Maggie's Farm

Freedom is messy. In free societies, people will fall through the cracks — drink too much, eat too much, buy unaffordable homes, fail to make prudent provision for health care, and much else. But the price of being relieved of all those tiresome choices by a benign paternal government is far too high.

Mark Steyn, linked here.

I cranked up my trusty Stihl Farm Boss last weekend to do some jobs, and my neighbor who has some heart problems brought me a cold Rolling Rock and asked me to cut down an old Pear tree which was productive 20 years ago but which has been in serious decline since it has been in the shade of several big trees.

For a cold one, a year's supply of good fruit wood for meat-smoking, and for the pleasure of helping out a neighbor, I was happy to do it. My stock of wild cherry chunks from last year is running low.

As long-time readers know, I always have mishaps with chain saws. Someday the thing will kill me. So be it. The two nuts of the cover blew off somehow and the chain blew off right after we got the big old tree down. Could only find one of the nuts. So it was a case of "pass me another cold one, let's light up some Cubans, and I will finish this job later."

Don't you hate to leave a job half-done?

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

4:25 So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.

4:26 Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,

4:27 and do not make room for the devil.

4:28 Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy.

4:29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.

4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.

4:31 Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice,

4:32 and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children,

5:2 and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Well, it's not all bla bla bla.

As in this case: Most women are not, in my view, angry bitch psychotic academic victimized mini-monsters. The Retriever's Grandma, for instance (image on right from that post).

Here at Maggie's (Maggie is herself a tough old broad with a sense of humor and doesn't mind getting her hands dirty), we hold strong, cheerful, independent, humorous, tender, gutsy, intelligent, loving women in the highest regard.

More re women: our hero Charles puts Palin in perspective. I think he is right. Nothing to do with her charisma or gender. We like her very much, and hate the contempt she receives for having a non-elite life style.

Disney accused of defending heteronormativity. Not a joke. It does sound perverted, doesn't it? Not by accident.

American women have it worse than any women in the world. Just ask any wife: she'll tell ya all about it if you can get her off the computer for a minute. Always shopping for the latest new colors in burkhas to get stoned in, you know?

How do our neopuritanical Sociologist types discuss such things? Bruce found this, about social stratification on the internet. I learned a new word: homophily. It also sounds like a perversion, but it means that people often tend to hang out with people they feel comfortable with.

Well, golly gee! Smack me with a mackeral and call me Edna! Thank God for the science of sociology to inform us of that. Maybe I am an exception, but I very much enjoy people who are different too, if they bring something to the table. Still, family is family, a paisan is a paisan, and a tribe is a tribe.

Thou and I

Joyful the moment when we sat in the bower, Thou and I;
In two forms and with two faces - with one soul, Thou and I.

The colour of the garden and the song of the birds give the elixir of immortality
The instant we come into the orchard, Thou and I.

The stars of Heaven come out to look upon us -
We shall show the moon herself to them, Thou and I.

Thou and I, with no 'Thou' or 'I', shall become one through our tasting;
Happy, safe from idle talking, Thou and I.

The spirited parrots of heaven will envy us -
When we shall laugh in such a way, Thou and I.

This is stranger, that Thou and I, in this corner here...
Are both in one breath here and there - Thou and I.

Rumi was a poet, scholar and mystic, and the inspiration for the Whirling Dervishes (which we saw in Turkey a few years ago).

"I am a taxpayer by trade." Vanderleun. Also,

I have no doubt that as the post-racial, no-reparations-here, President of all Americans, in a full spirit of bipartisanship and concern for the little guy in the Taxpaying Industries of America, you will agree in this one instance to allow me to pay all my taxes next year with a check post-dated to 2013.

Useful for the front or back porch, or the deck of your Boston Whaler. You can buy these functioning repros here.

India's population is 1.150 billion. It is predicted to surpass China's by 2030.

India has 600 billion farm animals.

Dick Morris wants this short ad to get around -

This is 1974. It sounds like a studio rehearsal tape. No video.

We all  know well that a collection of lies, deceptions, half-truths, fear, and cynical manipulation are what passes for a soul in many politicians.

Still, the bald-faced lying about the Dem health scheme has reached new lows.

1. Pelosi claims protesters are carrying swastikas. They are? What a jackass.

2. Did you notice that, just like with Global Warming, it's not Health Care Reform this week. Now it's Health Insurance Reform. Less scary, I guess, but the same bill.

3. The Director of the DNC included this assertion in his email about dealing with the "mobs":

These “grassroots protests” are being organized and largely paid for by Washington special interests and insurance companies who are desperate to block reform. They’re trying to use lies and fear to break the President and his agenda for change.

That is 100% baloney.

4. Senator accuses WH of assembling an enemies list.

5. The coming middle-class tax hikes for medical coverage. Henninger:

Every policy wonk in America may have known this was always an everybody-into-the-pool proposal, and Mr. Obama has talked himself blue saying people could stay with the insurance they’ve got or the doctor they’ve got, “if you’re happy with that” and don’t like the public option.

A lot of people simply don’t believe this. How come? White House adviser David Axelrod said this week, “Our job is to help folks understand how this will help them.” It could be they’ve already thought about that. For many people, the first six Obama months already have been an unsettling Dantesque tour through levels of government “help” they never knew existed.

Rove comments re those taxes:

The House version of Mr. Obama’s health-care—excuse me, “health-insurance”—reform already has four taxes that will largely be paid by people making less than $250,000 a year. There’s $8.2 billion in taxes for using health savings accounts and other tax-free medical savings vehicles to purchase over-the-counter drugs. There’s an 8% tax on employers who don’t offer insurance: The Congressional Budget Office says workers in those businesses would pay the $163 billion cost via lost wages.

