Maggie's Farm

My heart leaps up when I behold
              A rainbow in the sky:
          So was it when my life began;
          So is it now I am a man;
          So be it when I shall grow old,
              Or let me die!
          The Child is father of the Man;
              I could wish my days to be
          Bound each to each by natural piety.
                                          "My heart leaps up," 1802.

Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood (1803-06)

  I

          THERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
          The earth, and every common sight,
                    To me did seem
                  Apparelled in celestial light,
          The glory and the freshness of a dream.
          It is not now as it hath been of yore;--
                  Turn wheresoe'er I may,
                    By night or day,
          The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

                                   II

                  The Rainbow comes and goes,
                  And lovely is the Rose,
                  The Moon doth with delight
            Look round her when the heavens are bare,
                  Waters on a starry night
                  Are beautiful and fair;
              The sunshine is a glorious birth;
              But yet I know, where'er I go,
          That there hath past away a glory from the earth.

                                  III

          Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song,
              And while the young lambs bound
                  As to the tabor's sound,
          To me alone there came a thought of grief:
          A timely utterance gave that thought relief,
                  And I again am strong:
          The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep;
          No more shall grief of mine the season wrong;
          I hear the Echoes through the mountains throng,
          The Winds come to me from the fields of sleep,
                  And all the earth is gay;
                      Land and sea
              Give themselves up to jollity,
                  And with the heart of May
              Doth every Beast keep holiday;--
                  Thou Child of Joy,
          Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy
                    Shepherd-boy!

                                   IV

          Ye blessed Creatures, I have heard the call
              Ye to each other make; I see
          The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee;
              My heart is at your festival,
              My head hath its coronal,
          The fulness of your bliss, I feel--I feel it all.
              Oh evil day! if I were sullen
              While Earth herself is adorning,
                  This sweet May-morning,
              And the Children are culling
                  On every side,
              In a thousand valleys far and wide,
              Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm,
          And the Babe leaps up on his Mother's arm:--
              I hear, I hear, with joy I hear!
              --But there's a Tree, of many, one,
          A single Field which I have looked upon,
          Both of them speak of something that is gone:
              The Pansy at my feet
              Doth the same tale repeat:
          Whither is fled the visionary gleam?
          Where is it now, the glory and the dream?

                          (The rest of the ode is below the fold)        

Sempre libera, from Traviata:

It is not as a child that I believe and confess Jesus Christ. My hosanna is born of a furnace of doubt.

Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

However, some of us will remain on the farm to milk the chickens, feed the cows, let in the mouse and to kick the dog - and we have also pre-posted and re-posted some good stuff to keep things interesting here.

So stay tuned!

We will be based in Stresa. Will bring camera and my usual pitiful photo skills. The best part is that, unlike Florence, Rome, or Milan (we are bypassing Milan), there is not much to buy up there. No shopping to speak of. And internets? I won't even bother to try. Or maybe I will try to post some photos if I can.

Photo: The Grand Hotel Majestic, in Stresa on Lago Maggiore.

Re the Supremes' Guantanamo decision, Scotus Blog. Also, Powerline. Also, Dem Project.

Obama admits he is in favor of higher gas prices

Time to learn what Credit Default Swaps are, because they are the next big mess.

David Warren: Silencing Canadian clergy

Survival tips for time travel to 1000 AD. (h/t, Attack Machine)

Dude, Where's my recession? Insty

All bad weather is henceforth from Global Warming. More from Chicken Little.

How does your compensation compare? h/t, Dr. Bob's Weds. links

The religion of peace. SDA, with an example.

Image: The Iowa, at work. h/t Theo. Raw violence can be strangely beautiful.

Clematis on a picket fence in CT this month. Thanks, reader.

Over the transom:

The presidential primary season is finally over, and it is now time for gun owners to take a careful look at just where apparent nominee Barack Obama stands on issues related to the Second Amendment. During the primaries, Obama tried to hide behind vague statements of support for “sportsmen” or unfounded claims of general support for the right to keep and bear arms. What's his record? 

