We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
From The Atlanticarticle The Science of Success(h/t, reader):
Most of us have genes that make us as hardy as dandelions: able to take root and survive almost anywhere. A few of us, however, are more like the orchid: fragile and fickle, but capable of blooming spectacularly if given greenhouse care. So holds a provocative new theory of genetics, which asserts that the very genes that give us the most trouble as a species, causing behaviors that are self-destructive and antisocial, also underlie humankind’s phenomenal adaptability and evolutionary success. With a bad environment and poor parenting, orchid children can end up depressed, drug-addicted, or in jail—but with the right environment and good parenting, they can grow up to be society’s most creative, successful, and happy people.
It's an interesting article about the interaction of genes and the environment in primates, but I'm not sure what's so new about it: I thought it was fairly well accepted that variation in personality and behavioral tendencies, like any genetic variations in any species, enhance the adaptability of that species.
What follows is a general theory of natural climate variation supported by observation of the changing temperature of the atmosphere and the sea between 1948 and September 2009. This work suggests that strong warming after 1978 is an entirely natural phenomenon.
“Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. The sun is much too sultry and one must avoid its ultry violet rays”. Noel Coward 1932.
Perhaps Noel Coward’s observation is particularly pertinent in the southern hemisphere where there is less ozone to absorb UVB. During the warming mode, protective ice crystals evaporate, allowing the surface to warm. Most of the warming activity post 1978 has been in the southern hemisphere in late winter and spring. This warming activity is plainly driven by shifts in atmospheric pressure affecting vortex activity. There are two climate modes:
The Warming Mode:
There is a shift of the atmosphere from the poles towards mid and low latitudes under electromagnetic forcing of ionized air.
Weakening of the polar vortexes curtails the flow of ionized nitrogen into the upper stratosphere allowing the survival of oxygen ions and increased ozone formation.
Intermixing of ozone into the upper troposphere raises temperature in the ice cloud zone. Ice crystals evaporate. More solar radiation reaches the surface which warms.
In the southern hemisphere 200hpa temperature rises much more than in the northern hemisphere exhibiting strong equinoctial maxima. Peak anomalies in stratospheric temperature occur in September-October rather than March.
A southern spring deficit in ice cloud density promotes warming across all southern latitudes which promotes the El Nino pattern of sea surface temperature at the equator.
The Cooling Mode
Surface atmospheric pressure increases at the poles as the electromagnetic force in the ionosphere/thermosphere relaxes. This happens at solar minimum as the quantum of ionizing radiation falls to its lowest levels. It also tends to happen at solar maximum as the suns magnetic polarity reverses and magnetic fields emanating from the sun tend to be self cancelling. The manifestation in the Pacific Ocean is La Nina cooling.
Strengthening of the polar vortexes introduces ionized nitrogen into the stratosphere reducing the population of oxygen ions and ozone. A loss of ozone in the ice cloud zone reduces temperature enhancing the formation of reflective ice crystals. Less solar radiation reaches the surface which cools.
A generally low ozone level in the stratosphere results in high amplitude change in stratospheric temperature during the ENSO cycle. This is expressed in high amplitude variation in 20hpa temperature at the equator. At the surface the swing from El Nino warming to La Nina cooling is more violent and extreme.
Change is more extreme in the southern hemisphere where the polar vortex is generally cooler especially at the highest altitudes. In the cool mode stratospheric temperature exhibits a March maximum probably in line with enhancement of orbital rather than geomagnetic influences on stratospheric temperature. The earth is closest to the sun in January.
A cooler stratosphere and upper troposphere in southern spring promotes ice cloud formation reducing the flux of solar radiation to the surface establishing a La Nina dominant regime in the Pacific Ocean.
The pattern of change from the cool to the warm mode and back again is well expressed in figure 22 showing the pattern of change of the (Darwin ?Tahiti) Southern Oscillation Index when compartmentalized according to solar cycle time intervals. A fall in this index represents warming. A dramatic fall in the index occurred about 1978. With the end of solar cycle 23 the globe is emerging from the strongest period of warming in the period of the instrumental record. The Southern Oscillation Index, based on barometric pressure, is not affected by the distortions present in the temperature record.
