Maggie's Farm

From The Panel, in the WSJ:

In fact, the logic of this moment was inevitable. Once government got its fingers on the health-care system, it was only a matter of time before it took it over completely. Now there's one limited pool of dollars while the costs are endless.

"You have the luxury of thinking only of yourself, but we have to think about everyone," says the professor of ethics. He's a celebrity and waxes eloquent every Tuesday and Thursday on Bill Maher Tonight. "This isn't the free market, after all. We can't just leave fairness to chance. We have to use reason. Is it better for society as a whole that we allocate limited resources for your operation when we might use the same dollars to bring many more high quality years to someone, say, younger?"

"I'm only 62."

He smiles politely.

"Look, it's not just about me," you argue desperately. "My daughter's engaged to get married next year. She'll be heartbroken if I'm not there for it."

"Maybe you should have thought of that before you put on so much weight," says the medical officer. "I mean, you people have been told time and again . . ."

But the chairwoman is uncomfortable with his censorious tone and cuts him off, saying more gently, "Perhaps your daughter could move the wedding up a little."

Read the whole thing. I like the way Mark Steyn put it on the radio today: "They want to nationalize your body." Yes, while pretending to do you a favor.

A flower carpet at Biltmore, Asheville, NC

Are we having a "conversation" yet? Althouse

Bikinis, banned in Britain

Health care reform is about control, not health

Some lady figured out how to make money from the housing price crash. Ain't free markets amazing?

In which Mike Lupica reveals himself to be a non-serious person. Related from Riehl: It's all because he's black

Tim Pawlenty steps up to the plate

A doc responds to Obama: Am Thinker

Data about the last election, including this one:

The researchers found that 11 percent saw Obama’s race as a reason to vote against him, but roughly three times as many saw his race as a reason to vote for him.

I knew we were ordinary. Gallup: Conservatives now outnumber Libs in all 50 states. People just need the occasional reminder of what the Left tried to do to them.

Senators want Cap and Tax set aside

Tiger wonders Why, precisely, Ivy League Democrats think that identifying with African kleptocratic dictators will help either the people of Africa or the United States is beyond me.

At Doug Ross:

• jimfromthefoothills firmly states, "Remember, we are going to rebuild every school, bridge and road in the country. We will fix healthcare. We will restore the constitution, end illegal wars [and] reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses." ......... And then luscious chocolate-chip cookies will drop from the sky, multi-colored unicorns will everyone give free rides to work and school, and Karl Rove will get frogmarched out of Fox News in primetime. As an aside, Jim is still living in the foothills and apparently ate some bad possum before posting.

There is only one jurisdiction in which self-identified liberals outnumber conservatives: Washington, D.C. That figures. They feed off of us.

I'd like to see Barbara Boxer defeated. She irritates me.

If congressional Dems stay on this track, they will have problems. As neoneo discusses, it's the shocking radicalization of the center right. A quote:

People tend to be more driven to protest things that affect them personally rather than abstractions or faraway problems in distant lands. And it’s hard to imagine a government program that promises (or threatens) to affect people more personally than the health care reform bill, or one that has been more suspect in its claims and more murky in its lack of transparency. Therefore it should not be the least bit surprising that there’s a lot of energy in the fight against it.

What is surprising—to the Left—is that now they’re the objects rather than the perpetrators of the outrage. Their charge that opponents are astroturfers is partly a cynical ploy. But I suspect it’s also partly sincere, because they are experiencing shock and resultant denial that a populist movement has arisen against the Left itself.

Need a job? Here's one.

My college friends from Sha-Na-Na did OK in life. Glad to hear it. No slouches.

No, you could not keep your medical insurance if you like it. It's a lie.

A reprise of Dr. Zeke Emanuel: Docs take the Hippocratic Oath too seriously. Would you send a friend to him?

Is ObamaCare constitutional? Not at all, but who cares these days? That old Constitution was made for strong men and women. Speaking of pussies, here's one. And here's a brave pol who should also lose his job.

