmarried parents were living together at the time their child was born and 30% of them were romantically involved (but living apart).

Nanny to nix bake sales?

I didn't know this:

Foreign banks were among the biggest beneficiaries of the $3,300bn in emergency credit provided by the Federal Reserve during the crisis, according to new data on the extraordinary efforts of the US authorities to save the global financial system.

A sweet rendering of one of my favorites (h/t AVI)

Matthew 3:1-12

3:1 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming,

3:2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."

3:3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'"

3:4 Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

3:5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan,

3:6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

3:7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

3:8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance.

3:9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.

3:10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

3:11 "I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

3:12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

Maine Family Robinson's Maine Politics -- A Primer. The election's over, so it's time for me to pay attention to Maine politics, I guess. One quote from the guy who is truly not a Masshole:

All the candidates for governor said they were for education and jobs. The way they said "education and jobs" sounded like they were describing a Loch Ness monster or a Sasquatch or some other creature they'd heard of, but didn't have a current home address for. Since all the candidates vehemently pronounced their love for education and jobs, no matter what question was posed to them, I figured there must be a dastardly candidate that was for unemployment and ignorance, but I couldn't find one. My wife helpfully offered to write my name in. 

Ilya asks whether there is anything the Feds cannot control via Commerce

Fun vid: Andrew Klavan: Is America Satanophobic?

Some sanity: Breaking: Japan refuses to extend Kyoto treaty at Cancun

Let no crisis go to waste: Gulf oil spill could usher in new safety agency. Related, in The Atlantic, Obama's BP Oil Spill Commission Gets It Wrong

Via Insty, Megan asks Should China Rethink High Speed Rail?

258

There’s a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons —
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes —

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us —
We can find no scar,
But internal difference,
Where the Meanings, are —

None may teach it — Any —
’Tis the Seal Despair —
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air —

When it comes, the Landscape listens —
Shadows — hold their breath —
When it goes, ’tis like the Distance
On the look of Death —

Beethoven's Pastoral, with Charles Hazelwood discussing. It's 1 1/2 hours. (You have to click on the "play the program" bit.

Thanks, Buddy. It's a music education, and music gets no better than this.

Here's some fun Beethoven trivia.

12 years is the average difference in age between men and women, in second marriages.

I wonder why...

NYT: Cultural roots of disunion

Does Germany now own Ireland?

All dressed up with nobody to kill

Betsy: Thomas Friedman continues to be China's useful idiot

Protein: cultural elites can’t stand the hoi polloi they demand to support them.

Julian Assange Has ‘Got the Editor of Time Magazine Hanging Breathlessly on His Every Word’

Sissy: GOP Blue Bloods and the politics of envy

Deficit commission: What ObamaCare needs is … death panels

Related: Deficit commission: ObamaCare savings are a myth

McArdle: What Happened to U.S. Health Care Costs?

Andrew Kenny: A Year After Climategate, The Corruption Of Science Persists

Radosh: How ObamaCare and an Old Red Union Betrayed Its Poorest Workers

Tiger: Your evening Governor Awesome video: Regarding school superintendents

Re: A Sharp Comment on the ‘Graduation Rate’ Fetis

This gives a fairly good idea of what it's like, in Yankeeland. Lots of brush-busting, little shooting. Hunting isn't shopping - it's off-road hiking with dog. The shotgun is mostly a burden. You just hope to have a chance to use it - and not splatter your pal with birdshot. (We have all done that once or twice. It's important to apologize. Most guys don't care much, unless you hit their dog. It's best to let low birds go.)

It's riverboat European travel. Maggie's recommends. It's a hassle-free way to travel, and boats are just plain fun. It's not grande luxe by limousine Liberal standards (ie each room does not have its own hot tub or bar - so John Kerry wouldn't like it), but it's plenty comfortable enough for any normal American Republican. Friendly, too, and great local food.

We loved travelling with them.

A quote from the good piece I linked this morning, Can environmentalism be saved from itself?

Before they were sucked into the giant vortex of global warming, environmentalists did useful things. They protested against massive Third World dams that would ruin both natural and human habitats. They warned about invasive species and diseases that could tear through our forests and wreck our water systems. They fought for national parks and greenbelts and protected areas. They talked about the big things too – such as how the world could feed another three billion people without destroying all the rain forests and running out of water. They believed in conservation – conserving this beautiful planet of ours from the worst of human despoliation – rather than false claims to scientific certainty about the future, unenforceable treaties and radical utopian social reform.

I agree with all that. Furthermore, we non-politically-driven conservation types usually did the work ourselves - without asking governments and powers to do it. We even bought machines to restore filled-in and drained marshes (and even helped to undo Saddam Hussein's destruction of Iraq's vast marshes, which he did to eliminate those too-independent Marsh Arabs who wanted to be left alone).

