Maggie's Farm

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

Oscar Wilde, De Profundis, 1905, (h/t Anchoress, who has a cornucopia of fine QQQs in her piece: Bloom where you are planted)

Earl Scruggs, with Joanie Baez doing Dylan's Love is Just a Four-letter Word

Don Ross, guitar-picker extraordinaire, at LGF.

Today, Maggie's Farm has warned ya, informed ya, fed ya, entertained ya, and provided holy inspiration. Now I am off-duty, with tennis, smoking a nice pork butt, and some outdoor jobs. See y'all tomorry.

We have written many times about how using ethanol (alcohol, aka moonshine) as a gas additive is a scam, and nothing more than a massive farm subsidy which is raising the cost of food.

But I just learned more. When you use gas with ethanol, it can destroy your gas-powered power tools and mowers. I just had a conversation with my local Stihl and Scag dealer yesterday - my Stihl hedge trimmer needed a new carburetor. Guy said the ethanol kills these machines - their lines, their carburetors, etc. He says it's also murder on outboard engines.

He explained that it's less of a problem for pros who use their tools daily, but if you use your tools occasionally, the alcohol - being water-soluble - separates from the gas and makes a mess. The new carburetor cost me $97.

His advice: Run the machine down to empty if you aren't going to use it for a while, and always use fresh gas - don't use two-month-old gas.

If you are like me, you have five gallon containers of vintage gas-oil mix left over from last fall. Get rid of it, somehow.

Here's one article on the subject.

You can either believe the officials, or you can believe that Cheney and the CIA are behind the UK bomb attacks. Right on cue, Red Ken jumps to defend Moslems. I don't mind his defending innocent Moslems, but he might mention defending his country first. Well, he would never do that.

Global warming claims melt under scrutiny. Sun-Times. Yes they do.

Adding to Blogroll: Jon Swift

Moscow is now the most expensive city in the world. How did that happen? Here's their new Ritz-Carlton

Smaller high schools seem to work better in NYC. Not surprised.

Can you pass an 8th Grade Science Test? Could Al Gore? (h/t, Ace)

Photo: A view of Wellfleet Harbor, Cape Cod, right across from Harbor Freeze. There was a time when "Nothing happens on Cape Cod until July 4th." I happen to be fond of June on the Cape, but you can have some chilly, foggy days, and swimming in the ocean in June is not for weenies. You can tell how cold the ocean water is by how far a guy's testes recede. In June, they go up to your neck. By August, only about to your belly-button.

Psalm 16:1-11

¹Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
²I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”
³As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble, in whom is all my delight.
⁴Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names upon my lips.
⁵The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.
⁶The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage.
⁷I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.
⁸I keep the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
⁹Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure.
¹⁰For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit.
¹¹You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Shamelessly stolen borrowed from Powerline:

Excellent news video from ABC on the school desegregation case (from Patterico's piece on the subject). Forced bussing was a catastrophe for our cities and for kids of every color. In a city, kids should be able to walk to grammar school and, if you want parents involved, they ought to be able to amble over there too.

It was telling, on that video, that the black Louisville civil rights fighter applauded the Court's decision, but the white Lefties on the Court just don't get it. It's not the 60s anymore, and those battles have been fought and won. Hotheads with agendas and rent-seekers continue to try to stir the pot, but it's over: happily, race is not a big deal to anyone anymore and, as we have often said here, nowadays it can be difficult to tell what race somebody is anyway. America might not be a melting pot, but it's a racial melting pot. You could go nuts trying to put a racial label on people.

We believe in color-blindness, character-awareness, and culture-alertness.

For example, my so-called "white" Yankee kids have Irish blood and North African blood from southern Italians from their Mom, and American Indian blood and Brit blood from me. On the other hand, my daughter's friend is "Hispanic" for school and college purposes (where that 'hispanic" comes in mighty handy), with an aristocratic Spanish father with a family castle in Spain (with a large hunting preserve where they occasionally hunt with King Juan Carlos), married to an "anglo" American doctor.

The Roberts Court: Sanity, Common Sense, and the requirements of the Constitution.

