Maggie's Farm

You are an artist. You buy the paint, then what? A piece by Daniel Kunitz in the NY Sun about a new show at the MOMA titled "What is Painting?" - a quote:

Once upon a time, we knew what painting was. As recently as the 1960s, there was, if not a single consensus, then at least several broad and overlapping consensuses about what constituted a painting: It was two-dimensional and used pigments on some type of support, like a canvas; it was abstract, or it was representational; it was defined by its medium and sought to exclude the influence of all others, or it was defined by how prettily or truthfully it employed its medium, etc.

The delightful proposition of "What Is Painting?" — a broad survey of art from the 1960s to today, drawn from the Museum of Modern Art's contemporary collection — is that we have utterly lost our way: We no longer have any idea what painting is, and we are much better for it. Loosely chronological and with an equally relaxed thematic structure, the show makes its argument largely through the variety and quality of the work on view.

Read the whole thing. 

Image: A 1969 painting by William T. Williams in the MOMA's show, from the NY Sun article. 

Many remain blithely unaware, and many remain in denial and therefore unconcerned, despite sightings around the world. Story here. (h/t, Tim Blair). Rumors that Dick Cheney is behind all of this cannot be confirmed as yet, but Congressional hearings will surely be scheduled soon, with a flurry of subpoenas for the White House.

But I suspect that this may be the result of an experiment-gone-wild, performed by the crazed biologists at Ducks Unlimited.

From a piece by Johannes at TCS:

Since mid-2005, al Qaeda has aimed not to defeat the Coalition militarily, but to drain American public support politically. The strategy was forced on the insurgents by a string of failures in 2004 and 2005. The Baathist groups and their al Qaeda allies planned first to establish a geographic base of control within Iraq; second, to block Iraqi elections; and third, to prevent the establishment of the Iraqi Security Forces. They failed to achieve any of these goals.

The ensuing strategy was dictated by weakness. Mass killings of Shi'ite civilians - a tactic designed by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi over the initial protests of the al Qaeda leadership - replaced military confrontation as the insurgency's operational focus. Civilian atrocity is, by definition, easy to implement, as it targets what is undefended. The strategy does nothing to "win hearts and minds." Support for al Qaeda has dwindled to under 2% among the Sunnis of Iraq; among other groups, it doesn't register at all. Nor can atrocities advance a political agenda, or control real estate.

But the mass killings were a boon to recruitment.

Read the whole thing.

H/T, Moonbattery. It could say "better men and women," but I know what is meant: combat.

A re-post from last year:

The big problem around here
with raspberries, as with cherries and strawberries, is that the birds get them just before they are fully ripe. Or worse, they just peck the red parts off the ripening berry, and leave the rest. 

It really isn't hardly worth the effort, but one perseveres. Life cannot be entirely economics-driven.

Especially Catbirds, but Robins too. Nature sure can be annoying sometimes. We grow three varieties. The birds seem to prefer the big fat French dessert variety. They might be stupid, but they aren't stupid.

I have heard that it's a good idea to plant some mulberry trees around, to keep the birds busy. I had a couple, but I had to cut them down because they were shading the garden. Ya sometimes can't win.

Even the dog doesn't deter them. I'll try the plastic owl, but they'll get used to it in a day or two, and perch on its head.

The only thing finer than a handful of sun-hot raspberries is a sun-heated Beefsteak tomato, but we won't have them for another month. That's one thing the birds will leave alone, but in a dry August, the squirrels and chipmunks will bite hunks out of them for liquids. The simple solution is to grow lots of tomatoes, but the simplest solution is to give up. But that is no fun at all. Man vs. Nature.

A reader directed us to a 1998 essay by Victor Davis Hansen and Joseph Heath, of the above title.

Classics is about dead.

You object that the disappearance of a tiny world of cloistered professors is not intrinsically significant. Must you suffer once again through some petty turf-war between pampered PhDs, a mock-epic struggle of nocturnal creatures croaking and scratching at each other for their tiny pad on an evaporating pond, one final Battle of Frogs and Mice? Who cares?

Yet every American should care. The demise of classics means more than the implosion of an inbred academic discipline, more than the disappearance of one more bookosaurus here and there. For chained to this sinking academic bureaucracy called classics are the ideas, the values, the vision of classical Greece and Rome. These are the ideas and values that have shaped and defined Western civilization, a vision of life that has ironically come under increasing attack here in the elite universities of the West just as its mutated form is metastasizing throughout the globe. Very few in America now know much about the origins of the West in ancient Greece -- and our citizens are moving further from the central philosophical and ethical tenets that are so necessary if we are to understand and manage the leisure, affluence and freedom of the West.