The smoking gun for natural climate variation is an increase in the temperature of the southern stratosphere and troposphere increasing with latitude all the way to the southern pole with a marked variation in southern hemisphere temperature in winter/spring between cool and warm episodes. This determines the strength of El Nino warming events across the tropics.
The smoking gun for greenhouse effects should be a generalized warming at all latitudes without any marked seasonal bias. If there were to be a seasonal bias it should be present as an increase in temperature above the norm when outgoing long wave radiation is maximal in the summer season. There should be no great difference between the hemispheres. That is far from what is actually observed. The evidence suggests that natural variation rather than anthropogenic influences drives climate change.
"We're not going to solve the economic problems until we get rid of people like Chris Dodd. As long as Dodd is in there writing regulation, the economy is never going to recover, and more and more people are going to lose their jobs"
Whither government in America, ask the people? How much should we allow it to do for us without losing something essential that makes us who we are? Are we really all that different of a people from everyone else on the planet? Is there an identifiable “American character” that sets us apart?
Our ancestors certainly thought so. Alexis de Tocqueville agreed. Indeed, it may be out of fashion to talk about the basis of our Constitution, but if we ever forget the idea that all power flows from the consent of the governed and not the other way around, we are doomed to suffer a significant loss of personal freedom simply because government can do pretty much whatever it chooses to do unless the people withhold their consent. There hasn’t been a lot of that these last 40 years and government’s ravenous appetite to do what all governments, once created, and regardless of who is in charge, seek to do - control - has gotten out of hand.
This despite the best of intentions of government’s major cheerleaders, and their belief that society can be perfected with the application of the principles of social science; seek out root causes of society’s problems and address them.
13:1 As he came out of the temple,
one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher, what large stones and what
large buildings!"
13:2 Then Jesus asked him, "Do you see these great
buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown
down."
13:3 When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the
temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately,
13:4 "Tell
us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about
to be accomplished?"
13:5 Then Jesus began to say to them, "Beware that
no one leads you astray.
13:6 Many will come in my name and say, 'I am
he!' and they will lead many astray.
13:7 When you hear of wars and
rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to
come.
13:8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines.
This is but the beginning of the birthpangs.
Good grief. Never thought I'd see the day that an American Pres would put on a Mao jacket. It sends a peculiar message. I would wear a tutu before I'd put on one of those - except maybe for Halloween.
(Re the bows, there was a time when gentlemen's bowing to eachother in America was a sign of respect, but it was replaced more than 100 years ago by the more dignified handshake. A bow is basically a symbol of submission.)
If somebody wants to run against the O, it would not be hard to put together a disturbing photo montage of a person who seems to respect any nation more highly than his own.
Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General
Motors. Comrade Obama! Fidel, careful or we are going to end up to his
right,” - Venezuelan “president” Hugo
Chavez
We have asked our friend Capt. Tom Francis to share some photos and info about his home town of Woodstock, CT. (Maybe in April we'll invite him to write about trout fishing in New England, as he is a fresh and salt-water fishing guide.)
Here's his first offering -
Roseland Cottage.
Built by Henry Chandler Bowen in 1846 - a local resident who made his fortune in New York City - Roseland Cottage, also known as "The Pink House", is located in Woodstock, CT. Designed by Andrew Jackson Dowling whose design concepts stressed the practical as well as the aesthetic. It's exterior design is called Gothic Revival. I wouldn't know Gothic Revival from Greasy Gravy, but that's what I've been told.
Roseland Cottage also has original Lincrusta wall coverings produced by Fredrick Walton of Walton Linoleum fame. The Lincrusta process produces embossed coverings made from linseed oil and wood flour on linen.
Bowen was an ardent abolitionist, Congregationalist, and Republican. He often entertained many of the heavy hitters of the day including Presidents - most notably President U.S. Grant who was enchanted by the in-home bowling alley. Bowen was known for his philanthropy and he had a huge impact on Woodstock and local towns. More on Bowen later in the series.
A friend of mine was on the set for that 1973 movie, Pat Garret and Billy the Kid. He asked somebody who the weird, silent guy on the set was with his head covered with a sweatshirt hood or a hat, always sitting under a tree with a guitar. He was told "Oh, that's Bob Dylan." My friend, a Dylan fan, decided to leave the guy alone because he did not exactly appear to welcome interaction.