An ex-insurance guy has become an emotional crusader against private insurance companies. Trouble is, if we end up with a government monopoly he will have many more complaints. And there will be no exit. The No Exit and no choice is what folks fear most, I believe.

Real Health Reform: Republicans have a chance to advance some market-oriented reform ideas. Yuval Levin

Viking:

Color me green unsurprised - The Truth About Cars: "The Cash for Clunkers program is a car industry bailout dressed up as a green initiative."

Dick Morris on the seniors:

The legislation still plans to achieve 40% of its savings from cuts in Medicare, slicing reimbursement rates to doctors and hospitals encouraging them shortchange their elderly patients as a matter of economic necessity and shrinking further the population of doctors. The standards and protocols of the newly established Federal Health Board are just as likely to direct the denial of care to seniors for such surgeries as hip and knee replacements and even coronary artery bypass as before the Obama retreat.

A prediction of civil war in Germany. Gates. In a way, it looks as if it has already begun.

Coyote:

I am confused as to why a preference for overpriced organic foods and a preference for government monopoly control of health care are necessarily correlated at the 1.0 level.  But apparently they are.  Maybe its a common desire to overpay for basic necessities?

I hear too much of this sort of ignorant nonsense from Greenies. How is shutting off your tap in England supposed to help people in deserts get water? As the Englishman asks "Where does it go?"

Legal, but unbelievably stupid. The ignorant or excitement-seeking reporter refers to that A-15 as an assault rifle. Maybe it once was one, but that rifle will not do full auto. Here's full auto (via Am Digest):

My hunting pal has bought an old farm in Schoharie County, NY. He invited me to come up on the weekend and help get the old place ready in time for hunting season. House looks fine - except it could use some plastic nailed over the windows and maybe a coat of paint - but the place could use a little landscaping.

Actually, I think it's a job for ACORN (they do housing, don't they?), or maybe Habitat for Humanity:

Among other cool places, I am headed for Carthage in a week or two. 

It's called Tunisia now. Phoenician imperialists colonized the place. It was once the bread-basket of the Roman Empire. Wheat.

Today, the people there are mostly Berbers. St. Augustine was a Berber as was, of course, his Mom, Saint Monica.

I am studying up, as I always do before I go somewhere. The way I approach every subject is to begin with the big picture, and then to work my way into the details as time and interest permit. For me, the history Big Picture is my 5000 BC to 1900 AD time line.

Will bring cameras, fully charged. With the strange DC currents and strange plugs over yonder, you cannot expect to recharge the batteries. I guess I do need a third camera or spare batteries for a trip like this, but it seems like a waste of money.

Maybe I can find one of my old ones somewhere but who knows if I can find the chargers for them?

Here's St. Vincent de Paul Cathedral in Tunis. St. Vincent de Paul was sold into slavery, and ministered to other Christian slaves in north Africa. The country is now 98% Moslem, but they have a tradition of tolerance to their Christians and Jews, and their Islam is not of the hateful sort at all.

Plus I just learned we are stopping by Capri too. I haven't been there, but my kids have. What next? She has constructed this trip to be a surprise for me, and gives me one detail at a time so I can learn.

Jay Cost at RCP: Obama misread his mandate. This essay is on the money. The Dems are acting as if the whole country were like San Francisco. One quote:

...the Obama administration has acted as if those hagiographical comparisons to FDR were apt. It let its liberal allies from the coasts drive the agenda and write the key bills, and it's played straw man semantic games to marginalize the opposition. For all the President's moaning in The Audacity of Hope about how the Bush administration was railroading the minority into accepting far right proposals - he was prepared to let his Northeastern and Pacific Western liberal allies do exactly the same thing: write bills that excite the left, infuriate the right, and scare the center; insist on speedy passage through the Congress; and use budget reconciliation to ram it through in case the expected super majority did not emerge.

Why you won't see medical tort reform (h/t, reader):

Despite the top sellers, the NYT still refuses to review conservative books. Very foolish of them. Thoughtful reviews and critiques would be a good thing.