FACT: Barack Obama voted to allow reckless lawsuits designed to bankrupt the firearms industry.¹

FACT: Barack Obama wants to re-impose the failed and discredited Clinton Gun Ban.²

FACT: Barack Obama voted to ban almost all rifle ammunition commonly used for hunting and sport shooting.³

FACT: Barack Obama has endorsed a complete ban on handgun ownership.²

FACT: Barack Obama supports local gun bans in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and other cities.⁴

FACT: Barack Obama voted to uphold local gun bans and the criminal prosecution of people who use firearms in self-defense.⁵

His real record, based on votes taken, political associations, and long standing positions, shows that Barack Obama is a serious threat to Second Amendment liberties. Don’t listen to his campaign rhetoric! Look instead to what he has said and done during his entire political career. Read the rest:

So long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find someone to worship.

Fyodor Dostoevky, The Brothers Karamazov

A guy once told me that he left his only copy of a (typewritten) book manuscript in a NYC taxicab. Never saw it again. He was in a hurry, on his way to copying it before delivering it to a publisher. It was a novel. He tried to rewrite it, but finally said the hell with it. Now he just writes essays.

Brit secret security documents left on train.

DO NOT accidentally carry your very favorite Spyder penknife in your pocket when on your way to a flight. It ends up in the garbage can. Happened to me last time.

The garbagemen must have fun finding goodies in those airport cans. That was a $55 pocket knife.

I remember also getting hassled at Canadian Customs a couple of years ago as they rummaged through my luggage. "Any knives?" they asked. "Well, my Swiss Army Knife is in there." This was a hunting trip. Big lecture about bringing knives into Canada, and they took it away from me. Good grief. But it was a rusty old one, and the essential beer bottle-top opener was rusted into the case.

It's a good thing they didn't find the sharpened grapefruit spoon I always travel with, in case I encounter a good grapefruit.

The Anchoress writes up a storm: Go ahead, impeach him

What's in your spouse's wallet?

Are the media ever going to tell us what Obama believes? Related: Not the Jim Johnson I knew. Getting mighty crowded under that bus.

Mr. Sun is letting us down. No sunspots = cooler climates. Is Maggie's Farm the only website that favors global warming?

Coyote: "perhaps 99% of all government policy failed on incentives issues"

Financial advisors' scare tactics on seniors. Sounds like they learned these tricks from the Dems. Related: How long will you live?

Where are all those Priuses?

Daily (marital) sex - for one year. A burden, but do-able - depending on the book I am into. A true gentleman never disappoints a lady in need.

Drones for the people!

McCain vows to crack down on free enterprise. What? Well, nobody's perfect, right? Speaking of imperfection, the YouTube of McCain's slip-ups

Memo to Barack Hussein Obama: You were somehow taught American etiquette wrongly - or never bothered to learn it. We do take these signs of respect seriously. These traditions bind us, symbolically, as one proudly free people to our remarkable history, in a solemn way which is well-deserved and has been hard-earned. Folks who have served know what to do, automatically but not without feeling. For me, such ceremonies bring tears to my eyes.

From US Flag.org:

The Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem

The pledge of allegiance should be rendered by standing at attention, facing the flag, and saluting in the appropriate manner. When the national anthem is played or sung, citizens should stand at attention and salute at the first note and hold the salute through the last note. The salute is directed to the flag, if displayed, otherwise to the music.

The Salutes

To salute, all persons come to attention. Those in uniform, or veterans, give the appropriate formal military salute. Citizens not in uniform salute by placing their right hand over the heart and men with head cover should remove it and hold it to left shoulder, hand over the heart. Members of organizations in formation salute upon command of the person in charge.

Non-citizens are not expected to do these things, and America-haters and academics - and even those who prefer for reasons of taste to be modest in their patriotism - will not be arrested if they do not follow the national etiquette - which represents something far larger and deeper than the word "etiquette" can capture.

For your further information, Barack, our national anthem happens to be The Star Spangled Banner. Admittedly unsingable by the average bear, but written in 1812 - a time of trial while a young, hopeful, idealistic, and fragile but brave nation was under attack. In fact, they (the Brits) were the last enemy until 9-11 to effectively attack our Capital.

I find myself thinking the old "America - Love it or Leave It" these days. It's a cliche, and a bit crude for California Chardonnay sippers, but it contains many important Yankee truths in its simple words. "Don't Tread on Me" is simple, too. So is "God Bless America." Millions aspire to come here, and break laws to do so. Perhaps many wish to leave this terrible place? Be my guest. It's not a good fit for you. Find a freer or a better place, and leave today. I'd suggest Dubai, France, Singapore, South Africa, or North Korea. Not England - it's become Moslem and you would be an oppressed dhimmi. Not Canada: no free speech. Argentina might be pleasant.

