Monday, September 27. 2010
Thanks, Sipp.
 Toon via Theo
High- and low-divorce careers
Update on Dion
Lady Gaga visits a nursing home... dressed as a dominatrix-style Hillary Clinton h/t Schneiderman
Mankiw: How much would the President raise the top tax rate?
Shrinkwrapped: There'll Always Be An England?
Dems plan to extend Bush's middle-class tax rates
Proofiness vs. Truthiness
Young Adults, Health Insurance Is Available for About Same Monthly Cost as A Cell Phone
MA Gov Patrick: “It’s a free country. I wish it weren’t, but . . . it’s a free country.
More revealing Leftist talk, at the NYT: Keeping the money you make is a "present" from the government.
Democratic candidates across the country are opening a fierce offensive of negative advertisements against Republicans, using lawsuits, tax filings, reports from the Better Business Bureau and even divorce proceedings to try to discredit their opponents and save their Congressional majority.
It’s not just a band of flannel-shirted environmentalists any longer; it’s become a big-money, major player in Washington power politics and American elections.
Sunday, September 26. 2010
 1 Timothy 6:6-19
6:6 Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment;
6:7 for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it;
6:8 but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.
6:9 But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
6:11 But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.
6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
6:13 In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you
6:14 to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
6:15 which he will bring about at the right time--he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
6:16 It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
6:17 As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
6:18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share,
6:19 thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
Saturday, September 25. 2010
Pence is a serious person. This speech is a serious speech, from Sept 22 at Hillsdale. It's about humility. I encourage readers to enjoy this Washingtonian speech. I would vote for him, but Mrs. BD would happily vote for Sarah:
 A bedbug at Bloomingdale's. I blame the Jihadists.
The Colorado River runs dry. Without looking it up, do you remember where that river used to run into the sea before it was sucked dry by human needs?
What's all this about cookstoves? Sounds like Cultural Imperialism to me.
Powerline's appeal to Yale alums
From HBS - Stimulus Surprise: Companies Retrench When Government Spends
Where are all these Malik Shabazzes coming from? I've never seen so many of them.
Turtle Bay, Where the Outrageous Is Normal. The UN is a joke.
Spitzer: Cuomo ‘Dirtiest, Nastiest’ Of Politicians. He is not a good person. It would be amusing if he loses.
A HUD inspector gets it: ACORN Spinoff Smacked Down by HUD Inspector General
Tom Friedman's Totalitarian Temptation:
Last May on "Meet the Press," Friedman fantasized about a government that could implement the "right solutions" without all that bothersome democracy...
Tom Friedman as Dictator for Life. There's an idea. BTW, I think Tom is a pompous ass. Not stupid, but unwise.
h/t to Neoneo for today's astonishing verse -
 Mr. Flood's Party
Old Eben Flood, climbing alone one night
Over the hill between the town below
And the forsaken upland hermitage
That held as much as he should ever know
On earth again of home, paused warily.
The road was his with not a native near;
And Eben, having leisure, said aloud,
For no man else in Tilbury Town to hear:
"Well, Mr. Flood, we have the harvest moon
Again, and we may not have many more;
The bird is on the wing, the poet says,
And you and I have said it here before.
Drink to the bird." He raised up to the light
The jug that he had gone so far to fill,
And answered huskily: "Well, Mr. Flood,
Since you propose it, I believe I will."
Alone, as if enduring to the end
A valiant armor of scarred hopes outworn,
He stood there in the middle of the road
Like Roland's ghost winding a silent horn.
Below him, in the town among the trees,
Where friends of other days had honored him,
A phantom salutation of the dead
Rang thinly till old Eben's eyes were dim.
Then, as a mother lays her sleeping child
Down tenderly, fearing it may awake,
He set the jug down slowly at his feet
With trembling care, knowing that most things break;
And only when assured that on firm earth
It stood, as the uncertain lives of men
Assuredly did not, he paced away,
And with his hand extended paused again:
"Well, Mr. Flood, we have not met like this
In a long time; and many a change has come
To both of us, I fear, since last it was
We had a drop together. Welcome home!"
Convivially returning with himself,
Again he raised the jug up to the light;
And with an acquiescent quaver said:
"Well, Mr. Flood, if you insist, I might.