The first live performance of "Billy," March 2009. I like the age in this old voice:
We at Maggie's would very much enjoy having more commenters, but we know that it takes time to do so and most people (including me) just like to read what other people post on their sites without taking the time to participate.
On the other hand, we have been struggling over the past week with off-topic, hostile, intrusive, overly-personal and basically uncivilized comments which have forced me to delete a couple of nice posts because of the obnoxious and immature comment threads. I do not have time to monitor these things. We have Rules for Commenters, but a good rule of thumb is not to say anything you would not say at a nice dinner party.
(We do not mind the occasional off-topic comment if its purpose is to inform us or our readers of something.)
Final warning:
We are a sort-of upscale eclectic site with a Centrist, traditionalist, normal-American orientation, and not a Centrist version of Daily Kos. We welcome civil and informed disagreement and correction. We aren't a political site and are not classified as one, even though we do take our American civic duties and interests seriously.
Be civil, mannerly, respectful, funny, thoughtful, appreciative, or informative. Otherwise, take out your personal issues elsewhere.
Update: Thanks for all of the supportive comments. Good to hear from y'all.
As for the actual content of the House healthcare bill, horrors! Where to begin? That there are serious deficiencies and injustices in the U.S. healthcare system has been obvious for decades. To bring the poor and vulnerable into the fold has been a high ideal and an urgent goal for most Democrats. But this rigid, intrusive and grotesquely expensive bill is a nightmare. Holy Hygeia, why can't my fellow Democrats see that the creation of another huge, inefficient federal bureaucracy would slow and disrupt the delivery of basic healthcare and subject us all to a labyrinthine mass of incompetent, unaccountable petty dictators? Massively expanding the number of healthcare consumers without making due provision for the production of more healthcare providers means that we're hurtling toward a staggering logjam of de facto rationing. Steel yourself for the deafening screams from the careerist professional class of limousine liberals when they get stranded for hours in the jammed, jostling anterooms of doctors' offices. They'll probably try to hire Caribbean nannies as ringers to do the waiting for them.
The legal costs to individuals and businesses are destroying the American economy. America, the most litigious nation and the most-lawyered nation (per capita) in the world is burdened by a broken, and crushingly expensive system of legal care.
Few Americans can afford high-quality legal care at $500-$2000/hour when needed, and end up in legal clinics or representing themselves. Few, if any, have legal coverage. Legal costs sap profits from business in ways that are entirely unproductive. The poor, minorities, and women are, of course, most hard hit by the difficulty finding justice in a money-driven legal system, while the Mafia, politicians, and Wall Streeters skate and the lawyers drive Lexi and Mercedes in their Valentino and Armani suits.
It costs more to contest a speeding ticket or a routine Maggie's Farm disorderly conduct ticket than to pay it. And when you die - forget it: You are forced to pay lawyers all over the place.
There is no affordable justice in America today, and God knows how many bankruptcies, heartaches, and ruined lives result. It's unfair, unjust and un-American. 10% of American African-American youth rot in jail for lack of legal care while rich white guys like Bill Ayers are walking the street and hosting cocktail parties for politicians.
Meanwhile, hordes of tort lawyers are watching for every time you fail to clear your driveway, and checking the lead levels in the toys and books you produce. Hungry divorce lawyers prowl around your home at night, waiting to hear an argument. They are everywhere, looking to either defend you or to prosecute you.
There are more laws up against you than there are diseases in this world.
Furthermore, unlike medical care, the US Constitution does concern itself with justice more than a little bit.
Just think about your annual direct and indirect legal care costs: they are included in your auto liability insurance, your homeowner's insurance, your tax guy, the guy you paid to get your kid reduced from a DWI to a DUI, the guy who managed the refinancing of your house, the indirect costs to your employer and in your town taxes for having to maintain a legal department, and the legal costs built into everything you buy in America - including doctors' malpractice insurance - which is basically legal insurance. Create a pension: you need a lawyer. Even your lawyer has to buy legal insurance, inflating his charges. And even your investments - every mutual fund has a legal team paid for with your fees. The list goes on and on.
Something must be done immediately to correct this drag on the American economy and on the American spirit. Short of killing all the lawyers (I am quite fond of a number of them), I suggest a government take-over of this broken, unjust system by 111 Federal bureaucracies, and with the help of our politicians, to solve this crisis.