Maggie's Farm could raise a large fund for one-way tickets to "elsewhere."

Nor is there any embarrassment in the fact that we're ridiculous, isn't it true? For it's actually so, we are ridiculous, light-minded, with bad habits, we're bored, we don't know how to look, how to understand, we're all like that, all, you, and I, and they! Now, you're not offended when I tell you to your face that you're ridiculous? And if so, aren't you material? You know, in my opinion it's sometimes even good to be ridiculous, if not better: we can the sooner forgive each other, the sooner humble ourselves; we can't understand everything at once, we can't start right out with perfection! To achieve perfection, one must first begin by not understanding many things! And if we understand too quickly, we may not understand well. This I tell you, you, who have already been able to understand... and not understand... so much. I'm not afraid for you now.

Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot

Who knew that pandering pols put a 54-cent tariff on imported ethanol for the benefit of domestic corn farmers and ethanol producers? Story here.

The ethanol scam industry would not exist without subsidies (which we pay for - via our income taxes, not at the pump) and protective tariffs. Of course, federal and state taxes on a gallon of gas add plenty too.

And this leads me to the big missing campaign issue: Dems refuse further drilling, block refineries, block nuclear and, due to their greenie alliance, want to force fuel prices higher to reduce usage. Yet, at the same time, they complain vehemently about energy costs and want to punish the oil companies. It's nonsense, unless you believe in fairies.

The Dems are selling fairy tales about energy - and about other things too.

If you want self-esteem, do esteemable things.

A friend of Bill

This is Heade's Newbury Marshes (c. 1871) from the John Wilmerding Collection.  Newburyport, MA lies on the coast 40 miles north of Boston, at the mouth of the Merrimack River.

In those days, salt marshes were used for cattle grazing, and salt hay was harvested for winter fodder. Over the past 100 years, the once-vast Atlantic coast salt marshes have been devastated by fill, development, and by channelization in the early 1900s in an effort to reduce mosquitoes (Malaria was a big problem in New England at the turn of the century.) In one of the coastal New England towns I grew up in, the salt marsh acreage dropped from 1000 acres to 30 acres, mostly since 1940.

I think the subject of Salt Marshes will need to be a future post.

At the request of some of our commenters and our Webmeister, we are now requiring (as do all sites like ours) that an email address be included to post comments.

Of course, your email address is private and will not show in the comments - unless you wish it to be shown by listing it on the optional "Homepage" line.

Also, comments are frequently caught by our anti-spam system. Don't take it personally. It happens to me too. It usually just takes a re-phrasing, but I can usually never tell what it is objecting to.

Lastly - please feel welcome to offer comments. Don't be shy. We are quite friendly unless our hospitality is abused. We welcome disagreement and civil debate - in fact, we enjoy it. It only takes a minute to join in, and your comments add vitality to Maggie's. The more, the merrier.

How Amnesty International frames their questions. Norm

Iowahawk will soon be an internet millionaire. Let's hope he continues his Presidential campaign, despite his coming wealth.

Will the press actually raise some questions about Obama? Well, they did here. Related: CT's Joe Lieberman fights back. I guess Joe passed on the Kool Aid.

Yacht sales sinking. No surprise. Oil prices up, demand down. Only a socialist couldn't understand that.

Oil demand down. Prices up, demand down. Only a socialist couldn't understand that.

A question of timing: How come suddenly we hear all about Saddam's ties with Al Qaida?

"Shut the hell up." A Roger Simon quote from his Pajamas piece:

It’s time in America to say - enough.

Spike Lee - like Sharpton and Jackson - is now part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Image: A sultry Theo lovely, lounging in a Springtime meadow with that olde Springtime "Come hither" look.

A quote from Michael Lewis at Bloomberg:

There's a new feeling in the Wall Street air: The big firms are now too big to fail. If the chaos that might ensue from Bear Stearns going bankrupt, and stiffing its counterparties on its billions of dollars of trades, is too much for the world to endure, the chaos that might be caused by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. or Goldman Sachs Group Inc. or Merrill Lynch & Co. or Morgan Stanley going bankrupt must also be too much to endure.