For one example, Ducks Unlimited. Something like 12 million acres of wildlife habitat under protection now in the US, Canada (and some in Mexico), done with private donations. (59 million acres "influenced and conserved" - that includes things like farmlands operated in habitat-compatible ways supervised and assisted by DU).  While warmist bureaucrats party in Cancun and try to figure out how to control the world, DU works to raise money and protect habitat from development and degradation every day.

Maggie's Farm supports DU.

Here's one guide to a prayerful Advent this year.

I find that guides help me with this, and with many other things.

That's Fra Angelico's (aka Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, aka Guido di Pietro)  Adoration of the Magi. When you're in Florence, take the bus ride 20 minutes up the hill to Fiesole and see his little chapel and monastery. It's an active convent now, so they might not let you in. Our thanks to the BD art fiend and art-finder pupette (now Wall-Streeter but still art-finder) who turned us on to that chapel.

BTW, we think it's more fun to stay in the pastoral hills of old Etruscan Fiesole when visiting Florence. The bus runs until late, it's a quick cheap one-Euro ride, you get to ride with the locals, and the views are great. On our last visit, I think we only needed to use a cab once. Our pupette's Georgetown abroad semester was out of the old Rockefeller villa in Fiesole. Cool place. I should revisit those pics one of these days.

Prager: Want To Raise a Good Person? Stop Nurturing Your Child's Self-Esteem

You don't have to abuse those kids gratuitously, but let them earn a little of their own self-esteem - if they can. Nobody deserves much of it.

We ought to blogroll this site: Global Warming Policy Foundation

Italian mashed potato recipe.

We had mashed potatoes in Sicily, as a bed for Swordfish in raisin-wine sauce (with the fish stuffed with pignoli-herb butter). Near Agrigento. I will feed on mashed taters anytime, anywhere, any way.

Some good soul made a Cape Cod History and Geneology site.

Good one: Can environmentalism be saved from itself?  

Happiness as a mental illness.

Related: Garlic mashed potatoes.

Happiness is garlic mashed potatoes. Extra garlic, please. Is that mentally ill? Perfect with roast chicken.

What's the carbon footprint of the big party in Cancun?

Do you know who "The Rat Man" was?

Would you like to become a Maine Professional Guide (aka Maine Guide)?

If not, why not?

Now they say driving is better for Gaia than walking.

But I like to walk. Screw those Greenies with their virtuous limos and SUVs. I'm gonna walk whenever I can.

Franco Correlli sings the Flower Aria in Carmen.

US to support EU financial stability with dollars?

I'd be opposed to this. I'd be opposed to Federal dollars to bail out California too. After all, these "Federal dollars" are all borrowed from China or someplace, plus these people have no claim on my income tax.

This topic came up the other day: Survey on physicians’ religious beliefs shows majority faithful

So did this topic: Dylan's unusual movie, Masked and Anonymous (2003)

House climate panel to be axed

First good thing to come out of the election. We are sick of posting about this BS.

Adding to our shrink blogroll: International Psychoanalysis

Obama Blocks US Companies From Drilling Off Coasts – Cuba Will Proceed With Drilling Plans

A good deal for Cuba. We'll buy our own oil from them. Who planned that?

Let's all strip for climate change...or something. H/T, Linkiest

These kids just want an excuse to take their clothes off. For extra excitement, they should try it near a schoolyard.

Report: Giant life insurance lobby key force behind estate tax

 Eliminating the estate tax would put a lot of lawyers, accountants, and insurance divisions out of business.

That's a Theo pic, above. We believe in the importance of female self-defence.

On Nov. 13:

"Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted."

Albert Einstein

Just yesterday we discussed more of the serious legal risks of free speech in Austria. Now this: Man fined for yodeling.

It offended some delicate, hypersensitive Moslems.

Bob Geldof hates those two songs he wrote.

So do I.

Scientists call for rationing in developed world

Sowell: Why a tax increase for high earners doesn't make sense

Evan Sayet: Social Justice and the Modern Liberal Modification therapy - Seeking not “Truth” but “true lies.”

We like Evan.

End of the line for ethanol?

Let's hope so. Putting food in a car's tank is plain wrong.

More in support of the TSA

John Bolton interview: Obama's in over his head

On the NYT's decisions to publish, via Driscoll:

“The documents appear to have been acquired illegally and contain all manner of private information and statements that were never intended for the public eye, so they won’t be posted here.”–New York Times, on the Climategate emails, Nov. 20, 2009

“The articles published today and in coming days are based on thousands of United States embassy cables, the daily reports from the field intended for the eyes of senior policy makers in Washington. . . . The Times believes that the documents serve an important public interest, illuminating the goals, successes, compromises and frustrations of American diplomacy in a way that other accounts cannot match.”–New York Times, on the WikiLeaks documents, Nov. 29, 2010

Is S-510 a solution in search of a problem? The summary

Kate's deer hunt this week.  She didn't bag one, but it's sure pleasant scenery. Looks like good Sharp-Tailed Grouse country.

Of course Obama is a Socialist. Has there ever been any doubt?