This ignorance of Greek wisdom should be of crucial interest to every American -- not because the West is being supplanted by some global multiculturalism (as so many academics proclaim), but quite the opposite: because its institutions and material culture are now overwhelming the world. The Greeks -- and the Greeks alone -- bequeathed us constitutional government, individual rights, freedom of expression, an open economy, civilian control of the military, separation of religious and political authority, private property, free scientific inquiry and open dissent. And for better or worse, these are the things most on this earth now desire.

Read the whole thing. VDH and Heath wrote a book of the same title.

“[Liberalism] envisions the natural fraternity of mankind. The liberal view is that man’s nature prepares him to live uncoerced in society. [It] aspires to the transcending of the nation, if only through the union of the nations. Rightly repelled by vain self-love, it is dogmatically blinded to just self-respect and conceitedly captivated by a priggish self-depreciation. Liberalism, which makes a by-word of pluralism and recoils from ‘absolutes’ however misunderstood, should welcome the diversity of nations, and their sovereign security upon which that diversity rests, as a valuable guarantee of the freedom of men to go their separate ways in the quest for justice or for the truth about justice. It must be conceded, however, that the highest good known to liberalism is not truth or even liberty itself, but fraternity and its alter ego, equality. Politically speaking, this has come to mean that the highest good known to liberalism is peace, or self-preservation.

“If it is narrower, it is also more human, surely more civil, to love what is near and similar, as such, than what is remote and strange, as such. [Patriotism will necessarily] be extinguished by the doctrine that exhibits it as offensive to peace, as an ignorant expression of ethnocentric bias, the neurosis of aggressive personality types, the posturing of the fatuous for the edification of the gullible, or the delusion of innocents seduced by schemers after wealth and power.

“The liberal view is consistent with itself in applying to domestic as well as to foreign affairs the dictum that trust edifies and absolute trust edifies absolutely.”

Joseph Cropsey. Borrowed from a piece at No Left Turns.

We linked the article at Science Daily about how golf courses can, with a little effort, turn their vast open spaces into wildlife sanctuaries without damaging the golfing. Turns out 70% of a golf course isn't really walked on.

Well, it's a movement. The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary System now includes 78 golf courses worldwide. Maybe it is many more, now. Here's an OSU Extension piece on the subject. Here's an Audubon International piece.

The idea is great because it is both modern and old-fashioned: golf evolved on the wild moors of Scotland in harmony with the native scenery, and not in a sterile environment like a glorified version of miniature golf.

Image: 16th hole at St. Andrews

This remarkable site lists 450 gardens (alphabetically and by region) which are open for visiting, with photos of each along with history and design information. Gardens Guide.

Below is a garden at Bradenham Hall in Norfolk.

Thunder on the mountain and there's fires on the moon
A ruckus in the alley and the sun will be here soon
Today's the day I'm gonna grab my trombone and blow
Well, there's hot stuff here and it's everywhere I go

I was thinking about Alicia Keys, couldn't keep from crying
When she was born in Hell's Kitchen I was living down the line
I'm wondering where in the world Alicia Keys could be
I been looking for her even clear through Tennessee

Feel like my soul is beginning to expand
Look into my heart and you will sort of understand
You brought me here, now you're trying to run me away
The writing on the wall, come read it, come see what it say

Thunder on the mountain, rolling like a drum
Going to sleep over there, that's where the music's coming from
I don't need any guide, I already know the way
Remember this, I'm your servant both night and day

The pistols are popping and the power is down
I'd like to try something but I'm so far from town
The sun keeps shining and the North Wind keeps picking up speed
Gonna forget about myself for a while, gonna go out and see what others need

I've been sitting down studying the art of love
I think it will fit me like a glove
I want some real good woman to do just what I say
Everybody got to wonder what's the matter with this cruel world today

Thunder on the mountain rolling through the town 
Gonna get up in the morning walk the hard road down
Some sweet day I'll stand beside my King
I wouldn't betray your love or any other thing

Gonna raise me an army, some tough sons of bitches
I'll recruit my army from the orphanages
I been to St. Herman's church, said my religious vows
I've sucked the milk out of a thousand cows

I've got the pork chops, she's got the pie
She ain't no angel and neither am I
Shame on your greed, shame on your wicked schemes
I'll say this, I don't give a damn about your dreams

Thunder on the mountain heavy as can be
Mean old twister bearing down on me
All the ladies in Washington are scrambling to get out of town
Look like something bad is going to happen, better roll your airplane down

Everybody going and I want to go too
Don't wanna take a chance with somebody new
I did all I could, I did it right there and then
I've already confessed, no need to confess again

Gonna make a lot of money, gonna go up North
I'll plant and I'll harvest what the earth brings forth
The hammer's on the table, the pitchfork's on the shelf
For the love of God, you ought to take pity on yourself.

