Maggie's Farm

An obit from Sipp, who knows whereof he speaks (unlike most of us).

His piece led me to this oldie (Isn't that Steve Cropper playing? And how did they book Booker T and the MGs for that aerobics class?) which is not by Hayes but was from Stax records:

Thanks, Ed Driscoll, for this one. Can't get my link to work right now. 

Newcomb Hollow beach in Wellfleet, last week.

From a Charles Simeon sermon, as quoted in a piece at Scriptorium:

Permit me, then, to address you as dying persons, and to ask what you will think of these things when standing on the brink and precipice of eternity? Now you can speculate, and dispute, and speak with confidence about the justness of your views. Now you can discuss these matters as if it were of little moment what your sentiments are, or what is the ground of your affiance. But if you hold fast any of the foregoing delusions, you will not find them so satisfactory in a dying hour as you now imagine. Doubts… will arise in your mind…

Would you but place yourselves where you must all very shortly be, on a dying bed, we should not find it so difficult to convince you that it is better to trust in the righteousness of Christ, which is commensurate with all the demands of law and justice and adequate to the wants of the whole world, than to be trusting in any respect to any poor defective righteousness of your own.

Life itself is a School of Humility. At some point, we all will need to get out of our own boats, and He will be there, waiting for us with open arms.

By coincidence, A Slower Pace posted this from Max Lucado on death and rebirth.

Matthew 14:22-33

²²Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. ²³And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, ²⁴but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. ²⁵And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. ²⁶But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. ²⁷But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” ²⁸Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” ²⁹He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. ³⁰But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” ³¹Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” ³²When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. ³³And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Obama has Kenyan citizenship. OK. That clinches it. Now I am definitely voting for the guy.

After all, we're enlightened and sophisticated internationalists, and it's about time for a Kenyan, right? An insider Chicago Machine pol community activist left-wing Kenyan with special real estate deals from now-indicted Rezko, of course. The kind of Kenyan that wants Crony Capitalism for himself, and Socialism for me. Same as all the limo Dems like Kennedy, who keeps his investments offshore unlike us regular folks who invest normally.

Now back to my gardens if I can walk at all after my grueling tennis match in which I served far too many serves, on the most beautiful day of the year. We did win. We do not believe in losing, even if we have to win ugly with backspin drop shots and nasty angles.

We could have easily beaten Mr. and Mrs. Obama with our tricksy ball control and our deep topspin slammers that bounce like crazy fiends.

Mine came out 100% male. Does that make me a stereotype?

I wouldn't have predicted 100%. I have a soft and gentle side. The link for the thing is here.

You know, you've had your day
Don't stand around
You've been a good old wagon
Daddy but you done broke down

You'd better go down to the blacksmith shop
Get yourself an overhaul
There ain't nothin about you
Make a good woman bawl

When you were in your prime
You used to love to run around
You been a good old wagon
Daddy but you done broke down

When the sun is shining
That's the time to make hay
Now it's rainin all the time
And you can't make your old wagon pay

Nobody wants a baby
When a real man can be found
You been a good old wagon
Daddy but you done broke down

Ain't no use in cryin
Or to make a big show
This man has taught me more about lovin
Than you will ever know

Well he is the king of lovin
Just minus of a crown
He's a good old wagon
Daddy and he ain't broke down

Here's the late, great Dave Van Ronk reminiscing, and playing the song:

We try to veer away from the overly-personal here, but I thought a photo of Mrs. Bird Dog doing her farm chores might be pleasing to our readers.

Dr. Merc ran his weekly series here from April through July, but he promises to post computer tips when they occur to him.

To review, or if you missed any of them (plus his "tips" too), just click on Dr. Mercury's Computer Corner.

We greatly appreciate his sharing his wealth of info with us, even though much of it was over my head.

Why can't we all just get along? Russian tanks invade Georgia.

Where's the UN? Where's love, peace and hope? Guess what? For better or worse, the world is not populated with Oregon hippie-dippie moonbats. We do not live in a fairy tale. McCain already has a comment.

With all of our posts about our beloved Cape Cod recently, our readers deserve a decent map to see what we are talking about. You can see that Wellfleet has ocean, harbor, and bay beaches - and plenty of wonderful ponds too. All with entirely different characters. Pop quiz on the map later.

The green is JFK's Cape Cod National Seashore. Best thing (and one of the few things) he ever did. What would this Wellfleet road look like this if he hadn't protected it from development? It's not "barren" - it's lovely.

More at Dr. Merc.

Larrey Anderson visits the Oregon Country Fair, and reports at Am. Thinker.

If these nice folks grew up and quit smoking pot, they might have half a chance to get real.

I have a watercolor of that island, now part of the Cape Cod National Seashore, over our dining room fireplace. A family of Great Horned Owls lives out there. I have seen them. Plenty of squirrels, bunny rabbits, and crows for them to eat (yes, owls like to pick off roosting crows at night - an easy meal if you don't mind eating crow).

Our Dylanologist is back from his European travels. He asked a passer-by in a Paris park to take this photo of him, on right.

America's fastest dying cities. Creative destruction?

The Repub protest continues in the House.

The cost of PC academic majors. Mankiw

The hedgies are hurting. But it's a great time of opportunity for them too: cheap credits and loans that will pay off in a while.

What's a "book town"?

Rove: What McCain should do now. Good advice.

I want my culturally-appropriate health care too.

Is Obama's tire gauge like Jimmy Carter's sweater? Related: First presidential campaign plane in history to have all American flags removed. Related: pundits begin to worry about Obama. One quote:

The bottom line: liberal pundits — following months of analysis by their conservative counterparts — had figured out that despite the best possible terrain for the Democrats to recapture the White House, the Democrats (with a whole lot of cheerleading from the mainstream media) have chosen a thinly experienced, irresolute, underachieving and obnoxious standard bearer. And his excuse-mongering just makes it all the more irritating.

It is not clear what provoked the soul-searching or why reality didn’t dawn on the pundits sooner. After all, they knew all along that he had virtually no experience and that he often sounded bizarrely confident about his nonexistent credentials.

Nice wrapping paper, but is there anything in the box?

Also related, via Belmont, Alinsky's Ten Rules for Radicals and how Obama is breaking the rules:

RULE 1:”Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Power is derived from 2 main sources - money and people. “Have-Nots” must build power from flesh and blood.

RULE 2: “Never go outside the expertise of your people.”

RULE 3: “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.”

RULE 4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”

RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.”

RULE 6: “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.”

RULE 7: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.”

RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.”

RULE 9: “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.”

RULE 10: “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.”

Maine's Seaway Boats are designed as much as work boats as recreational hulls which means, for one thing, that they are seaworthy in foul weather and seriously bumpy seas. I think there is the soul of a Maine lobster boat inside each one of their handsome  designs even though they say they can all get up on a plane.

And, by way of contrast, here's Al Gore's new boat. Looks like a ferry, or a royal barge. Designed for sunbathing, eating and drinking, and definitely not Yankee-style:

Ethics are for people who have no morals - no humility in the face of the good, the true, and the beautiful.

David Warren, in a piece on journalism and truth-telling