Our post on Race in the Race a few weeks ago reminded me of the several posts we have done over recent years about tribalism and trust, making the rather obvious point that people tend towards "affinity groups" because they are more likely to know where the others are coming from. When there are enough socio-cultural affinities between people, we call it a "tribe." (I have often heard Jews refer to fellow Jews as "the tribe.")

Tribes share, among other things, social signals and cues - the most important being "trust cues." (I was amused and pleased to see that our 2006 bit on Trust Cues and Tribalism was the top of Google when you search "Trust Cues." Very cool.)

I more or less know what to expect from a fellow white middle-aged heterosexual New England Protestant somewhat over-educated professional person who dresses sort-of like I do. I do not know exactly what to expect, but approximately and statistically. And if they like to study wildlife, to garden, to hunt, to mess with boats, and to talk about politics, then even more so. The odds are that we will know each other's rules, codes, signals, cues, language, manners, sense of humor, personal boundaries - even tastes. (Not necessarily their politics, though. My "tribe" has enormous political diversity.)

The further we move from our own tribe into the realm of "the other," the less effective we become at reading the signals and cues. I can use as simple an example as attending a Roman Catholic Mass: I feel awkward because I don't know when to stand or sit, or whether they want me to join in Communion or not. All people, I think, have a comfort bias and a trust bias in favor of their own tribes, and I do not feel that that is a bad thing: it's rational. "Birds of a feather..."

I believe that much of what is termed "racism" has little to do with race. Mitt Romney's Mormonism is a case in point. I think it was a real issue. People don't know what the Mormon view of the world is, what they are taught, how they raise their kids, what they think about, etc. - and are not interested enough in the subject to learn about it. All we know is "It seems kinda strange" - and "strange" = "a stranger."

Thus are our "stranger," tribal instincts ignited. It's not about skin color at all. Some of us are fascinated by "the other," some are a little bit curious, some are hostile, but most folks just don't care to be bothered very much with other cultures. The "multiculturalism" movement of the last decade sought to suppress that Stranger Instinct (for some good reasons, and some bad) - but it cannot be done because it is anchored in reason as well as in biology. All the multicult fascists and nannies managed to do was to silence people while, unfortunately, heightening our everyday consciousness of our differences.

So I finally arrive at the Rev. Wright subject. The Rev. Wright preaches a Black Liberation "theology" which, as best I can tell, seems to have only a superficial relationship to any Christianity I have seen (and which is an ideology that seems to have racial hatred built into its core). However, they seem to be dedicated to doing some good and charitable works in Chicago. But my point is that when Wright preaches "God damn America" I instantly know that I am dealing with another tribe. I cannot tell whether his is hyperbolically throwing red meat to work up the crowd, or whether he means it.

I cannot read the signals at all, and that makes me uneasy and distrustful. Rightly so, in my view: I feel like I have wandered into the wrong pew.

That's all a long-winded way of getting around to linking some of our past posts on the general subject:

Scared by his own research on multiculturalism

The Diversity Cult

Signaling Theory

Trust Cues and Tribalism

Masquerades and Clothing Signaling

Photo: Alaskan Eskimos exist in a culture which is totally alien to me.

At TigerHawk. One quote:

Taking these stories together, one is forced to conclude that the Democrats and their political allies in the environmental movement are pushing for policies that have a disproportionate impact on the rural "working poor," the vast majority of whom live in states that tend to vote Republican. Smart move.

Thanks, reader

I support John McCain. I believe he is a good fellow, but seemingly not as conservative or as reflective a fellow as I would like. However, I've been around long enough to know that life is never perfect.

I forget where I read it, but somebody noted that John McCain has to burst the Obama bubble before he can be heard in the face of MSM and teeny-bopper Obamamania. How does an aging pol like John McCain say "Hey - this isn't real. This is fluff, BS, and pixie dust" without sounding like Gramps breaking up a kegger?

Hillary Clinton tried all that, and nothing seemed to stick because the guy seems so young and cheerfully confident, and such a purveyor of "hope." Try telling an amateur investor that "Hope is not a plan." They get mad when they are told that.

Plus having the gatekeeper MSM deep in Obama's underpants makes it all much more difficult. I think we saw this same scenario with Bill Clinton, not so long ago. And with Jimmy Carter, too, if anybody is old enough to remember that. He was going to change politics forever.