Maggie's Farm

I have read some negative reviews of the new season of "House" lately. Apparently he went to rehab for his Vicodan addiction, and is no longer as difficult of an attending physician as he used to be. Well, let's hope he relapses.

I also learned that Laurie's character was inspired by Sherlock Holmes (Holmes-House). How did I miss that? Holmes, you recall, was an addict too.

What has been fun about ex-Marine Special Agent Gibbs in NCIS and Dr. House is that they are both cranky, tough, non-PC SOBs who are always alert to interesting females, and that they get away with it because they are so good at what they do. Gibbs, of course, has a military sense of honor, decorum, and dignity which Dr. House seems to lack.

Jeffrey Lichtman on WABC radio today (filling in for Kudlow):

"Why do Liberals want more jail time for not buying medical insurance than they want for child rape?"

Why are we still reading Dickens?

Better question: Why wouldn't we be? He's the best story-teller in all of the world's literature (except maybe for Homer - but Homer cheated: he used a lute or an electric guitar, or something).

There is a new translation out of Rilke's poetry, but this isn't from it:

The Song of the Widow

In the beginning life was good to me;
it held me warm and gave me courage.
That this is granted all while in their youth,
how could I then have known of this.
I never knew what living was---.
But suddenly it was just year on year,
no more good, no more new, no more wonderful.
Life had been torn in two right down the middle.

That was not his fault nor mine
since both of us had nothing but patience;
but death has none.
I saw him coming (how rotten he looked),
and I watched him as he took and took:
and nothing was mine.

What, then, belonged to me; was mine, my own?
Was not even this utter wretchedness
on loan to me by fate?
Fate does not only claim your happiness,
it also wants your pain back and your tears
and buys the ruin as something useless, old.

Fate was present and acquired for a nothing
every expression my face is capable of,
even to the way I walk.
The daily diminishing of me went on
and after I was emptied fate gave me up
and left me standing there, abandoned.


Translated by Albert Ernest Flemming

All the talk about Letterman reminds us of our prescient post from June, Hey Jenny Slater, Hey Jenny Slater, which was a reaction to Letterman's unfunny jokes about Sarah Palin's baby. One quote from the post:

Letterman's congenital problem manifested itself in spades. He is a Beta male in an industry filled with Beta males. Even the industry's a Beta. He's not even an entertainer -- his job is to talk to and about entertainers. They say politics is show-business for ugly people, and the similarities are manifest. Politics is often home to Beta males that try to cut in front of the big men on life's campus by the side door. Same deal. That's why they get along famously.

That's why men like Letterman always end up groping the help. All the Beta males do this. Look at John Edwards, Bill Clinton, Bob Packwood, Newt Gingrich... this will grow monotonous. They're lame, and know it, and so they try to get themselves in a position of power over the men they used to resent, and the women they never had a shot at. But the men are all dorks of one sort or another, and the women they never had a shot at are still out of their range. They can lord it over whatever women are handy, but eventually find that they are in the thrall of someone as defective as they are.

 Re-read that good post if you want. Link above.

Toon from I Own The World via Am Digest

From Dalrymple's The Cult of Insincerity:

I am like one of Pavlov’s dogs, who salivated at the sound of a bell. I have only to hold a newspaper in my hand to feel a pleasant frisson of outrage coming on.

Lawrence Silberman discusses stare decisis vs Originalism (video)

Banning dissent in science. Coyote. It's disheartening to say the least.

Who killed California? National Affairs

Related: Can New Jersey be saved?

Pethokoukis: The not-so-secret plan to raise our taxes:

Does President Obama have a secret plan to raise taxes on middle-class Americans — and,well, pretty much everybody else — with a European-style, value-added tax? Actually, it’s not such a big secret.

Related, from Tiger:

Two Americas: This year, 47% of households will pay no federal income tax. No wonder increasing taxes on those who already pay them has become so popular.

Powerline: Is Conservatism brain-dead? Or is Beck the new Brain?

Related: fascinating comment from Wretchard on the death of Liberalism (h/t, Vanderleun)

The top 40 political blogs (nb: We are not a political site. We are an elite boutique site for the Illuminati)

Ireland to determine Euro serfdom today.

The KrautMan on Obama's French Lesson

Office of the President attacks media. Driscoll

Why they hate Palin. Video. The intensity of the hatred is disturbing to me. What has she done that is so terrible? Except lead a vigorous, adventurous American life, and not go to an Ivy?

