Maggie's Farm

Ormbsy in The NY Sun begins:

One fine late 18th-century morning, an affluent collector named Thomas Butts came to call on his friend William Blake and found the poet and his wife sitting stark naked in the summer house of their modest lodgings in Lambeth. The happy couple, "freed from those troublesome disguises which have prevailed since the Fall," as his early biographer Alexander Gilchrist put it, were reciting Milton's "Paradise Lost," with William taking the part of Adam and his wife Catherine the role of Eve. Butts was embarrassed, but Blake called out, "Come in! It's only Adam and Eve, you know!" If you or I did this, Gilchrist remarks, "it would be time for our friends to call in a doctor," but in Blake's case, he writes, a recitation of Milton in the nude served to demonstrate the "full simplicity and naïveté" of the poet's character. And yet, Blake was neither simple nor naïve. For him, the everyday world was only the thinnest band of a vast spectrum which extended from the smallest grain of sand to all eternity. To become Adam in the Garden — or, for that matter, Moses or Socrates — he needed only to open wide the eyes of his imagination.

Read the whole thing.

The hottest Christmas item I have heard about this year is this Nespresso single-serve espresso/cappuchino machine sold at Bloomingdales.

I do not want one.

"Liberal Fascism"? Quoted from a Leftist French magazine in a piece at American Future:

Why so much hatred (for Chavez)? Because at the same time social-democracy is undergoing an identity crisis in Europe, historic circumstances seem to have confided the responsibility of taking the lead at an international level in the reinvention of the Left to Mr. Chávez. While on the Old Continent, European reconstruction has had the effect of making any alternative to neo-liberalism practically impossible, in Brazil, in Argentina, in Bolivia and in Ecuador, inspired by the Venezuelan example, experiments that keep the hope of realizing the emancipation of the humblest alive continue to succeed one another.

In this respect, Mr. Chávez’s record is spectacular. We can understand how he has become the required benchmark in dozens of poor countries. In his scrupulous respect for democracy and all its freedoms [!], has he not re-founded the Venezuelan nation on a brand new basis, legitimated by a new Constitution [!] that guarantees popular involvement in social change? Has he not rendered their dignity as citizens to some five million marginalized people (including the indigenous people) deprived of identity papers? Has he not taken back in hand the public company Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA)? Has he not de-privatized the country’s principal telecommunications company as well as the Caracas electricity company and returned them to serving the public? Has he not nationalized the Orinoco oil fields? Finally, has he not devoted a share of oil rents to acquiring effective autonomy vis-à-vis international financial institutions as well as autonomy for the financing of social programs?

Ah, government trying to run businesses! How quaintly 19th Century! How idealistic! How caring! It's "for the people"! Kinda like Hillary Clinton on the US oil companies: "I am going to take those profits..." Indeed, there is no greed in the business world that can compare with government greed for money and power.

Chavez' "progress, " however, includes no food on the supermarket shelves. While I do not have the same trust in Venezuela's voting as Jimmy Carter does, it remains a fact that dictatorship by popular vote, and tyranny by popular vote, has a long history.

However, this "liberation of the masses," as Gateway noted yesterday, is requiring lethal force and, remarkably, students and professors are in opposition (as they likely would not be in the US):

Demonstrations also occurred in other cities: Maracay, Valencia, Yaracuy and Puerto La Cruz and there is information that many professors joined their students. For this Sunday, all the student leaders will join their forces and will march in a huge demonstration to reject Chavez's plans to turn Venezuela into an oppressive and tyrannical country.

More at Fausta - Countdown to Tyranny

Where are Sean Penn and the rest of the Chavez-lovers today? Have no fear: they will re-emerge when this "vote" is over because, with Fidel on the permanent sick list, the ignorant thug Chavez is now the world's leading proponent of the beautiful utopia of totalitarian, police state socialism (unless you include the equally-charming Kim Jong-Il, who unaccountably receives few accolades and little moral support from the Western Left).

"Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea," but "reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and so to make it finite.... The poet asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits."

G.K. Chesterton, as quoted at One Cosmos in Lunacy and Salvation in the Cosmic Funhouse

This came in over the transom (thanks, C):

Stuart Brown describes Norbert Rosing's striking images of a wild polar bear  playing with sled dogs near Churchill, Manitoba on Canada's Hudson Bay.