The last swine flu vaccine in the 80s killed more people than the flu did. Now Guillain-Barre returns with the new flu vaccine. I think I'll pass.

Are the days of the classic car over? I kinda think so.

"Dutch embrace Islamic names." That's one way to put it, but I can think of other explanations.

Why Martha's Vineyard?

The tactic of manufactured crises. Am Thinker

Cry havoc, and leaf through some books on war with Jules, overlooking scenic Cape Cod Bay.

Putting the heat on ACORN. I don't mind political advocacy groups. I just mind when they are paid with my tax dollars, like ACORN. It's a huge scandal, but the MSM will not touch it. 

Via Front Page:

It’s a new age of irony that we live in. The president is a self-described community organizer who used his skills at grassroots activism to launch a populist movement that swept him into office. Now his administration, along with its Congressional allies, is worried about a determined civic movement that is turning against it.

The folks turning up for the town-halls may be maligned by their elected officials. They may be painted as rage-filled lunatics by the media. But unfortunately for the Obama administration and its transformational vision for health care, they aren’t going away.

The O hires campaign ad firms to promote government medicine. That had better not be on my nickel. 

Sissy remembers The women now went willingly into the field. Women like to do for their families. So do real men.

What's the deal? Dr. Emanuel isn't my doctor. He has no right to make my medical decisions.

The evil, evil anti-O racism of Tinky Winky. Yes, I think the O is a joke. I think all politicians are jokes.

From The American:

Hollywood seems to think that the government is either screwing up the country because it doesn't know what it is doing or it is destroying the country because it is trampling on the rights of its citizens. However, the people who hold these convictions are the exact same people who want to turn over the operation of all the key components of the country to the government to manage. Health care, energy, education, the economy itself -- these and dozens of other critical features of American society should be directed, according to the Left, from the hallowed halls in which the bumblers and betrayers work.

Who are the uninsured and should we pay to cover them?

Stunning Freudian slip by the MSM 

How Canada is saving money on government medical care

Quoted at Carpe Diem:

Comprehensive health insurance is such an ingrained element of our thinking, we forget that its rise to dominance is relatively recent. Modern group health insurance was introduced in 1929, and employer-based insurance began to blossom during World War II, when wage freezes prompted employers to expand other benefits as a way of attracting workers. Still, as late as 1954, only a minority of Americans had health insurance. That’s when Congress passed a law making employer contributions to employee health plans tax-deductible without making the resulting benefits taxable to employees. This seemingly minor tax benefit not only encouraged the spread of catastrophic insurance, but had the accidental effect of making employer-funded health insurance the most affordable option (after taxes) for financing pretty much any type of health care. There was nothing natural or inevitable about the way our system developed: employer-based, comprehensive insurance crowded out alternative methods of paying for health-care expenses only because of a poorly considered tax benefit passed half a century ago.

Emails to House members overwhelm website. Keep 'em coming.

Enjoyed our Barrister identifying government and politicians as a powerful special interest: the most powerful one. Wish I had had that insight.

ACLU: Prior restraint for religious speech. This is insane, sick, evil, despicable. Related: More on Yale's voluntary restraint of speech

Who is really doing the astroturfing? As noted at Insty: "Have you ever seen a clearer case of projection in your life?”

Orthopedists slam the O for "blurring reality". Nice euphemism, docs.

Wizbang:

For the last year and a half, President Obama's arguments in favor of his health care reforms have consisted of little more than recycling every popular myth dreamed up by socialized medicine advocates to illustrate how wretched our private health care system has become/

Even if you are not a fan of Rush, I think he nails it here. Worth a couple of minutes -

He makes some points which are similar to what Riehl has posted re the O:

What appears to be a lack of attention paid to political reality is actually a single-minded determination to ignore what Americans want and to use the tools of community organizing, intimidation, coercion and, most importantly, deception to achieve his goals.

And

A snap of the Billings Farm in Woodstock. Yes, it's a museum farm, but they do a good job with their Jersey cows. Are mixed farms museums now?