The media doesn't cover unemployment like they usta do. Funny about that.

That oughta do it: 25 minutes on Aghanistan, a day on the Olympics. What am I missing? It's a major blow when you put yourself and your family on the line like that. Who is doing the thinking in the WH? Well, like I care...

Is Tom Friedman the dumbest guy in the world?

Climate change! Record cold temps hit US (from Drudge):

Michigan: Record low temps -- breaks 1935 cold...

Record low tied at Daytona Beach...

Cold snap fills up homeless shelters in Idaho...

Ain't it terrible when facts don't fit your narrative? But it can be easily solved: get more hysterical. The reality that the earth may be cooling should be far more worrisome for humans - and there is nothing we can do about it but to adjust. Winter is coming here, but Maggie's Farm will help you cope with invigorating weather. Dig out your long-johns: we will re-post our Winter in New England series this year.

It's ye olde Holland-America Line. 

I have sailed with them countless times, including many trans-Atlantic crossings as a youth (other lines too, but I will keep returning to Holland-America). Very professional, serious, and attentive but unintrusive staff; excellent tours and guides and, most importantly, you meet wonderful, pleasant and interesting folks on board from all over the world. 

More info and shipboard photos below, including one of your famous but elusive Editor at dinner -

Where I am not, but where I would love to be this week. Up in Manitoba, climbing out of a lumpy old bed into the frigid room, layering one's clothing, covering it all with camo, scarfing down a quick coffee and maybe a brandy and an apple or something, loading some ammo into the ammo boxes, and getting those duck boat engines running in the frosty morning and heading out onto Lake Winnepegosis to match wits with the migrating ducks (who are famously smarter than humans).

I think Gwynnie will retrieve some photos for us...

George Will observes in Ugly Truths for the Warming Alarmists that, as global warming disappears, the alarmists become more hysterical. One quote:

The Post recently reported the theory of a University of Virginia professor emeritus who thinks that, many millennia ago, primitive agriculture -- burning forests, creating methane-emitting rice paddies, etc. -- produced enough greenhouse gases to warm the planet at least a degree. The theory is interesting. Even more interesting is the reaction to it by people such as the Columbia University professor who says it makes him "really upset" because it might encourage opponents of legislation combating global warming.

That's a contemptible admission, but a good example of where the Lefty academics are at. I think it is well-established that the whole subject has become politicized, ideological-ized, sensationalized, and governmentalized to the point that calm, rational discussion of the facts - if and when they are available - is difficult. There is too much money and power at stake in this crazy obsession.

Image is Disney's Chicken Little, in case you didn't know

"Get up in the morning', I believe I'll dust my broom..."  h/t, Englishman.

A few more below -

That's King Buck on the 1959 Federal Duck Stamp. A great champion, and the prize of avid sportsman John Olin's Nilo Kennels.

In 1931 the Olin chemical and ammo company bought the bankrupt Winchester Repeating Arms company, and still owns the trademark for the firearms and makes the ammo.

The story of Winchester is the sad story of manufacturing and unions in the Northeast. From the Wiki:

By the 60's the cost of skilled labor was making it increasingly difficult profitably to produce Winchester's classic designs, incorporating as they did considerable hand-work. In particular, Winchester's flagship Model 12 pump shotgun and Model 70 bolt-action rifle with their machined forgings could no longer compete in price with Remington's cast-and-stamped 870 and 721. Accordingly S. K. Janson formed a new Winchester design group to advance the use of "modern" engineering design methods and manufacturing principles in gun design. The result was a new line of guns which replaced most of the older products in 1963-64. Unfortunately the reaction of the shooting press and public was overwhelmingly negative: the popular verdict was that Winchester had sacrificed quality to the "cheapness experts,"^[1] and market share continued to decline as Winchester was no longer considered to be a prestige brand. Gun collectors consider "post-64" Winchesters to be both less desirable and less valuable than their predecessors.

Labor costs continued to rise, and a prolonged and bitter strike in 1979-80 convinced Olin that firearms could no longer be produced profitably in New Haven. Therefore in December 1980 the plant was sold to its employees, incorporated as the U.S. Repeating Arms Company, together with a licence to make Winchester arms. Olin retained the Winchester ammunition business.