The photographer was sure that he was going  to see the end of his huskies when the polar bear  materialized out of the  blue, as it were: 

 The rest of the photos and story on continuation page below:

While persuing trips for next summer this weekend, the Mrs. reminded me of her long-time wish to visit the Shetlands and the Outer Hebrides.

On Harris, we found this great place - Blue Reef Cottages. It looks like Norway. Here's Visit the Hebrides. Here's a photo gallery of Harris, the home of Harris Tweed, natch.

Nearby, the Dunollie Hotel on Skye looks good. In the Highlands, we'd chose the Tulloch Castle Hotel. I love the way they say in the UK: "Pets welcome. No extra charge."

Photo: The Isle of Harris

Survived Thanksgiving with 23 relatives, and gave abundant thanks. Next comes Christmas Eve, my favorite night of the year. A delicious random photo from ye olde Maggie's Farm sideboard from Thanksgiving. Relatives brought their best stuff, but I bought a case of Jarhead Red.

The Greatest Generation won the war, but how were they as parents? Walter Williams, via Driscoll.

Drive-by immigrants from Canada

Who wins in shareholder lawsuits? Coyote

"Can I claim my minority status now?" Protein on 9-11 conspiracy theorists

"We are losing our Englishness." h/t, Theo

We, and others, warned about this last winter: The Dems could be making the wrong bet on Iraq. Hillary was shrewd - but not wise - to muddle her statements and to say many different things to many different audiences.

Chavez is getting hysterical, and more scarey.

The spiritual discipline against resentment. With reference to Christopher Lasch. Prof Deneen.

From Insty:

KNIGHTS IN RED SATIN: "In my own opinion, the only really dangerous government is an efficient, effective one. The best judgment of a particular democracy is how well it keeps the busybodies occupied while the rest of us get on with running things."

Well said.

How good John Howard left Australia (big mistake to retire him, but I think they got tired of his face):

Unemployment rate: 4.3 per cent
Interest rate: 6.75 per cent
Economic growth: 4.3 per cent
Stock market:  6650 points
Australian dollar: US90 cents
Surplus 2007 Budget: $10.6 billion
Growth in real net national disposable income per head over the past five years: 16 per cent

Photo: I saw one of those over a river this weekend, looking exactly like that. That's an immature Bald Eagle.

This tape is from 1966. This charming tune was never recorded on an album. Lyrics here.

A repost from 2005:

Birding  (it used to known as bird-watching but that didn't sound cool, and birders are of course cool) is the most popular and rapidly growing  form of outdoor recreation in America.

Besides all of the excellent birding handbooks that are out these days, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology has a good basic site for basic info and identification, All About Birds, which we use all the time. They also have an advanced site, The Birds of North America, which is by subscription.

Other things that CLO offers: A home-study course on bird biology, behavior, and identification and the necessary A Field Guide to Bird Songs.

Photo: Two warblers after banding. These are immature birds in fall plumage, a Mourning Warbler on top and a Connecticut Warbler below.

From a piece of the above title at Overcoming Bias (h/t, Flares for introducing me to that site), a quote:

"It seems to me that there's a substantial advantage in knowing the drop-dead basic fundamental embarrassingly simple mathematics in as many different subjects as you can manage. Not, necessarily, the high-falutin' complicated damn math that appears in the latest journal articles. Not unless you plan to become a professional in the field. But for people who can read calculus, and sometimes just plain algebra, the drop-dead basic mathematics of a field may not take that long to learn. And it's likely to change your outlook on life more than the math-free popularizations or the highly technical math."

Luke 23:33-43

33When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

 35The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One."

 36The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself."

 38There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

 39One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!"

 40But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? 41We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."

 42Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

 43Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

Image: A Duccio Crucifixion

Fred Thompson on the Democrats this week (h/t, Surber)

“It’s like they’re all in training for the NASCAR, you know, nothing but a left turn, just steady as she goes, all the way around.”

A re-post from April, 2005:

I keep a pair of cheap Nikon 7X35 compact binocs in the car, just in case I happen to encounter an interesting bird. They work very well as opera glasses, too.

For marine use - not for birding but for looking around - I like a 7X50. Mine are inexpensive but good enough, and with the exposure to salt water and banging, I don't want to worry about them.