My pal and I stole a couple of apples off their trees from over the fence during a morning hike last weekend: very good Macintosh apples - cold and crisp and spicey at 7 am. (This free ad is our in-kind payment.)

That's their cornfield in the background, and some hayfields behind that.

I thought to myself that no real farmer and orchard-keeper would have such meticulous lawns around their apple trees:

1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14

2:10 Then David slept
with his ancestors, and was buried in the city of David.

2:11 The time
that David reigned over Israel was forty years; he reigned seven years in
Hebron, and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

2:12 So Solomon sat on the
throne of his father David; and his kingdom was firmly established.

3:3
Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David; only, he
sacrificed and offered incense at the high places.

3:4 The king went to
Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the principal high place; Solomon used
to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

3:5 At Gibeon the LORD
appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, "Ask what I should give
you."

3:6 And Solomon said, "You have shown great and steadfast love to
your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in
righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him
this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne
today.

3:7 And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in
place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how
to go out or come in.

3:8 And your servant is in the midst of the people
whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or
counted.

3:9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern
your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your
great people?"

3:10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked
this.

3:11 God said to him, "Because you have asked this, and have not
asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but
have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right,

3:12 I
now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no
one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after
you.

3:13 I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor
all your life; no other king shall compare with you.

3:14 If you will
walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David
walked, then I will lengthen your life."

Now I am talking about Woodstock, NY. I was at that dumb thing. I was young, but I did attend that weekend concert with some friends in their van. We did not have the $18 three-day tickets, like most of the people who showed up. The fences and admission booths were long trampled when we got there.

It sucked. I never understood why such a big deal was made of it. Rain, mud, overflowing porta-potties, stoned teenie-boppers, music you could hardly hear. Some of the stoned teenie-bopper girls took off their shirts and danced in the rain while long-haired sociopathic predators prowled all around for a peek, hoping to get stoned and laid in the mud. "Got any grass, man?" Like, really groovy. 

We brought our own cooler of food and beer.

We got out of there after 24 hours or so, as I recall. Maybe 36 hours. It was not easy getting out of there on the muddy, rutted dirt road and, at points, you had to drive off the road onto the soggy pastures, but we finally made our escape. People are impressed that I was there, but they are wrong to be. We were just young and foolish, but we recognized a shit show, as they say on Wall St., when we saw one.

Bob Dylan was wise to stay away. Ritchie Havens, as I recall, was pretty good but I do not know why he did Beatles songs. We did not have any pot, but maybe we did. I don't remember, but I never saw the point of it anyway except once. The guys from Sha-Na-Na were my buds from college, so I did not need to hear them. Jimmy Hendrix? I do not recall whether we heard him in the distance. Probably not, but I also heard him live in Bridgeport, CT one time, on the high school football field right behind the jail.

Yes, he was an exciting performer. No doubt about about it.

Dylan questioned by cops in NJ. Yes, the Jersey shore. Police said they had a report of "a stranger wandering around and looking into a vacant house in a rainstorm." Yup, that would be Bob. The mystery tramp.

Note that he did not say "Don't you know who I am?"

This is 1966 in England:

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

George Washington

Fastest-dying cities meet for a chat. What these folks do not get is that government policies (with the assistance of unions) chased the people and the jobs away from these once-prosperous and happy cities.

Sociologists upset that Obama isn't using them more. They are useful: they are able to give you the answer you want for any question you ask. As a group they seem more ideologically-motivated than truth-oriented, but I am sure some are not like that.

Skin and ethnic diversity damages "social capital," harms society. Yes, OK, but it's not the skin or the ethnic: it is the different cultures that cause the issues with trust, familiarity, and comfort. Everybody is more comfortable around their own peeps, because they know what to expect and know where they're coming from. We consider that to be wholesome, natural, and intelligent tribalism.