"Only a very little, Mr. Flood--
For auld lang syne. No more, sir; that will do."
So, for the time, apparently it did,
And Eben evidently thought so too;
For soon amid the silver loneliness
Of night he lifted up his voice and sang,
Secure, with only two moons listening,
Until the whole harmonious landscape rang--
"For auld lang syne." The weary throat gave out,
The last word wavered; and the song being done,
He raised again the jug regretfully
And shook his head, and was again alone.
There was not much that was ahead of him,
And there was nothing in the town below--
Where strangers would have shut the many doors
That many friends had opened long ago.
Friday, September 24. 2010
We're happy stranded here on this 'island' in western Maine."
My wife and I noticed the utter breakdown of enormous parts of the lives of average Americans, the destruction or subversion of many formerly useful institutions, and a general retreat to barbarism masquerading as progress. We decided to change our lives a while ago, and not unlike the Swiss Family, the last three or four years took even the last lifeboat we found ourselves in and smashed it on the rocks. We have reinvented ourselves, and we'll tell you how we're doing it, if you're interested.
Damn hippies all over again. This is a wonderful, love-filled family. Insane, or Thoreauvian? Don't ask me. I am not ready to move too far from NYC or Cape Cod, but I have no idea how I might feel tomorrow. Plus I have ye olde farme homesteade to worry about.
"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.' Henry David Thoreau
That makes me poverty-stricken, Henry, because I still want to go everywhere and do everything.
 What are those things on the dam?
"ObamaCare addresses every healthcare problem, with every solution further centralizing power and decision making in Washington. The promises do not come cheap." At The American, Still No Good News for ObamaCare
Michelle Obama’s healthier eating plan runs up against a fat reality: Americans don’t wanna
Powerline: The Central Issue of Our Time: Federal Spending
The Repubs put forth their agenda. So what's the Dem agenda?
Zuckerman: The American Dream of Home Ownership Has Become a Nightmare
Scott Brown blasts Harvard over ROTC ban
Socialism breeds selfishness: I, me, mine.
UN Chief: "...the world still looks to the United Nations for moral and political leadership." Really?
What do you think of this?
Thursday, September 23. 2010
NYM posted this pic of Virginia's Thornton Hill Hounds, eager to get out of the trailer and to work. He notes that these are mostly Penn Marydels. Not house pets.
More cool stuff about dogs - How dogs became domesticated. h/t Classical Values. Dumb soundtrack and no real audio, from a Russian fox farm -
 Blogger's Brekkie via Theo
The Repub Pledge. No harm in being explicit on what they are "Yes" about.
Great pics of abandoned properties. h/t Doug Ross
Your body is always making cancer. h/t - I forgot
Kudlow: Go back to the gold standard
VDH wonders whether America is becoming a nation of peasants. Like Euroland?
Sowell: The politics of resentment
Fund: The Carter-Obama comparisons
Villainous: Quantifying the Hypocrisy of Lefty Academicians
Related, Q&O toys with An Academic Professional
TNR on Rand Paul
Watch your medical insurance costs rise. More details at Betsy
China-apologist Tom Friedman still loves China
Harper on Canada's gun registry:
“The people of the regions of this country are never going to accept being treated like criminals. We will continue our efforts until this registry is finally abolished.”
Wednesday, September 22. 2010
 Some form of cutlivation of the Eastern (or American) Oyster has been going on for 150 years on Cape Cod, especially in Wellfleet. At first, this just consisted of importing wild oysters from elsewhere in their Atlantic or Gulf coast range, and giving them a while to absorb that special Wellfleet flavor.
There is no way that one small harbor could support the nationwide demand for naturally-produced Wellfleet Oysters.
As we sat on the deck watched the oystermen at work on their cages at low tide, we wondered where they buy the baby oysters.
I found out how the whole system works (link has great photos). The laboratory-bred spat from the hatcheries are bought by nurseries, then they are sold to the watermen who do the "grow-out" of the seed oysters. It is quite remarkable. No wonder they aren't cheap.
Photo on top: large scale commercial oyster grow-out in the southern US
Photo on bottom: oystermen tending their oyster cages in Wellfleet at low tide. Production is limited by town regulations, so there is no industrial-scale production and all are beach-bottom cultured instead of being grown on rafts, slowing their growth but making them tastier.