From 1981 until 2006, Winchester guns were made by the U.S. Repeating Arms Company. When U.S. Repeating Arms went bankrupt in 1989 it was acquired by a French holding company, then sold to an arms making cartel sponsored by the Belgian Herstal Group, which also owns gun makers Fabrique National (FN) and Browning.

On January 16, 2006 U.S. Repeating Arms announced it was closing the New Haven, Connecticut, plant where Winchester rifles and shotguns were produced for 140 years.^[1] Along with the closing of the plant, the Model 94 rifle (the descendant of the original Winchester rifle), Model 70 rifle and Model 1300 shotgun would be discontinued.

On August 15, 2006, Olin Corporation, owner of the Winchester trademarks, announced that it had entered into a new license agreement with Browning to make Winchester brand rifles and shotguns, though not at the closed Winchester plant in New Haven. Browning, based in Morgan, Utah, and the former licensee, U.S. Repeating Arms Company, are both subsidiaries of FN Herstal. In 2008 FN Herstal announced that it would produce Model 70 rifles at its plant in Columbia, SC.

It's interesting to read the histories of companies. Here's the history of the Olin Corp, which still makes Winchester ammo. I had the pleasure of meeting some good folks from the company recently.

Our pal and occasional contributor (Aliyah, Indian Health Service, etc) emails me this iPhone photo from Big Sur today on his way to lunch and a shrink conference:

At Am Thinker, The Perils of a 'Policy' President.

In my view, the real problem isn't the politics - it's the hubris. Few people who enjoy creating big plans and schemes for other peoples' lives have ever even tried to run a candy shop. That's the problem.

Now is the time to buy your place in Spain. Or anywhere in the Balearic Islands. The Socialists have made a mess of their economy, so prices are reasonable. A pal recently bought a villa on the north coast of Majorca.

We loved this restaurant and tapas bistro (Las Olas) in Palma, Majorca. I ordered the gazpacho. It was beet - the gazpacho del dia. Remolacha. Wonderful, refreshing stuff for a hot day. I also tasted all of Mrs. BD's assortment of tapas, and we easily persuaded some wandering Brits to come into the place after I tasted the gazpacho and uttered an audible Wow.

I loved Palma. Lotsa photos below -

A day of repentenance and atonement, much like Lent for Christians like me. All are serious times, in which to take life very seriously - dead seriously - as this precious and brief gift of life deserves to be taken for at least some days of the year before we revert to our normal ways and habits.

We are all just animated dust, with God's spark. It's easy for me to forget that during daily life, when everything seems so important.

It's been interesting to me to see how many searches land on our post from last year: The mice, rats, voles, shrews and lemmings of New England.

It's gratifying to be useful to curious people.

Photo: The good old Meadow Mouse, properly named the Meadow Vole, common across the nothern part of North America, and good wholesome food for numerous predators. A lil' critter to be welcomed, because his presence means you have healthy lands.

The Dunkin' I found in a square in the medieval sector of Palma, Majorca. More Majorca photos tomorrow -

An evening departure from Monte Carlo harbor, headed to Barcelona:

h/t Reader and Theo:

Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress said, "someone may steal from it at night.." So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job at $18,000 per year..

Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?" So they created a planning department and hired two people: one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.

Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?" So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people: one to do the studies and one to write the reports.

Then Congress said, "How are these people going to get paid?" So they created the following positions: a time keeper, and a payroll officer, then hired two people.

Then Congress said, "Who will be accountable for all of these people?" So they created an administrative section and hired three people: an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.

Then Congress said, "We have had this command in operation for a year and we are $18,000 over budget, we must cutback overall cost."

So they laid off the night watchman.

James 5:13-20

5:13 Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.

5:14 Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.

5:15 The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.

5:16 Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.

5:17 Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

5:18 Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.

5:19 My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another,

5:20 you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner's soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Candied mint leaves. I made a bunch of these old-fashioned treats last weekend.

Since my mint patch (Kentucky Mint, of course) has grown like crazy, it's fun to thin it out while making a fine treat. If you like mint flavor, these are great to decorate ice cream, fruit cup, a bowl of berries, melon, or whatever. In the old days, they were passed around as an after-dinner mint: the original "mint".

All you do is cut off some mint leaves (or tips of stems -even better), brush them with well-beaten egg white, press them into granulated sugar, and let them dry for 6-24 hours on wax or parchment paper. They will last a couple of days. When they dry enough, they are a bit crunchy.

Delicious. You can do the same thing with violet flowers in the springtime.