It sounds like Breyer lost his cool during this case, but what does he know about being a black 8 year-old? Nothing. Justice Thomas does know, and he knows more than that: he understands the condescension of the Left towards their plantation darkies. He has been hunted down by their hounds for escaping Massa's plantation and for not being what the Dixiecrat Dems used to call "a good nigger."

We are rarely reminded that Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican (albeit a rather liberal one, back in the pre-conservative era), and that it was the Repubs (Eisenhower, for starters) who began the civil rights movement. (Well, maybe you could mention Repub Lincoln, too.)

Photo: A famous 1991 Benetton advertisement

Here's part of the front shade garden we've been working on completing all Spring. The general idea here is low, mostly horizontal, serene and subtle, which is why this piece of the garden has no Astilbe patch.

It has a some morning sun, otherwise Maple shade, except on one end. We re-did this garden about three years ago with deep soil enrichment, so most of the plantings are youthful or new. In a couple of years it should be just right - but every garden is a work in progress. 

Front to back: Bleeding Heart, Pee Wee hydrangea (which is a dwarf Oak Leaf), assorted rare interesting Hostas, a deciduous Azalea, a couple of low-growing azaleas with hostas in front of them, hybrid rhodies in the corner with a few special low hydrangeas in front of them, a patch of Coral Bells in front a row of Bridal Wreath hydrangeas, and where the photo is washed out, a large patch of Ladie's Mantle. Cinnamon Ferns scattered in the back along the garden.

I need my good camera back from Olympus repair.

From another angle, here's the newest section. I haven't fully set in the metal edging, and probably never should have bothered with it. The area with the grasses gets the most sun. An orange trumpet vine is trying to climb over the wall and into the garden. I believe a decorator would term that a color clash:

Are there more? This is London. Al Quaida suspected of importing their quaint Middle Eastern cultural traditions, and their religion of love and peace, to a tolerant and welcoming Britain.

Update: They IDed the guy. Has arrest record for Al Quaida bomb plotting. How can a country treat such cases as ordinary criminality? Makes no sense. Gentle Western law is of no concern to Jihadists.

It may not mean much more than an expression of sentiment, but Pence's amendment to forbid the FCC from resurrecting the Fairness Doctrine saw a lot of support in the House. 

Naming that thing "Fairness" was a slick piece of double-speak, wasn't it? It put people in the position of voting against fairness. On the other hand, I thought most people in Western Civilization grew past the "No fair!" schoolyard complaint around age 10. Maybe 11.

Some excellent sarcasm re the immigration debacle, from Ace: "Talk Radio is Running America"

Believe me, if Talk Radio and Centrist blogs like Maggie's ran the world, people would still bitch and moan. It's human nature.

Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.

George Orwell

With the collapse of what I call the Bush-Kennedy Immigration Bill, it has been dramatically demonstrated the people of America have spoken loudly enough to be heard.

Every single phone call helped defeat this bill, which had all the power in the world behind it - The Repub leadership, the President, the Dem leadership, business, labor, MSM, newspapers, etc etc. All the power in the world, except for the power of the common sense of the American people.

The message is this, I believe:

We citizens put up with a lot of crap from the arrogant Bozos in Washington (mainly because we are too busy being independent and working hard and running our lives and driving kids around and paying bills and taxes) to speak out all of the time. But, when it seems critical, we speak loud: We are a sovereign nation, and our country is precious to us. Prevent invasion, secure our borders, enforce existing laws - and then let's discuss what legal immigration policies we want and need.

But first, if you agree with our view on the issue, celebrate the death of a terrible idea which would have been a costly disaster. Raise a glass or three of Veuve Clicquot today with us at Maggie's Farm, where we happily employ our legal Mexicans friends, give them advice, help them learn English, and generally help them get established - but we will not employ illegals.

Addendum: A quote from Sen. Bob Corker (R, TN), in today's piece by Kesler:

”Americans feel that they are losing their country ... to a government that has seemed to not have the competence or the ability to carry out the things that it says it will do.''

The return of the Bald Eagle is a satisfying success story.

With the banning of DDT, protection from idiot shooters, and the transplantation of chicks, the big fish-eaters will be around the US for our kids to see.

This bird can be found, in small numbers, almost everywhere in the US where there are large bodies of water, except in mountains. 10,000 nesting pairs in the lower 48 isn't much, but it's lots more than the 400 in the 1960s.

