Sunday, September 5. 2010
Capt. Tom informed us about this Morris 26-foot design. A beaut, but rugged and affordable (yet as I always say about boats and women: "You can afford to get her, but can you afford to keep her?").
You have to like a double-ender as much for function as for grace even though it cramps the stern space. Mrs. BD would love this boat. Jib-rollers seem to be essential nowadays. Great invention.
Here's a Frances site. Dang, that is one perty boat. Thanks a lot, Capt. Tom, for another bad dose of boat lust to deal with, especially after today's lectionary.
 Fake 'Tea Party' off Michigan ballot
Re the mosque: Many Things Are Legal, But Are They Right?
There are many, many social constructs that are created to keep things humming along. There are many unspoken rules that we abide by because, well, respect and deference make for better human relations.
Legalism in relationships usually ends up with a punch in the face. Score-keeping and a blind adherence to following the rules at the greater cost of violating principles like decency, kindness and love are looked on with scorn because well, people don't like other people to be jerks.
Well said. We often speak about codes of conduct here. Civil behavior is more important than the laws, most of the time.
Rare Color Film of Japanese WWII Surrender Discovered
The Summer of Recovery Ends: Epic Fail Fall Begins
The polarizing president
The rug lies. Woops. That Theodore Parker did have a way with words. Even Lincoln stole from him.
Mao's Great Famine, 1958-62. A big secret.
Let's go after the Gypsies. Hitler did, I believe. Fairly harmless thieving drunks with violins, aren't they all? Gypsies will never bring down a civilization.
Just as we predicted here, hurricane Earl was a big hyped-up nothing. What a beautiful, cool, and sunny long weekend we are having, including Friday.
Luke 14:25-33
14:25 Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them,
14:26 "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.
14:27 Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
14:28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it?
14:29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him,
14:30 saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'
14:31 Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand?
14:32 If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.
14:33 So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.
Saturday, September 4. 2010
No fair looking for clues. Answer below the fold.
Continue reading "Where is this?"
This seems to be a beer week at Maggie's. How to pour a beer properly. Bartenders know this stuff.
Friday, September 3. 2010
Coming soon to an internet connection near you: The Right Network.
I dedicate this post to our pal Sippican, who knows a lot more about archeetekcher than I do.
What does Pope Benedict have to do with Regensburg? Plenty.
Plus the town is Germany's medieval gem (and was not bombed by the Allies). It would be a very pleasant town to live in.
The great gothic St. Peter's (c. 1240) is fine, but we found this small parish church, not a tourist site, Ulrichskirche (also 1200s I believe), which is next door to the cathedral, interesting from a detective standpoint. Take a look at the bastardised architecture and decor.
What first struck us on entering was that the church organist was practicing, noodling on his old German pipe organ with comfortable recessional noises. Great.
Second thought was "What the heck is this?"
Well, clearly somebody in the 1700's decided to gussy up the old-fashioned, gothic-ish church with Baroque. Redecorating. Squared the old columns, added squigglies to them, new baroque pulpit, and painted over the old gothic paint and stone.
More interesting architectural detail below the fold -
Continue reading "St. Ulrich's and architectural fashion"
 A new collection of HL Mencken: Prejudices
A dog day camp seems like a great idea.
Dino:
It isn’t rocket science to fix the economy — heck, we could do it ourselves if given the opportunity. But this crew hasn’t operated a lemonade stand amongst the lot of them. Help!!!!!!!!!
GOP Quandary: Is It Better Off if the House Stays Blue? Probably so, but not better for the country.
This GM IPO is pure politics. As was the GM takeover.
The bliss of an 18-month, paid, Swedish paternity leave. What sort of job could accommodate this stuff?
Gunman inspired by Sarah Palin Tea Party Al Gore
Time magazine at Surber:
Again and again throughout the piece by Michael Scherer of Time magazine, Obama comes across as an intransigent fool who will not adapt to the changes in the political reality.