For more serious birding and nature-watching, I like my Minox rubber-coated 8X32s. Darn good lenses, and you don't want additional magnification for wildlife except in special circumstances.

The cool birders who want to spend the money use Swarovskis - but the very best birders I know can ID any bird with any old cheap compact binoculars, unless they are distant, on a beach or prairie. Then a spotting scope is essential.

Great source for binocs -  Binoculars.com. They also have night-vision optics, spotting scopes, and rifle scopes.

Photo: Swarovski 8X42s.

Re the ''left parties" link in the previous post, here are two eye-openers:

The first from Tax Prof Blog, a quote:

“The 50-state ranking has a decided Red State-Blue State flavor: 28 of the 29 “most generous” states are Red States that voted for President Bush (including all 25 of the “most generous” states), while 17 of the 21 “least generous” states are Blue States that voted for Senator Kerry (including all 7 of the “least generous” states).”
Combine the Tax Prof’s report with this one in the Washington Times, up now on Drudge, and it appears that the left party contains not only the least generous, but also the most wealthiest.
But wait–how can this be? Their policies are sooo generous. Oh, wait, that’s with Other People’s Money.

Four years in prison for quoting scripture.  The linked story here. We agree that the Bible conveys a dangerously subversive message.

Does government ever work? If not, then why give them more to do? EU Ref

Great bathrooms of NYC. Coyote

Immigrant sense of entitlement. Powerline. We detest any sense of entitlement in immigrants or in citizens. If you want freedom, apply to come to the US. If you feel entitled to anything other than the gift of freedom, go elsewhere.

The Second Amendment case: Big Iguana. You know my opinion: Self-defence is the most fundamental civil right.

Why the Left parties are the parties of the rich: Never Yet Melted, Right Thinking, No Left Turns, Surber.

Hey, Happy Holiday Shoppers!

As an aid to your Christmas shopping, Maggie's Farm offers a one-time, time-limited special offering to ease your Christmas hassles: Give all of your friends and beloved relatives a one-year subscription to Maggie's Farm!

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This special one-time offer will expire on an undisclosed date, so call now! Or just send all or most of the cash in your wallet or pocketbook to: MF Offshore Management LLC, 11 George Town Rd., Suite 32, Grand Cayman (Attn: Ms. Shirley Bongo).

And remember - donations to MF Offshore Management LLC may be fully tax-deductible according to Mozambique law. We all thank you in advance for your generous support!

Every five or six years our roses next to the house, warmed by the proximity and protected from the wind, manage to stay in bloom until Thanksgiving. With Thanksgiving so early this year, it's less surprising but still a delight to see them even though they are a bit ratty.

For other holiday news, I was amused to see a Sharp-Shinned Hawk hit our bird feeder yesterday, aiming for a White Throated Sparrow. He pursued the sparrow through the shrubs but finally emerged empty-handed. So much easier just to go to the Stop & Shop for one's Thanksgiving bird.

From a NYT piece on the NEA report on reading that we linked yesterday:

...Mr. Iyengar noted that students who lived in homes with more than 100 books but whose parents only completed high school scored higher on math tests than those students whose parents held college degrees (and were therefore likely to earn higher incomes) but who lived in homes with fewer than 10 books.

and

Among the findings is that although reading scores among elementary school students have been improving, scores are flat among middle school students and slightly declining among high school seniors. These trends are concurrent with a falloff in daily pleasure reading among young people as they progress from elementary to high school, a drop that appears to continue once they enter college. The data also showed that students who read for fun nearly every day performed better on reading tests than those who reported reading never or hardly at all.

I guess this is new news: kids who have parents who like to learn also like to learn, but it's a crisis now. I blame global warming.

As a solution to the Reading Crisis, I suggest a $1 billion Federal education program called "Books Are Fun!," a fun-filled, interactive, fast-moving multi-media curriculum-enhancement module ("MMCEM"), to be designed by leading expert reading consultants from teaching colleges and then introduced into every Middle School "curriculum" by Federal law. Approximately 40,000 new union-certified "Books are Fun!" specialists will be hired to guide schools through the application of this exciting new kid-friendly program through every course of study. 

Crisis solved!

Video:  How to melt your machine gun barrel. The manual recomments 5-10 round bursts, not 5-10 meter belts.