Maggie's Farm

Lyrics here. My Godmother, who was from Chattanooga and a transplant up to Yankee-land, used to love to play the piano (banging chords - what they used to call "whorehouse pianny") and sing this one with verve. I can hear her now. She was a piece of work, always with designer clothes and a big hat, and an accent that could melt butter.

One of the new ads, h/t, Burkean. I wasn't sure about Iraq in the beginning, but running away is no longer an option, now that the bad guys have committed. Still, not thrilled with having American success in the hands of Middle Eastern politicians. I'd prefer putting my hopes in the US Air Force - and the guys in the desert. I have been taught that Arabs don't think like us. They don't.

A pasta strike in Italy? The problem, once again, is biofuel.

Who is Mr. Hsu?, with good links, at RWNH

Sen. Craig is no hypocrite. I agree. Powerline. Related, a men's room update, from Cramer. And, the good news, Jim Risch.

The Rykestrasse Synagogue - the largest in Germany - reopens, restored

Thank God for the intellectuals. They will save us from ourselves. Blair, with links

Long overdue: A Crystal Gail Mangum Chair of Women's Studies at Duke

Leftism, a "fear of seeming," and the Left's contempt for working people. Thompson

New Orleans is doomed, says geologist. Duh.

Photo: Pinella and Wagner, from Will's caption contests.

You can see the details of the restoration of the Menina, a 1963 wooden Robb cruising sloop, here. A big project with a pretty result. She looks like a gull.

Luke 14:1, 7-14

7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honour, he told them a parable. ⁸‘When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honour, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; ⁹and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, “Give this person your place”, and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. ¹⁰But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, “Friend, move up higher”; then you will be honoured in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. ¹¹For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’

12 He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. ¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. ¹⁴And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’

Are adults acting more like teenagers? Diana West interviewed. h/t, Driscoll

Justice going after Hsu. Good to hear it. Captain Ed. Something fishy.

What Bernanke says. Dino

Koreans lash out at those missionaries. Gateway

Oh - almost forgot. Skip past the pie and the Jooo-Amish conspiracy and read the Right Wing Prof today. He has some good posts.

The Plastic Cross and the Demise of the World Council of Churches

Linear Thinking

Bird Dog photographs a live Passenger Pigeon

Monarch Butterfly Migration

Church Coffee Hour

The Arrow and the Song

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

Longfellow wrote in his diary: "October 16, 1845. Before church, wrote The Arrow and the Song, which came into my mind as I stood with my back to the fire, and glanced on to the paper with arrow's speed. Literally an improvisation."

"Born at sea in the teeth of a gale,
The sailor was a dog, and Scuppers was his name."

I had a dog named Scuppers ("Scuppie" to close friends), who died young. He was a good boy, and a far better (ie, half-competent - liked to chew birds) retriever than my current goofy but love-intoxicated pup. I am remembering him now because he died at this time of year a few years ago. (His replacement is a nephew.)

Margaret Wise Brown wrote Scuppers the Sailor Dog, along with a bunch of family favorites like Good Night, Moon: "A comb and a brush and a bowl full of mush" is how one of the splendid pups described our minivan in its usual get-to-school slovenly condition.

Brown had a hard time getting published. Glad she finally got her stuff out, and with the wonderful illos. I don't know how you could raise a kid in this world without her books: the kids just won't "get it" without her.

This came in over the transom:

Find an attractive prisoner of war, bring her home, shave her head, trim her nails, and give her new clothes. Then she's yours.
- Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 21:11-13)

Find a prostitute and marry her.
- Hosea (Hosea 1:1-3)

Find a man with seven daughters, and impress him by watering his flock.
- Moses (Exodus 2:16-21)

Purchase a piece of property, and get a woman as part of the deal.
- Boaz (Ruth 4:5-10)

Go to a party and hide. When the women come out to dance, grab one and carry her off to be your wife.
- Benjaminites (Judges 21:19-25)

Have God create a wife for you while you sleep. Note: this will cost you a rib.
- Adam (Genesis 2:19-24)

Agree to work seven years in exchange for a woman's hand in marriage. Get tricked into marrying the wrong woman. Then work another seven years for the woman you wanted to marry in the first place. That's right. Fourteen years of toil for a woman.
- Jacob (Genesis 29:15-30)

Cut off 200 foreskins off of your future father-in-law's enemies and get his daughter for a wife.
- David (I Samuel 18:27)

Even if no one is out there, just wander around a bit and you'll definitely find someone. (It's all relative of course.)
- Cain (Genesis 4:16-17)

Become the emperor of a huge nation and hold a beauty contest.
- Xerxes or Ahasuerus (Esther 2:3-4)

When you see someone you like, go home and tell your parents, "I have seen a woman; now get her for me." If your parents question your decision, simply say, "Get her for me. She's the one for me."
- Samson (Judges 14:1-3)

Kill any husband and take his wife. (Prepare to lose four sons though).
- David (2 Samuel 11)

Wait for your brother to die. Take his widow. (It's not just a good idea, it's the law).
- Onan and Boaz (Deuteronomy or Leviticus, example in Ruth)

Don't be so picky. Make up for quality with quantity.
- Solomon (1 Kings 11:1-3)

Photo: A potential nice wife for somebody, but she is a bit too skinny. She needs a guy who can cook.

Chart on right borrowed from S,C & A. What's with that DC number?