Via Phi Beta Cons, a new paper roasts three books favoring racial preferences in college admissions. I find racial preferences despicable, un-American, divisive, and overall damaging. I have no problem at all with cultural, sociocultural, talent, or experiential diversity as long as the basic standards apply to all.

Veterinary care in the UK more civilized and better than human care. Speaking of which, they won't let you buy your own medicines in England. How do Brits put up with this crap from their government?

This and other cool scorecard items at Surber:

President Obama took out a Craig’s List ad for $15-an-hour volunteers to Astroturf townhall meetings.

Wanted. Young man single and free. Experienced in protest, but will accept a new trainee.

Paglia, a big fan of the O, via Neoneo:

Obama’s aggressive endorsement of a healthcare plan that does not even exist yet, except in five competing, fluctuating drafts, makes Washington seem like Cloud Cuckoo Land. The president is promoting [a] colossal, brazen bait-and-switch operation…

You can keep your doctor; you can keep your insurance, if you’re happy with it, Obama keeps assuring us in soothing, lullaby tones. Oh, really? And what if my doctor is not the one appointed by the new government medical boards for ruling on my access to tests and specialists? And what if my insurance company goes belly up because of undercutting by its government-bankrolled competitor? Face it: Virtually all nationalized health systems, neither nourished nor updated by profit-driven private investment, eventually lead to rationing.

American College of Surgeons rightly blasts Obama's ignorance. As we often say, never mistake slick for smart.

More lies, this time about medical insurance profits.

More trickery. Why use tricks and lies? Why? Here'a another one re the fake doctor.

Chavez update. What a jerk. Who does he think he is? Stalin? I knew Joe Stalin, and Chavez is no Stalin.

The Kondratieff Wave looks bad for the US economy. Click the image to enlage.

Reid and Pelosi get into name-calling. That is mature debate. But polls say protesters motivated by fear of government control of their medical care.

Rove: Obama and the permanent campaign. "Turning critics into enemies is not presidential."

LaShawn has a Message for people who shamelessly invoke the old “legacy of slavery” excuse and view the government as some sort of savior

Rasmussen:

I think the Dem health care is what is driving this down so rapidly, but running around the world apologizing for America's existence probably didn't help. Thankfully, most Americans have not been contaminated by Howard Zinn.

From Megan McA in What Does It Mean To Have a Private Health Care System:

...they ask me how I can ignore the overwhelming evidence that national health care is superior to our terrible system.  Now, what's odd about this is that all of those countries do precisely what I am concerned about:  slap price controls on the inputs, particularly pharmaceuticals.  Their overwhelming evidence indicates that I am 100% correct that a government run system in the US will  destroy the last really profitable market for drugs and medical technology, and thereby cause the rate of medical innovation to slow to a crawl.

Valuable things that people want are expensive. Duh. That's one of the reasons people work.

From Sowell's latest Random Thoughts:

Political ideologies are fairy tales for adults.

As Sippican might say, "There is no Second Congregational Church." No, there isn't. Not yet, anyway.

I had the pleasure of shaking hands with the Rev. Norman Koop on the steps of the First Congregational Church of Woodstock, on Sunday morning. I had heard many good things about him and his congregation (including the Dartmouth folks who cross the river to attend), and had listened to some of his sermons online.

You can listen to his some of his preaching at Sermon Audio.

Here is the church's Statement of Faith. Yes, it is what I call a "strong dose" church in what polls say is the least religious state in the USA.

I have no time for weak dose churches. I like that old-time religion: The living Jesus and the living Word: straight up, no ice. As a sinner, Christ is what I need.

Glad to have met ya, Reverend.

If you missed Part 1, it's here (with a little bit of Vermont history).

In the early 1800s, few towns had architects. They did have builders. And they had Pattern Books.

Pattern books were like blueprints, produced by well-known or entrepreneurial archtects in the big cities, just the same as builders' development houses of today are built from patterns.

I like this one. People up there tend to their front gardens with loving care for their own pleasure and for the delight of passers-by:

 More fun photos below the fold - take a minute to feast yer eyeballs.

