Maggie's Farm

Never frighten a little man. He'll kill you.

Robert A. Heinlein (h/t, Villainous' The Politics of Fear)

Pete Seeger, at Powerline. Gotta admit that Pete did a good job with Abiyoyo and Sam the Sailor or the Whaler or whatever it is called. I heard him perform years ago at Tanglewood.

His dangerous innocence has made him good with kids' songs, and a fervent supporter of mass-murdering totalitarian oppressors of the common man - provided they were of the Commie variety. Thus his inscription on his banjo, Woody Guthrie-style, "This machine kills fascists," has an unintended irony which Jonah Goldberg would appreciate.

Thanks, Chris -

Sipp is very fond of John Singer Sargent. So are we.

Portrait is his Dr. Pozzi at Home (1881).

Ah, for the days when a gent could don his at-home robe or smoking jacket after work and on weekends. Chair by the fire, glass of Scotch or brandy, nice Habana ceegar, book or the internet, kids in the kitchen or upstairs or wherever being very quiet because "Your Father is at home." No treadmill exercise, no weight-lifting, no driving kids to summer hockey practice, no running to the dry cleaner or to Home Depot.

Diapers? Are you kidding? What is "yard work"?

Today, a gent's work never ends no matter how wealthy. The wives have taken over, and the modern wife ain't got no respect. But she might show some, if you dressed like Dr. P.

Fathers are half-emasculated these days, unlike the diabolical Dr. Pozzi.

The lowest level of Hell, according to Dante, is reserved for those who betray their benefactors.

The Circles of Hell. h/t, Thompson's Friday Ephemera.

Psalm 23

¹ The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.

 ² He makes me lie down in green pastures,
       he leads me beside quiet waters,

 ³ he restores my soul.
       He guides me in paths of righteousness
       for his name's sake.

 ⁴ Even though I walk
       through the valley of the shadow of death, 
       I will fear no evil,
       for you are with me;
       your rod and your staff,
       they comfort me.

 ⁵ You prepare a table before me
       in the presence of my enemies.
       You anoint my head with oil;
       my cup overflows.

 ⁶ Surely goodness and love will follow me
       all the days of my life,
       and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
       forever.

The pup just ate two baby bunnies (Cottontail rabbits). One baby ran away. He found their nest while we were doing outdoor clean-up. The pup was helping, of course.

It's always been my philosophy that too much outdoor clean-up is bad for the wild critters, and we love our wild critters. The early Mother's Day present to the Mrs. was the work of 4 yard guys for 4 days, plus however-many truckloads of black mulch, plus a couple of dumpsters. Three loads of mulch did the job, barely, but the garden beds look spiffy for the moment. But, sadly, with fewer bunnies.

Why Andy McCarthy said No to the Justice Dept (h/t, Blue Crab)

The UAW is now in the driver's seat. Kudlow is furious about the debt deal. "A shameful chapter in American history" he said this morning on the radio."It undermines the rule of law and replaces it with Chicago-style politics." A remarkable abuse of power indeed.

The etymology of military ranks

The plot to destroy private medical insurance

The man who fought the tort bar - and won. An ugly story with a happy ending.

I think the best satire is that which cuts close to some reality, but this bit cuts it very close to some peoples' reality.

David Kessler now targets Big Food. What a putz. He should worry about controlling himself, not me.

Is there still a war, or not?

Should Conservatives play hardball like the Left does?

Is there another Warren Buffett? He's the only guy I've heard of who is worth cloning.

The legal duty to rescue: Volokh

Flu: Hysteria du jour. (h/t, Right Wing Prof)

Photo: The Jack Kramer Pro-Staff was my favorite. Wish I still had it. At some point, there was so much junk around here that I threw it away in the Spring Cleaning dumpster.

Love's Secret

Never seek to tell thy love,   

  Love that never told can be;   

For the gentle wind doth move   

  Silently, invisibly.   

  

I told my love, I told my love,

  I told her all my heart,   

Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears.   

  Ah! she did depart!   

  

Soon after she was gone from me,   

  A traveller came by,

Silently, invisibly:   

  He took her with a sigh.

That's your hard-working Editor in the background, fishing in Connecticut in the Spring rain a couple of years ago. It's time to review some of our good trout posts from the past.

 Fishing sea-run trout on Long Island, on the Connetquot.

Here's our post on the Eastern trout species.

And here's our post on the Western native trout species.

Here's the latest info on safe catch-and release techniques

h/t, American Digest:

That's our second truck load of it. This black stuff looks best, and only costs a little bit more for your garden beds. A 6" layer does the job.

