Maggie's Farm

Re-posted from 2005:

Abortion and the Need for Babies: Remember the "population bomb"? Well, Steyn deplores the low birth rates in the West, comparing Europe's rate with that of the celibate Shakers, and predicting a similar outcome: "Almost every issue facing the EU - from immigration rates to crippling state pension liabilities - has at its heart the same glaringly plain root cause: a huge lack of babies." Click here: Telegraph | Opinion | The strange death of the liberal West

"Women now hold half of all management jobs in America. Business books and magazines tout their superior leadership style. What’s really changing in the country’s corner offices?"

Read the whole piece by Judith Haveman in The Wilson Quarterly

Here's the once-secret story of the CIA and Brit-led coup against Premier Mossadeq. It is not a pretty story, and the Shah had little recommend him other than his affection for the West.

The Report to London is particularly discouraging. Churchill did not have his act together. We see, today, the unintended consequences of that clever scheme. To be fair to all, though, the retrospective view is always smarter.

h/t, Junk Science

Two of the most important events in American history involved George Washington at Christmastime. The first, of course, was the crossing of the Delaware and the Battle of Trenton which took place on Dec 26, 1776. That victory proved to an uneasy Continental Congress that Americans could stand up to European troops (in this case, Hessians).

The second was Washington's resignation in 1783.

 via Vanderleun:

I stole this from Dan:

Remember, the gift of Christ that God gave us:
- is always the right size
- is always the right color
- never needs a receipt
- will never go out of style
- doesn't need batteries
- comes as no assembly required
- doesn't come with excess packaging
- and is exactly what we need!!!

Christmas Day is the one day when you can indulge so many of your pleasures that you end up doing each in moderation—a little gin and tonic, a little champagne, a little white wine, a little red wine, a little dessert wine, a little port ...

Psychologist John Masterson

Thanks to Middlebrow for informing me that Psalm 98 is a traditional Christmas psalm, despite the fact that it mentions neither Santa Claus nor Christmas shopping - nor Christ, except in eager anticipation.

1 Sing to the LORD a new song,
       for he has done marvelous things;
       his right hand and his holy arm
       have worked salvation for him.
2 The LORD has made his salvation known
       and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
3 He has remembered his love
       and his faithfulness to the house of Israel;
       all the ends of the earth have seen
       the salvation of our God.
4 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth,
       burst into jubilant song with music;
5 make music to the LORD with the harp,
       with the harp and the sound of singing,
6 with trumpets and the blast of the ram's horn—
       shout for joy before the LORD, the King.
7 Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
       the world, and all who live in it.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands,
      Let the mountains sing together for joy; 
9 let them sing before the LORD,
       for he comes to judge the earth.
       He will judge the world in righteousness
       and the peoples with equity.

Powerline

Related: Altruism feels good. Indeed it does, for many if not most of us. Getting is fun, but giving feels like soul food.

We periodically write about flying toys, which we believe are for all ages.

If you are going to Costco tomorrow to pick up some fixin's, they might still have some of these left: The world's first radio-controlled dragonfly.

By our friend Elissa Gore (10X30, oil/canvas)

Mr. Flywheel at The Shelf seeks his inner George Bailey

How Monica Lewinsky turned journalism inside-out: Surber. Also, I found myself wondering whether anyone has named their baby Monica in the past ten years.

Photo: Monica with Bill, 1995.

Much of climate debate is exactly backwards. Advocates are spending far too much time arguing over how important that it is that others change their behavior, usually in ways that those doing the advocating would want regardless of climate change. In this way climate change becomes not a problem to be solved but a political weapon in service of other goals.

R. Pielke, Jr., via Flares

My 16 year-old daughter would not let me go to bed last night until she finished trying to convince me to support Ron Paul for President. She had many points to make, with many references to Constitutional details. She had been a Fred fan up until the past few weeks. God bless her, she does know her Constitution.

And, with this post, we will probably not mention Paul's name again on this site. Why not? Because I think he's a crank, and we try to stay away from cranks. We are cranky enough as it is.

The crisis of global warming climate change has rapidly transformed the North Pole back into the jungle tropical rain forest that it was in ancient history, when Santa originally bought his place up there.

After all these years living in an ice palace, it must be a nice change for Mr. and Mrs. Santa.

NSFW photo below tells the story.

This is not a way to mess up a good Martini: it's a whole different thing. This makes two:

From Winding Road:

The Twike is an innovative electric vehicle that allows a driver to generate his or her own power by pedaling. Instead of directly moving the wheels though, pedaling the Twike charges up the car’s five-speed electric motor. Twike says that the car can obtain speeds of up to 45 mph, and that adding a passenger on the pedals can help to generate almost 500 watts.