One of the Dylanologist's favorite topics: The crisis of ACD. A quote:

The continents rest on massive tectonic plates. Until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the mid 18th century, these plates were fixed in place and immobile. However, drilling for oil and mining for minerals has cut these plates loose from their primordial moorings and left them to drift aimlessly. "The potential for damage is truly catastrophic," said Hans Brinker, a spokesman for the International Panel on Continental Drift (IPCD). "The continents are adrift due to the ruthless capitalist exploitation of the environment for profit. Unless immediate steps are taken to halt all oil and mineral extraction, we can expect a massive surge in earthquakes and volcanos by next Tuesday."

The chart is from the article.

Chris Kenner never made the charts with his (the first) version of this great tune. (H/T somebody. Maybe Sipp, but I forget):

From Will Wilkinson on trust in government:

Our government — and by extension our fellow citizens — is capable of terrible things and proves it every single day. Is it really possible to love government so much, to invest so much hope in its benevolent efficacy, that we grow blind to its evident capacity for evil? Anyway, there must be some parts of the government that are not capable of madness. Ezra invites us to think about those when considering health care reform. Will you accept?

Related: "Don't you trust me?" Crowd shouts "No."

Roger Kimball has no particular faith in the virtuousness of government:

Why all the Sturm und Drang? What is it about the issue of health care, or, rather, the prospect of a government takeover of health care, that arouses such passions on both sides of the debate? Sure, there are important issues at stake. It is legitimate to ask whether the Democratic plan will lead to rationing of health care, especially for senior citizens. It is legitimate to ask whether it will limit choice, impede innovation, and lead to longer waiting times for various procedures. It is legitimate to ask about how the new system will be paid for.

But these concerns, while legitimate, do not really explain the level of passion that the prospect of government run health arouses. The real issue, I believe, concerns freedom.

and

Looking at the grinning rogues gallery of mountebanks yesterday — Ted “Chappaquiddick” Kennedy, Charlie “tax dodger” Rangel, and the rest — I thought of Ronald Reagan’s warning about how socialists so often use health care as a wedge to extract not only money but also freedom, including freedom of choice, from the citizenry. “One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people,” Reagan observed, “has been by way of medicine. It’s very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. Most people are a little reluctant to oppose anything that suggests medical care for people who possibly can’t afford it.”

 The not-so-stealthy plan to eliminate Medicare, quoted at Powerline:

That's the basic issue with Medicare...it's single payer, universal for those over 65, permits unlimited demand and choice....and has no cost controls...and is bankrupting the government while simultaneously;y through cost-shifting wrecking the private market. Politically, it's the only way to control Medicare costs: fold it into a universal single payer plan with effective global budgeting and cost controls.

I guess I am unAmerican to doubt the intentions of politicians. Riehl

We had a tornado yesterday (yes, they do sometimes occur in New England), leaving us without power, internet, phone, etc. at Maggie's HQ.

My chat with the broadband guys working on the wires told me that a tree knocked the primary power line into the cable line and started a fire in the cable. They had to replace a long section of cable.

Vermont was settled later than most of New England, in the late 1700s by people from Connecticut,  Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Pioneers, attracted by cheap land. You could cut down all the trees and raise sheep, and the rivers provided endless power for mills. Woolen mills, stone-cutting marble and granite mills, lumber mills, etc. You could transport stuff down the rivers to the big Connecticut River.

They did cut down all the trees: by 1850 most of Vermont was denuded of forest, whether for lumber, grazing, charcoal, or firewood. 

(In the 1700s, Vermont was considered part of the New York colony, but New Hampshire had claims on it. For a few decades, Vermont was the independent Republic of Vermont until they joined the union in 1792.)

After producing the woolen garments for World War 1, Vermont's mills slowly closed down, the Vermont wool biz (Big Wool moved west) dried up and was replaced by dairy for the distant cities when the trains came through. Now, with factory dairy, there isn't even much of that any more, and the trees have grown back (and so have the Moose, Black Bear, and White-Tailed Deer). The milk cows today spend all day in sheds until their productivity drops and they are turned into Mcdonalds burgers.