From Michael Scherer of Time magazine: “For someone who so carefully read the political mood as a candidate, Obama has been unexpectedly passive at moments as President. Whereas other Democrats had hoped to spend the late summer talking about two things — jobs and the unpopularity of many Republican policies — the White House has been distracted by a string of unrelated issues, from immigration reform to a mishandled dismissal of a longtime USDA official to the furor over the proposed Islamic cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero.”
His downfall began last summer when he gave his last prime-time press conference on health insurance (groan).
Morris Yachts in Bass Harbor, Maine, builds high-end semi-custom yachts to order. Here's one of their 42-footers from their brokerage:
Thursday, September 2. 2010
The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Guy seems to know everything, and has a pleasant demeanor. Good for the jet-lagged and for insomniacs. Doug McIntyre's Red Eye Radio. 1 AM to 6 AM Eastern, on 770 in the NYC area.
Looks like hurricane Earl is just going to brush past the Northeast, but might hit Cape Cod. I like hurricanes. All you have to do with them is to be sensible and a bit humble.
Confessions of a Psychopharmacologist
Bedbug update
Prager: When Good People Do Bad Things
Driscoll: The Couric-Rich Model of the Five Stages of MSM Grief
Van Morrison turned 65 this week
Redecorating the Oval Office
No, Mr. Matthews, we do not dislike Obama: We disagree with his views. Ace puts it this way: Boy Howdy, I Can't Tell You How Wonderful It Is to See A Black Man With a Wife and a Steady Paycheck!
CATO: Reforming Indigent Defense - How Free Market Principles Can Help to Fix a Broken System. I have a better idea: let's nationalize the broken, wasteful, unfair and ridiculously expensive American legal system.
Dear Patients: Vote to Repeal ObamaCare
Paul Ryan: Obamanomics Has Failed
Wednesday, September 1. 2010
Who knew? Our readers knew. For $39.95, I recovered my erased pics from that camera in about ten minutes - including some old pics but what the heck.
Never again will I check that "erase after downloading" box. Therefore, I will have more travel pics this weekend.
 A devilish conspiracy between my computer and my Panasonic Lumix travel zoom camera - a nice pocket camera with a Leica lens - conspired to not only refuse to download my pics on that camera (good shots of Regensburg, Nuremberg, etc. - the last third of our voyage) but also took the opportunity to delete them all from the camera after rejecting them for "title too long." What does that mean? And I had my download thing set for "Erase images after downloading."
I travel with three cameras, an old 35 mm digital and two pocket cameras - and no laptop. I do not own a laptop, and don't really need one. Or so I thought...
My best pics were on that camera, about 150 I think. Dang. So much for my travel pics. I am quite certain that my computer's photo handling is screwed up, and it is probably my fault. Well, got the memories tho, but between ADD and a touch of Alzheimer's, the pics would have helped.
Does a camera come between us and direct experience? I sometimes wonder.
Well, I do have a few more snaps to share. Here's a WW 1 river ship, now a museum, in Regensburg, with the Old Stone Bridge (c. 1146) in the distance. Fine biergarten over the bridge, but my pics of that got erased by diabolical computer:
More below the fold -
Continue reading "An evil conspiracy got me"
To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.
Charles Krauthammer. Worth repeating. We are reminded of this via Driscoll
Tuesday, August 31. 2010
Neo: Skilled workers wanted
VDH: The Sources of American Anger - Barack Obama, the great healer, is proving to be the most divisive president since Richard Nixon.
Sowell: ObamaCare’s Deadly Consequences
Headline: Glenn Beck is a poo-poo head
GOP Takes Unprecedented 10-Point Lead on Generic Ballot. But Volokh wonders: Repub win good for Obama's career?
Althouse thinks about our Kesler piece, and the meaning of life. And AVI thinks about regrets in life. The longer you live, the more regrets you accumulate.
George Will: Major Gaps in Education Achievement Between Whites, Blacks
Now, from the Educational Testing Service, comes a report about "The Black-White Achievement Gap: When Progress Stopped," written by Paul E. Barton and Richard J. Coley. It examines the "startling" fact that most of the progress in closing the gap in reading and mathematics occurred in the 1970s and '80s. This means "progress generally halted for those born around the mid-1960s, a time when landmark legislative victories heralded an end to racial discrimination."