Here's a Youtube of the song as recorded on last year's Modern Times, with a photo collage. It seems to be missing some of the verses in this version - I don't know why.

If any more extremists are still wanting to rise up and start trouble, know this: We’ll rise right back up against you. New York, Madrid, London, Paisley ... we’re all in this together and make no mistake, none of us will hold back from putting the boot in.

John Smeaton, the Toast of Glasgow (via Blair). I suspect it's been a few days since John has had to buy his own pints at the local.

Clearly the basic human sex act was designed more for the pleasure of guys than of gals. After all, DNA mixing is what it's all about. I suspect that a pill to help with staying power would be a big hit, equalling Viagra.

Regarding the study, though - the visual it evokes is just too much: a gal with a stopwatch would make any red-blooded fellow go as limp as a noodle, I would think.

All normal guys are a bit scared of girls, of course, but the Feminists don't get it.

It's about freedom and compulsion - one of our favorite topics. At RCP, via a piece at Blue Crab. A quote from Stossel:

He knows I defend limited government, so he tried to explain why I was wrong. He began in a revealing way:

"I gotta believe that, even though I know you're very much for the individual determining his own destiny, you also have a heart."

Notice his smuggled premise in the words "even though." In Moore's mind, someone who favors individual freedom doesn't care about his fellow human beings. If I have a heart, it's in spite of my belief in freedom and autonomy for everyone.

Doesn't it stand to reason that someone who wants everyone to be free of tyranny does so partly because he cares about others? Wishing freedom to one's fellow human beings strikes me as a sign of benevolence. But Moore and the left don't see it that way.

Moore thinks respecting others' freedom means refusing to help the less fortunate. But where's the connection? All it means is that the libertarian refuses to sanction the use of physical force (which is what government is) to help others. Peaceful methods -- like voluntary charity -- are the only morally consistent methods. I give about a quarter of my income to charities because I've seen that private charity helps the needy far better than government does.

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I say unto you, not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these.

Jesus, in Luke 12:27

Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and other Boneheaded Bureaucrats are Turning America into a Nation of Children - by David Harsanyi.

Great subtitle. Denver Post columnist Harsanyi has a new blog, too. (h/t, Ed Driscoll). The piece on Food Addiction is amusing. I have had a lot of trouble giving up food too.

As the Feds gradually gain power over everything that used to be left to the states and to localities - not to mention to the individual citizen himself - the wonderful Federalist concept of states as "laboratories for democracy" has been whittled away.

But the arrogant and power-intoxicated Feds still cannot control state and local taxation. Willisms has one of his excellent graphs demonstrating the out-migration from high-debt states.

High-debt states are, inevitably, high-tax states, because they run their government on a credit card. Good piece at Cato on the subject of soaring state and local debt. Some localities are spending 30-40% of their tax revenues on debt service. That is no way to run a railroad.

Image: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, famous for being a laboratory of incremental socialism

Drove down to JFK on Saturday to put the youngest pup on a plane to spend a while in Barcelona to soak up some Spanish history, literature and culcha. Yes, and to perfect her Spanish too.

For me, the highest points of Spanish culture are El Greco and Cervantes - but probably not the astonishing Gaudi. Words like "ugly," "strange," and "hallucinogenic" do not do justice to how interesting his buildings are to look at, though.

Here are some Gaudi buildings.

Photo is Gaudi's Casa Batllo in Barcelona.

Today, one of the Bird Dog litter began her first big job in NYC. She was appropriately apprehensive. More accurately, scared halfway out of her mind. I sent her an email this morning: "Be brave and strong, honey. You can do it!" 

While chatting with Mrs. Bird Dog tonight, she told me that she had sent her an email too: "Are you going to wear the pearls I gave you?"

A new weekly feature at Maggie's Farm! Ask Dr. Bliss!

Dr. Bliss can tell you how to be happy, healthy and wise. She knows the Meaning of Life, the Purpose of Existence, the True Nature of God, whether human relationships are worth the bother, which of your sexual and violent fantasies are sick and which are wholesome, how to please a man, what your mother really thought about you, and where to find the best prices for Manolos.

Photo: Our Dr. Joy Bliss in a pensive moment, contemplating the mind-brain problem, the mysteries of counter-counter-transference, and wondering what shoes to wear tomorrow.

(Yes, it's a friendly spoof of our blog friend Dr. Helen, who has begun an Ask Dr. Helen feature at Pajamas Media - an excellent  idea, and we are chagrined that we did not think of it first.)

Editor's Note: Check the comments. Wiseacres abound around here.