The wealth evident in the fine houses built in Woodstock from roughly 1800-1840 (replacing shacks, log cabins, and other humble dwellings) was a combination of its being a Shire town - a county seat with court and jail and lawyers - and the woolen mills. Those businesses attracted tradesmen and farmers, roads spread out, and the town thrived for a while. In 1830, this town of 3000 souls (then, and 3000 now!) had five newspapers.

Today, Woodstock is all about tourism, with endless interesting summer and winter events, and skiing, of course, in the winter. The village is preserved in amber by a fierce architectural review board and its designation as a National Historic District. Laurence Rockefeller had a lot to do with that (his Woodstock home is among the photos below the fold).

And, today, Vermont has the distinction of having the lowest per capita income in the US, having surpassed Mississippi a few years ago. The poorer they get, the further to the Left they move. It is not rational and it is utterly self-created (taxes and regs) and self-defeating, but it's a free country and, here at Maggie's Farm, we value the freedom of people to do stupid things if they want to. (I just hate it when people make obviously predictable mistakes on my nickel.)

The Wiki on Woodstock, VT here. Worth a visit. Bring camera.

I took the photos below early on Saturday morning. The temp was 48 degrees F at 5:30 when I typically go out to begin my exploring of a place (hence no people around in some of my photos). By mid-day, the temp got up to a balmy global warming crisis of 73 degrees.

I offer no architectural comments on the details of these structures. I don't have the time, and I lack the eye for detail that Mrs. BD has. My brain tends towards weight, balance, harmony, and emotional comfort - and only notices detail when it intrudes. However, I do know and believe that God is in the details. More on that later (maybe).

From this week's Christnotes:

It would be nice to simply wake up one day and suddenly be a mature Christian, but in order to grow up in God, we will have to go through trials. There is no other way to grow strong spiritually than to go through trials.

1 Peter 5:10 says, And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. You may not like trials, but this verse says that when you are going through trials after you have suffered a little while, you will grow to be firmly rooted and grounded (strong, firm and steadfast) in God.

Similarly, James 1:12 says, Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. Here again, you don't get the rewards (the crown of life) until you have persevered under trial and stood the test.

So, learn to be thankful in your trials, because in order to get your breakthrough, you need a trial to break through.

Therefore, don't be discouraged during times of suffering. Know that after you have suffered a little while, God himself will make you strong, firm, and steadfast.

The Dylanologist and I used to joke about the notion of a Bob Dylan Christmas album.

But what's up with this?

Related, Dylan reciting The Night Before Christmas on his Theme Time Radio Show.

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

H.L.Mencken (h/t, Am Digest)

Remember when protest was patriotic? Glenn Reynolds

Habla astroturf? Via Doug Ross:

I asked him if he could tell me what the signs said. “¿Quien sabe?” (who knows?) was all he said to me, with a big grin. I’m kicking myself for not asking them how much they were getting paid to support the grassroots...

Do economic stats depend on the eye of the beholder? Powerline

I guess a deal was made. Big Pharma to run ads supporting Dem health plans. The politics of medical care is shaping up in strange ways. However, even the folks in Mass. heap scorn on it.

Dr. Krauthammer has a better plan. Simpler, too.

House doubles size of their private jet buy. Audacity indeed.

The CBO gives a big Thumbs Down to the silly notion of Preventive Care. Duh. Everybody gets sick, and eventually dies. It costs the same whether you die at 50 or 89.

Where the heck is Marianne Matthews?

I hope she's OK. We miss this Texan's wise and temperate comments at Maggie's.

It's tough to visit Woodstock, VT without focusing on the Federal and neo-Colonial architecture. I will post much of that on later posts, when I can get my act together.  

Photo below was the view from the Simon Pearce Restaurant in Quechee (yes, most of the group went downstairs to watch the glass-blowing) on Friday night's dinner). This sight felt like symbolism for the wedding:

 More random photos below the fold -