Hmmm. As I recall, anti-discrimination is not the only thing that was happening then.
Barack Obama's plan to nationalize the fishing industry
Isn't it sexist (and racist) to say that cutting the size of government is sexist and racist? I mean, isn't it biased and demeaning to people of gender and color to assume that they must be dependent on others?
“It Was Certainly a Dry Run”: Two Muslims Arrested in Amsterdam After Flight from Chicago
Don Juan's Dad was Holy Roman Emperor Charles V of Austria. His Mom was Barbara Blomberg, a local singer who entertained Charles with music and fun while he passed through Regensburg in 1546.
Not much more is heard in history about Barbara, but we are grateful to her for bearing John of Austria, who led the allied navies against the Ottomans at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.
It is believed that John was conceived during a one-night-stand in this old hotel in Regensburg (yellow one on the right, a week or so ago). An historic little hook-up indeed:
Monday, August 30. 2010
Bird Dog -
While certainly not as "dramatic" as your trip across the pond, we spent a week in the Maine woods, canoeing and fishing for Brook Trout and Smallmouth. We stayed at a traditional Maine "camp" http://www.bowlincamps.com/ Food was great (camp cooking and plenty of it). Other than rain for 1/2 the day on Monday, the weather was superb - temps in the upper 70's during the day and 50-55 at night. Camp is located 8 miles down a logging road (no cell phone or Blackberry - hooray!) and about an hour west of Patten, Maine. They have had little rain this year, so the river and stream levels were down, impacting the fishing. We caught some Brookies and one decent Smallmouth in five days of fishing. The fish were there, we just had to work for them. We canoed and fished the East Branch of the Penobscot River which is pretty daggone wild. We saw no other canoes or campers on the river. Saw a nice bear and wife almost got ran over by a moose while she was hiking. Had a flat tire on the Suburban so had to go to Houlton for repair (living where I do, I forget how nice the folks outside of the urban areas are to strangers. Guy at the tire shop just happened to have the exact size and make tire that matched the other three. It was used, but had better tread than the ones on the Sub. $50 on the vehicle. In and out in 45 minutes.)
Bowlin Camps is just a stone's throw from the Appalachian Trail. Guy came through for lunch - he was hiking from Gaspe Bay to Key West. Left Gaspe Bay in mid-June. No map, one pair of boots and I think, not a lot of money. Gave him our breakfast bars and some trail mix, for which he was sincerely grateful. Seemed like a nice guy, but maybe a bit too idealistic - hoped to make it to Key West by next summer.
Anyway, the camp was great, Pops, wife and the two dogs enjoyed themselves in the woods. We had hot showers, generator between 0630 and 2100 hours and gas lamps otherwise. Camp was getting ready for bear hunting season, which begins on August 30th. We saw several trail cam pics of bears that were 5-6 feet tall, which is a great black bear for Maine.
Couple of pics attached.
Your humble scribe - J
They have brief summers there. Like Maine, I think. Pretty much everybody has a small polyurethane greenhouse or two in the yard, near their house.
Flying East from SF Bay area over Rawlins Wyoming. Weekend was the annual hunt on the 35,000-acre San Felipe Ranch SE of San Jose. The furthest part of the ranch is a beautiful, tranquil valley surrounded by steep, high hills, and the air there was filled with dozens and dozens of whirling Red Tail hawks, Harlan's hawks (from Alberta or Montana) and Kestrels plus a golden eagle. It was the annual migration, and the Fish & Game biologist with me was whooping with delight and talking about putting the event "on the hot line!
Awaiting your pics, Gwynnie.
It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘Always do what you are afraid to do.’
Ralph Waldo Emerson, a man whose writings I have never been able to really understand. Even tried to read his bio. No dice. He was big on the lecture circuit once upon a time. Perhaps I am not smart enough.