Exams, contests, competitions, elections, business. Pollyanna-ish as it may sound, losing or doing poorly in these things offers learning opportunities. People tend not to learn much from winning: they tend to just keep doing the same thing until it stops working. That's when people are forced to re-think.

I have never watched Dr. Phil, but I am told that one of his favorite comments is "And how is that working for you?" It sounds like one of those great AA aphorisms.

Rick Moran has a very thoughtful and, I believe, realistic piece Moderates? Who needs 'em, about whither conservatism. It surely rings true up here in New England, where we lost our last R congressman, Chris Shays, in the last election. One quote:

“Changing historical circumstances” and the recognition that although our principles may be immutable, how they are interpreted is up to each generation. My interpretation of First Principles differs broadly from most of you reading this. Does this mean we can’t be allies in the struggle to bring those principles to the job of governing a great nation? Chasing away those who agree with you in principle but differ with you on interpretation will only lead to permanent minority status for conservatives. I have to think we’re too smart to allow that to happen.

Read the whole thing. Of course Conservatives need appealing, inspiring and articulate spokesmen but, to remain a national force, Conservatism, as a subsection of the GOP, has to recognize regional realities. You just cannot say "Good riddance" to every Chris Shays.

Gotta remember that "All politics is local," and that every voting lever pulled is done by an individual person in a certain place at a certain time with varying emotions, information, and environment. Most voters have no real political philosophy. If they did, we'd probably have a national Libertarian party.

From the NYT article:

Honeybees can tell their sisters how far away the food is up to a distance of about 15 kilometers. For good measure, they can also allow for the fact that the sun moves relative to the hive by about 15 degrees an hour and correct for this when they pass on the information. In other words, they have their own built-in global positioning system and a language that enables them to refer to objects and events that are distant in space or time.

Photos from the NYT piece.

About beauty and kitsch and Scruton's new book on Beauty. One quote:

...if nearly everyone likes it, how bad can it be? "Kitsch is the daily art of our time, as the vase or the hymn was for earlier generations," said Harold Rosenberg, the great art critic. Milan Kundera argued, "No matter how much we scorn it, kitsch is an integral part of the human condition." And they were writing before the appearance of "reality" television, which repackages kitschy old conventions of popular drama as public competition, bringing to "real" people the humiliation and cruelty traditionally endured by imaginary losers in mass-culture fiction.

Photo: Flamingo decoys are still available, here.

h/t, Mr. Free Market:

100 days at Jules begins thus:

Joyous event of the 100 days of the Obama Idea happily celebrated by cheering workers of the liberated United States Peoples Democratic Republic with inspiring song and deep reflection of gratitude!

A friend emails this note:

I just finished reading Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich. He has an awesome born again story. If any of the guys in your Bible study like sports, it’s a good biography of a miserable superstar athlete who found his ultimate freedom and happiness in Christ at the end of his short life—and was able to pass it on to his father.

http://www.amazon.com/Pistol-Life-Maravich-Mark-Kriegel/dp/0743284976.

Anchoress emails:

This actually made me kind of sick.  I threw up a little in my mouth.  Please excuse the mass mailing...I think everyone should see it.  To me it's sick and sycophantic, but it is also so cowardly.  Insult the Christians, because you can, and never mind that we're still in Easter.

This makes me think less of Obama, who should have gotten out in front of this messianic talk, instead of silently encouraging it.  It speaks volumes about the artist, but Obama's silent consent also speaks volumes about him.

Thanks, reader:

From the Center for Media & public Affairs at George Mason University

MEDIA BOOST OBAMA... HE ATTRACTS MORE EARLY COVERAGE THAN G.W. BUSH AND BILL CLINTON COMBINED

A quote: During his first 50 days in office, the three broadcast network evening news shows devoted 1021 stories lasting 27 hours 44 minutes to Barack Obama’s presidency. The daily average of seven stories and over 11 minutes of airtime represents about half of the entire newscasts. By contrast, at this point in their presidencies George W. Bush had received 7 hours 42 minutes and Bill Clinton garnered 15 hours 2 minutes of coverage, for a combined total airtime five hours less than Mr. Obama’s.

CBS led the coverage with 365 stories and 10 hours 46 minutes of airtime, followed by NBC with 327 stories and 9 hours 38 minutes, and ABC with 329 stories and 7 hours 20 minutes. Thus, CBS has given more coverage to the Obama administration than all three networks combined gave to the first 50 days of George W. Bush’s presidency.