The only thing surprising to me about this business is how little people seem to care.

Maybe he began his career as St. Nicholas, but he's been St. Toys for a long time. More anti-Saturnalia insanity.

You just have to laugh.

Amusing comment from a friend yesterday: It's not Advent, it's Advert. I advised said friend to enjoy Saturnalia while it's still legal.

Santa ideas: A biography of the Atlantic Ocean

Watch for this, and maybe call your Senators today (Senate switchboard # 202-224-3121): Senate Bill S 510 Food Safety Modernization Act vote imminent: Would outlaw gardening and saving seeds

More on S-510:Crucial Senate Vote Today on FDA Food “Safety” Bill

These people are insane.

Few nations were created, much less founded, on an ideal.

Read warmist Mead on Cancun, and then read Volokh.

Those two cover this fiasco/scam. You know how we feel: we pray for warming. It's too darn cold up here.

The Admin looks pathetic with these Wiki leaks.

And Hillary looks worse. It's on her watch, too. 3 million had access to these cables? In that case, not so secret. Essentially public.

It must be Christmas: Smithsonian Christmas-Season Exhibit Features Ant-Covered Jesus, Naked Brothers Kissing, Genitalia, and Ellen DeGeneres Grabbing Her Breasts

Very groovy, man. Like I said, it's Saturnalia season. We say "Behead the infidels." They show very bad manners, but it's oh so avant garde, no?

Mental health professionals gone mad (h/t reader): Adult Picky Eaters Now Recognized as Having a Disorder

We're all nuts.

Is education local or federal? WSJ: The GOP's Education Dilemma

We say local.

Somebody at Am Thinker thinks the O ain't so smart.

What were his grades? Oh, I forgot. They wouldn't release them.

The squiggly light bulb insanity.

I rebel against government cheese, lightbulbs, medical care, and almost everything else those bozos come up with.

Going around: Despotism Made Easy

Watch out: The education industry is discovering mastery.

More fun with the Palin obsession.

Let's face it: Palin sells.

Via Washington Reb (whence our morning artwork), at The Lost Art of Self-Preservation (for Women), the blogger begins:

I wrote only one post last week, and that was deliberate.  I had begun to feel as though all of my posts were reactions to things I found frustrating in the culture, and negative reactions at that.  I am, I realize, a natural pessimist, but I genuinely believe - no matter how crackpot-y it sounds - that we are headed toward some kind of real crisis in this country that will be long and messy and extremely unpleasant and in which most of our vulnerabilities will be exposed and tested and for which most of us are totally unprepared.  I don't know what it will be exactly, it may be a number of events coalescing into a greater Crisis, but I've felt it coming for awhile now.  The mood of the general population has turned sour and, the news seems full of articles questioning whether this or that is foreshadowing of the coming unspecified (though usually economic) apocalypse.

She needs to lighten up and to realize that there is nothing new under the sun.   

Saying the wrong thing in Austria: Yet Another trial.

And more from speech defendant Elisabeth Wolff: The Time That is Given Us

Through the past, darkly: The '60s at 50, blurred

A Family Reunion during WW ll

Doctors beginning to avoid Medicare patients

Outpatient Medicare treatment has become charity care. We linked this solution last week.

Gateway: Job-Killer Obama Sets Aside 187,000 Miles For Overpopulated Polar Bears

I think the bears need sex education in grade school

Elderly white women from Iowa as terrorists

You can tell them by those fish stickers on their Tauruses

Boot: Journalism That Knows No Shame

Wikileaks – Anti-Israel Foreign Policy Experts Got Saudi Arabia, Other Arab Countries 100% Backward On Iran Attack

NY Post: CAIR's Jihad

TNR: To Mobilize the Indies, We Need Stronger Unions

Brilliant idea. Kill more jobs, make more people dependents.

Obama's boredom problem

Since when is boredom a sign of genius? Boredom is an attitude - and the sign of an inactive mind.

Ten Things You Need to Know About DREAM Act Amnesty

Karma: SEIU Kicks Members’ Kids to the Curb

American minorities have a GOP problem:

...the GOP has no racial challenge. The challenge belongs to America's minority communities and to the remnant in America who have an appreciation for the United States' historic greatness and a devotion to maintaining the freedom that allowed that greatness to emerge. The challenge for the latter is to expand their appreciation and devotion to all segments of the American populace; the challenge for the former is to shed the blinders that have kept them tethered to a statist, collectivist philosophy and to recognize that, while very far from perfect, the GOP has a much better chance than the Democrats of restoring the American commitment to personal freedom, free enterprise, traditional culture, and economic prosperity.

Bad news: Pa. guv: You cannot protect yourself

But he has a bodyguard and a cop on duty. I have only myself.

Jay Ambrose: Good motives can produce bad results

Duh. He's been slow to learn the Law of Unintended Consequences - and the Iron Law of Incentive

The Euro bailout plan is running down