Two doofuses:
Cannibalism is for nutrition. But what about flavor?
Friends Disagree Lots
Cubbing in Virginia
On Fermat's Last Theorem:
..there is Andrew Wiles, the frail knight who for seven lonely years pursues the proof that has ensorcelled him since childhood. He announces the proof to the world, is featured on the front page of the New York Times and in People Magazine, he has the respect and admiration of his colleagues and then he discovers the proof is wrong. He works another year trying to fix it but every time he patches one area another fault line opens up. Even speaking of it now you can see and hear his utter despair. It is not too much to imagine that he was on the verge of a breakdown.
Theo: Completely honest first date
WSJ Editorial on the Democrats’ Attack on For-Profit Colleges
Death by Power Point
It was an old-fashioned tent revival meeting
Hewitt: Where The GOP Goes Next: The Need for Speed
Hurricane Katrina and the race card: 5 years later
Via Protein:
Touring American campuses in the mid-1970s, Norman Macrae of The Economist was shocked “to hear so many supposedly left-wing young Americans who still thought they were expressing an entirely new and progressive philosophy as they mouthed the same prejudices as Trollope’s 19th century Tory squires: attacking any further expansion of industry and commerce as impossibly vulgar, because ecologically unfair to their pheasants and wild ducks.”
Neither the failure of the environmental apocalypse to arrive nor the steady improvement in environmental conditions over the last 40 years has dampened the ardor of those eager to make hair shirts for others to wear.
WSJ: The Death of Conservatism Was Greatly Exaggerated
WSJ: Spreading Hayek, Spurning Keynes
Prepare for war between taxpayers and public employee unions
Blair: The latest green $ scam
Vanderleun: Tolerance Does Not Require Approval
Frank Rich’s Tea Party Lies
Commentary: He Really Doesn’t Want to Be Commander In Chief
Image on top, h/t Moonbattery. We juxtaposed before Drudge, but after Moonbattery.
Sunday, August 29. 2010
 One place we did not get to on our trip was Salzburg. Wish we had had time to visit that medieval city which, as its name implies, got rich selling and transporting salt down the river.
Our guide pointed out to us how important salt was at the time - not as a condiment, but as a food-preservative. "White gold."
I wonder what salt mines were like in 1400.
 Hooters and fat waitresses. But lots of guys like Rubenesque figures, don't they? (Venus at a Mirror, c. 1614)
Did anybody see this movie? Enemy at the Gates.
Are Standardized Tests Biased Against Students Who Don't Give A Shit?
AVI ponders confessing the sins of others
Surber on Beck's rally.
Related: Make Believe Media: WaPo Claims Al Sharpton Brings Thousands to DC
Chris Matthews: Who Stole America? What???
Was Benjamin Whorf partly right? Does Your Language Shape How You Think?
Has Gov Schwartzenegger found his inner Christie? Too late. The guy was all hat, no cattle and no cojones.
Blair home number nine. What's that all about? Ans: Lefties love money.
At NRO:
In addition to a big stimulus program, Obama ran on the idea of heaping new taxes on upper-income taxpayers, including those small businesses that he says (correctly) are critical to the recovery. Congress did nothing. And so as 2011 creeps over the horizon, so too does a massive tax hike on middle-class families, upper-income workers, small businesses, savers, family farms, and on and on. Having done nothing about this tax cut for the last nearly two years, all these prospective tax-hike victims can only assume that Congress intends to hit them with the full tax hike from allowing the 2001 and 2003 tax relief to expire.
The tax hike itself is bad enough, falling as it will on a stuttering economy. But the bigger issue is still confidence.
USA Today trying to figure out how to survive
Rick Moran: The O is American enough
Shut down the federal Dept of Education. It's not a federal responsibility, duty, or power - whatever the Bushes thought.
American Muslim leaders are not instilling confidence
Has the MSM lost confrol of the Leftist narrative?
Tax fuel to be green. Then raise taxes to help the fuel-poor so they can use more fuel. It all makes perfect sense.
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