Tuesday, September 21. 2010
in Wellfleet:
Prost!
Monday, September 20. 2010
Mrs. BD found this good deal from our friends at Club ABC: 8 days in Prague and Budapest. They do a very good job making world travel possible for the non-weathy and for those who are willing to fly economy and maybe endure a stopover.
I've always been more of a Mediterranean and UK traveller, but the Holy Roman Empire is growing on me. It's probably just a phase.
You can make online reservations for music and opera tickets way in advance. She wants to see Janacek's Kat'a Kabanova at the Prague Opera (where Mozart first conducted Don Giovanni).
I have never been to Hungary. Mrs. BD wants to see Hungarian folk music and dance troupes, and try some of the historic coffee houses. Here's a nice Budapest restaurant. Looks just like I would expect:
Thank God that the commies are gone from Czecho and Hungary. Maybe Cuba will be next.
Amusingly, they do have a Hammer and Sickle Times tours in Budapest. Join us, Comrades and ex-Liberals:
Go back to the good old times to experience how life was when Big Brother ruled our every move, we drove Trabants, drank spirits at work, lived in block flats, stood in banana lines, had two passports, coupon books, no TV on Mondays and no freedom of speech! Written and raved about every year in major newspapers around the world, don't miss out on this bygone era.
They also have this more cheerful tour: Historical Revolution Walk. This one is about the good guys.
Bog hockey. Ever play it? I did.
Columbia wins again: Few Schools Have a Solid Core Curriculum
Creepy vid: Al Gore's Baleful Brood
Villainous:
We have had government declare war on poverty and a war on drugs, but this is the first time our government has declared war on free enterprise.
Given the resounding success of the first two wars, I'd say that's the best news I've heard in ages.
New addition to ye olde blogroll: the profblog. See his Sarah Palin urges WHITES to vote for change
Teachers win, students lose, in DC.
However, Unions Struggling to Get Members to Rally Behind Dems. They'll figure it out: they plan on spending $100 million on these elections. That can buy something.
Is your money the government's money?
Tea Parties. It's how people organize themselves.
People migrate towards freedom. Vigorous folks want to be left alone.
The Republican Answer to George Soros's Money - Steven Law admires how the left organized itself during its wilderness years. Now he's got $50 million to help elect candidates on the right.
The Admin is bad for business. No kidding.
More Christie vs greedy unions. NY Post
Palin as the Leftwing Anti-Christ. So was Nixon, Reagan, Bush, etc. etc. Same old, same old.
Bailing out General Motors 20 months ago may have been a political payback. Duh.
It's a wonder to me that politicians and bozos like Michelle O know what foods are "good for us," while doctors have no idea. The notion of "healthy food" is religion, not science.
Thomas Sowell: The “Achievements” of the American Intelligentsia“- Intellectuals give people who have the handicap of poverty the further handicap of a sense of victimhood.”
Are American Universities Going the Way of General Motors?
Driscoll on 60s mythology: , “Jack Webb reached more people than Jimi Hendrix every week”
Barnes: GOP Nor’easter - Republicans storm Pennsylvania and beyond.
We have said this too. Clinton: Losing House Would Help Obama in 2012
Sunday, September 19. 2010
 The prix fixe 3 course lunches at Jean Georges, on Columbus Circle (1 Central Park West). $26/person. We ate in the "informal" section before going to the Freud-CS Lewis play down the street yesterday.
I have had lots of good food lately, but this is as good as it gets. Menu isn't all seafood, but plenty of it. I had the Tuna Tartare on avocado with radish and some kind of incredible tangy sauce, the broiled Cod with tomato-herb sauce, and the famous tiny molten chocolate cake. All perfect. Here are some reviews. Forgot my camera, but found the pic of his Bluefin Tartare on the web.
After the play, we took a little stroll through Central Park, which looks immaculate and is full of cheerful people. Despite Bloomberg's obnoxious nannyism, NYC is doing something right these days.
Don't pass it up on your next visit to NYC. Trust your Editor Bird Dog on this. If you try it and disagree, I'll pay for the lunch.
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