There’s a 2.5% “Tax on Individuals Without Acceptable Health Care Coverage” in the House bill that applies to people who either don’t have insurance or whose policies the government deems inadequate. Finally, there’s a $2 billion “Comparative Effectiveness Research Tax” on all private and “public option” insurance policies.

If some version of ObamaCare is passed, the president will break his tax pledge several more times while adding trillions to the deficit, dismantling the best elements of our health-care system and slashing Medicare by hundreds of billions of dollars.

The level of hysteria, it is clear to me, comes from the rare opportunity for the Left to nationalize - and thus to politicize - a giant sector of the economy, and one which is closest to peoples' hearts. If they blow it again, the chance may not return for another 20 years. And yet they have already blown it, because their bill is an atrocity.

Via Protein:

If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stop with the dissent and let us run your life.

Stanford University update, at Driscoll. This is all on their parents' hard-earned nickel, of course, but I suppose children must be children until reality makes them grow up.

Mandatory military service, as in Israel, might help, though.

The smaller ones are best for indoors, but the larger helos are good outdoors, as long as it isn't too breezy.

Rechargable lipo batteries, with recharger.

Link here. 

Their problem, from Dem Blame Game Keeps Backfiring:

No one expects the Democrats to have a crystal ball, but they do expect them to have some basic answers.  With something as big as changing a system that makes up 18 percent of our economy, it's hard to be precise-- because no one really knows exactly how it will unfold.

The most concrete answers, unfortunately for the Democrats, have come from the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO warns that the House bill will cost over $1 trillion dollars for the first ten years, that it will only cover a fraction of the uninsured, and that taxes are likely to be raised across the board.

Those bombshells sounded an alarm across the country.  Instead of being comforted, Americans became uneasy.  They started showing up in droves at town hall meetings, calling their Congressman, paying more attention to the debate, and raising more questions.

Instead of trying to answer the questions on the merits, many Democrats lashed out at anyone who dared suggest the proposal wasn't ready for prime time.  They started blaming others for their predicament.

The wealthier the country, the more people value their health. Call it narcissistic, or call it smart - it's what most people want - more life, and more functional life. Hence knee replacements and coronary artery stents for all. What's wrong with that? As everybody says, "All you have is your health."

Nobody wants their health - or their disease - in the hands of politicians.

This classic Abbot and Costello routine (finally, somebody put it on youTube) reminds me of how the Left reacts if you say the word "Palin." Or "Bush," for that matter.

We have a couple of Pee Wee Hydrangeas in our compact front entry garden, which is part shade. They are the dwarf form of the big Oakleaf Hydrangea, and are not too easy to find.

I highly recommend them for shrub/perennial borders. Like everything else, they take several years to reach their full size (which is around 3'x3' or 4X4). Ours are in full bloom right now:

'Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater. If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby. If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her. So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit.' 

Anon.
 

St. James Church, Woodstock, Vermont.

Rep Doggett says the public protests about government medicine only reinforce his determination to pass it.

As Insty notes, it's happening all over the country, and I see no public push for this except from the politicians, who of course are wiser than us foolish little people who don't know what is best for us.

With John Stossel (h/t, Moonbattery):

A re-post from June 30, 2008. Sure is hard to believe that was one year ago, because it feels like yesterday.

With TV, you are more-or-less forced to watch the thing because it tends to grab our passive brains. With blogs and newspapers, you can easily skip stuff you chose to ignore. So if I am boring you with my northern Italy travelogue posts, please skip over them. It's just fun for me to post the photos - and it motivates me to get them organized.

One day last week we took the train up to Domodossola to catch the regular Centovalli train (not the tourists' Lago Maggiore Express which doesn't do much stopping) through the Alps to Locarno, Switzerland, on the northern tip of Lago Maggiore.

It is our travel custom to make things complicated and to plan tight connections - and to thereby create adventures, memorable mishaps, stress, and close calls. The free-spirited Mrs. BD thrives on such things, but I do not. As it turns out, The Dylanologist loves to cut things close, too, and to dash off somewhere when he has a free 3 minutes to spare.

We got off the train halfway at the whistle-stop of Santa Maria Maggiore (nobody else got off) to take a hike in the Alps. We planned to hike up the mountains in a circle through the mountain hamlets of Toceno and Craveggia, and to arrive back down at Santa Maria Maggiore in time for the last train to Locarno, to arrive there with 16 minutes to find and to catch the last boat down Lake Maggiore to where we were staying in the cozy village of Baveno.

We are tireless and intrepid walkers, but we characteristically underestimated the distance of our hike as we always do, and did not expect the heat. No water, and no cafes open. But we did get to stumble into the rarely-visited Alpine village of Craveggia (pop. 730). Eventually, with ten minutes before the train and without knowing our exact location, we swallowed our pride and flagged down a passing house painter who happily and cheerfully got us to the station in his tiny two-door rattletrap car - just as the tiny train pulled into the tiny "Disney Italy" station.

No passport checks, by the way, training into Switzerland. We brought them anyway.

Here's a map showing the northern tip of Piedmont where it pushes into Switzerland. The Centovalli train runs on one track from Domodossola to Locarno, at the tip of the Lake, over fearsome gorges and hairy mountain cliffs.

Let's begin this photo tour, though, with this northern Italian lovely in a cafe on the old square of Domodossola, who our sneaky paparazzi Dylanologist photographed on my dare. I call that "La bella figura." Plenty of real blonds up there.

Travelogue of this side-trip with lots of photos below on continuation page -