Read about the Bald Eagle here.

A propos of yesterday's piece on Thought Crime, I see Canada is proposing adding women to the list of those one may not disparage. There go 60% of the jokes in the world.

It is interesting how quickly the irrational and insidious notion of "hate crimes," invented to provide gays with special legal protection from gay-bashing thugs, has evolved into crimes of speech itself - without any violent crime at all.

The world has gone nuts. Mass resistance to the entire notion of thought crime is the only solution: people need to continue speaking, even if it's rude, stupid, obnoxious, hateful, or just plain sick.

We cannot permit bad manners to become a crime: it would create millions of new, innocent criminals. On second thought, I do think that talking with food in one's mouth should be a Class 2 Misdemeanor, at least.

Alabama Getaway (written by The Grateful Dead, but often performed by Bob during the 90s)

32 teeth in a jawbone, Alabama trying for none,
Before I have to hit him, I hope he's got the sense to run.
Reason the poor girls love him, promise them everything,
Why they all believe him? He wears a big diamond ring.

Alabama getaway, getaway. Alabama getaway, getaway,
Only way to please me, ya just gotta leave and walk away.

Major Domo Billy Bojangles, sit down and have a drink with me,
"What's this about Alabama? It keeps a coming back to me.
Heard your plea in the courthouse, Witness box began to rock and rise,
49 sister states all had Alabama in their eyes.

Alabama getaway, getaway. Alabama getaway, getaway,
Only way to please me, ya just gotta leave and walk away.

Major said why don't we give him rope enough to hang himself?
No need to worry the jury, this kind takes care of themselves.
23rd psalm Major Domo, reserve me a table for three,
Down in the valley of the shadow, just you, Alabama, and me.

Alabama getaway, getaway. Alabama getaway, getaway,
Only way to please me, ya just gotta leave and walk away.

Here's a fine 1995 performance of the song in Philly, with Bob doing a lot of pickin'. I heard him do this song in New Haven that same year. That is good old Winston Watson on the drums.

We don't call the Repubs "The Stupid Party" for no reason.

Hot Air audio of Voinovich on Sean Hannity radio this afternoon, re the immigration bill. There is no cure for stupid.

One of the pups just got back tonight from a little pre-beginning-real-job jaunt to Beaver Creek, with photos in hand, as requested.

"In polite society, you don’t say certain things lest there be violence. In civil society, you can say what you need to, and there won’t be violence. Let’s stop being so damned polite to the wrong people."

Augean Stables, in a piece on the NYT's handling of the Rushdie knighthood. 

My life experience, and common sense, tell me that clear cultural and subcultural structures are necessary foundations for dependable and predictable human interaction. People associate tribally for good reasons - they don't know what the deal is with other tribes, nor are they powerfully curious about finding out (which cannot really be done non-superficially anyway, since inculcation into a culture requires the time from birth to around age 18).

Multiculturalism throws a bomb at those grounding, life-sustaining  structures, which is why I consider it to be a nihilistic political movement.

Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam is seemingly scared by the non-PC, non-multicult results of his new diversity research. He has reason to be scared: The PC Speech Control Enforcers can be ruthless: recall the academic fury towards Charles Murray's Bell Curve, the Larry Summers massacre, etc.

John Leo's piece about Putnam, Bowling with our Own at City Journal, begins thus:

Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, is very nervous about releasing his new research, and understandably so. His five-year study shows that immigration and ethnic diversity have a devastating short- and medium-term influence on the social capital, fabric of associations, trust, and neighborliness that create and sustain communities. He fears that his work on the surprisingly negative effects of diversity will become part of the immigration debate, even though he finds that in the long run, people do forge new communities and new ties.

Putnam’s study reveals that immigration and diversity not only reduce social capital between ethnic groups, but also within the groups themselves. Trust, even for members of one’s own race, is lower, altruism and community cooperation rarer, friendships fewer.

Read Leo's whole piece about Putnam. We like John Leo - he is an expert birder and birders are a good, if a bit eccentric, crew.

Interesting comments on Leo's piece from, among others, our friends Rick Moran and  Dr. Sanity,

Addendum: Here's our archive piece on Trust Cues and Tribalism