Soros' ACT fined $775,000 by FEC. The organization doesn't seem to care. Pocket change for George. The NY Sun editorializes "Calling the Founders."

Accusations of corruption in pro tennis. Breibart

Anti-war demonstrators are being paid? Am Thinker

Making some money from Beer Pong. Betsy

Barney Frank speaks up for Larry Craig. h/t, Pajamas. I wondered what he would do.

1200 tigers remain in India. 24,000 in American zoos.

If Jesus makes a difference in your life, don't say it outloud in school.

Be careful about what you say about Islam: Libel Tourism, at Cinnamon. A libel suit can mess up your life, even if you are in the right.

Insty suggests bringing in Randy Barnett to fact-check the NYT. The "newspaper of record" is confused about what is in our Constitution.

see - sea
mews-muse
blue- blew
mat-matte
hostile-hostel
sent-scent
holy-wholly
homonym - (ad) hominem

There are hundreds of 'em so the game is good for at least an hour or two. Your brain will continue to generate homonyms for an hour after you quit and turn to counting Michigan license plates (assuming you are not in Michigan).

Rocket-powered prosthetic arm. Neurophilosophy

Less than half of climate researchers now endorse global warming theory. h/t, Junk Science

How to get rid of rampant bamboo. (thanks, reader. This has been a comment topic)

The economics of opium production, in Afghanistan. We need this stuff. Who knew?

Studying intuition. NYT. My gut tells me there's something to this intuition thing.

A new translation of The Paradiso. In blank verse. The New Yorker. With many comments about allegory and poetry.

Is modern cosmology a fairy tale? American Scientist. Of course it is. Our fairy tale of the moment, but still interesting. Science is never "settled."

Katrina: the $127 billion boondoggle. Kudlow at RCP. More federal funds for N.O. rebuilding than Louisiana's total GDP.

1. Man, did we attract a lot of comments on the Are All Repubs Pervs? piece. Some entertaining and emotional comments in there. I hope our debaters will want to return to Maggie's - it's good sport. But do we have to post about perversion to get people excited? Hmmm...that's an idea.

2. Fine piece by Tigerhawk guesting at Jule's place, on New Orleans. I was even moved to leave a comment, which is something I rarely take (or have) the time to do. "Moral hazard": there's a new concept for me. I mean, I know all about regular everyday moral hazards but did not know the technical definition. If I didn't learn a lot from this here blogging nonsense, I would not bother.

3. The USA is already mentally, if not literally, on the long vacation weekend. I can see that in our stats. Even our News Junkie is AWOL. Not to worry about getting DTs - we are cheerfully on the job, although we may go a bit heavier on the re-posts, while saving some fresh ammo for September. It has not escaped my notice that our Barrister has been unusually busy from his shady poolside hammock, laptop on lap no doubt as he alternates between snoozing and posting. I can picture him now, waking with a start and a notion, jotting a few lines as his wife's horses whinny in the distance, taking a sip of his G&T, then heading back to dreamland, maybe after a lazy dip in the pool as the Farmington River lazily and quietly flows by and the Kingfishers call overhead.

Image: An old Lightning. Spent many, many hours racing them and tooling about. Watched them turn from wood to fiberglass. Nice boats with wonderfully-effective, if possibly over-powered spinnakers, but that outboard motor ruins the whole thing: God made paddles for a reason. I fondly remember days when a squall would blow through a race and 50 Lightnings with their spinnakers up on a broad reach would capsize in a minute. What a scene: a glorious and only slightly dangerous mess assuming everyone was good at underwater swimming. It is disconcerting to have a collapsed, water-laden spinnaker on your head when you are in the drink. Been there.

Our wild Black Cherries are beginning to ripen, and the trees are filled with robins with purple cherry-stained beaks. I counted 17 happy Robins in one tree this morning. Many of them still have their immature plumage.

Black Cherry is a common "pioneer tree" in New England. Some people call them "Chokecherry," but Chokecherry is a different species. Ours tend to be tall, gawky, with a brittle rust-red wood which is great for fires, smoking meat, and for furniture. Here's a low branch of one of mine. The robins have already eaten most of the ripe ones. Not edible for humans: you will choke on them.

Our News Junkie is away this week. I will try to hold the fort, with the help of our readers. He's in Rhode Island again, messing with boats.

I'm sure you already read about this Hillary contribution scam. Speaking of Hillary, Shiver at Am. Thinker takes a pointed look at her use of the word "unscrupulous."

England is Vanishing. Cal Thomas at RCP.

Why doctors are always late. DB says it's about money. Only partly, I think: how does one schedule for the unpredictable? Best bet is to get the first or second appt. of the morning before the schedule predictably unravels.

Prefers stress of Iraq to stress of Wall Street. Insty

How is this for a use of American jails? NYM. Sheesh.

Fred the Flirt. I am tiring of Fred. John likes him but isn't overly-impressed with his intensity. Almost everyone I know wants a new Reagan to reinvigorate the conservative message. The conservative message doesn't work unless it is delivered in an inspiring way because it is in opposition to a powerfully appealing delusion: that government is your caring parent (rather than a collection of crooked and half-crooked egomaniacs and oily opportunists, most of whom could never make it in the real world, who want to use my income to buy their jobs).

Not for President, but I know I'd like him as a neighbor. Great photo. h/t, Tiger Hawk

Which is worse? Read and vote. Classical Values. And quit tapping your damn feet.