A Veteran knows things: He knows life is precious, because he’s seen
life cut short. He knows life is strange, because those that should die
live and those who have the most life sometimes die. He knows life is
not easily wrapped up in a box philosophically. He knows that plans
fail. He knows there’s such a thing as luck. A veteran chooses his hard
lessons and walks toward them.
I am grateful for those who volunteer and serve. Their honor, duty
and defense of the weak means I can sit here and type and ponder my
character while they go fortify theirs through tough choices and
action. Thank you to all who give me this luxury.
Mad or bad? An excerpt from a good piece at Luskin:
When a group of 19 terrorists flew two planes
into the World Trade Center...The New York Times reported that they
were all psychologically unstable and had difficult times in forming
stable relationships with women. “The fact that they were Arabs and
Muslims or their political views had nothing to do with the motives for
this tragic act,” it explained. The newspaper urged that the main
lesson coming out of the attack was the need to fight against
Islamophobia and Arabophobia as well as for the United States to make
more concessions in the Middle East and to impeach President George W.
Bush.
Will government health care provide free therapy for all radical Muslims? Perhaps they all have a "self-esteem" problem? Or PTSD from Western oppression? Perhaps they might like an appointment with Dr. Bliss.
And who has "stable relationships with women," anyway? "Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em."
I do not believe that the Constitution can reasonably be read to confer a "right" to an abortion.
The US Constitution was not designed to "confer" rights: it was designed to circumscribe the power and jurisdiction of the Federal State by a group of independent states who, knowing human nature, were deeply suspicious about any expansion of Federal, centralized power after their experience with Britain. According to our founding documents, human freedom is conferred by God to us as individuals, not by man and not by government.
The "Bill of Rights" Amendments were not designed to confer rights either. They were added, on the insistence of the feisty New York delegation, just to make some of the implied meaning crystal clear (and I suppose they were wise to do so, but it makes it appear that unspecified freedoms - or "rights" - do not exist)... except for Amendments lX and X which were intended to cover almost all human actions:
Thus, in my view, abortion should have been ignored by the Supremes. Not a Federal case. It may be rightly a legal issue on the state level, and is certainly an individual moral issue.
The language of "rights" is tricky, easily abused and distorted, and I do not like it. As an American, I do not and should not need specified "rights" to anything - all I need is a clear delineation of the limit of the powers of government, and I will find a way to get on with it in life.
I can bear arms - and do a million other things that aren't listed. But that doesn't mean that the government should buy me guns. So the question of who pays is another issue entirely. Insurance plans vary widely in the elective things they cover. Most people prefer less expensive plans which do not cover elective procedures, and clearly most people do not want to pay for other peoples' elective abortions.
They don't want to pay for other peoples' IVF either.
Am I right or wrong about all this?Just to be clear, this is not a pro-abortion post...
The officials said the communications did not alter the prevailing theory that Major Hasan acted by himself, lashing out as a result of combination of factors, including his outspoken opposition to American policy in Iraq and Afghanistan and his deepening religious fervor as a Muslim.
“Simon & Schuster, believes that Beck has become the only author in history to ever have #1 New York Times bestsellers debut on these four different lists: hardcover fiction (The Christmas Sweater), hardcover nonfiction (Arguing with Idiots and An Inconvenient Book), nonfiction paperback (Glenn Beck’s Common Sense), and now with The Christmas Sweater: A Picture Book, children’s picture books.”
If you don't like what we're offering, we'll give you more of it. Far more Americans oppose Obamacare than support it. Yet Democratic representative Gerald Connolly of Virginia said he "concluded" from last week's election that "we've got to pass health care .??.??. [and] give Democrats something to be excited about." It's "a matter of tangibles being delivered," said Democratic representative Jan Schakowsky of Illinois.
"Tangibles." That captures it, doesn't it? Freedom is not a "tangible," is it?
How nice of LA to neuter the boys. It just leaves more of the wholesome babes to the few remaining wholesome masculine boys who cannot resist cute gals. Speaking of which, here are a few Brazilian bed advts for the unneutered boys (a couple more below the fold).
Erl Happ, via 
We at Maggie's would very much enjoy having more commenters, but we know that it takes time to do so and most people (including me) just like to read what other people post on their sites without taking the time to participate.
From 
